ications and editions
of books by Dr. Jedediah Morse, an author of whom few of the present
generation of Americans have ever heard. He was the earliest American
geographer who published any comprehensive books upon the subject, and
his numerous Gazetteers and Geographies, published from 1784 to 1826,
were constantly reprinted, until supplanted by more full, if not more
accurate works.

Upon the whole, Sabin's great work, although so far from being finished,
is invaluable as containing immeasurably more and fuller titles than any
other American bibliography. It is also the only extensive work on the
subject which covers all periods, although the books of the last thirty
years must chiefly be excepted as not represented. As a work of
reference, while its cost and scarcity may prevent the smaller public
libraries from possessing it, it is always accessible in the libraries of
the larger cities, where it is among the foremost works to be consulted
in any research involving American publications, or books of any period
or country relating to America, or its numerous sub-divisions.

I may now mention, much more cursorily, some other bibliographies
pertaining to our country. The late Henry Stevens, who died in 1886,
compiled a "Catalogue of the American Books in the Library of the British
Museum." This was printed by the Museum authorities in 1856, and fills
754 octavo pages. Its editor was a highly accomplished bibliographer and
book-merchant, born in Vermont, but during the last forty years of his
life resided in London, where he devoted himself to his profession with
great learning and assiduity. He published many catalogues of various
stocks of books collected by him, under such titles as "Bibliotheca
historica," "Bibliotheca Americana," etc., in which the books were
carefully described, often with notes illustrating their history or their
value. He became an authority upon rare books and early editions, and
made a valuable catalogue of the Bibles in the Caxton exhibition at
London, in 1877, with bibliographical commentary. He was for years chief
purveyor of the British Museum Library for its American book purchases,
and aided the late James Lenox in building up that rich collection of
Americana and editions of the Scriptures which is now a part of the New
York Public Library. His catalogue of the American books in the British
Museum, though now over forty years old, and supplanted by the full
alphabetical catalogue of th