John Lane | The Bodley Head (London, UK)
Series dates: 1925-1929
Size: 5.25″ x 7.25″
The Dial Press (New York, US)
Series dates: 1925-1927
Size: 5.25″ x 7.25″
Dodd Mead & Co. (New York, US)
Series dates: 1927-1929
Size: 5.25″ x 7.25″
Updated 7/13/2024
A series of literary letters (thus the “Quill” in the name), all edited by R. Brimley Johnson (1867-1932), a relatively prolific editor, critic, author, and publisher in the first three decades of the twentieth century.
John Lane/The Bodley Head issued an unnamed series of seven titles edited by Johnson in 1925 and 1926. The Dial Press issued the same titles in the U.S. (in three out of seven cases, a year later than the UK publication).
Beginning in 1927, new titles edited by Johnson were issued in the UK as the Quill Library, with four more published between 1927 and 1929. Dodd Mead published the U.S. editions of these last 4 titles in the same year as John Lane / The Bodley Head and with both firm names on the imprint. Curiously, Dodd Mead did not issue the U.S. titles under the Quill Library series name.
The initial 7 UK titles (not officially in the series) had similar dust jackets, bindings, and book designs to the 4 titles issued as the later Quill Library. However, the “Quill Library” is missing from the dust jackets of the original 7 titles.
I’ve not encountered a series situation like this, where an unnamed series of titles turns into a series more than halfway through issuing titles. Someone likely decided that this collection of related titles should be in a named series, in this case, in 1927. It wasn’t Dodd Mead, given they did not use the Quill Library series name on the U.S. titles.
The Quill Library titles include the initial 7 titles as part of the series (on the dust jackets and in the catalog at the back of the book). However, I’ve not seen a copy of the initial 7 titles indicating they are in the Quill Library (on the jackets or in the books). This suggests the initial 7 titles were not reprinted and just absorbed into the series after the fact. Weird.
Even though the named series does not start until 1927, I will go with 1925 as the start and include the initial 7 titles here for 11 titles in the series, issued between 1925 and 1929. I’ve found one reprint of the Bluestocking Letters by Dial Press in 1936. Even though the Dodd Mead titles don’t include the series name, I’ll include them in the series, as the U.S. editions of the final 4 titles.
| An advertisement for John Lane / The Bodley Head announcing the 2nd official title in the Quill Library. From The Times Literary Supplement (London, England) Thursday, Jan. 19, 1928 Issue 1355, p. 39. Curiously, they did not include and advertise the initial 7 Johnson-edited volume titles issued before the official naming of the series. |  |
Titles in the pre-Quill Library and Quill Library series:
1925: Not originally in the Quill Library series, co-published by Dial in the U.S.
*The Letters of Hannah More (Dial Press, 1926)
*The Letters of Jane Austen (Dial Press, 1926)
*The Letters of Mary Russel Mitford (Dial Press, 1925)
1926: Not originally in the Quill Library series, co-published by Dial in the U.S.
Bluestocking Letters (Dial Press, 1926, 1936)
*The Letters of George Eliot (Dial Press, 1927)
*The Letters of Lady Louisa Stuart (Dial Press, 1926)
*The Letters of Mrs. Thrale (Dial Press, 1926)
1927: In Quill Library series for UK titles, co-published by Dodd Mead in the U.S., not as part of the Quill Library series.
*The Letters of Laurence Sterne (Dodd Mead, 1927)
The Letters of Richard Steele (Dodd Mead, 1927)
1928: In Quill Library series for UK titles, co-published by Dodd Mead in the U.S., not as part of the Quill Library series.
The Letters of Robert Burns (Dodd Mead, 1928)
1929: In Quill Library series for UK titles, co-published by Dodd Mead in the U.S., not as part of the Quill Library series.
The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Dodd Mead, 1929)
*Included in a catalog of series titles at the end of the title shown below (Steele).
The Letters of Richard Steele was published in the series in 1927. Dust jackets are common to the series, with the initial 7 titles lacking the Quill Library series name. The price for the book (in this case, a UK edition) is on the jacket spine and front. I have not seen a US edition, but I assume they had modified dust jackets. The series name is on the spine and top of the front of the jacket. The front jacket flap blurbs another title in the series (Sterne).
The back of the jacket lists the initial 7 titles, none originally in the series, with a brief blurb for each title. The rear jacket flap advertises a non-series title.
The books have higher-quality cloth binding with a glued-on label. As with the dust jackets, the initial 7 titles have a similar binding and label. The series name on the latter 4 titles in the series is included on the label.
Blank endpapers:
The half-title page:
Facing the title page is the other title published officially in the series, The Letters of Laurence Sterne, as “Uniform with this Volume.” The series name is not included on this or the title page. The imprint is both Lane and Dodd Mead.
“First Published in 1927”
“Made and Printed in England at the Ballantyne Press, Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co. Ltd., Colechester, London & Eton”
At the end of the book, a catalog of seven titles is included. This includes the Sterne title and six of the pre-series titles. One title, Bluestocking Letters, is missing.
The final four Quill Library titles, issued under that series name in the UK, were published by Dodd Mead in the U.S., but they were not part of the Quill Library (at least not on the jackets or in the book). Jackets are printed on heavy paper with red typography, including the title, editor, publisher, and a blurb about the book. The front jacket flap is blank.
The back of the book and the rear flap are blank.
The binding is maroon with gold typography, and a Dodd Mead debossed colophon.
Blank end-papers.
The half-title page is designed the same way as the UK edition. Starting at this point, the UK and US editions are identical. Thus, the books were printed in the UK and shipped to the US where Dodd Mead bound and jacketed the titles.
“Uniform with this volume” includes one title, the Letters of Lawrence Sterne and “The Bodley Head.” The title page is the same as the UK edition.
The copyright page and printer information are identical to those in the UK edition. “First Published in 1927.” “Made and Printed in England at the Ballantyne Press, Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co. Ltd., Colechester, London & Eton”
