“Series” is something of a squishy word with Paul Elder & Company. One thinks of a classic series such as the Everyman’s Library: a large group of books issued at a single moment, with matching covers and title pages, typically designed to look impressive on a bookshelf. Applying this definition to Paul Elder, only the Impression Classics and Panel Books would qualify. Perhaps we would also include the Abbey Classics and Western Classics, though each of those only had four titles. Of these four series, only the Western Classics were printed at the Tomoye Press: sheets for the others he bought overseas, pre-printed with a Paul Elder & Company title page.
For our purposes, I have chosen to include any set that
- was issued together: Baby Roland Booklets, Hump Tree Stories, Vest Pocket Helps, Small Talks on Card Games
- was grouped by Elder as a thematic series: Bible Mosaics, 101 Epicurean Thrills
- was gathered into a single slipcase: Comfort Books, Critic Travels
S1. Abbey Classics (4 titles, 4 titles deleted from checklist upon further research), 41, 77, 204, 262, 284, 298, 311, 357
S2. Baby Roland Booklets (5 titles), 18, 125, 137, 160, 353
S3. Bible Mosaics (5 titles), 3, 9, 34, 72, 245
S4. Hump Tree Stories (8 titles), 31, 32, 86, 132, 170, 190, 192, 366. Also issued as a single book, 131.
S5. Impression Classics (36 titles), 64, 91, 94, 108, 123, 155, 183, 206, 239, 252, 257, 263, 268, 276, 281, 282, 283, 289, 293, 312, 331, 355, 356, 368, 381, 398, 404, 405, 406, 407, 408, 409, 410, 411, 412, 413
S6. 101 Epicurean Thrills (11 titles), 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222
S7. Panel Books (20 titles), 15, 33, 75, 78, 84, 85, 89, 135, 156, 158, 173, 176, 208, 236, 270, 275, 285, 290, 335, 372. Originally published in Great Britain by Sisley’s of London.
S8. Vest Pocket Helps (8 titles, incorrectly titled Vest Pocket Tracts in the printed checklists), 400, 402, 403, 414, 415, 416, 417, 418
S9. Western Classics (4 titles), 53, 279, 303, 337
S10. Langham Library of Humour (2 titles), 419, 420. Simultaneously published by Siegle Hill & Co., London and Musson Book Company Ltd., Toronto.
S11. The Comfort Books (3 titles), 71, 115, 185
S12. The Critic Travels (2 titles), 79, 80
S13. Mosaic Essays (5 titles), 107, 120, 166, 196, 328. Also issued as a single book, 188.
S14. Small Talks on Card Games (9 titles), 295, 296, 297, 391, 392, 393, 394, 395, 396