The Modern Library Bibliography
MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1929
1929
General
With a few exceptions such as Villon, Poems (55) and Passages from the Diary of Samuel Pepys (89), the Boni & Liveright series remained true to its name and limited its scope to modern works. Cerf and Klopfer increased the number of older works, but they did so slowly. They added Defoe, Moll Flanders (127) in 1926 and The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini (132) the following year. Momentum began to increase in 1928 when Apuleius, Golden Ass (167), Sterne, Tristram Shandy (158), and Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (162) were added. Five ML titles published in 1929 were older classics: Petronius, Satyricon (156), Smollett, Expedition of Humphry Clinker (159), Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (161), and Homer’s Iliad (166) and Odyssey (167). Several of these works had been targets of censorship groups such as the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, which was sufficient to redeem them in the eyes of the shallowest modernist.
Cerf and Klopfer were interested in publishing older classics besides those that appealed specifically to modernist readers, but they questioned whether the Modern Library was the appropriate vehicle for them. Responding to a list of suggestions for the ML in 1928, Klopfer commented, “The one that intrigues me most is the ‘Selected Poems of John Donne’, although I am not sure that he would fit into the Modern Library” (Klopfer to John W. Gassner, 22 March 1928).
For a time they contemplated starting a separate series of older classics along the lines of Everyman’s Library. They scoured the lists of Everyman’s Library, Loeb Classical Library, and the “100 Best Books” for potential titles. The lists they compiled consisted mainly of standard works of classical and English literature, together with those of the Renaissance and, to a lesser extent, French literature. After considering various names for the series, they seem to have settled tentatively on the name Seven Seas Library; that at least is the name that appears most often in penciled memos from this period. Other names included Phoenix Library, Salamander Library, Pantheon Library, Mercury Library, and Random House Classics.
Another possibility they considered was taking over an existing series of standard classics. In 1929 Cerf wrote to J. M. Dent & Co., the English publishers of Everyman’s Library, offering to distribute the series in the United States. American distribution of the series had been handled since its inception by E. P. Dutton Co. The relationship between the two firms was very close, and Dent had no interest in changing American distribution of the series (Cerf to Hugh R. Dent, 12 December 1929; Dent to Cerf, 1 January 1930). Cerf’s inquiry may have contributed to the soured relations between Dutton and the Modern Library that persisted for many years.
In the end Cerf and Klopfer decided not to start a separate series of older classics. Many of the works listed as potential titles for the Seven Seas Library eventually found their way into the Modern Library.
Another change in scope was that the Modern Library gradually lost its European orientation and became a series with neither European nor American authors seemingly outweighing the other. Signs of increased interest in American authors appeared soon after Cerf and Klopfer bought the series. A 1926 advertisement featuring photographs of Modern Library authors showed four Americans—Walt Whitman, Sherwood Anderson, James Branch Cabell, and Eugene O’Neill—and one European, Anatole France (ML advertisement, New York Herald Tribune Books, 7 November 1926). The Modern Library catalogue for 1927, announcing publication of The Scarlet Letter, stated: “The addition of this splendid novel is consistent with the avowed intention of the publishers to include in the Modern Library as many American authors as possible” (ML catalogue, Spring-Summer 1927).
American authors were added regularly to the ML after 1925. No year went by without the publication of works by Americans, but the balance was not tipped suddenly in their favor. Of the twelve titles published in 1926, three were by Americans: Anderson, Poor White (121), Melville, Moby-Dick (124), and Lewisohn, Up Stream (128). The greatest concentration of Americans added to the series before 1930 came in 1927, when six out of nineteen new titles were by American authors.
As with the inclusion of older classics, the new emphasis on American works did not become abundantly clear until the 1930s. The stock market crash of October 1929 ended seven years of prosperity, but the ML entered the Depression in a strong position. As Cerf wrote in 1929, “The Modern Library is no longer an experiment; it has become an institution in the book world. . . . These ubiquitous books . . . at one time or another have penetrated into nearly every American home and into the libraries of many readers in other countries” (“The Modern Library,” Publishers’ Weekly, 9 February 1929, p. 657; published anonymously but written by Cerf).
Number of titles
Cerf and Klopfer added nineteen titles, bringing the total number of active titles to 167. No titles were discontinued. Minor discrepancies between the number of titles indicated here and on the back panels of ML jackets are due primarily to the ML’s practice of including titles projected for January publication on fall lists.
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). All dimensions indicated are approximate.
Most 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).
Title page
All new titles had the final version of Elmer Adler’s title page with the title in open-face type and the last line of the title page as PUBLISHERS : NEW YORK, all within a double-rule frame. Adler’s title page was used with two different torchbearers. The six titles published January–March had
Binding
The imitation leather bindings used since 1917 had never been altogether satisfactory. Castor oil used in manufacturing the imitation leather caused the bindings to emit a fishy odor in warm weather. Cerf and Klopfer began to think seriously about abandoning the imitation leather bindings in 1928. After experimenting with various binding cloths, they discovered a natural finish balloon cloth manufactured by the Siegbert Book Cloth Corporation that seemed to meet their requirements. They prepared samples of the new binding, with semi-flexible covers, and showed them to several leading booksellers and department store buyers. The response was favorable, and they decided to go ahead.
The balloon cloth binding was officially introduced with the Modern Library’s January 1929 publications, Conrad Aiken’s American Poetry 1671–1928: A Comprehensive Anthology (169) and Gustave Flaubert’s Salammbô (170). The old spine and cover design continued to be used through March, but this was a temporary expedient. Shortly after they decided to substitute balloon cloth for imitation leather, Cerf and Klopfer asked Rockwell Kent, who had created the Random House device in 1927, to make a “simple . . . but characteristic Kentian design for the back-strip” (Cerf to Kent, 11 December 1928). Kent more than fulfilled his commission. He not only drew a striking new spine for Modern Library book, but redesigned the torchbearer and created new endpapers as well.
Kent began with the idea of putting the torchbearer at the base of the spine, but decided that the figure was too attenuated for the space available. Still, he felt that the torch idea should be kept and wanted to use a sizable spot of gold to make the spine distinctive. His first solution was a design incorporating a candle. To Klopfer he wrote:
After, I assure you, making more designs for that book-back than there are published works in the Modern Library; after considering and rejecting innumerable pictorial designs, nudes, phallic symbols, and so forth, as either inappropriate to book covers or indigestible to middle western and New England patrons of your publications; I have conceived and executed the somewhat trite, but I feel appropriate, device which I enclose, and if you feel that in employing a candle as part of it I have gone as far in suggestion as may be permitted, please realize that I have shown some restraint in not making that candle of the horrid dipped variety, so much in vogue in modern days (Kent to Klopfer, 26 January 1929).
The candle was never used. Cerf had warned Kent that the balloon cloth would not take readily every kind of design, and the candle may have been too detailed to be stamped clearly. At that point Kent decided that nothing could be done with the original design and discarded it.
Three weeks later he sent in an entirely new design. The new design, he noted, “should not only work out better in stamping but . . . in every way pleases me more” (Kent to Klopfer, 16 February 1929). Intended for the base of the spine, it consisted of an elegantly styled grape vine with intertwined branches, leaves, and bunches of grapes. Beneath the roots of the vine the words “Modern Library” were lettered in sans-serif capitals. Kent recommended that the lettering for the title and author at the head of the spine be drawn by hand. “You can get much more satisfactory spacing in that way,” he wrote. “There are innumerable professional letterers, any of whom can do this every month for you, promptly and at little cost” (Kent to Klopfer, 26 January 1929). The ML does not appear to have adopted this suggestion.
For the front cover of the binding Kent redrew Bernhard’s torchbearer. He thought Bernhard’s figure was “good in design, but too grotesque to be in keeping with the serious nature of the Modern Library.” Kent drew a more graceful, floating figure, with the torch, instead of being held aloft, carried in front of the runner with the flare trailing over the runner’s head. He omitted the words “Modern Library” which had encircled Bernhard’s figure on the grounds that it was sufficient to have them on the spine. He also made two other changes in the figure. Bernhard’s figure faced left, toward the spine. Kent thought this a violation of common sense and precedent in book design and turned it around. He also altered its sex. Bernhard’s figure was assumed to be feminine; around the Modern Library office it was known as “a dame running away from Bennett Cerf.” Kent made his version neuter. “I defy you to discover the figure’s sex,” he told Klopfer. “That’s modern enough for you” (ibid).
Kent’s binding design was introduced with The Cabala by Thornton Wilder, the Modern Library’s April 1929 title. Bernhard’s torchbearer was not completely superseded by Kent’s figure. It never again appeared on the binding or endpaper, but it continued to be used on Modern Library title pages and on many of the jackets.
Kent’s work for the Modern Library was a remarkable achievement in book design. The combination of smooth balloon cloth and Kent’s spine and front cover designs produced what were perhaps the handsomest volumes the Modern Library ever published. Unfortunately, Kent’s design appears to have been overly ambitious for books that retailed at ninety-five cents. The extra gold it required increased the Modern Library’s binding costs by half a cent per copy. That half cent doomed the design, and it was used in its complete form for less than two years.
The balloon cloth bindings were available in four colors: red, blue, green, and brown. The Modern Library published each title simultaneously in all four bindings.
Endpaper
Two endpaper designs were used in 1929. Lucian Bernhard’s endpaper printed in light yellowish brown remained in use through March. A new endpaper designed by Rockwell Kent was introduced in April in conjunction with his new binding. Copies of the first printing of Thornton Wilder, The Cabala (175), which was published in April but probably printed in March, exist with both endpapers. The paste-down and free endpapers both featured Kent’s torchbearer at the center, surrounded by a pattern of open books and the initials “ml”. The conjunct endpapers were identical except that the two torchbearers faced each other. For the first year Kent’s endpapers were available in four different colors—light grayish red (18), dark yellowish pink (30), light reddish brown (42), and pale green (149)—and were color coordinated with the balloon cloth bindings. Red bindings had light grayish red endpapers, blue and green bindings had pale green endpapers, and brown bindings had dark yellowish pink or light reddish brown endpapers.
Beginning in fall 1930 all Kent endpapers were printed in moderate orange (53) and were used with all four binding colors. Moderate orange endpapers were used with all balloon cloth bindings from fall 1930 through spring 1939, except for John Reed, Ten Days That Shook the World (1935) and three spring 1939 titles that were published in the larger format that the ML would adopt for all titles beginning that fall. An enlarged version of Kent’s endpaper, with the central panels with Kent’s torchbearer unchanged but with the surrounding pattern of open books and the initials “ml” extended to fill the larger space, was introduced in spring 1940.
Jackets
All 1929 titles except The Memoirs of Casanova (185) were originally published in
An unknown number of ML titles were available in optional pictorial jackets as well as the uniform typographic jacket.
Price
95 cents.
Dating keys
Dating keys: (Spring) Dostoyevsky, Brothers Karamazov xChaucer, Canterbury Tales. (Fall) Chaucer, Canterbury Tales xHemingway, Sun Also Rises.
Titles sought, suggested, declined
Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front, with sales of 300,000 copies in its first year, topped the 1929 best-seller list (Hackett and Burke, p. 107). Cerf offered an advance of $5,000 to $10,000 against royalties of 12 cents a copy to reprint it in the ML, but the offer was a long shot (Cerf to Alfred R. McIntyre, Little, Brown, 5 August 1929). The reprint edition of All Quiet on the Western Front was published by Grosset & Dunlap, which distributed its hardbound reprints through a wide range of retail outlets. In contrast, ML books were distributed primarily through traditional bookstores and the book departments of major department stores.
In another long shot, Cerf offered a $6,000 advance against royalties of 12 cents a copy for a volume of plays by George Bernard Shaw (Cerf to Lowell Brentano, 6 December 1929). Shaw retained tight control over his copyrights and refused to allow his works to appear in inexpensive reprint editions. It was not until the mid-1950s, following Shaw’s death, that the ML was able to publish two collections of his plays.
Cerf sought reprint rights to Paul Leicester Ford’s novel The Honorable Peter Stirling, originally published by Henry Holt in 1894, but Grosset & Dunlap was also interested. Holt gave reprint rights to Grosset & Dunlap because they had published an earlier reprint of the book (Gilbert, p. 107). Cerf also expressed interest in a Robert Benchley anthology (Cerf to Herschel Brickell, Holt, 27 August 1929 and 11 December 1929).
Hendrik Willem van Loon suggested his own book, Tolerance (Boni & Liveright, 1925), noting that it was “the sort of book to appeal to the free-thinkers and the free-thinking community is usually fairly poor” (Van Loon to Cerf, 16 February 1929). George Oppenheimer at Viking Press suggested André Tridon’s Psychoanalysis, originally published by B. W. Huebsch in 1919 (Oppenheimer to Klopfer, 22 October 1929). Both suggestions were rejected.
Several months after Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac (174) appeared in the ML, Duffield & Co. inquired if the ML would be interested in Rostand’s later play Chantecler or Paul Verlaines’s Poems. Cerf declined both suggestions but expressed interest in The History of Mr. Polly by H. G. Wells (Cerf to Ridgely Hunt, Duffield, 24 October 1929).
Albert Mordell sent his book, The Erotic Motive in Literature (Boni & Liveright, 1919), to Cerf for consideration. Cerf replied that it had no place in the ML because its “appeal is special, and many statements that would have sounded revolutionary in 1919 would fall flat today” (Cerf to Mordell, 13 December 1929). Interest in Mordell’s book revived in the 1960s and 1970s, when it was reprinted in a paperback edition by Collier Books and in hardcover for the library market by Octagon Books. Several translations were published in Chinese and Korean between the 1970s and the first decade of the twenty-first century.
Christmas gift boxes
The ML produced three Christmas gift boxes in 1929. Each set consisted of three ML titles in a slipcase. The books had specially designed pictorial jackets and were advertised as “specially boxed and bound in gay colors, with picture jackets” (ML ad, PW 116, 21 September 1929, p. 1265). Three Great French Romances and Three Great Modern Novels were new; Three Great Renaissance Romances was first offered as a Christmas gift box in 1928. The Keratol bindings used in 1928 were replaced by colored balloon cloth which the ML had introduced as its standard binding earlier in the year. The pictorial jackets used for Three Great French Romances and Three Great Renaissance Romances were later adapted for use on regular ML printings. Hynd’s pictorial jackets for the Three Great Modern Novels gift box were exceptional examples of expressionist graphics but may have been too edgy for the ML’s mainstream audience. Their use was limited to the 1929 gift box; they were never adapted for use on copies of the books sold separately. The retail price of each set was $2.85. The 1929 gift boxes were the last, though unsold boxes continued to be listed in ML catalogs. The three sets were:
1. Three Great French Romances: Zola, Nana; Gautier, Mademoiselle de Maupin; Flaubert, Madame Bovary.
2. Three Great Renaissance Romances: Cellini, Autobiography; Merejkowski, Romance of Leonardo da Vinci; Symonds, Life of Michelangelo.
3. Three Great Modern Novels: Dostoyevsky, Brothers Karamazov; Butler, Way of All Flesh; Hardy, Return of the Native.
New titles
Aiken, ed., American Poetry 1671–1928 (1929–1944); A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry (1945) 169
Flaubert, Salammbô (1929) 170
Dostoyevsky, Brothers Karamazov (1929) 171
Murphy, ed., Outline of Abnormal Psychology (1929–1954); 172; Murphy and Bachrach, eds., Outline of Abnormal Psychology, rev. ed. (1954) 172
Merejkowski, Death of the Gods (1929) 173
Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac (1929) 174
Wilder, Cabala (1929) 175
Petronius, Satyricon (1929) 176
Stendhal, Red and the Black (1929) 177
Landis, ed., Four Famous Greek Plays (1929) 178
Smollett, Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1929) 179
Ellis, Dance of Life (1929) 180
Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (1929) 181
Sudermann, Song of Songs (1929) 182
Calverton, ed., Anthology of American Negro Literature (1929) 183
Van Vechten, Peter Whiffle (1929) 184
Casanova, Memoirs of Jacques Casanova (1929) 185
Homer, Iliad (1929) 186
Homer, Odyssey (1929) 187
Discontinued
None.
Spring
169
CONRAD AIKEN, ed. AMERICAN POETRY 1671–1928. 1929–1944. A COMPREHENSIVE ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN POETRY. 1945–78. (ML 101)
169.1a. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] AMERICAN POETRY | 1671–1928 | [rule] | A COMPREHENSIVE ANTHOLOGY | EDITED BY | CONRAD AIKEN | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xviii, 1–362 [363–366]. [1–12]16
[i] half title; [ii]
Contents (poets and number of poems): Anne Bradstreet (4), Thomas Godfrey (1), Philip Freneau (3), Richard Henry Dana (1), William Cullen Bryant (4), Edgar Allan Poe (18), Edward Coate Pinkney (2), T. H. Chivers (1), John Greenleaf Whittier (3), Oliver Wendell Holmes (1), James Russell Lowell (3), Maria White Lowell (1), Ralph Waldo Emerson (9), Henry David Thoreau (2), Julia Ward Howe (1), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (5), Walt Whitman (9), Louise Chandler Moulton (1), Richard Realf (1), Emily Dickinson (24), Helen Hunt Jackson (3), Edward Rowland Sill (1), John Townsend Trowbridge (1), George Henry Boker (1), Maurice Thompson (1), John Vance Cheney (1), Stephen Collins Foster (1), Thomas Bailey Aldrich (2), Herman Melville (1), John Burroughs (1), Joaquin Miller (1), Sidney Lanier (1), Henry Augustin Beers (1), John Bannister Tabb (1), Edwin Markham (1), William Vaughn Moody (3), Stephen Crane (1), George Cabot Lodge (1), George Santayana (4), Trumbull Stickney (6), Shaemas O’Sheel (1), Adelaide Crapsey (2), Edwin Arlington Robinson (4), Anna Hempstead Branch (2), Amy Lowell (3), Edgar Lee Masters (4), Vachel Lindsay (2), Robert Frost (10), Carl Sandburg (1), William Ellery Leonard (1), Alfred Kreymborg (1), John Gould Fletcher (3), H. D, (5), Louis Untermeyer (1), T. S. Eliot (6), Wallace Stevens (8), Edna St. Vincent Millay (2), John Hall Wheelock (1), Cale Young Rice (1), Elinor Wylie (5), Ezra Pound (7), E. E. Cummings (1), Archibald MacLeish (4), John Crowe Ransom (3), Marianne Moore (5).
Jacket A:
Front flap:
Conrad Aiken was guided in his selections for this volume by the principle that American poetry has reached the maturity and dignity of the poetry of older countries. With this conviction firmly in mind, he could afford to eliminate some of the stodgy old bards and make place for the refreshing and vital work of the poets who have arisen during the last quarter century. Besides being representative, this anthology has the merit of being always on the side of excellence as against sentimentality and mediocrity. (Spring 1934)
Jacket B: Non-pictorial in vivid red (11) and black on cream paper with title and decorations in reverse on inset vivid red panel; other lettering in black, borders in vivid red. Jacket title: A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry. Front flap as jacket A. (Fall 1936)
Original ML anthology. Published January 1929. WR 23 February 1929. First printing: Not ascertained. Revised edition published 1945 as A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry (169.2a).
Aiken’s anthology ranked in the middle of the second quarter of ML titles in terms of sales during the 18-month period, May 1942–October 1943. It was not among the 100 bestselling ML titles in the regular ML during the 12-month period November 1951–October 1952.
Errors that Aiken noted in his own copy are listed in Bonnell and Bonnell, p. 92 (1982).
169.1b. Title page reset (c. 1941)
[
Pagination and collation as 169.1a.
Contents as 169.1a except: [ii] blank; [iv] COPYRIGHT, 1929, BY THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC.; [363–366] blank.
Jacket: Non-pictorial in dark gray (266) and dark brown (59) on cream paper with title in reverse on dark gray panel at upper left; borders and other lettering in dark brown. Jacket title: A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry. Text on front: “An anthology that includes every American poet of note from the seventeenth century to the present day. A companion volume is ‘MODERN AMERICAN POETRY’ Volume no. 127 in The Modern Library.” Designed by Joseph Blumenthal.
Front flap as 169.1a jacket A. (Spring 1942)
169.2a. Revised edition; title changed (1945)
[within ornamental frame] A COMPREHENSIVE | ANTHOLOGY OF | AMERICAN | POETRY | [short decorative rule] | Edited by Conrad Aiken | [short decorative rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xxii, [1–2] 3–490. [1–16]16
[i] half title; [ii] blank; [iii] title; [iv] Copyright, 1929, 1944, by Random House, Inc., New York; v–viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; ix–xii INTRODUCTION signed p. xii: CONRAD AIKEN | Brewster, Massachusetts. | 1944; xiii–xxii CONTENTS; [1] fly title; [2] blank; 3–478 text; 479–481 INDEX OF POETS; 482–490 INDEX OF FIRST LINES.
Poets added (*) and number of poems added or deleted for poets included in 1929 edition: Herman Melville (+5), Sidney Lanier (+1), Trumbull Stickney (+4), Amy Lowell (–1), Robert Frost (+4), Carl Sandburg (+3), Vachel Lindsay (+1), Wallace Stevens (+2), *Witter Bynner (5), Elinor Wylie (+1), Ezra Pound (+5), Marianne Moore (+1), *Robinson Jeffers (3), *Marsden Hartley (3), T. S. Eliot (+3), John Crowe Ransom (+3), Archibald MacLeish (+1), *Mark Van Doren (4), E. E. Cummings (+3), *H. Phelps Putnam (2), *Robert Hillyer (1), *Edmund Wilson (2), *Louise Bogan (1), *Malcolm Cowley (1), *Theodore Spencer (2), *R. P. Blackmur (2), *Yvor Winters (1), *John Wheelwright (2), *Allen Tate (1), *Hart Crane (3), *Oscar Williams (2), *Robert Penn Warren (2), *Kenneth Patchen (1), *Delmore Schwartz (2), *Richard Eberhart (1), *Karl Jay Shapiro (4), *John Malcolm Brinnin (1), *Lloyd Frankenberg (2), *José Garcia Villa (6). Note: None of the poets included in the 1929 edition were deleted from the 1945 edition.
Jacket A: As 169.1b except text on front: “A newly edited anthology that includes every American poet of note from the seventeenth century to the present day—a companion volume to TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN POETRY, No. 127 in the Modern Library.”
Front flap rewritten:
In revising this volume, Conrad Aiken was guided in his selections by the principle that American poetry has reached the maturity and dignity of the poetry of older countries. With this conviction in mind, he could eliminate some of the stand-bys of older anthologies and make place for the refreshing and vital work of the poets who have arisen in the quarter of a century between the two world wars. This anthology offers the work of the best American poets from the time of the Revolution to the present day. (Spring 1945) Note:
Front flap reset in sans serif type from the flap text of 169.1a. It is not known if the reversion to the earlier text was deliberate or accidental. (Fall 1953)
Jacket B: As 169.1b on coated white paper with dark purplish red (259) replacing dark gray and strong purplish red (255) replacing dark brown.
Front flap as 169.1a. (Fall 1964)
Published February 1945. WR not found. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued 1978/79. Note: The copyright date is 1944, but publication of A Comprehensive Anthology of Modern Poetry appears to have been delayed until early 1945 because of wartime paper shortages.
A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry also comprised the American portion of the ML Giant, An Anthology of Famous English and American Poetry (G68b), published in December 1945. At Cerf’s insistence the initial printings of the Giant omitted the poems of Ezra Pound, who had been taken into custody in Italy in May 1945 and was later returned to the United States to face charges of treason. Cerf ignored Aiken’s strenuous objections but agreed to list the twelve omitted poems and to include that statement that Aiken had been “overruled by the publishers, who flatly refused at this time to include a single line by Ezra Pound” (Cerf’s distaste for Pound’s politics was focused entirely on the forthcoming anthology. There was never any suggestion of purging Pound from A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry or Twentieth-Century American Poetry (137.2), both of which were published shortly before Pound’s arrest. The removal of Pound’s poems from the Giant was widely condemned, and they were restored in the 1947 printing (see G68).
Since the regular ML edition of A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry (169.2) and Aiken’s portion of the Giant are printed from different type settings, it may be of interest to compare the two formats. With the restoration of Pound’s poems in G68b, the content of the two editions is identical except for a 7-line footnote on p. 788 of the Giant indicating that Pound’s poems had been restored. Both books are printed in the same typeface, but the Giant uses a larger point size. The type page of 169.2 consists of 41 lines, including the headline, compared to 43 lines in the Giant. The dimensions of the type pages are 146 x 86 mm in the regular edition and 170 x 101 mm in the Giant. Most of the poetry is unaffected by the width of the type page, but there are lines of Walt Whitman that occupy two lines of type in the regular edition and a single line in the Giant. Excluding preliminaries, indexes, and the fly title, the poems occupy 476 pages in the regular edition and 420 pages in the Giant.
American Poetry 1671–1928 and A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry do not include Phillis Wheatley, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, or any other African American poet. These and other African American poets had been represented in An Anthology of American Negro Literature (183), edited by V. F. Calverton and published in the ML nine months after the first edition of Aiken’s anthology. Calverton’s anthology was out of print by the time A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry appeared in 1945. The revised edition of An Anthology of American Negro Literature (372), edited by Sylvestre C. Watkins and available in the ML between 1944 and 1956, excluded poetry on the grounds that “five outstanding anthologies” edited by Arna Bontemps, James Weldon Johnson, Countee Cullen, Beatrice M. Murphy, and R. J. Kerlin had appeared since the publication of Calverton’s volume (Preface, p. xii). It does not appear to have occurred to Aiken to comment on the exclusion of African American poets from his anthology.
169.2b. Title page with Fujita torchbearer (c. 1969)
Title as 169.2a except line 8: [
Pagination as 169.2a. [1]16 [2–8]32 [9]16. Contents as 169.2a except: [iv] COPYRIGHT, 1929, 1944, BY RANDOM HOUSE, INC.
Jacket: As 169.2a jacket B.
Also in the Modern Library
Aiken, ed., Modern American Poets (1927–1940); Modern American Poetry (1940‑1945); Twentieth-Century American Poetry (1945–) 137
Aiken and Benét, eds., Anthology of Famous English and American Poetry (Giant, 1945–1971) G68
170
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT. SALAMMBÔ. 1929–1934. (ML 118)
170. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] SALAMMBÔ | [rule] | BY | GUSTAVE FLAUBERT | [rule] | [
Pp. [6], 1–354. [1–11]16 [12]4
[1] half title; [2]
Jacket A:
Text on front panel: “Complete and unabridged in one volume”.
Jacket B:
Text on front panel:
Presented, with the compliments of Bennett A. Cerf and Donald S. Klopfer, to the guests of the Womens National Booksellers Association, in conclave at the Hotel Commodore, New York, March 7, 1929. Note: Presentation jacket on copy of first printing; the jacket was never used on copies for sale to the public.
Translation unidentified. Portions of the translation are identical to the translation published in 1927 by the John Day Co., with an introduction by Ben Ray Redman. ML edition printed from plates made from a new typesetting. Publication scheduled for January 1929. WR 23 February 1929. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued 1 January 1935.
Cerf invited Will Durant to write an introduction to Salammbô after Durant’s publishers, Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster, told him that Durant was an enthusiastic admirer of the work. Durant insisted on a fee of $100, twice what the ML usually paid, and then submitted a general essay on Flaubert. Cerf asked for changes, noting: “It seems to me much too obvious that this is just a chapter from a book with much too much about Madame Bovary in it, and much too little about Salammbo. And what there is about Salammbo is simply a synopsis of the story” (Cerf to Durant, 14 August 1928; Durant to Cerf, 16 August 1928; Cerf to Durant, 10 September 1928). Durant indicated that he didn’t have time to make changes, and the ML published Salammbô without an introduction.
Four years after Salammbô was discontinued, James T. Farrell suggested Flaubert’s Sentimental Education for the ML (Farrell to Cerf, 1 February 1939). Cerf responded, “I am sorry to say that I see little point in adding another Flaubert title to the Modern Library at this time. We had to drop out both SALAMMBO and THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONY because of complete lack of demand, and even MADAME BOVARY doesn’t sell one-quarter of what it did ten and fifteen years ago” (Cerf to Farrell, 2 February 1939).
Also in the Modern Library
Flaubert, Madame Bovary (1917– ) 25
Flaubert, Temptation of St. Anthony (1921–1933) 82
171
FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY. THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV. 1929–1971. (ML 151)
171.1a. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] THE BROTHERS | KARAMAZOV | [rule] | BY | FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY | [rule] | TRANSLATED BY | CONSTANCE GARNETT | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xii, [1–2] 3–975 [976]. [1–30]16 [31]14
[i] half title; [ii]
Binding and endpaper variants: The new binding design created by Rockwell Kent was introduced in April 1929, but Kent tested his design on copies of the first printing of The Brothers Karamazov, which was scheduled for publication in February. The Brothers Karamazov first appeared with Bernhard endpapers in balloon cloth binding A with spine lettering set from type. Copies of the first printing are also found in balloon cloth binding with Kent’s grapevine design on the spine, his torchbearer in gold on the front panel, and the title and author on the spine stamped from lettering drawn by hand rather than set from metal type. There is also an intermediate stage between binding A and binding B1 which incorporates all elements of Kent’s design except hand lettering on the spine. Later printings appeared in balloon cloth bindings B2, with Kent’s torchbearer blind stamped on the front panel. The ML appears to have rejected Kent’s recommendation to employ letterers to create title and author statements for the binding spines of subsequent titles.
Variant A: Pp. [2], [i–iv] v–xii, [1–2] 3–975 [976–978]. [1–31]16. Contents (including First statement) as 171.1a except: [1–2] blank; [976–978] blank. (Fall 1929 jacket) Note: Probably the second printing.
Variant B: Pp. [i–iv] v–xii, [1–2] 3–975 [976–980]. [1–31]16. Contents as 171.1a except: [ii]
pub. note A6 ; [iv] manufacturing statement; [976–980] ML list. (Spring 1931)
Jacket A:
Jacket B: Pictorial expressionist jacket in dark brown and bluish gray depicting an unclothed male figure with his head in his hand walking through a stylized landscape consisting of a flower, a combined moon and sun, and geometrical shapes. 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 the volumes in the Three Great Modern Novels gift box—Butler’s Way of All Flesh (13.1d jacket B) and Hardy’s Return of the Native (126b jacket B) in addition to The Brothers Karamazov—were exceptional examples of expressionist graphics. They were never adapted for use on regular ML printings.
Jacket C: Pictorial jacket in dark red (16) and black on light gray paper with inset drawing of the three Karamazov brothers standing against a red background; lettering in black, borders in dark red. (Spring 1931)
Front flap:
Friedrich Nietzsche paid Fyodor Dostoyevsky the supreme compliment of acknowledging him his teacher, for he learned from the Russian that even a great criminal could be a great man. Dostoyevsky’s understanding of every exaltation and humiliation of the human spirit, his profound tenderness and compassion, his intensity and psychological clairvoyance are nowhere so completely realized as in The Brothers Karamazov. Here the mystic and the realist at last come into accord and give to the world this crowning achievement of Dostoyevsky’s tormented and almost fabulous life. (Fall 1933)
Garnett translation originally published in U.S. by the Macmillan Co., 1912. ML edition printed from plates made from a new typesetting. Published February 1929. WR 23 March 1929. First printing: 20,000. Discontinued 1971/72.
Klopfer inquired about the possibility of printing the ML edition from Macmillan plates but was informed that the Macmillan Co. in New York used printed sheets imported from England (Klopfer to George P. Brett, Jr., Macmillan, 31 October 1928; Harold S. Latham, Macmillan, to Klopfer, 9 November 1928). Cerf and Klopfer decided to assume the cost of original composition and announced that the ML edition was the first to be printed in the United States. Other publishers, they noted, “always imported it from England rather than undergo the great expense of making a new set of plates for so lengthy a book” (ML circular, RH box 133, Advertising 1929 folder 2). At 988 pages The Brothers Karamazov was longest book the ML had published up to that time.
The Brothers Karamazov sold about 30,000 copies in its first two-and-a-half years in the ML (Cerf to Robert Linscott, 9 October 1931). It ranked in the middle of the second quarter of ML titles in terms of sales during the 18-month period, May 1942–October 1943. In the early 1950s (November 1951–October 1952) it was the twelfth best-selling title in the ML; the Giant edition (G34) ranked in the second quarter of ML titles.
The Brothers Karamazov was one of four works to be published in the regular ML, ML Giants, and Illustrated ML. The other works included in all three series were Cervantes, Don Quixote (1930: 197), Giant (1934: G14), Illus ML (1946: IML 16); Fielding, History of Tom Jones (1931: 208), Giant (1940: G52), Illus ML (1943: IML 5); and Whitman, Poems (1921: 94.1), title changed to Leaves of Grass (1929), Leaves of Grass and Selected Prose (1951: 440); Leaves of Grass (Giant,1940: G48), Illus ML (1944: IML )
171.1b. Title page reset (c. 1940)
THE | BROTHERS | KARAMAZOV | BY | FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY | Translated by CONSTANCE GARNETT | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xii, [1–2] 3–975 [976–980]. [1–30]16 [31–32]8. Contents as 171.1a except: [ii] blank; [iv] publication and manufacturing statements; [976–980] blank.
Jacket: Pictorial in bluish gray (191), brilliant yellow (83) and black depicting an open horse-drawn carriage approaching a streetlight with tree and orthodox church in background; title in black highlighted in brilliant yellow and other lettering in reverse, all against bluish gray background. Designed by Paul Galdone, May 1939; unsigned.
Front flap as 171.1a jacket B. (Spring 1943)
171.2a. Text reset (1944)
The | Brothers | KARAMAZOV | by Fyodor Dostoyevsky | Translated by CONSTANCE GARNETT | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xii, [1–2] 3–939 [940]. [1–29]16 [30]12
[i] half title; [ii] blank; [iii] title; [iv] publication and manufacturing statements within single rules; v–vii TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE; [viii] blank; ix–xii CONTENTS; [1] part title: PART ONE | [illustration] | BOOK ONE | The History of a Family; [2] blank; 3–[940] text.
Variant: Pp. [i–iv] v–xii, [1–2] 3–939 [940–948]. [1–30]16. Contents as 171.2a except: [941–946] ML list; [947–948] ML Giants list. (Spring 1945)
Jacket: As 171.1b. (Fall 1944)
Printed from plates made for the Illustrated ML (IML 2.2a) and subsequently used for regular ML printings.
171.2b. Slonim introduction added (1950)
The | Brothers | KARAMAZOV | BY FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY | TRANSLATED BY Constance Garnett | INTRODUCTION BY Marc Slonim | English Faculty, Sarah Lawrence College | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xxiv, [1–2] 3–939 [940–952]. [1–29]16 [30]8 [31]16
Contents as 171.2a except: [iv] Copyright, 1950, by Random House, Inc.; v–xv [first 2 lines within curved single rules] INTRODUCTION | [rule] | By Marc Slonim; xvi SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY; [xvii] dedication to Anna Grigorievna Dostoyevsky; [xviii] epigraph from John 12:24; xix–xx FROM THE AUTHOR; xxi–xxiv CONTENTS; [941–946] ML list; [947–948] ML Giants list; [949–952] blank. (Spring 1951)
Variant: Pagination, collation and contents as 171.2b except: [iv] COPYRIGHT, 1950, BY RANDOM HOUSE, INC.; [941–948] ML list; [949–950] ML Giants list; [951–952] blank. (Spring 1965)
Jacket: As 171.1b.
Front flap rewritten:
Among the great novels of the world, The Brothers Karamazov stands preeminent. It captures and conveys the highest exaltation and the deepest humiliation of the human spirit; it probes the soul and reveals, with profound psychological clairvoyance, the plight of man in search for some truth about himself. In Fyodor Dostoyevsky the mystic and the realist at last come into accord, and by his compassion and understanding he creates one of the enduring novels in Russian and world literature. (Fall 1958)
Originally published with Slonim’s introduction in MLCE, 1950. Other additions were the dedication, the epigraph from John 12:24, and Dostoyevsky’s two-page preface “From the Author,” which Garnett had omitted and which the ML added on Slonim’s recommendation. Slonim received $200 for his introduction.
171.2c. Title page reset (1966)
The | BROTHERS | KARAMAZOV | BY FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY | TRANSLATED BY Constance Garnett | INTRODUCTION BY Marc Slonim | English Faculty, Sarah Lawrence College | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xvi [xvii–xx], [1–2] 3–940. [1]16 [2–15]32 [16]16
Contents as 171.2b except: [iv] [2-line dedication] | COPYRIGHT, 1950, BY RANDOM HOUSE, INC. | [xvii–xviii] FROM THE AUTHOR; [xix–xx] CONTENTS; [2] epigraph from John 12:24; 3–940 text. Note: 16 pages have been saved by shifting the dedication and epigraph, resetting the contents as 2 pages, and omitting ML lists at the end.
Jacket: Pictorial in moderate orange (53), strong blue (178) and black on coated white paper with the three Karamazov brothers depicted in black on spine and front and back panels; author in moderate orange on spine and front and back panels, title on spine and series on front panel in strong blue, title and other lettering in reverse against illustrations of brothers on front and back panels, all against white background. Designed by Paul Bacon; unsigned.
Front flap:
Among the great novels of the world, The Brothers Karamazov stands preeminent. It captures and conveys the highest exaltation and the deepest humiliation of the human spirit; it proves the soul and reveals, with profound psychological clairvoyance, the plight of man in search for some truth about himself. In Fyodor Dostoyevsky the mystic and the realist at last come into accord, and by his compassion and understanding he creates one of the enduring novels in Russian and world literature.
171.2d. Title page reset; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky | The [drawing of head of Dostoyevsky extending above line] Brothers | KARAMAZOV | [drawing] | Translated by Constance Garnett | Introduction by Marc Slonim | Sarah Lawrence College | [
Pagination as 171.2c. [1–30]16
Contents as 171.2c except: [iv] [2-line dedication] | MODERN LIBRARY EDITION, 1929 | Copyright, 1950, by Random House, Inc.; v–xv INTRODUCTION | [rule] | By Marc Slonim. Note: Curved rule frame removed from introduction and other headings.
Jacket: Reduced version of G34b jacket B. Pictorial in moderate olive (107), deep orange yellow (69), light olive brown (94) and black on coated white paper with illustration in black and moderate olive depicting a field with buildings on the horizon at left; lettering in deep orange yellow except author in reverse, all within light olive brown frame.
Front flap:
The Brothers Karamazov was published in 1880, shortly before Dostoyevsky’s death. It is the most greatly conceived of all his works and one of the most enduring masterpieces ever written.
Also in the Modern Library
Dostoyevsky, Poor People (1917–1929) 10
Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment (1932) 228; (Illus ML, 1944) IML 10
Dostoyevsky, The Possessed (1936) 288
Dostoyevsky, Brothers Karamazov (Giant, 1937) G34; (Illus ML, 1943) IML 2
Dostoyevsky, The Idiot (Giant, 1942) G60
Dostoevsky, Best Short Stories (1955) 479*
*All ML editions used the spelling Dostoyevsky except Best Short Stories which uses the spelling Dostoevsky. In recent decades “Dostoevsky” has become the most common transliteration of the author’s name in English-language editions of his works. “Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821–1881” remains the “authorized form” used in library catalogs to collocate the nearly 50 variant spellings that have been used to represent his name in the Roman alphabet.
172
GARDNER MURPHY, ed. AN OUTLINE OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY. 1929–1954. GARDNER MURPHY and ARTHUR J. BACHRACH, eds. AN OUTLINE OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY. Rev. ed. 1954–1970. (ML 152)
172.1a. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] AN OUTLINE OF | ABNORMAL | PSYCHOLOGY | [rule] | EDITED BY | GARDNER MURPHY | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xxxv [xxxvi], [1–2] 3–331 [332]. [1–11]16 [12]8
[i] half title; [ii]
Jacket A:
Text on front:
“A series of articles by leading specialists on every phase of nervous and mental abnormality. H. L. Hollingworth, William White, Morton Prince, Bernard Hart, and others have contributed chapters.” (Spring 1929)
Jacket B: Non-pictorial in strong greenish blue (169), vivid purplish blue (194) and black on coated white paper with title in reverse on black band with pointed borders in vivid purplish blue; other lettering in reverse at top and foot against strong greenish blue background.
Front flap:
The problems of abnormal psychology are as manifold as the problems of modern life. To understand the origins and manifestations of the psychoses that afflict us, we must come to a better comprehension of the biological and social factors involved. This handbook gives an all–inclusive view of the interrelationship of mental diseases to the forces in modern life which cause them. Here eminent authorities speak in non–technical terms for the layman, that he may better understand the causes and consequences of a maladjusted mental equipment. (Spring 1939)
Original ML anthology. Published February 1929. WR 23 March 1929. First printing: Not ascertained. Superseded fall 1954 by revised edition (172.2).
Cerf asked Everett Dean Martin of the New School for Social Research in 1926 if there was any chance of including his book Psychology: What It Has to Teach You about Yourself and Your World (W. W. Norton, 1924) in the ML. If not, he asked whether Martin would be interested in compiling an anthology on psychology as a companion to An Outline of Psychoanalysis (108). Martin replied negatively to both (Cerf to Martin, 21 September 1926; Martin to Cerf, 28 September 1926).
Cerf turned next to Gardner Murphy, who received royalties of 5 cents a copy.
An Outline of Abnormal Psychology sold 1,634 copies during the first six months of 1930 and 1,113 copies during the first six months of the following year. It ranked low in the second quarter of ML titles in terms of sales during the 18-month period, May 1942–October 1943. It did not rank among the 100 best-selling titles in the regular ML during 1951–52.
172.1b. Title page reset (c. 1940)
AN OUTLINE | OF | ABNORMAL | PSYCHOLOGY | EDITED BY | GARDNER MURPHY | [
Pagination and collation as 172.1a.
Contents as 172.1a except: [ii] blank; [iv] COPYRIGHT, 1929, BY THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC.
Jacket: Enlarged version of 172.1a jacket B. (Fall 1942)
172.2. Revised edition (1954)
An Outline of | Abnormal Psychology | REVISED EDITION | Edited by | Gardner Murphy, Ph.D. | Director of Research, Menninger Foundation | and | Arthur J. Bachrach, Ph.D. | Director, Division of Clinical and Medical Psychology, | University of Virginia | [
Pp. [i–v] vi–xxxiii [xxxiv], [1–3] 4–597 [598–606]. [1–20]16
[i] half title; [ii] blank; [iii] title; [iv] Copyright, 1954, by Random House, Inc.; [v]–vi Foreword signed p. vi: G.M.; [vii]–ix Contents; [x] blank; [xi]–xxxiii Introduction | by Gardner Murphy; [xxxiv] blank; [1] part title: CHILDHOOD; [2] blank; [3]–589 text; [590]–597 Glossary; [598] blank; [599–604] ML list; [605–606] ML Giants list. (Fall 1954)
Variant: Pagination as 172.2. [1]16 [2–10]32 [11]16. Contents as 172.2 except: [iv] COPYRIGHT, 1954, BY RANDOM HOUSE, INC.; [598–604] ML list; [605–606] ML Giants list. (Spring 1964)
Jacket: Non-pictorial in dark reddish orange (38), dark greenish blue (174) and black on coated white paper with lettering in reverse on inset black panel separated into upper and lower sections by a dark greenish blue band; background in dark reddish orange. Signed: [Miriam] Woods.
Front flap:
Abnormality, as Hippocrates suggested centuries ago, is essentially a matter of defect or of exaggeration, and so the line between what is normal behavior and what is abnormal behavior is a thin, shifting one. In the study of the range of human variability lies a key to sympathetic understanding of those who suffer the tragedy of a sick, disturbed mind. In such study, too, lies a key to a greater capacity to understand one’s own emotional and social growth and thus to cope more skillfully with the endless problems, crises, and frustrations of everyday living. In this book, eminent authorities, using non-technical language, introduce the layman to the scope and the new horizons of abnormal psychology. (Fall 1954)
Revised edition published fall 1954. WR 16 October 1954. First printing: 7,500 copies. Discontinued 1970/71.
Murphy wrote Cerf in 1953 that a revision of An Outline of Abnormal Psychology was badly needed. He indicated that he had recently reviewed the selections in the 1929 edition and that in almost every instance it would be possible to select a superior example to represent current research and practice. He noted that he would need a collaborator who was familiar with fields in which he was not up-to-date (Murphy to Cerf, 14 January 1953).
Stein replied four months later that the ML was planning revisions of several titles, including An Outline of Abnormal Psychology. He suggested that Murphy engage a collaborator for a flat fee of $300, which would be paid as an advance against Murphy’s royalties, and indicated that the ML would pay up to $300 for permissions. The royalty rate was to remain at 5 cents a copy (Stein to Murphy, 15 May 1953). Murphy thought that $500 should be the minimum fee for a collaborator but believed that permissions would be less than $300. Stein agreed to the $500 collaborator’s fee and reduced the permissions budget to $200 (Murphy to Stein, 23 May 1953; Stein to Murphy, 29 May 1953). Murphy selected Bachrach as his collaborator. Bachrach made the preliminary selection of contents, and Murphy wrote a new introduction. The revised edition contained completely new material.
The American Institute of Graphic Arts selected An Outline of Abnormal Psychology as one of the fifty best books of 1954 (Fifty Books of the Year 1954: Catalog of the Thirty-third Annual Exhibition [New York: American Institute of Graphic Arts, 1955], p. 34). The book was designed by Peter Oldenburg and manufactured by H. Wolff Book Manufacturing Company.
Also in the Modern Library
Van Teslaar, ed., Outline of Psychoanalysis (1924–1954) 108
Thompson, Mazer, and Wittenberg, eds., Outline of Psychoanalysis (1955–1971) 472
173
DMITRI MEREJKOWSKI. THE DEATH OF THE GODS. 1929–1940. (ML 153)
173. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] [line 1 within square brackets] JULIAN THE APOSTATE | THE DEATH OF | THE GODS | [rule] | TRANSLATED FROM THE | ORIGINAL RUSSIAN OF | DMITIRI MEREJKOWSKI | [rule] | BY | BERNARD GUILBERT GUERNEY | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–vi] vii–x, [1–2] 3–473 [474–478]. [1–15]16 [16]4
[i] half title; [ii]
Variant: Pp. [i–vi] vii–x, [1–2] 3–473 [474–486]. [1–15]16 [16]8. Contents as 173 except: [iv] First statement omitted; [475–480] ML list; [481–486] blank. (Fall 1933)
Jacket A:
Jacket B:
Front flap:
Merejkowski’s colossal trilogy, collectively entitled Christ and Anti-Christ, begins with the volume The Death of the Gods. It is a historical romance woven around Julian the Apostate, the first Roman emperor to be brought up in the Christian faith. The multi-colored background of the fourth century and the conflict for survival between paganism and Christianity provide Merejkowski with setting and theme for his most resplendent historical novel. (Spring 1936)
Original ML translation. Published March 1929. WR 27 April 1929. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued 1 January 1941.
Also in the Modern Library
Merejkowski, Romance of Leonardo da Vinci (1928–1970) 154
Merejkowski, Peter and Alexis (1931–1940) 227
174
EDMOND ROSTAND. CYRANO DE BERGERAC. 1929–1973. (ML 154)
174.1a. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] CYRANO | DE BERGERAC | [rule] | BY | EDMOND ROSTAND | [rule] | TRANSLATED BY | BRIAN HOOKER | [rule] | INTRODUCTION BY | CLAYTON HAMILTON | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–viii] ix–xix [xx], [1–2] 3–322 [323–324]. [1–10]16 [11]12
[i] half title; [ii]
Jacket A:
Jacket B: Pictorial jacket on blue paper with inset illustration of Cyrano seated while a kneeling Roxane holds his hand, without borders. (Spring?1929)
Jacket C: Pictorial in deep blue (179) and black on cream paper with inset illustration of Cyrano seated while a kneeling Roxane holds his hand; lettering in black, borders in deep blue. (Spring 1930)
Front flap:
Who can withhold a tear for Cyrano de Bergerac as he hides his preposterous nose in the darkness and lets his lyric utterances win the fair Roxane for the handsome but mute Christian de Neuvillette? Who has not been moved to pity by the romantic posturings of the unerring swordsman, this understudy knight of chivalry and ghost-writing maker of sonorous ballades? All the fine bravura of Edmond Rostand’s swaggering drama, all its poetical extravagance and glamor are here in Brian Hooker’s famous translation. (Fall 1933)
Hooker translation originally published by Henry Holt & Co., 1923. ML edition printed from plates made from a new typesetting. Published March 1929. WR 27 April 1929. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued 1973/74.
The Holt plates were too large for the ML’s format, so the ML reset the text and made new plates for its edition. The ML paid Holt royalties of 10 cents a copy, but Holt agreed to contribute to the cost of the new plates by accepting reduced royalties of 8 cents a copy on the first 30,000 copies. The ML paid Holt a $3,400 advance in December 1928 against royalties on the first 40,000 copies at this sliding scale.
In 1936 Holt considered bringing out a school edition of Cyrano de Bergerac at an educational discount, and Richard Thornton, the president of Holt, asked Cerf if the ML would object. Klopfer expressed concern that it would interfere with ML sales to college bookstores, but he acknowledged that Holt had the right to do as it wished. “I’m merely putting in this feeble squawk to see if I can’t get you to change your mind.” Thornton assured Klopfer that the proposed edition was aimed at high schools and wouldn’t affect the college market. “I would not have proposed such a volume if I had felt it would have any serious effect on your own book” (Thornton to Cerf, 17 June 1936; Klopfer to Thornton, 18 June 1936; Thornton to Klopfer, 19 June 1936).
Cyrano de Bergerac ranked low in the second quarter of ML sales during the 18-month period, May 1942–October 1943. It was the tenth best-selling ML title during the 12-month period November 1951–October 1952. Sales may have been stimulated by the 1950 film starring Jose Ferrer.
174.1b. Title page reset (c. 1940)
CYRANO | DE BERGERAC | BY | EDMOND ROSTAND | TRANSLATED BY | BRIAN HOOKER | INTRODUCTION BY | CLAYTON HAMILTON | [
Pp. [i–viii] ix–xix [xx], [1–2] 3–322 [323–332]. [1–11]16. Contents as 174.1a except: [ii] blank; [iv] COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY; [323–328] ML list; [329–330] ML Giants list; [331–332] blank. (Spring 1944)
Jacket: Pictorial in vivid reddish orange (34), medium gray (265) and black on coated white paper depicting Cyrano preparing to draw his sword with lettering in vivid reddish orange; spine panel in vivid reddish orange.
Front flap as 174.1a. (Spring 1944)
174.2. Text reset (1953/54)
Cyrano de Bergerac | BY EDMOND ROSTAND | TRANSLATED BY BRIAN HOOKER | INTRODUCTION BY CLAYTON HAMILTON | [
Pp. [i–viii] ix–xix [xx], 1–300. [1–10]16
[i] half title; [ii] blank; [iii] title; [iv] Copyright, 1923, by Henry Holt and Company | Copyright, 1951, by Doris C. Hooker; [v] dedication; [vi] acts of the play; [vii] THE PERSONS; [viii] blank; ix–xix PREFACE signed p. xix: CLAYTON HAMILTON | New York City: October, 1923.; [xx] blank; 1–300 text.
Jacket A: As 174.1b. (Spring 1956)
Jacket B: As jacket A except strong purplish red (255) instead of vivid reddish orange. (Spring 1963)
Jacques Le Clercq, whose translations of Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel (G66) and Dumas’s Three Musketeers (153.2) were published in the ML in 1944 and 1950, indicated in 1953 that he was working a rhymed verse translation of Cyrano de Bergerac and inquired if the ML would be interested in it. He commented, “Of course, the Hooker job is superb. However, it does not render Rostand’s complete text and, though a perfect transposition, nevertheless lacks the bravura quality that was inherent in Rostand.” Commins replied that the ML couldn’t consider changing the translation, which had “established itself as standard for many college courses” (Le Clercq to Saxe Commins, 4 February 1953; Commins to Le Clercq, 10 February 1953; Commins Papers, Box 5, Princeton University Library). Le Clercq’s translation of Cyrano de Bergerac does not appear to have been published.
By 1953 the ML’s plates were badly worn and Klopfer declared the ML edition “a disgrace.” He wrote Holt that he wanted to keep Cyrano in the series but that new plates had to be made. He suggested that Holt accept a 6-cent royalty on the first 25,000 copies printed from new plates, after which the rate would revert to 10 cents a copy. This time Holt declined to share the cost of new plates (Klopfer to Alfred C. Edwards, Holt, 6 May 1953; William E. Buckley, Holt, to Klopfer, 22 May 1953). The ML appears to have reset the text at its own expense. By the mid-1960s the ML was paying royalties of 5 cents a copy.
175
THORNTON WILDER. THE CABALA. 1929–1937. ML 155)
175. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] THE CABALA | [rule] | BY | THORNTON WILDER | [rule] | INTRODUCTION BY | HERBERT GORMAN | [rule] | [
Pp. [2], [i–iv] v–xiii [xiv], [3–6] 7–230 [231–234]. [1–7]16 [8]12
[1] half title; [2]
Format: The Cabala was the first ML title published in balloon cloth binding B. Copies with the statement “First Modern Library Edition | 1929” have been seen with the Bernhard endpaper, which was used through March 1929, the month in which the first printing was probably made, and also the Kent endpaper, which began to be used in April, the month in which The Cabala was published. The earliest copies sold were almost certainly those in the Bernhard endpaper. Copies examined in jacket B have the Kent endpaper.
Variant: Pagination as 175 except: [231–242]. [1–8]16. Contents as 175 except: [ii] First statement omitted; [231–235] ML list; [236–242] blank. (Fall 1931)
Jacket A:
Jacket B: Pictorial in black on strong yellowish pink (26) paper with inset illustration of two women and two men seated around a table, casting shadows on an exotically decorated wall; lettering in black. Signed: N.B. (Spring 1929) Note: At this period the ML was making a limited number of titles available in pictorial jackets as an alternative to the uniform typographic jacket. Jackets A and B were superseded by jacket C in fall 1931.
Jacket C: Pictorial in grayish purple (228) and black on light purplish gray paper with inset illustration as jacket B; lettering in black, borders in grayish purple. (Fall 1931
Front flap:
The sensational success of The Bridge of San Luis Rey obscured for a time the fine lustre of Thornton Wilder’s earlier work, The Cabala. But critics and an enthusiastic minority of readers clung to their preference for the calm and suave classicism of the Italian tale in the Henry James tradition. The restraint and the mystical implications of The Cabala, the imaginative subtlety with which it is endowed, the firmness of its characterizations, its wit and irony, give it a place of eminence among contemporary novels. (Fall 1933)
Originally published by Albert & Charles Boni, 1926. ML edition (pp. [iii], [3]–230) printed from Boni plates. The heading of the contents page of Boni printings was changed from The Cabala to Contents at some point between the sixth printing (January 1928) and the tenth printing (August 1928); ML printings use the second version of the contents page. Published April 1929. WR 11 May 1929. First printing: 8,000 copies. Discontinued fall 1937.
Cerf invited Wilder to write a brief foreword to the ML edition. “I know that you have no great liking for doing introductions,” he wrote, “particularly to writings of your own; as a matter of fact it is not an introduction that we want for this book, rather a graceful salaam to send it on its way in its new format. . . . ‘The Cabala,’ at 95¢, is going to sell to a brand new audience that has never been able to afford to buy a book of yours before. In particular this new audience will be made up largely of college students. I am sure that just a few words stating how the book grew in your mind will be a fine thing to have in this edition” (Cerf to Wilder, 11 March 1929). He offered $100, double the ML’s usual fee, but Wilder did not succumb to the invitation. At the last moment Cerf turned to Herbert Gorman, offering him $50 for an introduction to be written within five days (Cerf to Gorman, 21 March 1929). Gorman met the deadline, and the ML edition went to press at the end of March.
The Cabala sold well during its first two or three years in the series. There were two printings of 1,000 copies each in 1930 and another printing of 1,000 copies in 1931. The last printing recorded in the RH archives was for 1,000 copies in 1933.
176
PETRONIUS. THE SATYRICON. 1929–1957. (ML 156)
176a. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] THE SATYRICON | [rule] | OF | PETRONIUS ARBITER | [rule] | TRANSLATED BY | WILLIAM BURNABY | [rule] | INTRODUCTION BY | C. K. SCOTT-MONCRIEFF | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xxii, 1–238 [239–242]. [1–8]16 [9]4
[i] half title; [ii]
Variant: Pp. [i–iv] v–xxii, 1–238. [1–7]16 [8]16(16+1.2). Contents as 176a except: [ii]
pub. note D12 ; [iv] manufacturing statement. (Fall 1932 jacket)
Jacket A:
Jacket B: Pictorial in deep red (13) and black on cream paper with profile drawing of a young Roman gazing at a bunch of grapes with an expression of satiated dissolution; borders in deep red, lettering in black. Signed: Robert Ball. (Fall 1932)
Jacket C: Pictorial in strong purplish red (255) and black on cream paper depicting two men and five nude women at a Roman orgy, with a banquet table in the foreground; lettering in black, borders in strong purplish red. Signed: L.
Front flap:
“By his dissolute life he had become as famous as other men by a life of energy, and he was regarded as no ordinary profligate, but as an accomplished voluptuary. . . . He became one of the chosen circle of Nero’s intimates, and was looked upon as an absolute authority on questions of taste in connection with the science of luxurious living.” This estimate of Petronius Arbiter by Tacitus completely characterizes the author of The Satyricon as the cultivated and depraved apotheosis of his uninhibited age. (Fall 1936)
Abbey Classics edition with Scott Moncrieff introduction originally published in U.S. by Small, Maynard & Co., 1923, using sheets of the English edition. ML edition (pp. v–238) follows the text of the Abbey Classics edition with the substitution of modern typesetting conventions for Burnaby’s 17th-century practice of capitalizing nouns within sentences. Printed from plates made from a new typesetting. Publication announced for May 1929. WR 13 July 1929. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued fall 1957.
The Satyricon was written during the reign of Nero. The Burnaby translation, originally published in 1694, was the first in English. Burnaby included supplements to the text, later shown to be spurious, that had been “discovered” in 1688. The first page of the ML text is headed: THE SATYRICON | OF PETRONIUS | THE SATYR OF | TITUS PETRONIUS ARBITER | With its Fragments, recover’d at Buda, 1688. (p. 1).
The ML edition sold 2,015 copies during the 18-month period May 1942–October 1943, making it one of the ML’s ten worst-selling titles. It did not rank among the one hundred best-selling titles in the regular ML during the 12-month period November 1951–October 1952
176b. Title page reset (c. 1941)
THE | SATYRICON | OF | PETRONIUS ARBITER | TRANSLATED BY | WILLIAM BURNABY | INTRODUCTION BY | C. K. SCOTT MONCRIEFF | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xxii, 1–238. [1–7]16 [8]16(16+1.2), Contents as 176a except: [ii] blank; [iv] publication and manufacturing statements within single rules.
Variant A: Pp. [i–iv] v–xxii, 1–238 [239–246]. [1–8]16 [9]6. Contents as 176b except: [239–244] ML list; [245–246] ML Giants list. (Spring 1946)
Variant B: Pp. [i–iv] v–xxii, 1–238 [239–250]. [1–8]16 [9]8. Contents as 176b variant A except: [247–250] blank. (Fall 1947)
Jacket: Non-pictorial in dark grayish blue (187) on cream paper with lettering and torchbearer in reverse against solid dark grayish blue background. Designed by Joseph Blumenthal.
Front flap as 176a jacket C. (Fall 1942)
Front flap reset with last portion revised as follows:
“This estimate of Petronius Arbiter by Tacitus completely characterizes the author of The Satyricon. For centuries he has been considered the symbol of a highly cultivated and depraved age. Most of all, he is remembered as its chronicler.” (Spring 1954)
177
STENDHAL. THE RED AND THE BLACK. 1929–1973; 1984– . (ML 157)
177a. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] THE RED AND THE | BLACK | [rule] | BY | MARIE-HENRI BEYLE | [within square brackets] DE STENDHAL | [rule] | TRANSLATED BY | C. K. SCOTT-MONCRIEFF | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–vi, [7–8] 9–287 [288]; v–vi, 9–349 [350–358]. [1–20]16
[i] half title; [ii]
Jacket:
Front flap:
From the time Honoré de Balzac pronounced Stendhal’s preeminence among the novelists of France until today, the author of The Red and the Black has retained and spread his influence among writers of every nationality. His story of Julien Sorel is incomparably the most astute and penetrating study of middle-class mores in all fiction. It is, in addition, a relentless dissection of the hypocrisy and opportunism of as unconscionable an upstart as ever violated the Seventh and other Commandments in order to get on in the world. (Spring 1933)
Scott Moncrieff translation originally published in U.S. in two volumes by Boni & Liveright, 1926. ML edition (pp. v–[288]; v–[352]) printed from B&L plates. Published June 1929. WR 13 July 1929. First printing: 4,000 copies. Discontinued 1973/74. Reissue format, 1984.
The ML hyphenates the translator’s name as Scott-Moncrieff on the 177a title page and omits the hyphen in 177b‑e. Boni & Liveright was also inconsistent in its multi-volume Works of Stendhal, hyphenating the translator’s name on the title page of The Red and the Black and omitting the hyphen on the title page of The Charterhouse of Parma and the jackets of both works.
The ML paid Liveright royalties of 10 cents a copy.
The Red and the Black ranked high in the fourth quarter of ML titles in terms of sales during the 18-month period May 1942–October 1943. It rose to the first quarter of ML sales during the 12-month period November 1951–October 1952. The dramatic increase in sales may reflect use of The Red and the Black in college literature courses after the Second World War, when enrollments increased dramatically as large numbers of veterans took advantage of the G.I. Bill to earn college degrees.
177b. Title page reset (c. 1941)
THE RED | AND | THE BLACK | BY MARIE-HENRI BEYLE | (DE STENDHAL) | TRANSLATED BY | C. K. SCOTT MONCRIEFF | [
Pp. [2], [i–ii] iii–iv, [7–8] 9–287 [288]; v–vi, 9–349 [350–358]. [1–20]16. Contents as 177a except: [1] half title; [2] blank; [i] title; [ii] COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY BONI AND LIVERIGHT; iii–iv CONTENTS – VOLUME ONE; v–vi CONTENTS – VOLUME TWO; [353–357] ML list; [358] blank. (Fall 1942)
Variant A: Pagination as 177b except: [i–ii] iii [iv] . . . Collation as 177b. Contents as 177b except: iii–[iv] CONTENTS – VOLUME ONE; [353–358] ML list. Note: Battered page numeral “iv” removed from plates. (Fall 1951)
Variant B: As variant A except: [ii] COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY BONI AND LIVERIGHT | COPYRIGHT, RENEWED, 1953, | BY GEORGE SCOTT-MONCRIEFF. (Spring 1955)
Jacket A: Non-pictorial in very deep red (14) and black on cream paper with title and author in reverse on curved black panel at right; background in very deep red with other lettering and torchbearer in reverse.
Front flap as 177a. (Spring 1942)
Jacket B: Non-pictorial in deep red (13) and black on coated white paper with title in reverse against overlapping circular designs in deep red and black; author in reverse on deep red patch and other lettering in black, all against white background. Signed: [George] Salter. (Spring 1957)
Front flap as 177a.
177c. Title page reset; text partially repaginated to create a single sequence of pagination; offset printing (1967)
THE | [rule] | RED | [rule] | AND | THE | [rule] | BLACK | [rule] | BY STENDHAL | (MARIE HENRI BEYLE) | Translated by | C. K. SCOTT MONCRIEFF | THE MODERN LIBRARY [
Pp. [i–iv] v–viii, [7–8] 9–630 [631–638]. [1]16 [2–10]32 [11]16
Contents: [i] half title; [ii] blank; [iii] title; [iv] Copyright, 1926, by Boni and Liveright | Copyright, renewed, 1953, by George Scott-Moncrieff; v–viii CONTENTS; [7] fly title: THE RED AND THE BLACK; [8] blank; 9–630 text; [631] TO THE HAPPY FEW; [632] TRANSLATOR’S NOTE signed: C. K. S. M.; [633] biographical note; [634] blank; [635–636] ML Giants list; [637–638] blank. (Spring 1967) Note: Pp. 9–349 of the second sequence of pagination in 177a–b are repaginated as pp. 289‑630 to create a single sequence of pagination from p. [7] through p. 630. The separate tables of contents at the beginning of each sequence of pagination are combined on pp. v–viii, and the title THE RED AND THE BLACK at the head of the first text page of what was originally volume two is omitted.
Jacket: Non-pictorial in vivid red (11), deep blue (179) and black on coated white paper with first two words of title at top of inset vertical panel at left, all in vivid red; ampersand and last two words of title at top of inset vertical panel at right, all in black except ampersand in deep blue; other lettering in reverse on black panel, all against white background.
Front flap slightly revised from 177a with third sentence ending: “a relentless dissection of hypocrisy and opportunism.”
177d. Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
Title as 177c except line 14: THE MODERN LIBRARY [
Pagination as 177c. [1–10]32. Contents as 177c.
Variant: Pagination and collation as 177d. Contents as 177c except: [iv] modern library edition 1929 | [2 lines of copyright statements as 177c]. Note: Priority with 177d not established.
Jacket: Enlarged version of 177c.
177e. Reissue format (1984)
STENDHAL | (MARIE HENRI BEYLE) | [title in reverse within single rules in reverse all on black rectangular panel] THE RED & THE BLACK | [below panel] TRANSLATED BY C. K. SCOTT MONCRIEFF | [
Pp. [2], [1–8] 9–630 [631–638]. Perfect bound. Contents as 177c except: [1] woodcut illustration by Stephen Alcorn of priest and condemned man in cell with shadow of guillotine on wall; [2] blank; [1] title; [2] SECOND MODERN LIBRARY EDITION 1984 | Copyright 1926 by Boni and Liveright | Copyright renewed 1953 by George Scott-Moncrieff; [3–6] CONTENTS; [7] fly title: THE RED & THE BLACK; [634–638] blank.
Jacket: Pictorial in strong reddish brown (40) and black on tan paper with inset woodcut illustration by Stephen Alcorn of priest and condemned man in cell with shadow of guillotine on wall.
Front flap:
“True passion,” Stendhal wrote, “never thinks of anything but itself.” Based on an actual incident that Stendhal read about in the Gazette des Tribunaux in 1827, The Red and the Black is a brilliant psychological portrait of passion, opportunism and political intrigue set in 19th-century Restoration France. It is the story of Julien Sorel, a young man of humble origins but high aspirations, whose prospects for a respectable public career are cut short by boundless egotism, tragic love, and revenge. Stendhal’s characters, from the calculating Julien with his Napoleonic yearnings, to the benevolent Abbé Pirard, to the Marquis de la Mole and the Jesuit de Frilair, are intimately connected with contemporary historical circumstances. The contrast between the “red” and the “black” symbolizes the conflict between liberals and conservatives, the army and the clergy. As sharp in its analysis of blind ambition as it is in its satire of bourgeois mores and French society, The Red and the Black established Stendhal as one of the preeminent novelists of the 19th century.
Published fall 1984 at $9.95. ISBN 0-394-60511-X.
Also in the Modern Library
Stendhal, Charterhouse of Parma (1937–1943) 298
178
PAUL LANDIS, ed. FOUR FAMOUS GREEK PLAYS. 1929–1950. (ML 158)
178a. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] FOUR FAMOUS | GREEK PLAYS | [rule] | EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION | BY | PROF. PAUL LANDIS | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–vi] vii–xviii, [1–2] 3–285 [286]. [1–9]16 [10]8
[i] half title; [ii]
Variant: Pagination as 178a except: [286–294]. [1–9]16 [10]12. Contents as 178a except: [ii]
pub. note A6 ; [iv] First statement omitted; [287–292] ML list; [293–294] blank. (Fall 1933)
Contents: Agamemnon, by Aeschylus; translated by Lewis Campbell – Oedipus the King, by Sophocles; translated by F. Storr – Medea, by Euripides; translated by A. S. Way – The Frogs, by Aristophanes; translated by John Hookham Frere.
Jacket:
Front flap:
The glory that was Greece is nowhere so luminously reflected as in the mirror of her drama. Through the masks of tragedy and comedy, nobility and villainy, and all the duality of the human spirit, the life of man glows to passion and grows dim. Pity and terror in Æschylus, serene detachment in Sophocles, burning fervor for justice in Euripides and the robust intellectual comedy of Aristophanes—these qualities remain the message and the meaning of Greek drama. It is a heritage from antiquity that the modern spirit needs. (Fall 1933)
Original ML anthology. Publication announced for July 1929. WR 14 September 1929. First printing: Not ascertained. Superseded spring 1951 by Seven Famous Greek Plays, ed. Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O’Neill, Jr. (439).
Cerf wrote shortly after publication, “The Greek Plays has done nobly, and has thoroughly justified its inclusion in the series. I am still regretting the fact, however, that we did not get permission to use the Gilbert Murray translations” (Cerf to Landis, 8 May 1930). Twenty-two years later the ML used Murray’s translation of The Frogs in Seven Famous Greek Plays (439).
Four Famous Greek Plays ranked low in the second quarter of ML titles in terms of sales during the 18-month period May 1942–October 1943.
178b. Title page reset (c. 1941)
FOUR | FAMOUS GREEK | PLAYS | Edited, with an introduction by | Professor PAUL LANDIS | [
Pagination and collation as 178a variant. Contents as 178a variant except: [ii] blank; [iv] COPYRIGHT, 1929, BY THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC.; [293–294] ML Giants list. (Spring 1944)
Jacket: Non-pictorial in dark red (16) and bluish gray (191) on cream paper with lettering in dark red and in reverse on bluish gray panel at upper left; series in dark red below panel against cream background.
Front flap as 178a. (Spring 1944)
Also in the Modern Library
Seven Famous Greek Plays, ed. Oates and O’Neill (1951–1970) 439
Aeschylus, Complete Greek Tragedies, vol. 1 (1960– ) 526
Aeschylus, Complete Greek Tragedies, vol. 2 (1962–1976) 543
Sophocles, Complete Greek Tragedies, vol. 3 (1960–1973) 527
Sophocles, Complete Greek Tragedies, vol. 4 (1961–1973) 533
Euripides, Complete Greek Tragedies, vol. 5 (1961–1973) 531
Euripides, Complete Greek Tragedies, vol. 6 (1963–1973) 548
Euripides, Complete Greek Tragedies, vol. 7 (1963–1973) 552
179
TOBIAS SMOLLETT. THE EXPEDITION OF HUMPHRY CLINKER. 1929–1970. (ML 159)
179a. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] THE EXPEDITION OF | HUMPHRY CLINKER | [rule] | BY | TOBIAS SMOLLETT | [rule] | INTRODUCTION BY | ARTHUR MACHEN | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xvi, [2], 1–433 [434–438]. [1–14]16 [15]4
[i] half title; [ii]
Variant: Pp. [i–iv] v–xvi, [2], 1–433 [434]. [1–13]16 [14]16(16+1.2). Contents through p. [434] as 179a except: [ii]
pub. note D12 ; [iv] First statement omitted. (Fall 1936 jacket) Note: Pp. 431–[434] are an inserted fold.
Jacket A:
Jacket B:
Front flap:
The rogues’ gallery of scoundrels and lusty wenches that gave flavor to Roderick Random and Peregrine Pickle is matched by as humorous an array of delightful and cantankerous characters in Humphry Clinker. Here, too, are the caustic turns of speech, the sardonic wit and the acute powers of observation that have made Smollett’s books a plunder house for English writers during almost two centuries. And here, above all, is Smollett in a genial and mellow mood, but candid and outspoken, with the healthy frankness of the eighteenth century. (Fall 1936)
ML edition printed from plates made from a new typesetting. Published August 1929. WR 14 September 1929. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued 1970/71.
Cerf wanted to include a volume of Machen’s stories in the ML and proposed the idea to him when he visited London in summer 1926. The Hill of Dreams and The House of Souls were in the U.S. public domain, but Machen, who badly needed the money a ML edition would bring, felt he could approve the proposal only if Alfred A. Knopf, his American publisher, did not object (Machen to Cerf, 7 July 1926). Cerf approached Knopf on several occasions but was unable to secure his approval. He told Machen he hadn’t given up hope; meanwhile, he asked him to write an introduction to a volume by Smollett. He offered $100, twice the ML’s usual fee, and asked him which Smollett title he would recommend (Cerf to Machen, 21 April 1927). Machen indicated that Humphry Clinker, “the work of Smollett’s softened old age” was his own favorite. However, he thought that Roderick Random was “more characteristically Smollett: rough, hard, vigorous, cruel: I think it is the typical book to begin with. . . .” He expressed the hope that Cerf would send the money with his order for the introduction: “I am hard up” (Machen to Cerf, 30 April 1927). Illness delayed his work on the introduction by a year, but he wrote Cerf in April 1928 that he was ready to go ahead with it.
Humphry Clinker ranked in the fourth quarter of ML titles in terms of sales during the 18-month period May 1942–October 1943. It did not rank among the 100 best-selling titles in the regular ML during the 12-month period, November 1951–October 1952.
179b. Title page reset (1940)
THE EXPEDITION OF | Humphry Clinker | BY | TOBIAS SMOLLETT | INTRODUCTION BY | ARTHUR MACHEN | [
Pagination and collation as 179a. Contents as 179a except: [ii] blank; [iv] INTRODUCTION COPYRIGHT, 1929, | BY THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC.; [434–438] ML list. (Spring 1940)
Variant: Pagination as 179a except: [434–446]. [1–13]16 [14]8 [15]16. Contents as 179b except: [434] blank; [435–440] ML list; [441–442] ML Giants list; [443–446] blank. (Spring 1948)
Jacket: Non-pictorial in very deep red (14) and dark bluish gray (192) on cream paper with lettering in reverse on rounded very deep red panel at right; background in dark bluish gray with other lettering in reverse. Designed by Joseph Blumenthal.
Front flap as 179a. (Fall 1947)
Front flap revised:
The rogues’ gallery of ruffians and lusty wenches that gave so much color to Roderick Random and Peregrine Pickle is matched by an array of cantankerous characters in Humphry Clinker. Here, in the last of his novels as in the others, are the wit and wisdom, the acute powers of observation, and the sharp turn of phrase that characterize all of Tobias Smollett’s work. Here is Smollett, grown tolerant of human frailty after having screamed against it in Roderick Random, now writing in the mellow, satiric vein of amiable elderly people in whom there is a hard core of eccentricity. Humphry Clinker, now almost two hundred years old, still retains the freshness and the vigor of the best of the eighteenth-century novels. (Spring 1955)
Fall
180
HAVELOCK ELLIS. THE DANCE OF LIFE. 1929–1958. (ML 160)
180a. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] THE DANCE OF LIFE | [rule] | BY | HAVELOCK ELLIS | [rule] | WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION | BY | HAVELOCK ELLIS | [rule] | [
Pp. [4], [i–v] vi–xiv [xv–xvi], [2], [1] 2–363 [364–366]. [1–11]16 [12]16(16+1.2). Note: Pp. 363‑366 are an inserted fold.
[1] half title; [2]
Variant: Pagination as 180a except: [364–370]. [1–12]16 [13]4. Contents as 180a except: [2]
pub. note A7 ; [364] blank; [365–369] ML list; [370] ML Giants list. (Fall 1937)
Jacket:
Front flap:
To classify The Dance of Life as a book of philosophy, as a spiritual autobiography or even as a book of personal affirmations does it scant justice. It is all of these and more. It is a book of aspiration, of growth and of revelation, written by a man who has partaken of life and contributed to its wisdom, grace and idealism. The Dance of Life may be considered the crowning achievement of Havelock Ellis’s life; it epitomizes his spirit and his work. (Spring 1938)
Originally published in U.S. by Houghton Mifflin Co., 1923. ML edition printed from Houghton Mifflin plates made from a new typesetting. Published September 1929. WR 26 October 1929. First printing: 15,000 copies. Discontinued 1 January 1959.
In addition to the ML printing, the new plates were used for 1929 printings in Houghton Mifflin’s Riverside Library and the Book League of America. A revised index keyed to the new typesetting appears in ML and Book League of America printings but not the Riverside Library printing, which ends on p. 342, the last page of text. The Book League of America contents page lists the index while the ML’s doesn’t. Ellis’s new foreword is unique to ML printings.
The ML paid Houghton Mifflin an undetermined advance against royalties on the first 50,000 copies. There was a second printing of 5,000 copies in March 1931; printings reached 50,000 copies by October 1945.
The Dance of Life ranked in the 3rd quarter of ML titles in terms of sales during the 18-month period, May 1942–October 1943. It was not among the 100 best-selling titles in the regular ML during the 12-month period, November 1951–October 1952.
180b. Title page reset (1941)
THE | DANCE | OF | LIFE | BY | HAVELOCK ELLIS | WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION | BY HAVELOCK ELLIS | [
Pagination and collation as 180a variant. Contents as 180a except: [2] blank; [4] COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY HAVELOCK ELLIS | INTRODUCTION COPYRIGHT, 1929, | BY THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC.; [364] blank; [365–369] ML list; [370] blank. (Fall 1941)
Jacket: Non-pictorial in deep blue (179) on cream paper with lettering and torchbearer in reverse against solid deep blue background.
Front flap as 180a. (Fall 1941)
Front flap reset with last sentence revised as follows:
“. . . Ellis’s long and productive life. It epitomizes his spirit and his work; it is the testament of a rich and generous mind.” Designed by Joseph Blumenthal. (Fall 1954)
Also in the Modern Library
Ellis, The New Spirit (1921–1932) 85
181
GEOFFREY CHAUCER. THE CANTERBURY TALES. 1929–1971. (ML 161)
181.1a. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] THE CANTERBURY | TALES | [rule] | BY | GEOFFREY CHAUCER | [rule] | EDITED BY THE | REV. WALTER W. SKEAT | [rule] | INTRODUCTION BY | LOUIS UNTERMEYER | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–vii [viii], 1–602 [603–608]. [1–19]16 [20]4
[i] half title; [ii]
Jacket A:
Front flap:
For centuries commentators have sought a particular attribute by which Chaucer earned the title of “the father of English poetry.” Now the secret of his genius no longer lies merely in his incomparable narrative powers, nor in his technical mastery. His unfailing vitality and his myriad attachments to reality and imagination reveal the true scope of the man and the poet. The Modern Library edition of The Canterbury Tales makes his masterpiece available to scholar and general reader alike in its most authoritative version. (Fall 1936)
Jacket B: Pictorial in brownish orange (54), gold and black on coated cream paper with black-and-white illustration of five mounted pilgrims and Canterbury Cathedral in distance; background in white ruled in gold, title in reverse against inset brownish orange panel at top, author in reverse highlighted in black against brownish orange panel at foot, other lettering in black. Designed by Paul Galdone, December 1937; unsigned.
Front flap as 181.1a. (Spring 1938)
Skeat edition originally published as part of The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer by Oxford University Press (6 vols., 1897). ML edition printed from plates made from a new typesetting. Published September 1929. WR 26 October 1929. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued 1971/72.
Untermeyer received $50 for the introduction. Sales totaled 87,132 copies by spring 1958.
The Canterbury Tales ranked high in the 3rd quarter of ML titles in terms of sales during the 18-month period, May 1942–October 1943. It was not among the 100 best-selling titles in the regular ML during the 12-month period, November 1951–October 1952.
181.1b. Title page reset (c. 1940)
THE | CANTERBURY | TALES | by GEOFFREY CHAUCER | edited by REV. WALTER W. SKEAT | introduction by LOUIS UNTERMEYER | [
Pagination and collation as 181.1a. Contents as 181.1a except: [ii] blank; [iv] INTRODUCTION COPYRIGHT, 1929, | BY THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC.; [603–608] ML list. (Spring 1945)
Jacket: Enlarged version of 181.1a jacket. Front flap as 181.1a. (Spring 1945)
181.2. Text reset (1946)
GEOFFREY CHAUCER | The | Canterbury | Tales | EDITED BY REV. WALTER W. SKEAT | INTRODUCTION BY LOUIS UNTERMEYER | [
Pp. [4], 1–642 [643–652]. [1–19]16 [20]8 [21]16
[1] half title; [2] blank; [3] title; [4] INTRODUCTION COPYRIGHT, 1929, | BY THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC.; 1–4 Introduction signed p. 4: Louis Untermeyer; [5] fly title in gothic lettering; [6] blank; 7–614 text; 615–618 Note on the Language and Metre; 619–642 Glossary; [643–648] ML list; [649–650] ML Giants list; [651–652] blank. (Fall 1946) Note: The running title (THE | CANTER- | BURY | TALES) and chapter titles (THE | Clerkes | TALE) appear respectively in the outer margins of verso and recto pages, along with page numerals.
Variant: Pagination as 181.2. [1]16 [2–9]32 [10]8 [11]32 [12]16. Contents as 181.2 except: [4] INTRODUCTION COPYRIGHT, 1929, 1937, | BY THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC.; [651] American College Dictionary advertisement; [652] blank. (Fall 1959)
Jacket: As 181.1b except in dark reddish orange (38) instead of brownish orange. (Fall 1946) Front flap reset with last sentence revised: “. . . its most authoritative version, the famous Walter W. Skeat edition.” (Fall 1959)
Also in the Modern Library
Chaucer, Troilus and Cressida (1940–1944) 327
182
HERMANN SUDERMANN. THE SONG OF SONGS. 1929–1941. (ML 162)
182a. First printing (1929)
[written double rules] THE SONG OF SONGS | [rule] | BY | HERMANN SUDERMANN | [rule] | [
Pp. [2], [1–4] 5–640 [641–642]. [1–19]16 [20]16(16+1.2)
[1] half title; [2]
Variant: Pp. [2], [1–4] 5–640. [1–19]16 [20]16(16+1). Contents as 182a except: [2] First statement omitted; blank leaf omitted at end. Note: Pp. 639–640 are an inserted leaf. (Spring 1932 jacket)
Jacket:
Front flap:
The path of Lilly Czepanek’s destiny was made radiant and tragic by her own beauty. Her life was consecrated to love. As it was with Shulamite, who inspired Solomon’s Song of Songs, so love had set a seal upon Lilly’s heart. All the denials of poverty, the violences of lechery and the longings of her own dream world only made her more desirable in the eyes of men. Hermann Sudermann’s novel of a woman who walked in sin is a romance in the cause of love beyond purity. (Fall 1935)
Seltzer translation originally published by B. W. Huebsch, 1909, and after 1925 by Viking Press. ML edition (pp. [3]–640) printed from Huebsch/Viking plates with Huebsch half title used as a fly title. Published October 1929. WR 23 November 1929. First printing: 8,000 copies. Discontinued 1 January 1942.
ML printings do not identify the translator. Huebsch and Viking printings attribute the translation to Thomas Seltzer, but it was actually by his wife Adele Seltzer, who wanted to publicize her husband’s name. Thomas Seltzer’s contribution was typing the manuscript that was submitted to Huebsch (Levin, Dare to Be Different, pp. 85, 269).
The ML paid Viking royalties of 8 cents a copy. There were three additional printings of 2,000 copies each between April 1930 and April 1931 and five known printings of 1,000 copies each between November 1932 and April 1941.
Sudermann’s novel was read more widely in the early decades of the 20th century than it is today. Jackets of early ML printings of Madame Bovary (25.1) state on the front panel: “Today there are two more novels that are likely to be classed with [Madame Bovary] . . . Tolstoy’s ‘Anna Karenina’ and Sudermann’s ‘Song of Songs.’” (see 25.1a).
182b. Title page reset (1940)
THE SONG | OF SONGS | BY | HERMANN | SUDERMANN | [
Pagination and collation as 182a variant. Contents as 182a variant except: [2] blank; [2] COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY J. G. COTTA’SCHE | BUCHHANDLUNG NACHFOLGER.
Jacket: Non-pictorial in deep reddish orange (36) and black on cream paper with front panel divided into upper section in cream and lower section in deep reddish orange; lettering in black on both, torchbearer in reverse on lower section. Designed by Joseph Blumenthal.
Front flap as 182a. (Spring 1940)
Also in the Modern Library
Sudermann, Dame Care (1918–1936) 31
183
V. F. CALVERTON, ed. ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN NEGRO LITERATURE. 1929–1944. (ML 163)
183a 1. First printing, first state (1929)
[within double rules] ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN | NEGRO LITERATURE | [rule] | EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY | V. F. CALVERTON | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–vi] vii–xii, 1–535 [536–540]. [1–17]16 [18]4
[i] half title; [ii]
Contents: Fiction: Short Story. Fern, by Jean Toomer – The Goophered Grapevine, by Charles Waddell Chesnutt – The Yellow One, by Eric Walrond – Blades of Steel, by Rudolph Fisher. Fiction: Novel (chapters). The Fire in the Flint, by Walter White – The Dark Princess, by W. E. B. Du Bois – There Is Confusion, by Jessie Fauset – The Blacker the Berry, by Wallace Thurman – Quicksand, by Nella Larsen – Home to Harlem, by Claude McKay – Walls of Jericho, by Rudolph Fisher. Drama. Plumes, by Georgia Douglas Johnson – ’Cruiter, by Jonathan Matheus. Poetry. Poems by Phyllis [sic] Wheatley, Albert A. Whitman, Frances E. Harper, James Madison Bell, Joseph S. Cotter, Jr., James D. Corrothers, Paul Lawrence Dunbar (3), Fenton Johnson, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Angelina Weld Grimke, Countee Cullen (7), William Stanley Braithwaite, James Weldon Johnson, Jean Toomer (2), Claude McKay (4), Jessie Fauset, Lewis Alexander, Frank Horne, Gwendolyn B. Bennett, Sterling A. Brown, Langston Hughes (4). Spirituals. Swing Low Sweet Chariot – Go Down Moses – All God’s Chillun Got Wings – Dere’s No Hidin’ Place Down Dere – Deep River. Blues. St. Louis Blues – Friendless Blues – Mountain Top Blues – The Blues I’ve Got – Loveless Love. Labor Songs. Work Song – Water Boy – Casey Jones – John Henry – Rain or Shine. Essays. The Negro in American Fiction, by Benjamin Brawley – The Negro in American Culture, by Alain Locke – Negro’s Gift to American Music, by Clarence Cameron White – The Freedmen’s Bureau, by W. E. B. Du Bois – The Negro Digs Up His Past, by Arthur A. Schomburg – The Negro Migration, by Charles S. Johnson – The Negro and the New Economic Life, by Abram L. Harris – Organized Labor and the Negro, by Charles Wesley – The Disgrace of Democracy, by Kelly Miller – La Bourgeoisie Noire, by E. Franklin Frazier – I Investigate Lynchings, by Walter White – Our Greatest Gift to America, by George S. Schuyler – Fifty Years of Negro Citizenship, by Carter G. Woodson – Dominant Forces in Race Relations, by Thomas Dabney. Autobiography (chapters). Autobiography, by Frederick Douglass – Up from Slavery, by Booker T. Washington – The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, by James Weldon Johnson.
Jacket:
Text on front:
A comprehensive anthology that presents a striking picture of the intellectual development of the American negro. The volume contains short stories, significant excerpts from novels, essays, spirituals, poetry, and blues, and includes contributions by Booker T. Washington, Walter White, Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Eric Walrond, Countee Cullen, and many others. (Fall 1929)
Original ML anthology. Published October 1929. WR 23 November 1929. First printing: Not ascertained. Superseded 1944 by a revised edition edited by Sylvestre C. Watkins (372).
When W. C. Handy authorized the inclusion of five blues he had copyrighted, he stipulated that copyright notices were to be printed on the same pages as the lyrics. Calverton acknowledged Handy generously in the preface but neglected to include the individual copyright notices. Handy or his representative contacted the ML shortly after publication, insisting that the agreement be honored. Klopfer contacted the ML’s legal counsel about the matter (Klopfer to Edwin A. Falk, 27 November 1929). He subsequently wrote to H. Wolff Estate, the ML’s binders, informing them that pp. 223–28 were being reprinted and that corrected sheets would be sent over immediately. He asked that the bindery’s truckmen pick up all copies on hand and return them to the bindery’s stock. “It is necessary to have this cancel made on the entire edition,” he stated, “and all future editions will, of course, be correctly printed” (Klopfer to Miss J. A. Lanning, H. Wolff Estate, 26 December 1929). The corrected state of the first printing is described under 183a2.
Calverton’s Anthology of American Negro Literature sold 3,243 copies during the eighteen-month period May 1942–October 1943, placing it near the top of the fourth quarter of ML and Giant titles in terms of sales. The anthology was superseded in 1944 by a new edition edited by Sylvestre C. Watkins (372). Watkins omitted poetry and other material.
Calverton’s anthology was superseded in 1944 by a new edition edited by Sylvestre C. Watkins (372). Watkins omitted poetry and other material.
183a2. First printing, second state (1929)
Title as 183a1.
Pagination as 183a1. [1–7]16 [8]16(±6.7.8.9.10.11) [9–17]16 [18]4
Contents as 183a1 except pp. 223–34 canceled and replaced by 3 pairs of newly printed conjunct leaves with pp. 223–27 revised to include authorship statements and copyright notices for each of the five compositions in the section on “Blues.”
Jacket: As 183a1. (Fall 1929)
183b. Second printing (1930)
Title as 183a1.
Pagination and collation as 183a1. Contents as 183a1 except: [iv] First statement omitted; pp. 223–27 with authorship statements and copyright notices as 183a2. (Spring 1930)
Variant: Pp. [i–vi] vii–xii, 1–535 [536–548]. [1–7]16 [18]8. Contents as 183b except: [ii]
pub. note D5 ; [536–548] blank. (Fall 1933 jacket)
Jacket: As 183a1. (Spring 1930)
Front flap:
Negro achievement in the arts has kept pace with a change in intellectual conviction. Injustice and discrimination have proven a challenge, and that challenge is being answered with the literature produced by the colored race during the last decade. This anthology gives a comprehensive picture of the struggle of a people to affirm its own genius. It is representative of a new consciousness; it gives evidence of a determination to end the admission of inferiority and to begin to assert the unique and durable qualities of a race. (Fall 1933)
183c. Title page reset (1941)
ANTHOLOGY OF | AMERICAN | NEGRO | LITERATURE | EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY | V. F. CALVERTON | [
Pp. [i–vi] vii–xii, 1–535 [536–548]. [1–17]16 [18]8 Contents as 183b variant except: [ii] blank; [iv] COPYRIGHT, 1929, BY THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC.; [537–541] ML list; [542–543] ML Giants list; [544–548] blank. (Spring 1941)
Jacket: Non-pictorial in very deep red (14) and black on cream paper with title and editor in reverse on very deep red panel at upper left; background in cream with other lettering in black below panel. Designed by Joseph Blumenthal.
Front flap as 183b. (Spring 1941)
Also in the Modern Library
Calverton, ed., Making of Man (1931–1970) 215
Calverton, ed., Making of Society (1937–1959) 308
Watkins, ed., Anthology of American Negro Literature (1944–1956) 372
184
CARL VAN VECHTEN. PETER WHIFFLE. 1929–1935. (ML 164)
184. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] PETER WHIFFLE | [rule] | BY | CARL VAN VECHTEN | [rule] | [
Pp. [8], 1–247 [248]. [1–8]16
[1] half title; [2]
Jacket:
Text on front: “Mr. Van Vechten’s most popular novel introduces a continuous procession of restless modern sophisticates—artists, writers, actors, and the like. They are drawn from life, and indeed, many of them appear under their own names.” (Fall 1929)
Originally published by Alfred A. Knopf, 1922. ML edition (pp. [5]–247) printed from Knopf plates. Published November 1929. WR 21 December 1929. First printing: 8,000 copies. Discontinued fall 1935.
James Crowder, the ML’s midwestern sales representative, suggested the inclusion of Peter Whiffle (Crowder to Cerf, 21 December 1928). At this time Knopf remained cool toward the series because of his lingering resentment over the ML edition of Green Mansions (90). However, Cerf had become friendly with Blanche Knopf and the two of them were trying to put together a peace treaty (Cerf to Crowder, 24 December 1928). Relations between Knopf and the ML improved after a January 1929 luncheon meeting. Shortly thereafter Cerf offered Knopf a $1,000 advance against royalties of 10 cents a copy for Peter Whiffle. He also offered to pay Van Vechten $100, double the ML’s usual fee, to write an introduction. Knopf transmitted the offer to Van Vechten, who indicated that he preferred that the book appear without an introduction. Van Vechten also wanted to make some corrections in the plates before Knopf turned them over to the ML (Knopf to Cerf, 13 February 1929). Peter Whiffle was the first copyrighted Knopf title to be reprinted in the ML.
There was a second printing of 1,000 copies in August 1932.
185
JACQUES CASANOVA. THE MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA. 1929–1970. (ML 165)
185a. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] THE MEMOIRS OF | JACQUES CASANOVA | [rule] | EDITED BY | MADELEINE BOYD | [rule] | INTRODUCTION BY | ERNEST BOYD | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xii, 1–492. [1–15]16 [16]12
[i] half title; [ii]
Variant: Pp. [i–iv] v–xii, 1–492 [493–500]. [1–16]16. Contents as 185a except: [ii]
pub. note A6 ; [493–497] ML list; [498–500] blank. (Fall 1931)
Jacket A: Pictorial in dark red (16) and black on grayish paper with inset illustration of Casanova holding a candlestick in one hand and opening a bedroom door with the other while the candle casts a shadow of a satyr on the door; lettering in dark red. Signed: Wuyts. (Spring 1929) Note: The Memoirs of Casanova appears to be the first ML title to have been published initially in a pictorial jacket without the option of a uniform typographic jacket.
Jacket B: Pictorial in very deep red (14) and black on grayish paper with inset illustration from jacket A; lettering in black, borders in very deep red. (Spring 1931)
Front flap:
The pursuit of women and adventure was the chief activity of Casanova’s life. Amorous and exciting exploits demanded all his energy and ability. When old age tempered his audacity, he retired to write the nostalgic recollections of his youthful prowess. The manuscript which has come down to us in various condensations has been the joy of those who cultivate delectable but forbidden pleasures, as it has been anathema and despair to prudes. The Modern Library edition includes the most vivid encounters and escapades of a glamorous life. (Fall 1936)
Unidentified translation edited and probably abridged for the ML by Madeleine Boyd. Published November 1929. WR 21 December 1929. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued 1970/71.
The ML sold exclusive reprint rights to the Madeleine Boyd edition to Garden City Publishing Co. for $1,500. The ML supplied duplicate plates (omitting the introduction) and retained all rights to publish its own edition (Robert F. de Graff, Garden City, to Cerf, 22 January 1932). A full-sized edition with illustrations by Victor Candell was published by Garden City later that year under the imprint Sun Dial Press.
The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova ranked in the 3rd quarter of ML titles in terms of sales during the 18-month period, May 1942–October 1943. It was not among the 100 best-selling titles in the regular ML during the 12-month period, November 1951–October 1952.
185b. Title page reset (c. 1940)
THE MEMOIRS | OF | JACQUES | CASANOVA | EDITED BY | MADELEINE BOYD | INTRODUCTION BY | ERNEST BOYD | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xii, 1–492 [493–500]. [1–16]16. Contents as 185a variant except: [ii] blank; [iv] COPYRIGHT, 1929, BY THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC.; [493–498] ML list; [499–500] ML Giants list. (Fall 1944)
Variant: Pagination as 185b. [1]16 [2–8]32 [9]16. Contents as 185b except: [iv] COPYRIGHT, 1929, 1957, BY THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC. (Fall 1960)
Jacket: Pictorial in light bluish green (163) and black on textured white paper depicting a man and woman on the steps of a villa, illuminated by moonlight; lettering in black with title highlighted in light bluish green. Designed by Paul Galdone, April 1940; signed.
Front flap as 185a jacket C. (Fall 1944)
Front flap revised:
The pursuit of women and adventure was the principal activity of Casanova’s life. By his own account, amorous and other exciting exploits demanded virtually all of his energy and resourcefulness. When old age tempered his passions, he retired to write the recollections of his youthful escapades. The manuscript which has come down to us from the eighteenth century in various condensations has delighted those readers who cultivate an interest in accounts of forbidden pleasures. It has also brought a little discomfort to the prudish-minded. This edition includes some of the most vivid encounters and escapades of Casanova’s crowded life. (Fall 1960)
186
HOMER. THE ILIAD. 1929–1982. (ML 166)
186.1a. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] THE | ILIAD OF HOMER | [rule] | DONE INTO ENGLISH PROSE | BY | ANDREW LANG WALTER LEAF | ERNEST MYERS | [rule] | [
Pp. [6], 1–464 [465–466]. [1–14]16 [15]12
[1] half title; [2]
Jacket A:
Jacket B: Pictorial in moderate red (15) and black on yellow paper with illustration of Achilles with spear and shield and Troy in flames in background; title and borders in moderate red, other lettering in black. Unsigned but probably by Staloff, the designer of the companion jacket for The Odyssey (187.1a jacket B). (Fall 1931)
Front flap:
Of the books of antiquity which adorn the Modern Library series, none is in greater favor than Homer’s Iliad and its companion volume, The Odyssey (No. 167). The immortal epic of the wrath of Achilles and the siege of Troy is as vivid to the contemporary reader as it must have been to Homer’s first enraptured listeners seven centuries before the Christian era, and as it has remained through the ages in its various renderings. The Lang-Leaf-Myers translation was chosen upon the urgent advice of the leading authorities in England and America. (Spring 1936)
Lang-Leaf-Myers translation originally published in U.S. by the Macmillan Co., 1883. ML edition printed from plates made from a new typesetting. Published December 1929. WR not found. First printing: Not ascertained. Superseded fall 1964 by Rees translation (186.2).
The ML originally planned to use the 17th-century translations of George Chapman for its editions of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Advance advertising referred to the Chapman translations, as did fall 1929 catalogs and ML lists—including the lists inside first printings of the Homer jackets. The Lang-Leaf-Myers translation of The Iliad and the Butcher and Lang translation of The Odyssey were substituted at the last moment on the advice of several college professors. “We discovered that we could sell five times as many books in the new translation as we could have had we used the Chapman, since the Lang, Leaf, and Myers one is used in almost all of the colleges” (Cerf to George M. McKanday, Macmillan Co. of Canada, 25 November 1930).
The Prefatory Note (p. [5]) indicates that Books I–IX were translated by Leaf, X–XVI by Lang, and XVII–XXIV by Myers, but that the whole was revised by all three translators.
The ML hoped to use Macmillan plates, but Macmillan had to secure approval from its parent firm in London and was unable to make a solid offer until the end of October. By that time the ML had begun composition so that the books could be published in December.
The Iliad ranked in the middle of the second quarter of ML titles during the 18-month period May 1942–October 1943 and rose into the lower part of the first quarter during the 12-month period November 1951–October 1952. Sales totaled 122,292 copies by spring 1958.
186.1b. Title page reset (c. 1941)
THE ILIAD | OF | HOMER | DONE INTO ENGLISH PROSE | BY | ANDREW LANG WALTER LEAF | ERNEST MYERS | [
Pp. [6], 1–464 [465–474]. [1–15]16. Contents as 186.1a except: [2] publication and manufacturing statements within single rules; [467–472] ML list; [473–474] ML Giants list. (Spring 1944)
Jacket: Non-pictorial in dark red (16) on cream paper with lettering and torchbearer in reverse against solid dark red background. Designed by Joseph Blumenthal.
Front flap as 186.1a jacket B. (Spring 1943)
186.1c. Highet introduction added (1950)
THE ILIAD | OF HOMER | TRANSLATED BY | ANDREW LANG, WALTER LEAF | AND ERNEST MEYERS [sic] | [short swelled rule] | INTRODUCTION BY GILBERT HIGHET | PROFESSOR OF GREEK AND LATIN | COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xvi, 1–464. [1–15]16
[i] half title; [ii] blank; [iii] title; [iv] Copyright, 1950, by Random House, Inc.; v–xiv INTRODUCTION | By Gilbert Highet; xv–xvi WORKS IN ENGLISH | ABOUT THE HOMERIC POEMS; 1–464 text.
Variant: Pp. [i–iv] v–xiv [xv–xvi], 1–464. Collation as 186.1c. Contents as 186.1c except: [xv–xvi]. Note: Page numerals “xv” and “xvi” removed from plates.
Jacket: As 186.1b. Front flap as 186.1a jacket B. (Spring 1950) Front flap reset with last sentence slightly revised. (Spring 1957)
Highet received $300 for his introductions to The Iliad and The Odyssey (Stein to Highet, 26 January 1950). The first section of the introductions (“The World of the Iliad and the Odyssey”) is common to both volumes, as is the bibliography. Highet’s introductions were also included in printings of The Iliad and The Odyssey in Modern Library College Editions, which were introduced in fall 1950. Most of the introductions written for MLCE appeared first in that series and were subsequently added to regular ML printings.
The Prefatory Note and the poems on pp. [6] and [465] of 186.1a–b are omitted from 186.1c.
Myers’s name was misspelled on the reset title page. Highet pointed out the error shortly after publication (Highet to Crary, 8 September 1950). There is a memo in the RH Papers ordering the correction on the MLCE title page. The title page of the regular ML edition does not appear to have been corrected.
186.2. Rees translation (1964)
THE | ILIAD | OF | HOMER | TRANSLATED BY | ENNIS REES | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xiv, [1–2] 3–529 [530]. [1]16 [2–8]32 [9–10]16
[i] half title; [ii] dedication; [iii] title; [iv] © Copyright, 1963, by Ennis Rees; v–vi CONTENTS; vii–xii INTRODUCTION signed p. xii: ENNIS REES; xiii–xiv SELECTED | BIBLIOGRAPHY; [1] fly title; [2] blank; 3–516 text; 517–529 INDEX; [530] blank.
Jacket: Pictorial in grayish yellowish brown (80), brilliant yellow (83) and black on coated white paper with line of Greek soldiers in brilliant yellow looming over a stone wall represented by intersecting black lines; lettering in reverse and black, all against grayish yellowish brown background.
Front flap:
With the publication of The Iliad, Ennis Rees has completed the monumental work of translating all of Homer into natural, free-flowing verse, and he has fulfilled the promise of his brilliant translation of The Odyssey. > The tale of heroes and gods who fought the Trojan War is now available in a translation at once faithful to the superb original and extremely accessible to the contemporary reader.
Rees translation originally published by Random House, 1963. ML edition (pp. v–529) printed from RH plates with the dedication and title page adapted from the RH printing. Published fall 1964. WR 16 November 1964. First printing: Not ascertained. Discontinued 1982/83.
Epstein wanted to include Richmond Lattimore’s verse translation of The Iliad in the ML in 1960, but reprint rights do not appear to have been available (Epstein to Roger Shugg, University of Chicago Press, 6 January 1960). RH published Rees’s verse translation of The Odyssey later that year, followed by his verse translation of The Iliad in 1963. Rees’s volumes were designed so that the plates could be used for ML printings.
The ML title page reproduces the title exactly as it appears in the RH printing, but the statement of responsibility for the translator (TRANSLATED BY | ENNIS REES) and the imprint are reduced in size, significantly improving the balance and aesthetic appeal of the ML title page. The dedication facing the title page is reduced from four lines in the RH printing (THIS TRANSLATION | IS DEDICATED | TO JEFFREY, AMY, | AND ANDREW) to two lines (TO JEFFREY, AMY, | AND ANDREW) in the ML.
Also in the Modern Library
Homer, The Odyssey (1929–1971) 187
Homer, Complete Works (1935–1973) G18
187
HOMER. THE ODYSSEY. 1929–1971. (ML 167)
187.1a. First printing (1929)
[within double rules] THE | ODYSSEY OF HOMER | [rule] | DONE INTO ENGLISH PROSE | BY | S. H. BUTCHER AND A. LANG | [rule] | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xxiv, 1–383 [384]. [1–12]16 [13]12.
[i] half title; [ii]
Jacket A:
Jacket B: Pictorial in moderate blue (182) and black on yellow paper with illustration of Odysseus standing at the bow of a boat; title and borders in moderate blue, other lettering in black. Signed: Staloff. (Fall 1931)
Front flap:
Of the books of antiquity which adorn the Modern Library series, none is in greater favor than Homer’s The Odyssey and its companion volume, The Iliad (No. 166). The immortal epic of the ten-year wanderings of Ulysses remains as vivid to the contemporary reader as it was when first recited to Homer’s enthralled audience many centuries before the Christian era. The Modern Library edition of the Butcher and Lang prose translation has been adopted by many leading universities as the standard text of this classic. (Fall 1936)
Butcher and Lang translation originally published in U.S. by the Macmillan Co., 1879. ML edition printed from plates made from a new typesetting. Published December 1929. WR not found. First printing: Not ascertained. Superseded spring 1962 by Rees translation (187.2).
See 186.1a for information about the selection of the Butcher and Lang translation.
The Odyssey ranked in the middle of the second quarter of ML titles during the 18-month period, May 1942–October 1943, slightly below The Iliad. It was near the top of the second quarter during the 12-month period November 1951–October 1952, four titles below The Iliad.
187.1b. Title page reset (1941)
THE ODYSSEY | OF HOMER | DONE INTO ENGLISH PROSE BY | S. H. BUTCHER AND A. LANG | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xxiv, 1–383 [384–392]. [1–13]16.
Contents as 187.1a except: [ii] blank; [iv] publication and manufacturing statements; [385–389] ML list; [390–391] ML Giants list; [392] blank. (Spring 1941)
Jacket: Non-pictorial in very dark bluish green (166) on cream paper with lettering and torchbearer in reverse against solid very dark bluish green background. Designed by Joseph Blumenthal.
Front flap as 187.1a jacket B. (Spring 1941)
187.1c. Highet introduction added (1950)
THE ODYSSEY | OF HOMER | TRANSLATED BY | S. H. BUTCHER AND A. LANG | [short swelled rule] | INTRODUCTION BY GILBERT HIGHET | PROFESSOR OF GREEK AND LATIN | COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY | [
Pp. [i–iv] v–xvi, 1–383 [384]. [1–11]16 [12]8 [13]16.
[i] half title; [ii] blank; [iii] title; [iv] Copyright, 1950, by Random House, Inc.; v–xiv INTRODUCTION | by Gilbert Highet; xv–xvi WORKS IN ENGLISH | ABOUT THE HOMERIC POEMS; 1–383 text; [384] blank.
Jacket: As 187.1b. (Fall 1949)
See 186.1c for notes about Highet’s introductions to The Iliad and The Odyssey. The front matter on pp. v–xxiv and the poem on p. 383 of 187.1a–b were omitted from 187.1c when Highet’s introduction was added.
187.2. Rees translation (1962)
THE | ODYSSEY | OF | HOMER | TRANSLATED BY | ENNIS REES | [
Pp [i–vi] vii–xviii, [1–2] 3–416 [417–430]. [1]16 [2–7]32 [8]16.
[i] half title; [ii] blank; [iii] title; [iv] © Copyright, 1960, by Ennis Rees; [v] dedication; [vi] blank; vii–[viii] CONTENTS; ix–xv INTRODUCTION signed p. xv: ENNIS REES; [xvi] blank; xvii–xviii SELECTED | BIBLIOGRAPHY; [1] fly title; [2] blank; 3–409 text; 410–416 INDEX; [417–422] ML list; [423–424] ML Giants list; [425–430] blank. (Spring 1962)
Jacket: Pictorial in strong greenish blue (169), moderate greenish yellow (102) and black on coated white paper with a small ship in moderate greenish yellow against sea represented by wavy black lines; lettering in reverse and black, all against strong greenish blue background.
Front flap:
This is a completely new translation of the ODYSSEY of Homer. Brilliantly done in natural, free-flowing verse, it is the most readable version available to modern readers.
The successful recapture here of the flavor and meaning of the ODYSSEY will enable the reader to see fully why the epic story of the wanderings of Odysseus has been one of the most treasured legacies of ancient Greece. (Spring 1962)
Rees translation originally published by Random House, 1960. ML edition (pp. vii–416) printed from RH plates, with the title page adapted from the original plates. Published spring 1962. WR 4 June 1962. First printing: 10,000 copies. Discontinued 1971/72.
Rees’s translation of The Odyssey filled the need for a modern verse translation. Richmond Lattimore’s verse translation of The Odyssey did not appear until 1967, sixteen years after his translation of The Iliad. The Lattimore translation probably would not have been available to the ML in any case. Rees’s verse translation of The Iliad was published in 1963 and was added to the ML the following year (see 186.2). Both of Rees’s volumes were designed so that the plates could be used for ML printings.
The ML title page reproduces the title exactly as it appears in the RH printing, but the statement of responsibility for the translator (TRANSLATED BY | ENNIS REES) and the imprint are reduced in size, significantly improving the balance and aesthetic appeal of the ML title page. The 3-line dedication facing the title page in the RH printing, which is identical to that in Rees’s translation of The Iliad, is shifted in the ML printing to the recto of the third leaf (p. [v]).
Also in the Modern Library
Homer, The Iliad (1929–1982) 186
Homer, Complete Works (1935–1973) G18