95 volumes (including 3 duplicates). Variously illustrated with maps, portraits and facsimiles. (12mo), original green, red, blue or brown cloth, spines gilt-lettered, top edges gilt. First Lakeside Press Editions.
Extensive collection of Lakeside Press Classics, a nearly complete run, from 1903-1995 (lacking only 1 volume). These volumes were given as gifts to friends and employees of the Lakeside Press at Christmastime. Lakeside Press is exceptionally important in American printing history, being instrumental in the development of inexpensive paperbacks and of high speed printing. Their manifesto is printed in the introduction to the first volume in this series: "The entire production [of this book] type-setting, electrotyping, binding, and even ink-making--was made possible by the complete facilities of the plant," and asserts that machine-made books are not a crime against art, because they are useful and progressive. Fittingly, the first book in the series is The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. This set includes that 1903 first book, as well as most of the other early books in the series, such as histories of early Chicago, captivity narratives, frontier accounts, western exploration, etc. The series up to 1995 is complete with the exception of the volume from 1904 (Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States from Washington to Lincoln). The collection includes duplicates of 3 volumes (Inaugural address...A. Johnson to T. Roosevelt [1905] * Hardtack and Coffee [1960] * Buckskin and Blanket Days [1985]). The 1912 Volume (Reminiscences of Early Chicago) is signed by Thomas Donnelley on front flyleaf.
Condition:
A few of the early volumes have hinges cracking or a bit shaken, the duplicate of the 1905 volume (Inaugural address...A. Johnson to T. Roosevelt) has residue from removed labels on front cover and has had a previous owner's name crudely cut from the title page; the 1906 volume (Fruits of Solitude) has been shellacked with a clear substance and the hinges have been repaired. Condition varies from good to fine with most volumes about very good.