Hunter Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 What do you think were the most commonly owned books in home libraries 100 years ago? Bible Pilgrim's Progress Complete Shakespeare Complete Plutarch Caesar's War Aesop Grimm's Fairy Tales Mother Goose Webster Dictionary Strong's Concordance Matthew Henry Commentary Scottish Psalter Book of Common Prayer Issac Watts Divine and Moral Songs for Children What else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted September 15, 2013 Author Share Posted September 15, 2013 Westminster Catechism Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 One hundred years wasn't too long ago and I think lots of people still had lots of books then. What were popular novels then? Those would be on the list. I inherited books from relatives and there are things like Louisa May Alcott's books, Zane Grey, Black Beauty, Longfellow, Sir Walter Scott. Edit: and Lorna Doone. Hugely popular late 1800's and early 1900's. I don't know if Beatrix Potter made it over to America back then or if it was later, but I think those where quite popular in the UK 100 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 Catholics would've had the Baltimore Catechism and a Butler's Lives of the Saints. Some sort of poetry anthology, but I'm not sure what the most popular one would've been. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 Google most popular books 1913...you'll find bobbsey twins, wizard of oz, beatrix potter, jack london, woodsworth. Books were inexpensive in 1913 and many people could've afforded home libraries with a variety of books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted September 15, 2013 Author Share Posted September 15, 2013 I'm still stuck in 1970s thinking that 100 years ago is the late 1800s. Yeh, 100 years ago is 1913. Okaaaay. I'm showing my age! :lol: Alright, how about 150-200 years ago? The 10 Books in an Underground Bunker challenge, got me thinking about what books still matters after some time has passed? At some point in the 1800s, the size of the average home library just suddenly exploded, right? Obviously that was more than 100 years ago. When exactly was that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted September 15, 2013 Author Share Posted September 15, 2013 Crimson Wife thank you for the Catholic titles! I was thinking there must have been some, but didn't know their titles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted September 15, 2013 Share Posted September 15, 2013 At some point in the 1800s, the size of the average home library just suddenly exploded, right? Obviously that was more than 100 years ago. When exactly was that? What an interesting question! And only in the USA, or in the Western world? I would think in the U.S. it would have to do more with economic growth and population dynamics. People in the eastern cities = more books available. The Ingalls riding around on the prairie in the 1860s and 70s, not so much. Does it have something to do with the growth of the novel as a literary form? Some 1800's novels began as serials in newspapers and magazines, so people were reading, but maybe not as many books before a certain point. I am not a historian, just thinking. Public libraries also exploded in the late 1800's. I think Dickens would be on a list for 150 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 I'm guessing the Sears catalog. From Wikipedia: "The first Sears catalog was published in 1888. By 1894, the Sears catalog had grown to 322 pages .... By 1895, the company was producing a 532-page catalog ...." Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 Automated printing started in the early 1800s. By the mid-1800s books had come down in price considerably and were purchased widely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 My Gran would have been two, but she had older siblings. They were probably reading the Little Colonel books in 1913: http://www.littlecolonel.com/books/ because these covers look just like the ones Gran loved and sent to dd24 and ds21 before she died. They were her childhood favourites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dory Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 This thread had me wondering enough that I called up my Grandma and asked her about her grandma's home library. My Grandma is 81 and was the second youngest of 6 kids. I asked her if she could remember some of the oldest books in the collection. She unfortunately couldn't remember very many titles. She was fairly sure there was a book of Washington Irvings there, a book by Emmerson, and a couple by Arthur Conan Doyle (although those are early 1900's). She said she can't remember what titles, but she remembers those authors because those are the books she inherited. I hadn't even realized she had those books, but it would seem she keeps them stored. Didn't want the grandkids to ruin them I suppose. Anyway, I thought you could add those authors to your list of reading material for back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingedradical Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 In the late 1800's, Robert Louis Stevenson, and lost of sea tales including Defoe (already a century old); also, Robert Burns, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and, in the home of the rich and educated, the classics from ancient times through the Enlightenment. Also, cheap pocket novels became available then. In American, they often featured adventures in the old west. People also subscribed to many magazines then, with short stories by Horatio Alger and others. I'm like a previous poster - when I think of 100 years ago, I think late 19th century. But then, I was born mid-20th. How time flies when as you get older! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 100 years ago means 1800s in my mind as well. When I try to imagine what people were reading Sir Walter Scott comes to mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 There are actually sources that list the most printed books and number of books in print for different eras, I found some when I was doing research about early reading texts and methods. Webster's Blue Backed Speller was one of the most frequent textbooks, BTW. You might be able to find an a more exact answer by googling things at google books, many of the things that were only in print at the Library of Congress or other libraries are now available online at Google books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted September 16, 2013 Author Share Posted September 16, 2013 Sears catalog. Yes. That was actually a very influential book! Also the Farmer's Almanac. I'm glad I'm not the only one trapped an a time warp where the 1800s are 100 years ago :lol: I AM interested in the books that were ACTUALLY in homes 100 years ago, but I am more interested in the smaller libraries from before the printing explosion, and those after the explosion but further out west where resources were still leaner. I'm interested in what people chose that they expected to be LASTING. I loved the Shirley Temple Little Colonel movie! Now, I'm not so sure about it. What will people think about the film and books in 100 years? Will they even know about it? What about in another 100? Plutarch is 2000 years old. The Bible 4000. Shakespeare 500. Aesop ?. Literature 100 years ago is SO different from 200 years ago. We are more like people from 100 years ago, than the people of 100 years ago were from the people just 50 years before them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted September 16, 2013 Author Share Posted September 16, 2013 There are actually sources that list the most printed books and number of books in print for different eras, I found some when I was doing research about early reading texts and methods. Webster's Blue Backed Speller was one of the most frequent textbooks, BTW. You might be able to find an a more exact answer by googling things at google books, many of the things that were only in print at the Library of Congress or other libraries are now available online at Google books. Off to Google. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 Off to Google. Thanks! One thing to try: Cumulative Book Index Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aug17girl Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 Ok, I only have an idea of 1913. The Farmer's Almanac Early readers (At least here in Canada, parents had to supply school texts then) A Child's Garden of Verses A school atlas A pocket book of psalms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 In 1906, the Everyman series of cheap literature at workingman's prices was launched in the UK; the Modern Library in the US ten years later. Home libraries for anyone who wanted them exploded; public libraries serving even very poor areas suddenly had many more volumes available. As one example of a self-educating workingman, John Ward, who worked as a navvy in England, was not unique in spending freely on his own education, and in the first decade of the 20th century had a personal library of over 700 books. Philip Inman, a charwoman's son, had books by Emerson, Ruskin, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Lamb, Boswell, Lockhart, Carlyle, Scott, Shakespeare, Browning, Tennyson, William Morris; Wuthering Heights, Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim's Progress, The Imitation of Christ, and Palgrave's Golden Treasury. Everyman and Modern Library editions made such a radical change in home libraries in the English-speaking world that I would want to make the question about home libraries 120 years ago, not one hundred. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.