Heroes of Unknown Seas and Savage Lands...[A Salesman's Dummy]

Richmond, VA: B. F. Johnson & Co., 1891. Hardcover. Good. Salesman's dummy; 10 1/2 x 8; pp. [178] + "subscription list" (fourteen ruled leaves with blank rows for subscribers' names - thirteen to the back and one to the front of the book; it appears one of them has been moved from the back and pasted to the front, probably by the original salesman); three variant bindings and two spine variants to boards verso; front board - embossed burgundy morocco and gilt title, back board - 3/4 morocco and pebbled cloth, back board verso - gilded, pictorial blue cloth over boards; two endpaper variants - off-white silky paper to front and pictorial paper in pink and white to back; illustrated with four double-page chromolithographed plates and numerous engravings; tipped-in notes and explanations of text and illustrations on yellow stock throughout the book (as published); a few rubbed spots to leather and a 2" cut to tail of spine; corners of the four plates clipped (as published [?]); occasional small spots; in good to very good condition.Salesman's dummies, also called salesman's samples, or blads were used by traveling salesmen as samples of books that could be purchased by subscription and usually contained less pages, than the original book - with excerpts of the more intersting parts of the text and the more spectacular illustrations. Most often, the front board verso featured specimen spines of alternative binding styles mounted.This particular copy was quite unusual, as it not only contained three full variant bindings (as opposed to only spine variants), but also two different styles of endpapers. The writer, James William Buel (1849 - 1920), was also a journalist and editor, authoring more than 50 books - most of them on travel and adventures, as was the current one. He was said to have interviewed the notorious outlaw Cole Younger and some believed he had actually spent time in jail, together with Younger.