Scribner's Illustrated Classics for Young Readers, a Checklist
An ongoing project
One of the great book series of the turn of the century was "Scribner's Illustrated Classics for Young readers" published by Charles Scribner & Sons of New York but later of London also. This series presented great classics illustrated in full color by known artists such as N. C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, Howard Pyle and others. I tried to find a checklist on the internet but found nothing of the sort. I'm including both the classic editions and some which were added later when the series was published anew by Atheneum (Simon & Schuster) in the late 90's and early 2000's - these will be marked (A).
You can get a little more information on the original series here.
I have never seen any of the first publications of Scribner's in this series for titles from the late 19th century nor for titles from the first decade of the 20th century, but from the 20's to the 40's, books in this series are all in the same size (175x24mm), hardcover, with printed and illustrated color guards, bound in an early 'cousin' of Geltex or alike, with no dust jacket but a color illustration stamped on the front cover. The spine is engraved.
Atheneum editions of the series have the same size, with dust jacket reproducing the early stamped color front (when reprinting a classic illustration) or in the same style an illustration of a new edition. The inside cover is engraved on the front cover and spine.
Both Original editions and Atheneum's inside illustrations appear on an extratext page on couché paper or similar and are color illustrations.
In 2012, Atheneum started a new reprinting of some of the titles with new cover design (not that great in my opinion). I haven't seen any of these as yet and have no idea of the book characteristics. As much as I know this series only adds one new title ("Watership Down") and a new illustrator to "Peter Pan" (originally "Peter and Wendy", peter pan being the name of the play by Barrie that made the character famous). These are marked as (A2).
I am also including information on some titles published by the Cosmopolitan Book Corporation during the 1920's as they were illustrated by N. C. Wyeht and were a clear attempt at imitating the Scribner series both in format, illustrating and contents. At least one of these titles was later included in the Scibner series.
Follow the links below to get a notion on the sort of illustrations we are talking about:
N. C. Wyeth 2
I have no intention for now to dissect all the bibliographical details such as date of publication, place and such. For now it is only a checklist.
ADAMS, Richard
- Watership Down - Ill. by Aldo Galli (A2)
ANONYMOUS (Adapted by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Smith)
- The arabian nights: their best known tales - Ill. by Maxfield Parrish
BALDWIN, James
- The story of Roland - Ill. by Peter Hurd
- The story of Siegfried - Ill. by Peter Hurd
BARRIE, J. M.
- Peter and Wendy - Ill. by ?
[there are at least three illustrators for Scribner's Editions of "Peter and Wendy" - The first one for the first american edition - not sure if part of the Illustrated Classics, was Francis Donkin Bedford. Yet I am pretty sure the illustrator for the series volume was Mabel Lucie Attwell; the 2012 Atheneum edition, renamed "Peter Pan"(A2) is illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman and was previously published by Atheneum in a different series back in 2003.]
- Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens - Ill. by Arthur Rackham
BOYD, James
- Drums - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
BROOKS, Noah
- The boy emigrants - Ill. by H. J. Dunn
BULFINCH, Thomas
- Legends of Charlemagne - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
[as much as I can figure out this is an apocryph volume in the series published by the Cosmopolitan Book Corporation in 1924 and later republished by David McKay in the 1940's- it is sometimes wrongly included in Scribner's Illustrated Classics but was never published as part of the series]
BULWER-LYTTON
- The last days of Pompey - Ill. by F. C. Yohn
BURNETT, Frances Hodgson
- Little lord Fauntleroy - Ill. by R. B. Birch
- A little princess - Ill. by Ethel Franklin Betts
CODY, Col. William F.
- The autobiography of Buffalo Bill - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
[this is an apocryph volume in the series published by the Cosmopolitan Book Corporation - it is sometimes wrongly included in Scribner'ss Illustrated Classics but was never published as part of the series]
COOPER, James Fenimore
- The deerslayer - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
- The last of the Mohicans - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
CRANE, Stephen
- The red badge of courage - Ill. by Wendell Minor (A)
CRESWICK, Paul
- Robin Hood - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
DEFOE, Daniel
- Robinson Crusoe - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
[this was originally an apocryph volume in the series published by the Cosmopolitan Book Corporation and was included later on the Scribner series after 1957 having had several reprints since then]
DICKENS, Charles (sel. by Samuel MaChord Crothers)
- The children of Dickens - Ill. by Jessie Wilcox Smith
DODGE, Mary Mapes
- Hans Brinker - Ill. by George W. Edwards
DOYLE, Conan A.
- The white company - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
[this is an apocryph volume in the series published by the Cosmopolitan Book Corporation (1922) - it is sometimes wrongly included in Scribner's Illustrated Classics but was never published as part of the series]
FIELD, Eugene
- Christmas tales and Christmas verse - Ill. by Florence Storer
- Poems of childhood - Ill. by Maxfield Parrish
FOX JR., John
- The little shepherd of kingdom come - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
GRAHAME, Kenneth
- The wind in the willows - Ill. by Nancy Barnhart
GRIMM (brothers)
- Grimms fairy tales - Ill. by Elenore Abbott
JAMES, Will
- Lone cowboy - Ill. by the author
- Smoky - Ill. by the author
KINGSLEY, Charles
- Westward Ho! - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
LANIER, Sidney
- The boy's King Arthur - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
LONDON, Jack
- The call of the wild - Ill. by Wendell Minor (A)
- White Fang - Ill. by Ed Young (A)
(Captain) MARRYATT
- The children of the new forest - Ill. by Stafford Good
MATTHEWS, Brander (ed.)
- Poems of American patriotism - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
PORTER, Jane (Ed. by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith)
- The Scottish chiefs - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
PYLE, Howard
- The story of King Arthur and his knights - Ill. by Howard Pyle (A?)
RAWLINGS, Marjorie Kinnan
- The yearling - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
ROLLINS, Philip Ashton
- Jinglebob - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
SAUNDERS, Louise
- The knave of hearts - Ill. by Maxfield Parrish [Folio, 35 x 29 cm. There is also a 2008 reprint edition by Calla Editions, a in imprint of Dover Publishing]
SCOTT, Walter
- Quentin Durward - Ill. by C. B. Chambers
SHERMAN, Henry and Charles Kent
- The children's bible - Ill. by various artists
STEVENSON, Robert Louis
- A child's garden of verses - Ill. by Jessie Wilcox Smith
- David Balfour - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
- Kidnapped - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
- The black arrow - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
- Treasure Island - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
STOCKTON, Frank R.
- The Queen's museum and other fanciful tales - Ill. by Frederick Richardson
VERNE, Jules
- From the Earth to the Moon - Ill. by H. C. Murphy
- Michael Strogoff - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
- The mysterious island - Ill. by N. C. Wyeth
- Twenty thousand leagues under the sea - Ill. by W. J. Aylward
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NOTE: Many of the above books had already been published by Scribner in different editions, shapes and series. Most of these had been magnificently illustrated by Howard Pyle who never the less had done the illustrations in black and white. This series and it's illustrators are gathered mostly due to innovative printing techniques that allow color printing. This a sign of the times as the great magazines (as Scribner's) were starting to be printed in color. Still had it not been the sucsess it was, this series would probably never have made it through the depression, it's quality and originallity were part of the reason why it did but the other important part was it's distribution through most of the english speaking world..
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