The American bibliographer Henry Stevens (1819-1886) graduated at Yale in 1843 and studied at Harvard Law School in 1843–1844 before moving to London to work as a professional collector of Americana. Many collections—public and private, British and American—are rich thanks to his scholarship and perseverance.

In 1873, he made a list of nearly 2,000 Books with Tails or “continuations.” He also calls them incomplete or unfinished periodicals. A few pages from this list are posted here, in honor of the many book dealers, collectors, and bibliographers coming to town in a few days.

Henry Stevens, American books with tails to ’em. A private pocket list of the incomplete or unfinished American periodicals transactions memoirs judicial reports laws journals legislative documents and other continuations and works in progress supplied to the British Museum and other libraries ([London: Stevens’s Bibliographical Nuggetory, 1873]). ReCAP 04041.881