The First Book of the Author's Club, Liber Scriptorum.

Description:

The First Book of the Author's Club, Liber Scriptorum. New York: Published by the Author's Club [by the De Vinne Press], 1893.
First edition, limited, copy number thirty-two of 251 copies sold, folio, containing short pieces by 109 different authors, each of whom has signed their name to the piece; including: Andrew Carnegie, William Starbuck Mayo, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and many others; bound in full publisher's straight-grained brown calfskin over beveled boards, tooled in blind and gilt, by the De Vinne Press binders, t.e.g.; deckle edges, nicely preserved, the binding slightly rubbed, 12 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.

The daunting process of collecting all of the signatures is described in the preface. "Every article, in every copy of the book is signed by its author with pen and ink. In this feature it is unique. The obtaining of these signatures proved to be the most difficult problem connected with the task. [...] [M]ore than twenty-seven thousand signatures in all [were collected.]"
Estimate $5,000-7,000


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