Jump-start your Lakeside Classics collection with a seventeen-volume swoop

On October 7, Rare Book Cafe cohost Thorne Donnelley recounted the history of his family company's century-plus series of American literary treasures, The Lakeside Classics. In honor of the occasion, Henry Bemis Books is clearing the shelves:

Introduced by the R.R. Donnelley printing company in 1903- to show how good a “machine-made book” could be, these annual volumes constitute the longest-running publishing series in US history. Issued only to friends and customers of the company, they can only be purchased in the secondary market.

Advocates and Adversaries by Robert R. Rose,  The Lakeside Press, 1977. 1st ed. Fine in dark blue cloth covered boards with gilt text and decorations on the spine and front board and with a gilt top edge to the text block. Robert R. Rose memoir of the eight years he practiced law in Kemmerer, Wyoming at the start of the 20th century. 322 pp. including an index followed by a listing of other titles previously published in this series. HBB price: $20.00.

Hell among the Yearlings by Edmund Randolph,  The Lakeside Press, 1978. 1st ed. Fine in dark brown cloth covered boards with gilt text and decorations to the spine and to the front board and with a gilt top edge to the text block. Originally published in Great Britain in 1955 under the title: Don't Fence Them In. 400 pp. including an index and followed by a list of the previously issued Lakeside Classics. HBB price: $25.00.

A Frontier Doctor by Henry F. Hoyt,  The Lakeside Press, 1979. 1st ed. Fine in dark brown cloth covered boards with gilt text and decorations with a gilt top edge. Originally published in 1929 by Houghton-Mifflin. 518 pp. including an index and list of previous titles published in the Lakeside Classic series. HBB price: $25.00.

Mrs. Hill's Journal: Civil War Reminiscences by Sarah Jane F. Hill,  The Lakeside Press, 1980. 1st ed. Fine in brown cloth covered boards with gilt text and decorations and with a gilt top edge. A never-before- published journal of the recollections of Mrs. Sarah Jane Full Hill regarding the Civil War. 343 pp. including an index and followed by a list of the previously issued Lakeside Classics. HBB price: $25.00.

Skyward by Richard Evelyn Byrd,  The Lakeside Press, 1981. First thus. Fine in dark brown cloth covered boards with gilt text & decorations with a gilt top edge. First published in 1928 by G. P. Putnam's Sons. This reprinting covers Byrd's early career to include his flight over the North Pole. HBB price: $20.00.

Helldorado by William M. Breakenridge,  The Lakeside Press, 1982. 1st ed. Fine in dark brown cloth covered boards with gilt text & decorations and with a gilt top edge; edited by Richard Maxwell Brown. Sub-titled, Bringing the Law to the Mesquite. First published in 1928 by William MacLeod Raine. 448 pp. with an index, text and photographs. HBB price: $25.00.

Autobiography of an English Soldier in the U. S. Army by George Ballentine,  The Lakeside Press, 1986. 1st ed. Fine in dark brown cloth covered boards with gilt text & decorations and with a gilt top edge. Edited by William H. Goetzmann. This book provides a first-hand account of a Scottish private in the US Army during the invasion of Mexico in 1846. 354 pp. including an index and a list of the previously published titles in the Lakeside Classic series. HBB price: $25.00.

Life of Tom Horn Government Scout and Interpreter by Tom Horn,  The Lakeside Press, 1987. 1st ed. Fine in brown cloth covered boards with gilt text and decorations with a gilt top edge. Edited by Doyce B. Numis. 400. pp. of text. HBB price: $25.00.

Children of Ol' Man River by Billy Bryant,  The Lakeside Press, 1988. 1st ed.  Fine in brown cloth covered boards with gilt text stamping on the spine. as issued. Sub-titled: The Life and Time of a Showboat Trouper." Edited by Martin Ridge. HBB price: $20.00.

Westward Journeys: Memoirs of Jesse A. Applegate and Lavinia Honeyman Porter Who Traveled the Overland Trail,  The Lakeside Press, 1989. 1st ed. Fine in brown cloth covered boards with gilt text & decorations and with a gilt top edge. Martin Ridge, ed.

Two memoirs of the wagon trains’ opening of the West. Jesse Applegate was an eight year-old in a party of 900 making its way to then-undeveloped Oregon in 1843; Lavinia Honeyman Porter and her husband made the trek to Denver- which she found horrifying- and then to California, in 1860. The two narratives make a nice complement in describing the incredible rapidity with which the West was opened; only thirty years later the frontier was declared “closed.” 416 pp. including an index, text, maps and photographs. HBB price: $25.00.

Narrative of My Captivity Among The Sioux Indians by Fanny Kelly,  The Lakeside Press, 1990. 1st ed. Fine in brown cloth covered boards with gilt text & decorations and with a gilt top edge. Reprint, with edits, of the original narrative of 1872 by the author- a member of a wagon train which was attacked by a band of Oglala Sioux Indians in 1864 in Wyoming. The author was taken captive and spent five months in harrowing captivity much of which was spent in both Montana and Dakota Territories. The original version of this book was published in 1872 in Toronto. 359 pp. including an index, text and a colored map outlining the route of Fanny Kelly's wagon train and captivity with the Sioux Indians in 1864. HBB price: $25.00.

We Pointed Them North by E. C. Abbott,  The Lakeside Press, 1991. 1st ed. Fine in dark brown cloth covered boards with gilt text and decorations with a gilt top edge to the text block. Originally published in 1939 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. Written by E. C. "Teddy Blue" Abbott and Helena Huntington Smith. HBB price: $30.00.

A Texas Ranger by N. A. Jennings,  The Lakeside Press, 1992. 1st ed. Fine with top edge gilt w/ boards covered with dark brown paper with gilt text stamping. none issued. Edited by Ben Procter. HBB price: $20.00.

The Life of Olaudah Equiano by Joanna Brooks (Editor),  The Lakeside Press, 2004. 1st ed. Fine in blue-green cloth covered boards with gilt text on the spine and gilt borders on the boards and with decorated end papers and a gilt top edge to the text block. "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African, Written by Himself." 406 pp. of text which includes a list of the Lakeside Classics published as of this date which is followed by two pp. of image credits. Illustrated with 58 engravings (some in color) and maps. Originally written and published in 1789 in London the author, who experienced the horrors of slavery as a young boy, wanted to publish this book aid in ending slavery. HBB price: $20.00.

Inaugural Addresses Of The Presidents Of The United States From W. H. Taft To G. W. Bush by Henry F. Graff (Editor). The Lakeside Press, 2005. 1st ed. Fine in blue-green cloth covered boards with gilt text on the spine and gilt borders on the boards and with decorated end papers and a gilt top edge to the text block. 392 pp. of text which includes a list of the Lakeside Classics published as of this date which is followed by two pp. of image credits. Illustrated with photographs (some of which are in color). A continuation of the Lakeside Classics of 1904 and 1905 which were devoted to the Inaugural Addresses of 18th and 19th century Presidents. HBB price: $20.00.

Cabeza de Vaca, Narrative of the Narvaez Expedition 2013 Narrative of My Captivity Among The Sioux Indians, The Lakeside Press, 2013. 1st ed. Fine in green cloth covered boards with gilt text & decorations and with a gilt top edge, and still in the publisher’s shrink-wrap. Fine condition. Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca's account of the ill-fated 1527 Narváez expedition of which he was one of only four survivors. Cabeza de Vaca and his companions walked across much of the American Southwest and Mexico before finding their way to Mexico City in 1536. This account was first published in 1542. 188 pp. HBB price: $25.00.