Confirmed Bindings for Each Title

Most Modern Library collecting seems to focus more on the dust jackets rather than the books. But I'm guessing that a significant number of collectors have an opposite focus, where the pieces of paper over the books are ancillary to what the DJs house. This table has been constructed to aid the collecting goals of such folks.

The following tastefully colored table identifies actual binding styles confirmed to exist for each title in the regular series. (Click here for a table of reported Giant bindings.) A dot in a cell below a number identifies a title bound in that style as reported by a collector. If a row is shaded in blue, it is extremely likely that all bindings in existence for that title are dotted. Click a binding style number to see an example of that style and to read its parameters. Bindings marked with @ instead of • are oddballs close to the indicated binding but unusual in some way.

To see the total number of titles reported to have come in each binding style, go to the bottom of this table. To see a list of titles that came in a specific binding, use the Bindings Finder feature.

Why this chart is necessary: There is no guarantee that a title in print between one date and another appeared in all bindings in use during that same period. A title might have remained in the series for many years, but there may have been enough bound copies to weather sales demands over a period in which another binding style was in use. For example, a title may have been printed and bound in 1961's binding style 8 without the need for another binding until late in 1963 in binding style 11; in such a case, that title would have no binding styles 9 or 10.

Subtypes exist: Binding 5 has two subtypes. To learn about them, click here. To see a list of titles spotted thus far with style 5 subtypes, click here and follow the directions on the page that appears.

Obviously, this is an ongoing project that requires input from lots of folks—like you, for instance! If you have a title in a binding style not dotted here, please let us know so we can add it to the table. Click here for info about validating a new find.

Special thanks to Ron Holl of the Amenities Website who conceived this project and to ModernLib stalwarts John Krygier, John Peterson, and John Wolansky who, along with Ron and Scot Kamins, contributed the bulk of the original material for the table.