The Lucile Project

...recovering the publication history of a single 19th century book.

• Home
• FAQ
• Publishers
• Texts
• Illustrations
• Reviews, Sightings, & Oddities
• Tools
• PTLA
• Site Map

Descriptions and reported copies:

1887 PTLA catalog name is "Frederick A. Stokes", lacking "& Brother".

1887-1889 PTLA Duodecimo Poets. Initial volumes in a series whose features will be excellent paper and press-work, neat binding, moderate price. / Each volume is printed in attractive, clear type on very fine laid paper, in duodecimo size. / Plain, dark blue, "dull-finish" cloth, with flat back and tasteful label in two colors on hand-made paper. / Gilt top, Price each volume, $1.25; Half calf, gilt top, $2.50.

1887-1889 PTLA "Family" Poets. The distinctive features of Frederick A. Stokes's edition of these volumes are New Illustrations, made by good artists especially for this edition; Beautifully Engraved Borders printed in soft tints on all the pages; Good Paper; Careful Presswork. / Each volume is a large 8vo, cloth, bevelled boards, gilt edges. $2.50; Imitation "seal," padded covers, gilt edges. In a box, $4.00.

1887 PTLA Poets, Standard Edition. [Frederick A. Stokes's Special List Of Publications Offered by Him upon the Same Basis as His Own. Includes certain publications Wholly Controlled by Him.] These are well printed on good linen paper. Fully illustrated, crown octavo, bevelled boards. Handsome design in gold and colors on side and back. Each $2.00. [Both Lucile and Poetical Works].

1887 PTLA Poets. Frederick A. Stokes's 16mo Series of Poetical Works in Dainty Binding. / Uniform in size and style. Printed in clear type, on fine, laid paper, wide margins. Mostly made up of poets whose works appear in no other good American edition. Very attractive in appearance.... Each one of the above is offered in a variety of bindings, all of which have been given great care / Parchment-paper covers with hand-illuminated design on side; title, and back printed in red ink. Different design for each volume. $1.00. Olive green vellum cloth, gilt top, plain,$1.00; Half calf, extra, gilt top, Reduced price, $2.00; Limp imitation seal, round corners, gilt edges In a box, $2.50; Limp, full pocket-book calf, round corners, red-under-gold edges. In a box. $3.00; Tree calf, gilt edges. In a box, $3.50. Parchment-paper, half calf, limp calf, and tree calf IN BOXES. / Of these volumes The Week says: "The critic finds it impossible to take up this volume without being preprossessed in its favor by the dainty loveliness of its dress. The paper is charming, the margins are liberal, the type neat and clear."

1888 PTLA: 16mo Series of Poetical Works in Dainty Bindings: Each of these 15 volumes is a 16mo, well-printed on very fine, laid paper, with wide margins, from new electrotype plates. / Styles of binding. / Each volume is offered in a great variety of bindings, all of which have been given most careful attention by the publishers. I. New Half-Cloth Binding. With back and half sides of sage-green, vellum-cloth, covered with tracery in gold. Outer half-sides delicate green, buff and gold. Gilt top. A most charming binding. Price, each volume, $1.00. II. Olive-green vellum-cloth, gilt top. Very plain and neat. Each $1.00; III. Parchment-paper covers with hand-illuminated design on side; title, and back printed in red ink. Different design for each volume as follows... Jaqueminot rose... Each vol., in a box. $1.00. / IV. Half calf, extra, gilt top, olive and "cocoa" sides and linings, neat tooling and lettering and good materials and workmanship. Price, each vol., $2.00; V. Limp, wine-colored, imitation seal-skin, round corners, gilt edges. Price, each vol., in a box, $2.50; VI. Limp, wine-colored, pocket-book calf, round corners, red-under-gold edges. In a box. $3.00; VII. Very dark brown tree-calf, gilt edges. Price, each vol., in a box, $3.50.

1889 PW Sept 21, p352: Vignette Edition: The most saleable "Lucile" ever published.... Vignette editions, illustrated by 100 new illustrations, engraved in half-tone, after original designs. Ten of the illustrations are full-page, and the remainder are of various sizes and odd shapes, and are set in the text in an artistic manner. / 12mo, printed in the best manner, and on the first quality of coated paper. / Special Attention has been given to the styles of binding. / Parchment paper covers, with appropriate design in colors, uncut pages, $150; New half-cloth binding, Back and half-sides in dull-finish, dark brown cloth, outer half-sides in illuminated paper, in brown and gold, $1.50; Half calf, flat back, wide raised bands, gilt top, $3.00; Half crushed levant, best quality, beautifully finished, gilt top, $3.50; Full crushed levant, best quality, gilt edges, in a box, $5.00; Dark brown, tree calf, gilt edges, in a box, $5.00.

1889 PW: Nov 2. A beautiful new edition printed on fine paper and il. With 100 new il., engraved in half-tone after original designs. Ten of the il. Are full-page, and the remainder are set in the text in an artistic manner. c. 420p. D. hf. Cl. Or parchment pap., $1.50; hf cf, $3; hf. Crushed levant $3.50; crushed levant or tree cf., $5.

Literary World (Boston) 20:420 (November 23, 1889), p 420: HOLIDAY BOOKS… Owen Meredith Illustrated. Owen Meredith's Lucile is favorite ground for the artists. Mr. Frank M. Gregory's one hundred illustrations, mostly inserted in the text, will bear comparison, as a whole, with the work of his predecessors. The publishers have done their part, in other respects, to make this "vignette edition" convenient in its form and attractive in binding and typography. It can hardly fail to have a large sale among the author's thousands of admirers. (Frederick A. Stokes & Brother. $1.50.)

Literary World (Boston) 20:420 (November 23, 1889), p 432: Publications received - Lucile. By Owen Meredith. Vignette edition with one hundred new illustrations by Frank M. Gregory. F. A. Stokes & Brother. $1.50.

The Literary World, a Monthly Review of Current Literature, Nov. 28, 1889, p420, “Holiday Books: Owen Meredith Illustrated. Owen Meredith's Lucile is favorite ground for the artists. Mr. Frank M. Gregory's one hundred illustrations, mostly inserted in the text, will bear comparison, as a whole, with the work of his predecessors. The publishers have done their part, in other respects, to make this “vignette edition” convenient in its form and attractive in binding and typography. It can hardly fail to have a large sale among the author's thousands of admirers (Frederick A. Stokes & Brother. $1.50). [Also notice of new edition of The Earl's Return].

PW Christmas Bookshelf, p43: Several new and exceedingly pretty volumes of poetry are delightful specimens of book-making. Any one of them is a most desirable gift. The Vignette Edition of Owen Meredith's "Lucile"; (Stokes) is rich in graceful little sketches from the pencil of Frank N. Gregory. The strong human interest in this poetic romance has gathered to it readers by the thousands. The charming form in which it now appears is not the least of its attractions....

Literary World (Boston) 20:448 (December 7, 1889), p448, Stokes & Brother advertisement: Frederick A. Stokes & Brother / IMPORTANT HOLIDAY PUBLICATIONS

The most beautiful "Lucile" ever published. LUCILE. By Owen Meredith. VIGNETTE EDITION, illustrated by 100 NEW illustrations, engraved in half-tone, after original designs. Ten of the illustrations are full-page, and the remainder are of various sizes and odd shapes, and are set in the text in an artistic manner. 12mo, printed in the best manner, and on the first quality of coated paper.
Special attention has been given to the styles of binding.
Parchment-paper covers, with appropriate design in colors, uncut pages, $1.50. New half-cloth binding. Back and half-sides in dull-finish, dark brown cloth, outer half-sides in illuminated paper, in brown and gold, $1.50. Half calf, flat back, wide raised bands, gilt top, $3.00. Half-crushed levant, best quality, beautifully finished, gilt top, $3 50. Full crushed levant, best quality, gilt edges, in a box, $5.00. Dark brown, tree calf, gilt edges, in a box, $5.00.

The Dial 10 (116) Dec 1889 p220: The fluency with which the numbers flow in the metrical writings of Owen Meredith, together with the romantic sentiment to which they are ever allied, secures the perennial popularity which Lucile enjoys. It has been published in a great variety of elegant and enticing forms, and their extended success prompts still other new and successive editions. The latest is presented by F. A. Stokes & Brother, and is a comely example of the book-maker's art. Print, paper, and binding are in scrupulous taste. The illustrations, exhibiting versatility of composition, are the work of Frank M. Gregory. Inserted in the text as flowers are set on a branch, a free and irregular growth. They enhance the charm of one of the world's favorite poems. A holiday edition of another of Owen Meredith’s poems, The Earl's Return, is brought out in attractive style by Estes & Lauriat. This poem is less widely known than Lucile, but has the likeness to the latter of a younger sister. It is a much shorter poem, but with picturesque qualities which the illustrator. W. L. Taylor, has seized as material for the exercise of his imagination. The chief pictures of the unhappy Earl's wife are strong in pathos and beauty.

The Nassau Literary Magazine, January 1890, p428: "So many finely illustrated books are appearing at this time that it almost impossible to admire them all as much as they deserve. The present edition of Mr. Meredith's masterpiece is certainly one of the most artistically illustrated books of the season. In many instances the illustrator may not have depicted the heroine in a fashion fully up to the ideal in the minds of many readers, but the figures are graceful and striking, and the faces are pretty and appropriate, so that it is with a feeling of unalloyed pleasure that we once more read this poem, with fresh aid to our imagination in the shape of numerous illustrations."

The American Bookmaker X3 (March 1890) p6. "AMONG the characteristically creditable publications of Frederick A. Stokes & Brother for the year 1889 was a 12mo vignette edition of Owen Meredith's "Lucile." The volume is enriched with 100 new illustrations, by Frank M. Gregory, the well-known artist. Mr. Gregory's designs are undeniably graceful, and harmonize with the text with which they are blended. Two of these are reproduced on page 63 of this issue of The Bookmaker. The half brown cloth binding of this edition is stamped on either side with a neat conventionalized flower and leaf scroll work design in gilt, the title in a panel at the top and name of the author in a similar panel at the bottom of both recto and verso. A scroll work of similar but not identical design is stamped upon the back of the volume, also in gilt. The word "Lucile" is stamped in gold on the brown cloth at the top; in the middle of the back through a gold leaf appears the author's name on the brown, and the monogram of the publishers balances the rest of the ornamentation at the bottom. The paper half of the binding is of a gold bronzed embossed goods and gives an agreeable effect to the whole. This book is printed upon an excellent quality of supercalendered paper, and the presswork, done for one edition by the Burr Printing House and by Rogers & Sherwood for another edition, is all that could be asked. This really commendable production has been further endowed with the desirable attribute of ample margins. The work appears also in parchment paper covers, in colors; in half calf; half crushed levant; full crushed levant, and full tree calf.

Athenaeum of Philadelphia: quarter green cloth stamped with floral pattern but finished in a paper featuring small ovals printed in pale green, gold-brown and cream; University of Colorado: quarter blue cloth; BAP SB3b & University of Alberta: quarter white cloth gold stamped with a floral (cyclameus?) pattern and finished with floral paper.

Last revised: 2 November 2024