Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$490.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 12 mo, 264 pp. Dark green cloth. Top edges gilt. Lakeside Press logo in gilt on front, title on spine only. Christmas, MCMIII. With frontispiece portrait of Franklin, tissue intact. Lakeside logo in red on title page. Front hinge a little weak, back hinge solid. Handling wear to cover surfaces and all edges. Very faint signature of previous (original?) owner on ffep, otherwise no internal marks.
Seller: A Few Books More. . ., Billings, MT, U.S.A.
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Description: The maiden effort of the "Lakeside Classics", this handsome 1903 re-issue of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. A very solid copy to boot. Clean, tight and VG in its dark-green cloth, with bright gilt-rule and design to the front panel and lightly-faded gilt-lettering along the spine. 16mo, 264 pgs., top-edge gilt. Also includes laid-in original business card from the Lakeside Press/R.R. Donnelley & Sons.
Seller: APPLEDORE BOOKS, ABAA, WACCABUC, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$525.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: The Lakeside Press - R.R. Donnelly & Sons Company. Chicago. 1903. 264 pages. First edition thus. The first offering of The Lakeside Classics series. Book is tight. Binding and hinges are strong and sound. Deep navy green cloth with gilt design and titles. Gilt page edges on top; uncut edges elsewhere. Panels show light soiling with light shelfrub along edges and corner tips. Cloth on backstrip crown edge shows minimal fray hairs. Textural line in cloth on rear. Gilt designs and titles are bright and attractive. FFEP has a compliments of gift stamp. Small, unobtrusive name stamp of recipient just below. The first 29 pages have an occasional small ink dash next to some paragraphs. A desirable copy of the modern day classic; offered for the first time in machine-made print. Ironically, Benjamin Franklin is the patron Saint of printers.
Seller: Medium Rare Books, Mountainside, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$575.00 + shipping
Description: Frontis portrait, 7 x 4.5", gilt-dec and gilt-ruled green cloth; teg, 264pp, extremities a little worn, hinges loose, else a nice copy. INSCRIBED "With the regards of.Jan 04" AND SIGNED BY THOMAS E. DONNELLEY. Donnelly was the President of the publisher, R.R. Donnelley & Sons.
Seller: John K King Used & Rare Books, Detroit, MI, U.S.A.
[FRANKLIN, Benjamin]. The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. R.R. Donnelley & Sons, Chicago, 1903.
Price: US$650.00 + shipping
Description: With frontispiece portrait of Franklin. Title in red and black. Green publisher's cloth, gilt publisher's device to front cover; extremities slightly rubbed. Uncut. First edition of the first Lakeside Classic. Even today, Donnelley still produces these modest and dignified books.
Seller: B & L Rootenberg Rare Books, ABAA, Sherman Oaks, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Deep green cloth binding rubbed at extremities; boards lightly scuffed/smudged; faint sticker residue on front board; small ding to top edge of front board; front hinge starting; owner's stamp on front free endpaper; leaf edges lightly foxed, else a nice, clean book. No dj. ; Nice sepia frontis portrait; John Vance Cheney, editor; top edge gilt; LAKESIDE CLASSICS #1. Scarce.; LAKESIDE CLASSICS #1 Series; 12mo; 264 pages
Seller: Hyde Brothers, Booksellers, Fort Wayne, IN, U.S.A.
Price: US$3850.00 + shipping
Description: 110 volumes of the Lakeside Classics. Missing 7 early books in the series., but does include the very first title -- the rather scarce 1903 Franklin's autobiography. Missing Items : 1904 Inaugural Addresses; 1905 Inaugural Addresses; 1906 Fruits of Solitude by Penn; four volumes of Memorable American Speeches. ".Lakeside Classics is a series started in 1903 that reprinted neglected classic works. Thomas E. Donnelley, then president of the company, was impressed by a set of seven razors presented to him by one of the company's suppliers, and wanted to create a gift that would similarly represent his own company's product and could not be purchased on the open market. The company did not sell the books to the public, but gave each of the company employees a copy at Christmas, making the series valued collectors items. Thomas Donnelley wrote in the introduction to Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, the first volume in the series, that "If, in a modest way this volume conveys the idea that machine-made books are not a crime against art, and that books may be plain but good, and good though not costly, its mission has been accomplished." Following volumes featured speeches and writings of noted Americans, then in the 1910s selections turned to first-person narratives of American history, especially those which were rare or out of print. Themes included the Civil War, the Old West, exploration and frontier life. In the 1990s, several changes were introduced. Partly to acknowledge the company's global markets, narratives by Americans abroad were included.An early admirer wrote in 1923 that the printing, binding, and finishings were all done by the apprentice class to "illustrate the ideals of a well-made book," and that "not only are these books well made, but they contain historical works, autobiographies, and early travels unforgettable to him who loves this fair land." He concluded that the series is becoming "an institution near and dear to the collector of books of intrinsic value and beauty." Minor design changes were made occasionally and a major redesign every quarter century. In 1995, the date line on the title page was changed from "Christmas" to "December." For the redesign in 2003, Bruce Campbell, known for his work on The Library of America, was engaged. Among other changes, the gold-framing on the cover was restored and the typeface was changed from Bulmer to Garamond The company did not keep detailed records on how many copies were printed. The preface to the 1935 volume says that the print run for the first volume was 1,500 copies, but no further information was included in later editions. In the 1970s printings were in the tens of thousands. The hardest volume to find is the 1904 Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents, Washington to Lincoln. It is not known whether the run was smaller or whether collectors of Washington and Lincoln have kept them off the market by retaining them. The second scarcest is Fruits of Solitude, which may have been easy to lose because it had the fewest pages. The difficulty of finding the volume Memorable Speeches led one family member to joke that the speeches were so unmemorable that everyone threw them out. The Chicago publisher Reilly & Britton, a Chicago publisher, was given rights to reissue some of the earliest titles as "The Patriotic Classics.By 2015, the series included 113 volumes. Lakeside Classics were not sold to the public and only made available to R.R. Donnelley employees, clients and others associated with the company. The week before Christmas, each employee was given one copy of that year's volume. As such, some of the volumes have become scarce, and are in demand on the collectors' market. Antiquarian bookstores often have a section devoted to Lakeside Classics, and early volumes command large sums from book collectors." (Wikipedia [quoting from].
Seller: Aardvark Rare Books, ABAA, EUGENE, OR, U.S.A.
Various. Collection of Lakeside Press Titles. Lakeside Press, 1903.
Price: US$24999.50 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Lakeside press collector's dream. An amazing run of Lakeside Press books from 1903 through 1989. in 1903 R.R. Donnelly & Son of Chicago began producing beautiful books as christmas gifts for employees, stockholders and business customers that were never sold to the retail market. These beautifully crafted volumes have become available on the secondary market and are highly collectible. many are scarce and seldom seen for sale especially the first volume issued in 1903 (The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin) the 1904 volume (Inaugural Addresses of the President of the United States from Washington to Lincoln), the very scarce 1906 volume (Fruits of Solitude by William Penn.) and the 1915 reprint of 1903?s The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. The books are all in very good to fine to like new condition, most of them having never been read. The copy of the1903 autobiography of Benjamin Franklin has a minor spot on the lower right cover. While not impossible, an aggregate collection like this is extremely difficult to obtain.; 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! Ships same or next business day!
Seller: Redux Books, Grand Rapids, MI, U.S.A.