HARPER'S New Monthly MAGAZINE; Volume XL (40), Numbers CCXXXV, CCXXXVI, CCXXXVII, CXXXVIII, CXXXIX, CXL (235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240) December, 1869 to May, 1870 (December, January, February, March, April, January); A Brave Lady (Craik); Beast Bird and Fish (Wilder); Frederick the Great (Abbott); Harvard College vs. Oxford Rowing (Blackie); South-Coast Saunterings in England (Conway); etc by Henry Mills Alden, editor; Jane G. Austin, Dinah Mulock Craik, Justin McCarthy, Lyman Abbott, Alice Cary, Carl Spencer, Burt G. Wilder, M.D. Conway, William Blackie, et al - 1870

New York, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1870. First Edition. Three-quarter leather over cloth. Good. Single volume--six issues bound without covers and advertisements. Small quarto, 9 3/4" tall, 944 pages, quarter leather with black cloth over boards. A good, originl hard cover with significant shelf wear, rubbed at all extremities, leather worn through to boards at four corner tips, back strip leather loose at the front hinge; hinges cracked but secure and binding solid, paper light to moderately yellowed. This is the publisher's edition, printed from the original plates and includes all of the editorial material (articles, stories, poetry, etc.) of the separate issues but lacks the advertisements and individual covers. It was the practice of the time for most of the better literary magazines to issue such editions before melting down the original printers' plates. Note: ''Harper's Magazine' began publication in 1850 and recreated the American magazine, serving as a promotional vehicle for Harper and Brothers books as well as the new 'literary' fiction and essay of the time, using sophisticated illustration and the best authors. Subject matters range from art, fiction, and poetry to history and science. As such it makes a terrific read as an anthology of its moment in time. An excellent resource.