Routledge & Sons (Routledge, Kegan & Paul) (London, UK)
Series dates: 1926-2015
Size: 6″ x 9″
Harper & Brothers (New York, US)
Series dates: 1926-1939
Size: 6″ x 9″
Robert M. McBride & Co. (New York)
Series dates: 1928-1930
Size: 6″ x 9″
Bloch Publishing Co. (New York)
Series dates: 1931
Size: 6″ x 9″
Viking Press (New York, US)
Series dates: 1931
Size: 6″ x 9″
Revised 6/12/2024
The Broadway Travellers series was initiated by Routledge in the UK and edited by Sir E. Denison Ross and Eileen Power. Routledge issued a total of 25 titles (in 26 volumes) in the UK. Harper issued the first 10 titles (in 11 volumes) in the US, maintaining the name of the Broadway Travellers series. McBride picked up series titles after Harper stopped publishing the series. McBride published the next 13 volumes as part of their Argonaut Series. Bloch and Viking picked up two additional volumes after McBride stopped issuing titles. Five titles were published only in Routledge’s UK series (no US publication).
Several Routledge series share the Broadway moniker, named after Broadway House (the long-time headquarters of Routledge in London):
-
- Broadway Diaries, Memoirs and Letters: Routledge (UK) 1929-1930; Houghton Mifflin (US) 1930
- Broadway Library of Eighteenth-Century French Literature: Routledge (UK) 1927-1930; Brentano’s (US) 1927-1928
- Broadway Medieval Library: Routledge (UK) 1928-1938; Harcourt Brace (US) 1928-1929
- Broadway Oriental Library: Routledge (UK) 1930-1932; Dutton (US) 1930-1932
- Broadway Translations: Routledge (UK) 1923-1930; Dutton (US) 1923-1930
- Broadway Travellers: Routledge (UK) 1926-2015; Harper (US) 1923-1930; Bloch (US) 1931; Viking (US) 1931
Advertisement for the Broadway Travellers, The Spectator (UK), October 2, 1926. | |
Advertisement for the Broadway Travellers, The Times Literary Supplement (UK), September 1, 1927. |
This Routledge (UK) copy of Travels and Adventures of Pero Tafur (1435-1439), edited by Malcolm Letts, is one of the first three titles in the series published in 1926. The dust jacket is generic, with no identifying information about the title on the jacket itself. Instead, an aperture in the jacket spine exposes the title’s name on the binding of the spine. The top strip of paper over the aperture is missing here.
It is possible the jackets were delayed in printing, or they ran out, or some other fiasco occurred, and early titles in the series were provided with generic jackets. I’ve seen this generic jacket on other titles. Later jackets follow the same design but without the spinal aperture and include title, author, and editor information on the jacket.
The rear of the dust jacket includes all the titles that were actually published (and not five announced but never published titles).
Titles in the series. Reprint dates are taken from WorldCat. Names and details of these books vary significantly on WorldCat and in other sources. Routledge and Harper publication years correspond; many, but not all, McBride titles are published a year after the Routledge titles. I’ve split 1928 into two groups below, as Harper published the first 4 titles and McBride the 2nd 4 titles that year.
1926 Routledge and Harper (3 titles)
AKBAR AND THE JESUITS. By Father P. du Jarrie, with an Introduction by C. H. Payne. 8 plates, 12/6 net. (Routledge reprint 2005)
DON JUAN OF PERSIA (1560-1604). Edited by Guy Le Strange. With 3 maps, 12/6 net. (Routledge reprint 2005)
TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF PERO TAFUR (1435-1439). Edited by Malcolm Letts. With 8 plates, 12/6 net. (Routledge reprint 2004, 2014)
1927 Routledge and Harper (2 titles)
MEMOIRS OF AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FOOTMAN (1745-79). Edited by J. Beresford. 8 plates, 10/6 net. (Routledge reprint 1928, 2004, 2014, 2015)
THE DIARY OF HENRY TEONGE (1675-1679). Edited by G.E. Manwaring. With 8 plates, 12/6 net. (Routledge reprint 1928, 2004, 2005)
1928 Routledge and Harper (4 titles)
THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO. By Bernal Diaz del Castillo, 1632. Edited by A.P. Maudslay. 15 plates, 16/- net. (Routledge reprint 1933, 1936, 1938, 2004, 2005, 2013; Harper reprint 1939)
CLAVIJO’S EMBASSY TO TAMERLANE (1403-6). Edited by Guy Le Strange. 7 maps, 15/- net. (Routledge reprint 1994, 2004, 2014)
NOVA FRANCIA: A Description of Acadia, 1606. By Marc Lescarbot. Edited by H.P. Biggar. 12/6 net. (Routledge reprint 2005)
TRAVELS IN TARTARY, THIBET, AND CHINA (1844-6). By E.R. Huc. Two volumes, 25/- net the set. (Routledge reprint 2004, 2014)
1928 Routledge (4 titles) & McBride (4 titles)
TRUE HISTORY OF HIS CAPTIVITY (1557). By Hans Staden. Edited by Malcom Letts. Original wood-cuts, 10/6 net. (Routledge reprint 2004, 2005, 2015; McBride 1st US 1929)
THE ENGLISH-AMERICAN (1648). By Thomas Gage. Edited by Professor A.P. Newton. 12 plates, 15/- net. (Routledge reprint 1946, 2005, 2014; McBride 1st US 1929)
THOMAS HERBERT’S TRAVELS IN PERSIA (1627-29). Edited by Sir William Foster, C.I.E. 14 plates, 12/6 net. (Routledge reprint 2004, 2014; McBride 1st US 1929)
LETTERS OF HERNANDO CORTES (1519-26). Edited by J. Bayard Morris. 8 plates, 15/- net. (Routledge reprint 2005; McBride 1st US 1929)
1929 Routledge (3 titles) & McBride (3 titles)
TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA (1324-54). Edited by H.A.R. Gibb. With 8 plates, 15/- net. (Routledge reprint 1939, 1953, 1957, 1963, 1969, 1983, 1984, 1993, 2004, 2011; McBride 1st US 1929)
BONTEKOE’S EAST INDIAN VOYAGE (1618-25). Edited by Professor Geyl. With 10 plates, 7/6 net. (Routledge reprint 2004, 2005, 2014, 2015; McBride 1st US 1929)
COMMENTARIES OF RUY FREYRE DE ANDRADA (1647). Edited by C.R. Boxer. 8 plates, 15/- net. (Routledge reprint 1930, 2004, 2005, 2015; McBride 1st US 1930)
1930 Routledge (4 titles) & McBride (2 titles) & Bloch (1 title)
THE FIRST ENGLISHMEN IN INDIA. Edited by J. Courtenay Locke. With 11 plates and maps, 10/6 net. (Routledge reprint 2005, 2015; no US edition)
D’AULNOY’S TRAVELS INTO SPAIN. Edited by R. Foulche-Delbosc. With 4 plates, 21/- net. (Routledge reprint 2004, 2005, 2014, 2015; McBride 1st US 1930)
JEWISH TRAVELLERS, from the Ninth to the Eighteenth Century. Edited and translated by Elkan Adler. 8 plates, 15/- net. (Routledge reprint 1938; Bloch Publishing Co. 1st US 1931 (US)
JAHANGIR AND THE JESUITS. By Father F. Guerreiro with an Introduction by C.H. Payne. With 6 plates, 12/6 net. (McBride 1st US 1930)
1931 Routledge (4 titles) and Viking Press (1 title)
TRAVELS IN INDIA, CEYLON AND BORNEO. By Captain Basil Hall. Edited by H.G. Rawlinson. 4 plates, 10/6net. (Routledge reprint 1965, 1972, 2004; no US edition)
THE TRAVELS OF AN ALCHEMIST (1220). Translated by Arthur Waley. With a map, 10/6 net. (Routledge reprint 1976, 2004, 2014; no US edition)
THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. Translated from the text of L.F. Benedetto, with 11 plates, 21/- net. (Routledge reprint 1939, 1950, 2004; Viking Press 1st US 1931)
AN ACCOUNT OF TIBET. By Ippolito Desideri. (1712-27) Edited by Filippo Je Filippi. 17 plates and a map, 25/- net. (Routledge reprint 1932, 1937, 2011; no US edition)
1932 Routledge (1 title)
SIR ANTHONY SHERLEY, and his Persian Adventure. Edited by Sir E. Denidon Ross, With 10 plates and maps, 12/6 net. (Routledge reprint 2004, 2014; no US edition)
Unpublished titles
Thomas E. Stone, in a blog post titled Collecting the Broadway Travellers Series, lists titles included at the end of the book catalogs. Among those are five that were intended for but never published in the series:
McBride Argonaut Series: McBride began their Argonaut Series in 1927 and published three titles (in four volumes) that year. After those volumes, unique to the Argonaut series, 9 titles from the Broadway Travellers series were published as part of the Argonaut Series. The numbering of these volumes varies from source to source.
Not in the Broadway Travellers:
#1. The Narrative of Samuel Hancock, 1845-1860. With an introduction by Arthur D. Howden Smith and a map of the Oregon trail. 1927
#2. A Voyage to the South Seas in His Majesty’s Ship the Wager in the Years 1740-1741. John Bulkeley; John Cummins; Isaac Morris. 1927
#3. The True History of the Conquest of Mexico Written in the Year 1568. Bernal Díaz del Castillo; Maurice Keatinge (translator). 2 vols. 1927
From the Broadway Travelers:
#4. Five Letters, 1519-1526. Hernán Cortés, J Bayard Morris. 1929
#5. A New Survey of the West-Indies, 1648: the English-American. Thomas Gage, Arthur Percival Newton. 1929
#6. Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354. Ibn Batuta, H.A.R. Gibb. 1929
#7. Travels in Persia, 1627-1629. Sir Thomas Herbert, William Foster, 1929
#8. Hans Staden: The True History of his Captivity, 1557. Hans Staden, Malcolm Letts. 1929
#9. Memorable description of the East Indian Voyage, 1618-25. Willem Ysbrandsz Bontekoe, Pieter Geyl, Charlotte Beatrice Hodgkinson Bodde. 1929
#?. Jahangir and the Jesuits, with an Account of the Travels of Benedict Goes and the Mission to Pegu. Fernāo Guerreiro; Charles Herbert Payne. 1930
#?. Commentaries of Ruy Freyre de Andrada. Paulo Craesbeck, C.R. Boxer, 1930
#?. Travels into Spain. Madame d’ Aulnoy, R. Foulché-Delbosc, 1930
The red cloth binding and gold typography of the Routledge copy of Pero Tafur:
Blank endpapers:
The two-color half-title page:
The reverse of the half-title page contains a list of initial titles in the series:
The title page (and a facing map):
“First published in 1926.” “Printed in Great Britain by Billing and Sons, LTD., Guildford and Esher”
A prospectus and list of titles in the series is bound in at the rear of the book: