[1] These re-released many classic novels as well as newer works by those associated with the Scouting movement, include Ernest Thompson Seton and Daniel Carter Beard.

With the assistance of the various original publishers, the Boy Scouts of America was able to reprint these works for 50 cents a volume.

[2] The work of the Library Commission in their selection of the Every Boy's Library books can be seen in the following paragraph on page 64 of the Report: While the boy is growing rapidly in brain and body that is the time to give him the stories in which heroes have the characteristics the boy so much admires-men of unquenchable courage, immense resourcefulness, absolute fidelity, conspicuous greatness; the men who do things, big things, wonderful things; the men who conquer and overcome in the face of the heaviest odds, who never turn their back but march breast forward "to do or die."

For the boys, that spirit is the stuff of which great manhood is made; and, if with books we would profoundly influence him, we must constantly challenge him with stories of astonishing accomplishments, biographies that hold him spellbound, wonder tales of almost unattainable undertakings achieved.

[2] With this in mind, hundreds of such books were selected to be first published in the Handbook for Boys and provided later to libraries across America for a nominal sum.

[2] On July 31st, 1913, James E. West, Chief Scout Executive issued a letter to the public announcing the collection.

[3] Later, the books featured an olive-green, linen fabric hard cover and bore a seal red and black fleur-de-lis Boy Scout emblem over two crossed signal flags, with the title at the top and the author on the bottom.

This 538-page scholarly work of investigative bibliographical research provides extensive notes and detailed explanations of variations, printings and editions of all 73 titles in the series.

It includes an explanation of the history of the series originally intended as a method of fund raising by the Boy Scouts of America.