Modern Library in Print Media (continued)

1926 - 1928

Click an image to see a larger representation—especially useful for reading text.


1926 - Designed to entice The Trade to make advance orders, the ad on the cover of a November Publisher's Weekly issue (big bucks!!!) announces boxed gift sets of MLs with five books to the package just in time for Chrismas giving; a double-sided tipped-in order sheet (this one from a September issue) give the details. The brief poorly written note at the top left from an August PW issue gives advance promotion. The bottom unrelated ad is a full-page ad from the New York times listing the entire catalog.

Publisher's Weekly, 08/21/26

Publisher's Weekly, 11/13/26


Side 1 of tipped-in sheet
Publisher's Weekly, 9/4/26


Side 2 of tipped-in sheet
Publisher's Weekly, 9/4/26


New York Times, Oct 10, 1926
(clicking downloads PDF file)


1927 - Cerf & Klopfer continue with Liveright's anti-elitest theme in their September Bookman ad: "Out of the Luxury Class for the First Time." The ad placed by their printer H. Wolff brags that they publish the entire ML line, making them the printers to trust. The article by Ernest Boyd in an October Independent issue praises the ML for printing so many European authors, giving the lie to the idera that Americans will read only trashy novels.

The Bookman, Sep 1927 (from APS Online)

The Bookman, Feb 1927 (from APS Online)


The Bookman, Nov 1927 (from APS Online)


The Independent, Oct 29, 1927 (from APS Online)


1928 - The ad in a February Forum issue continues the "Out of the Luxury Class" theme, bragging that the series is now in every bookstore in America: "The world's best literature, in a handsome edition, at a frqction of the usual cost!" An April issue of the literary magazine The Dial seems to agree that MLs are worth having, offering any two titles from the ML catalog as a bonus for subscribing. (I would have taken the alternate choice, a copy of Ezra Pound's Personae, but that's just me.)

Forum, Feb 1928 (from APS Online)

The Dial, Apr 1928 (from APS Online)

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