Ever since Polyglot representative Stephen Crane introduced the Alger project at the annual Horatio Alger Society meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah in May 2002, Polyglot’s staff has worked diligently along with Society members Art Young, Rob Kasper, and others to faithfully reproduce the best possible rendering of Alger’s writing. An extensive search for Alger material included acquisitions by Polyglot Press and use of several private and public collections, including those of Art Young, Rob Kasper, Murray Levin, NIU, and The Free Library of Philadelphia.

The effort did not stop at careful digital recovery and custom re-typesetting of all the original texts. A broad search of covers and illustrations yielded a wealth of artwork included in past Alger publications and an appreciation of the extraordinarily large reprint production, a century ago, of as many as 40,000 distinct cover and illustration permutations. Almost all of the often faded, smudged or torn covers and illustrations required computer restoration by Polyglot’s art department. This effort resulted in a select, but representative group of colorful, stunning covers, frontispieces and dust jackets. In addition, each re-issued title contains a selection of original black and white illustrations. A grand summation of Alger artwork is being prepared for the 1,000 image collection companion volume, Horatio Alger Jr.: A Century of Covers and Illustrations.

Polyglot’s custom re-typeset, high legibility font Alger reprints are available individually, in subsets and as a complete collection in paperback, hardcover, and special collector’s editions. All titles are available in regular and Large Print formats. Each purchaser of a complete hardbound or collector’s set may request a free customized dedication page in the front of each book. The dedication page might say “This book has been privately produced for the library of Mark Manning,” or “This book has been contributed to (your local community) library by the Phineas Taylor Barnum (insert Philanthropist name here) Foundation.”

Horatio Alger Society members will recognize titles from Alger’s many novels and biographies. Polyglot’s custom typeset “Sun” series reprints contain five first trade editions: The Secret Drawer, Marie Bertrand, Madeline The Temptress, The Mad Heiress, and Herbert Selden. Hugo the Deformed constitutes the sixth book of the mini-series. The four other “Sun” series titles, rewritten by Alger and published by A. K. Loring in the 1860s, are reissued here with the original book title.

There were many interesting moments during production of the new series. With artwork completed, the staff prepared to send the covers to the print division of the company. They paused to send “mock-ups” to Art Young and Rob Kasper. Art and Rob’s suggestions for several dozen improvements sent Polyglot’s graphic designers back to their drawing boards for another week - a refinement process repeated twice again.

In matters of accuracy, the Polyglot personnel deferred to the expertise of Society members, with “Semper Bennett” the watchword. Rob Kasper wrote a superb biographical sketch included in each book. Art Young offered extremely rare covers and illustrations that will excite readers and collectors. Art unselfishly contributed hundreds of hours of R&D and consultation time. Rob visited Philadelphia regularly to provide critically important feedback. Those involved estimate the completed series has entailed almost 10,000 production hours.

Polyglot graphic designers used subtle colorization processes to enhance selected black and white illustrations. The colorized cover of Making His Mark comes from a rare first edition frontispiece showing firemen scrambling up a staircase of a burning house. The cover of The Young Musician is derived from an original chiaroscuro illustration of a young man playing a violin. An authentic period illustration of a New York telegraph boy (kudos to Brad Chase) serves as a double frontispiece in The Telegraph Boy. The Polyglot Press editions of A New York Boy and The Young Circus Rider covers also utilize rare first edition frontispieces. Detailed coordination produced covers that match and enhance the actual themes and content each title - a sharp contrast to the unimaginative covers of the more than 100 Alger publishers and re-printers.

Polyglot Press considers the Alger Series a groundbreaking accomplishment paving the way for similar comprehensive collections. Soon to be released authors include G.A. Henty, Jane Austen and F. Marion Crawford, followed by Arthur Conan Doyle, Bret Harte, Edith Wharton, H.G. Wells, James Fennimore Cooper, John Galsworthy, Jules Verne, L. Frank Baum, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Owen Wister, Rafael Sabatini, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling and Zane Grey.

The full Alger series can be perused and purchased at the Polyglot web site, www.polyglotpress.com. It will also available on popular retail sites such as Amazon, Abebooks, Half.com, Alibris, and Barnes and Noble as well as through Ingram and Baker and Taylor. All polyglotpress.com web purchasers receive a 20% discount from industry standard “suggested retail” pricing. Alger Society members will receive a special discount totaling 30% when they utilize the pre-assigned login of “call Rob Kasper for log in.” Moreover, the Society will receive a donation for each purchase conducted in this manner.

After taking the Alger Society membership 30% discount, an average paperback will cost about $12.56; hardbound, $18.16; large print paperback, $14.00; and collector’s, $27.23. The discount for Alger members applies not only to the Alger books, but to all books offered by Polyglot. Likewise, the Alger Society receives a donation for all items purchased in this manner.

During the first part of the New Year, Polyglot will add several additional titles to the Alger series including newly recovered short stories and an edited book by Alger scholars that will feature a biography, several articles and other commentary of interest. The illustrations and book covers will also be available as posters and greeting cards.