D. Appleton & Company (New York, US)
Series dates: 1927-1935, 1939-1940
Size: 4.5″ x 6.75″ (1927-1935); 5.25″ x 7.5″ (1939-1940)
also see Modern Library (Appleton)
Revised 7/14/2024
Variations on the Dollar Library name for reprint book series have been used since at least the 1860s:
The Five Dollar Library: Southern Methodist Publishing House (ca. 1860s).
The Dollar Library of American Fiction: Heinemann (ca. 1901-1902). About 15 titles by American authors were published for a British audience. It does not seem to have survived beyond 1902. An advertisement from The Publishers’ Circular (February 23, 1901) introduces the series:
Advertisement of additional titles in the series from Truth: A Weekly Journal, September 26, 1901:
H. & S. Dollar library: Hodder and Stoughton, Doran (ca. 1903-1911): religious titles.
Abingdon Dollar Library: The Methodist Book Concern (ca. 1920-1930): religious titles.
Appleton & Company’s Dollar Library was consisted of about 60 titles issued in the late 1920s, updated and redesigned around 1930, and again in the late 1930s.
The series was sold in the U.K. under the name Modern Library. The jackets differed, but the books were the same (and the series name printed on the books was the Dollar Library).
A 1928 copy of Maurois’ Ariel is an example of this series’s early jacket and binding style. Common to the series, the jacket has an abstract plant design, indicates the series, and advertises other titles on the front of the jacket.
The listing of titles continues on the back of the jacket.
Green cloth binding with (fading) gold stamping. The plant design carries over from the dust jacket.
Half title page.
The title page contains another list of titles in the series. The date of printing (1928) is at the bottom of the title page.
The copyright for the title is 1924.
Jackets and bindings were redesigned around 1930. The jacket design for this 1931 copy of Maurois’ Ariel is common to the series: a wreath surrounding the title and author and a rather startling black band with a reversed-out series name at the bottom of the jacket extending to the spine. Several of the series’ dozen or so categories of books are listed on the front jacket flap, including Art, Biography, Drama, Education, and Poetry.
The titles continue on the back of the jacket: Literature, Psychology, Science, Travel, Etiquette (!), Fiction, Inspiration, and History.
Heavy cloth bindings with gold stamping:
The half-title page includes the series name.
A list of titles in the series face the title page. The book’s printing date, 1931, is indicated on the title page.
The copyright page includes the book’s copyright date (in this case, 1924).
The back of this copy from the Dollar Library includes a catalog of titles with brief descriptions.
A second jacket from the same era, Lewis’ Wolfville Folks. This is a 1929 printing.
The series was redesigned and reissued in 1939 with a dozen new titles. The price is still $1. The books are larger in format than the titles in the earlier series.
A list of titles in the redesigned, larger series is on the back of the jacket.
Bindings are cloth with black stamping.
As with the older series, the title page includes the printing date. There is no half-title page.
Copyright and printing information is indicated.
