Riverside Bookshelf Series
This series was described as “An ideal library of the best books for boys and girls, illustrated in color by noted artists and published at the price of only two dollars.” It was published by Houghton Mifflin starting in the 1920’s. While smaller in format that the Scribner’s Illustrated Classics series, the books did feature a front cover paste-on illustration.
Books in the Riverside Bookshelf series:
Ivanhoe (1820)
A tale of the Saxons and the Normans in the days of Richard the Lion Heart. Read for free online at HathiTrust.
Or read for free online by volume:
Author(s):
Sir Walter Scott
Illustrator(s):
None
Robinson Crusoe (1909)
The first of the desert island castaway adventures. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Daniel Defoe
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Two Years Before the Mast (1911)
His studies at Harvard interrupted by vision problems, the author embarked as a merchant seaman aboard the brig Pilgrim in 1834 on a voyage to Alta California, still under Mexican rule. After helping to cure and load a cargo of cow hides he was transferred to the Alert and made an eastward passage of Cape Horn in the dead of winter. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Ivanhoe (1913)
A tale of the Saxons and the Normans in the days of Richard the Lion Heart. Read for free online at HathiTrust.
Author(s):
Sir Walter Scott
Illustrator(s):
E. Boyd Smith
Heidi (1923)
The orphaned Heidi goes to live in the Swiss mountains with her grandfather. Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Johanna Spyri
Illustrator(s):
Gustaf Tenggren
The Story of a Bad Boy (1923)
The story of the author’s youth in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The highlights include the snowball battle on Slater’s Hill and the celebration of the glorious 4th.
Author(s):
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Illustrator(s):
Harold M. Brett
A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales (1923)
Retellings of the classic Greek myths by the American master of the short story. Read online at Hathitrust.
Author(s):
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Illustrator(s):
Stephen Reid
Gustaf Tenggren
The Good Dog Book (1924)
Eleven classic dog stories, including “A Dog of Flanders” and Adrift on an Ice-Pan.
Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Wilfred Grenfell
Ouida
Various
Illustrator(s):
Gustaf Tenggren
The Peterkin Papers (1924)
A collection of nonsense stories about the family of Peterkins who rely on the Lady from Philadelphia to extricate them from their troubles.
Author(s):
Lucretia P. Hale
Illustrator(s):
Harold M. Brett
Juan and Juanita (1926)
Juan and Juanita and their dog Amigo are kidnapped by Comanches and held captive for four years until they make their escape and trek three hundred miles home.
Author(s):
Frances Courtenay Baylor
Illustrator(s):
Gustaf Tenggren
Smuggler’s Island and the Devil Fires of San Moros (1928)
Five children, one only a baby, are abandoned on a desert island in the Sea of Cortez. Marian, the eldest, keeps them alive for seven years, waiting for the baby to grow big enough to survive the sea voyage to safety.
Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Clarissa Kneeland
Illustrator(s):
Wallace Goldsmith
F. C. Yohn
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1931)
Rebecca Rowena Randall comes to stay with her aunts in Riverboro.
Author(s):
Kate Douglas Wiggin
Illustrator(s):
Helen Mason Grose
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1994)
Rebecca Rowena Randall comes to stay with her aunts in Riverboro.
Author(s):
Kate Douglas Wiggin
Illustrator(s):
Helen Mason Grose