![]() There were a total of 102 different editions printed in the series. Yet they cost but fifty cents apiece!” The books are 3 1/4″ x 4 7/8″ and have sturdy decorative covers (some green, some brown) with gold lettering and black designs stamped on cover and spine. These beautiful little books must be accorded rank as the gold dollars of the currency of elegant letters. The paper is heavy and firm, and the type is wonderfully clear and legible. One publication at the time commented that, “These little books are not made by means of fine type and flimsy paper. They were very well made and convenient to carry around on your person. Most of the books carry a 1877 date on the title page though some are dated as early as 1875. ![]() ![]() These little books were widely acclaimed and very popular at the end of the nineteenth-century. Osgood & Company, Vest-Pocket Series of Standard and Popular Authors, 1875-1877. I want to highlight two specific series of little books: Osgood’s Vest-Pocket Editions and the Little Leather Library series. The book also contains a series of gorgeous illustrations by H.C. The 5 1/2″ x 2 3/4″ volume carries a 1912 inscription and must have been a stunning little book (my copy is in fairly rough shape as is apparent from the photo). It is a nicely printed book with soft green leather cover, artistically-stamped on the front and with beautiful color drawings by R. An illustration of this series is shown (Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem Lady Geraldine’s Courtship in a nice red leather cover) which is surprisingly printed left-to-right along the long dimension so the reader turns the book sideways and flips the pages from top to bottom.Īnother example of a little book is David McKay’s edition of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Friendship. Titles included The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, John Milton’s Ode on Christ’s Nativity, The Pied Piper of Hamelen by Robert Browning, The Constitution of the United States, and The Sermon on the Mount. Putnam’s Sons Knickerbocker Press printed a couple dozen very small editions (4 1/2″ x 1 1/2″) in nice leather bindings probably around 1900. Queen Mab could be fancied wisely perusing such fairy-tomes, as she lazily lounges in a white lily’s hollow.” Chicago Tribune, 1871īefore there was the paperback (some suggest the first paperback was Lost Horizon by James Hilton circa 1935), some publishers printed “little books” that could be carried around in one’s pocket. “Volumes of such dainty shape that one might suppose them ordered for the inhabitants of Liliput.
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