The Costly Star by Margaret Slattery

I have a copy of what I have seen described as a "scarce antiquarian book" titled The Costly Star by Margaret Slattery. It was published by The Pilgrim Press of Boston in 1917 and is illustrated by Frank T. Merrill. I haven't been able to locate an original copy of this slim (32 page) volume for sale anywhere online. The listing in WorldCat shows four copies in libraries.

Other titles (some with links to the Internet Archive) by Margaret Slattery include:

• The American Girl and Her Community.
• The Charm of the Impossible.
• The Girl and Her Religion.
• The Girl in Her Teens.
• He Took It Upon Himself.
• The Highway to Leadership.
• Just Over the Hill.
• Living Teachers.
• New Paths Through Old Palestine.
• The Second Line of Defense: A Plea for the Men and Women of To-morrow.
• Talks With the Training Class.
• When You Enlist.
• You Can Learn to Teach.

The illustrator, Frank T. [Thayer] Merrill (American, 1848-1936) is listed in Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers (Enlarged and Revised edition, 1974).

Merrill, Frank T. Painter. Born in Boston in 1848. He studied art at the Lowell Institute, and at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; he also studied in France and England. His water colors are free in wash and color, and he has also been very successful with his etchings. Merrill's work has been used extensively in illustrating and may be found in Thackeray's "Mahogany Tree" and in Irving's "Rip Van Winkle."

Merrill's work is available at the Childs Gallery. A search for Frank T. Merrill on the Internet Archive yields seven results:

• Captain January by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (two copies)
• Colonial Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• A Loyal Lass: A Story of the Niagara Campaign of 1814 by Amy Ella Blanchard
• Six Boys by Elizabeth W. Champney
• The Young Moose Hunters: A Backwoods-boy's Story by C. A. Stephens
• The Interference of Patricia by Lilian Bell

Contact me if you are interested in purchasing this copy of The Costly Star. It is not an ex-library copy. There is a small portion of the front endpaper clipped off and slight damage to the spine which is shown in the photograph.