{"product_id":"anatole-france-the-red-lily-modern-library-in-limp-leather-1919-1925","title":"Anatole France The Red Lily, Modern Library in Limp Leather, 1919–1925","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn early Modern Library edition of The Red Lily by Anatole France, published in New York by Boni and Liveright. The binding is the series' original limp imitation leather in near black, finely pebbled and flexible enough to roll open in one hand, with the Modern Library torchbearer colophon stamped in gilt at the center of the front board and the title, author and series lettered in gilt on the spine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOpen it and the endpapers are the real find. Green printed on tan, they run across both leaves in a dense allegorical design of striding nude figures, a city skyline, mountains and a great block letter M on the left and L on the right, signed in the plate at the lower left by the artist. A previous owner's circular date stamps sit in the upper corner of the right endpaper.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe text block is clean and square with the original gilt top edge. The verso of the title page carries the line Printed in the United States of America, and the facing page advertises the publisher's forty page illustrated catalog of the series.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo features date this copy, and together they close the window tightly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe title page reads Boni and Liveright. Albert Boni and Horace Liveright founded the Modern Library in 1917 and sold the series to Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer in 1925, so that imprint alone places the book between those years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe endpapers narrow it further. They are the design by Horace Brodzky, chosen through a competition Boni and Liveright announced in Publisher's Weekly on 8 March 1919, offering one hundred dollars for the best endpaper interpreting the spirit and character of the Modern Library. Brodzky's design was used from 1919 until 1925, printed in green on tan and no other color, and it was retired at the moment Cerf and Klopfer took over. An Australian born painter and printmaker who worked in London and New York, Brodzky is now better remembered as the friend, model and first biographer of the sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eImprint and endpaper agree: this copy was printed between 1919 and 1925.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe timing is worth noting. Anatole France was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1921, squarely inside that window, and the Modern Library was selling him hard to American readers on the strength of it. The Red Lily, first published in Paris in 1894 as Le Lys Rouge, is his best known novel of passion: Therese Martin-Belleme, married off by her father to an elderly government minister, takes a lover out of pity for his devotion, leaves him for a sculptor she actually loves, and is undone when the first man follows her to Florence and will not let go. The red lily is the emblem of that city.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTitle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Red Lily\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAuthor\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAnatole France, 1844–1924, Nobel Prize in Literature 1921\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSeries\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Modern Library\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublisher\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBoni and Liveright, New York\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDate\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1919–1925, by imprint and endpaper design\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBinding\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublisher's limp imitation leather, near black, gilt torchbearer colophon to the front board, gilt spine lettering, gilt top edge\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEndpapers\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Horace Brodzky design, green on tan, used 1919 to 1925 only\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCircular date stamps to the free endpaper from earlier ownership\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTo be confirmed\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFair to good, a used reading copy. Covers rubbed and creased with surface loss along the spine edges. Spine ends frayed with loss at head and tail, and the gilt spine lettering is worn and partly obscured. Front hinge strained, with the boards splaying when open; binding holding. Text block sound and square, all pages present and legible. Pages toned with scattered foxing. Endpapers complete. Not restored.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEarly Modern Library in the limp leather is one of the great small pleasures of American publishing. The books were made to be carried and read, not shelved and admired, and the binding has the soft give of something designed for a coat pocket. A century on, that is exactly what makes them good objects: the wear is the design working.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat lifts this copy above a shelf filler is the Brodzky endpaper. It is a genuine piece of early twentieth century graphic design, it was only printed for six years, and it disappeared the moment Random House's founders bought the series. Open the book on a stand and that is what people look at.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt belongs in a stack of worn cloth and leather on a side table, in a shelf of early Modern Library spines, or open on a desk. For a dealer, a title page that names Boni and Liveright and an endpaper that dates itself to a six year window is a thirty second story, and the Nobel on top of it does the rest.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67621189484649,"sku":"VE-1801","price":79.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/01_4178b7a8-fabe-4262-9b07-f3eb2b637567.jpg?v=1791617776","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/anatole-france-the-red-lily-modern-library-in-limp-leather-1919-1925","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}