Salesman's Dummy of Twain's A Tramp Abroad

Special Collections has recently acquired an 1880 salesman's dummy of Mark Twain's classic travel narrative, A Tramp Abroad. Dummies were used by traveling sales agents, who worked for publishers to sell a book available by subscription only. Often featuring tantalizing selling points like illustrations, compelling extracts of text, and favorable reviews, dummies gave samples of the various options for binding and paper available to the purchaser. The salesman would note these preferences in blank forms at the back of the dummy, and deliver the final product upon publication. Marketing the book in this way allowed publishers to gauge interest and adjust production accordingly, thus eliminating unnecessary expenses.

Salesman's dummies provide a fascinating window into late nineteenth-century print culture, and provide important evidence of book ownership, marketing, production, and distribution, as well as significant bibliographical evidence. This dummy includes a catalog of books offered by the American Publishing Company, with an intriguing note "To the Public" dispelling rumors about price-fixing and unauthorized distribution to bookstores by traveling agents: "We employ only those Agents who enter into agreements with us, pledging themselves not to put any books into stores; and it is only through unreliable Agents that they are seen there...Our Agents are instructed by us to introduce our books, but never to press them upon those who do not desire them. We publish none but valuable and popular work, and we bespeak for our Agents a kind reception."

Special Collections copy can be found in the PAC at PS1321 .A3 1880 and consulted in the Reading Room.

Rose Hartwick Thorpe, San Diego Poet and Suffragist

When Rose Hartwick Thorpe was only fifteen, she wrote the poem that would become one of the most often recited and anthologized verses of the nineteenth century. "The Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight" is the heroic tale of lovers during the English Civil War, written much in the style of Longfellow (who later admired it). Despite the poem's popularity and success, the young poet never financially benefited from it. The verse was printed first in a Detroit newspaper, and then reprinted liberally without regard for her copyright to it.

Special Collections has acquired a six-page autograph manuscript of Thorpe's poem, accompanied by a letter from Thorpe to the solicitor of the fair copy. The poet explains that she must charge $5.00 to everyone who requests a manuscript copy from her in order to receive some compensation for her time and for her literary product. She also describes her other publications, delicately mentions their prices, and encloses a prospectus for an upcoming book. Written only one year after her husband's untimely death, this letter suggests the enterprising efforts of a female writer trying to support and sustain her family with her talent.

Rose Hartwick Thorpe wrote many articles and poems after the early success of "The Curfew," publishing in temperance newsletters, youth magazines, and ladies' journals. She also wrote several books, including an etiquette guide, children's fiction, and collections of her own poetry. Her family moved to San Diego in 1887, where she became active in the local chapter of the Y. W. C. A. (the Records of which SDSU has also recently acquired), the San Diego Women's Club, and local suffrage causes. She is also gratefully remembered in the region as the writer who, by winning a poetry contest, named Mission Bay, formerly known as "False Bay." The manuscript and letter can be found in the PAC and consulted in the Special Collections Reading Room.