A Venetian June

 Here is a lovely grotesque book cover design by Morse that is not in my book, but was discovered in time for the Grolier Club exhibition. As you can see, it is signed AM under the author's name, within the curly leaves of the lower part of the design.

Below is a review of the design in The Bookman, Volume 4. The review also attributes Morse as a designer for some of the volumes in Century's 'Thumbnail Series' and for the singular, classical design of Harper's 'Odd Number Series' and includes a picture of A Venetian June. While we now know that Morse designed at least two of the books for The Thumbnail series (Writing to Rosina and Tracings [see Tracings in an earlier posting), it still remains for me to locate the rest of the books in the series and see which can be attributed to Morse.

A review of A Venetian June from The Bookman, 1896

Anna Fuller
A Venetian June
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1896
Printer: The Knickerbocker Press
155 x 110 x 20 mm
Signed

The Parasite - A. Conan Doyle - Newly Attributed Book Cover Design

A. Conan Doyle
The Parasite. A Story.
New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers
1895
190 x 130 x 21 mm
Unsigned

I first spotted this book in a local library and immediately speculated that Morse designed it as the design is similar to other designs in Morse's grotesque style. Later, a collector sent me a photograph of the cover as well. Neither of us has been able to prove that it is Morse's design. If anyone does find a reference, I'd appreciate it if you would comment on the blog or send an email.

Buy a copy of The Proper Decoration of Book Covers: The Life and Work of Alice C. Morse
http://alicemorse.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html