BEN BRUCE: SCENES IN THE LIFE OF A BOWERY NEWSBOY by Horatio Alger, Jr. A.L. Burt, 1901 First Book Publication Condition: Good+ A.L. Burt was known as a reprint publisher, but there were exceptions, and this is one of them. BEN BRUCE is one of the highly popular Horatio Alger novels that were so popular more than a century ago. It was originally serialized in Frank A. Munsey's Magazine in 1892, but this was the first book publication. It is illustrated with several black white plates by J. Watson Davis. In the back is an 8-page catalogue of Burt's books for boys. The first editions of this title are fairly uncommon and seldom in great shape. This copy has two white patches (damp stains?) on the front cover and a smaller one on the back. The gilt on the spine is rather rubbed. The cover corners are bumped, but wear on all but one of them is light, as it is on the edges and spine head. The spine foot has just modest fraying. The hinges are torn, exposing the webbing, at the second and second-to-last pages, but the binding and all pages are secure. There are shallow tears/creases on three page edges and occasional page corner creases and small stains. Otherwise, the pages are nice, unmarked and, surprisingly, only lightly browned.