Do you own an original Porter?

[mbhenty]

Great post Harry. As you have proven there was probably more going on behind the scenes, legal happenings, than we will ever discover. Perhaps the reason no big publisher took the story for a book was as you say, the public had had their fill.

[shakiboo]

what, then happend to all the books? shouldn't there be more around somewhere?

[Harry]

The book may not be as rare as some imagine. One of the foremost authorities on Bordenia, Neilson Caplain, in talking of his personal library wrote in the January 1997 Lizzie Borden Quarterly:

"... The library includes an original of the Porter book, The Fall River Tragedy. Many writers have reported that Lizzie bought up the entire issue. Victoria Lincoln said that she had to wait forty years before she saw her first copy at the Library of Congress.
Nevertheless, it is now conceded that there are many copies around; I last heard that at least fifty are estimated to exist. ..."

However, I am no expert on the subject. I believe our William also wrote an article on the subject but I can't locate it at this writing.

I can't see how Lizzie buying up all the copies would stop it. All that would do would be to guarantee sales. What's to stop the printing of more to sell to the general public?

I don't think that books that are rushed into print after an event tend to do very well sales-wise. I usually see them is the heavily discounted section in Barnes & Noble.

EDIT HERE: I just located William's fine article "Porter's The Fall River Tragedy - How rare?". It appeared in the October 1997 LBQ. One part reads:

"... Mr. Robert A. Flynn, publisher and well-known collector of Lizzie memorabilia, believes the printer made an initial run of 500 or so copies of the original edition. After experiencing a lukewarm reception from the general public, it was decided to discontinue publication. Flynn believes no more than 100 copies are extant.
A popular tale making the rounds tells of Lizzie buying and burning all but 25 subscription copies No evidence to support this theory has ever surfaced. ..."

It is a well written article and even lists the known owners that were able to be traced.

[mbhenty]

Yes, I too have done an extensive search for Porter's book for almost 25 years. I wrote about it in The Hatchet, Vol. 3 number 2. I did an extensive search for a decent copy of Porter's book for almost 4 to 5 years before coming across mine in 1985. You can see a photo of my copy of Edwin Porter's The Fall River Tragedy in the issue of The Hatchet mentioned above.

For 20 years after that, I continued to search for copies of The Fall River Tragedy finding some here and there at auctions in Fall River, the Web, on book sites, book shows, dealer catalogues, ebay and bookshops, not to mention several dealers who delved in Lizzie Borden. Though not always on the hunt my search has been constant and my only regret is that I did not keep a log of all the copies I have come across in my study.

Though I do not consider myself an authority on how many copies of Porter's book are out there, after many years of searching, I have always believed that the number was close to 50. I would dare say it could be close to 100 but would bet the count to be closer to 50 or 75. It is not as rare as we all believed it to be at one time, but still, I would consider it more than a scarce book and in my opinion ranks as exceptionally rare in any condition above "very good." Proof of that are the 3 or 4 copies that have been advertised for bid/sale on ebay the past 2 years or so---none in better condition than Fair-plus. Or the copy that was displayed on Mondo yesterday with multiple repairs including new cover cloth for 1350.00 dollars.

FINE------almost new, clean crisp, little wear, short of mint or new though, shows very little or minimal wear or use. The older the title the more that is forgiven or accepted in describing it as Fine.

VERY GOOD/PLUS-------- almost Fine but may have one or two faults, fading, small dings, etc.

VERY GOOD------ showing some normal wear, marks, blemishes, but still nice and very presentable copy. May have a faded spine, a chip or two to the head or foot of the spine etc., but book is straight, tight and relatively clean.

GOOD/PLUS-------again almost very good but not quite, multiple defects, soiling, rips, starting to exhibit every day wear, etc.

GOOD-------- sometimes good/plus starting to show heavy wear but book still together, marks, soiling, may be cocked, ripped page, written in and starting to show heavy use. To me, "No Good."

FAIR/POOR/READING COPY------- Book probably has too many issues to be saved. Covers may be coming off, pages out, missing illustrations, heavily soiled or just falling apart, still readable.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>It has been my experience that most Copies of Porter's book are found in "Fair/Poor" condition.

[stuartwsa]

Michael: has anyone paid attention to where all of the original copies of Porter were found? I'm curious as to whether the majority of them were found in the Fall River area, or whether the scope was wider than that. It would be interesting to know just how far the books have traveled in the 100+ years since they were published.

[mbhenty]

Yes stuartwsa if only we knew for sure. Most copies, if not all, were probably sold in the Fall River area when first published since it was a tiny publishing firm. But that would only be my guess. But today I believe very few have remained in Fall River and the greater majority of those in existence have been scattered all over the country.

Once a book becomes collectable the hunt begins. For instance, I use to help a dealer from Newport R.I. with his display at book-shows. Dealers will tell you that up to one third of their business at the show is done before the doors even open as dealers roam the floor buying and selling from other dealers. We spoke to a dealer who was packing up and closing his booth early since he claimed he sold most of his good stuff before the show even started and had made his money.

At some of these shows are dealers from all over the country, and if we are talking about book shows in the big cities, from all over the world. As they buy from one another books such as Porter's may change hands between a Providence R.I. dealer, who purchased it from a bookstore in Fall River, and sold at a show to a dealer from L.A. Once a book becomes collectable it's travel begins and continues without end. Over 113 years Porter's book can be deemed a season traveler changing hands many many times as it goes between collectors and dealer and collector anywhere in the country.

[mbhenty]

In Leonard Rebello's book "Lizzie Borden Past and Present" He cites that there are 36 verified copies and 42 reported copies. The majority of these were probably copies in Public Institutions such as Libraries or Universities.

There's an excellent comprehensive study in an article from "The Lizzie Borden Quarterly" dated 1997 October which deals with just how rare Porter's book may be. It is from this source, I would guess, that the count above was arrived.

The Author, William Schley-Ulrich does an excellent job in his research which also proves to be a fascinating read, if not an eye opener, to how many copies of Porter's little green book are out there. If all the Libraries in the article do indeed still have their copies as they claim, whether they actually pulled them off the shelf or inspected them to make sure it was not Flynn's copy, then the real count of what actually exists would go over 100 copies-----------again, my opinion.

I believe there may be at least 50 to 75 copies circulating out in the public sector, it may be 100. (no one knows, nor do I pretend to.) Let us say that it is 72 copies-------add that to the believed 42 copies that exist in public institutions and that would set the number around 114 copies. So it is safe to say there are over 100 copies around or is it more like 152. I'm afraid that we will never know and your opinion on the actual count may indeed be more accurate than mine.

One thing is for sure. The book did not hold up well and the worst paper imaginable was used in its publications. It is safe to say many simply fell apart and most did not survive the ages. There very well could have been 500 copies printed as Robert Flynn claimed, but then again this comes from a publisher who published Porter's book in a count "limited to 1000 copies" then printed extra copies when the limited edition ran out after tearing out the "limited edition" page. Thus a new question could be asked: how many of Flynn's Porter is really out there?

[william]

Prior to the publcation of my article on Porter's book in 1997, I spent more than a year and a half in research. Literally hundreds of letters were dispatched to various individuals and institutions all over the United States in an effort to discover the number of volumes extant.

The requests were worded in such a manner that the number of facsimile volumes were also reported, in addition to the original Porter books. I felt this was necessary in order to eliminate any confusion between the two editions.

The final count was 40 of the original Porter books. It is my opinion there are at least another fifty or so volumes that went unreported. In the past nine years I have become aware of an additional dozen copies in private hands.

In 1997, Bob Flynn indicated that he had sold over 3000 copies of the facsimile volumes, including the orignial 1000 books that he published.

[mbhenty]

Yes William: I must say the work you did on searching out Porter's book can only be deemed as admirable. When I read your article I was fascinated. Never did I expect so many copies to survive in Public Institutions such as libraries all over the country.

So, we can say without embarrassment that the real number in existence of Porter's original narrative may be upwards of 125 to 150 possible copies surviving-------- including those in private hands or resting on someone's shelf or attic unnoticed or unreported. Great study William, I can fully appreciate the work you placed into your search.

Perhaps I should not be so harsh on Mr Flynn. But I still think that he should have done a lot more than just pulling out the declaration page of 1000 limited copies when he printed out the additional ones. He should have at the very least changed the color of the binding, the size of the book, the format of the text, or all three. He should have made it plain that there was a difference between the two publications. This of course eats away at me. I found it very unethical and it painted a whole new picture of Mr Flynn, one that I could never trust again.

That being said, he did do a very good job in printing and binding the Porter reprint along with many other of his publications. As a matter of fact, he did a fantastic job. Would I ever buy another book from him-------------not if it said "Limited Edition". I could never be sure if it really was.

Thanks William.......

[Eric]

As everyone is quite aware, offers such as the one displayed on Mondo below, and advertised on ABE are rare-----------but I would have reservations on the restoration of the "Porter" posted since it should be green cloth and it looks like they used blue cloth?

Go to Mondo and check out Stefani's post along with the interesting declarations made by the Book Dealer!


Just found this on Abebooks.com. Only $1350 bucks!

The Fall River Tragedy - A History of the Borden Murders
Edwin H. Porter
Bookseller: Don Mc Nichol
(Brewster, MA, U.S.A.) Price: US$ 1350.00
Quantity: 1 Shipping within U.S.A.:
US$ 3.00

My original copy, although in poor condition, yet original condition is in what appears to be blue cloth. Could this be due to age discoloration?? Also the floral pattern on the end pages appears to be blue also. Can add some pics if you would like. This is the copy I took to Antiques Roadshow a few months back.

[mbhenty]

Good day Eric. Boy that sounds interesting.......(!) I never heard of a blue copy of Porter's book. But who knows. Every time we investigate the history of Porter's book we learn something new.

Books of that era were often made in different colored cloth within the first edition run. The reason may be intentional, or as I have read many times, because the binder ran out of a certain color. I have several G.A Henty 1st edition titles done in more than one color. But this is usually true of books that were printed in great quantities. The Porter book had a small printing run.

Never heard of The Fall River Tragedy in anything but green cloth. Not sure if William or anyone else has, but as above, there is a copy being sold by a book dealer thru ABE site in which he describes it as having blue cloth.

Yes Eric, by all means............if you can post a couple of photos of the book cover, spine and end-papers it would be great. Thanks.

[Eric]

I will post a few pics tomorrow when I get home from work. I talked to my wife after I had posted and she took a look at the book. She thinks that it was originally green, and time has changed the color to a darkened blue. She said that she had seen that quite often when she worked at the National Fire Academy just outside of DC. They would archive many turn of the century books in protective binders to aid against deterioration. And that the bindings would look blued, but the end papers would tell the true tale, and color. My end papers look blue to me but green to her, you all can decide for me. I will post tomorrow.

[william]

Eric:

Your wife may be on the right track - some years ago I examined a Porter book that Dunn & Powell were offering for sale at a book show.

It appeared to have a "blue" cover.

[RayS]

Doesn't Amazon list a modern reprint for the price of $75?

Must be for a college course, that's about the right price these days.

[Eric]

Sorry for the delay on this. I took a photo of the original next to the King Publishing reprint for comparison purposes. Hopefully you can see the change in color to "blue".

[darthvader]

I recently purchased what very well may be the best existing copy of this book. When I purchased it the dealer listed it in exceptional condition, and I was surprised, actually amazed, to how correct he was. I am not sure of other versions, questionable at best it seems, might be available but this book is a dark green. I suppose a sun fade might produce a blue look but from every account it is green.

The thing that got me is on the binding, it has a gold band on the top and bottom. On mine it is faded but still visible. My 1985 reprint does not have that!

[mbhenty]

Congrats darthvader. Yes, lucky, lucky, lucky.

Copies such as you describe are surely rare. If you go to the Hatchet Magazine, Vol. 3 number 2, you will see my copy, which I display in my article. May be fun to compare. Believe it or not, when I purchased my copy it came with remnants of a plain brown paper dust jacket. Though, I am sure it was issued without one, the jacket very well may be period.

[darthvader]

Kewl stuff for sure!!

I did not get a period dust cover but was lucky enough that whoever had my Porter before me, knew what it was. It came with a heavy matching dark green case it slides into. I was very concerned with shipping but it came in perfect shape.

The only thing I do not have is a great story about how I found it. I went online, got some great advice from you great folks and paid up.

[Kat]

Congrats darthvader. Yes, lucky, lucky, lucky.

Copies such as you describe are surely rare. If you go to the Hatchet Magazine, Vol. 3 number 2, you will see my copy, which I display in my article. May be fun to compare. Believe it or not, when I purchased my copy it came with remnants of a plain brown paper dust jacket. Though, I am sure it was issued without one, the jacket very well may be period.

May I ask if this is always an active endeavor, or a periodical search of E-Bay etc for an original Porter. And does it still have the value quoted in 2007, or has it gone up or down? I'm curious.

[mbhenty]

Oops

Just saw this.

Yes Kat:

I periodically, and on a daily bases, scrub ebay for any rare Lizzie items. Which seldom come up. One time I had not checked for some weeks and when I did there was an auction going on for a handful of books from Lizzie's Library... and signed, or should I say, initialed by Lizzie, as she did with many of the books she had. I came in late on the auction. Three or four books had previously been sold. There was like six or seven of them left. I won five of them. Each one cost more than the last. When bidders realized that I was bidding big bucks the price went way up. I paid 500 for one of them and gave it to Stefani as a gift. (Remember it's not a gift unless it hurts)

Also in our possession is the Seabury Bowen family bible. What a find that was. On Ebay.

Porter's book I purchased at a book show out on Cape Cod, many, many years ago. For years now the price of a nice copy has been around 800 to just over 1000 dollars. There is one on Ebay right now as we speak as a "buy it now." It's in really nice condition for a book that is rarely found together. As is common all the gilt on the letters on the cover and spine has disappeared. And the paper inside is acid damaged which is also typical of this title. But still an above average condition.

Another item I found over the years on ebay was the salesman copy of Edwin Porter's book. What a find I had never seen one ever come up for sale anywhere in forty years of collecting books. And the seller did not know what he had. He thought it was a defective book. The only one I have ever handled was at the Historical Society.

Here is the ebay link for the Porter on sale as we speak. https://www.ebay.com/itm/303704251937?h ... SwiS9fbV5a

Below are a couple of photos I took when visiting the FRHS, of Porters book along with a salesman copy. You can see how thin the salesman copy is. Posted is a photo of the title page from the salesman copy with Andrew Borden as the frontis and a page listing subscribers. (Also posted is the ebay sale for Porter's book as we speak) If I remember correctly, the Borden estate lobbied legally to have Andrew's image removed from the final publication. Is that right? I've forgotten more about this case than I can remember. Especially ever since I've lost interest in the case and moved on to other things. Still I visit often and try to stay engaged.


.

[Kat]

Thank you! The salesmanship copy is cool! I would like that better than the real original, actually, tho I don't collect books.
The topic was so old, as I was reading, of course all the e-bay sale links were no good, so I very much appreciate seeing a real auction! That's exactly what I wanted to see!
Yes, there was a notice in the newspaper prohibiting the likeness of Andrew Borden - and this salesman copy has 2!
Here's a link to an earlier discussion
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6327&p=100572&hilit=Porter#p100572
and the news blurb, below. Sorry the news item was not sourced

[Lovelizzie75]

I have seen a fee more come up recently and the price decreased a bit. I own 2 copies. One in rpugh shape and the other in great shape….

[Fargo]

Are original Porters still going for $800 to $1000 ?

[Kat]

Hola! Nice to see you again, Fargo!
You just reminded me: I don’t know about the book prices, but I do know Stef and them reached the goal amount to get Porter a headstone! Yippeee! The wait now is only due to the weather…the ground has been “frozen” or too hard to dig this winter in Massachusetts!
Look for news update this Spring!

[Fargo]

Unmarked? Measure it and or use ground penetrating radar. Nice to see you too.

[Kat]

Our Sherry Chapman bought the perpetual care rights to Porter’s grave, which is apparently the first step in owning the site, so I think they know where it is in St. Patrick’s cemetery.

(Oh my, you reminded me of the days when Prof. Starrs made an effort to examine the Borden graves to tell if the skulls had been buried!)

Here’s the turf

[Kat]

And details…

This is the business contracted to do the work…they opened in 1892 according to Stef’s narrative on YouTube.

[Kat]

And the breakdown of the costs.
The narrative explains the GoFundMe site gets a little bit of each donation, and since there was probably going to be lots of smaller amounts (which thankfully add up quickly), the goal was a little higher than the basic costs listed, to pay that small percentage off to the FundMe site.

I am just learning the details as I search this project.

[Kat]

(Oh my, you reminded me of the days when Prof. Starrs made an effort to examine the Borden graves to tell if the skulls had been buried!)

Remember these days?
Scary