{
  "full": "\n**ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL. THE ART OF WHISTLER. 1928–1936. (ML 150)**  \n\n#### 161. First printing (1928)  \n\n[within double rules] THE | ART OF WHISTLER | [rule] | BY | ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL | WITH | JOSEPH PENNELL, | AUTHOR OF “LIFE OF WHISTLER” AND | THE “WHISTLER JOURNAL” | [rule] | WITH THIRTY-TWO REPRODUCTIONS | IN THE AQUATONE PROCESS | [rule] | [torchbearer A3] | [rule] | THE MODERN LIBRARY | PUBLISHERS : NEW YORK  \n\nPp. [i–vi] vii–xxi [xxii], 1–201 [202]. [1–14]8  \n\n[i] half title; [ii] pub. note D5; [iii] title; [iv] *Copyright*, 1928, *by* | THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC. | [short double rule] | *First Modern Library Edition* | 1928; [v] CONTENTS; [vi] blank; vii–viii ILLUSTRATIONS; ix–xiv INTRODUCTION signed p. xiv: Elizabeth Robins Pennell | New York City – 1927; xv–xxi BIOGRAPHICAL TABLE OF DATES; [xxii] blank; 1–201 text and reproductions; [202] acknowledgment. *Note:* *First* statement seen on copies in balloon cloth binding. It is not known whether these are copies of the first printing or a subsequent printing.  \n\n*Jacket A:* Uniform typographic jacket B2.  \n\n>Text on front:
  It so happens that this volume, Number 150 in the Modern Library,  appears just ten years [*sic*] after the first book in the  series—Oscar Wilde’s “Dorian Gray” it was—made its appearance in the  shops. The editors feel that they can show their appreciation of the support accorded the entire series by booklovers of America in no more appropriate way than by publishing these reproductions of Whistler’s beautiful art, with an understanding biography by Elizabeth Robins Pennell, at the regular Modern Library price. (*Spring 1928*)  \n\n*Jacket B:* Uniform typographic jacket D. \n\n>Text on front: 
 “32 Reproductions in the Aquatone Process | With an understanding biography by Elizabeth Robins Pennell”. (*Spring 1929*)  \n\nOriginal ML publication. Text and illustrations printed by the “aquatone process.” Published August 1928. *WR* 8 September 1928. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued fall 1936.  \n\nThe ML’s regular printers did letterpress printing only. The verso of the title page states: “*Printed by the* aquatone process *by* | *Edward Stern &Company, Inc.*”  \n\nThere were at least two printings of *The Art of Whistler*. The statement “*First Modern Library Edition* | 1928” appears to have been retained on all ML printings. The “First Modern Library Edition” statement was usually removed from letterpress plates after the first printing; ML books printed by offset processes typically retained such statements on all printings.  \n\nThe ML volume is “essentially a miniature version of the Pennells’ previous biography of the life of Whistler” (Getscher and Marks, p. 97). *The Life of James McNeill Whistler* by Elizabeth Robins Pennell and Joseph Pennell was originally published in two volumes by J. B. Lippincott (1908) and appeared in a one-volume revised version in 1911. Joseph Pennell died in 1926. Cerf invited Elizabeth Robins Pennell to edit and arrange a short version for the ML, and she prepared the manuscript on her own.  \n\nKlopfer had vivid memories of the publication of the book. Cerf lost the manuscript that Mrs. Pennell had submitted and insisted on a coin toss to determine which of the two partners would convey the bad news to the author. Cerf won the toss, and Klopfer went to see Mrs. Pennell at her home in Brooklyn to explain what had happened. He was then in his mid-twenties, and the author was in her early seventies. Klopfer struggled to get around to the purpose of the visit; finally Mrs. Pennell said, “Young man, are you trying to tell me you lost the manuscript?”—and produced a back-up copy (Klopfer to Cerf, 20 November 1942; Klopfer interview with GBN, 5 July 1978).  \n\nShortly after publication of *The Art of Whistler* Klopfer invited Mrs. Pennell to edit a companion volume, *The Art of Joseph Pennell* (Klopfer to Pennell, 9 March 1929), but the projected volume was never submitted.  \n\nKlopfer offered Allen Lane, who distributed several ML titles in Britain before he founded Penguin Books in 1935, 1,000 unbound copies of *The Art of Whistler* in sheets at 30 cents a set, which, he noted, “is darn near our actual cost.” He added, “We lose money on this book, but as we don’t sell very many it doesn’t make much difference” (Klopfer to Lane, 11 August 1931). In contrast, Suetonius’s *Lives of the Twelve Caesars* (217), which was 150 pages longer than the Whistler volume but had no illustrations, could be supplied in sheets at 20 cents a set.  \n\n#### ***Fall***  \n\n",
  "id": "161",
  "year": "1928",
  "label": "ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL. THE ART OF WHISTLER. 1928–1936. (ML 150)",
  "author": "ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL",
  "title": "THE ART OF WHISTLER.",
  "date": "1928–1936.",
  "something": "ML 150",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "id": "161",
      "title": "First printing (1928)  ",
      "full": "\n\n[within double rules] THE | ART OF WHISTLER | [rule] | BY | ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL | WITH | JOSEPH PENNELL, | AUTHOR OF “LIFE OF WHISTLER” AND | THE “WHISTLER JOURNAL” | [rule] | WITH THIRTY-TWO REPRODUCTIONS | IN THE AQUATONE PROCESS | [rule] | [torchbearer A3] | [rule] | THE MODERN LIBRARY | PUBLISHERS : NEW YORK  \n\nPp. [i–vi] vii–xxi [xxii], 1–201 [202]. [1–14]8  \n\n[i] half title; [ii] pub. note D5; [iii] title; [iv] *Copyright*, 1928, *by* | THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC. | [short double rule] | *First Modern Library Edition* | 1928; [v] CONTENTS; [vi] blank; vii–viii ILLUSTRATIONS; ix–xiv INTRODUCTION signed p. xiv: Elizabeth Robins Pennell | New York City – 1927; xv–xxi BIOGRAPHICAL TABLE OF DATES; [xxii] blank; 1–201 text and reproductions; [202] acknowledgment. *Note:* *First* statement seen on copies in balloon cloth binding. It is not known whether these are copies of the first printing or a subsequent printing.  \n\n*Jacket A:* Uniform typographic jacket B2.  \n\n>Text on front:
  It so happens that this volume, Number 150 in the Modern Library,  appears just ten years [*sic*] after the first book in the  series—Oscar Wilde’s “Dorian Gray” it was—made its appearance in the  shops. The editors feel that they can show their appreciation of the support accorded the entire series by booklovers of America in no more appropriate way than by publishing these reproductions of Whistler’s beautiful art, with an understanding biography by Elizabeth Robins Pennell, at the regular Modern Library price. (*Spring 1928*)  \n\n*Jacket B:* Uniform typographic jacket D. \n\n>Text on front: 
 “32 Reproductions in the Aquatone Process | With an understanding biography by Elizabeth Robins Pennell”. (*Spring 1929*)  \n\nOriginal ML publication. Text and illustrations printed by the “aquatone process.” Published August 1928. *WR* 8 September 1928. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued fall 1936.  \n\nThe ML’s regular printers did letterpress printing only. The verso of the title page states: “*Printed by the* aquatone process *by* | *Edward Stern &Company, Inc.*”  \n\nThere were at least two printings of *The Art of Whistler*. The statement “*First Modern Library Edition* | 1928” appears to have been retained on all ML printings. The “First Modern Library Edition” statement was usually removed from letterpress plates after the first printing; ML books printed by offset processes typically retained such statements on all printings.  \n\nThe ML volume is “essentially a miniature version of the Pennells’ previous biography of the life of Whistler” (Getscher and Marks, p. 97). *The Life of James McNeill Whistler* by Elizabeth Robins Pennell and Joseph Pennell was originally published in two volumes by J. B. Lippincott (1908) and appeared in a one-volume revised version in 1911. Joseph Pennell died in 1926. Cerf invited Elizabeth Robins Pennell to edit and arrange a short version for the ML, and she prepared the manuscript on her own.  \n\nKlopfer had vivid memories of the publication of the book. Cerf lost the manuscript that Mrs. Pennell had submitted and insisted on a coin toss to determine which of the two partners would convey the bad news to the author. Cerf won the toss, and Klopfer went to see Mrs. Pennell at her home in Brooklyn to explain what had happened. He was then in his mid-twenties, and the author was in her early seventies. Klopfer struggled to get around to the purpose of the visit; finally Mrs. Pennell said, “Young man, are you trying to tell me you lost the manuscript?”—and produced a back-up copy (Klopfer to Cerf, 20 November 1942; Klopfer interview with GBN, 5 July 1978).  \n\nShortly after publication of *The Art of Whistler* Klopfer invited Mrs. Pennell to edit a companion volume, *The Art of Joseph Pennell* (Klopfer to Pennell, 9 March 1929), but the projected volume was never submitted.  \n\nKlopfer offered Allen Lane, who distributed several ML titles in Britain before he founded Penguin Books in 1935, 1,000 unbound copies of *The Art of Whistler* in sheets at 30 cents a set, which, he noted, “is darn near our actual cost.” He added, “We lose money on this book, but as we don’t sell very many it doesn’t make much difference” (Klopfer to Lane, 11 August 1931). In contrast, Suetonius’s *Lives of the Twelve Caesars* (217), which was 150 pages longer than the Whistler volume but had no illustrations, could be supplied in sheets at 20 cents a set.  \n\n"
    }
  ],
  "type": "book"
}