Wednesday, July 10, 2024

675. A Bibliographical Alphabet

The last book published by the Vale Press was a bibliography of its publications, compiled by Ricketts who was not a bibliographer. Distributed in 1904, 250 copies were printed on paper and ten on vellum. John Lane sold 75 copies that were destined for America.

A Bibliography of the Books Issued by Hacon & Ricketts (1904)
[Living Histories, The University of Newcastle, Australia]

I have traced the current location of 122 copies of A Bibliography of the Books Issued by Hacon & Ricketts in libraries and museums. There are paper or vellum copies in the following cities (excluding 4 copies in private collections):

A
Adelaide, SA (Australia): 2 copies
Albany, NY (USA)
Amherst, MA (USA).
Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Ann Arbor, MI (USA)
Athens, GA (USA)
Austin, TX (USA): 2 copies

B
Berkeley, CA (USA)
Berlin (Germany)
Birmingham (Great Britain)
Boston, MA (USA): 3 copies
Brooklyn, NY (USA)
Buffalo, NY (USA)

C
Cambridge (Great Britain): 2 copies
Cambridge, MA (USA): 1 copy + 1 vellum copy
Canberra, CT (Australia): 2 copies
Canton, NY (USA)
Cardiff (Great Britain)
Cedar Falls, IA (USA)
Charlottesville, VI (USA)
Chicago, IL (USA): 2 copies
Clairemont, IL (USA): 2 copies
Cleveland, OH (USA)
Clinton, NY (USA)
Colorado Springs, CO (USA)
Columbia, MO (USA)
Columbus, OH (USA)

D
Dallas, TX (USA)
Davis, CA (USA)
Detroit, MI (USA)
Dublin (Ireland)

E
Edinburgh (Great Britain)

G
Glasgow (Great Britain): 2 copies

H
The Hague (The Netherlands): 2 copies
Hanover, NH (USA)
Hartford, CT (USA)
Haverhill, MA (USA)
Houston, TX (USA)
Hull (Great Britain)

K
Kalamazoo, MI (USA)

L
Leuven/Louvain (Belgium)
Lexington, KY (USA)
Liverpool (Great Britain)
London (Great Britain): 3 copies + 1 vellum copy
Los Angeles, CA (USA): 2 copies

M
Madison, WI (USA):2 copies
Mainz (Germany)
Manchester (Great Britain): 3 copies + 1 vellum copy
Melbourne, VI (Australia)
Middletown, CT (USA)
Minneapolis , MN (USA)
Minnetonka, MN (USA)
Montréal, QC (Canada)

N
New Haven, CT (USA): 3 copies
New York, NY (USA): 4 copies
Newcastle, NS (Australia)
Normal, IL (USA)
Northampton, MA (USA)
Norwich (Great Britain)

O
Oakland, CA (USA): 2 copies
Oberlin, OH (USA)
Oxford (Great Britain): 2 copies

P
Philadelphia, PE (USA)
Princeton, NJ (USA)
Providence, RI (USA): 2 copies
Provo, UT (USA)

R
Reading (Great Britain)
Richmond, VI (USA): 2 copies
Rochester, NY (USA)

S
Sacramento, CA (USA)
St. Louis, MO (USA)
Salt Lake City, UT (USA)
San Francisco, CA (USA): 3 copies
San Marino, CA (USA)
Santa Barbara, CA (USA)
Seattle, WA (USA)
Stanford, CA (USA)
Swarthmore, PA (USA)

T
Tempe, AR (USA)
Toronto, ON (Canada)

U
Urbana, IL (USA)

V
Vancouver, BC (Canada)

W
Washington, DC (USA): 4 copies
Waterville, ME (USA)
Wellesley, MA (USA)
Wellington (New Zealand)
West Lafayette, IN (USA)
Williamstown, MA (USA)
Winnipeg, MB (Canada)

A Bibliography of the Books Issued by Hacon & Ricketts (1904)
A rather cropped copy on Internet Archive
[from the collection of the Bancroft Library, Berkeley, CA (USA)]

Ranked by country:

Australia: 6
Belgium: 1
Canada: 4
Germany: 2
Great Britain: 21
Ireland: 1
The Netherlands: 3
New Zealand: 1
USA: 83

How many copies were sold in the USA in the first years after publication cannot be ascertained, but in later years, probably especially in the rich post-World War II period, many copies ended up in university libraries and other collections, more than the 75 copies intended for America.

Of the traced copies, more than 66% are in American libraries. Europe holds only 23% of all copies. More than 96% of all copies can be found in English-speaking countries.
(These findings cannot be separated from my dependence on cataloguing systems such as WorldCat:  for the time being locating copies in South America, Asia and Africa, for instance, remains extremely time-consuming.)