The gilt floral spines and petite dimensions of the Everyman's Library series ring familiar to anyone who has frequented used bookstores or explored a dusty attic. Started by Joseph Malaby Dent with those first iconic volumes issued in 1906, there's nothing quite like Everyman's Library. The books are familiar, they're beautiful, and, even today, many cost less than $20 each. They're a wonderful window into the excitement of building a personal collection of books, or anything else.
Dent was something of a tyrant and a penny-pincher, but also a visionary. He wanted to make money, but he had a lot of idealism, too. A self-educated man, Dent believed strongly in publishing great books with high production standards and selling them at the affordable price of a shilling each. The idea succeeded beyond Dent's wildest dreams and, by 1975, Everyman's Library consisted of 994 titles .
There's something about a beautifully bound and presented book which has no dust jacket and no commercial blurb - or should that be 'burp'? - and which is not 'bulked up' with double-spacing, large print margins, blank pages between chapters, and large typeface to make it appear thicker than it really is. Typically, the page size of an Everyman's Library volume is 9 x 5 inches in an 8-point print.
| Everyman, I will go with thee and be thy guide, In thy most need to go by thy side. |
A Everyman's Library edition fits easily into your pocket to be on hand when you want a good book to read while you're travelling or waiting at the dentist's. The original editions have become collector's items but are also available as reprints.
Right now I've started to read Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim again:
"He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which made you think of a charging bull. His voice was deep, loud, and his manner displayed a kind of dogged self-assertion which had nothing aggressive in it. It seemed a necessity, and it was directed apparently as much at himself as at anybody else. He was spotlessly neat, apparelled in immaculate white from shoes to hat, and in the various Eastern ports where he got his living as ship-chandler's water-clerk he was very popular. " To read the whole story, click here.
