Page last modified: April 3, 2024

The Lakeside Library
& The Boys' Winter Reading Library

Donnelley, Loyd & Company, Publishers
The Lakesde Building, Chicago

Donnelley, Gassette & Loyd, Publishers
Lakeside Building, Chicago

Ed: Interesting sidenote for me. Richard R. Donnelley was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1836, and began his business career as publisher in "the Dominion". 

Publishing History of R. R. Donnelley, HERE - from: The Hamilton Spectator, Tues June 19, 1883

So, reading the above history, Richard R Donnelley has been involved in the following companies:

  • Church, Goodman & Donnelley (1866) (with Mr Leroy Church and Mr Edward Goodman) - 51 and 53 La Salle St.
  • Donnelley, Gassette & Loyd (with Mr Norman T Gassette and Mr Alexander T Loyd)
  • Donnelley, Loyd & Co.
  • A J Cox and Co. (bookbinders - 1973)
  • Donnelley, Gassette & Co. (1877)
  • R. R. Donnelley & Sons (around 1883) - 140, 142, 144, 146 Monroe Street (5th floor)
  • Lakeside Library Publishing Company
  • Chicago Directory Company

Addresses:

#1 - Donnelley, Loyd & Company, Publishers
The Lakesde Building, Chicago

#2 - Donnelley, Gassette & Loyd, Publishers
Lakeside Building, Chicago

#3 - Donnelley, Loyd & CO., Publishers,
Cor, Clark and Adams Sts., CHICAGO, IlLL.

#4 - Donnelley, Loyd & CO., Publishers Chicago
Room 1, Lakeside Building, Clark and Adams Sts.

The Lakeside Library series appears to have started in January 1875, and concluded near December 1879, see below table.
Although the banner of Volume 2, No 29 of Tour of the World in 80 Days has a copyright date of 1874, that seems to be the copyright date of the story, and not the date of publication.

I have pieced together this "The Lakeside Library" history/progression based on Newspaper ads of the time.

Date Newspaper Advertisement Information
Jan 8
1875		 The Albany Register "The Lakeside Library" "The Lakeside Library -- Is a new candidate for public favor, published by Donnelley, Loyd & Co., Chicago, Ill., the first number of which lies before us. It is a large, well printed, twenty-two page semi-monthly, similar in size to Harper's Weekly..."

"... It has for its object the publication of all the choicest American, English and Continental works of fiction, travel, adventure, &c., &c., at a uniform price of 10 cents per copy..."
Feb 19,
1875		 The Boscobel Dial
Boscobel, Wisconsin		 "Prospectus of the Lakeside Library" A description of the "Library" of the Best Authors, "to make the BEST BOOKS as cheap as the literary trash now flooding the country," "and to offer GOOD LITERATURE at the price of the poor and pernicious."
Feb 25,
1875		 Jackson County Banner "Cheap Good Reading" "The attention of our readers is invited to The Lakeside Library, Donnelley, Loyd & Co., Publishers Chicago. It is a new thing -- and we believe a good thing -- in the literary line. The proprietors propose to publish a volume every two weeks, for the low price of $2.15 per annum (24 numbers) postpaid."

... "Three numbers of this publication have already been issued. No. 1 contains The Best Husbands, by James Payn. No. 2, The Wandering Heir, by Charles |Reade. No. 3, The Golden Lion of Granpere, by Anthony Trollope. Each is complete in one number."
April 23
1875		 Dodgeville Chronicle "The Law and The Lady, Just Out!" The ad lists the 10 No.'s published so far, which include No. 4 Blockade Runners, by Jules Verne and No. 9 and 10, Law and the Lady
Aug 26
1875		 The Fitchburg Sentinel "Great Novels by Great Authors" This ad lists the books from No. 1 The Best Husband to No. 17 Katerfelts, by Major Whyte Melville.
Sept 5
1875		 Los Angeles Herald "$1.50 Book for 10 cents. The Lakeside Library" "Is published Semi-Monthly and each issue contains a COMPLETE NOVEL by one of the great authors of the world, as Charles Reade, Dickens, Scott, Anthony Trollope, Jules Verne, etc. "

"... No. 14 & 15. -- 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, by Jules Verne"

"No. 19 -- Maurice Dering, by the famous author of "Guy Livingstone" "

"... The wonderful cheapness of our books leads many to fear it is a humbug."
May
1876		 The Daily News Lakeside Volume II (sic), No. 84 was published. "...a Romance complete, entitled, The Shadow of a Sin."
Sept 1
1877		 Springfille Journal "The Survivors of "The Chancellor". This delightful new volume by Jules Verne has just been issued as No. 98 of "The Lakeside Library" series."
Nov 22
1877		 The Telegraph-Courier "Good Cheap reading for Winter Evenings" The highest numbers listed in this ad are: " No. 113 Michael Strogoff, by Jules Verne ... No. 114-115 The Woman Hater, by C. Reade."
Feb 16
1878		 San Marcos Free Press "The Lakeside Library - What it has Accomplished - What it Proposes" "About three years ago the first number of The Lakeside Library was presented to the reading public."

The "article" praises the Lakeside Library for printing good, complete works, unlike the other "trash" out there!
Oct 7
1879		 The Boston Weekly Globe "The Lakeside Library. Cheap and Good." The latest (last) ture Ad specifically for The Lakeside Library, and the highest issue number seen so far, a double issue #168/169 of "Man and Wife, by Wilkie Collins, using the address Donnelley, Gassette & Loyd, Chicago.
I PROPOSE that The Lakeside Library lasted from Jan 1875 to the end of 1879.
Dec 1882 The Weekly Lakeside "The Gold Hunters' Adventures; or Life in Australia" by William H. Thomes In December 1882, Issue No. 46 of The Lakeside Weekly was printed by Donnelley, Loyd & Co., Publishers. This number (46) does NOT align with the Lakeside Library titles, so is NOT the same series as The Lakeside Library.

1876 - 1884 1876-1884 Subject AmCat.pdf "Now absorbed" Lakeside Library. 202 nos. 4o ea., 10c
Donnelley, L. & Co.
Note. Now absorbed by Seaside library, Munro

Image courtesy James Keeline
Sept 27
1885		 Chicago Tribune Sun "War Between Brothers" "... George saw in the Lakeside Library, which failed in Chicago, what he deemed a feasible venture, and bought the remains of the concern. He established the Seaside Library here, and today is estimated to be worth $5,000,000."

NOTE: The Seaside Library Quarto editions, were circa 1877, and so were concurrent with The Lakeside Library, as documented on my George Munro page HERE.SO Lakeside Library came first, but George Munro competed directly with the Seaside Library.
A "last" tribute to the Lakeside Library and the Seaside Library, comes in this humourous piece found in the Wichita Evening News, Saturday December 19, 1885:
There is the "Seaside Library," the "Lakeside Library," the Riverside Library and the "Brookside Library," which exhausts all the streams. We would now suggest that the "Pondside Library" be started, and if that is not sufficient, let the "Mudhole Library" be founded. !!!!!

From Newspaper Ads, Circa 1877

The aim of THE LAKESIDE LIBRARY is to produce cheap, clearly printed, handomely illustrated, unabridged, and unaltered reprints of the Best Books of the Best Authors

The type used is a large, clear, open letter, which can be read with ease and comfort.

Send us an order for one dollar's worth, and you will receive enough pleasant and entertaining reading for the long evenings of a month or more.

There is no pleasure so cheap and so lasting. The entire Household is benefited and made happy for amonth, at the cost of One Dollar!

Beware of Cheap, poorly executed Counterfeits and Imitations of our popular LAKESIDE LIBRARY editions. They are printed in a mesierably small, unreadable type, whose perusal will soon dim or even utterly destroy the strongest eyesight. Their dishonorable publishers endeavor to deceive the public by Counterfeiting our name as closely as they dare, and imitating our Size and reneral appearance. See that you get only THE LAKESIDE LIBRARY and look out for the Frauds and Counterfeits.

Ed: surely the last paragrpah is aimed at George Munro's "Seaside Library" which is about the same size, and whose name is surely similar to "Lakeside"!

The following is the list of Jules Verne books published by Donnelley, Loyd, Chicago

There are 2 numbering systems (Volume and No. / Number)

Lakeside Library - which measures about 9x13in

The Lakeside Library


Above - Ad - The Kenosha Telegraph, November 22, 1877
Volume 1 No. 4 10cts The Blockade Runners

Published aprox. March 1875

Image courtesy of Matthew Short

 Volume 1 No. 14 / 15 20cts Double Volume:
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
- Part 1 & Part 2

Published aprox July/Aug 1875

Also seen with address:
Donnelley, Loyd & CO., Publishers Chicago
Room 1, Lakeside Building, Clark and Adams Sts.

Volume 2 No. 29 10cts Tour of the World in 80 Days

Later "Gassette" Cover:

 8
No. 40 10cts Mysterious Island: Dropped from the Clouds 8
No. 42 10cts Mysterious Island: Abandoned 8
No. 44 10cts Mysterious Island: The Secret of the Island 8
Volume 3 No. 66 10cts From the Earth to the Moon 28
Volume 3 No. 67 10cts Round the Moon (Trip Around the Moon) 28
Volume 4 No. 86 10cts Dr. Ox's Experiment
& A Winter Amid the Ice & A Drama in the Air		 29
Volume 4 No. 95 / 96 20cts Double Volume:
A Journey to the Center of the Earth
- Part 1 & Part 2		 60
Volume 4 No. 98 10cts The Survivors of the Chancellor

Published aprox Aug 1877

 36
Volume 4 No. 101 10cts To the North Pole

Published September 1877
(as per ad on the back of Survivors of the Chancellor)

Later "Gassette" Cover:

 77
Volume 4 No. 102 10cts Field of Ice

Published September 1877
(as per ad on the back of Survivors of the Chancellor)

 77
Volume 4 No. 109 10cts Fur Country - Part 1 25
No. 110 10cts Fur Country - Part 2 25
No. 111 / 112 20cts Double Volume (?):
The Castaways		 79
No. 113 10cts Michael Strogoff

Published aprox Nov. 1877

 18

Ed: I suspect that this offering, is a "re-boxing" of The Lakeside Library editions, as I have NOT seen any Donnelley editions, with a different banner and numbering scheme (Re "Winter Evening Library").
It is a marketing scheme to sell more Lakeside Library...

Announced in The Republican, Sat Dec 22, 1877, Page 7

The Boys' Winter Evening Library

Containing:

  1. Tour of the World in Eighty Days (8 illustr)
  2. Dropped From the Clouds (8 illustr)
  3. Abandoned ( 8 illustr)
  4. The Secret of the Island (8 illustr)
  5. From the Earth to the Moon (28 illustr)
  6. Round the Moon (28 illustr)
  7. Dr. Ox's Experiment (29 illustr)
  8. Survivors of the Chancellor (36 illustr)
  9. To the North Pole (71 illustr)
  10. The Field of Ice (82 illustr)
  11. The Fur Country - I (25 illustr)
  12. The Fur Country - II (25 Illustr)
  13. Michael Strogoff (18 illustr)
  14. Journey to the Center of the Earth (60 illustr)
  15. The Castaways (79 illustr)

By the Most Popular Living Author,
Jules Verne
The entire set of Fifteen Complete Stories is put up in a Pasteboard Box, and is illustrated
with Five Hundred and Thirteen Fine Engravings

No other collection of stories offers so large an amount of entertaining reading, at so low a price. Any two of the fifteen volumes names above would cost, as ordinary books, more than the entire series in "The Boys' Winter Evening Library" form.

Price, per set, retail, $2. Very liberal discount to the trade. Trade orders received by the American News Company, New York; Western News Company, Chicago; and all the other Wholesale News Companies. Order a sample set at once for Examination

Address:
Donnelley, Loyd & Co., Publishers
Chicago

Ed: another ad describes the "set" as follows:
This set of 15 Books, with 513 Fine Engravings and an Elegant Oil Chrome! Price, $2.00
The Largest, Handsomest! The Cheapest! The Best! The same books cannot be bought in ordinary book form for less that Twenty-Five Dollars.

Image courtesy of Matthew Short

Donnelley also published a few hardcovers

The Fireside Library AND Lakeside Edition
(Hardcover Book)
Image Title Pages
1876

Fireside Library

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas
& The Blockade Runners
1876
The Fireside Library of Standard Authors
Containing The Best Works of Famous Writers
Donnelley, Loyd & Co., Publishers
Chicago
A C Rowe
Cleveland

This book Defintely contains Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas, printed in a 3 column format, with illustrations.

Ed: I also propose that this volume also contains:
The Blockade Runners, based on the evidence on the first page of the index.
The below blow-up from the title page, shows:
"... UNNERS, THE .....By Jules Verne ... Illustrated... xxx"
The image has a ripped piece of title page, covering the fiorst part of the title listed!
nd - circa 1877

Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar
nd - circa 1877
Donnelley, Loyd and Company Publishers
Chicago

Lakeside Edition

 445
1876


The Mysterious Island
1876
Donnelley, Loyd & Company
Chicago

Lakeside Edition

Complete in 1 volume
1876


20,000 Leagues Under the Seas
& Around the World in 80 Days
1876 (20k IS dated on its title page)
Donnelley, Loyd & Co., Publishers
Chicago

Lakeside Edition

Note: The Title page of 20k says 1876
The Title page of Around the World "may or may not" say 1876

 293
1886

NOT Lakeside Edition, but included here for "completeness"

Michael Strogoff
1886
R R Donnelley & Sons, Publishers.
Chicago

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