Between the Covers

Hardcover. First edition. Near fine lacking the dustwrapper.

[With]: Original brass binding die stamp for the front board of the book. Approximately 4.5" x 3.5". A little tarnished, else near fine. The die reads (in reverse lettering): "The Popular Book / A History of America's Literary Taste".

The provenance presents a mildly interesting story: a local colleague was buying books out of the trunk of a gentleman's car and came across a bag of brass die-stamps from the Oxford University Press from the late 1930s through the early 1950s, when Oxford did much of their printing in the U.S. My colleague inquired and the gentleman revealed that his next stop was the scrap yard where he was going to sell the dies to be melted down for the brass. My colleague paid him double the scrap price for them. We paid a bit more. In any event, a unique artifact from this book by a literary critic and historian.

Item #406877