page_title: A. L. Burt
section_title: Incorporation and series books, 1902–1937
hierarchical_section_title: A. L. Burt / History / Incorporation and series books, 1902–1937
caption_attribution_description: English: Dust Jacket of The Boy Allies Under the Sea
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: As A. L. Burt expanded, and after it incorporated in 1902, it began targeting both adult and juvenile markets. Zane Grey's second book, The Spirit of the Border, sold some 750,000 copies as an A. L. Burt first edition. Similar success was found with other adult authors, such as Harold Bell Wright and Joseph C. Lincoln. Meanwhile, the Chimney Corner Series began offering 50-cent juvenile hardcovers in 1905; 69 titles were issued under the series in slightly less than a decade, during which the price eventually rose to 60 cents. The company also issued a line of "illustrated cover" juvenile books between 1907 and 1911, with titles by authors such as Ellis, Otis, and Everett Tomlinson. With cheaper options readily available, the dollar books did not sell well; two first editions by Alger, In Search of Treasure and Wait and Win, are now scarce.
  In 1911 A. L. Burt began issuing series books as part of an effort to compete with the Stratemeyer Syndicate, whose books were primarily published by Grosset & Dunlap and Cupples & Leon. An early effort simply repackaged four of the books from the dollar "illustrated cover" line: Wilmer M. Ely's books The Young Plume Hunters, The Boy Truckers, The Young Pearl Hunters, and The Young Treasure Seekers, originally published as standalone works between 1905 and 1911, became the Boy Chums Series, and sold for 40 cents each. They sold well, and were supplemented with four new titles. Albert Burt's sons, who were active in the company, continued with series books after their father's 1913 death; Harry Burt became president and treasurer, Fred Burt secretary, and Edward Burt assistant treasurer, with each receiving a third of their father's 510 shares in the company. They initially pursued reprint rights for existing works; series such as the Jack Lorimer Series, the Oakdale Series, the Boy Scouts Series, and the Border Boys Series were thus acquired and reprinted. New series were also introduced, such as the Bronco Rider Boys and the Big Five Motorcycle Boys under pseudonyms of St George Henry Rathborne. Particular success was had with World War I-themed series, such as The Boy Allies. The series—comprising 13 The Boy Allies of the Army books and 10 of The Boy Allies of the Navy—presents "the boy heroes practically winning the war single-handedly". The books were initially sold for 40 cents each, rising to 50, 60, and 75 cents over time. Other publications with similar themes included the Our Young Aeroplane Scouts Series by Horace Porter, and the postwar Boy Troopers Series, which was relatively unsuccessful.
  After the war ended, A. L. Burt's series books adapted with the times. The Radio Boys Series, started in 1922, coincided with a popular interest in wireless radio—and with the Stratemeyer Syndicate's issuance of an identically titled series. Several series by Levi Parker Wyman also sold well, such as the ten-volume Golden Boys Series, the seven-volume Lakewood Boys Series. Wyman also wrote the eight-volume Hunniwell Boys Series, one of several series with an aviation theme. Major Henry H. Arnold, later to become General of the Army and General of the Air Force, contributed to the effort with the Bill Bruce Air Pilot Series.
  As the Great Depression hit, A. L. Burt's sales, and line of publications, declined. The company still published a number of successful series, and even bought the printing plates and copyrights from George Sully and Company, which liquidated. The Beverly Gray mysteries, published from 1934 to 1937 by A. L. Burt, and later by Grosset & Dunlap, were the company's most successful series of the 1930s; The series was a veritable soap opera, with the many adventures of its protagonist including twenty-six kidnappings, seven attacks by wild animals, and three plane crashes. A. L. Burt also published the Rocket Rider Series by Howard R. Garis, who until Edward Stratemeyer's death had been a prolific author for the Stratemeyer Syndicate, writing many of the early Tom Swift books; the plots of the first two books, Rocket Riders Across the Ice and Rocket Riders Over the Desert
caption: The Boy Allies Under the Sea
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