Albert Cogswell, New York

Albert Cogswell (1843-1881) established his namesake publishing house in about 1877. As a young man he learned the book trade working with the Boston firms of Bradley & Co., Brown, Taggard & Chase, Chase, Nichols & Hall, and others. He moved to New York in 1867 and worked with Orange, Judd & Co. His firm name changed to Albert Cogswell & Co. when Richard Brinckerhoff, formerly of Publishers' Weekly, was added as a partner in 1880. Cogswell's health deteriorated over a two year span. The etiology of premature death in 1881 was presumed to be tuberculosis.

In 1880 Albert Cogswell published the "Star Series of Classic Fiction". There are 13 titles in the main series which was divided into four three book subseries which were sold as boxed sets. Most of the volumes are of classic tales meant for juveniles but others are more for adults.

The four Subseries are:

Star Library of Choice Fiction

1. Children of the Abbey by Regina Maria Roche
2. Swiss Family Robinson  
3. Life and Adventures Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

 

Star Library of Popular Fiction

1. Arabian Nights  
2. Gulliver's Travels and Munchausen by Jonathan Swift
3. Vicar of Wakefield, Paul and Virginia, and Rasselas by Oliver Goldsmith, Bernadin St. Pierre, Samuel Johnson

 

Star Library of Standard Fiction

1. Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter
2. Thaddeus of Warsaw by Jane Porter
3. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

 

Star Library of Classic Fiction

1. Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
2. Last Days of Pompeii by Sir Ed. Bulwer Lytton
3. Child's History of England by Charles Dickens

Included in the main thirteen book series but not within any of the subseries:
13. Advice to a Wife, and Counsel to a Mother by Pye Henry Chavasse
(This title is a Cogswell first edition.)

The formats of all of these titles are the same. Illustrated with plates.
They were published in 1880 and the imprint is Albert Cogswell, 1880. I have not seen any of the books from these series with the later Albert Cogswell & Co. imprint.

Cloth. Various colors. Black decorative line drawn floral pattern with gilt letter box on the cover and the spine. 7.5" x 5.25".