The Sea Fogs / The Case of Summerfield / Tennessee's Partner / A Son of the Gods and a Horseman in the Sky.
San Francisco: Paul Elder and Company, 1907. Hardcover. Complete 4-volume set. 16mo. Quarter vellum with gilt spine lettering and paper (dark brown, light brown, charcoal, blue) over bevelled boards with gilt lettering. xvi, 24pp; vi, 54pp; xiv, 38pp; vii, 47pp. Top edges gilt. Tissue-guarded frontispieces, sewn-in satin page markers. Each near fine. Lacks dust jackets. Item #52239
Superb full set of this firm's distinctive "Western Classics" quartet, tight and bright. Elder formed this firm in 1903 and took in young buck and future fine press printer John Henry Nash (1871-1947), who designed the typography. Thomas Rutherford Bacon introduces Stevenson's "The Sea Fogs," a poetic description of a trip to northern California, this its first separate publication. Geraldine Bonner introduces Rhodes' "The Case of Summerfield," a sci-fi mystery first published in 1871. William Dallam Armes introduces Harte's "Tennessee's Partner," a California Gold Rush mining town yarn first published in 1869. W.C. Morrow introduces Harte's "A Son of the Gods," a story set in San Francisco first published in 1888, and also "A Horseman in the Sky," the famed Civil War tale first published in 1889. Each bears a striking photogravure frontispiece after a painting. Colophon at rear of each volume notes limitation of 1,000 copies, printed on handmade paper, with Nash as typographer and New York's Tomoye Press as printer.
Price: $450.00