George Macdonald: Lilith, Salted With Fire and Far Above Rubies

In preparation for the publishers' bindings symposium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art next month (May 24), I'm making a concerted effort to post recent attributions and information on new discoveries that I have learned about since the publication of my book The Proper Decoration of Book Covers. I've known about some of these for quite some time, but as they can be rare and expensive, I wanted to make sure that the Met was able to purchase copies in good condition before I posted.

In this set of unsigned bindings on books written by George Macdonald, two of the covers - Salted With Fire and Far Above Rubies - are in Morse's collection of book covers that she gave to the Museum Library in 1924. This collection of 58 covers is now in the Department of Drawings and Prints. Copies of the books are in the Publishers' Bindings collection in the Thomas J. Watson Library. If they aren't cataloged now, they will be soon and you can find and request them on Watsonline.

Above image from: http://www.abebooks.com/books/RareBooks/scottish-novelist-phantastes-fantasy/george-macdonald.shtml

The Thomas J. Watson Library of The Metropolitan Museum of Art owns Lilith both green and tan color variants. It is an unsigned binding. I have not yet found proof that allows me to confirm that this cover was designed by Morse but I speculate that it has, as the design is characteristic of other Morse covers in the Grotesque style.

Below you see Morse's unfinished display cover for Salted with Fire in gray cloth. In the advertisement above, it is stamped in reddish cloth (although it's difficult to discern). MMA 56.522.93. This and other Morse book covers can be seen in the Print Study Room, Dept. of Drawings and Prints (by appt.).

A Dust Jacket for the Gypsy Series

It's a rare and wonderful occurance to find an Alice C. Morse book with a dust jacket, so of course I was thrilled to find one for Dodd, Mead & Company's Gypsy Series, published from 1894-1897(Dubansky entry 94-8). The occurance is so rare, in fact, that I only have one other book with a printed paper dust jacket in my collection. It is for a book that is yet another post-book discovery, A Singer of the Sea, by Amelia E. Barr. The Series, written by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps included four titles. Gypsy's Cousin Joy is the second book of the Gypsy Series, published in 1895. The design of the dust jacket is the same as the book's cover. The book is bound in a gold reverse cloth with green and orange stamping, with the title and author's name stamped in gold with an orange shadow.