with perfect finish in every part. Books are seldom manufactured in
places remote from the large cities and very few of the publishers of
schoolbooks make the books which they sell. They contract for them with
printers and binders.

[Stereotyped Editions]

The first four editions of McGuffey's Readers were printed from the
actual type, as all books were once printed; but before 1840 the readers
were produced from stereotyped plates. The use of such plates enabled the
publisher to secure greater accuracy in the work and also enabled him to
present books that in successive editions should be exactly the same in
substance as those already in use. Since that date electrotype plates
have displaced stereotypes, as they afford a sharper, clearer impression
and endure more wear.

In a First Reader printed in the fall of 1841 there are two pages of
advertising matter in which Truman & Smith claimed to have sold 700,000
of the Eclectic Series. This book is bound with board sides and a muslin
back and a careful defense of this binding is made, claiming that the
muslin is "much more durable than the thin tender leather usually put
upon books of this class." This statement was unquestionably true. The
leather referred to was of sheepskin and of very little strength, but it
took very many years to convince the public of the untruth of the
saying, "There is nothing like leather."

[Dr. Pinneo, Editor]

It is said that Mr. Smith, in the early days of his career as a
publisher, himself made the changes and corrections which experience