Stone (1912) Tommy Tiptop and his Winter Sports - Stratemeyer, Ice Boating, Skating, Hockey, First

Stone, Raymond. Tommy Tiptop and his Winter Sports or Jolly Times on the Ice and in Camp. (Graham & Matlack: New York, 1912) Likely a first edition.

Octavo. 126 pages plus 2 pages of advertising for the Up and Doing series and the Trippertrots series. Hardbound in blue cloth-covered boards printed in a darker blue with a color separation print laid on the cover in a black box rule. Eight simple, full page, black and white line engravings are scattered throughout the text.

Condition: Spine slightly sunned. Light soiling to both cover and text-block, previous owner’s name and date of Dec. 25, 1913 on the first free endpaper in a nice, flowing hand. Spine is cracked between pages 112-113, though it is still solid. Hinges are tight and uncracked. Bottom corners bumped.

One of the Stratemeyer Syndicate series, Tommy Tiptop was published from 1912-1917 and consisted of six entries (according to the Univ. Missouri – Kansas City website and Wikipedia):

1. TOMMY TIPTOP AND HIS BASEBALL NINE; or, The Boys of Riverdale and their Good Times — 1912, Graham & Matlack.
   
   
2. TOMMY TIPTOP AND HIS FOOTBALL ELEVEN — 1912, Graham; 1912, Graham & Matlack.
   
   
3. TOMMY TIPTOP AND HIS WINTER SPORTS; or, Jolly Times on the Ice and in Camp — 1912, Graham & Matlack.
   
   
4. TOMMY TIPTOP AND HIS BOAT CLUB; or, The Young Hunters of Hemlock Island — 1914, Graham & Matlack.
   
   
5. TOMMY TIPTOP AND HIS BOY SCOUTS; or, The Doings of the Silver Fox Patrol — 1914, Graham.
   
   
6. TOMMY TIPTOP AND HIS GREAT SHOW; or, Raising Some Money that was Needed — 1917, Graham.

This is volume 3 of 6 and was published in the first year of the series.

“The Syndicate was founded by Edward Stratemeyer and is best known for producing the Bobbsey Twins, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Rover Boys, and Tom Swift series. The Syndicate produced these and many other series in assembly-line fashion: one person wrote the outline for a story or series of stories, another wrote the story itself, and often still another edited the work. Most Syndicate books were published under pseudonyms.

“Series production was overseen by Edward Stratemeyer until his death in 1930, whereupon his daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams oversaw the firm until her death in 1982. Nancy Axelrad briefly took the helm before selling the Syndicate and the rights to all its series to Simon & Schuster in 1984, which hired a different book-packager, Mega-Books, to handle future titles.” – Wikipedia