File:Leather-Clad Tales Of Adventure And Romance No. 38 (1890-08-23) ("In The Sunk Lands" - Walter F. Bruns) (IA leather-clad-tales-of-adventure-and-romance-no.-38-1890-08-23).pdf

Leather-Clad Tales Of Adventure And Romance No. 38, August 23, 1890. Containing "In The Sunk Lands" By Walter F. Bruns (New York: John W. Lovell Company, 1891) (276 pages) In The Sunk Lands is an adventure novel for young people about a group of boys who go on a hunting trip to the "Sunk Lands" in Missouri and Arkansas to bring back hides and furs. The "Sunk Lands" (or "Sunken Lands") were sections of land located in the southeastern part of Missouri and the northeastern part of Arkansas that shifted and sank during the New Madrid earthquakes which took place between 1811 and 1812. Entire forests of tall trees in the sparsely populated region became submerged in the murky water with only the tallest branches visible. Lakes replaced hills, and huge fissures filled with stagnant pools. For miles, the quakes caused land to sink beneath the level of the surrounding countryside. The once bountiful area—filled with verdant forests, abundant game, and fertile ground—became a snake- and mosquito-infested swamp. The region rose to national prominence after the Civil War when market hunters found a ready supply of ducks, geese and other wildlife, along with sources in northern cities eager to buy the meat. Wealthy sportsmen from out of state bought and leased land for hunting clubs. In The Sunk Lands was originally published as a ten-part serial in The Argosy, May 3, 1890 to July 5, 1890, under the title "In the Sunk Lands; Or, The Adventures Of The X.T.C. Quartette". It was first published in book form in a "cheap library" digest-sized softcover version published by "cheap book" publisher John W. Lovell as part of his "Leather-Clad Tales Of Adventure And Romance" series. It was later reprinted in both a hardcover edition and a digest-sized softcover dime novel edition from Street & Smith, circa 1902, as part of their "The Boys' Own Library" series. The copy scanned here is likely a later printing of the Lovell edition since it has a cover date of August 23, 1890 but a copyright date of 1891. About Leather-Clad Tales Of Adventure And Romance: LEATHER-CLAD TALES OF ADVENTURE AND ROMANCE Frank F. Lovell; John W. Lovell, Nos. 1-57; Dec. 7, 1889 - Jan. 3,1891. Weekly publication. Size: 41/2 x 614 inches and 4'% x 6'% inches, 200 to 300 pages. Price: 25 cents. Black and white pictorial cover with uniform illustration and design of tomahawk and other frontier implements against a single color background. Black and white interior illustrations. Authors include Horatio Alger, Jr., Annie Ashmore, Frank H. Converse, George H. Coomer, Edward S. Ellis, and Matthew White, Jr. Primarily frontier and western, success, smuggling, sea, travel and exploration stories, which had originally been published in the Frank A. Munsey magazines The Golden Argosy or The Argosy. In August 1887, Frank A. Munsey began issuing titles in Munsey's Popular Series For Boys And Girls. This series included first book publication of serializations from The Golden Argosy magazine and were “the best stories of favorite authors, handsomely illustrated, with the finest of paper and printing, neatly bound with paper covers.” Since Munsey owned the copyrights to these stories, his cost of issuing the serializations in book form would have been nominal. The books were priced at 25 cents each or three dollars for a one-year subscription. Each monthly issue was bound in bright orange wraps, the same paper used for The Argosy covers and measured 4 ½ by 6 ½ inches. Titles from this series were

also occasionally offered as premiums to readers that supplied the name of potential subscribers. Titles from this series were, of course, advertised in The Golden Argosy, the first ad appearing in the issue dated July 30, 1887. It would appear that Munsey lost interest in this series sometime during the second year. Munsey biographer George Britt wrote that Munsey noted in 1889 that “juvenile publications were on the wrong track. Their readers had no money to spend, hence were not interesting to advertisers, while every few years an entire new youth generation would grow up and take wing.” Poor sales probably compelled Munsey to end the series at Number 22. However, the series would be revived at the close of 1889 by the Lovell brothers as the Leather-Clad Tales Of Adventure And Romance. In 1878, John W. Lovell (1851-1932) became an independent publisher but failed in 1881. He established the John W. Lovell Company the next year, also located in New York City. Lovell took advantage of the lack of international copyright laws and was well known as a pirate and publisher of non-copyrighted books. Frank F. Lovell was also involved in publishing including associations with the Empire Publishing Company, Home Book Company and the Prudential Book Company. In 1888, John and Frank formed the Frank F. Lovell & Company in New York. It was the Frank F. Lovell Company that issued the first Leather-Clad title on December 7, 1889. Book collector and author Frank Gruber speculated that there might have been some business connection between Lovell and Munsey or that Munsey simply sold the copyrights to him. Along with the copyrights, Lovell also inherited Munsey’s dead stock and initially recovered them with Leather-Clad wrappers and inserted his own title page. As the dead stock was used up, Lovell issued a slightly larger format (4 ¾ by 7 inches). The stiff paper covers were tan-colored with a distinctive “grainy” texture to simulate a leather binding. The books were priced at 25 cents or $12 for a one-year subscription and were issued on a weekly basis. The first advertisement for this series appeared in The Argosy on Jan. 18, 1890, some five weeks after the inaugural volume. In June of 1889, John W. Lovell announced his intention to form a “Book Trust” in order to eliminate competition and intense price-cutting among the cheap book publishers. In essence, Lovell was proposing a monopoly to control production costs in the absence of international copyright laws. Publishers were offered the opportunity to join the monopoly or be forced out of business. Although many publishers were dubious of Lovell’s grandiose plans, he did manage to organize the United States Book Company in July 1890, which initially numbered about a dozen firms, including the Frank F. Lovell & Company. The Leather-Clad Tales Of Adventure And Romance were eventually discontinued but many titles from the series were recycled by various United States Book Company subsidiaries. Many were later reprinted in Street & Smith's Medal Library and The Boys' Own Library series. John W. Lovell’s ambitious plans to control the cheap book publishing market collapsed in 1893 and the United States Book Company went into receivership. The copyrights and other assets were transferred to the American Publishers Corporation. Lovell spent the next four decades primarily involved in real estate speculation. Frank A. Munsey eventually abandoned the field of publishing juvenile literature and made millions in the magazine and newspaper business. He died in 1925. About The Author: There seem to be very little information about this author on the net, other than the fact that he was born in 1870 and that he published six short stories and two serials in The Argosy and Munsey's Magazine between 1889 and 1892. The short stories were about the misadventures of "Judge" Jackson, a young African-American boy. In The Sunk Lands was his only book. Subjects: Pulps; Pulp Magazines; Argosy; Dime Novels; Cheap Libraries; Frank A. Munsey; John W. Lovell; Walter F. Bruns; Sunk Lands; Sunken Lands; Missouri; Arkansas