A Family Without a Name. Parts I & II

New York: John W. Lovell Company, nd. [1891]. Hardcover. Good. 172, iv, 134 p. 19 cm. Unillustrated. Brown cloth with gold impressing. Mylar wrap, removed for photos. Corners and spine ends bumped, some shelf wear to edges, a few stains to covers, esp. large stain on lower front. Another stain on lower edge of text block. Some chips and a tear to front endpapers and front hinge starting to crack internally. Tear at bottom of a rear endpaper and edge of p. 155. Small stains to lower margins from about p. 260 to p. 40. Pages browning. Faint mark on first title.

Scarce Jules Verne novel set in Canada of all places, complete with wild Indians, musket fire, and Sir John Colborne. Some readers may recognize John W. Lovell (1851-1932) as a Canadian publisher and he was indeed born in Montreal in 1851. His father, John Lovell, Sr. (1810-93) was a Canadian publisher born in Ireland. John W., who had experience operating his father's large printing plant, moved to Rouse's Point, New York in 1873 to run a printing plant there. After marrying a local girl in 1876, he became an American citizen and moved to New York City. There he published a wide variety of books and took advantage of the lack of international copyright laws to print popular titles of the day, including those of Dickens as well as Verne. As a born Canadian, it's not surprising he would print this story set in his native land. According to the title page, he was located at 150 Worth Street, cor. Meeting Place at time of publication which places this book in 1891 although John W. published earlier paperback versions in 1889 and 1890. Myers 19. Taves & Michaluk V036.