D. Appleton & Co. (New York, US; London, UK)
Series dates: 1923-1927
Size: 5.25″ x 7.75″
Revised 3/19/2025
The Appleton Library of Verse series appeared in 1923, and titles were issued until 1928. The series seems to consist mostly of reprints of Appleton poetry titles with what seem to be a few new anthologies. The jackets are common to the series and rather minimalist in design. The series name is included on the spine of the jacket, along with the title and author (or editor, in this case). The jacket front has the series name. While following the same general design, some jackets have a small illustration under the title, or rearrange the key elements (series name, title, etc.). The front jacket flap includes a blurb for the book and a price ($2.00).
The rear of the jacket lists 20 titles in the series. There are no books in WorldCat with the series name. Many of the series books retain earlier copyright years (pre-1923) and no series printing date. These issues make it difficult to confirm the final count of titles and the initial year the books were included in the series. I’ve used Google Books to track down contemporary literature that announces the series’ new titles as they are issued.
C.E. Andrews, From the Front (1923)
Josephine Daskam Bacon, Truth O’ Women (1923)
Amelia E. Barr, Songs in the Common Chord (1923)
A Harvest of German Verse (1923)
Ruth Comfort Mitchell, Narratives in Verse (1923)
Grantland Rice, Songs of the Stalwart (1923)
Edith Franklin Wyatt, The Wind in the Corn (1923)
*Margarete Munsterberg, A Harvest of German Verse (1923)
Martha Haskell Clark, The Home Road (1924)
Stephen Gwynn, Collected Poems (1924)
Daniel Henderson, A Harp in the Winds (1924)
Nellie Burget Miller, In Earthen Bowls (1924)
Robert Gilbert Welsh, Azrael and Other Poems (1924)
Camilla Doyle, Poems (1925)
American Mystical Verse (1925)
*Charles Hanson Towne, Selected Poems (1925)
Don Marquis, Noah An’ Cap’n John Smith (1926)
*Babette Deutch, Honey out of the Rock (1926)
Joseph C. Lincoln, Cape Cod Ballads (1928)
Frank L. Stanton, Songs of the Soil (1928)
* added to series list from list in the back of a copy of Honey Out of the Rock
by Babette Deutsch (Archive.org). Thanks to Paul Wagner for this information.
The price of the books varied, probably based on the length and copyright costs, from $1 to $2, with the majority at $1.50. The rear jacket flap includes an advertisement for Verse of Our Day (which does not seem to be in the Appleton Library of Verse series).
Green cloth bindings have gold typography and decorations, including a wreath on the front of the book as well as the title. The series name is not printed on the book cover.
The half-title page:
The title page with the Appleton colophon and date of printing (1925):
The copyright page and an indication of printing (in the US).
The second to last page in the book includes a shorter list of titles, probably issued up to 1925 when the book was published. The jacket has more listed titles, suggesting it may have been swapped out for a newer jacket by the publisher, probably around 1927 or 1928 (the practice was not uncommon to freshen up books that had not yet been sold).
On the reverse of the series catalog is an advertisement for other poetry books issued by Appleton in the ca. 1925 era.
