On the Trail - Issue 5

On the Trail of Verrill

Issue 5 – May 2010

Link – Nothing to do with Verrill, one of Gail’s projects is The Bay Grandmothers, the local branch of Grandmothers to Grandmothers: A Campaign of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Linda Wills, a good friend just visited Africa and reports.

Photos – From around home (Nova Scotia), found/saved a Northern Spring Peeper while mowing the lawn. Also attended the inaugural Halifax meeting for the Maritime Butterfly Atlas. Here are pictures, each depicting all of our butterfly prospects.

E-published – Bimshaw, The Pirate is a full novel that was serially published in the juvenile magazine The American Boy, 1918. Long ago segment 1 of the six was put on the blog. Now all six parts have been included. Since the novel was never published as a book, it will join the Verrill reprint series at a later date, a work in progress. Here are the links to the serial. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

E-published the fiction Yo! Ho! And A Bottle of Rum. A tale about determination and luck, and making money in the 1920s. Taking a tug from New York City to the West Indies, these adventurers have quite a time!

Additions to the library – The Young Collector’s Handbook – published in 1948, this book is not yet available digitally, and it is reasonably rare. This link is to a scan and the description from the dust jacket. Interesting that he wrote The Boy Collector’s Handbook in 1915. Bet there are some differences as there are today.—update…well it ends up that we have both books. Verrill was a good one for recycling. The books appear to be identical, but published almost 35 apart, including the photos, with the exception of adding a Chapter 13. One of the sections is on “Concentrating On One Person”, who would do that?

Additions to bibliography – American Journal of Science – 1901 and 1907… two new references. From The American Boy 1908 December – the Story of Chocolate. Link to latest Articles, and Books.

E-published, only the second stand alone poem of Verrill’s that we have located. (there are some poem/songs in a few novels, etc.) This was just located; unlike most of his work which appeared in magazines concurrently, this appears to be a standalone submission and it is his very late years. Honest-Buccaneer

Book published by Stillwoods, The Radio Detectives Series – Books 3 & 4. This book is includes the final two stories of the four, from 1922. The catalogue of ‘world libraries’ indicates that there are only four copies of the original work by Verrill. For that reason, a reprint was thought to be necessary. Of course, alternatively, you can read this 250 page book online, for free.

The book or hard copy storefront is Stillwoods. Some prefer the feel and convenience of paper.

(PLEASE remember that most of the images in my blog and my newsletter are hyperlinked, that is clickable, to higher resolution imaging.)