Wayne State University School of Library and Information Science Faculty School of Library and Information Science Research Publications 9-1-1979 The oM dern Library Series: Format and Design, 1917-1977 Gordon B. Neavill School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, [email protected] Recommended Citation Neavill, G. B. (1979). The modern library series: Format and design, 1917-1977. Printing History, 1(1), 26-37. Available at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/slisfrp/56 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Library and Information Science at DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Library and Information Science Faculty Research Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. Gordon B. Neavill The Modern Library Series: Format and Design, 19 17-1977 inc it was founded in the spring of 19 I 7, the After a year or so, however, they found that Mod rn Library series has undergone succes­ the Modem Library did not fully occupy their sive changes in format and design. Titles that time and energy. In January 1927 they started remained in the series for many years are Random House to publish at random other found in a baffling variety of bindings and books that interested them. By World War II with several different end-papers, title-pages, Random House had developed into a major and dust jackets. Each style belongs to a clearly trade publisher. The Modern Library has the definabl period. My purpose in this article is distinction, therefore, of having served as the to identify and date the styles and formats in foundation from which two publishing firms which Modem Library books have appeared of great significance were built. and to note some of the designers responsible The Modern Library quickly established for them-a distinguished group that in­ itself as the leading American series of inex­ clud s, among others, Lucian Bernhard, El­ pensive hardbound reprints of important mer Adler, Rockwell Kent, and Joseph Blu­ works ofliterature and thought. It remained a menthal. staple of the American book trade for half a The Modem Library was published initially century. Between 1917 and 1970 over 750 by Boni and Liveright. The first twelve titles titles appeared in Modern Library editions. appeared in May 1917; number one was Oscar When they were first published, Modern Li­ Wild' The Picture ofDorian Gray. They were brary books sold for sixty cents. By May th fir t publications ofBoni and Liveright, a 1920 the price had risen to ninety-five cents. firm that was destined to become one of the That price remained in effect until after World n1 t important publishers of the 1920S. The War II . In November 1946 the price went up ri wa Albert Boni's idea. It was primarily to $1. 10. Thereafter, price increases came in rd r t publi h the Modern Library that regularly. By 1970, when the last new titles h nt red into partn rship with Horace Live­ were added, Modern Library books were right. ut the two men did not get along, and selling for $2.95. B ni 1 ft th firm in the ummer of 1918. The Boni and Liveright volumes were 61/2 c n year lat r Liv right sold the Modern by 41/4 inches in size and bound in limp imita­ ibrar t Benn tt erf, a young Columbia tion leather. Most of the bindings were brown gr du t wh had bec me a Boni and Live­ or green; a few were dark plue. The binding right ic -pre id nt tw year be~ reo Cerf, material was cloth treated to simulate the ap­ with hi friend and p rtner on aId . Klopfer, pearance and texture of leather. Boni and c t(. bli he a new Drnl, th Mod m Library, Liv right described the bindings in th~ir ad­ In ., n I Augu t 1925. Th irint nti n wa vertising and on Modem Library du t jacket u Ii h nl the M d rn Library erie . as "limp croft leather." Thi ambigu u 2 phrase was dropped after April 1925, when the Federal Trade Commission issued a cease and desist order prohibiting the Modern Li­ brary from using the word "leather" in con­ nection with its bindings except in combi­ r..:~",-.",:,"'=-~ _laft-~ ... Iar ~ .PIr nation with words like "imitation," "substi­ --.~ M..J - .... Wl k iIIcW- ..... _ ...d~ .......,. ..... ct... .. ,,~ ..~ ..... '-S . tute," or "artificial." :'-:':-_ _ 1iIin _ .... &r Three different binding designs were used during the Modern Library's Boni and Live­ right years. Through the end of 1919 the binding was quite simple, with only the title and author on the spine and a Modern Library device on the front cover. By the beginning of 1920 a double rule had been added at the Fig. 1. Boni and Liveright du st jacket. head of the spine and the words "Modem Library" and a double rule at the base. A new THE PICTURE OF device on the front cover, incorporating the DIANA Boni and Liveright device of a monk seated at DORIAN GRAY OF TH E CROSSWAYS By GEORGE MEREDITH a writing table, came into use around the end OSCAR W ILDE INT~ODUCTION BY ARTHUR. 'VWOHI of 1923, though one or two titles published after that date appeared with the old device. I The stamping on all of the bindings was in gold. The books were sold in uniform typo­ graphic dust jackets (fig. I) . The title-pages of the twelve volumes pub­ lished in May 1917 were plain (fig. 2). Begin­ BONI AND LIVERIGHT. INC. BONI AND LIVERIGHT. INC. ning with the next six volumes, which were PUBLISHBIl, NI!W YOI\&: published in July, the title-pages were bor­ dered and ruled into sections (fig. 3). This Fig . 2. Boni and Live right Fig. 3. Boni and Live right title-page design remained in use through the title-page, May 1917. title-page, July 191 7-1925. rest of the Boni and Liveright period, both for new titles and reprints of the original twelve. The end-papers used through the end of 1918 imitated marbled paper and were brown, green, or blue to match the binding. Occasionally volumes appeared with plain white end-papers. A pictorial end-paper, de­ signed by Horace Brodzky, replaced the mar­ bled end-paper in 1919. ~ Brodzky, perhaps the least known of the / I~~ designers who contributed to the Modem V;~v Library, was a painter, illustrator, and writer (fig. 4). He was born in Australia in 1885 and studied art in Melbourne and London. In Lon­ ~~~\ don he became a friend of H enri Gaudier­ Brzeska, the French sculptor who was killed in World War I. By 1919 Brodzky was living L>1 and working in N ew York. His end-paper \ / Fig. 4. Horace Brodzky, designer of shows a group of clumsy nude fi gures raising the Boni and Liveright pictoriaL end­ up large blocks engraved w ith the initials M paper and title-page. Drawing by and L against a panoramic background of Henri Caudier-Brzeska . 2 7 Printing History modern skyscrapers, a smoke-belching fac­ tory, and a quiet country town (fig. 5). The effect is not unlike that of the famous World War II photograph of the Marines raising the American flag at Iwo Jima. It was intended, one supposes, to convey a similarly symbolic message. Brodzky's end-paper was used for the rest of the Modern Library's Boni and Liveright period. Shorter lived was an illustrated title­ page and frontispiece which Brodzky also designed in 1919 (fig. 6). It seems to have been used on only a few Modern Library books published in 1919. Fig . 5. Boni and Lilleright pictorial end-paper, When Cerf and Klopfer took over the 1919-1925, designed by Horace Brodzky. Modern Library, one change in design had to be made at once. They could hardly continue THE to use the Boni and Liveright device, and they FLAME OF LIFE enlisted the well-known designer and typog­ rapher Lucian Bernhard to create a distinctive By GABalELE D'ANNUNZIO device of their own. Bernhard's great contri­ bution to the series was the running torch­ bearer emblem. The long-limbed figure, sug­ gesting a Promethean bringing of enlighten­ ment, was an ideal symbol for the Modern Library. It made its first appearance in Sep­ tember 1925 on the cover and title-page of William Beebe's Jungle Peace, the first book Cerf and Klopfer added to the series (fig. 7). In Bernhard's version and as redesigned by Fig . 6. Brodzky's pictorial title-page andfrontispiece, 1919. Rockwell Kent a few years later, the torch­ bearer became familiar to millions of readers. A new end-paper, almost certainly designed by Bernhard, was introduced in October (fig. 8). Elmer Adler, who printed some of Cerf and Klopfer's early catalogues and was to serve for a time as a director of Random House, redesigned the title-page. Adler's title­ page, using open-face type for the title (fig. 9), was introduced in January 1926 with Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. It remained in use through 1939. On several occasions Cerf and Klopfer pub­ lished Modern Library titles that were 1/4 inch taller than the standard format. This was done so that these titles could be reprinted from original plates which were slightly larger than those the Modern Library usually used. Oth­ Fig. 7. Lucian Bernhard 's torch­ erwise, apart from the new running torch­ bea rer dev ice, first used in bearer device, end-paper, and title-page, Cerf ep tember 1925.