CHUMS ANNUAL 1908. Number 16. Published by Cassell & Co Ltd, London, 1908. 4to – over 9¾” – 12″ tall; 1140pp. with color plates, black and white illustrations. Red cloth pictorial boards stamped in black and gilt; illustrated spine stamped with year. In very good condition: fading to spine with rubbing at head and tail; rubbing to yapped corners; front hinge is tender although all leaves firmly attached; 1908 Christmas inscription to free endpaper; general toning and a few foxing marks. A very rare early edition.
CHUMS, An Illustrated Paper For Boys, was an adventure magazine published in New York, London, Paris, and Melbourne. Annuals were produced from 1892 to 1941. The Annual contains the bound copies of the entire year of issues. Each annual had colour plates, full page and in text back and white lithographs, and line drawn illustrations. Contents included stand alone and serialized adventure stories and columns aimed at boys on sports, scouting, hunting, engineering, hobbies, stamp collecting, western, etc. Contemporary advertisements throughout reflect the interests and products of the time.
1908 contents include: In the Grip of the Glaciers, G. Firth Scott; A Fight to the Finish on Frozen Seas; Gobbled Up! That Crocodile in the Thames, George G. Farquhar; Captain Montana: A Story of Peril and Adventure in Northern Mexico, Julian Linley; In the Clutch of Chinese Pirates; Trapped by the Enemy: A Story of the Indian Frontier, S. Walkey; Snatched from the Foe (A Thrilling Tale of the Indian Frontier), Newman Flower; Across Russian Snows: A Thrilling Romance of Siberia, Grenville Hammerton; In Traitor’s Hands, Ernest H. Robinson; · The Night Riders, Julian Linley; At the Sword’s Point, Lance Lorrimer; The Quest of the Three Gulls; The Death Fighters, Stacey Blake; The Amateur Gun Runners; The Hispaniola Plate, John Bloundelle-Burton.
