Paul Elder & Company – Page 19 – San Francisco bookseller & publisher, 1898-1968

The Standard Upheld

14 August 202318 November 2012 by david

Standard Upheld title — Title page of “The Standard Upheld”

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. The title page decorations, as well as the initial capitals throughout the book, are almost certainly Shepard’s.

The opening poem, “Shall I Cast Down the Standard Of My Life?” is no doubt autobiographical. Shepard was a fighter (sometimes literally) all his life, and the metaphor of “me against the world, holding my standard high” is an apt image.

In contrast to Shepard, Paul Elder never published any original works. Though his byline appeared on seventeen of his publications, “compiler” would be a better word than “author”: they were all collections of quotations. Presumably Elder also wrote most of the copy for his in-house magazine Impressions as well.

Standard Upheld cover — Special binding for “The Standard Upheld”. Elder & Shepard’s normal bindings never looked like this.

This copy of The Standard Upheld was specially bound by bookbinders James A. Rutherford and Henry W. Thumler, whose shop was at 538 California, about three blocks from Elder & Shepard’s bookstore (and later at 117 Grant, just down the street).

Standard Upheld p01 — Page 1 of “The Standard Upheld”, and poem from which the book’s title is taken

Standard Upheld p10 — Pages 10-11 of “The Standard Upheld”

Fairy Tales Up-To-Now

16 June 202528 October 2012 by david

Extra, extra, read all about it! Wallace Irwin rewrites old fairy tales!

In contrast to Irwin’s Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum, whose humor is obscure to modern readers, his 1904 Fairy Tales Up-To-Now is fairly accessible. The book contains five poetical satires of five classic children’s stories titled with tabloid newspaper headlines. Cinderella, a stenographer working for 50¢ a day, goes to the ball in a rented gown, but when the Prince discovers that her diamond slippers are just paste, he rejects her because he’s broke and needs a bride who’s wealthy. Cinderella, though, becomes a millionaire by selling faux-diamond slippers. Jack, of Beanstalk fame, rides off to slay the Standard Oil Giant, but is given a job instead, rises to the rank of treasurer and becomes a Giant himself, but then returns home to endow a library, gas-works and church.

A charming feature of the book are the front and back covers, which are flongs, temporary paper molds used for printing newspapers. Stereotype metal was poured over the flong, then the stereotype was wrapped around the press’s cylinder for printing. After the day’s press run the flongs were normally discarded, but here they were sent to Elder to be cut up into covers. Each individual copy of Fairy Tales Up-to-Now is therefore unique. With a newspaper index service, it should be possible to find the exact page a given flong was used to print. At least one flong was from the San Francisco Call, but Elder may have used flongs from other local newspapers as well. Fairy Tales Up-to-Now was also issued in paper wraps instead of flongs, perhaps cheaper but far less whimsical.

Thanks to Molly Schwartzburg and Andre Chaves for information about flongs.

Fairy Tales Up To Now title — Title page of “Fairy Tales Up-To-Now”

Fairy Tales Up To Now p10 — pages 10-11 of “Fairy Tales Up-To-Now”

Fairy Tales Up To Now p06 — pages 6-7 of “Fairy Tales Up-To-Now”

Colophons

15 December 202015 September 2012 by david

In publishing, a colophon is a brief description of a book’s production or publication details. The Latin word colophon comes from the Greek κολοφων meaning “summit,” or “finishing.” The term originally applied to inscriptions appended to the end of ancient Near East texts written on clay tablets. The colophon would contain such facts as the scribe, the owner, the literary contents and occasionally the reason for writing. For example, the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible contains colophons at the end of every book, noting, among other things, how many verses the book contains.

House That Jack Built colophon — Unusual hand-drawn colophon from “The House That Jack Built,” by Robert Wilson Hyde, 1904

Most, but not all, Paul Elder publications after 1902 contain a colophon. By about 1906, the usual formula was: title, author, printer, month and date of publication. Most colophons were written out in full sentences, stylistically matching the tone and content of the book. From a research standpoint, the colophons are useful in pinning down when Elder’s printers (Nash, Swart, Funke, and Orozco) joined, then later left, the Tomoye Press.

Elder’s style, which mimicked that of other fine press books of the time, was to put the copyright information on the title page verso, and the colophon on its own page following the last page of text. In modern American books, the colophon has been subsumed into the copyright details, typically placed on the title page verso. European books often place the copyright/colophon at the end of the book.

Wayfarers in Italy colophon — The earliest Elder colophon I have found so far, “Wayfarers in Italy,” by Katherine Hooker. The colophon is dated 1901, but the book’s title page reads 1902. Paul Elder has signed with the red “E”, Morgan Shepard with the red “S”

Yosemite Legends colophon — Colophon from “Yosemite Legends,” by Bertha Smith, 1904

Book of Hospitalities colophon — Colophon from “A Book of Hospitalities and Record of Guests,” by Arthur Guiterman, 1910

Charity colophon small — Colophon from “Charity,” verses selected by Beulah Warner, 1911

San Francisco Purdy colophon — Colophon from “San Francisco, As It Was, As It Is, and How To See It,” by Helen Throop Purdy, 1912

Erics Book of Beasts colophon — Colophon from “Eric’s Book of Beasts,” by David Starr Jordan, 1912

A Book of Hospitalities and a Record of Guests

21 July 202023 August 2012 by david

Book of Hospitalities cover — Cover of “A Book of Hospitalities”

Guest books aren’t seen much today except at weddings and funerals. It seems they were more popular in the early 1900s, as Paul Elder published four guest books between 1904 and 1910.

Arthur Guiterman’s Book of Hospitalities And a Record of Guests (1910) was intended to be placed in the parlor, living room, or perhaps the guest bedroom. The first section (“A Book of Hospitalities”) contains a selection of sayings and epigrams for the house, and the second half (“A Record of Guests”) contains blank areas for the guests to write in. Guiterman was also involved in two other Elder publications: the 1908 guest book entitled (appropriately enough) Guest Book, and the 1907 humor book Betel Nuts, Or What They Say In Hindustan.

Book of Hospitalities title — Title page of “A Book of Hospitalities”

Arthur Guiterman (1871-1943) was born in Vienna to American parents and graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1891. He was the author of a dozen books, primarily poetry. He was also editor of Women’s Home Companion and Literary Digest. In 1910, he co-founded the Poetry Society of America (which still exists and celebrated its centennial in 2010), and served as president in 1925.

I am particularly fond of Guiterman’s poem entitled “On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness”

The tusks which clashed in mighty brawls
Of mastodons, are billiard balls.
The sword of Charlemagne the Just
Is ferric oxide, known as rust.
The grizzly bear, whose potent hug,
Was feared by all, is now a rug.
Great Caesar’s bust is on the shelf,
And I don’t feel so well myself.

If you happen to own a copy of my 2004 Checklist of the Publications of Paul Elder, 2nd edition, you will see that the page borders are taken from Book of Hospitalities.

Book of Hospitalities frontispiece — Frontispiece of “A Book of Hospitalities”

Book of Hospitalities foreword — Foreword of “A Book of Hospitalities”

Book of Hospitalities main text — Text of “A Book of Hospitalities”

Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum

21 July 202017 August 2012 by david

Love Sonnets Hoodlum cover — Rear (L) and front covers of Wallace Irwin’s “Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum”

Question: of the 400+ books that Paul Elder published, which one sold the most copies?

The surprising answer is Wallace Irwin’s Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum. First published in 1901, this slim volume of jaunty verse remained in print at least through 1907. Fellow San Francisco humorist Gelett Burgess (of “Purple Cow” fame) added a mock scholarly introduction.

Love Sonnets Hoodlum title — Title page of “Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum”

Wallace Irwin (1875-1959) was a well-known humorist in the early 1900s. He attended Stanford University where he edited two humor magazines, but was expelled for writing satirical poetry about the faculty. Soon after, Irwin was hired as a writer by the Hearst Corporation. (Getting kicked out of a university seems to have been a requirement for local humorists: Gelett Burgess was fired by UC Berkeley after pulling down a statue of Henry Cogswell. Burgess clearly saw a kindred soul in Irwin.)

Irwin’s humor has not aged well. In Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum, our hoodlum hero fancies a lady and attempts to win her favor, but neither Irwin’s slang nor his references will be familiar to today’s readers.

Love Sonnets Hoodlum prologue — Prologue to “Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum”

Most disturbing to modern sensibilities, however, is Irwin’s racial humor. In Sonnet II below, he caricatures both Italians (“Dago”) and Jews (“Cohenstein”). More was to come: in 1907 Irwin began a long serial for Colliers magazine purporting to be the letters of a 35-year-old Japanese “boy,” going so far as to call the fourth volume Yellow Peril, and posing for the cover photograph himself in yellow makeup.

Love Sonnets Hoodlum i — Sonnets I and II

Irwin wrote many other works, including the 1935 novel The Julius Caesar Murder Case, which is generally credited as the first mystery novel set in antiquity.

Love Sonnets Hoodlum xxi — Sonnets XXI and XXII