page_title: A. L. Burt
section_title: Early years, 1883–1902
hierarchical_section_title: A. L. Burt / History / Early years, 1883–1902
caption_attribution_description: English: Cover of the September 1887 first paperback edition of Joe's Luck, by Horatio Alger
context_page_description: A. L. Burt was a New York-based book publishing house from 1883 until 1937. It was founded by Albert Levi Burt, a forty year old from Massachusetts who had come to recognize the demand for inexpensive reference works while working as a traveling salesman. The company began by reprinting home reference works and reprints of popular and classic fiction, before expanding into the field of children's works, particularly series books.
  A. L. Burt published both reprints and first editions, and targeted both adult and juvenile audiences. At the same time that it published works aimed at adults by authors such as Zane Grey, Harold Bell Wright, and Joseph C. Lincoln, it targeted the juvenile market with works by such authors as Horatio Alger, James Otis, Harry Castlemon, and Edward S. Ellis. The company repeatedly adapted with the market; it entered a popular paperback market, refocused on hardcovers when the paperback market became saturated, and in 1911, in an effort to compete with the Stratemeyer Syndicate, began issuing inexpensive juvenile series books.
context_section_description: Albert Levi Burt began his book-publishing efforts in 1883, even though A. L. Burt Company was not officially incorporated until 1902. In 1883 Albert Burt moved to New York City, and soon thereafter began using a small office at 105 John Street to publish books. He initially focused on home reference works. His first publication was a reprint of The National Standard Dictionary, which contained some 40,000 words and 700 illustrative woodcuts. According to the family genealogy, for this work he poured the entirety of his $900 savings into typesetting—providing for paper, printing, and binding on credit—and within ten years had sold some 250,000 copies. Albert Burt followed the dictionary with a "Standard Encyclopedia" and several works on household art and ladies' handicrafts, along with such titles as Law Without Lawyers, Household Recipes, Useful Knowledge, and The Family Physician. Late in the 1880s Albert Burt turned to inexpensive paperback fiction, which was then popular and would allow him to extend his reach, with his Manhattan Library line of books. He also wanted to publish so-called "good literature," and so at the same time began the Burt's Home Library line with 25 titles, eventually reaching 500.
  In 1887 Albert Burt launched the Boys' Home Library line of juvenile paperbacks, with individual titles priced at 25 cents and a yearly subscription for $2.50; these appear to have been published concurrently with $1 hardcover editions of the same works. The titles, which included first editions as well as reprints, were by such authors as Horatio Alger, James Otis, Harry Castlemon, and Edward S. Ellis. The line comprised 24 titles, the first 19 issued monthly and the remaining quarterly. Seven were by Alger: Joe's Luck, Frank Fowler, the Cash Boy, Tom Temple's Career, Tom Thatcher's Fortune, The Errand Boy, Tom the Bootblack, and Tony the Hero. The first five of these were first editions, though all seven had earlier been serialized in New York Weekly. The final issue, Captured by Zulus by Otis—writing under the pen name Harry Prentice—was published in June 1890.
  Albert Burt's business grew rapidly, and between 1883 and 1900 he moved into larger offices in lower Manhattan at least four times. He also began to focus on hardcover novels, a response to the saturation of the cheap paperback market; dime novels and other 10- and 15-cent publications were undercutting his own 25-cent titles.
caption: Volume 1, number 1 of A. L. Burt's Boys' Home Library, a September 1887 first edition by Horatio Alger
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