Little Philosopher, for School and Family

The Little Philosopher was published in parts as well as in a one volume format.

The earliest publisher of the parts was Carter and Hendee. To understand the bibliographical history of the book one must know the history of its publishers.

Carter and Hendee was established in Boston in 1828 in a building that eventually was known as the Old Corner Bookshop. The original partners were T. H. Carter, who later on his own imprint published a number of Jacob Abbott books, his brother Richard and Charles J. Hendee.

Carter and Hendee 1828-1830
Carter, Hendee and Babcock 1830-1831 (Edwin Babcock was with this firm for about one year before leaving it.)
Carter and Hendee 1831-1832
Carter, Hendee and Company 1832-1836
Charles J. Hendee 1837-

1829 - Parts 1-4 were published separately by Carter and Hendee. Each part was in wraps and was 36 pages long. Part V was copyrighted in May, 1830.

In 1830 the five parts were bound into an 18 mo. 180 page volume by the Boston publisher Carter and Hendee. This was the first edition of the book. The author was still listed as Erodore.

1831- Carter, Hendee and Babcock edition was published. Erodore is the listed author.

Even after the one volume book (containing all 5 parts) had been published in 1830, Carter, Hendee and Co. and Carter, Hendee and Babcock were still publishing the parts separately as late as 1833.

1833 - Carter, Hendee and Co. Published this title with the author listed as Jacob Abbott.

The 1833 Carter, Hendee, and Co. book chapters are shown below. The previous books had five chapters of 36 pages each.

The parts:

Introduction: pp.1-16
Part 1- The Shape pp. 17-42
Part 2- The Air pp. 43-67
Part 3- The Body pp. 68-94
Part 4- Animals pp. 95-142
Part 5- Art pp. 143-172

1837- Charles J. Hendee published this title.

1837- A Hawaiian translation of part of this book was published. It was translated by Ephraim W. Clark. Two thousand copies were printed. It has 24 pages.

1839- A copy containing only the first three parts was published by the American Baptist Mission Press. This book was published for use in a missionary in Burma. Grover Smith Comstock translated it into Burmese. The Mission Press printed 1000 copies of their 139 page edition.

1855- Hickling, Swan and Brown, a Boston Publisher, printed the 172 page version of this title.