The Modern Library Bibliography
MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1926
1926
General
Cerf and Klopfer did not discontinue any Modern Library titles in 1926 and added twelve new titles to the series, bringing the total number of active titles to 125. One of the additions was Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, which had been in the Boni & Liveright series between 1918 and 1922. Zuleika Dobson may have been withdrawn from the series by Dodd, Mead & Co., which made a new printing of its own in 1924. Two years later Cerf and Klopfer were able to restore it to the series. All families of printings of Zuleika Dobson in the ML, including those between 1926 and 1970 (36c‑d), are described in the chapter for 1918.
Format and printing
All new titles were published in the standard format, with the binding measuring 6⅝ x 4⅜ in. (168 x 110 mm) and the leaves trimmed to 6½ x 4¼ in. (164 x 107 mm).
The ML’s standard format was enlarged in 1939. The new binding measured 7¼ x 4⅞ in. (182 x 123 mm) with a trim size of 7 x 4¾ in. (177 x 120 mm). In 1969 a taller, slightly slimmer format was introduced with the binding measuring 7½ x 4¾ in. (190 x 120 mm) and a trim size of 7¼ x 4½ in. (182 x 115 mm).
Most ML books through 1954 were printed with 16 pages on each side of the sheet and bound in gatherings of 16 leaves (32 pages); by 1956 most books were being printed with 32 pages on each side of the sheet and bound in gatherings of 32 leaves (64 pages).
All new titles were published in the standard format, with the leaves trimmed to 6½ x 4¼ in. (164 x 108 mm) and the binding measuring 6⅝ x 4¼ in. (167 x 110 mm). The ML’s standard format increased in 1939 to a trim size of 7 x 4⅝ in. (177 x 118 mm) with the binding measuring 7¼ x 4¾ in. (183 x 122 mm) and in 1969 to a taller, slightly slimmer trim size of 7¼ x 4½ in. (183 x 115 mm) with the binding measuring 7½ x 4⅝ in. (190 x 118 mm). Most books through 1954 were printed with 16 pages on each side of the sheet and bound as gatherings of 16 leaves (32 pages); by 1956 most books were being printed with 32 pages on each side of the sheet and bound in gatherings of 32 leaves (64 pages).
ML books were printed by the Ferris Printing Co. in New York City during the early months of 1926. Later in the year the ML switched to Parkway Printing Co., 400 Lafayette St., New York City. Parkway continued to print all ML books for decades to come except for a small number of titles before the 1960s that were printed by offset lithography.
Title page
Elmer Adler, proprietor of the Pynson Press in New York, redesigned the ML title page. He retained the basic design inherited from B&L but made the title page more elegant and appealing. He replaced the B&L double-rule frame with a frame consisting of a thick outer rule and thin inner rule, used open-face type for the title, and eliminated the rule between THE MODERN LIBRARY and the last line of the title page. He also changed PUBLISHERS :: :: NEW YORK to the less cluttered PUBLISHERS · NEW YORK and then, beginning with the third title published in 1926, to the more distinctive PUBLISHERS : NEW YORK. He also enlarged Bernhard’s torchbearer from 18 to 26 mm (
In general, titles from the B&L era were provided with Adler title pages only when the text was reset or augmented with new content. Examples include Flaubert, Madame Bovary (25.2a) in 1927 and Gautier, Mademoiselle de Maupin & One of Cleopatra’s Nights (51g) in 1935.
Binding
Imitation leather in dark green, brown, or dark blue with spine lettering in gold and Bernhard’s torchbearer in gold on the front cover.
Endpaper
Bernhard endpaper printed in light yellowish brown.
Jacket
The first two 1926 titles, Brontë, Wuthering Heights (120) and Anderson, Poor White (121), were published in
95¢ net ($1 in Canada)
On the inside of this jacket is a list, arranged alphabetically by authors, of all the titles in the modern library. It is worthy of your attention.
════
the modern library, in less than ten years, has become the most important collection of attractively priced books of the better kind in America, its scope constantly growing, and its popularity spreading to every corner of the world where English books are read.
The reason is obvious. modern library books give full value. Titles are selected with rigid care to represent the very best in modern literature and thought. Constant improvement is being effected in the manufacture of the books. They are printed from new, clear type, on a superior quality paper and bound in full limp fashion, the tops stained and the decorations in genuine gold. They will fit into any pocket and are ideal for a journey or the library table. Their introductions are brilliant and authoritative; a list of the men who have contributed introductions to the modern library reads like a Literary “Who’s Who” of America.
The notion is an obvious one to express but bears repeating: it is possible for a poor man to gather unto himself a library as extensive and as “correct” as any bibliophile if he will make use of the modern library and kindred series of older classics. One book a week, at a cost scarcely noticeable, and in time one may harvest for his own consumption the wisdom and the dreams of the ages!
This text was used without revision on jacket flaps through July 1933. Beginning with Brontë, Jane Eyre (260) in August 1933 the front flaps have descriptive text about individual titles.
The back panel of
Are you pleased with this modern library book?
There must be dozens of other titles in the series that you have always wanted to read and that you did not know were obtainable at so low a price. A complete list of the titles of the modern library will be found inside of this jacket. Jot down the numbers of the volumes you desire on the coupon below and give it to your bookseller. If there is no bookseller in your neighborhood, the publishers will supply you.
The order blank is headed TO YOUR BOOKSELLER; below the order blank the publishers are indicated as:
The Modern Library · inc. · new york In Canada· the macmillan company of canada · ltd · Toronto
The deep reddish orange band near the top of the back panel states:
Modern Library Books Are Hand Bound the editions are authentic and copyrighted limp binding · stained tops · gold decorations
The deep reddish orange band near the bottom of the back panel states:
A NEW TITLE ON THE 25th OF EVERY MONTH
Price
95 cents.
Dating key
(Spring) Anderson, Poor White xJoyce, Dubliners. (Fall) Joyce, Dubliners xHudson, Purple Land.
Titles sought, suggested, declined
Cerf and Klopfer tried to include several titles published by Alfred A. Knopf after they bought the Modern Library, but Knopf refused to allow any of his publications to be reprinted in the series. His standards of production and design were the highest of any major American trade publisher, and he “did not in those days care to see cheap editions published of our most distinguished books” (Knopf, letter to GBN, 4 May 1977). Knopf also had other reasons for his coolness toward the ML. He associated Cerf with Horace Liveright, whom he loathed; in particular he resented the ML edition of W. H. Hudson’s Green Mansions (90). It was Knopf’s edition of Green Mansions, published in 1916, that established the work in the United States, but Knopf did not own the copyright. Green Mansions was in the U.S. public domain because its original American publication by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1904 used imported sheets of the English edition. The U.S. Copyright Act of 1891 limited American copyright to works that were printed and bound in the U.S.; the use of imported sheets cast a work irretrievably into the U.S. public domain. When Liveright added Green Mansions to the ML he did not pay royalties to Knopf. Moreover, he reprinted it with John Galsworthy’s introduction, which had been written for the Knopf edition but does not appear to have been copyrighted. Relations between Knopf and the ML remained cool until January 1929, when a luncheon meeting organized with the help of Blanche Knopf led to friendly relations between the two firms.
Before 1929 Cerf appealed directly to several Knopf authors in an attempt to secure their support for ML editions of their works. He wrote to Joseph Hergesheimer:
It is all very well for us to advertise that our Modern Library contains books by all the great modern American writers . . . but I am extremely conscious of the fact that so long as no book of yours is on the list, there is a glaring gap that we cannot explain.” He asked whether “there is no way for us to have one of your books in the library. I find Mr. Knopf very elusive and vague on the subject of adding any volumes on which he owns the copyright to our series—a condition which I very much regret, because as you know, there are many other items besides your books on his list, which could be put in the Modern Library, to the advantage of everybody. . . . Is there not some way in which you can prevail upon Mr. Knopf to let us have one of your books?
Cerf indicated that the ML would prefer The Three Black Pennies above all others (Cerf to Hergesheimer, 30 March 1926). Hergesheimer’s standing declined in the 1930s, and Cerf did not renew his offer after relations with Knopf improved.
Another Knopf author that Cerf tried to get for the ML was Arthur Machen. He was especially interested in Machen’s The House of Souls (Knopf, 1922) or The Hill of Dreams (Knopf, 1923). During a 1926 visit to London Cerf took Machen to lunch at Claridge’s and suggested a ML edition of one of the books. Machen’s American agent indicated that both books were in the U.S. public domain but that the rights situation was complicated (Bernice Baumgarten to Cerf, 8 June 1927). Cerf indicated that Machen “is anxious to see them in the Library; he is, as usual, as you know, in need of money. However, I believe that we could not do either of these books without getting into a serious jam with Knopf, and I would do nothing about them unless we had his definite consent” (Cerf to Baumgarten, 8 June 1927). Machen also did not want to oppose Knopf in any way. He wrote: “My reason is that it was he who brought me out in your country & did everything in his power to make me popular in America; also that he has paid me extremely handsome fees for writing introductions. . . . Therefore I should not feel happy in opposing him in any matter” (Machen to Cerf, 5 July 1926). None of Machen’s books were reprinted in the ML, but he wrote an introduction to the ML edition of Smollett’s Expedition of Humphry Clinker (179). Cerf paid him $100 for the introduction, twice the ML’s usual fee.
Other works that Cerf considered adding to the series included Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, Frank Swinnerton’s Nocturne, and a volume of Edmond Rostand’s plays to include Cyrano de Bergerac, Chanticleer, and L’Aiglon. He asked John Erskine to write an introduction to Persian Letters, but the volume never appeared (Cerf to Erskine, 4 October 1926). Swinnerton’s literary agent declined the offer for Nocturne (Brandt & Brandt to Cerf, 16 October 1926), and the ML ended up publishing Cyrano de Bergerac (174) as a separate volume in 1929.
Horace M. Kallen suggested a volume of Bernard Shaw’s works. Shaw was opposed to inexpensive reprints of his plays and kept tight control of his copyrights. Cerf replied, “If you can suggest how in hell’s bells we can sign Shaw up for such a volume, you will immediately be elected Patron Saint of the Modern Library” (Cerf to Kallen, 13 October 1926). It was not until the mid-1950s, following Shaw’s death, that the ML was able to publish two collections of his plays. Shaw relaxed his opposition to inexpensive reprints on one occasion toward the end of his life. In 1946 he allowed Penguin Books to publish a million copies of his plays—ten volumes in printings of 100,000 copies each—on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday.
Henry Hoyns of Harper & Bros. suggested W. E. Woodward’s Bunk, which Harper’s had published three years earlier (Hoyns to Cerf, 15 March 1926). The Boston publisher Lewis C. Page, who had failed on more than one occasion to persuade B&L to reprint Gustav Frenssen’s novel Holyland, repeated his suggestion to the ML’s new owners (Page to ML, 17 September 1926). Page also suggested Balzac’s Physiology of Marriage for the ML. Cerf responded, “The Lord knows it is dull enough reading, but the title might make it a good seller, and there is just a chance that we will be able to make some arrangement with you for its publication late next year” (Cerf to Page, 16 February 1926). Page replied, “You are entirely right in your analysis of the literary qualities and trade appeal. It is heavy reading for Modernists, but the title is alluring, and we have a steady sale” (Page to Cerf, 19 February 1926).
Christmas gift boxes
For the 1926 Christmas season the ML packaged fifty titles in boxed sets of five volumes each. The ten boxed sets were sold primarily in department stores and were intended for “that vast army of Christmas book buyers who like to have their shopping made as simple as possible for them” (ML ad, PW, 4 September 1926, pp. 803–4). Each set was devoted to a particular theme and sold for $4.75, the same price as five volumes purchased separately. Unlike subsequent Christmas gift boxes, books in the 1926 sets appear to have been indistinguishable from ML volumes sold separately. None of the boxed sets from 1926 are known to have survived. The ten sets were:
-
Masterpieces of French Romance: Gautier, Mademoiselle de Maupin; Flaubert, Madame Bovary; Dumas, Camille; France, The Red Lily; and Maupassant, Une Vie.
-
Great English Novels: Butler, The Way of All Flesh; Hardy, The Return of the Native; Meredith, Diana of the Crossways; Brontë, Wuthering Heights; and Hudson, Green Mansions.
-
Modern Drama: Ibsen, A Doll’s House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People; Tolstoy, Redemption and Two Other Plays; Schnitzler, Anatol, Living Hours, The Green Cockatoo; O’Neill, The Moon of the Caribbees and Six Other Plays of the Sea; and Wilde, Salomé, The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windermere’s Fan.
-
Short Stories: Best Russian Short Stories; Balzac, Short Stories; Kipling, Soldiers Three; Maupassant, Love and Other Stories; and Best Ghost Stories.
-
Leading American Authors: Anderson, Poor White; Melville, Moby Dick; Cabell, Beyond Life; Dreiser, Free and Other Stories; and James, Daisy Miller; An International Episode.
-
Books of Modern Thought: The Philosophy of William James; Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra; Schopenhauer, Studies in Pessimism; Ellis, The New Spirit; and An Outline of Psychoanalysis.
-
Great Modern Poetry: Whitman, Poems; Swinburne, Poems; Dowson, Poems and Prose; Blake, Poems; and Wilde, Poems.
-
Five Great Juveniles: Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, The Hunting of the Snark; Van Loon, Ancient Man; Irish Fairy and Folk Tales, ed. Yeats; Wilde, Fairy Tales and Poems in Prose; and Stevenson, Treasure Island.
-
Belles Lettres: Pater, The Renaissance; The Art of Audrey Beardsley; A Modern Book of Criticism; Moore, Confessions of a Young Man; and Pepys, Passages from the Diary of Samuel Pepys.
-
Leading English Authors of Today: Douglas, South Wind; Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson; George, A Bed of Roses; Lawrence, Sons and Lovers; and Shaw, An Unsocial Socialist.
Ten gift boxes to choose from may have been too many, and $4.75 may have been more than many shoppers wished to spend on a gift. The boxed sets continued to be listed in the ML’s spring–summer 1927 catalog, but there were no gift boxes for the 1927 holiday season. The following year a single Christmas gift box of three ML volumes in distinctive jackets and bindings was offered at $2.85. Three gift boxes of three volumes each were offered during the 1929 Christmas season.
New titles
Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1926) 120
Anderson, Poor White (1926) 121
Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson (1926) 36c*
Wilde, De Profundis (1926) 122
D’Annunzio, Maidens of the Rocks (1926) 123
Melville, Moby Dick (1926) 124
Gourmont, Night in the Luxembourg (1926) 125
Hardy, Return of the Native (1926) 126
Defoe, Moll Flanders (1926) 127
Lewisohn, Up Stream (1926) 128
Joyce, Dubliners (1926) 129
Gissing, New Grub Street (1926) 130
*Zuleika Dobson (36) was published in the Boni & Liveright series in 1918 and discontinued around the end of 1922; Cerf and Klopfer restored it to the ML in March 1926. All families of printings in the ML are described under 1918.
Discontinued
None.
Spring
120
EMILY BRONTË. WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 1926–1969; 1978– . (ML 106)
120.1a. First printing (1926)
[within double rules] WUTHERING HEIGHTS | [rule] | BY | EMILY BRONTE [sic] | [rule] | INTRODUCTION BY | ROSE MACAULEY [sic] | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xxvi, [2], 1–390 [391–392]. [1–12]16 [13]18
[i] half title; [ii]
Jacket:
Text on front:
‘WUTHERING HEIGHTS’ was hewn in a wild workshop, with simple tools, out of homely materials. The statuary found a granite block on a solitary moor; gazing thereon, he saw how from the crag might be elicited a head, savage, swart, sinister; a form moulded with at least one element of grandeur—power. He wrought with a rude chisel, and from no model but the vision of his meditations. With time and labour, the crag took human shape; and there it stands colossal, dark, and frowning, half statue, half rock; in the former sense, terrible and goblin-like; in the latter, almost beautiful, for its colouring is of mellow grey, and moorland moss clothes it; and heath, with its blooming bells and balmy fragrance, grows faithfully close to the giant’s foot. CHARLOTTE BRONTË
ML edition printed from duplicate plates of the edition published in 1926 in Jonathan Cape’s Travellers’ Library. Published January 1926. WR 6 February 1926. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued 1969/70. Reissued 1978.
Macaulay had agreed to write an introduction to Wuthering Heights when the ML was published by B&L. The ML edition was announced for May 1925 (B&L advertisement, PW, 14 March 1925, p. 847), but the introduction failed to arrive and publication was postponed. Cerf, who had just bought the ML from Liveright, hoped to call on Macaulay when he visited England in June but was unable to see her. Shortly after his return he wrote, “Do you remember telling Horace Liveright that you would write a short introduction for the Modern Library edition of Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights”? We want to publish this volume in November, and I would therefore appreciate very much indeed, receiving this introduction within a month.” He indicated that it did not have to be longer than four or five pages and added, “. . . the usual stupendous honorarium of $50 will be sent you immediately on its receipt” (Cerf to Macaulay, 6 August 1925). Macaulay sent the introduction on 23 August 1925. After thanking her he added: “I do hope before long we may have one of your own books in the series. I think that TOLD BY AN IDIOT would make an ideal addition to the Modern Library” (Cerf to Macaulay 10 September 1925).
A slightly abridged version of Macaulay’s introduction was also included in the British edition of Wuthering Heights published in 1926 in Jonathan Cape’s Travellers’ Library. In the ML edition the first paragraph of the introduction concludes with the following three sentences:
There must be, there must always have been, something magnetic about these Irish Yorkshire parson’s daughters. One result of this is that every available fact about their personalities and lives is now familiar knowledge, together with some things that are not facts at all, such as the theory which attributes “Wuthering Heights” to the poor ineffectual dipsomaniac brother, Bramwell Brontë, who boasted to his friends that it was his work, but who, so far as has transpired, never wrote a good line of verse or prose in his life. It is supposed the only connection he had with “Wuthering Heights” was that Emily put some of his love-sick raving into the mouth of her Heathcliff.
In the Traveller’s Library introduction the paragraph ends with the words, “. . . every available fact about their personalities and lives is now familiar knowledge, together with some things which are not facts at all.”
Except for the preliminaries, ML and Travellers’ Library printings are printed from identical plates. The only difference is that the Travellers’ Library plates have signature numbers at the foot of the first page of each gathering. The typography is typical of other Travellers’ Library volumes, so the ML appears to have acquired a duplicate set of Travellers’ Library plates. The cooperative arrangement may have been worked out when Cerf was in London in the summer of 1925.
The title-page misspellings of Brontë (“Bronte”) and Macaulay (“Macauley”) were corrected in the second printing.
Blue Ribbon Books used the ML plates, including the Macaulay introduction, for a 1939 printing of Wuthering Heights in its new reprint series Triangle Books. Books in the series were clothbound and sold for 39 cents a copy.
Sales of Wuthering Heights during the first six months of 1928 placed it 72nd out of 147 ML titles. During the 18-month period May 1942–October 1943 it was solidly in the first quarter of ML titles in terms of sales. The regular ML edition slipped below the first quarter during the 12-month period November 1951–October 1952. This probably reflects a loss of sales in the academic market following the inclusion of Wuthering Heights as one of the first titles in Modern Library College Editions, a paperbound series launched in 1950 specifically for classroom use.
120.1b. Title-page spellings corrected (1927)
Title as 120.1a except lines 4 and 7: EMILY BRONTË | . . . | . . . | ROSE MACAULAY
Pagination and collation as 120.1a.
Contents as 120.1a, including First statement on p. [iv].
Variant A: Pp. [i–iv] v–xxvi, [2], 1–390 [391–396]. [1–13]16 [14]4. Contents as 120.1a except: [ii]
pub. note A6 ; [iv] manufacturing statement; [391–394] ML list; [395–396] blank. (Fall 1928)
Variant B: Pp. [i–iv] v–xxvi, [2], 1–390 [391–404]. [1–13]16 [14]8. Contents as variant A except: [391–395] ML list; [396–397] ML Giants list; [398–404] blank. (Spring 1938)
Jacket A:
Text on front:
‘WUTHERING HEIGHTS’ was hewn in a wild workshop, with simple tools, out of homely materials. The statuary found a granite block on a solitary moor; gazing thereon, he saw how from the crag might be elicited a head, savage, swart, sinister; a form moulded with at least one element of grandeur—power. He wrought with a rude chisel, and from no model but the vision of his meditations. With time and labour, the crag took human shape; and there it stands colossal, dark, and frowning, half statue, half rock; in the former sense, terrible and goblin-like; in the latter, almost beautiful, for its colouring is of mellow grey, and moorland moss clothes it; and heath, with its blooming bells and balmy fragrance, grows faithfully close to the giant’s foot. CHARLOTTE BRONTË (Fall 1927)
Jacket B:
Jacket C: Pictorial in dark bluish green (165) and black on coated cream paper with inset illustration of a house on a moor with dark bluish green sky and stars in reverse; borders in dark bluish green, lettering in black. Signed: Brienza.
Front flap:
Emily Brontë’s brooding imagination evoked as thwarted and tragic a group of human creatures as ever walked the bleak moorlands or had their existence in the dark byways of life. The barren world in which their villanies [sic] flourished forms the background for deeds as weird as they are sinister and for passions as fierce as they are persistent. Wuthering Heights is by common consent one of the most compelling novels in the English language. It is a book compact of beauty and loveliness, hate and cruelty and heartrending pathos. (Fall 1933) Note: The misspelling of “villainies” is retained on jacket flaps at least through fall 1952.
120.1c. Title page reset (c. 1940)
[
Pp. [i–iv] v–xxvi, [2], 1–390 [391–404]. [1–13]16 [14]8
Contents as 120.1b variant B except: [ii] blank; [iv] publication and manufacturing statements. (Fall 1943; fall 1947)
Jacket A: Pictorial in moderate reddish brown (43), strong green (141), strong reddish orange (35), dark gray (266) and black on coated white paper depicting a stone house and yard on a rainy moor; title in reverse with three-dimensional highlighting in black and author in black with three-dimensional highlighting in reverse on inset moderate reddish brown panel simulating parchment with curled edges. Backstrip in strong reddish orange with torchbearer and frame around title in strong green, lettering in reverse. Signed: Galdone.
Front flap as 120.1b jacket C. (Spring 1943)
Jacket B: As jacket 5 except backstrip in black, torchbearer and title panel in strong pink (2), and lettering in reverse. (Spring 1947)
120.2a. Text reset; Gettmann introduction added (1950)
WUTHERING | HEIGHTS | BY EMILY BRONTË | INTRODUCTION BY | ROYAL A. GETTMANN | Professor of English | University of Illinois | WITH WOOD ENGRAVINGS BY | FRITZ EICHENBERG | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xxxii, [1–2] 3–400. [1–12]16 [13]8 [14]16
[i] half title; [ii] blank; [iii] title; [iv] Copyright, 1950, by Random House, Inc.; v–xvi Introduction | BY ROYAL A. GETTMANN; xvii Bibliography; [xviii] genealogical table of Linton and Earnshaw families; xix–xxvi Biographical Notice | OF | ELLIS AND ACTON BELL signed p. xxvi: CURRER BELL | [within square brackets] Charlotte Brontë | September 19, 1850.; xxvii–xxxii Editor’s Preface | TO THE NEW EDITION OF | Wuthering Heights signed p. xxxii: CURRER BELL | [within square brackets] Charlotte Brontë; [1] fly title; [2] blank; 3–400 text.
Variant: Pagination as 120.2a. [1]16 [2–5]32 [6]24 [7]32 [8]16. Contents as 120.2b except: [iv] COPYRIGHT, 1950, BY RANDOM HOUSE, INC.
Jacket A: As 120.1c jacket B. (Fall 1952)
Jacket B: Fujita pictorial jacket in black, deep purplish red (256) and brilliant yellow (83) on coated white paper with silhouette of barren tree and birds in reverse and lettering in deep purplish red, brilliant yellow and in reverse, all against black background.
Front flap:
Though Wuthering Heights was written by a woman who remained a recluse all of her life, it is one of the most powerful and passionate novels in the English language. The romantic story of the destruction caused by the frustrated love of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, set against the moors of England, creates a rare blend of violence and beauty.
Originally published 1950 in MLCE and shortly thereafter in the regular ML. ML edition (pp. xxvii‑xxxii, [1]–400) printed from plates originally made for the Illustrated Modern Library with pagination of the Editor’s Preface revised. In ML and MLCE printings Charlotte Brontë’s Biographical Notice is reset in smaller type to match that of Gettman’s introduction. ML and MLCE printings include Eichenberg’s wood-engraved chapter heads that were made for the Book-of-the-Month Club and the Illustrated Modern Library (IML 18) but not the full-page wood engravings.
The Illustrated Modern Library edition of Wuthering Heights (IML 18), published in November 1946, was printed from plates made from a new typesetting. The 1943 Book-of-the-Month Club edition of Wuthering Heights had a wood-engraved chapter heading for the first chapter only. For the Illustrated Modern Library edition Eichenberg made 20 additional wood engravings for the chapter heads. Since Wuthering Heights consists of 34 chapters, several of the wood engravings were used twice and one (pp. 38, 141, 248) is used three times.
New plates made for the Illustrated Modern Library were usually used for subsequent printings of the regular ML edition. This appears to have been the intention, since the preliminaries for the regular ML edition of Wuthering Heights, including Macaulay’s introduction, were reset to match the rest of the text. However, the original plates were used when the regular ML edition of Wuthering Heights (120.1c) was reprinted in fall 1947. No regular ML printings with the reset text have been seen prior to 120.2a, when the Illustrated Modern Library plates were used with a new introduction by Royal A. Gettmann.
Gettmann received $150 for his introduction (Stein to Gettmann, 24 January 1950).
120.2b. Reissue format (1978)
[wood engraving of rooftop and barren tree] | WUTHERING | HEIGHTS | BY EMILY BRONTË | INTRODUCTION BY | ROYAL A. GETTMANN | WITH WOOD ENGRAVINGS BY | FRITZ EICHENBERG | [
Pagination as 120.2a. Perfect bound.
Contents as 120.2a except: [iv] FIRST MODERN LIBRARY EDITION, AUGUST 1950 | Copyright 1943, 1946, 1950 by Random House, Inc. | Copyright renewed 1971, 1974, 1978 by Random House, Inc.; [xvii] A Selected Bibliography [revised]. Note: The three copyright dates apply to Eichenberg’s wood engraving at the head of chapter 1, first used in the 1943 edition of Wuthering Heights published by Random House for the Book-of-the-Month Club; the 20 additional wood-engraved chapter headings he made for the 1946 Illustrated Modern Library edition; and Gettmann’s introduction.
Jacket: Non-pictorial on kraft paper with lettering in dark reddish brown (44) and torchbearer in deep brown (56). Designed by R. D. Scudellari.
Front flap as 120.2b.
Published fall 1978 at $5.95. ISBN 0-394-60458-X.
121
SHERWOOD ANDERSON. POOR WHITE. 1926–1939. (ML 115)
121. First printing (1926)
[within double rules] POOR WHITE | [rule] | BY | SHERWOOD ANDERSON | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–viii, [1–2] 3–371 [372–380]. [1]18 [2–12]16
[i] half title; [ii]
Variant A: Pp. [i–iv] v–viii, [1–2] 3–371 [372–376]. [1–12]16. Contents as 121 except: [373–376] incomplete ML list; First statement retained on p. [iv]. (Fall 1925) Note: Priority with 121 not established. The “first printing” of 8,000 copies noted in RH records may have represented both printings with fall 1925 lists. If so they were probably placed on sale simultaneously.
Variant B: Pp. [i–iv] v–viii [ix–x], [2], [1–2] 3–371 [372]. [1–12]16. Contents as 121 except: [ii] pub. note about ML edition of Winesburg, Ohio; [iv] manufacturing statement; [ix] dedication: TO | TENNESSEE MITCHELL ANDERSON; [x] blank; [1] part title: BOOK I; [2] blank; [1] fly title; [372] blank. Note: Variant B includes the dedication to Tennessee Mitchell Anderson that was omitted from earlier ML printings at Anderson’s request, and the printing described transposes the fly and part titles. Some printings of variant B correct the order with the fly title on p. [1] and the part title on p. [1].
Jacket A:
Text on front:
POOR WHITE tells the story of the American power that dots a vast valley with cities overnight, and builds a network of industry, making quick men rich and fearful men poor. The hero works for this force although he doesn’t like or understand it. He is a dreamy, rather stupid “poor white” boy who “piddles around” with little mechanical tricks while he is a bored telegraph operator—until an invention made [sic] him suddenly rich and famous. Then comes the “poor white’s” love, and again the forces that twist men make Hugh McVey’s story a wild and terrible one, bigger than the mere story of one man. If, as the critics have said, Anderson’s WINESBURG, OHIO, marks the point of our literary adolescence, POOR WHITE testifies to our artistic majority. It transcends the limitations of his earlier books and develops their latent qualities the promise of his previous work is fulfilled. (Fall 1925)
Jacket B:
Front flap:
As the interpreter of Middle Western life, Sherwood Anderson holds a supreme position among American novelists. Poor White, like Winesburg, Ohio (No. 104 in the Modern Library), became immediately upon its appearance the forerunner of a vital school of contemporary writing. This story of new forces, creating cities overnight, making men rich and powerful or poor and rejected, takes its origin directly from our own soil and from the American way of life with all the naturalness and humanity for which Anderson has become world celebrated. (Spring 1934)
Originally published by B. W. Huebsch, 1920; Huebsch merged with Viking Press, August 1925. ML edition (pp. [1]–371) printed from Huebsch/Viking plates with the dedication omitted in early printings. Published February 1926. WR 13 February 1926. First printing: 8,000 copies. Discontinued fall 1939.
When Anderson became a B&L author in April 1925, Liveright expressed interest in taking over his earlier books from Huebsch and including Poor White in the ML in the fall (Liveright to Anderson, 11 April 1925; Anderson Papers, Newberry Library). A clause in Anderson’s contract with B&L stated: “The publisher further agrees to immediately endeavor to purchase from B. W. Huebsch, if the author so advises in writing, the reprint rights for Poor White for The Modern Library” (contract dated 10 April 1925; Anderson Papers). Liveright sold the ML before Poor White could be added to the series. It is not known whether reprint rights for the ML edition were negotiated before or after the sale.
For writing the introduction Anderson received a complete set of ML books instead of the usual $50 fee (Cerf to Anderson, 14 November 1925). He wrote in the introduction: “There is this book, ‘Poor White’—now to be published in The Modern Library, tricked out in a new dress, going to call on new people. The Modern Library is something magnificent. Long rows of names—illustrious names. My book, ‘Poor White,’ feels a little like a countryman going to live in a great modern sophisticated city” (ML ed., p. vi).
The dedication to Tennessee Mitchell Anderson, from whom Anderson was divorced in 1924, was omitted from the ML edition at his request (Anderson to Cerf, undated but before 14 November 1925). The dedication was inadvertently restored in later printings (see variant B).
Sales of Poor White during the first six months of 1928 placed it 85th out of 147 ML titles. Printings of the ML edition totaled 15,000 copies by April 1930, including printings of 4,000 copies (August 1927), 1,000 copies (August 1929), and 2,000 copies (April 1930).
Also in the Modern Library
Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio (1921–1973) 96
122
OSCAR WILDE. DE PROFUNDIS. 1926–1934. (ML 117)
122. First printing (1926)
[within double rules] DE PROFUNDIS | [rule] | BY | OSCAR WILDE | [rule] | EDITED, WITH A PREFATORY | DEDICATION BY | ROBERT ROSS | [rule] | INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY | FRANK HARRIS | [rule] | [
Pp. [26], xiii–[xiv], 1–154 [155–164]. [1–6]16
[1] half title; [2]
Contents: Four Letters Written from Reading Prison – De Profundis – Two Letters to the Daily Chronicle on Prison Life.
Variant A: Pp. [28], 1–154 [155–164]. [1]16(±4) [2–6]16. Contents as 122 except: [26] repetition of p. [7]; [27] CONTENTS.; [28] blank; [155–158] ML list; [159–163] ML subject index; [164] blank; First statement retained on p. [4]. (Spring 1927) Note: Page numeral “xiii” removed from plates; the plate for p. [7] was misimposed (and probably transposed with the plate for p. [26]) resulting in the cancellation and reprinting of the fourth leaf of the first gathering.
Variant B: Pp. [28], 1–154 [155–156]. [1–5]16 [6]12. Contents as variant A except: [2]
pub. note D5 ; [26] blank; [155–156] blank.
Jacket A:
Text on front:
“De Profundis” and “Papers On Prison Life,” included in this volume, were, with “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” the last writings of Oscar Wilde. The original manuscript consists of eighty close-written pages on blue stamped prison foolscap paper; it was written at intervals during the last six months of the author’s imprisonment, when courage and hope had been crushed from his soul, and his sense of grievance against Lord Alfred Douglas had been fanned to fever heat.
Frank Harris’ illuminating introduction appears exclusively in the Modern Library edition of “De Profundis.” (Spring 1926)
Jacket B:
Originally published in U.S. by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905; revised edition with additional matter published by Putnam, 1909. ML edition (pp. [17]–154) printed from plates of revised Putnam edition with frontispiece portrait of Wilde omitted, page numerals removed from preliminaries, and table of contents revised to include Harris’s introduction. Published April 1926. WR 15 May 1926. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued as a separate volume, fall 1934; the entire contents, including Harris’s introduction and the prefatory dedication, were added to Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray (1.2b).
Sales of De Profundis during the first six months of 1928 placed it 62nd out of 147 ML titles.
Also in the Modern Library
Wilde, Fairy Tales and Poems in Prose (1918–1931) 58
Wilde, An Ideal Husband, A Woman of No Importance (1920–1931) 77
Wilde, Intentions (1921–1928) 93
Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray (1917–1934; 1963–1971; 1985–1991) 1
Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray & De Profundis (1934–1963) 1.2b
Wilde, Plays of Oscar Wilde (1932–1971; 1980– ) 241
Wilde, Poems (1917–1931) 19
Wilde, Poems and Fairy Tales (1932–1970) 242
Wilde, Salomé, The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windermere’s Fan (1920–1931) 76
123
GABRIELE D’ANNUNZIO. THE MAIDENS OF THE ROCKS. 1926–1928. (ML 118)
123. First printing (1926)
[within double rules] THE MAIDENS OF | THE ROCKS | [rule] | BY | GABRIELE D’ANNUNZIO | [rule] | TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN BY | ANNETTA HALLIDAY-ANTONA | AND | GIUSEPPE ANTONA | [rule] | [
Pp. [4], [1] 2–296 [297–300]. [1–9]16 [10]8
[1] half title; [2]
Jacket:
Text on front:
This romance originally published under the title of “The Virgins of the Rocks”, was written by D’Annunzio when his position as the greatest modern Italian master of prose was already secure. Other of his novels in the Modern Library series are “The Flame of Life”, (volume number 65), “The Child of Pleasure”, (volume number 98), and “The Triumph of Death”, (volume number 112). (Spring 1926)
Originally published in U.S. by George H. Richmond & Son, 1898, and subsequently by L. C. Page & Co., 1902. ML edition (pp. [1]–296) printed from Richmond/Page plates. Publication announced for May 1926. WR 16 October 1926. First (and only) printing: 2,000 copies. Discontinued fall 1928.
Lewis C. Page promoted reprints of his firm’s publications so aggressively that Liveright once told him: “Without any offense to you, it appears to us that you are trying to bludgeon us to take titles that are absolutely unsuitable for us and undesirable so that we may have the privilege of continuing others on our list that are. For the time being, at least, we do not even care to add another D’Annunzio to our list, although some time next year we might very gladly consider The Intruder or The Maidens of the Rocks” (Liveright to Page, 10 July 1924; RH box 128, L. C. Page & Co. file 7). Page took this statement as a firm commitment on Liveright’s part to include both The Maidens of the Rocks and The Intruder in the ML. When Cerf and Klopfer took over the series he demanded that they pay advances of $240 against royalties of 8 cents a copy for each title. Cerf and Klopfer acquiesced and paid him $480 with the intention of publishing one title in 1926 and the other the following year (Page to ML, 2 September 1925; ML to Page, 10 September 1925).
The Maidens of the Rocks sold poorly and Cerf informed Page at the beginning of 1927 that no Page title would be added to the ML that year. Page responded with a pitch for The Intruder, noting that it was part of the trilogy that included The Child of Pleasure and The Flame of Life and corresponded with them “in motif and sex appeal.” He described The Maidens of the Rocks as “a sweet, pleasant, agreeable enough story, but does not have the same appeal as is expected by the readers of the other D’Annunzio stories. With us it has always run far behind any of the other four books in sales; whereas, THE INTRUDER has always run neck and neck in demand with THE CHILD OF PLEASURE, and almost up to the two leaders—THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH and THE FLAME OF LIFE.” He concluded: “D’Annunzio’s following want sex stuff. THE INTRUDER and the other three volumes are sex novels. D’Annunzio’s following do not want children’s stories. THE MAIDENS OF THE ROCKS is a childish story” (Page to Cerf, 7 February 1927).
Cerf wrote later, “I very much doubt whether we will ever include ‘The Intruder’ in the Modern Library. . . . We are inclined to mark up the advance royalty we paid you on this title as a loss. I have a strong feeling that four D’Annunzio titles are too many as it is in a library with a total of less than 150 books” (Cerf to Page, 15 November 1927).
Also in the Modern Library
D’Annunzio, Flame of Life (1918–1936) 62
D’Annunzio, Triumph of Death (1923–1931) 102
D’Annunzio, Child of Pleasure (1925–1931) 113
124
HERMAN MELVILLE. MOBY DICK. 1926–1976. (ML 119)
124a. First printing (1926)
[within double rules] MOBY DICK | [rule] | BY | HERMAN MELVILLE | [rule] | INTRODUCTION BY | RAYMOND WEAVER | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xxi [xxii], 1–565 [566–570]. [1–18]16 [19]8
[i] half title; [ii]
Variant: Pagination and collation as 124a. Contents as 124a except: [ii]
pub. note A5 ; [iv] Introduction Copyright, 1926, by | THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC. | [short double rule]; [567–570] ML list. (Fall 1927) Note: Copyright statement reset with first line entirely in italic.
Jacket A:
Text on front:
“In this wild, beautiful romance, Herman Melville seems to have spoken the very secret of the Sea, and to have drawn into his tale all the magic, all the sadness, all the wild joy of many waters. It stands quite alone; it strikes a note no other sea writer has ever struck. It is a work not only unique of its kind, but a great achievement—the expression of an imagination that rises to the highest, and so is amongst the world’s great works of art.” —John Masefield (The Modern Library edition of “Moby Dick” is complete and unabridged). (Fall 1926)
Jacket B:
Jacket C: Pictorial in strong red (12) and black on cream paper with inset black-and-white illustration by Rockwell Kent of a ship under full sail; title and borders in strong red with title superimposed over Kent illustration, other lettering in black. (Spring 1932) Note: Kent’s illustration was created for the 3-volume limited edition of Moby Dick published by Lakeside Press in 1930. Later that year Random House published a one-volume trade edition printed from plates made from a new typesetting; the MLG edition (G65) printed from RH plates appeared in 1944. Kent’s illustration appears on p. 81 of RH/MLG printings. The reproduction of the illustration on jacket C is slightly cropped at the foot.
Front flap:
Of the comparatively few books in the world’s literature about which it is safe to foretell the verdict of posterity, Moby Dick stands in the first rank. Universally recognized as one of the greatest of all tales of the sea, it will live by its own surge and elemental force. This mighty history of the pursuit of the vindictive monster, upon which Herman Melville lavished all the resources of his imagination and Jovian hate, is the symbol and the substance of reckless adventure and indomitable courage. (Spring 1939)
ML edition printed from plates made from a new typesetting. Published June 1926. WR not found. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued 1976/77.
Melville was regarded as a minor American author before the 1920s. The Library of Congress classification for American Literature, the PS’s, published in 1915, assigns a range of 49 numbers each to nineteenth-century American authors who were perceived as first rank. Emerson and Hawthorne have ranges of 49 numbers, as does John Greenleaf Whittier. Works by and about Hawthorne are classified within the range PS 1850‑1898, for example. In contrast, Melville is assigned a range of nine numbers (PS 2380‑2388). This reflects Melville’s reputation in 1915, when he was regarded primarily as a minor author of South Sea romances like Typee and Omoo. Moby-Dick sold poorly when it was published in 1851 and was out of print by 1887.
The critical reevaluation of Melville began in the 1920s with the publication of Raymond Weaver’s biography, Herman Melville: Mariner and Mystic (George H. Doran, 1921), followed by the first publication of Billy Budd, a major work that Melville left in semi-final form. Weaver edited the manuscript and published it in Billy Budd and Other Prose Pieces (London: Constable, 1924); a revised version appeared four years later in Shorter Novels of Herman Melville (Horace Liveright, 1928).
Weaver had been one of Cerf’s favorite professors at Columbia. His biography of Melville was published a year or two after Cerf graduated with a degree in journalism. In his posthumously published autobiography, based on oral history interviews conducted by Columbia University’s Oral History Office, Cerf states: “Raymond Weaver’s course in Comparative Literature was extraordinary. Inside of three weeks this man had even the athletes reading Dante and Cervantes and Melville . . . and discussing them with deep interest. He was a persuasive teacher and a wonderfully nice man” (Cerf, At Random, pp. 17–18).
Weaver wrote introductions to two editions of Moby-Dick that were published as the revival of interest in Melville was getting under way. His introduction to the edition published by Albert & Charles Boni in 1925 is completely different from the introduction he wrote the following year for the ML.
The ML may have tried to position its edition of Moby-Dick to appeal both to readers looking for escapist romance and those who appreciated the darker, allegorical aspects of Melville’s work. The quote from Masefield on the front panel of jacket A refers to “this wild, beautiful romance” and to Melville’s having “drawn into his tale all the magic, all the sadness, all the wild joy of many waters.” In contrast, Weaver’s introduction refers to Melville’s having chosen “as a symbol of the malice and terror that he felt at the core of existence . . . a whale of leperous [sic] whiteness” and to “Melville’s dark intent” (p. vii).
Sales of Moby Dick during the first six months of 1928 placed it 20th out of 147 ML titles. During the 18-month period May 1942‑October 1943 it was in the middle of the first quarter of ML titles in terms of sales. It ranked 29th out of 360 titles during the 12-month period November 1951–October 1952. A complete list of ML printings of Moby Dick from January 1931 through October 1944 shows a surge of demand following American entry into the Second World War. There were eleven printings between 1931 and 1941 totaling 26,000 copies (an average of 2,360 copies a year) and seven printings between 1942 and 1944 totaling 23,000 copies (an average of 7,660 copies a year).
Cerf and Klopfer used the ML plates for a 1931 printing of Moby Dick under the imprint Carlton House, which was used mainly for dollar “specials” intended for sale in department stores. The 1931 Carlton House titles included at least 13 titles printed from ML plates. In a departure from the usual format, the 1931 titles used good quality paper, were bound in green, blue, or maroon leather, had gilt tops, and were sold in black slipcases at a retail price of $2.50. The ML printed 500 copies of each title. The books were placed in leading department stores in major cities as an experiment. Most of the stores did not do well with the books. One of the ML’s sales representatives indicated that they would have been all right before the Crash, but 1931 “was one of those years when even $2.50 was a high priced book” (Carl Smalley to Cerf, 18 August 1932).
The ML also published Moby Dick (G65) in 1944 in the Giants series, using plates of the RH edition illustrated by Rockwell Kent.
All ML editions of Melville’s novel, including the Giant, use the spelling “Moby Dick” on the title page and throughout the text instead of the conventional hyphenated spelling “Moby-Dick.” Most editions of the work, including the 1851 first printing and the 1983 Library of America edition, use the hyphen, but there are other reputable editions that omit it.
The Modern Library paperback edition, published in 2000 from a new typesetting with Kent’s illustrations and an introduction by Elizabeth Hardwick, is inconsistent. The title is Moby-Dick or, The Whale, but the biographical note (pp. v–vi) refers to Melville’s novel as Moby Dick, without the hyphen. Hardwick’s introduction uses the hyphenated form when referring to the title of the book and the unhyphenated form when referring to the whale. The Library of America edition (1983), which includes Redburn and White-Jacket as well as Moby-Dick, uses the hyphen as part of the title, and the running heads on verso pages (pp. 774–1406) are MOBY-DICK. Running heads on recto pages record chapter titles. Chapter 41 is titled “Moby Dick” without the hyphen, with the result that running heads on recto pages of Chapter 41 (pp. 985–991) are MOBY DICK.
124b. Title page reset (c. 1940)
Moby Dick | BY | HERMAN MELVILLE | Introduction by RAYMOND WEAVER | [
Pagination and collation as 124a.
Contents as 124a except: [ii] blank; [iv] INTRODUCTION COPYRIGHT, 1926, | BY THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC.; [567–570] blank.
Jacket: Pictorial in moderate blue (182), dark grayish yellow (91) and black on coated white paper with inset black-and-white illustration by Rockwell Kent of Ahab with sextant; reprinted and slightly cropped from the 1930 edition of Moby Dick published by RH and reprinted in MLG (p. 715); lettering in reverse against moderate blue background ruled in dark grayish yellow. Designed by Paul Galdone, March 1940; unsigned.
Front flap as 124a jacket C. (Fall 1947)
124c. Howard introduction added (1950)
MOBY | DICK | OR, | THE WHALE | [rule] | By Herman Melville | [rule] | INTRODUCTION BY Leon Howard | Professor of English, The University of California | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xxxi [xxxii], 1–565 [566–576]. [1–19]16
[i] half title; [ii] blank; [iii] title; [iv] Copyright, 1950, by Random House, Inc.; v–xvi INTRODUCTION | By Leon Howard; xvii BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE; [xviii] blank; [xix] CONTENTS; [xx] dedication; [xxi–xxii] ETYMOLOGY; [xxiii]–xxxi EXTRACTS; [xxxii] blank; 1–[566] text; [567–572] ML list; [573–574] ML Giants list; [575–576] blank. (Spring 1952)
Variant: Pagination as 124c. [1]16 [2–8]32 [9]16 [10]32 [11]16. Contents as 124c except: [iv] COPYRIGHT, 1950, BY RANDOM HOUSE, INC.; [567–574] ML list; [575–576] ML Giants list. (Spring 1967)
Jacket A: As 124b. (Spring 1953)
Front flap revised:
In the little more than one hundred years since Moby Dick was first published, critics have probed its inexhaustible symbolic treasures. The general reader has also found great wealth as he participated in the hunt for the white whale. He encountered an adventure story of magnificent sweep and suspense. From its incomparably effective opening sentence, “Call me Ishmael,” to its dramatic end when the white whale triumphs and all hands, except Ishmael, perish, Melville makes everyone—the reader most of all—share Captain Ahab’s obsessive belief that he alone can destroy the white, evil leviathan. Moby Dick is more than a tale of the pursuit of a monster; it is an allegory of relentless hatred and evil redeemed by man’s indomitable courage. (Fall 1954)
Jacket B: Fujita pictorial jacket in deep blue (179), deep reddish orange (36) and black on coated white paper with inset wood engraving of whale destroying a whaling boat; lettering in deep blue, deep reddish orange and black, all against white background.
Front flap:
“Moby Dick possesses an unusual, if not unique, literary form which cannot be compared to that of the conventional novel, drama or travel book. It is a realistic story of life aboard a whaling vessel, a romance of adventure and strange characters, a drama of heroic determination and conflict and a technical treatise on whaling. . . . Because of its unconventional complexity, it is a disturbing book. . . . Like all great books, Moby Dick has the potentiality of enriching itself with the substance of each new reader’s emotions and ideas, and it has grown greater in its implications with the passage of time.” —from the Introduction by Leon Howard
Originally published with the Howard introduction in MLCE (1950) and subsequently in the regular ML. Professor Austin Warren of the University of Michigan was originally invited to write the introduction. He agreed to a deadline of 30 March and a $200 fee but withdrew two days before it was due, pleading illness and expressing dissatisfaction with the fee compared to the royalty offered by the competing series Rinehart Editions (Albert Erskine to Warren, 26 January 1950; Warren to Erskine, 28 March 1950). Erskine turned to Leon Howard, then at Northwestern University, who agreed to write the introduction for the $200 fee (Erskine to Howard, 31 March 1950).
Melville’s dedication to Nathaniel Hawthorne, omitted from earlier ML printings, is included in 124c.
124d. Title-page device reset (1968/69)
Title as 124c except line 10: [
Pagination, collation and contents as 124c variant. (Spring 1967) Note: Torchbearer K was first used in fall 1968; ML lists were not updated after spring 1967.
Jacket: As 124c jacket B.
Also in the Modern Library
Melville, Moby Dick, illustrated by Rockwell Kent (Giant, 1944–1962; 1982– ) G65
Melville, Selected Writings (Giant, 1952– ) G80
125
REMY DE GOURMONT. A NIGHT IN THE LUXEMBOURG. 1926–1932. (ML 120)
125. First printing (1926)
[within double rules] A NIGHT IN THE | LUXEMBOURG | [rule] | BY | REMY DE GOURMONT | [rule] | PREFACE AND APPENDIX | BY | ARTHUR RANSOME | [rule] | [
Pp. [1–8] 9–215 [216–224]. [1–7]16
[1] half title; [2]
Variant: Pp. [1–8] 9–215 [216]. [1–6]16 [7]12. Contents as 125 except: [2]
pub. note D5 ; [4] manufacturing statement; [216] blank.
Jacket A:
Text on front:
This book, at once criticism and romance, is the best introduction to the works of one of the finest intellects of our time. In France and in England it created a sensation, but for every prurient mind that, distorting the book’s intent, greeted it with accusations of indecency and blasphemy, there were a dozen readers who appreciated the depth and the nobility of M. de Gourmont’s philosophy. n “A Night in the Luxembourg” is for the intelligent reader of our generation what “Mademoiselle de Maupin” was for the generation of Swinburne—“a golden book of spirit and sense.” (Spring 1926)
Jacket B:
Originally published in U.S. by John W. Luce & Co., 1912; new bibliographical edition published by Luce, 1919. ML edition (pp. [5]–215) printed from plates of the 1919 Luce edition. Publication announced for July 1926. WR 21 August 1926. First printing: 8,000 copies. Discontinued 1 January 1933.
Edmund Wilson described Gourmont as “the most distinguished critical champion of the [Symbolist] movement” (Axel’s Castle, p. 22).
Cerf initially offered Luce royalties of 2 cents a copy (Cerf to John W. Luce & Co., 14 October 1925). In the end the ML paid royalties of 4 cents a copy. There was a second printing of 2,000 copies in 1928 and two additional printings of 1,000 copies each in 1930 and 1931. A Night in the Luxembourg was listed in 1931 as one of the ML’s worst-selling titles (“Notes on the Modern Library,” RH box 117, Publicity folder).
Ransome’s appendix on Remy de Gourmont was originally published in Fortnightly Review (June 1912).
Also in the Modern Library
Gourmont, A Virgin Heart (1927–1932) 141
126
THOMAS HARDY. THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE. 1926–1970. (ML 121)
126a. First printing (1926)
[within double rules] THE RETURN | OF THE NATIVE | [rule] | BY | THOMAS HARDY | [rule] | [
Pp. [6], xxxi–xxxiii [xxxiv], [1–2] 3–506 [507–518]. [1–16]16 [17]8
[1] half title; [2]
Jacket:
Text on front:
In this novel—which the editors of the Modern Library consider one of the greatest in the English language—Thomas Hardy reaches the high water mark of his glorious genius. There are scenes in this book, and characters, that will burn themselves into the memory of the reader, never to be forgotten; passages of writing whose sheer beauty is unsurpassed in all literature. “The Return of the Native” is dominated by the tragic overtones of the Hardy conviction of inevitability—the powerlessness of man before his fate. (Spring 1926)
Originally published in U.S. by Henry Holt & Co., 1878. New bibliographical edition with Hardy’s 1895 Preface and map of Hardy’s Wessex published by Harper & Brothers, 1895; plates used for successive Harper printings, including a 1922 printing in Harper’s Modern Classics. ML edition (pp. [5]–[509]) printed from Harper plates. Published August 1926. WR 20 November 1926. First printing: 7,000 copies. Discontinued 1970/71.
The Return of the Native was the fourth best-selling title in the ML during the first six months of 1928. It ranked low in the first quarter of ML titles in terms of sales during the 18-month period May 1942–October 1943 and the 12-month period November 1951–October 1952.
The ML paid Harper’s royalties of 4 cents a copy. Sales of the ML edition totaled 42,543 copies by December 1930. Printings between August 1931 and November 1939 totaled at least 24,000 copies.
126b. Title page reset (1927)
[within double rules] THE RETURN OF | THE NATIVE | [rule] | BY | THOMAS HARDY | [rule] | [
Pp. [12], [1–2] 3–506 [507–508]. [1–16]16 [17]4
[1] half title; [2]
Jacket A:
Jacket B: Pictorial expressionist jacket in light brown (57) and dark gray on tan paper depicting a male figure walking through a stylized landscape; lettering in dark gray. Signed: Hynd. (Spring 1929) Note: The ML experimented with several pictorial jackets in 1929 in connection with three boxed sets of three titles each that were intended for sale as Christmas gifts. The boxed sets, which were sold primarily in department stores, were Three Great French Romances, Three Great Renaissance Romances, and Three Great Modern Novels. Hynd’s jackets for each title in the Three Great Modern Novels gift box—Butler, Way of All Flesh (13.1d jacket B) and Dostoyevsky, Brothers Karamazov (171.1a jacket B) in addition to The Return of the Native—were exceptional examples of expressionist graphics. Their use was confined to the 1929 gift box and they were never used on copies of the books sold separately.
126c. Preliminaries repaginated; printed from duplicate set of plates (1929)
Title as 126b.
Pp. [i–iv] v–ix [x], [2], [1–2] 3–506 [507–508]. [1–16]16 [17]4
[i] half title; [ii]
Jacket A:
Front flap:
Kinship with nature and tenderness with human frailty characterize Thomas Hardy’s brooding and powerful novel, The Return of the Native. He sets his stage on the heaths and in the villages of his beloved Wessex and unfolds a drama that becomes the living symbol for the universal struggle of existence. His characters have the solidity of the landscape against which they enact their tragic fates, and if one stands out above the others, she is Eustacia Vye, as memorable a woman as life or the art of Thomas Hardy could create. (Spring 1934)
Jacket B: Pictorial, probably a smaller version of 126d jacket. Designed by Paul Galdone, October 1938; probably unsigned. (Not seen)
The Harper plates used for ML printings through 1928 had become badly worn and Klopfer decided that the ML could not make another printing from them. He asked Harper’s for their “other set [of plates] so we can do a decent looking job” (Klopfer to Harper & Bros., 16 May 1929). Harper’s promised that a new set of electros would be ready by 21 June (Harper & Bros. to Klopfer, 13 June 1929). The ML went to press later that month with a new printing of 4,000 copies.
There are minor differences between the two sets of plates in addition to the pagination of the preliminaries. The plates used for 126a–b include signatures, though 126a–b are not printed as signed. The plates used for 126c–d do not have signatures. On p. 146, line 5, “lost their charm” appears correctly in 126a–b and incorrectly as “lost there charm” in 126c–d. On p. 201, lines 24–25, the sentence “Now I’ll wish you good morning” is broken at the end of line 24 after “you” in 126a–b and after “good” in 126c–d. There are probably other differences as well. When a reader in 1931 called the ML’s attention to the error on p. 146, the ML informed Harper’s but the plates were not corrected.
126d. Title page reset (1940)
The Return of | the Native | by Thomas Hardy | [
Pagination and collation as 126c.
Contents as 126c except: [ii] blank; [iv] publication and manufacturing statements.
Variant: Pp. [i–iv] v–ix [x], [2], [1–2] 3–506 [507–516]. [1–16]16 [17]8. Contents as 126d except: [509–514] ML list; [515–516] ML Giants list. (Spring 1944)
Jacket: Pictorial in dark grayish brown (62), medium gray (265) and black on cream paper with inset illustration of a stone bridge over a stream; lettering in reverse and black, all against medium gray background and within three dark grayish brown frames. Designed by Paul Galdone; unsigned.
Front flap as 126c jacket A. (Spring 1940)
There were plans in 1950 to include The Return of the Native in MLCE. Albert Guerard was invited to write the introduction (ML to Guerard, 30 June 1950), but he declined on the grounds that he had just written an introduction for the competing series Rinehart Editions. The ML then approached Donald Davidson of Vanderbilt University, who initially declined because of other commitments. The ML extended the deadline, and Davidson accepted the assignment. He submitted his introduction in spring 1951 and received the ML’s $150 fee. However, The Return of the Native never appeared in MLCE, perhaps because of the competing Rinehart edition. Davidson’s introduction does not appear to have been used in any form.
Also in the Modern Library
Hardy, Jude the Obscure (1927–1990) 145
Hardy, Mayor of Casterbridge (1917–1971) 17
Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1932–1971; 1979–1986) 234
127
DANIEL DEFOE. MOLL FLANDERS. 1926–1970; 1985–1991. (ML 122)
127.1a. First printing (1926)
[within double rules] THE | FORTUNES and MISFORTUNES | OF THE FAMOUS | MOLL FLANDERS | [rule] | BY | DANIEL DEFOE | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–ix [x], 1–328 [329–342]. [1–11]16
[i] half title; [ii]
Variant: Pp. [i–iv] v–ix [x], 1–328 [329–334]. [1–10]16 [11]12. Contents as 127.1a except: [ii]
pub. note A4 ; [329–332] ML list; [333–334] blank. (Spring 1927) Note: First statement retained on 1927 printing.
Jacket A:
Text on front:
“Never before had I seen so much candour in print, with the exception of the Bible. So I judged ‘Moll Flanders’ to be a second Bible that all true believers should study with profit and reverence. How much more to be preferred is this simple candour of Defoe’s great novel to the suggestiveness in some of our present-day writings!” —W. H. Davies (Fall 1926) n (The Modern Library edition of “Moll Flanders” is complete and unabridged)
Jacket B:
ML edition printed from plates made from a new typesetting. Published September 1926. WR not found. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued 1970; reissued 1985–1991.
Sales of Moll Flanders during the first six months of 1928 placed it 52nd out of 147 ML titles. During the 18-month period May 1942–October 1943 it was in the third quarter of ML titles in terms of sales. It did not rank among the 100 best-selling title in the regular ML during November 1951–October 1952.
127.1b. Title page reset (1933)
[within double rules] THE | FORTUNES and MISFORTUNES | OF THE FAMOUS | MOLL FLANDERS | The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, | Who was Born in Newgate, and during a Life of Threescore Years, | besides her Childhood, was Twelve Years a Whore, five Times a Wife | (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Years a Thief, Eight | Years a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv’d Honest, | and dy’d a Penitent. Written from her own Memorandums. . . . | [rule] | BY | DANIEL DEFOE | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–ix [x], 1–328 [329–334]. [1–10]16 [11]8 [12]4
Contents as 127.1a variant except: [ii]
Jacket A:
Front flap:
Born with the most rudimentary kind of moral sense, Moll Flanders made a career of harlotry, thievery and penitence. The book of her fortunes and misfortunes, her high misdemeanors and amorous delinquencies, remains today, as it was two hundred years ago, the liveliest and most candid record of a bawd’s progress on the primrose path. The looseness of Moll’s life in folly and wickedness points the moral that the wages of sin need not be punishment and death; sometimes penitence alone redeems the most versatile sinner. (Fall 1933)
Jacket B: Pictorial in grayish yellow green (122), strong orange (50) and black on coated white paper depicting a woman with parasol and a man in background with an eyeglass and walking stick; lettering in black. Designed by Paul Galdone, October 1937; signed.
Front flap as jacket A. (Spring 1939)
There was a fall 1939 printing of 127.1b after the ML’s larger format was introduced. Not all ML titles could be switched immediately to the new format since jacket art that was not being replaced had to be adapted to the larger format. The two printings in spring and fall 1939 were probably small ones. The fall 1940 printing described under 127.1c was probably the first in the Blumenthal format. Copies of the fall 1939 printing in the balloon cloth format have been seen with the remainder stamp of a red star on the rear endpaper.
127.1c. Title page reset (1940)
THE FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES | OF THE FAMOUS | Moll Flanders | Who was Born in Newgate, and during a Life of Three- | score Years, besides her Childhood, was Twelve Years a | Whore, five Times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), | Twelve Years a Thief, Eight Years a Transported Felon | in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv’d Honest, and dy’d a | Penitent. Written from her own Memorandums . . . | by | DANIEL DEFOE | [
Pagination and collation as 127.1b.
Contents as 127.1b except: [ii] blank; [iv] publication and manufacturing statements; [329–333] ML list; [334] blank. (Fall 1940)
Jacket: Enlarged version of 127.1b jacket B in pale yellow green (121) instead of grayish yellow green and with minor alterations in background. (Fall 1940)
127.1d. Schorer introduction added (1950)
[decorative rule] | THE FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES | OF THE FAMOUS | Moll Flanders &c. | Who was Born in Newgate, and during a Life of continu’d | Variety for Threescore Years, besides her Childhood, was | Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife (whereof once to | her own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a | Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv’d | Honest, and died a Penitent, Written from her own | Memorandums . . . | by DANIEL DEFOE | Introduction by Mark Schorer | Professor of English, University of California, Berkeley | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xxiii [xxiv], 1–328. [1–11]16
[i] half title; [ii] blank; [iii] title; [iv] Copyright, 1950, by Random House, Inc.; v–xvii INTRODUCTION | by Mark Schorer; xviii BIBLIOGRAPHY; xix–xxiii THE AUTHOR’S PREFACE; [xxiv] blank; 1–328 text.
Jacket: As 127.1c jacket. (Fall 1951)
Originally published 1950 in MLCE and subsequently in the regular ML. Erskine offered Schorer $150 to write the introduction; Schorer accepted the invitation but asked for $250, which he indicated was more in line with the terms offered by Rinehart Editions (Erskine to Schorer, 26 January 1950; Schorer telegram to Erskine, 30 January 1950). Erskine countered with an offer of $200 which Schorer accepted.
127.2a. Text reset; printed from offset plates (1967)
[ornament] | THE FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES | OF THE FAMOUS | Moll Flanders &c. | Who was Born in Newgate, and during a Life of continu’d | Variety for Threescore Years, besides her Childhood, | was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife | (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, | Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, | at last grew Rich, liv’d Honest, and died a Penitent, | Written from her own Memorandums . . . | [within ornamental brackets] by | DANIEL DEFOE | Introduction by | MARK SCHORER | PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, | UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xxviii, [1–2] 3–384 [385–388]. [1–13]16
[i] half title; [ii] blank; [iii] title; [iv] Copyright, 1950, 1967, by Random House, Inc.; v–xix INTRODUCTION | by Mark Schorer; [xx] blank; xxi–xxii BIBLIOGRAPHY; xxiii–xxviii THE PREFACE; [1] fly title; [2] blank; 3–384 text; [385–386] ML Giants list; [387–388] blank. (Spring 1967) Note: Bibliography revised from 127.1d.
Jacket: Fujita non-pictorial jacket in black, deep purplish red (256) and strong brown (55) on coated white paper; title and author in black ornamented lettering, ornamental flourishes in deep purplish red, strong brown and black, series in strong brown, all against white background. The somewhat crowded feel of the 127.2a jacket is corrected in the 127.2b jacket which not only is ¼ inch taller but reduces the size of the lettering and decoration by a few millimeters.
Front flap:
Moll Flanders, published in 1772, was among the first novels to appear in English, and contributed to the development of the novel form. It relates the autobiography of its unrestrained heroine, who was born in Newgate Prison and spent parts of her life as a harlot, a wife, a thief, a convict, and finally a prosperous penitent in the American colonies. Moll is one of the great picaresque figures in literature, whose vitality and gusto remain undiminished by the passage of time.
Printed from offset plates made from a new typesetting.
127.2b. Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
Title as 127.2a through line 15; lines 16–17: [
Pagination, collation and contents as 127.2a.
Jacket: Taller version of Fujita 127.2a jacket with lettering and decoration on the front panel photographically reduced by a few millimeters to create a more open feel.
127.1e. Reissue format (1985)
DANIEL DEFOE | [title in reverse within single rules in reverse all on black rectangular panel] MOLL FLANDERS | [
Pp. [4], 1–328 [329–332]. Perfect bound.
[1] woodcut illustration of a woman reclining on a couch; [2] blank; [3] title; [4] MODERN LIBRARY EDITION | November 1985; 1–328 text; [329–332] blank.
Jacket: Pictorial in strong reddish brown (40) and black on kraft paper with inset woodcut illustration by Stephen Alcorn; title in reverse on strong reddish brown panel, other lettering in black.
Front flap:
Born with the most rudimentary kind of moral sense, Moll Flanders made a flamboyant life of prostitution, thievery and, finally, penitence. This vivid saga of a beautiful, clever woman, her high misdemeanors and delinquencies, her varied careers as a prostitute, a charming and faithful wife, a thief and convict, remains today the liveliest, most candid record of an eighteenth-century woman’s progress through the hypocritical labyrinth of her society ever recorded. This book, written by Defoe under an assumed name, so his readers would think it an accurate journal of one woman’s life, remains a picaresque novel of astonishing vitality.
Printed from the original letterpress plates with Schorer introduction and Author’s Preface omitted. Published fall 1985 at $9.95. ISBN 0-394-60530-6. Discontinued fall 1991.
The letterpress plates show serious signs of wear. Some of the page numerals in the headline are particularly battered. The Modern Library reverted to letterpress printing for some volumes in the reissue format (R. D. Scudellari to GBN, interview), probably to take advantage of price breaks for using idle letterpress equipment after most book printing had shifted to offset lithography.
Also in the Modern Library
Defoe, Robinson Crusoe & The Journal of the Plague Year (1948–1970) 411
128
LUDWIG LEWISOHN. UP STREAM. 1926–1939. (ML 123)
128a. First printing (1926)
[within double rules] UP STREAM | AN AMERICAN CHRONICLE | [rule] | BY | LUDWIG LEWISOHN | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–vi] vii–xii, 1–299 [300–308]. [1–10]16
[i] half title; [ii]
Jacket:
Text on front:
Ludwig Lewisohn’s “Up Stream” appeared first in the Spring of 1922. The color and charm of the book and the continuous beauty of its prose established it immediately as an important and permanent contribution to American letters. The Modern Library edition, containing a new introduction by the author, and certain revisions that he deemed vital in the text, will undoubtedly win a tremendous new audience for the book. (Fall 1926)
Originally published by Boni & Liveright, 1922. The B&L plates were too large for the ML’s format; ML edition printed from plates made from a new typesetting with revisions by the author. Published October 1926. WR 20 November 1926. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued 1 January 1940.
Sales of Up Stream during the first six months of 1928 placed it 36th out of 147 ML titles.
Klopfer invited Stephen S. Wise, rabbi of the Free Synagogue of New York, to write the introduction. “Our honorarium for such an introduction is only fifty dollars,” he noted, “but we would really like to have your name among the people who have written introductions to our volumes” (Klopfer to Wise, 18 December 1925). Wise replied that he had not liked Up Stream but would be willing to write an introduction to a ML edition of Lewisohn’s Israel (Wise to Klopfer, 21 December 1925). In the end Lewisohn wrote his own introduction to the ML edition.
Lewisohn took advantage of the new typesetting to revise the text. He informed Klopfer: “The revision of the book is a matter of great moral and literary importance to me . . . I shall write a fairly extended—not too extended—new introduction etc. At all events you shall have the book in such shape as I should wish it to be read in the future” (Lewisohn to Klopfer, 26 June 1926). The passages Lewisohn revised concerned his marriage to Mary Lewisohn, from whom he had recently separated. He removed a number of references to his wife from the ML text and rewrote others. In the B&L edition, for example, after noting that he sold his fourth story to Uncle Remus’s Magazine for $125, Lewisohn wrote:
My father was, characteristically, aglow; he saw visions of grandeur. My mother’s womanly and solitary heart yearned over Mary. So Mary and I were married and we all settled down in an old, roomy house in Queenshaven. The house overlooked the bay and from our study windows Mary and I watched the horned moon float over the silken swell of the dark waters and listened to the tide. . . . (B&L, p. 135; suspension points are in the original of all quoted passages from the B&L and ML texts).
Lewisohn revised the passage as follows for the ML edition:
My father was, characteristically, aglow; he saw visions of grandeur. Mary, furthermore, insisted that we must be married to save her honor and her very life. I was a gentleman still and a Southerner. I was sorry, helpless and confused. I tried to hope that my mother would be less lonely. I tried to hope many things to still the fatal monitions within me. . . .
We all settled down together in an old house overlooking the bay. I think that, in spite of youth and inexperience and their faults, I tried to make the best of things. But Mary’s responsibilities to her family robbed her of the power, even though she had had the will, to be my wife or—despite her age, the daughter of my parents. It was perhaps not all her fault that she was a burden and unhelpful; it was absurd that, under these circumstances, she had neither humility nor true kindness, but was as exacting as a bride of eighteen. She was a middle-aged woman who had insisted on marrying a man not much older than her oldest child. She acted like Dora Copperfield. . . . Something indomitable must have been in me that I did not go under . . . a strength and a faith. . . . (128a, pp. 159–60)
A complete inventory of changes in the ML text that have been noted are the following, with the page of the 1922 Boni & Liveright edition given first, followed by the corresponding page of the 1926 Modern Library printing: pp. 131/154; 135–36/159–60; 138/162; 141/167; 145/171; 146/172; 148/175; 150/177; 154/181–82; 177/210; 180/214; 187/222; 188/223; 189/225; 218/263; 221/266.
When Mary Lewisohn saw the revised edition of Up Stream she threatened to sue the ML for libel. She specifically objected to the passage: “Mary, furthermore, insisted that we must be married to save her honor and her very life. I was a gentleman still and a Southerner.” Cerf asked Lewisohn to write a long letter giving in detail his reasons for including the sentences. “The entire affair promises to be a dreadful nuisance, but the lady is determined in her course and I suppose we will all have to go through with it. I await a letter from you at your very earliest convenience” (Cerf to Lewisohn, 19 January 1927).
128b1. Second printing, first state (1927)
Title as 128a.
Pp. [i–vi] vii–xi [xii], 1–299 [300–304]. [1–9]16 [10]14
Contents as 128a except: [ii]
Two changes were made in the second printing in response to Mary Lewisohn’s objections. The original B&L text was substituted for the passage on pp. 159–60 quoted above, and the following passage was omitted from the introduction:
I say this in all humility and say it in order to record the fact that the general texture of Up Stream remained free, has always been free, of the unveracity that marked a small number of passages now changed or expunged. Why, in my ardent search for the truth of things, did I deliberately falsify one element in my life and draw falsely one character? Through a mistaken kindliness? Yes. But more through shame—shame of the all but unbelievable physical and moral facts. . . . That blot on the book has now been wiped out. . . . If Up Stream is still worthy of being read; if it is worthy of being remembered—let it be read and remembered in the form in which it is now definitively printed here. . . . (128a, p. xi)
128b2. Second printing, second state with introduction cancelled (1927)
Title as 128a.
Pp. [i–iv], 1–299 [300–304]. [1]16(-3,4,5,6) [2–9]16 [10]14
Contents as 128b1 except: [v]–[xii] cancelled.
Mary Lewisohn was not satisfied with the changes in the second printing. On 29 November 1927, three days after the date of the second printing, the ML agreed to substitute the original B&L text for the revisions supplied by Ludwig Lewisohn and to drop the introduction altogether. The introduction was cancelled in remaining copies of the second printing. The table of contents which listed the introduction is also cancelled in all copies of 128b2 examined.
128c. Third printing (1928)
Title as 128a.
Pp. [i–vi], [2], 1–299 [300–304]. [1]16(-4,5,±6) [2–9]16 [10]14
Contents as 128b1 except: [ii]
Variant: Pp. [i–vi], [2], 1–299 [300–308]. [1]16(-4,5,±6) [2–10]16. Contents as 128c except: [305–308] blank. (Fall 1928) Note: Copies have been seen without the replacement leaf. It appears likely that 128c and 128c variant are two states of the same printing, differing only in the number of leaves in the final gathering.
The third printing (12 July 1928) inadvertently retained Lewisohn’s introduction. The introduction was cancelled, apparently before any copies were distributed, and the textual note required by the ML’s agreement with Mary Lewisohn was inserted as a replacement leaf.
128d. Fourth printing (1929)
Title as 128a.
Pp. [8], 1–299 [300–304]. [1–9]16 [10]12
[1] half title; [2]
Variant: Pp. [8], 1–299 [300–312]. [1–10]16. Contents as 128d except: [301–305] ML list; [306–312] blank. (Spring 1932)
Jacket:
Front flap:n Burning indignation and the will to find a way into a full creative life have been the essence of Ludwig Lewisohn’s writings. Up Stream is at once his spiritual autobiography and the lyrical, yet savage, outcry against the forces that stifled him. It is a book of protest and affirmation, honest, unashamed and electrical with fierce passion. In the literature of America’s coming of age, Up Stream occupies a unique place; it is the record of a soul’s awakening and its final declaration of creative independence. (Spring 1935)
The fourth printing was the first to satisfy the requirements of the ML’s agreement with Mary Lewisohn without resorting to cancellation. Lewisohn had made many small changes in the text when he revised Up Stream for the ML, and a number of these remained in the ML text after those that Mary Lewisohn objected to had been removed. Cerf wrote to Ludwig Lewisohn in 1936 that Up Stream continued to sell at the rate of 1,000 copies or more each year “and considering the length of time that the book has been in print, I regard that as a pretty gratifying record” (Cerf to Lewisohn, 13 November 1936).
Three other books by Lewisohn appeared in the ML. A Modern Book of Criticism (75), an original ML anthology that he edited, was published in spring 1920 and remained in print through 1936. The Story of American Literature (G43), originally published as Expression in America, was added to the Giants in spring 1939. Lewisohn began to lobby for the inclusion of his novel The Island Within shortly after the Giant was published. Cerf thought that two Lewisohn titles in the series were “more than enough” but suggested that Up Stream might be dropped and The Island Within published in its place. Lewisohn approved “with all the vociferousness at his command” (Cerf to Cass Canfield, Harper & Bros., 12 October 1939). The Island Within (329) sold poorly and was discontinued two and a half years later.
Also in the Modern Libraryn
Lewisohn, ed., A Modern Book of Criticism (1920–1936) 75
Lewisohn, Story of American Literature (Giant, 1939–1956) G43
Lewisohn, The Island Within (1940–1942) 329
129
JAMES JOYCE. DUBLINERS. 1926– . (ML 124)
129.1a. First printing (1926)
[within double rules] DUBLINERS | [rule] | BY | JAMES JOYCE | [rule] | INTRODUCTION | BY | PADRAIC COLUM | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xiii [xiv], [5–6] 7–288 [289–294]. [1]16(±3) [2–9]16 [10]8
[i] half title; [ii]
Variant: Pagination as 129.1a. [1–9]16 [10]8. Contents as 129.1a except: [ii]
pub. note A6 ; [iv] manufacturing statement; [289–293] ML list; [294] ML Giants list. (Fall 1937)
Jacket A:
Text on front:
THE AUTHOR: James Joyce is the Irish novelist whose epical satire “ULYSSES” has been hailed as the greatest product of the realistic movement in literature. THE BOOK: “DUBLINERS” was written in 1905, and the author spent the next seven years trying to make his publisher live up to a contract to bring out the book. For the reader who has never sampled Joyce, “DUBLINERS” is an ideal introduction. (Fall 1926)
Jacket B:
Front flap:
The publication by Random House of James Joyce’s Ulysses after the ban had been lifted by Judge John M. Woolsey’s decision, sustained afterward by the Court of Appeals, lends new importance to the Modern Library edition of Dubliners. This collection of short stories is definitely related to Joyce’s later work, in that many of its characters figure in the epical satire, Ulysses, and the autobiographical novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Modern Library No. 145). By itself, Dubliners is a lasting contribution to the literature of the short story. (Spring 1934)
Originally published in London by Grant Richards, 1914; published in U.S. by B. W. Huebsch, 1916, using sheets of the first English edition. First American edition, printed from plates made from a new typesetting, published by Huebsch, April 1917. Huebsch merged with Viking Press in August 1925. ML edition (129.1, pp. [5]–288) printed from Huebsch/Viking plates. Publication announced for 25 November 1926. WR 1 January 1927. First printing: 5,000 copies.
Sales of Dubliners during the first six months of 1928 placed it 84th out of 147 ML titles. There was a second printing of 3,000 copies in April 1927 and a third printing of 2,000 copies in July 1928. By April 1950 there had been twenty-eight printings for a total of 60,000 copies (Slocum and Cahoon, p. 17).
129.1b. Title page reset (c. 1941)
Dubliners | by JAMES JOYCE | introduction by PADRAIC COLUM | [
Pagination as 129.1a. [1–9]16 [10]8
Contents as 129.1a except: [ii] blank; [iv] publication and manufacturing statements; [289–294] ML list. (Spring 1943)
Variant A: Pp. [i–v] vi–xiii [xiv], [5–6] 7–288 [289–294]. [1–7]16 [8]8 [9–10]16. Contents as 129.1b except: [iv] Copyright 1926, 1954 by The Modern Library, Inc.; [v]–xiii INTRODUCTION as 129.1a. (Spring 1955) Note: Page numeral “v” removed from plates.
Variant B: Pagination and collation as variant A. Contents as variant A except: [iv] COPYRIGHT, 1926, 1954, BY THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC.; [289–290] ML Giants list; [291–294] blank. (Fall 1964)
Jacket A: Non-pictorial in medium gray (265) and black on cream paper with lettering in black (including three lines on a diagonal axis) and torchbearer in reverse, all against medium gray background. Designed by Joseph Blumenthal.
Front flap as 129.1a jacket B. (Spring 1943)
Jacket B: Non-pictorial in dark gray (266) and dark green (146) on cream paper with lettering and torchbearer in reverse against dark gray background; rules at top, center and foot in dark green.
Front flap as 129.1a jacket B. (Spring 1946).
Front flap revised:
The collection of fifteen stories under the title of Dubliners was James Joyce’s first published work in prose. Previously he had issued a book of verse, Chamber Music. These initial efforts were followed by A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Modern Library No. 145), the play Exiles, the modern epic Ulysses (Modern Library Giant G-52) and finally, Finnegans Wake. The tales in Dubliners are related to Joyce’s later work both in locale and in many of the characters who have a fuller development in Ulysses. By themselves these tales, written by Joyce in his early twenties, are a distinguished contribution to the literature of the short story and are an augury of the master work which was to follow. (Fall 1953)
Jacket C: As jacket B except on coated white paper with background in strong blue (178) and rules in strong yellow green (117).
Front flap as jacket B revised text. (Fall 1964)
129.2a. Corrected text (1969)
DUBLINERS | JAMES JOYCE | [
7½ inches. Pp. [1–4] 5–224. [1–7]16
[1] half title; [2] blank; [3] title; [4] First Modern Library Edition, 1969, with corrected text by | Robert Scholes in consultation with Richard Ellmann | Copyright © 1967 by the Estate of James Joyce; 5–6 A NOTE ON THE TEXT signed p. 6: [at left] October 1967 [at right] —Robert Scholes | Center for Textual Studies, University of Iowa; [7] table of contents; [8] blank; 9–224 text.
Jacket: Fujita jacket in black, light purple (222) and strong yellowish green (131) on coated white paper with lettering in reverse and light purple and four-leaf clover in strong yellowish green, all against black background. Statement on front: “The Definitive Text restoring Joyce’s manuscript style and his later corrections”.
Front flap:
First four sentences as 129.1b jacket B revised text except references to ML numbers and words “the modern epic” describing Ulysses omitted.
Following text added:
Joyce himself described these stories as a series of chapters in the moral history of his community. By themselves they bear the unmistakable stamp of Joyce’s genius and are an augury of the master works which were to follow.n This definitive edition of Dubliners is as near as possible to the version Joyce wanted to see published. The text has been prepared by Robert Scholes of the University of Iowa, in consultation with Richard Ellmann, Joyce’s biographer.
Corrected text originally published by Viking Press, 1967. ML edition (pp. 5–224) printed from offset plates photographically reduced from the Viking edition. Published spring 1969 at $2.45.
The statement “First Modern Library Edition, 1969, with corrected text . . .” is retained on all printings of 129.2. Among other changes the corrected text follows Joyce’s preference for initial dashes to indicate dialogue in place of quotation marks. The original English edition published by Grant Richards in December 1914 and the first American edition published by Huebsch in 1917—and all subsequent American printings before 1967—used quotation marks.
Printings of 129.2a exist in both the 7¼ and 7½ inch formats. The 7½ inch format superseded the 7¼ inch format for newly added ML titles in 1969. Printings of many earlier titles continued to appear in the 7¼ inch format because of the time it took to adapt older jackets to the taller format. The first ML printing of 129.2a, despite being completely redesigned and printed from new plates, appears to have been in the 7¼ inch format. There was at least one early printing in the 7½ inch format. The 7¼ inch format was used for the final printing or printings. The ISBN 394-6012 4-6 (without the initial 0) was added to the back panel of a 7¼ inch jacket in the early 1970s; jackets for previous printings of 129.2a in both formats lack the ISBN. What is probably the last printing in the 7¼ inch format has been seen in plain endpapers instead of Fujita’s decorated endpaper. Plain endpapers were characteristic of late printings in the 1970s; some copies have the remainder mark of a large reddish purple “H” stamped on the front endpaper. Conclusive evidence in support of the 7¼ or 7½ inch format as the 1969 first printing has not been established, but it is difficult to understand why late printings would switch, perhaps inadvertently, to the 7¼ inch format if all previous printings had been in the larger format.
There appears to have been a gap of several years between the discontinuation of 129.2a and the publication of 129.2b.
129.2b. Reissue format (1978)
DUBLINERS | JAMES JOYCE | THE MODERN LIBRARY : NEW YORK [
7½ inches. Pagination as 129.2a. Perfect bound.
Contents as 129.2a except: 5–6 A NOTE ON THE TEXT signed p. 6: [at left] October 1967 [at right] –Robert Scholes. Note: Scholes’s affiliation omitted.
Jacket: Non-pictorial on kraft paper with lettering in deep purplish blue (197) and torchbearer in deep brown (56). Designed by R. D. Scudellari.
Front flap with 129.2a text slightly revised and abridged.
Published fall 1978 at $4.95. ISBN 0-394-60464-4.
Also in the Modern Library
Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1928–1956) 156
Joyce, Ulysses (Giant, 1940– ) G50
130
GEORGE GISSING. NEW GRUB STREET. 1926–1943; 1985. (ML 125)
130.1a. First printing (1926)
[within double rules] NEW GRUB STREET | [rule] | BY | GEORGE GISSING | [rule] | INTRODUCTION | BY | HARRY HANSEN | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xiv [xv–xvi], 1–552 [553–560]. [1–18]16
[i] half title; [ii]
Variant A: Pp. [i–iv] v–xiv [xv–xvi], 1–552. [1–17]16 [18]12. Contents as 130.1a except: [ii]
pub. note D5 . Note: First statement retained on at least one printing of variant A.
Variant B: Pagination and collation as 130.1a. Contents as 130.1a except: [ii]
pub. note A6 ; [iv] manufacturing statement; [553–558] ML list. (Spring 1935)
Jacket A:
Text on front:
“New Grub Street” is George Gissing’s book of the heart, a chronicle of characters that he knew through the intimacy of suffering shared and defeats experienced or understood. It is called back to life today because of the insistent determination of a new age to regard Gissing as a stylist second to none, a keen analyst of motives, and an extraordinary literary figure whose inexplicable hardships stir the imagination of an age surfeited with material things. (Spring 1927)
Jacket B:
Front flap:
For those who cherish the dream of writing and for those who read and ponder the whole mystery of the anguish and ecstasy of authorship, New Grub Street is a book of revelation. Not only does it expose the shifts and subterfuges of meagre talents to provide marketable stuff and the devotion and sacrifice of those who consecrate themselves to the severest of arts, but it lays bare Gissing’s own fierce struggle against vulgarity and the world’s indifference. In that sense, it is a true book of the heart. (Spring 1938)
Originally published in London by Smith, Elder (3 vols., 1891); originally published in U.S. by C. A. Brewster, 1904, using sheets of the second British edition. ML edition printed from plates made from a new typesetting. Published December 1926. WR 25 December 1926. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued fall 1943; new ML edition published 1985.
Cerf initially asked H. G. Wells to write the introduction. He told Wells that New Grub Street was “long out of print in this country, and knowing your enthusiasm for the work, I am wondering whether you will add a short introduction for us.” He offered the ML’s usual $50 fee and reminded Wells that Ann Veronica continued to sell very well in the series (Cerf to Wells, 13 January 1926). Wells declined, but six years later he wrote an introduction to the fine press edition of The Time Machine published by Random House.
Sales of New Grub Street during the first six months of 1928 placed it 91st out of 147 ML titles.
Coustillas (pp. 565–69) provides a detailed inventory of variant bindings and other details of successive ML printings.
130.1b. Title page reset (1940)
New Grub Street | BY | GEORGE GISSING | INTRODUCTION BY HARRY HANSEN | [
Pagination and collation as 130.1a.
Contents as 130.1a except: [ii] blank; [iv] publication and manufacturing statements; [553–557] ML list; [558–559] ML Giants list; [560] blank. (Fall 1940)
Jacket: Non-pictorial in dark reddish orange (38) and black on cream paper with lettering in reverse on inset black panel, background in moderate red, series and torchbearer in reverse below panel. Designed by Joseph Blumenthal.
Text on front and front flap as 130.1a jacket B. (Fall 1940)
Coustillas reports two additional printings of 130.1b that can be dated spring 1941 and spring 1942 based on lists of ML titles at the end of the volumes.
130.2. Reissue format (1985)
GEORGE GISSING | [title in reverse within single rules in reverse all on black rectangular panel] NEW GRUB STREET | [
Pp. [6], [1–5] 6–425 [426]. Perfect bound. 8¼ x 5⅝ in. (210 x 140 mm)
[1–2] blank; [3] woodcut illustration of author at writing table; [4] blank; [5] title; [6] first modern library edition April 1985 | Copyright © 1962 by Irving Howe; [1–2] Contents; [3] fly title; [4] blank; [5]–425 text; [426] biographical note.
Jacket: Pictorial in strong reddish brown (40) and black on kraft paper with inset woodcut illustration by Stephen Alcorn of author at writing table; title in reverse on strong reddish brown panel, other lettering in black.
Front flap:
New Grub Street, one of the first exponents of Naturalism in English literature, has been described as a cross between the works of Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, and is much acclaimed for its portrait of the unsuccessful literary life in 19th century London. It is the story of Edward Reardon, a novelist whose valiant and painstaking attempts to maintain the standards of his art in the face of severe financial pressure are opposed by an unsympathetic wife. In sharp contrast to Reardon is his friend Jasper Milvain, an essayist who adjusts himself with shocking ease to currently materialistic ideals. A grimly realistic look at the hardships and compromises of the modern literary world, New Grub Street is an underground classic.
Bibliographical edition originally published 1962 by Houghton Mifflin Co. in its textbook series Riverside Editions, with an introduction and bibliographical note by Irving Howe. ML edition (pp. [1–2], [5]–425) printed either from Houghton Mifflin letterpress plates or from offset plates made from the Houghton Mifflin edition, with Howe’s introduction and bibliographical note omitted. The Houghton Mifflin edition placed its fly title before the table of contents; when the ML reversed the order it removed the page numeral “4” from the second page of the table of contents. Published April 1985 at $8.95. ISBN 0-394-60525-X.
Coustillas indicates that the printing in the reissue format was remaindered in the year of publication (p. 569).
Also in the Modern Library
Gissing, Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft (1918–1942) 45