During their five-year collaboration between 1898 and 1903, Morgan Shepard was the artist, decorator and poet, while Paul Elder was the businessman and bookseller. Elder & Shepard published six of Shepard’s works during that time, mostly children’s stories. The prettiest of them is his slim volume of poetry The Standard Upheld, published in 1902 in a limited edition of 550 copies. Shepard’s title page design, perhaps depicting eucalyptus leaves, can be compared to similar botanic artwork on Volumes 1 and 2 of Impressions magazine. Shepard perhaps also designed the illuminated capital S on page 1.
The opening poem, “Shall I Cast Down the Standard Of My Life?” is clearly autobiographical. In a short memoir he wrote in his eighties, Shepard described the early death of his mother, followed by teenage years full of bad breaks, disappointments, and fisticuffs. For Morgan Shepard, the metaphor of “me against the world, holding my standard high” is an apt image indeed.
Copy #1 of The Standard Upheld was presented by Shepard to Thomas Coke Watkins, to whom he dedicated the book. Shepard had it specially bound by Henry W. Thumler and James A. Rutherford, whose shop at 538 California was about three blocks from Elder & Shepard’s bookstore. Thumler & Rutherford were frequent advertisers in Impressions magazine.
Updated 2026-01-08
