Beginning in 1901, Paul Elder compiled and published a series of booklets of aphorisms, each with a separate theme. Friendship was published first, followed by Happiness, Nature and Success in 1903, and finally by Love in 1905. They were quite successful: over 70,000 copies were sold by 1904. In 1906, while also continuing to sell the booklets individually, Elder packaged up the five booklets and issued them as a single volume entitled Mosaic Essays.
Elder commissioned Santa Barbara artist Robert Wilson Hyde to design the cover and title page, which very cleverly riff on the title by constructing the elements out of small “mosaic” pieces. Elder almost certainly met Hyde while opening the Santa Barbara bookstore in 1904. Hyde would later design Elder’s grand Guest Book and wedding book, The House That Jack Built.
There are four known bindings:
- “Camelot Edition”: flexible red-brown French board, stamped in gold, boxed
- (edition name unknown): brown paper over stiff boards, stamped in gold
- “Stratford Edition”: flexible leather, boxed
- “Craftsman Edition”: heavy leather, hand-modeled and colored (not seen)
Updated 2026-01-25
