Annals of American Bookselling 1638-1850

Boynton, Henry Walcott (1869-1947) Annals of American Bookselling 1638-1850. 1932, 8vo, 209 pp; New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman & Hall, Limited; Printed in US by The HaddonCraftsmen, Camden, N. J. First Edition, First Issue. No Dust Jacket. Nice tight copy with some corner wear, paper boards with cloth spine and some soiling of the spine.

"Boynton was interested in the colorful figures that populated the book world of early America and tells their fascinating story in an entertaining manner. His account begins with the establishment of the Cambridge Press in Massachusetts Bay in 1638 and ends in 1850, by which time the production and distribution of the book had entered the modern age. This is one of the best accounts of early American bookselling, printing and publishing." (Knoll Press).

Henry Walcott Boynton was born in 1869 at Guilford, Connecticut. Boynton was the author or editor of at least twenty-four books, often using his pseudonym, John Walcott. In 1893 he received his Bachelor of Arts, and his Master of Arts, both from Amherst College. Boynton was head of the department of English at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. In 1901 he devoted himself to writing and was chief reviewer for the Atlantic Monthly. Around 1911 Boynton's edited texts with introduction and notes include: Selections from Carlyle; Tennyson's The Princess; Milton's Paradise Lost; Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield; Pope's The Rape of the Lock; Mrs. Ewing's Jackanapes; Miss Martineau's The Prince and the Peasant; Pope's Complete Poetical Works (Cambridge edition); Tennyson's Idylls of the King; and Selected Poems for Secondary Schools. 1912 he was on the regular staff of the Nation and the New York Evening Post. 1915, he wrote criticism for the 'Bookman'. 1932 - His works include: Life of Washington Irving; The Golfer's Rubaiyat; Bret Harte; A Reader's History of American Literature (with T.W. Higginson); Journalism and Literature; Guenever, a Romantic Play; The World's Leading Poets; James Fenimore Cooper; and Annals of American Bookselling. 1947 - Boynton died at the age of 78.