(August 8, 2023 Note: I have made a few slight revisions and stated an additional thing or two, mainly to make things more clear.)
In the preceding post, I outlined some information regarding the 73 Plymouth Place address that is found on the copyright application for “Jas. McKinney & Co.,” presumed to be the printer of The Expert at the Card Table. See The Man Who Was Erdnase, page 274, for a reproduction of part of the Erdnase copyright application. (It is, as I understand it, based on the copyright application—and basically nothing else—that the contention is made that James McKinney & Company printed the book.)
(August 5, 2023 Note: There are probably a few other things that also point to McKinney as the printer. The Erdnase thread of the Genii Forum discusses the fact that McKinney is named in a handwritten note in a copy of the book that had belonged to Adrian Plate, who co-wrote the classic Magicians’ Tricks: How They Are Done, and who has a reputation as having been highly skilled with playing cards. If I recall correctly, this was first mentioned by Richard Hatch, and later elaborated upon by Marty Demarest.)
The main point of the preceding post, and you can read about it in that post, is that a Howard M. Andrews was operating out of that same street address during the same time frame—not a block away, and not five years later, but at the same time and the same address. That to me is unexpected, and it is possible that it has some actual significance, and that it is not simply some coincidence of the type of which I seem to make frequent mention.
If the above signifies nothing else, at least it shows that not all of “the research” has been done relating to the Erdnase-identity question.
Something I have thought for a while . . .
For a while now, I have thought that a key to the whole Erdnase mystery might lie in a close examination of the actual book (mainly the first edition), and the printer (meaning “everything having to do with the printer”). Those who have read David Alexander’s Genii article, reprinted in the September 2011 issue, on the S.W. Erdnase identity question will remember that he advocated a return to the book itself as a kind of immutable constant in the whole inquiry. The book, after all, is the root of all of the questions concerning Erdnase, and it seems as though it might provide at least some of the answers to the remaining questions.
James McKinney . . .
Something tells me that a close investigation of James McKinney, including those who worked with him and for him, and of his area of town back around the turn of the century, might yield some results helpful to an Erdnase investigation. Although a lot of evidence is now gone, there must be many records—public records, newspapers, and periodicals, for example—that now are in essence permanent. Even if the results might do nothing whatsoever to advance the Erdnase-identity investigation, at least some interesting information relating to the era and vicinity could probably be found.
For example, I see on the website of the University of Notre Dame Archives that the university is in possession of an archive of “Notre Dame Presidents’ Letters, 1856-1906.” One of the letters has—as an attachment, apparently from 1895—a letter from James McKinney, The Gothic Printing House. So that might be a means of determining James McKinney’s handwriting, or possibly at least his signature, for comparison to the writing on the Erdnase copyright application.
(August 5, 2023 Note: This was before Chris Wasshuber uncovered the McKinney bankruptcy papers. Of course, we now know that the key handwriting on the copyright application was that of S.W. Jamieson. This is discussed at length on the Erdnase thread of the Genii Forum.)
Advertisements exist from that era, showing James McKinney as “Agent” for The Gothic Printing House, or referring to “The Gothic Printing House of James McKinney.” (I expect to deal with that a little in a future post.)
That part of Chicago . . .
Then there is the situation regarding 73 Plymouth Place and its environs during the period in which The Expert at the Card Table was produced.
My own recent investigations—and I mean really recent, like maybe during the past month, and probably mostly during the past week or two—have thoroughly repudiated most (if not all) of my key preconceived notions about that area of Chicago.
And here, you might wish to play a little game before reading farther. You might wish to picture James McKinney’s establishment in your mind. You might wish to imagine such things as how many employees he had, if any; what his neighborhood was like; what his neighbors were like; how many floors were in his building; whether McKinney dealt directly with his customers; and so on. I am not saying that I know the answers to such questions. I don’t, really. But at least I was able to come up with some guesses, and I will mention some of my ideas below. But if you don’t want to be influenced by my comments, you should probably do some thinking before you read further.
My own vision of James McKinney & Company — some preconceived notions with little or no support . . .
[Remember, this post speaks as of September 5, 2011!]
For some reason, I had pictured McKinney’s printing operation as a small-time operation (one story, probably, or maybe two). He had one main printing press, and the Erdnase job was a big one for him. In my imagined version of McKinney’s print shop, it was an isolated printing establishment on Plymouth Place (a cheerful little location to which you might take a pleasant morning-walk). It was possibly chosen by Erdnase for its unique characteristics, such as proximity to a hotel where Erdnase could meet with an illustrator. And maybe because the printer needed the business, James McKinney would work personally with Erdnase. And it was McKinney who stood at the counter across from Erdnase, as they worked out the details of the project. Remember, I am talking assumptions. These may not have been my exact assumptions, but they were along those lines.
But I have been finding that probably none of those concepts is even remotely accurate. And if any of them are approximations of reality, it is only by chance.
James McKinney & Company: A few of the main facts as I currently understand them . . .
I’m not going to discuss too much in this particular post. The main point at the moment is that there were a lot of printers in the area, and it is possible that Erdnase had some reasons for choosing McKinney that no one has hypothesized about.
Some of the following is a bit speculative, because I don’t know exactly what was going on there in 1902, and I don’t know exactly where McKinney’s place was located with regard to certain other places. I may have tossed in a few anachronisms. But so far I have not seen anything contrary to the following, and I believe that it is at least approximately correct.
James McKinney & Company, 73 Plymouth Place, was located in Printing House Row (also known as Printer’s Row), which was basically the Chicago printing district and the home of many printing companies. One discussion—in Nelson’s Encyclopaedia, Volume 3, New York, 1907, page 73—simply says, “Dearborn and Federal Streets and Plymouth Place are known as Printers’ Row [. . .].” Obviously, by that definition, 73 Plymouth Place would be included. I have read three or four descriptions of what constituted (or constitutes) Printing House Row, or Printer’s Row, and I am not sure that any two were the same. (Apparently there are few printers there today.)
It is more or less to be assumed that many (if not most or all) of the buildings that housed printing activities in Printer’s Row were multiple-story buildings. This seems fairly clear from a 2003 book called Printers Row Chicago, a 64-page pictorial history (for popular consumption, it would appear, to judge from the extracts on Google Books) by Ron Gordon and John Paulett. And that is consistent with all of the pictures that I have seen relating to printing establishments in the Printer’s Row area. One thing I do not understand is the methods that were used to install massive printing presses on anything other than the first floor—even there, I imagine it would be difficult.
Anyway, even allowing for a certain amount of mobility, the “printing house” (and printing supply) nature of many of the businesses on Plymouth Place is clear. The following is nothing like a complete list.
W.F. Hall Printing Company — 21-25 Plymouth Place (per Official Proceedings of the Western Railway Club for the Club Year of 1898-9, Chicago, 1899).
Golding & Co. (printing presses) — 45 Plymouth Place (per The Inland Printer, July 1891).
W.B. Conkey Company — 78-88 Plymouth Place (The Inland Printer, April 1891). (Also, per The American Bookmaker, January 1894, also, 63-71 Plymouth Place. Then ad advertisement in the May 1894 issue omits mention of the 78-88 address.)
H.H. Latham (printing presses and binding equipment) — 87-91 Plymouth Place (per The Inland Printer, June 1891).
T.W. & C.B. Sheridan (book manufacturing equipment) — 136 Plymouth Place (per The Inland Printer, July 1891).
Chicago Electrotype & Stereotype Co. — 149-155 Plymouth Place (per The Inland Printer, April 1899).
I hope to return to this topic soon.
—Tom Sawyer
From 9-5-11
Reposted 8-8-23
The Armchair Bibliographer 