The Life and Times of the Kings and Queens of England series

The series, The Life and Times of the Kings and Queens of England, edited by Antonia Fraser, was established in 1972. It was first published by Weidenfeld [and] Nicolson, and reprinted by Book Club Associates, London.

It took a suprising amount on time (hours—plural) wrestling with Google, Library Thing, and ChatGPT, to get a satisfactory answer to the simple question of "how many volumes are there in this series?" (For details of why this was so hard, see my postscript below.) Consistent with other posts on this blog, having finally got my answer, I thought I'd post the resulting research to save others from the hassle of duplicating my efforts.

The answer is: there were a total of 31 volumes in the series The Life and Times of the Kings and Queens of England: 25 volumes in what I will call the First Series, from 1972–74, and another six volumes in what I will call the Second Series, from 1980–81. These are listed below in monarch order.

In 1976, Fraser prepared a single volume, under the ttle The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, which covers all the monarchs, including those omitted in the series (this is the fat volume, second from the right, in the first image above). If this was a first attempt at a sop to the completists, it clearly was not enough, since in 1980 the series was restarted (or, rather, Weidenfeld and Nicolson expanded the series with their Kings and Queens of England, in matching bindings, so completists could fill some gaps), but the demand for the missing monarchs must have been slight since the series faltered after only six volumes.

Since the quarto volumes have matching spines, are well illustrated, and were once quite common, they were a tempting collecting target. Even if you were only really interested in one era of history, you would easilly, inadvertently accumulate two or three volumes—which you might be tempted to shelve together, at which point you were doomed. Before you know it you might find yourself accumulating more volumes, and then start actively looking for all of the monarchs in your era, or all eras. If you look on eBay (*), you will see the resulting more-or-less complete collections which illustrate this post.

(*) I.e., here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

If you have landed here on this page because you are on the edge of this collecting precipice: stop while you can! The First Series is not complete—it does not cover all monarchs—and the Second Series does not complete it. The First includes, for instance, George I and George III (both of which I have had), but not George II (which I wanted)—and there is no George II in the Second Series. There are plenty of other monarchs ommitted too, frustrating the would-be completist. (When I discovered that there was no George II, I was so annoyed that I disposed of my George I and George II volumes.)

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Series 1, twenty-five volumes (1972–74)

1. Alfred the Great, Douglas Woodruff (1974)
2. William I, Maurice Ashley (1973)
3. Richard I, John Gillingham (1973)
4. King John, Maurice Ashley (1972)
5. Edward II, Caroline Bingham (1973)
6. Edward III, Paul Johnson (1973)
7. Henry V, Peter Earle (1972)
8. Richard III, Anthony Cheetham (1972)
9. Henry VII, Neville Williams (1973)
10. Henry VIII, Robert Lacey (1972)
11. Mary Tudor, Jasper Ridley (1973)
12. Elizabeth I, Neville Williams (1972)
13. King James, Antonia Fraser (1974)
14. Charles I, D. R. Watson (1972)
15. Charles II, Christopher Falkus (1972)
16. James II, Peter Earle (1972)
17. William and Mary, John Miller (1974)
18. Queen Anne, Gila Curtis (1972)
19. George I, Joyce Marlow (1973)
20. George III, John Clarke (1972)
21. George IV, Alan Palmer (1972)
22. Victoria, Dorothy Marshall (1972)
23. Edward VII, Keith Middlemas (1973)
24. George V, Denis Judd (1973)
25. George VI, Keith Middlemas (1974)

Series 2, six volumes (1980–81)

26. The Saxon Kings, Richard Humble (1980)
27. The Norman Kings, James Chambers (1981)
28. Edward I, John Chancellor (1981)
29. Richard II, Michael Senior (1981)
30. Edward IV, Gila Falkus (1981)
31. William IV, Anne Somerset (1980)

Since numbers 26 and 27 duplicate (in part) numbers 1 and 2, these can't really be intersorted above, so the ideal shelf arrangement of the series woud probably be as follows:

26* The Saxon Kings, Richard Humble (1980)
1. Alfred the Great, Douglas Woodruff (1974)
2. William I, Maurice Ashley (1973)
27* The Norman Kings, James Chambers (1981)
3. Richard I, John Gillingham (1973)
4. King John, Maurice Ashley (1972)
28* Edward I, John Chancellor (1981)
5. Edward II, Caroline Bingham (1973)
6. Edward III, Paul Johnson (1973)
29* Richard II, Michael Senior (1981)
7. Henry V, Peter Earle (1972)
30* Edward IV, Gila Falkus (1981)
8. Richard III, Anthony Cheetham (1972)
9. Henry VII, Neville Williams (1973)
10. Henry VIII, Robert Lacey (1972)
11. Mary Tudor, Jasper Ridley (1973)
12. Elizabeth I, Neville Williams (1972)
13. King James, Antonia Fraser (1974)
14. Charles I, D. R. Watson (1972)
15. Charles II, Christopher Falkus (1972)
16. James II, Peter Earle (1972)
17. William and Mary, John Miller (1974)
18. Queen Anne, Gila Curtis (1972)
19. George I, Joyce Marlow (1973)
20. George III, John Clarke (1972)
21. George IV, Alan Palmer (1972)
31* William IV, Anne Somerset (1980)
22. Victoria, Dorothy Marshall (1972)
23. Edward VII, Keith Middlemas (1973)
24. George V, Denis Judd (1973)
25. George VI, Keith Middlemas (1974)

Alternatively, you could re-number the series as follows:

1. The Saxon Kings, Richard Humble (1980)
2. Alfred the Great, Douglas Woodruff (1974)
3. William I, Maurice Ashley (1973)
4. The Norman Kings, James Chambers (1981)
5. Richard I, John Gillingham (1973)
6. King John, Maurice Ashley (1972)
7. Edward I, John Chancellor (1981)
8. Edward II, Caroline Bingham (1973)
9. Edward III, Paul Johnson (1973)
10. Richard II, Michael Senior (1981)
11. Henry V, Peter Earle (1972)
12. Edward IV, Gila Falkus (1981)
13. Richard III, Anthony Cheetham (1972)
14. Henry VII, Neville Williams (1973)
15. Henry VIII, Robert Lacey (1972)
16. Mary Tudor, Jasper Ridley (1973)
17. Elizabeth I, Neville Williams (1972)
18. King James, Antonia Fraser (1974)
19. Charles I, D. R. Watson (1972)
20. Charles II, Christopher Falkus (1972)
21. James II, Peter Earle (1972)
22. William and Mary, John Miller (1974)
23. Queen Anne, Gila Curtis (1972)
24. George I, Joyce Marlow (1973)
25. George III, John Clarke (1972)
26. George IV, Alan Palmer (1972)
27. William IV, Anne Somerset (1980)
28. Victoria, Dorothy Marshall (1972)
29. Edward VII, Keith Middlemas (1973)
30. George V, Denis Judd (1973)
31. George VI, Keith Middlemas (1974)

Postscript: the volumes themselves do not seem to contain a series title or a list of other volumes in the series, and I was unable to find any advertisement for the series, or any series listing online. Library Thing lists Fraser's one-volume work, and her Introduction or Editorship for only five volumes in the series; it seperately lists (as a Publisher Series) "Kings and queens of England: Weidenfeld and Nicolson" here, in which it conflates what I have called Series 1 and Series 2, and duplicates Charles II by mistakenly including Fraser's 1979 biography as part of the series to get a total of 32 volumes (in the conflated and mistitled series). The various and incompatible claims for "complete" collections on eBay add to the confusion. If there are better collecting resources online, I didn't find them, but if anyone points them out for me, I will add links below—or corrections above if I have messed up anything here.

Dorothy Furman, collector of books and bookplates

Dorothy Furman (fl. 1895–1926), was a well-connected bibliophile, a staff member at the New York Times Literary Review (writing bookish-reviews and book-auction reports in the late 1890s) and was later a book dealer. She built an extensive collection of rare books, mostly first editions (but including treasures such as a fourth folio of Shakespeare's works) and bookplates—being a customer, if not a patron of sorts, to a number of bookplate artists, and corresponding widely within a community of bibliophiles.

Furman was a member of The Bibliographical Society (UK) from 1895–1917 (see here), appears in the Almanach du bibliophile pour l'année 1898 (here), was a Member of the Ex Libris Society in 1895 and 1900 (see here and here); the Bibliographical Society of America in (at least) 1905 and 1908 (see here), the American Bookplate Society in 1913 and 1918 (see here and here), and the Grolier Club in 1914.

Female members of these bibliographical and book-collecting societies were not common. In the fifty years between 1892 and 1942 The Bibliographical Society had approximately nine hundred UK members and four hundred and fifty US members (see cumulative member list here). Of these, there are 17 (UK) and 13 (US) with a "Mrs" prefix and 25 (UK) and 18 UK with "Miss"; that is, a total of 73 female members, or approximately five percent.

Given the rarity of bibliographicaly-inclined female book collectors in this period, and the significance of her bookplate collecting, it is suprising that there is so little information about Furman available online. Having just bought her copy of J. Roger Rees, The Brotherhood of Letters (New York: Lockwood and Coombes, 1889), I did some digging and am posting what I found here to save other collectors the trouble, and perhaps enable them to carry this research forward—something that can probably only be done in situ in New York.

Why New York? Well, Furman lived at a commuting distance from New York for at least two decades. Her reported addresses being 35 State Street, Flushing, Long Island, NY (1898–1905; see Almanach du bibliophile pour l'année 1898 and Ex Libris Society link above); 58 Clark Street, Glen Ridge, NJ (1905–8; see here); and 6 De Hart Street, Morristown, New Jersey (1913 and 1918; see American Bookplate Society links above), opening a bookshop there in 1919 (see here): The Publishers Weekly reporting: "Morristown, N. J.—Miss Dorothy Furman has opened a bookshop at 6 De Hart street, specializing in old, rare and current books, association copies and autographs."

The Walpole Galleries in New York sold at auction collections of her Modern First Editions in July 1920 (advertised in The New York Times on 29 and June 1920 here and here), bookplates and books on bookplates in September and November 1923 (see here and here), and China, Glass, Brass, Prints, Furniture, Pewter Objects of Art, Etc. in September 1926 (see here).

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Regarding Furman's writing for the New York Times Literary Review: I have found four articles by her (too long to quote in full). Undoubtedly, she wrote many more since each appears to be only a sample of a series: "Books Worth Reading Again. VII. Dorothy Osbourne's Letters" The New York Times, Vol. 47, Iss. 15029 (12 March 1898): 170c–171b (see here); "Books Worth Reading Again. IX. Louisa May Alcott's Life and Letters" The New York Times, Vol. 47, Iss. 15053 (9 April 1898): 238c–239c (see here); "Books at Auction. Features of the Final Part of the Ashburnham Library Sold This Week in London" The New York Times, Vol. 47, Iss. 15083 (14 May 1898): 324a–b (see here). "Books at Auction. Prices at the Fine Mackellar Sale—Bibles and Manuscripts" The New York Times, Vol. 48, Iss. 15251 (26 November 1898): 794a–b (see here); "Two Noble Lives. Maurice de Guierin and His Sister Eugene—The Journals They Wrote" The New York Times (4 March 1899): 137a–c (see here).

Regarding Furman's collection of books: I can't find an auction catalogue for this 1920 sale, but The New York Times advertisement explains that it contained "First Editions of Modern Authors including Stevenson and Kipling; Riverside. Doves, Kelmscott, Ashendene and other Presses; best library editions of the works of famous authors; bindings; rare early English literature and autographs; being mainly the library of Miss Dorothy Furman." There was a review of the sale published in The Publishers Weekly, which reads:

The library of Miss Dorothy Furman consisting of modern first editions, books printed by private and special presses, fine sets of standard authors, rare early English literature and choice miscellaneous books, was sold at the Walpole Galleries July 1 and 2. The sale was well attended, and prices were very satisfactory. Mr. Turnbull is a careful cataloger and in sales of this character he handles them with a high degree of efficiency. A few of the items, indicating the trend of prices, were as follows: Andrew’s "Gossip about Book Collecting," New York, 1900, $50; same author, "Paul Revere and His Engraving," New York, 1901, $55; Sir Thomas More’s "Utopia," Chelsea, 1906, Ashendene Press edition, $42.50; Beaumont and Fletcher's "Fifty Comedies and Tragedies," London, 1679, second edition, $35; Lord Byron’s "Works," 13 vols., London, 1898–1901, large paper edition, $44; Blanchard's "Life of George Cruikshank," 2 vols. extended to 4 with 140 extra plates, many in colors, $75; De Morgan’s "Collected Works," 8 vols., London, 1906-14, first editions, $26; Drayton's "Poems," London, 1619, $25; Genest's "Some Account of the English Stage from the Restoration in 1660 to 1830," 10 vols., 8vo, prepared for extra illustrating with cases, $120; Hallam's "Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries," 4 vols., 8vo, London, 1837–39, $60; Ireland's "Records of the New York Stage from 1750 to 1860," New York, 1866-67, large paper copy with extra illustrations, $40; Keats's "Poetical Works," 4 vols., London, 1883, original library edition edited by H. Buxton Forman, $65; Livingston's "Bibliography of Kipling," New York, 1901, Japan paper, $35; Masefield's "Tragedy of Nan and other Plays," London, 1909, first edition and presentation copy, $52.50; Montaigne's "Essays," 3 vols., folio, Boston, 1902, Riverside Press special edition, $65; Shakespeare's "Comedies, Histories and Tragedies," 1685, fourth folio with imperfections, $375; Stevenson’s manuscript of the first draft of "St. Ives," 500 pages, written by Isobel Strong, at Stevenson's dictation with revisions and additions by the author, $340; and Stevenson's "Verses," original wrappers, privately printed, 1912, very scarce, $65.

Regarding Furman's collection of bookplates: Walpole Galleries described it (well in advance of the sale, in 1921) as "The Important Collection of Bookplates of Miss Dorothy Furman of Morristown, N. J., being over 8,000 plates—one of the largest collections in this country" (see here); elsewhere the number is inflated to "about" ten thousand (see "Prospects For The Coming Season," The Publishers Weekly, Vol. 102, No. 18 (28 October 1922): 1553–54: "It includes the sale … the bookplates, about 10,000 in number, of Miss Dorothy Furman, for many years on the staff of the New York Times Literary Review; a superb …" (here).

Furman participated in an exhibition of bookplates in New York in 1895 (see here); she commissioned bookplates from Edwin Davis French in 1902 (see here), Arthur Nelson MacDonald by 1895 and in 1907 (see here and here [and at the head of this post]); J. Winfred Spenceley in 1907 (see here).

The bookplate contained in her, now my, copy of The Brotherhood of Letters is above. This plate is described (and so, a terminus ad quem established) in Ladies' Book-plates: An Illustrated Handbook for Collectors and Book-lovers (London: George Bell and Sons, 1895), 200 (see here):

"The following lines are familiar to many:

O for a Booke and a shadie nooke,
  eyther in-a-doore or out;
With the grene leaves whispering overhede,
  or the Streete cryes all about.
Where I maie Reade all at my ease,
  both of the Newe and Olde;
For a jollie goode Booke whereon to looke,
  is better to me than Golde.

This is taken from Dorothy Furman's plate, consisting of the name written on a garter."

(For an excellent investigation into the 1860s origins of this ye-olde verse, see here.)

One of the books she owned have been scanned and are online with her bookplate: Arthur Conan Doyle, Through The Magic Door (London: Smith, Elder [and] Co., 1907) here.

A few odd bits of evidence for Furman's patronage of book plate artists: she made donations of bookplates to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston in 1901 and 1902 (see here); she made a similar donation to the British Museum by 1912 (see here); and to the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences in 1917 (see here).

Finally, I am indebted—once again—to the blog "My Sentimental Library," on which Jerry Morris (sadly, now dead) collected some information about Furman in 2018 (see here), which I have tried not to duplicate here.

Thieving Canadians versus Elon Musk

A recent analysis puts the cost of launching 1kg into low Earth orbit (LEO), on Elon Musk's Falcon 9 rocket, to approximately USD1500 per kg.

Musk is developing his Starship launch vehicle in the hope of significantly reducing this cost of launching mass to orbit. He has stated that his target is about USD10.00 per kilogram to LEO, which assumes full and rapid reusability and a very high launch cadence for Starship. But this is an aspirational long-term operating cost; it seems that more conservative estimates put Starship launch costs at about USD100–200 per kilo.

* * * * *

The above Coronet edition of John Wyndham's Stowaway to Mars of 1972 weighs 110 grams. If we add 90 grams for minimal packaging (to reach a total of 200g), it seems that Elon Musk would presently charge approximately USD300 to launch a copy of this book into LEO, but he expects to be able to eventually be able launch a copy into LEO for USD2.00 (while more conservative estimates put it at USD20). This is good news for LEO book collectors.

As you can see below, one thieving bastard bookseller (JMCbooksonline, of Cheverie, NS, Canada) is presently asking USD140 [A$196] to launch, I mean post, this book to Australia (see listing here). For the record, I can post 250g to Canada for A$23.05—less than one eighth of this.

This postal charge is the equivalent of USD700 per kilo—more than double the present cost of launching Wyndham's Stowaway to Mars into orbit via a Falcon 9, soon to be thirty-five times the cost of launching it into LEO via Starship, and, if Musk's dreams are realised, three hundred and fifty times the cost of launching it into orbit.

* * * * *

Anyone in Australia who buys books from overseas soon learns that postage from Canada is extremely slow and extremely expensive—possibly the slowest and most expensive postal service in the world, but certainly the slowest and most expensive postal service I am familiar with.

When buying from Canada, there are no bargins to be had, and few books are rare enough to justify stuffing the pockets of either Canadian postal services or Candian Booksellers.

I wonder how long it will be before Musk realises that international parcel post represents an arbitrage opportunity, and that he can use Starfall—the uncrewed reusable re-entry/cargo capsule being developed by SpaceX—to massively reduce the cost of postage of 1970s paperbacks from Canada (or the US) to Australia?

The Drunken Druggist and a Shanghai Reading Room

The book below is an odd volume from Harrison and Co.'s The Novelist's Magazine series, which has a particularly interesting provenance, spending time in the UK, China, the US, and Australia.

The Novelist's Magazine (ESTC p6358) reprinted sixty novels, broken up into weekly parts, from 1780 to 1788. Each novel has a separate title page, and each of the 23 volumes has an engraved general title page. While some of the novels stretched over more than one volume (Sir Charles Grandison occupies vols. 14–15; Clarissa occupies vols. 10–11), most volumes contain multiple novels (for example, vols. 9 and 23 both contain six novels each).

I am interested in the series primarily because it contains Eliza Haywood's Betsy Thoughtless, Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, and The Invisible Spy (in vols. 13, 17, and 23); but I have this volume (vol. 7) because it contains some Haywoodiana: Charles De Fieux Mouhy's The Fortunate Country Maid (1740), an anonymous translation of La Paysanne Parvenue, ou les Mémoires de Madame la Marquise de L. V. (1735–36). Haywood's own translation of this French work, The Virtuous Villager, appeared in 1741, by which time The Fortunate Country Maid had gone through four editions and a Dublin reprint—pretty much running away with the market for the book.

I have had my copy of vol. 7 of The Novelist's Magazine for more than two decades. It is in pretty woeful condition (the spine is broken in three places), but it was cheap (USD10) and I haven't bothered to upgrade it because I liked the bookplate (below) on the front (fixed) endpaper: "James Watson | Manchester." This morning I was able to identify this previous owner as James Watson (1775–1820), an eccentric young druggist known in Manchester as "Doctor Watson."

Watson (below) was apprenticed to a fustian (heavy cotton) manufacturer; when that apprenticeship ended, he worked as a bookkeeper for a cotton merchant, until his father's death obliged him to take over the family's apothecary business. Apparently, "Doctor Watson" was a theatre fanatic: he was a collector of printed theatre ephemera (1799–1800) and, from 1803 onwards, produced a periodical, The Townsman. He became the first librarian of the Manchester’s Portico Library in 1806.

Apparently, Watson soon lost that position because of his "drinking habits and neglect of duty" (i.e., he was an alcoholic), and went on to lose another as a boarding school usher at Altrincham, for the same reason; after which he became homeless and dependent upon charity. After a lengthy period of destitution, he drowned (or drowned himself) in the River Mersey on 28 June 1820 and was buried at Didsbury.

(The portrait and most of the above information about Watson, is taken from a The Spirit of the Doctor: Comprising Many Interesting Poems Selected from the Original Manuscript of the Late Mr. James Watson (Manchester, 1820), online here; and Simon Beattie, Short List 6 (March 2014), online here.)

* * * * *

I took a few photos of my battered odd-volume this morning. When I was filing these, after I had returned the book itself to my "hopital for battered books," I noticed something I had missed in all my previous examinations of the book over the last two decades: there was a very faint blind stamp visible on the title leaf—so faint, that it was really only clear enough to notice on the recto. (Look again at the first photograph in this post, above, showing the whole title-page to this volume. Did you notice the blind stamp?)

I retrieved the book once again, and re-photographed the title page in strong raking light using a macro lense. While it is still the case that—even in these favourable conditions—only part of the blind stamp is visible on the title page (above), the negative on the verso is much clearer. Having reversed (flipped) my photographs of the verso using some image software, I was able to clearly make out a surprising ownership stamp (below): "Astor House Hotel | Shanghai"!

Astor House Hotel, Shanghai, has a lengthy Wikipedia page dedicated to it (here). If you read this page you will see that the Shanghai Astor had a "Reading Room." Peter Felix Richards (1846–1859), a Scottish merchant, opened the first Western hotel in China. In August 1850, Richards advertised that a reading room for shipmasters had been established in his hotel. The advertisement (here) reads: "NOTICE. SHIPMASTERS are respectfully informed that the undersigned have opened a READING ROOM in their Establishment especialy for their accommodation. P. F. RICHARDS [and] Co. Shanghae, 1th August, 1851."

Skipping ahead a half-century, a 1908 real-photo postcard (below; here), captioned "Shanghai——Astor House Hotel Co. Ltd: Lounge," shows (in the photograph) a signboard that reads "Reading and Writing Room." In 1911, when the Astor House Hotel had a grand re-opening, it was described as having "a reading room with several comfortable sofas and easy chairs upholstered in leather"—a description that nicely matches this 1908 postcard image.

Skipping ahead another half-century, the scene is rather different: the Shanghai Astor was bombed and occupied during the 2nd Sino-Japanese War and WW2 (1937–45); thereafter it went into a spiral of decline, and on 19 April 1954 the Hotel was confiscated by the CCP; much of the furniture and interior decoration was destroyed or stolen during the Cultural Revolution. After extensive renovations in the early 2000s, the hotel was bought out, and the hotel closed on 1 January 2018. The building was converted to the China Securities Museum, and the renovated premises are now once again accessible to the public (according to this site).

Pulling together the threads, it seems that my odd volume of The Novelist's Magazine was purchased, early in its existance, by the convivial Mancunian James Watson, who probably pawned it for a bottle of gin soon after. The enterprising Peter Richards picked up this volume on his travels, whether in Manchester or elsewhere, and transported it to Shanghai, included it in his 1850 Reading Room for Shipmasters. If the volume remained in situ, then it was likely looted from the Shanghai Astor by an American GI during WW2, who took it back to the states. When I bought it two decades ago, it was transported back past Asia, to Australia.

I have been unable to find any other remnant of either the James Watson library or the Astor House Shanghai library or Reading Room, and so, no images of either his book label or this blind stamp. I have also been unable to find any real information about whatever library may have at one time existed in the first Western hotels in China, and possibly one of the earliest English-language libraries in China—which is surprising. I hope that, by the time I dig this volume out of my "hospital"—for a team of book-binding robots to properly repair it—more information will be available. But until then, it is time for it to return to rest.