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The relatively rare copy shown above appears to be one of the earliest printings, a self-published edition credited on the spine to The Punkin Centre Co., Chicago. No publisher credit appears on the title page, but a 1903 copyright to W. L. Eckhardt and Calvin E. Stewart is cited, with printing credited to the Regan Printing Company of Chicago. This is the "Talking Machine Edition," which apparently was sold (or possibly given as a premium) by phonograph dealers. Scattered among the familiar Uncle Josh stories are rare autobiographical glimpses ("The author was born in Virginia, on a little patch of land so poor, we had to fertilize it to make brick") and Stewart's unrecorded poetry. He drew on his early days working the Western railroads in "Yosemite Jim, or, A Tale of the Great White Death":
By 1905 Stewart's
book had sold well enough that it was acquired by the Chicago
publishing firm of Thomas & Thompson. The company reused
the original Regan printing plates but initially added some advertising
at the back for its popular Peck's Bad Boy series. Thomas
& Thompson kept the book in print for many years; one very
late edition includes a listing of Stewart's Victor records released
as late as 1920. Later printings are fairly common, and many
have a less attractive cover in black (rather than silver) on
lighter blue-green cloth.
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