Once upon a time, the Society did not have a formal or structured book department or staff (hard to believe now!) ...

 ...in the early years there were 'accidental' books, either by chance or favor. Some various monographs and myriad scientific reports made their way to publication with hard covers. Essentially, the popular book releases started with 1907's Scenes From Every Land, followed with a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th edition (e.g., 1909, 1912, 1918). 

From there, NGS's books were mostly nicely hardbound reprints of either:  A} in-demand articles from NGM , or,  B} were compilation volumes of multiple articles on a common topic --again from NGM itself.

Here n' there, were larger, original works by persons associated with some research or expedition sponsored or supported by the Society.

Such titles that fall within this group's purview would be thus:

• Book of Monsters,
• Valley of the 10,000 Smokes,
• Alaskan Glacier Studies,
• Physiography of the United States,
• Book of Birds (pick a version!),
• Book of Dogs,
• Indians of North America,
• Book of Fishes (pick one),
• Flags of the World, 
• Hunting Wild Life with Camera & Flashlight,
• ...and much more!

Best,

   ~ Scott S.