Gazette of the Grolier Club

GAZETTE OF THE GROLIER CLUB Number 4—N ovember, 1922 CONTENTS Honorary Membership.—A Bequest to the Club.— The House.—The Blake Bibliography.—Publication Com- mittee Notes.—The Library.—Exhibitions.—Machiavelli on Books. —Adam von Bartsch. —Early Printed Books, Part 11. —A Bibliographical Study of Robert Browning’s'Paracelsus, Part I. Honorary Membership. -At the October meeting of the Council, Geoffrey Keynes, author of the “Bibliog- raphy of William Blake,” lately published by the Grolier Club, was elected an Honorary Foreign Cor- responding member of the Club. A Bequest to the Club. -One of the chief interests of the late Hamilton B. Tompkins was the collection of prints suitable for extra-illustrating “Franklin in France” by Edward E. Hale and Edward E. Hale, Jr. 74 In his will he bequeathed the work, which he had en- larged to six volumes, to the Club, together with a sum of money for binding it suitably. The books have recently arrived and, as soon as they have been bound, will be on exhibition in the Library. They will be greatly valued, not only as an important possession, but as a token of the donor’s regard and thought for the Club. Mr. Tompkins had been a member since 1887. The House. Beyond a rearrangement of the Books in the Library and Print Room, the replacing of the descriptive labels for the Club’s collection of Bindings and the usual cleaning, there have been other im- provements during the summer. The walls and ceilings of the Club Room have been thoroughly cleaned and the ceilings of the Hall and Librarian’s room have been recalcimined. In three of the fireplaces wood was largely replaced by marble to reduce the fire hazard, and the coat room has received new equipment, greatly increasing its capacity. The Bibliopontiphiles have resumed their Thursday evening sessions, and are welcoming recruits. The Blake Bibliography. -The Blake Bibliography is an accomplished fact, and has received nothing but praise both in England and America. We quote the following from an English review of the book, a propos of the Blake collections in America. 75 "It is thus very fitting that an American book club should finance, and American collectors and an American bibliogra- pher help to make complete, this magnificent tribute to Blake compiled by one of his English lovers. It would cer- tainly have been impossible, or at least exceedingly difficult, to arrange for the publication of a Blake bibliography on such a scale in England. The more the responsibility as well as the pleasure and pride of owning literary treasures is real- ized in the United States, the easier it will be for British scholars to acquiesce cheerfully in the transference of so large a proportion of the treasures to American ownership.” Publication Committee Notes. Well over a year ago, the Council invited the members of the Grolier Club to assist them in selecting subjects for a con- templated series of six books to be printed by eminent American printers, who would do personally the work necessary to embody their individual ideas. Keen interest in the project was displayed by the membership of the Club. In fact the Committee on Publications was positively appalled by the number and variety of the titles suggested. A composite list of these was pre- pared. The Committee on Publications was dismayed. Each book seemed just suited to our purpose, yet we felt sure that we could never enlist the cooperation of any printer if he had to select his subject from a list so long. A program of elimination was reluctantly adopted and resolutely carried out; and there was finally submitted to the printers a handful of titles representing all that remained of the original composite list. 76 The names of the printers and the titles chosen are as follows; Thomas M. Cleland An Unpublished Play by Lord Dun- sany, Walter Gilliss The Culprit Fay by Joseph Rodman Drake, Frederick W. Goudy Three Essays by Augustine Birrel, John Henry Nash Quattrocentisteria by Maurice Hew- lett, Bruce Rogers Pierrot of the Minute by Ernest Dowson, Carl P. Rollins A Lodging for the Night by R. L. Stevenson While it is still uncertain just when these volumes will be ready for distribution, it is hoped that three at least will be shortly available, at which time sub- scriptions for the whole series will in all probability be invited. With the notice of the November meeting was sent an announcement by the Committee on Publications of an offering of a limited number of portfolios con- taining Club Memorabilia, consisting of about seventy pieces of representative fugitive printing done during the past twenty-five years. The number was quickly oversubscribed, and the fifty members who have secured these well filled portfolios are to be congratulated. Early in the new year the Club will publish a “Descriptive Catalogue of the First Editions in book form of the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley,” based upon the exhibition held by the Club during April and May. This book, which is the work of Ruth S. 77 Granniss, will be printed in the general form of the other large paper catalogues issued by the Club. It contains a surprising amount of information of literary as well as bibliographical interest. Several years ago Bruce Rogers was asked to pre- pare and submit to the Club a dummy for the "Champ- fleury” of Geoffrey Tory, following up a cherished plan for the issue of this famous book by the Club. This called for the use of Mr. Rogers’ Centaur type, hand-set. It was the unanimous opinion of all who studied the dummy that if the book could be made in the form suggested it would be one of the most popular and successful of Club publications, and would estab- lish a new high water-mark in American printing. The cost, however, was felt to be prohibitive. Largely as a result of the support which the Com- mittee on Publications has been recently receiving from the membership of the Club, a change in attitude has at last been made to prevail, and the Committee has now undertaken to press the “Champfleury” to completion in the manner of Mr. Rogers’ dummy in full confidence that the members will approve of this project and express their approval in a practical way when the book is ready for subscription. When all is said and done, it is the support of the membership that determines the policies of the Committee on Publica- tions, and this seems a fitting opportunity to acknowl- edge the support so generously accorded during the past year. 78 Your Committee takes this occasion of again ex- pressing to the membership as a whole its desire to have the benefit of their advice in all matters pertain- ing to Club publications. In particular would sug- gestions be welcome in regard to books to be published. While it is obvious that not every suggestion can be adopted, all will receive careful and appreciative con- sideration. The Library. -In connection with the summer exhibition of recent accessions to the library, it may be of interest to members, who were not at the Club during the summer, to know that the books were classified in the following order and made a good showing of the subjects covered by the library, as well as of its future needs:—Bibliography; Libraries; “The Book”; Book-publishing; A resume of the Work of the Grolier Club from November, 1921, to May, 1922; Books by, about, or printed for members of the Grolier Club; Other Book Clubs; Typography; Examples of Print- ing; Practical printing; Engraving and Engravers; Bookbinding; Bookplates; Iconography. Mr. Ken- nedy’s latest gifts of portraits and views germane to the subjects of the Club, together with a selection from the series of reproductions of Blake’s Dante (a gift from Frank Altschul) were displayed upon the walls, as well as an original crayon portrait, by William Page, of James Russell Lowell, in his twenty-third year, a recent gift from Stephen H. Wakeman. 79 Among the gifts of books which were displayed, and which have been received since the publication of the May Gazette, were the latest additions to The Catalogue of the Library of William Andrews Clark, Jr., (fifty copies of each volume being printed), the first volume of “The Ashley Library” received as the gift of Frank Altschul, Justin Winsor’s “Narrative and Critical History of America” (sixteen volumes on large paper), the gift of Major J. C. McCoy, the last number of La Libre Belgique (from Thomas Nast Fairbanks), and George Simpson Eddy’s gift of “A Project of universal and perpetual Peace, written by Pierre-Andre Gargaz, a former Galley-Slave, and printed by Ben- jamin Franklin at Passy in the year 1782,” reprinted with an English version. Introduction, and Typograph- ical Note by Mr. Eddy. The last named work, which was designed by Bruce Rogers, is of especial interest to the Club in that Mr. Eddy’s discovery and identification of this book printed at Passy, supplements the Club’s work on "Franklin and his Press at Passy,” by Luther S. Livingston. The outstanding purchases of the same period are the fourth volume of Claudin’s “Histoire de I’lmpri- merie en France” and Daniel Berkeley Updike’s mon- umental work on “Printing Types,” one of the most scholarly contributions of any time or nation to the bibliography of printing. For the last three years Charles E. Lauriat, Jr., has had the kindly thought to offer to the Library what- 80 ever books in his “Fall Catalogue of Remainders,” might be appropriate, for its use.

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