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RALPH FLETCHER SEYMOUR (& ALDERBRINK PRESS)
Ralph Fletcher Seymour (March 18, 1876 - January 1, 1966). While working for the J. Manz Engraving Company, Ralph Fletcher Seymour began designing and publishing his own books in his spare time. The first book Seymour produced on his own was completed in 1897, featuring John Keats' "Ode to Melancholy". He hand-lettered the text and designed the small book to imitate old wood block books. His second was "Three Merry Old Tales" 1898, based on "Shakespeare Jest Book". In some respects, Three Merry Old Tales was Seymour's first book published for commercial distribution. For his third, he chose Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese." 1899. In 1900 he took over space in the Fine Arts Building from Charles Francis Browne. In October 1900 he published his fourth book, "The Eve of St. Agnes", by John Keats. Illustrated and lettered by hand, and printed in two colors. This volume included six illustrations by Seymour plus one customized illustration accompanied by his signature. Frank Lloyd Wright worked with Seymour in 1911 after his return from Europe. Seymour published "The Morality of Woman and Other Essays" Key, "Love and Ethics" Key, 1912, and "The Torpedo under the Ark" also by Key in 1912. That same year he also published Wright's "The Japanese Print: An Interpretation". He continued publishing books until his death when he was hit by a car walking home early morning New Year's Day 1966, at the age of 89. For additional information concerning Seymour work, see the "Caxtonian" May 2011.
1895 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917
1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1939
1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1963
1964 19651895 Date: C 1895
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching, Bookplate for Nancy Lincoln Binner, Circa 1895.
Description: Proof for an etched bookplate for Nancy Lincoln Binner. "One gift the Fairies gave me, the love of books; the Golden Key that opens the Enchanted Door." Nancy Lincoln Binner - Her Book - Taken from the poem by Andrew Lance, "Ballade of the Bookworm." 1888. "Far in the Past I peer, and see; A Child upon the Nursery floor, A Child with books upon his knee, Who asks, like Oliver, for more! The number of his years is IV, And yet in Letters hath he skill, How deep he dives in Fairy-lore! The Books I loved, I love them still! One gift the Fairies gave me: (Three; They commonly bestowed of yore); The Love of Books, the Golden Key; That opens the Enchanted Door; Behind it Bluebeard lurks, and o'er; And o'er doth Jack his Giants kill, And there is all Aladdin's store,- The Books I loved, I love them still! Take all, but leave my Books to me! These heavy creels of old we bore; We fill not now, nor wander free, Nor wear the heart that once we wore; Not now each River seems to pour; His waters from the Muses' hill; Though something's gone from stream and shore, The Books I loved, I love them still!" Pulled from an etched copper plate, red ink. Etched in plate, lower right corner: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Size: Etching: 3.75 x 5.5. Paper: 7 x 9.
S#: 0018.40.05171898
(Title Page) (Illustration Example) Title: Poems on Mont Blanc and Switzerland (Soft Cover) (Illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Published by Earhart & Richardson, Cincinnati, Ohio; Philip M Justice, London, England)
Author: Fisher, Wm. Hubbell
Description: Seymour most likely arrived in Chicago no later than 1896 (Caxton, p. 10) at the age of around 20. He worked for J. Manz Engraving Co., first as an apprentice and then full time. On the side, Seymour published his first book in 1897, and formed his own publishing company in 1900. He also freelance other design work such as this volume in 1897, designing the cover and 20 illustrations. Published in 1898, and Fisher's dedication dated February 1, 1898, most of the illustrations appear to be dated 1897. Each poem is surrounded by one of Seymour's illustrations. Stiff paper cover. Top and sides are trimmed, bottom uncut. Bound at the spine with string. Possibly one of the author's personal copies. Hand written on cover: "Return at your convenience, W. H. F." (First Edition)
Size: 7.4 x 9.9
Pages: Pp 24
S#: 0032.14.1113
Date: 1898
Title: Three Merry Old Tales. Of The Myller That Stale The Nuttys & The Tayler That Stale the Sheep. Of The Woman That Folowyd Her Fourth Husbandys Herce & Wept. & Of Him That Sayd That a Womas Tong Was Lightist Mete of Degesti. From a copy of "A Hundred Merry Tales" in the Royal Library of the University of Gottingen. (Stiff Cover ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed on a buff paper in two color, dark green and gilt. The cover is stiff and covered in a smooth light green cloth that is wrapped around the stiff cover. The cloth is light green on the exterior and off white on the inner side. Sides untrimmed.)
Author: Shakespeare, William
Description: In some respects, Three Merry Old Tales was Seymour's first book published for commercial distribution. The first book Seymour produced on his own was completed in 1897, featuring John Keats' "Ode to Melancholy". He hand-lettered the text and designed the small book to imitate old wood block books. He printed an edition of only six copies using a Washington hand-proofing press.
Although Three Merry Old Tales was a limited edition, he published 300 copies. He chose stories from the "Shakespear Jest Book." The order of the stories differs from the title page: 1) "Of The Myller That Stale The Nottys & Of The Tailer That Stale the Sheep." 2) "Of Him That Sayd That A Womans Tong Was Lightist Mete of Degesti." 3) "Of the Woman That Folowyd Her Fourth Husbandys Herce & Wept. & Of Him That Savd That a Womas Tong Was Lightist Mete of Degesti." There are also spelling changes from title page to story titles.
Designed, hand lettered and illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Last page: "This book is number 191 of a limited edition of three hundred copies. Printed, in the month of November, Eighteen hundred & Ninety Eight from plates made from designs by Ralph F. Seymour, at the press of Marsh & Grant." Signed: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." (First Edition.)
Size: 5.5 x 7.5
Pages: Pp 24
S#: 0032.21.0721
Left: Title Page. Three Merry Old Tales. Of The Myller That Stale The Nuttys & The Tayler That Stale the Sheep. Of The Woman That Folowyd Her Fourth Husbandys Herce & Wept. & Of Him That Sayd That a Womas Tong Was Lightist Mete of Degesti. From a copy of "A Hundred Merry Tales" in the Royal Library of the University of Gottingen.
Right: Page 3: Of the Myller...
Page 6-7: Of the Myller... Illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Signed in the plate bottom right, overlapping "RFS."
Page 8-9: Of the Myller... Example Spread.
Page 10-11: Of the Myller... Illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Signed in the plate bottom left, overlapping "RFS."
Page 16-17: Of Him That... Decorations in dark green and gilt.
Page 20-21: Of The Woman... Decorations in dark green and gilt.
Page 24: "This book is number 191 of a limited edition
of three hundred copies. Printed, in the month of November,
Eighteen hundred & Ninety Eight from plates made from
designs by Ralph F. Seymour, at the press of Marsh &
Grant." Signed: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour."1899 Date: 1899
Title: Art In Tunes. An Armour Tech. Collection (Hard Cover) (Compiled & Published by Ernest Cantelo White in the Year MDCCCXCIX)
Author: White, Ernest Cantelo
Description: A collection of thirteen songs by various artists. Title Page: "Art In Tunes. Being a collection of Songs & Music written for the Glee, Mandolin, and Banjo Club of the Armour Institute of Technology." Cover and title page designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. (First Edition)
Size: 11.5 x 8.75
Pages: Pp 48
S#: 0036.19.1221
Title page.Date: 1899
Title: Sonnets from the Portuguese. With an introduction by Frank W. Gunsaulus. (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. This copy is one of 15 printed on vellum. "This book is number 7 of an edition limited to 505 copies. 15 of which are printed upon Imperial Japan Vellum Paper & 490 upon Dutch Hand-made, toned paper. Printed during the autumn of 1899 in Chicago, by Marsh & Grant, from plates made from drawings of each page; which were lettered & designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Gilt lettering, heart and border on cover, gilt lettering on spine.)
Author: Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Description: The third book published by Seymour. "Dr. Gunsaulus suggested a sequence of immortal love sonnets for my third book and offered to write an introduction. He coached me on how to sell the books, told me how to produce an announcement of its publication an how to enlarge on its unique quality of hand lettered pages. It took me months of nights to letter the Sonnets From the Portugese and his ample introduction but it was finally completed, plates made, the printing and binding done. The production cost greatly exceeded my resources. I could see no way of meeting them; I thought I was ruined. Dr. Gunsaulus has asked for a few hundred of the announcements at the time they were printed. I had forgotten to enquire what he wanted them for... They had responded in this instance by almost buying out the edition... By this almost magical transaction I became a solvent book-man." Some Went this Way, Seymour, 1945, p.45. Top edge trimmed, others uncut. Pages in three color, black, red and dark green. Signed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Original list price $2.50, Vellum $10. (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 44
S#: 0036.18.0621
This copy is one of 15 printed on vellum. "This book is number 7 of an edition limited to 505 copies. 15 of which are printed upon Imperial Japan Vellum Paper & 490 upon Dutch Hand-made, toned paper. Printed during the autumn of 1899 in Chicago, by Marsh & Grant, from plates made from drawings of each page; which were lettered & designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Signed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Title Page Spread: Sonnets from the Portuguese. With an introduction by Frank W. Gunsaulus. Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Illustration above title sign with overlapping "RFS." Illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Example of three-color Illustrated spread.
Illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Example of two-color Illustrated spread.
Illustration on left side signed "Sey"
(Seymour), lower left. Illustrated by Ralph
Fletcher Seymour.
Example of three-color Illustrated spread.
Illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Example of three-color Illustrated spread.
Illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
(Title Page) (Example Spread) Date: 1899
Title: Sonnets from the Portuguese. With an introduction by Frank W. Gunsaulus. (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. "This book is number 323 of an edition limited to 505 copies. 15 of which are printed upon imperial Japan Vellum Paper & 490 upon Dutch Hand-made, toned paper. Printed during the autumn of 1899 in Chicago, by Marsh & Grant, from plates made from drawings of each page; which were lettered & designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Second copy is book number 382 of 505 copies.)
Author: Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Description: Written circa 1845-1846, they were first published in 1850. It is a collection of 44 love sonnets written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning leading up to her 1846 marriage to Robert Browning. The third book published by Seymour. " Dr. Gunsaulus suggested a sequence of immortal love sonnets for my third book and offered to write an introduction. He coached me on how to sell the books, told me how to produce an announcement of its publication an how to enlarge on its unique quality of hand lettered pages. It took me months of nights to letter the Sonnets From the Portuguese and his ample introduction but it was finally completed, plates made, the printing and binding done. The production cost greatly exceeded my resources. I could see no way of meeting them; I thought I was ruined. Dr. Gunsaulus has asked for a few hundred of the announcements at the time they were printed. I had forgotten to enquire what he wanted them for... They had responded in this instance by almost buying out the edition... By this almost magical transaction I became a solvent book-man." "Some Went this Way," Seymour, 1945, p.45. Top edge trimmed, others uncut. Pages in three color, black, red and dark green. Signed by the publisher. Original list price $2.50, vellum $10. Two copies. (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 44
S#: 0036.06.0415, 0036.20.0623
Date: 1899
Title: Father Goose, His Book. Author of "Mother Goose in Prose." Pictures by Wm. W. Denslow. "All the pages of verse in Father Goose, His Book have been hand-lettered by Ralph Fletcher Seymour." (Hard Cover) (Published by Geo. M. Hill Co., Publishers)
Author: Baum, L. Frank
Description: First published September 25th, 1899. Sixth Edition, October 1900. Introduction: "There is a fascination in the combination of jingling verse and bright pictures that always appeals strongly to children. The ancient 'Mother Goose Book' had these qualities, and for nearly two centuries the cadences of its rhymes have lingered in the memories of men and women who learned them in childhood. The author and illustrator of 'Father Goose' have had no intent to imitate or parody the famous verse and pictures of 'Mother Goose.' They own to having followed, in modern fashion, the plan of the book that pleased children ages ago - and still pleases them. These are newer jingles and pictures for children of to-day, and intended solely to supplement the nursery rhymes of our ancestors." Note: In 1897, Frank Lloyd Wright Client Chauncey Williams, Way & Williams, published "Mother Goose," by Baum, a collection of twenty-two children's stories based on Mother Goose nursery rhymes. It was the first book written by L. Frank Baum, and the first book illustrated by Maxfield Parrish. (Sixth Edition)
Size: 8.75 x 11.1
Pages: Pp (103)
S#: 0036.08.0216
1900 Date: 1900
(First Title Page)
(Second Title Page)
Title: The Eve of St. Agnes. A Poem by John Keats with a preface written for it by Edmund Gosse. This books is No. 369 of an Edition Limited to 800 copies made upon L.L. Brown's H.M. paper 20 copies upon Japan vellum paper & 4 copies upon genuine parchment - printed in Chicago by R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. From plates made from drawings fro each page - designed & lettered by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. (Hard Cover) (Published at The Fine Arts Building Michigan Avenue Chicago Illinois USA, by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.)
Author: Keats, John
Description: In 1897 the Chicago Arts & Crafts Society was formed at the Hull House, Wright being one of the founding members. Seymour's work was strongly influenced by the Arts & Crafts movement. The first book Seymour produced on his own was completed in 1897, featuring John Keats' Ode to Melancholy. He hand-lettered the text and designed the small book to imitate old wood block books. His second was "Three Merry Old Tales" 1898, based on "Shakespeare Jest Book". For his third, he chose Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese." 1899. In 1900 he took over space in the Fine Arts Building from Charles Francis Browne. In October 1900 he published this, his fourth book. Seymour dedicated this volume to Mrs. Fanny R. Lupton. Illustrated and lettered by hand, and printed in two colors. Decorative two page designed title page in black and brown, followed by a second single page title page. Wright worked with Seymour in 1911 after his return from Europe. Seymour published "The Morality of Woman and Other Essays" Key, "Love and Ethics" Key, 1912, and The Torpedo under the Ark" also by Key in 1912. That same year he also published Wright's "The Japanese Print: An Interpretation". In an article concerning Seymour's work, published in the "Inland Printer", June 1901, Wallace Rice wrote, "...The crown of all this work was issued during the year just closed in the form of a strictly limited edition of Keat's The Eve of St. Agnes. For additional information concerning Seymour work, see the "Caxtonian" May 2011. This volume includes six illustrations by Seymour plus one customized illustration accompanied by his signature. Original list price $2.50. (First Edition)
Size: 5.8 x 9.1
Pages: Pp 63 (Unnumbered)
S#: 0041.13.0613
Date: C 1900
Title: The Problem With Life. (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed For The Publisher, Ralph Fletcher Seymour, By R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co., Chicago. Gilt lettering and decoration stamped on cover. Printed on beige laid paper. Top edge trimmed, others uncut.)
Author: Ostrander, Dempster
Description: Title page: "Life is not a dream, a fitful sleep, Through which pale, wandering horrors creep; It moves from weakness onto power, Giving pleasure and pain each their hour." Dedication: "This little book. Written at a time when the heart of the author was throbbing with a great sorrow, is affectionately dedicated to a son, now peacefully sleeping in the silent fields of the dead; to wife, mother, and sisters weeping, because of a soul that has fled." Inscribed by the author: "Christmas 1900. Presented to Col. Robe Rae, An Old friend and for many years... The Author." Title page and illustration by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Illustration signed "RFS" lower center. Illustration on the last page signed "RFS" upper left. (First edition)
Size: 6 x 8.75
Pages: Pp 59
ST#: 0041.46.0921
Left: Title Page.
Illustration from title page
Illustration from last page.
Date: 1900 Title: The Inland Printer - November 1900 (Published monthly by the Inland Printer Company, Chicago)
Author: 1) Seymour, Ralph Fletcher 2) Way, W. Irving
Description: 1) Cover designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. It also includes and example of a decorative Tailpiece by Seymour, p.337, 474,
2) The December, 1900 issue includes an article by W. Irving Way, "On 'The Making of Books.' ...Mr. Seymour's work is not in line with the work of the others mentioned, it is true, but it is an innovation none the less - and perhaps a trifle startling, if not flamboyant in its result. Mr. Seymour's books are printed from blocks reproduced from pen-work, but one ventures to think that the results would be better if his facilities were better...." Page 457 also includes a reproduction of the November 1900 cover designed by Seymour.
3) The December issue also includes four pages of Seymour's work on "The Eve of St. Agnes." P.505-6, and an additional example of a Tailpiece design by Seymour, P.509. (Digital and printed copy)Size: 7 x 10.5
Pages: Pp Cover, 337, 457, 474, 505-6, 509
S#: 0041.20.0116
1901
Date: 1901
Title: Basia of Joannes Secundus. Translated into English Verse. To Which is Added the Epithalamium with the English Version of George Ogle. Edited with a Prefatory Memoir by Wallace Rice (Soft Cover, Stiff Boards) (Printed for Frank Morris At The Colonial Press. Printed on Dutch hand-made paper with a "Ruisdael" watermark. Pages untrimmed)
Author: Secundus, Joannes; Ogle, George
Description: Johannes Secundus (also Janus Secundus) 1511 - 1536, who died at the age of 26, was a poet of Dutch nationality. Frontispiece is an engraving signed "F. Bartolos si fc" (Francesco Bartolozzi). Title page and initials designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Title page signed lower right "Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Initial signed "S." Seymour rarely sign initials. Last page: "This Book is Number 178 [hand numbered] of an Edition consisting of Three Hundred and Sixty-five Copies printed upon Dutch Hand-made Paper, and Twenty-six Hand-illumined Copies upon Japan Vellum. The Title-page and Initials are designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Printed at the Colonial Press in Boston for Frank M. Morris." This volume published again in 1916 by The Charles T. Powner Co. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 111
S#: 0049.18.0119
Frontispiece is an engraving signed "F. Bartolos si fc" (Francesco Bartolozzi).
Date: 1901 Title: Ode: On The Morning of Christ's Nativity. Prefaced by An Appreciation Taken in Part From the Works of Henry Hallam. (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Fine Arts Building, Chicago, Illinois. "This book is No. 106 of an edition limited to 1000 copies made upon handmade paper & 30 copies upon Japan vellum paper Printed in Chicago by R.R, Donnelley & Sons Co. From plates made from drawings for each page. Designed & lettered by Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Printed on handmade deckle edged laid paper with "Van Gelder Zonen" and a "crowned fleur-de-lis symbol" with the letters "V.G.Z." watermark. End pages are solid gilt with black decorative floral corner designs. Off centered on the sheet is the "Chi Rho" [Christ] symbol with the text "Glory or God on high and Peace on Earth" encircling it. Note: To Robert Hale Simonds, From Emily Wilder Leavitt)
Author: Milton, John; Prefaced by an Appreciation taken in part from the works of Henry Hallam
Description: The fourth book illustrated, hand-lettered and published by Seymour in October 1900 was "The Eve of St. Agnes". This is Seymour's fifth volume, illustrated, hand-lettered and published by Seymour in early 1901. Printed in two color throughout, there are two title pages, four illustrations as well as decorative initial caps. "Concerning Milton's Ode. The Ode... was begun by Milton on Christmas Day, 1629. The poet was then twenty-one years of age & in his sixth academic year at Cambridge. At the time he was composing the ode he made the following interesting allusion to it in the closing lines of his sixth latin elegy. The translation given was made by Cowper. The 'thou' of the elegy refers to Charles Diodati, who as the text indicates was the poet's close friend... The Ode on the Nativity, far less popular than most of the poems of Milton, is perhaps the finest in the English language..." Hallam. "With the purpose of securing more perfect unity between the format of a book and its contents, he undertakes the designing and lettering by hand of entire books somewhat after the manner of the old manuscript books and to further elaborate them with decorations and illustrations. This interesting work produces beautiful as well as unique results." Kindergarten Magazine, April 1901, p.474. "Mr. Seymour's initialing and decorative borders show an artistic and controlled taste and one feels a sense of harmony between the ode and its setting. The inside cover of the book and the fly leaf are of gold with black decoration and the poem itself is printed in black and red on hand made deckle edge paper." The World Review, February 1, 1902, P.613. Dedicated "To my aunt, Mrs. Turnbull..." This volume was republished by Reilly & Britton in 1910. in 1910. Original list price $2.00 and $15.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 30
S#: 0049.11.1215
Left: (First Title Page)
Left: Second Title Page
Right: Page 1
Front and back end pages are solid gilt with black decorative floral corner designs. Off centered on the sheet is the "Chi Rho" [Christ] symbol with the text "Glory or God on high and Peace on Earth" encircling it.Date: 1901
(Front End Pages) 
(Back End Pages)
Title: The Holton Primer (Hard Cover) (Lights to Literature Series) (Published by the Rand, McNally & Company, Chicago, New York)
Author: Holton, M. Adelaide
Description: Cover illustration by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Designed in Seymour's wood block style. Printed in two color, red and black. Front and back end pages also illustrated by Seymour. "This is the first book of the series. It is a primer throughout. It is a definite preparation for Book I. The lessons are short, dramatic, and interesting. They deal with the real things of child-life. Action lessons are frequent. Fully illustrated in half-tone with fourteen pages in three color." Original list price 25c. (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 7.75
Pages: Pp 111
S#: 0049.16.0316Date: 1901
(First Title Page) (Illustration on the Front and Back End Pages) Title: The Tragedy of Francesca Da Rimini. Otis Skinner Presenting George H. Boker's Tragedy Francesca Da Rimini. With An Appreciation by Lyman B. Glover. (Soft Cover) (Published, designed and Illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Boker, George H.
Description: "The Story of Rimini. Dante, whose Inferno Leigh Hunt aptly describes as 'a sublime nightmare,' became human and sincere at one moment during that gruesome and awful journey through the nether world of his own imagination, which he undertook accompanied by laurel-crowned Virgil. The episode of Francesca and Paolo, which has been appropriately recognized as 'the most cordial and refreshing in the whole of that singular poem... (First Edition)
Size: 7.6 x 12.75
Pages: Pp 32
S#: 0049.09.0415
Date: 1901 Title: Inland Printer - June 1901 (Published monthly by the Inland Printer Company, Chicago)
Author: Anonymous
Description: "The Work of Ralph Fletcher Seymour... Wallace Rice refers pleasantly to the art craft in Chicago, mentioning particularly the clever work of Ralph Seymour Fletcher... Not contented with the better trodden paths, he sought some new road in which artistic excellence might find scope, and. cheered by the successes of William Morris and his Kelmscott Press... Four books have thus come from his workshop... These four books are all lettered by hand and printed from plates. With the skill thus obtained in the formation of letters, Mr. Seymour has now designed a font of type which will be cut and cast during the present year... The new books announced include John Milton's ' Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity,' which is now in hand... In all of these the same scrupulous care manifest in the earlier productions will be exercised. (Digital and printed copy)
Size:
Pages: Pp 234
S#: 0049.14.0116
Date: 1901 Title: Inland Printer - September 1901 (Published monthly by the Inland Printer Company, Chicago)
Author: Seymour, Ralph Fletcher
Description: Cover designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. "The cover-designs of The Inland Printer, which for some years past have been changed every month, are one of its most attractive features. The Inland Printer was the first publication in the country to change its covers every month... Among the designers of the covers are such artists as Bradley, Bird, Leyendecker, Hapgood. Wright, Traver, Goudy, Seymour, Craig and others...." The June 1901 issue, p.187. (Digital and printed copy)
Size: 8 x 11
Pages: Pp Cover
S#: 0049.15.0116
Date: 1901 Title: Kindergarten Magazine - January 1901 (Published by the Kindergarten Magazine Company, Fine Arts Building, Chicago)
Author: Seymour, Ralph Fletcher
Description: Starting with the January, 1901, Volume XIII, No. 5, the cover was designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Designed to imitate old wood block prints. Page one was also two color, with a decorative initial cap matching the cover and was hand-lettered. April issue, page 474: "An unusual method in book making is being developed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, whose office is in the Fine Arts Building. With the purpose of securing more perfect unity between the format of a book and its contents he undertakes the design and lettering by hand of entire book and its contents after the manner of the old manuscript books, and to further elaborate them with decorations and Illustrations. This interesting work produces beautiful as well as unique results..." (Digital and printed copy)
Size: 6 x 9.5
Pages: Cover
S#: 0049.12.0116
1902
Date: 1902
Title: A Moment Each Day with George Eliot . A quotation for every day in the year selected from the works of George Eliot. (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. Cover printed with black and white ink, and stamped with gold foil. Printed on handmade deckle-edged laid paper with "Van Gelder Zonen" and a "crowned fleur-de-lis symbol" watermark. Frontispiece: Illustration of "George Eliot at 30," title page and initials by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. "RFS" on title page, bottom right hand corner if decoration. Four illustrations by Will A. Dwiggins.)
Author: Eliot, George; Compiled by Ella Adams Moore and the Students in her classes in literature
Description: Review: "Club women will be interested in the new book of quotations from George Eliot called 'A Moment Each Day with George Eliot,' which will soon be published in Chicago. The book has been made by Mrs. Ella Adams Moore, of the University of Chicago, aided by the students in her classes. Since these are nearly all club women the book will especially appeal to such women. It will be illustrated by copies of photographs taken by Mrs. Moore during her journeys through the George Eliot country. It is gotten up in a very artistic manner, the drawings having been made by Mr. Will A. Dwiggins, and the cover design, title page and initials by Mr. Ralph Fletcher Seymour. It is printed on beautiful Dutch hand-made deckle-edge paper, from an old face of type, and bound most artistically in board and canvas. All club women who have studied George Eliot know how readily her works lend themselves to apt quotations and the excellent views of life to be found therein. This book will on this account make a most appropriate gift book for the season, and it is desired that many clubs will bring the book to the attention of the members. Mrs. Moore has become a specialist in her studies of George Eliot, and this book is the outcome of years of study and of travel through the George Eliot country. The price is $1.25 and it can be procured of Mr. Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago Ill." The Club Women, The Official Organ of the General Federation of Women's Clubs of the Massachusetts State Federation and of the United States Daughters of 1812, Boston, March 1903, p.239. Original cover price $1.25. (First Edition)
Size: 5.9 x 9.26
Pages: Pp [64] (unnumbered)
S#: 0052.16.1018
Illustration of "George Eliot at 30," by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.Date: 1902
Title: Book-Plates of To-day (Hard Cover) (Published by Tonnele & Company, New York. Spine covered in light green cloth, boards covered in light beige paper. Paper label with title pasted to cover. Tissue between frontispiece (plate one) and title page.)
Author: Edited by Stone, Wilbur Macey; W.G. Bowdoin; Temple Scott; Wilbur Macey Stone; Willis Steell
Description: "American Designers of Book-Plates: Wm. Edgar Fisher. The book-plate designers of to-day are legion because they are many. Almost every one who can draw, and many who cannot, have ventured into the field of book-plate designing; and the result has been that many of the book-plates that are current have little to commend them to critical observers. The present increasing interest in these little bits of the graver's art has greatly encouraged the production of them, and new ones arise daily. It is desirable, therefore, if we are to have book-plates at all, that they shall be as artistic as may be; and it is important, from an art standpoint, to all those who are about to adopt the use of these marks of ownership that By Wm. Edgar Fisher they shall have, as they may have, the artistic flavor about them. Most of our leading designers have hitherto been grouped..."
Eight plates printed one side, seven in color, and one original etched plate by E.D. French. 100 book-plate illustrations. Contents: "American Designers of Book-plates: WM. Fisher" by W.G. Bowdoin; "Nineteen Examples of Decorative Book-plates by Modern British Designers"; "The Artistic Book-Plate" by Temple Scott; "Thirty-Two Book-Plates from Private Collections and Other Sources"; "Book-Plates and The Nude" by Wilbur Macey Stone; "The Architect as a Book-Plate Designer" by Willis Steell; "A Check-List of the Work of Twenty-Three Book-Plate Designers of Prominence" by Wilbur Macey Stone. (Note: Ralph Fletcher Seymour was not published in this volume, but may have been the impetus for publishing his own volume, The Seymour Brochure.) (First Edition)
Size: 7.25 x 9.7
Pages: Pp 62
S#: 0052.21.0421
Date: 1902
Title: Book-Plates of Today (Hard Cover) (Published by Tonnele & Company, New York. Spine possibly covered in vellum, boards possibly covered hand-made paper. Paper label with title pasted to cover. Second label with publisher pasted to cover. This appears to be a more expensive edition than S#52.21, but inside pages are the same. Note: Eight book-plates laid inside front cover. Four are signed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, three of which are published in The Seymour Brochure.)
Author: Edited by Stone, Wilbur Macey; W.G. Bowdoin; Temple Scott; Wilbur Macey Stone; Willis Steell
Description: "American Designers of Book-Plates: Wm. Edgar Fisher. The book-plate designers of to-day are legion because they are many. Almost every one who can draw, and many who cannot, have ventured into the field of book-plate designing; and the result has been that many of the book-plates that are current have little to commend them to critical observers. The present increasing interest in these little bits of the graver's art has greatly encouraged the production of them, and new ones arise daily. It is desirable, therefore, if we are to have book-plates at all, that they shall be as artistic as may be; and it is important, from an art standpoint, to all those who are about to adopt the use of these marks of ownership that By Wm. Edgar Fisher they shall have, as they may have, the artistic flavor about them. Most of our leading designers have hitherto been grouped..."
Eight plates printed one side, seven in color, and one original etched plate by E.D. French. 100 book-plate illustrations. Contents: "American Designers of Book-plates: WM. Fisher" by W.G. Bowdoin; "Nineteen Examples of Decorative Book-plates by Modern British Designers"; "The Artistic Book-Plate" by Temple Scott; "Thirty-Two Book-Plates from Private Collections and Other Sources"; "Book-Plates and The Nude" by Wilbur Macey Stone; "The Architect as a Book-Plate Designer" by Willis Steell; "A Check-List of the Work of Twenty-Three Book-Plate Designers of Prominence" by Wilbur Macey Stone. (Note: Ralph Fletcher Seymour was not published in this volume, but may have been the impetus for publishing his own volume, The Seymour Brochure.) (First Edition)
Size: 7.25 x 9.85
Pages: Pp 62
S#: 0052.22.0521Date: 1902
Title: Inland Printer - October 1902 (Published monthly by the Inland Printer Company, Chicago)
Author: Seymour, Ralph Fletcher
Description: Cover illustration by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Printed on a dark green cover stock. Printed in four color: Red, Black, Grey, and White. Three black birds are feasting in the bottom left hand corner. A woman is standing to the right, looking to the right. Signed in the plate, bottom right corner: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Cover only. Original cover price 25c.
Size: 8.5 x 12
Pages: Pp Cover
S#: 0052.27.1122Date: 1902 Title: Paulo & Francesca. Leigh Hunt. With Original Italian From Inferno of Dante. (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour at the Fine Arts Building, Chicago, Illinois. MDCCCCII. A Translation By Leigh Hunt. From Canto V, the Inferno of Dante Alighieri, in the triple rhyme of the Original. With the Italian from the edition of G. Barbera and a literal translation newly made for this edition by Katherine Reed. Together with a Commentary from the Writings of Leigh Hunt & Boccaccio) ("Here end this book: Composed and printed in the month of May, 1902, at the press of George F. McKiernan & Company, for the Designer and Publisher, Ralph Fletcher Seymour. The edition is limited to 240 copies printed upon American hand-made paper, ten upon Japan vellum paper." Top edge trimmed, others uncut. Water Mark: "Crown Pap...er Co. L. D")
Author: Alighieri, Dante; Hunt, Leigh; Boccaccio; Reed, Katherine
Description: "A commentary on the poem written in part by Leigh Hunt, & partly translated by him from Boccaccio. The episode of Paulo and Francesca has long been admired by the readers of Italian poetry, and is indeed the most cordial and refreshing one in the whole of that singular poem the Inferno, which some call a satire, and some an epic, and which, I confess, has always appeared to me a kind of sublime night-mare..." Of interest, when Frank Lloyd Wright published "The Eve of St. Agnes" in 1896-7, he chose to included Leigh Hunt's commentary on the poem. Not only did Seymour published his version of the same poem (1900), he now chose Hunts commentary on this poem. Dedicated "To Otis Skinner with the appreciation of the Publisher." Hand written on one copy: "Aubray Boucicault with greetings from Otis Skinner, Christmas 1902." (Note: In 1855, George H. Boker's Tragedy "Francesca Da Rimini" opened on Broadway. In 1901, Seymour published "Francesca Da Rimini" when Otis Skinner revived the play, Skinner as Lanciotto, Marcia Van Dresser as Francesca and Aubrey Boucicault as Paolo. Hence - Paulo & Francesca.) (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 9.75
Pages: Pp (34)
S#: 0052.12.0116, 0052.13.0217
Left: Title Page: Paulo & Francesca. Leigh Hunt. With Original Italian From Inferno of Dante. Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour at the Fine Arts Building, Chicago, Illinois. MDCCCCII.
Right: Second Title Page: A Translation By Leigh Hunt. From Canto V, the Inferno of Dante Alighieri, in the triple rhyme of the Original. With the Italian from the edition of G. Barbera and a literal translation newly made for this edition by Katherine Reed. Together with a Commentary from the Writings of Leigh Hunt & Boccaccio
Page 3: A commentary on the poem written in part by Leigh Hunt, & partly translated by him from Boccaccio. Illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Page 14-15: Paolo E Francesca, Inferno of Dante Canto V. Paulo & Francesca. Translation of Leigh Hunt. Illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Date: 1902
Title: The Song of Demeter and her Daughter Persephone In Homeric Hymn. Walter Pater's Translation. (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, USA. Front and back cover design in gilt. Printed throughout in red and black ink, two pages gilt. Printed on laid H. M. Paper, top edge trimmed and gilt others uncut)
Author: Pater, Walter
Description: Designed, illustrated and published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. "The Song of Demeter and her Daughter Persephone is a little bijou not four by five inches over all in a dainty cover of black cloth covered with a symbolic design of corn and gentians in gold. The text is all hand lettered by Mr. Seymour, the title page and first text pages rubricated, in a decorative border. The capitals and ornamental initials are rubricated throughout, a very strong red contrasting well with the clear black. Two pages have gold illumined initials. The lettered text is readable and grateful to the eye. A daintier volume would be hard to find..." The Literary Collector, April, 1903, Pp 176-7. Last page: This book, "The Song of Demeter and Persephone," was designed and lettered by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. It was printed in November, MCMII, By R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co., in an edition of 400 copies on H. M. Paper and ten on Japan Vellum. (First Edition)
Size: 3.3 x 4.5
Pages: Pp 45
S#: 0052.15.1017
Ralph Fletcher Seymour Illustrations.
Date: 1902
Title: XII Songs By Maurice Maeterlinck. With illustrations by Charles Doudelet. Translated from the French by Martin Schutze. (Hard Cover) (Published by The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company, Chicago. Printed on beige handmade deckle-edged paper with "Old Domushire" watermark. Title page designed and lettered by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Twenty illustrations by Charles Doudelet. One of an edition of 400 copies of the book, Twelve Songs of Maurice Maeterlinck, November, Mcmii.)
Author: Maeterlinck, Maurice; Schutze
Description: The only complete translation of these poems into English. Foreword: "Maurice Maeterlinck has in the last few years become the herald of modern mysticism. In the 'Serres Chaudes,' his first poems, and in his early dramas, he sought to penetrate to the inner most core of life by am unresisting surrender to the stream of sensation. Every mood of which an extremely subtle soul is capable, the emotional significance of color, of sound, of wind and rain, of lightning and thunder; the passing play of light and shade, of our contacts with our fellows through touches of hand, exchanges of looks and words, of our dreams and longings as well as the permanent moods of the forest solitude..." Original list price $2.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6.3 x 9.75
Pages: Pp [34] (unnumbered)
S#: 0052.17.1018
Date: 1902
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour Bookplate for Theodore H. Lamprecht, 1902
Description: Text on face: "Ex Libris. Theodore H. Lamprecht.." Bottom center: "Ralph Seymour." Published in Bookplates from the designs of Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Seymour, 1903, Plate 8. This bookplate was laid inside front cover of Book-Plates of Today, Stone, 1902. Signed "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." This bookplate listed in Year Book 1929 and dated 1902. Printed in one color on beige paper.
Size: 3 x 4.25
S#: 0041.43.0521Date: 1902
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour Bookplate for Frank E. Lord, 1902.
Description: Text on face: "Nature and Books belong to the Eyes that See them. Frank E. Lord. Ex Libris." Bottom left corner: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Published in Bookplates from the designs of Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Seymour, 1903, Plate 2. "In the Frank E. Lord and Laurence B. Dixon plates the choice of symbolic units with refer-ence to the quotations used is decidedly apt and they have been combined in the designs with great skill." This bookplate was laid inside front cover of Book-Plates of Today, Stone, 1902. Signed "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." This bookplate listed in Year Book 1929 and dated 1902. Printed in two colors, red and black on beige paper.
Size: 2.9 x 3.875
S#: 0041.42.0521Date: 1902
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour Bookplate for Adele Louise Seaverns, 1902
Description: Text on face: "Adele Louise Seaverns. Her Book. Anno Dom.." Left center: "Seymour." This bookplate was laid inside front cover of Book-Plates of Today, Stone, 1902. Signed "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." This bookplate listed in Year Book 1929 and dated 1902. Printed in one color on beige paper.
Size: 3.875 x 2
S#: 0041.45.0521Date: Circa 1902
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour Bookplate for Pauline D. Taylor, Circa 1902
Description: Text on face: "Ex Libris. Pauline D. Taylor." Bottom center of illustration: "RFS." Published in Bookplates from the designs of Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Seymour, 1903, Plate 12. This bookplate was laid inside front cover of Book-Plates of Today, Stone, 1902. Signed "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Note: This bookplate was dated 1918 in Year Book 1929, but 1918 would be incorrect. Printed in one color, brown on beige paper.
Size: 2.5 x 4.5
S#: 0041.44.05211903
Date: 1903
Title: Agamemnon: A Tragedy, Taken from the Greek of Aeschylus (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago) (Gilt lettering stamped on cover. Printed on handmade paper with "Brown Paper Co" watermark. Top trimmed, others uncut.)
Author: Fitzgerald, Edward
Description: "Printed in an edition of one hundred & sixty copies on paper & eight on Japan vellum. In the fifth month, MDCCCCIII, at the press of George F. McKiernan & Company for the designer & publisher Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Seymour began designing and publishing his own books in his spare time. In 1900 he took over space in the Fine Arts Building from Charles Francis Browne. Frank Lloyd Wright worked with Seymour in 1911 after his return from Europe. Seymour published "The Morality of Woman and Other Essays" Key, "Love and Ethics" Key, 1912, and The Torpedo under the Ark" also by Key in 1912. That same year he also published Wright's "The Japanese Print: An Interpretation". (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.75
Pages: Pp 70
S#: 0054.06.0114
Date: 1903
Title: Chicago In Picture and Poetry. With One Hundred Illustrations. (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, For The Industrial Art League. Printed in September MCMIII at The Lakeside Press)
Author: Fiske, Horace Spencer
Description: Preface: "As pictures are often the truest expression of poetic suggestion and feeling, it has seemed best to let them take the chief place in the book; and it is hoped that they will tend to dissipate the impression so widely held that Chicago is utterly lacking in the things that make an appeal to the imagination and the sense of beauty. Chicago is so commonly identified in the public mind with the limits of Cook County that it seemed appropriate to include a few pictures taken from the immediate environs of the city. Typical illustrations of the city's great industrial life have also been included. The division of "The Ballad of Manila Bay and Other Verses" devoted to Chicago themes has been incorporated in the present volume; and among the various phases of the city's life that have been touched upon in the verse, something of its sport was naturally suggested, as a people's sport is in some aspects a people's poetry." Title page, page decorations and frontispiece illustrated by Seymour. Original net cost $2.00. (First Edition)
Size: 7.75 x 10.5
Pages: Pp 187
S#: 0054.08.0215
Date: 1903
Title: Four Old Christmas Carols Taken from scarce reprints of early manuscripts. (Hard Cover) (Printed under the supervision of Ralph Fletcher Seymour for The Bobbs-Merrill Company , Publishers, Indianapolis. Blue cloth, imprinted with a design, lettering gilt.)
Author: Anonymous
Description: Announcement: "The Bobbs-Merrill Company have completed an arrangement with Ralph Fletcher Seymour by which the artistic books of his workmanship will in future be issued under the Bobbs- Merrill imprint. The first books published under this joint management are "The Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise" and "Four Old Christmas Carols." "The Bookseller, January 1, 1904. Printed in red, blue, black and gold. The four songs include: 1) "In Excelsis Gloria." Harleian MS (Manuscript), Early MC (1100). The Harleian Collection is one of main collections of the British Library, London, England. 2) "So blessed be the tyme." Sloane MS. Possibly Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, PRS, a British physician and collector, notable for bequeathing his collection to the nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Museum. 3) "The II Kynges." Harleian MS. Time of Henry VII. 4) Wolcum Yule." Sloane MS. About time of Henry VI. Original list price $1.50. (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 8
Pages: Pp 22 (Unpaged)
S#: 0054.09.0215
Date: 1903
Title: The Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise (Hardcover) (Designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour for the Publishers The Bobbs-Merrill Company Indianapolis. Printed on beige paper with the watermark "W King Alton Mill." Top edge trimmed and died, others uncut. The cover is printed in green and gilt. Pages are printed in red and black throughout.) Final page: "The love letters of Abelard and Heloise, reprinted from the translation of 1722 in an edition of 515 copies on paper and 12 on Japanese imperial parchment, in the twelfth month of MDCCCCIII; at the press of Geo. F. McKiernan & Company from the designs of and under the supervision of Ralph Fletcher Seymour for the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill company, Indianapolis. Vale Qui Legis."
Author: Abelard, Peter; Heloise
Description: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour has designed and printed for the publishers The Bobbs-Merrill Company of Indianapolis, a new edition of 'The Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise.' The book is printed from Mr. Seymour's own type and easily takes place among the best of his productions. The letters are reprinted from the English edition of 1722 and are supplied with a graceful, though anonymous narrative of the lovers immortal passion. Aside from this narrative the present issue brings to the text nothing new except a studiously careful reissue which is perhaps the most reverent attitude toward the work. The love of Abelard and Heloise is one of the romances founded in literal reality that have never lost their power... Mr. Seymour's books are hereafter to be published by The Bobbs-Merrill Company which is an advantageous arrangement so far as their making is concerned, as it relieves him of much business detail and affords more time for the more artistic and technical side of the work." The Inland Printer, February 1904,Pp 702-3. (First Edition)
Size: 6.1 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 115
S#: 0054.13.1017Date: Circa 1903 Title: The Archibald Church Library, Northwestern University Medical School
Description: Book plate for The Archibald Church Library, Northwestern University Medical School. Illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Size: 3.3 x 4.5
S#:
Date: xxx Title: From the Library of Charles H. Sergel
Description: Book plate for Charles H. Sergel. Illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Possibly: "Charles Hubbard Sergel. Publisher and Editor at 542 South Dearborn Street, Chicago. He was born September 25, 1861, in Muscatine Iowa. He was Consul of Peru, Chicago. He has been president of The Dramatic Publishing Company since 1886. He is proprietor of Charles H. Sergel and Company, Publisher." From Chicago Men of 1913, Published by American Publishers' Association, Chicago.
Size:
S#:
Date: 1903
Title: The Seymour Brochure. Bookplates from the designs of Ralph Fletcher Seymour (Digital Copy) (Printed at the Troutsdale Press, And sold by Charles E. Goodspeed, Boston)
Author: Seymour, Ralph Fletcher
Description: "This queer old world we live in holds but few results that have been achieved through logical trains of circumstance. The early training and environment of Scott, Burns, Lamb and Whittier might be considered anything but a reasonable preparation for the life work each was to undertake. And surely we would not deliberately lay a foundation of leather and shoe pegs, as did Bunyan, for so wonderful a superstructure as 'Pilgrim's Progress.'
The book-plates of Ralph Fletcher Seymour are not, however, less interesting because they are a quite natural development from his career. This may be said to have really begun when he joined the staff of designers of a large engraving house in Chicago, for it was here what had been more or less indefinite inclinations began to crystalize upon the core of practical experience which he was acquiring.
With Mr. Seymour's work as a Book-plate artist in view, only a brief glance is permissable at what is really the principal work he has undertaken, the making of books..." 13 plates printed on one side. (Digital Copy)
Size: 6.5 x 10.75
Pages: Pp 16 plus 13 plates
S#: 0054.15.06211904 Date: 1904
Title: A Defence of Poetry. Reprinted From The Edition of MDCCCXLV (Hard Cover) (Published by Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis. Designed by and printed under the supervision of Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Vellum spine over dark gray boards, gilt title on cover and spine. First and second title pages in red and black. Printed on French handmade beige laid paper with the watermark "ARCHES." Deckle edges.)
Author: Shelley, Percy Bysshe: Edited by Mrs. Shelley
Description: Reprinted from the edition of 1845. Title page designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. He incorporated the overlapping "RFS" into the design, and also his initials "RFS" along the bottom left. Frontispiece illustrated by Seymour. Signed with overlapping "RFS" lower left in the illustration. "Preface by the Editor. We find, in the verse of a poet, 'the record of the best and happiest moments of the best and happiest minds.' But this is not enough - we desire to know the man. We desire to learn how much of the sensibility and imagination that animates his poetry was founded on heartfelt passion, and purity, and elevation of character; whether the pathos and the fire emanated from transitory inspiration and a power of weaving words touchingly; or whether the poet acknowledged the might of his art in his inmost soul..."
Bobbs-Merrill description, 1905: "The Seymour Limited Editions. By special arrangement with Mr. Ralph Fletcher Seymour the distinguished art-printer and designer of types, all the beautiful editions made by him are published exclusively by The Bobbs-Merrill Company. Elaborately decorated with frontispiece and initials. Mr. Seymour has exponded all his art and artistry upon this book and Shelley's eloquent and exquisite essay is a jewel worthy of so elaborate a setting.
Final page: "This copy of 'A Defence of Poetry' is one of an edition of 500 copies printed on French Hand-made paper and 8 on Imperial Japan Vellum at the press of Geo. F. McKiernan & Co., in Chicago: after which the type has been distributed. Designed by and printed under the supervision of Ralph Fletcher Seymour for the Publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis." (First Edition)
Size: 5.25 x 8.1
Pages: Pp 90
S#: 0055.23.0321
Title page designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. He incorporated the overlapping "RFS" into the design, and also his initials "RFS" along the bottom left.
Left: Frontispiece illustrated by Seymour
Signed with overlapping "RFS" lower left
in the illustration.Date: 1904
Title: The Book of Ruth. Taken from an edition of the Bible printed at Oxford in 1680. (Hard Cover) (Published by The Bobbs Merrill Company, Indianapolis, USA. The design for the cover is stamped front and back. Title on cover is gilt. Indents on the cover are printed in a slightly darker green. Designed and illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Hand printed on beige paper in red and black ink.)
Author: The Bible, 1680 Oxford Edition
Description: The Printer's Device on the title page incorporates an overlapping "RFS."
"The Book of Ruth is chiefly notable for its very pleasing stamped binding, and for the illustrations, in the manner of the old wood-cuts, which accompany the text. The composition of this work is spotted by numerous paragraph marks, which add anything but beauty to its pages, and by the breaking of many of its lines following the use of the large initial letters at the beginning of each chapter. The paper and the printing are both good. These two volumes of Mr. Seymour's are printed throughout in red and black." The Book News Monthly, October, 1906, p.128.
"The Book of Ruth illuminated and entirely hand-printed and bound by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, illustrates the free use of the German Gothic lettering adapted to modern style and skillfully combined with surface decotheration. This old Bible story is also illustrated by means of pictures executed in the manner of the rugged old German or English woodcuts, and these, with the decorative paneling, produce an effect at once harmonious and absorbingly interesting, as well as story-telling in quality." The Inland Printer, November 1909, p.207.
Illustration Chapter I: "And Ruth said, They people shall be my people and thy God my God." Signed in the plate "RFS" lower left. Illustration Chapter II: "Then said Boaz, Whose damsel is this?" Signed in the plate "RFS" lower left. Illustration Chapter III: "And she came softly and laid her down." Illustration Chapter IIII: "So Boaz took Ruth and she was his wife."
The Bobbs-Merrill Company, publisher, collaborated with Ralph Fletcher Seymour on a number of volumes. Those he illustrated and designed include: Four Old Christmas Carols, 1903; The Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise, 1903; A Defence of Poetry, 1904; Books In The House, 1904; The Book of Ruth, 1904; and Essays of Francis Bacon.
Final page: "This copy of The Book of Ruth is one of an edition of 1,000 copies printed on paper and 10 copies printed on Japan vellum at The Prairie Press in Chicago, U.S.A., for the illustrator and designer, Ralph Fletcher Seymour. The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Publishers, Indianapolis." (First Edition)
Size: 6.5 x 9.6
Pages: Pp 28
S#: 0055.24.0421
The Book of Ruth, Title Page.
Left: Detail of the illustration for Chapter I. Caption: "And Ruth said, They people shall be my people and thy God my God." Signed in the plate "RFS" lower left.
Right: Detail of the illustration for Chapter II. Caption: "Then said Boaz, Whose damsel is this?" Signed in the plate "RFS" lower left.
Left: Detail of the illustration for Chapter III. Caption: "And she came softly and laid her down."
Right: Detail of the illustration for Chapter IIII. Caption: "So Boaz took Ruth and she was his wife."Date: 1904
Title: Books In The House. An Essay on Private Libraries and Collections for Young and Old. (Hard Cover) (Published by arrangements with Ralph Fletcher Seymour, by The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, U. S. A. Cover is blind stamped front and back with title in gold. The decorative illustration repeated on the back cover is upside down. Wood cut title page and is in two color. Printed on handmade deckle-edged laid paper with "Van Gelder Zonen" and a "crowned fleur-de-lis symbol" watermark.
Author: Pollard, Alfred W.
Description: Book Review: "A more authoritative guide is offered in Mr. Pollard's 'Books in the House,' which has been published in an edition of 500 copies, 'designed by and printed under the supervision of Ralph Fletcher Seymour at the press of R. R. Donnelly & Sons Co. in Chicago.' It is very tastily made up, with bookish headpieces and ornamented initials for each chapter, and printed in the large black type now so common in privately printed books. Here we find the matured opinions of a trained and scholarly lover of books... In the compass of 83 pages one cannot expect great fullness of detail, but what is here offered is worth much more than the repetition of a great number of facts which have been told times over in easily accessible volumes mean a few sound principles which collectors would do well to follow if they wish collect to some purpose... To buy books by the yard is not book collecting as Mr. Pollard truly remarks. Perhaps his most interesting chapter is the one on 'Inherited Books and their Values' with its discussion of the market value of books especially of dull books having nothing else in their favor but age and rarity..." The Nation, October 19, 1905, p.327. Inscribed: "Wilbur D. Nesbit, with the complements of the publishers. Christmas 1904." Nesbit was an author and humorist. "This edition of 'Books in the House' consists of 500 copies on hand-made paper & 10 on Imperial Japan Parchment. Designed by & printed under the supervision of Ralph Fletcher Seymour at the press of R. R. Donnelly & Sons Co., in Chicago. For the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, U. S. A." Original net cost $3.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 8.9
Pages: Pp 83
S#: 0055.16.1018
Left: Title Page
Right: Page 7
(Title Page)
(Illustration Example) Title: Her Infinite Varity, with illustrations by Howard Chandler Christly, Decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. (Hard Cover) (Published by The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis. Two copies. The docorations on the cover of this edition is in beige, second edition is in whitte.)
Author: Whitlock, Brand; Author of "The 13th District"
Description: "A state senator of Illinois yields to the persuasion of a woman lawyer and makes a great speech for woman suffrage. His fiancee and a belligerent aunt immediately start from Chicago for the capital and by their efforts the bill is defeated when it comes to the vote. The author of The thirteenth district is evidently posted in all the tricks which the political lives of law makers are made strenuous and exciting." Publishers description, "The American Catalog", 1905, p. 305. Includes 12 tissued photogravure illustrations by Howard Chandler Christly, printed single side. Cover design by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Original list price $1.50. (First Edition)
Size: 5.4 x 8.25
Pages: Pp 168
S#: 0055.05.0314, 0055.33.0724
1905
(Title Page)
(Illustration Example) Title: Hearts & Masks, With illustrations by Harrison Fisher, Decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour (Hard Cover) (Published by The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis. Color paper printed label affixed to cover)
Author: MacGrath, Harold
Description: "While sitting in Mouquin's down town restaurant, New York City, a young man overhears a conversation, then picks up a paper and in the society news reads of a masquerade to be held at the Blankshire Hunt Club, New Jersey. He plans to go. Getting his disguise he hears more news. At the ball it is discovered there is a stranger present; jewels are stolen, detective work comes in. After a most involved plot the hero falls in love for life with a girl unknown when he entered Mouquin's." Publishers description, "The American Catalog", 1906, p. 178. Includes 10 photogravure illustrations by Harrison Fisher, printed single side. Cover design by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Original list price $1.50. (First Edition)
Size: 5.25 x 8.1
Pages: Pp 187
S#: 0058.08.0314
(Title Page)
(Illustration Example) Title: The Social Secretary, With illustrations by Clarence F. Underwood, Decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour (Hard Cover) (Published by The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis)
Author: Phillips, David Graham; Author of The Plum Tree, The Cost, etc. etc.
Description: "A young Washington girl of good family, needing to earn a living, becomes secretary of a wife and manages her social life for her. The employer is a good woman of much humor who stays natural and attracts her surroundings. Her husband and son are more difficult to manage on the social stage but the heroine is competent and details of her dilemmas made some unexpected reading." Publishers description, "The American Catalog", 1906, p. 225. Includes 11 tissued photogravure illustrations by Clarence F. Underwood, printed single side. Cover design by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Original list price $1.50. 5.4 x 8.25 (First Edition)
Size:
Pages: Pp 198
S#: 0058.07.0214
Date: 1905
Title: The Social Secretary, With illustrations by Clarence F. Underwood, Decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour (Hard Cover) (Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York)
Author: Phillips, David Graham; Author of The Plum Tree, The Cost, etc. etc.
Description: A young Washington girl of good family, needing to earn a living, becomes secretary of a wife and manages her social life for her. The employer is a good woman of much humor who stays natural and attracts her surroundings. Her husband and son are more difficult to manage on the social stage but the heroine is competent and details of her dilemmas made some unexpected reading." Publishers description, "The American Catalog", 1906, p. 225. Although dated 1905, this edition appears to be a less expensive version then the Bobbs-Merrill. Where the Bobbs-Merrill version included 11 photogravure illustrations by Clarence F. Underwood, printed single side, this edition includes four. Illustrations are printed in the standard half tone printing process. This edition includes four-color illustration glued to the cover that does not appear in the Bobbs-Merrill version. Title page and decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Size: 5.4 x 8.
Pages: Pp 198
S#: 0058.22.1218Date: 1905
George Barr McCutcheon Preston A. Perry Title: The Sketch Book - September 1905 (The Sketch Book is published monthly by The Sketch Book Publishing Co., Fine Arts Building, Chicago.)
Author: Seymour, Ralph Fletcher
Description: Two bookplates designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. For George Barr McCutcheon and Preston A. Perry. "Books are a part of mans prerogative. In formal ink they thoughts and voices hold. That we to them our solitude may give. And make time present travelled that of old." (Digital and printed copy)
Size: 7.5 x 10.5
Pages: Pp 43
S#: 0058.14.0116
Date: 1905 Title: The Sketch Book - December 1905 (The ketch Book is published monthly by The Sketch Book Publishing Co., Fine Arts Building, Chicago. Note: Cover designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour)
Author: Hosking, Arthur Nicholas
Description: "A Few Books and Their Maker. It is no easy matter to write a truthful criticism of a personal friend's work. Close contact multiplies feelings and emotions. A man's theories may be more interesting than his work, and vice versa... This fact, however, does not detract from the things of beauty he has created, of which there are a great number... The pages shown... display the high standard chosen when he first launched into the affairs of bookmaking... With all Mr. Seymour's books rarely fine judgment is displayed in the selection of binding material, and the application of the design for the board covers... The main thought of Ralph Fletcher Seymour's work is this: He believes that a man who makes books should be his own designer, his own illustrator and his own constructor of types... The "Academy" of London compared his books to those of William Morris and said that they equaled anything produced in England... He has set down certain formulas for himself alone - he asks no one else to follow - and by these he has consummated beautiful things worthy of praise, and by these we may judge of his future. Includes 13 photographs and illustrations, one being a portrait. (Digital and printed copy)
Size: 7.5 x 10.5
Pages: Pp 179-186
S#: 0058.15.0116
1906 Date: 1906
Title: The Sketch Book. A Magazine Devoted to the Fine Arts - September 1906 (Published by The Sketch Book Publishing Co. Fine Arts Building, Chicago.)
Author: Seymour, Ralph Fletcher
Description: Cover designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour whose office was also located in the Fine Arts Building. Signed in illustration lower left: “Ralph Fletcher Seymour.” Original cover price 25c.
Size: 8 x 11.25
Pages: Pp Cover (Full)
S#: 0064.54.0524
Date: 1906
(Title Page)
Title: Songs of Innocence And of Experience: Showing The Two Contrary States of the Human Soul (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company, The Alderbrink Press, Chicago. Hardcover embossed with decorative border. Quarter vellum spine. Text stamped and printed. Handmade laid paper with a watermark. The design includes a crown, shild and banner. Text within design: “The P. M. Co. Quality.” Below design: “Hand-Made.” Top edge folded, others untrimmed, deckled edges. Two color title page.)
Author:: Blake, William
Description:Description: Limited edition. Each poem begins with a ornamental initial designed by Seymour. This volume is a compilation of 46 poems. Songs of Innocence (1789): 21poems, Songs of Experience (1794): 25 poems.
Songs of Innocence: Introduction.
Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me:-
"Pipe a song about a lamb:"
So I piped with merry cheer.
"Piper, pipe that song again:"
So I piped; he wept to hear.
"Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe,
Sing thy songs of happy cheer:"
So I sung the same again,
While he wept with joy to hear.
"Piper, sit thee down and write
In a book that all may read-"
So he vanish'd from my sight;
And I pluck'd a hollow reed,
And I made a rural pen,
And I stain'd the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.
Last page: “Songs of Innocence and of Experience. An edition of three hundred copies on handmade paper and twelve copies on Japan vellum paper. Designed and seen through the press by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, and printed for him from a newly designed face of type by George F. McKiernan and Company in the month of November MDCCCCVI. Alderbrink Press.” Original list price $2.00, Vellum $10.00. (First Edition)
Size: 5.25 x 7.75
Pages: Pp 62
S#: 0064.52.0424Date: 1906
(Title Page)
Title: The Fading of The Mayflower. A Poem of The Present Time. Decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. (Hard Cover) (Published by A. N. Marquis & Company) Printed on India tint linen paper with the watermark "Alexabndra." Top edge trimmed and gilt, others untrimmed with deckel edges. Bound in silk cloth.
Author: Tilton, Theodore
Description: Decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour drawings by WJ Enright There is also a life like portrait of the celebrated author 'A timely and brilliant book by one of the most gifted writers and lecturers of the Civil War period. Full of patriotic fervor, poetic beauty and human interest. It deals with the present-day questions of the get-rich-quick spirit, the crimes of the Money-Mad, the sordid greed of degenerate sons of Mayflower-Pilgrim ancestors, the worship of the Golden Calf, etc. It handles them, not with a muckrake but a scourge, while it points to the noble and virtuous ideals of our country's fathers, typified by the beautiful Mayflower." (Publisher's description.) Title page designed by Seymour. Design is repeated on every page. Original list price $1 50. (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 8.75
Pages: Pp 114
S#: 0064.20.1016Date: 1906
Title: The Faery Queen. Old tales Retold For Young Readers. Rewritten in Simple Language. Decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour (Hard Cover) (Published by A. C. McClurg & Co, Chicago. Cover printed in Dark red, green and black on light green cloth. Inside pages are printed in three color, red, green and black on a beige stock, top and bottom trimmed, sides uncut.)
Author: Wilson, Calvin Dill
Description: Part of the Canterbury Tales Series. Frontispiece is an etching by Ralph Fletcher Seymour (signed overlapping "RFS" lower left) , as are the decorations.
"Foreword. 'The Faery Queen,' by Edmund Spencer, who is born in London in 1552, is one of the most splendid long poems in the English language. It is also a wonderfully interesting story-book, containing all sorts of adventures. But not many children are likely to read this long poem in its original form. I have therefore taken the first story and told it in prose, that young readers may have the tail in such shape as may please them."
"In a series of old tales retold for young readers Calvin Dill Wilson has retold in simple language the first book of the "Faery Queen" which is exceptionally well printed with border decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Spenser's poem is now very little read in its entirety. James Russell Lowell used to say that he thought he was the only American that had read it. Even the first book is very little known outside of college circles and this book may serve a useful purpose in preparing young readers to enjoy its somewhat involved allegories... (McClurg, $1 each.)" The Churchman, December 1, 1906, p.836. (First Edition)
Size: 4.75 x 7.4
Pages: Pp 143
S#: 0064.34.0221
Above: Frontispiece is an etching by Ralph Fletcher Seymour (signed overlapping "RFS" lower left)
Date: 1906
Title: The Sketch Book. A Magazine Devoted to the Fine Arts - August 1906 (Published by The Sketch Book Publishing Co. Fine Arts Building, Chicago.)
Author: Seymour, Ralph Fletcher
Description: Full Issue. Cover designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour whose office was also located in the Fine Arts Building. Signed in illustration lower left: “Ralph Fletcher Seymour.” Original cover price 20c.
Size: 8 x 10.9
Pages: Pp Cover (Full Issue, Pp 436-482)
S#: 0064.53.0524Date: 1906 Title: The Sketch Book. A Magazine Devoted to the Fine Arts - August 1906 (Published by The Sketch Book Publishing Co. Fine Arts Building, Chicago.)
Author: Seymour, Ralph Fletcher
Description: Cover designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour whose office was also located in the Fine Arts Building (Browne's Bookstore). Original cover price 20c.
Size: 8 x 10.5
Pages: Pp Cover
S#: 0064.16.0415
Date: 1906
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour Illustration for Chief Chicago Shoes 1906.
Description: Illustration of Fort Dearborn on the left, Michigan Avenue and the Fine Arts Building on the right. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was a book publisher, engraver, illustrator and graphic designer. While working for the J. Manz Engraving Company, Ralph Fletcher Seymour began designing and publishing his own books in his spare time. The first book Seymour produced on his own was completed in 1897, featuring John Keats' "Ode to Melancholy". He hand-lettered the text and designed the small book to imitate old wood block books. His second was "Three Merry Old Tales" 1898, based on "Shakespeare Jest Book". For his third, he chose Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese." 1899. In 1900 he took over space in the Fine Arts Building from Charles Francis Browne. In October 1900 he published his fourth book, "The Eve of St. Agnes", by John Keats. This ad was published in the "Boot and Shoe Recorder," March 7, 1906, p.59.
Size: 9.5 x 12.4
S#: 0064.26.11191907
(Title Page)
(Page Example) Title: At The Foot of the Rainbow. Paintings in Color by Oliver Kemp. Designs and Decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. (Hard Cover) (Published by Grosset & Dunlap, New York)
Author: Porter, Gene Stratton
Description: "Illustrations in colors by Oliver Kemp Design and decorations Ralph Fletcher Seymour. The scene of this charming idyllic love story is laid in Central Indiana. The story is one of devoted friendship, and tender self sacrificing love; the friendship that gives freely without return, and the love that seeks first the happiness of the object. The novel is brimful of the most beautiful word painting of nature, and its pathos and tender sentiment will endear it to all." (Publisher's description.) Three color plates by Oliver Kemp. Red cloth cover designed by Seymour, with a color plate by Kemp pasted within the design. Original list price $1.50. (First Edition)
Size: 5.25 x 7.75
Pages: Pp 258
S#: 0080.21
Date: 1907
Title: Indian Love Letters (Hard cover) (Published by A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago. Decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.)
Author: Ryan, Marah Ellis; Author of "For the Soul of Rafael"
Description: Publisher’s description: Seldom have love letters been penned which contained more of the beauty of pathos, the poignancy of despair, than these messages, which seem literally written with the heart's blood of the noble-minded Indian who sent them to a girl he had loved in the East.
But what place could he have in the thoughts and life of an American girl of birth and breeding? Yet he was inspired to write these letters, which breathe the spirit of renunciation and show how inevitable is each one is a veritable prose poem.
Designed and decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Cover, Endpages and decorations illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Cover design printed in five colors: black, dark brown, blue, dark gray, gold. End pages printed in four colors: black, dark brown, blue, dark gray. Endpage illustration signed with a single “S.” Includes a tipped-in sepia photograph by Edward S. Curtis. The ninth edition of this volume was published in 1927. Original list price $1.50. (Note: This volume was published decades before the Nazis hijacked the symbol.) (First Edition)Size: 4.9 x 8.1
Pages: Pp 122
S#: 0080.20.0314
Left: Endpages, front and back.
illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Endpages and decorations illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Left: Endpage illustration signed with a single “S.”
Decorations illustrated by Ralph
Fletcher Seymour.Date: 1907
Title: Mr. Whistler's "Ten O'Clock" As Delivered in London At Cambridge And of Oxford. Together With His Propositions and Propositions No. 2. The Alderbrink Press certifies that this is one of three hundred copies of Mr. Whistler's lecture "Ten O'clock printed on English hand-made paper in Chicago, MCMVII. (Hard Cover) (Published by The Alderbrink Press, Chicago. The Alderbrink Press certifies that this is one of three hundred copies of Mr. Whistler's lecture "Ten O'clock printed on English hand-made paper in Chicago, MCMVII. Printed in two color. Edges untrimmed.)
Author: Whistler, James McNeill
Description: Delivered in London, February 20, 1885. At Cambridge, March 24. At Oxford, April 30.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is with great hesitation and much misgiving that I appear before you, in the character of The Preacher.
If timidity be at all allied to the virtue modesty, and can find favor in your eyes, I pray you, for the sake of that virtue, accord me your utmost indulgence.
I would plead for my want of habit, did it not seem preposterous, judging from precedent, that aught save the most efficient effrontery could be ever expected in connection with my subject - for I will not conceal from you, that I mean to talk about Art. Yes, Art - that has, of late become, as far as much discussion and writing can make it, a sort of common topic for the Tea-table... (First Edition)
Size: 5 x 7.5
Pages: Pp 52
S#: 0080.54.0222Date: 1907
Title: The Autograph Hunter and Other Papers (Hard Cover) (Privately Printed, Alderbrink Press, Chicago. Copyright 1907, Adrian H. Joline. "The Alderbrink Press certifies that this edition of 'The Autograph Hunter and Other Papers' consists of an addition of 150 copies on hand-made paper printed for Mr. Adrian H. Joline in October MCMVII. Cover is not titled, but title is stamped in gold on a 1.25" x 1.9" leather label affixed to spine. Printed on handmade deckle-edged beige paper with "W King Alton Mill" watermark.)
Author: Joline, Adrian Hoffman
Description: "NOTE. The title of this small volume is rather misleading, for it contains less about autographs than it does about Van Buren. But as these divarications are privately printed, nobody can very well complain. Only a few personal friends will ever read the papers, and they will probably utter no complaint. When the book is on the shelf, where it will undoubtedly repose during most of its existence, the title it bears will look as well as any other. New York, November, 1906." (From the author.) Consists of five chapters. 1) The Autograph Hunter. Revised and reprinted from The Independent. 2) The Defection of Doctor Sprague. Revised and reprinted from The Collector. 3) Martin Van Buren, the Lawyer. Read before the New York State Bar Association, 1905. 4) The Society for the Promotion of the Public Good. Remarks before the Netherlands Society of Philadelphia, January 23,1906. 5) George Payne Rainsford James. A Writer of Many Books. Red printer's device is an etching pulled from a small, 1" x 1.4" copper plate. (First Edition)
Size: 5 x 7.75
Pages: Pp 243
S#: 0080.39.11181908 Date: Circa 1908
Title: George A. Lawrence Residence, Galesburg, Illinois Postcard, Circa 1908 (1859-1934). (Seymour).
Description: Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. Seymour etched a series of season greeting cards of the home circa 1937. The Lawrence Residence is a 5,390 square foot home built by George A. Lawrence in 1898 at a cost of $80,000. Built of Colona Sandstone with marble columns, the Lawrence house was the most expensive house built in Galesburg during the 19th century. Lawrence graduated from Knox College in 1875 and became a successful local attorney and banker, and was a longtime trustee of Knox College. His wife Ella (1857 - 1924), was also a Knox graduate, and was one of the founders of the local Daughters of the American Revolution. They had five children, but two passed away in infancy, a son who died at the age of 12, and a daughter that died at the age of 9. Their fifth child, was a daughter, Ella Rebecca Lawrence (1891-1975). Rebecca was on the faculty of Knox College from 1913-16. After she married John Marshall Lowrie in December, 1916, they moved to New York City. In 1928, she wrote Cambric Tea, a book about growing up in Galesburg. Following her husband's death in 1954, she moved to Chicago. The home remained in her name until after her husbands death when it was reported that she donated it to the local School district. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. With the Lawrence's close ties to Knox College, Seymour may have taken residence at the home during his tenure at Knox College. Seymour created a series of etchings of the Lawrence Residence. Text: "21654" and "Prairie Street, Galesburg, Ill." Note: We have verified a matching postcard that is postmarked "April 7, 1908." Verso: Divided back. Left: "This space may be used for Correspondence." Right: "The Address only to be Written Here." Text: "Souvenir Post Card Co. New York. Printed in Germany."
Size: 5.5 x 3.5
S#: 0085.53.11221909 Date: Circa 1909
Title: A Gentleman of the Old School. Leisure is Gone.... fine old leisure, "George Eliot." With Numerous Illustrations drawn for Mr. J.C. Vaughan by G. F. Kerr. (Hard Cover) (Printed by Alderbrink Press, Chicago. Cover boards covered with cloth, lettering on cover and spine in gilt. Printed on beige laid paper. Illustrations printed in three color, black, cyan and tan.)
Author: Dobson, Austin
Description: J. C. Vaughan was a publisher, horticulturist and entrepreneur in the late eighteen to early nineteen hundreds. There are some indications that this volume was published by Vaughan in 1909. Henry Austin Dobson (1840-1921). In 1868 he began publishing his prose and verse in St Paul's, a magazine edited by Anthony Trollope. It was between 1868 and 1874 that "A Gentleman of the Old School" was first published. (First Edition)
Size: 5.25 x 7.5
Pages: Pp 26 (Unpaginated)
S#: 0086.19.1118
Date: 1909
Title: A Pageant of The Italian Renaissance (Stiff soft cover) (Published by the Alderbrink Press, Chicago. Cover illustration by Harry L. Gage, printed in three colors, red, cyan and black, and the only dot pattern, not uniform, is the light blue. One illustration by Harry Slater. Credits list Publisher as Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Although not indicated, design and illustrations are attributed to Seymour. Printed on beige laid paper.)
Author: Stevens, Thomas Wood
Description: This volume is beautifully designed, illustrated and executed. The pageant was produced and preformed at The Art Institute, Chicago, January 26 and 27, 1909, Under the auspices of The Antiquarian Society of The Art Institute. Thomas Wood Stevens (1880-1954) was a writer and director of pageants in early America 20th century. He was head of the Drama Department of Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1913-1925. He worked at the Kenneth Sawyer Goodman Memorial Theatre, 1925-1930. He was the head of the Drama Department at the University of Arizona, 1941-1942. He published two books of poetry; 22 plays and pageants, seven of which fell under the series "Book of Words." Ralph Fletcher Seymour published two of them, this one and "An Historical Pageant of Illinois." Strevens also published a novel, short fiction, and three non-fictions on Etching, Lettering and the Theater. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.1
Pages: Pp 85
S#: 0086.18.1118
Title page and detail of illustration.
Title page illustration by Harry Slater.
Page 69 and detail of illustration.Sample illustrations.
Alderbrink Press Printer's Device last page.Date: 1909
Title: Love In The Valley And Two Songs, Spring & Autumn (Hard Cover) (Published by The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company, Chicago. Boards cover in leather and blue paper, printed gilt. Endpages are a modeled wash. Printed on beige laid paper with a watermark, deckle edges. Printed in two color throughout)
Author: Meredith, George
Description: Designed and illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Under yonder beech-tree standing on the green-sward,
Couched with her arms behind her golden head,
Knees and tresses folded to slip and ripple idly,
Lies my young love sleeping in the shade.
Had I the heart to slide an arm beneath her,
Press her parting lips as her waist I gather slow,
Waking in amazement she could not but embrace me:
Then would she hold me, and never let me go?
"Bound in grey-green paper boards, stamped in ink and gold, at $I.25 a copy. Five copies in vellum binding at $5.00 each. Final page: One of three hundred copies of Love in the Valley, and two songs, By George Meredith. Printed in November MCMIX Alderbrink Press, Chicago." Description from an ad in the December, 1913 Poetry Magazine. (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 9.5
Pages: Pp 22
S#: 0086.29.0421
Title Page Designed and illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Pages one and two for Love In The Valley, Designed and illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Under yonder beech-tree standing on the green-sward,
Couched with her arms behind her golden head,
Knees and tresses folded to slip and ripple idly,
Lies my young love sleeping in the shade.
Had I the heart to slide an arm beneath her,
Press her parting lips as her waist I gather slow,
Waking in amazement she could not but embrace me:
Then would she hold me, and never let me go?
Decorative pages for songs Spring and Autumn, Designed and illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.Date: 1909
Title: Six Lectures on Some Nineteenth Century Artists. English and French: Delivered At The Art Institute of Chicago, Being the Scammon Lectures for the Year 1907. (Hard Cover) (Published by The Art Institute of Chicago. Printed and for sale by Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co., The Alderbrink Press, Fine Arts Building, Chicago)
Author: Knight, William
Description: Note (page 5): "The lectures presented in this volume comprise the third series delivered at the Art Institute of Chicago on the Scammon Foundation. The Scammon Lectureship is established on an ample basis by the bequest of Mrs. Maria Sheldon Scammon who died in 1901. The will prescribes that these lectures shall be upon the history, theory, and practice of the fine arts (meaning thereby the graphic and plastic arts) by persons of distinction or authority on the subject of which they lecture, such lectures to be primarily for the benefit of the students of the Art Institute and secondarily for members and other persons. The lectures are known as the Scammon Lectures." Includes 50 plates. Original list price $2.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 9.75
Pages: Pp 189
S#: 0086.20.01191910 Date: 1910
Title: Beauty's Lady and other Verse's by Donald Robertson, Actor (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company, The Alderbrink Press, Chicago)
Author: Robertson, Donald
Description: Review published in The Dial, March 1, 1911, p.178: We have long known Mr. Donald Robertson as one of the most accomplished and intellectual of our actors, sympathetic in the interpretation of the poetry of others, but we had not known him as a poet on his own account until " Beauty's Lady and Other Verses " came into our hands. How genuine is his gift may be evidenced by this Rossettian sonnet:
"When dusk has spread his tent where Day had been
And Nature's altar lamps are trimmed anew,
When from the folded wings of Strife, the dew
Of tears repentant wipes the dust of Sin,
In such an hour, shall she come calmly in
And lay her lips on mine and kiss me ? Through
That kiss shall I not wholly know the true
Beatitude of Love, life prays to win?
Then all the tangled cords of troubled Care
Shall fall from off my soul set free through her,
Together we shall breathe the open air
Of Truth, I too like her its worshipper ;
Ah, God ! must this not be ? but with quick breath
Sharp on my mouth instead the kiss of Death ?"
The greater number of Mr. Robertson's poems are in the sonnet-form, of which he displays considerable mastery... Signed by the author. (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 8.25
Pages: Pp 131
S#: 0094.91.0421
(Title Page) (Page Example) Title: Christ in Flanders, A Legend of the Middle Ages. Retold By Balzac, Translated From The French By Count Stenbock. (Soft Cover) (Published by The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company, Chicago. "One of 400 Copies of Christ In Flanders Printed by Geo. F. McKiernan & Co. For Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Printed on a handmade light beige laid stock with a "Fabriano (Italy)" watermark.)
Author: Stenbock, Count; Balzac
Description: Originally published in 1831, it is a short story by Honor de Balzac, a French novelist and playwright. Count Eric Stanislaus Stenbock was a Baltic Swedish poet and writer who was born in 1860 and died in 1895. The story takes place on the coast of Flanders, present-day Belgium. The legend was "told from age to age, repeated from hearth to hearth..." It retells the legend of the appearance of Christ (or a Christ like figure) to a group of travelers on a boat from the Island of Cadz and to Ostend. Printed in two color throughout. Original list price $1.25. (First Edition)
Size: 4.75 x 7.25
Pages: Pp 35
S#: 0094.46.0116
Date: 1910
(Title Page)
Title: On The Morning of Christ’s Nativity, An Ode By John Milton. Designed and Hand-lettered by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. (Hard Cover) (Published by The Reilly & Britton Co., Chicago. Printed on handmade deckle edged laid paper with “Van Gelder Zonen” and a “crowned fleur-de-lis symbol” with the letters “V.G.Z.” watermark. Cover illustrator not identified.)
Author: Milton, John
Description: This edition, published by Reilly & Britton used the original two-color plates created by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, but is lacking the end pages, solid gilt with black decorative floral corner designs. It is also lacking the first six pages from Seymour’s original edition, which include the first title page, Copyright, Dedication, Numbered copies, and Commentary. The original volume published by Seymour was the fifth volume, illustrated, hand-lettered and published by Seymour in 1901.
Printed in two color throughout, there are four illustrations as well as decorative initial caps.
“With the purpose of securing more perfect unity between the format of a book and its contents, he undertakes the designing and lettering by hand of entire books somewhat after the manner of the old manuscript books and to further elaborate them with decorations and illustrations. This interesting work produces beautiful as well as unique results.” Kindergarten Magazine, April 1901, p.474.
“Mr. Seymour's initialing and decorative borders show an artistic and controlled taste and one feels a sense of harmony between the ode and its setting.” The World Review, February 1, 1902, P.613. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x .25
Pages: Pp 24
S#: 0094.110.05241911 Date: 1911 Title: Ausgefuhrte Bauten Und Entwurfe Von Frank Lloyd Wright (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Wright, Frank Lloyd
Description: (Digital images only) A small booklet announcing the sale of the 1910 Ausgefuhrte Bauten by Wasmuth, portfolios. "A publication by Wasmuth of Berlin of seventy buildings by this architect, of special interests to the younger architects of America. Printed from drawings prepared for the stones by Mr. Wright expressly for this work, in two portfolios containing one hundred loose plates, and produced in the masterly style for which the German press is famous. ...at a total price of thirty-two dollars delivered... Address all communication direct to, Frank Lloyd Wright, 810 Orchestra Hall, Chicago." Ralph Fletcher Seymour writes, "I had the making of another tiny Wright item the existence of which is no where recorded. It was a little folder entitled 'Ausgefuhrte Bauten Und Entwurfe Von Frank Lloyd Wright' and announces the publication in the United States of his two portfolios of 'seventy buildings printed from drawings prepared for the stone for this work, published by Wasmuth, Berlin, Germany." Some Went This Way, 1945, p. 125.(Sweeney 100) See additional digital images.
Size: 4.5 x 6
Pages: Pp 7
S#: 0100.00.0214
Date: 1911
Title: Echoes of Petrarch, Sonnets of Love and Interludes (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co., Fine Arts Bldg., Chicago) (For permission to reprint five sonnets we are indebted to P. F. Volland & Co.)
Author: Butler, George F.
Description: "Perhaps the best expression that can be used regarding the duty of a sonnet is to say that it must delight. The perfect sonnet has indeed a secondary effect upon the mind in that it excites the admiration of the reader but this pleasant consideration is almost necessarily a sequence of the first... The sonnets in 'Echoes of Petrarch' are more than an exhibition of clever workmanship because they have heart and imagination in them... In her Sonnets from the Portuguese where Mrs. Browning gave free and wonderful rein to a love no longer bound the sonnet seemed to have reached its sensuous perfection. Dr Butler has accomplished a thing as exquisite though in a different tone Blue skies shone on her work on his shine skies of purple. That this book of sonnets will at once find and hold a high place is beyond all question. It will become a treasure to those who understand. It is a perfect gift book. The gifted author is to be more than congratulated for the addition he has made to tender literature. These sonnets can bear their title 'Echoes of Petrarch.' " Review by Stanley Waterloo, The American Journal of Clinical Medicine, January 1912, pp 337-8. Original list price $1.25. (First Edition)
Size: 5.3 x 7.5
Pages: Pp 67
S#: 0104.16.0214
(Title Page)
(Example Page) Title: The Birth of Roland (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co. The Alderbrink Press, Chicago) This book entitled "the Birth of Roland" is one of an edition of 400 copies printed upon paper and 10 copies printed upon Japan vellum by The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company, MCMXI.
Author: Hewlett, Maurice
Description: Publisher's description: "A first edition of a small book by this eminent English author. Lovers of Hewlett will find this romance of Charlemagne's time written in the most characteristic and charming prose. It is a love story. That vein of romance running like a golden thread through all his work which has won him the eager attention of every imaginative reader is here given its best expression. First and authorized edition limited to 400 copies on hand made paper." Illustrated and designed by Seymour. Includes nine illustrations, cover, title page as well as ten decoratively initialed illustrations. Seymour wrote, "Robert Frost and John Cournos were the other two visitors. Pound said we were due at May Sinclair's for tea. He strode there at the head of our small procession... Maurice Hewlett and his sister were at the tea. Hewlett had given me a book for publication the title of which was 'The Birth of Roland'. It appeared in a small, limited edition and is a rare Hewlett item; if any one still remembers Maurice Hewlett!" "Some Went This Way," Seymour, 1945, pp. 175-6. Original list price $3.00, 10 copies on Japan vellum $15.00. (First Edition)
Size: 5.6 x 8.5
Pages: Pp 54
S#: 0104.17.0214
Date: 1911 (Version 1)
Title: The Morality of Woman and Other Essays. Authorized Translation From the Swedish, of Ellen Key. By Namah Bouton Bothwick (Mamah Bouton Borthwick). (Hard Cover) (Published by The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co. Fine Arts Building, Chicago.) (Version 1)
Author: Key, Ellen; Bothwick, Namah Bouton (Borthwick, Mamah Bouton )
Description: In 1909, Wright and Borthwick left their respective spouses and traveled to Europe, settling in Italy for about a year. Wright worked on his portfolio titled "Ausgefuhrte Bauten und Entwufe von Frank Lloyd Wright". Borthwick spent her time translating the work of Ellen Key. After Wright's return to the States from Europe, he presented three manuscripts to Ralph Fletcher Seymour, along with adequate funds to publish the three volumes. "The Morality of Women and Other Essays" (1911), "Love and Ethics" (1912) with Wright's assistance, and "Torpedo Under the Ark; 'Ibsen and Women" (1912). This volume included "The Morality of Women", "The Woman of the Future" and "The Conventional Woman". Borthwick also translated "The Woman Movement". According to Publishers Weekly, March 23, 1912, p1072, the original list price was $1.00. Two copies. (First Edition) (Sweeney 95)
Size: 5.4 x 8.7.
Pages: Pp 78
S#: 0095.01.1111, 0095.02.1117
Date: 1911 (Version 4)
Title: The Morality of Woman and Other Essays. Authorized Translation From the Swedish, of Ellen Key. By Mamah Bouton Borthwick. (Hard Cover) (Published by The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co. Fine Arts Building, Chicago.) (Version 4)
Author: Key, Ellen; Borthwick, Mamah Bouton
Description: In 1909, Wright and Borthwick left their respective spouses and traveled to Europe, settling in Italy for about a year. Wright worked on his portfolio titled "Ausgefuhrte Bauten und Entwufe von Frank Lloyd Wright". Borthwick spent her time translating the work of Ellen Key. After Wright's return to the States from Europe, he presented three manuscripts to Ralph Fletcher Seymour, along with adequate funds to publish the three volumes. "The Morality of Woman and Other Essays" (1911), "Love and Ethics" (1912) with Wright's assistance, and "Torpedo Under the Ark; 'Ibsen and Women" (1911). This volume included "The Morality of Woman", "The Woman of the Future" and "The Conventional Woman". Borthwick also translated "The Woman Movement". According to Publishers Weekly, March 23, 1912, p1072, the original list price was $1.00. 5.4 x 8.7. (First Edition) (Sweeney 95)
Size: 5.4 x 8.7
Pages: Pp 77
S#: 0095.00.0610
The Morality of Women and Other Essays. We have identified four, possibly five versions of "The Morality of Woman", by Ellen Key, Translated from Swedish by Mamah Bouton Borthwick. All are dated 1911. All were printed by The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co., in the Fine Arts Building, Chicago. Frank Lloyd Wright designed three stores in the building: Browne's Bookstore (1907 - S.141), Thurber Art Galleries (1909 - S.154), and Mori Oriental Art Studio, (1914 - S.181). Wright himself located a studio in the Fine Arts Building from 1908 through 1910. The correct title of the book is "The Morality of Woman", and the spelling of Borthwick's name is Mamah Bouton Borthwick.
Version 1: Morality of Women. Namah Bouton Bothwick, dated 1911, 78 pages, no spine printing (mistake is underlined). Incorrect title, "Women" instead of "Woman". The name is also incorrectlyspelled, "Namah" instead of "Mamah", and "Bothwick" instead of "Borthwick". This version is 78 pages long, and there is no printing on the spine.
Version 2: Morality of Woman. Namah Bouton Borthwick, dated 1911, 78 pages, no spine printing. The title has been corrected. The first name is still incorrectly spelled, "Namah" instead of "Mamah", "Borthwick" has been corrected. This version is 78 pages long, and there is no printing on the spine.
Version 3: Morality of Woman. Mamah Bouton Borthwick, dated 1911, 78 pages, no spine printing. The title and name have been corrected. This version is 78 pages long, and there is no printing on the spine.
Version 4: Morality of Woman. Mamah Bouton Borthwick, 1911, 77 pages, the spine is imprinted with "The Morality of Woman - Key". The cover has a slightly larger Gold Printers Device. A slight variation in the serif type face used, the addition of one line perpage (26 versus 25), and minor revisions caused the text to be one page shorter in length. According to Thomas Heinz, this version was published with a portrait of Ellen Key, possibly creating a fifth version.
Original cover price $1.00. The Dec 23, 1911 issue of Publisher's Weekly listed the price as $1.00. The March 1919 issue of Poetry Magazine, published by Seymour was still listed as $1.00. Besides the obvious miss-spellings, this may give us a clue as to the variations in the different editions. If it was originally published in 1911 by Seymour, and republished again, including 1919, but never indicating the editions, this could account for the additional editions. Seymour was a friend of Wright's. He arranged for Seymour to publish this book as well as two other Ellen Key volumes Borthwick translated. In 1912 Seymour published Wright's first edition of "The Japanese Print".Date: 1911
Title: The Upper Trail (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company. The Alderbrink Press. Fine Arts Building, Michigan Boulevard, Chicago. Boards are in blue paper, the spine in white cloth, gilt text. The Alderbrink logo is stamped into the cover.)
Author: Blanden, C. G. (Charles Granger)
Description: A compilation of 144 poems. "A Poet and His Printer. C. G. Blandon, author of "The Upper Trail" (Alderbrink Press, Chicago), is fortunate in his printer. No more tasteful example of the art has come to hand in many a long day than this volume. The poems themselves..." The New York Times Book Review, April 14, 1912, p.228. Title page designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Initials "R F S" bottom left corner. Printed in two colors, blue and black. Each poem has an initial cap printed in blue. Watermark: "Old Stratford USA." Pages are uncut. "This book is one of an edition of 350 copies on Old Stratford paper and 10 copies bound in vellum." The title page was published in The Printing Art - October, 1913, p.120. Original list price $2.25. (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 9.75
Pages: Pp 203
S#: 0104.21.1019Additional volumes published in 1911: 1911: The Dance of the Seasons by Harriet Monroe. Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Designs by Will H. Bradley. 1911: XII Songs, Maeterlinck Maurice, Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, with Illustrations by C Doudelet. Translated from the French by Martin Schutze. $2.00, 400 copies. 1911: The Three Kings, Gebhart Emile, A Christmas Tale, Translated from the French by Ja Westfall Thompson, Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. $1.50 400 copies. Japan vellum edition $5 10 copies. 1911: Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. It is in response to a demand from lovers of Blake for an adequate and beautiful edition of these two groups of poems that this volume has been designed. It follows in arrangement of the Pickering edition of 1874 but has been carefully edited and collated with later and more complete editions. Printed on hand made paper. Small ornamental initials decorative title printed in two colors bound in paper boards and vellum back. Limited to 300 copies on paper $2.00 I Vellum copy for sale $10.00. 1911: Reflections and Maxims of William Penn. Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. This edition has been somewhat abridged from the original. It consists of 400 copies on toned hand made paper and 12 on imperial Japan vellum. The book is printed in red and black throughout with rules initials and decorations. Paper copies $3.00 Vellum $15.00. 1911: Flanders, A Legend of Christ. Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Translated from the French. Limited edition on handmade paper $1.25 net. Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co. 1912 Date: 1912
Title: The Japanese Print: An Interpretation (Hard Cover) (Published by The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co., Fine Arts Building, Chicago)
Author: Wright, Frank Lloyd
Description: Tan cover, text printed in dark blue or black, decorative crane design is printed in green. End paper is a thick fibrous paper. Text is printed on rice paper, both sides. Title page is a repeat of the cover, but text and crane appear to be printed in black. Title page verso: Copyright 1912, Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company. Sweeney indicated that three versions were printed by Seymour in 1912. Wright was displease with the first edition and all but a few copies were destroyed.
In 1905, Frank Lloyd Wright toured Japan. In 1906, Wright exhibits his collection of Japanese Hiroshige Prints at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1908, Wright and three other major collectors exhibit their Japanese Prints at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was the largest exhibit of Ukiyo-e prints ever displayed in America. Wright designed the exhibition installation for the Art Institute.
In 1910, Wright published Ausgefuhrte Bauten und Entwurfe von Frank Lloyd Wright, consisting of large unbound plates, 25.2" x 16". In 1911, Seymour published an English version of the introduction, as a seven page booklet, 4.5" x 6". The Japanese Print was the first book written, published and bound as a book by Frank Lloyd Wright .
"By 1912, Wright had become a nationally known expert on Japanese printmaking, well on his way to assembling what Clay Lanaster, a scholar of Japan's influence in the United States, called 'one of the most important collections... in the world.' " Frank Lloyd Wright Essential Texts, Twombly, 2009, pp 135-136.
Ralph Fletcher Seymour wrote, "Frank Lloyd Wright once wrote a monograph entitled 'The Japanese Print' which appeared in a tall, thin 35 page book, printed on Japan paper. The first materialization of this essay did not please the author and with characteristic imperativeness he demanded its destruction and the production of a new edition more in accord with his notions. There are a few copies of the first bad lot, which like a batch of unwanted kittens sent out to be eliminated, nevertheless survived. They certainly belong in any Wright collection. " Some Went This Way, 1945, p. 125.
During the Imperial Hotel commission, Wright "functioned as an unofficial dealer during his trips to Japan, buying for his own collection and for others. He personally caused print prices to inflate, where Japanese authorities estimate he spent about $250,000 on prints alone." Robert Kostka, The Prairie School, No 4, 1967.
Wright wrote, "Japanese prints intrigued me and taught me much... Japanese art, I found, really did have organic charter, was nearer to the earth and a more indigenous product of native conditions of life and work therefore more nearly 'modern' as I saw it, than any European civilization alive or dead." An Autobiography, 1932, pp. 194. (First Edition) (Sweeney 109)Size: 5.25 x 8.3
Pages: Pp 35
S#: 0109.00.0214
Date: 1912
Title: My Little Book of Life (Hard Cover) (Published by A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago. Title page verso: Copyright A. C. McClurg & Co. 1912. Published September, 1912. The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co., Fine Arts Building, Chicago. This may indicate that this volume was designed by Seymour. Boards covered in paper, cloth spine. Cover design repeated on back cover. Top pages trimmed, others uncut.)
Author: Strode, Muriel
Description: "Like [Strode's] former publication it is composed of brief and pithy aphorisms betraying an original and independent mind and often furnishing food for helpful thought. The book is daintily made with board covers and there is a marginal decoration on every page printed in green ink while the text is in black."
"If I go unloved, I shall not chide Fate, but I shall bemoan that I should be a thing unlovable."
"I will not ask for succor, but for increased strength."
"I cursed my misfortune, - and it remained one."
"I importuned the gods, and got a beggar's deserts."
"When I moan in agony of body, you may heal me, but when I moan in agony of soul, I must heal myself." Possibly published in a slip box. Original list price 50c. (First Edition)Size: 4.25 x 6.25
Pages: Pp 86
S#: 0114.16.0514
Date: 1912
Title: Shakespeare Festival. In Honor of the Poet's Birthday. Lincoln Park, Chicago. April 23, 1912 (Original Soft Cover rebound by library) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co. Fine Arts Building, Chicago. Cover and title page illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Printed on paper with the watermark "Dresden Pamphlet.")
Author: Drama League of America
Description: "The drama league offers this Shakespeare festival as a gift to the city of Chicago. Fifteen hundred children of the Public Schools of the city are the performers... The Shakespeare Festival. To be given under the auspice is of the drama league of America. The drama league celebrates Shakespeare's birthday by arranging for the children of Chicago and its suburbs and open air festival, free to the community, which presents in processional form, several of the masters the masterpieces of the poet. Each play, properly costume, and arranged in a picturesque group, will be introduced by will Shakespeare and the players of the globe theater to the court, while Elisabeth and James share the honors. The procession will then pass before the spectators until it reaches the place of the final feet, where are special exercises will take place..." Cover: "R F S" initials lower right. Title Page: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour" lower left. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9
Pages: Pp 37
S#: 0114.22.05171912: The Torpedo Under the Ark Ibsen and Women, Key Ellen, Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co. Date: 1912
Title: The Essentials of Lettering, A Manual for Students and Designers (Hard Cover) (Published by McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. New York and London)
Author: French, Thomas E.; Meiklejohn, Robert
Description: Published in 1909, 1910 and 1912, Total issue: 28,500. Includes three examples of the work of Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Preface: There are two general classes of persons among those who are interested in the study of the subject of lettering, first, those who have to use letters to convey information on drawings, as engineering students and draftsmen, architects, etc.; second, those who use lettering in design, as art students, artists, designers and craftsmen. The foundation is the same for both, whether the application be on a mechanical drawing or a poster. The first class may be concerned mainly with legibility and speed, and the second with beauty, but there can be no distinction in the principles of the subject...
The assistance of Mr. Dard Hunter, Mr. W. A. Dwiggins, Mr. Ralph Fletcher Seymour... and others who have made drawings for this book, or permitted the reproduction of their work, is gratefully acknowledged.
Size: 9 x 6
Pages: Pp 94
S#: 0114.39.0823Date: 1912
Title: The Voices of The Dunes and Other Etchings (Hard Cover) (Published by Alderbrink Press, The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company, The Fine Arts Building, Chicago)
Author: Reed, Earl H.
Description: Preface: "The etchings in this book are reproductions in photogravure, and have been reduced in most instances to meet the requirements of the page. The book is published in response to the expressed desire of many who have wished to possess the etchings in a more accessible form then is afforded by the larger original signed proofs. My acknowledgments and thanks are due to the kind friends who have carried out the themes of some of the plates in the lines accompanying them..." Includes 25 plates printed on stiff stock. Facing tissue guards are tipped in and printed in two color with poems. Plates are printed one side, and edges of illustration are debossed to give the appearance of an etching pulled from a copper plate. Two editions appear to be printed. One edition includes the text opposite the title page: "This edition is limited to 125 copies of which this is number ___." The second edition appear to be identical, just missing the text opposite the title page. Original list price $5.00. (First Edition)
Size: 9.25 x 13.25
Pages: Unpaginated Pp 56
S#: 0114.27.01191913 
Date: 1913
Title: The Etching of Cities (Published by The Chicago Society of Etchers for its Members, Chicago, Illinois, Designed and Printed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, Illinois. Printed on French handmade laid texture paper, deckle edges. Watermark: “Ingres D’Arches, M B M (France).” Printed in three colors: Black, red, with illustrations in brown.)
Author: Stevens, Thomas Wood
Description: This volume is bound in quarter linen and blue boards. Title is stamped and gilt. The Chicago Society of Etchers imprint is stamped on the cover. There is a leather label on the spine with gilt lettering. The Chicago Society of Etchers imprint on the title page is printed in red and brown, and the brown appears to be printed using a Photogravure process. There are thirteen etchings. The frontispiece is a proof by E. D. Roth The twelve additional plates are facsimiles of etchings by Durer, Rembrandt, Whistler, and others. Each plate is tissued.
Page 13, Chapter one: “The historic achievements of the great etchers have led to the classification, in the pigeon-hole school of criticism, of the possibilities of the etching medium. Certain artists having succeeded in etching certain subjects, we have constantly thrust before us the evidence of their success, together with the statement that the greatness of the thing is due to the selection; and selection means, in the language of the collector, the artist's inspired insight in choosing something he could draw effectively. So we have come to have a tradition in regard to subject, and we can all subdivide the visible world into effects suitable for etching, or aquarelle, or bas relief, or pyrography...”
Text page 75: “The Chicago Society of Etchers certifies that this is one of an edition of three hundred and twenty-five copies of a book entitled "The Etching of Cities;" issued with a proof of a plate etched by E. D. Roth, and twelve facsimiles of etchings; printed in Chicago; and that the type has been distributed. January, MCMXIII.” (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 75
S#: 0120.28.0124
Above: There is a leather label on the spine with gilt lettering.
Left: Title page. The Chicago Society of Etchers imprint on the title page is printed in red and brown, and the brown appears to be printed using a Photogravure process.
Right: Design and decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.Date: 1913
Title: Twelve Japanese Painters (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co, The Alderbrink Press, Chicago. Boards are covered in a dark tan cloth. Stamped in gilt and white. The cover is designed by Frederick W. Gookin, signed "FWG" lower right of the design. Text printed on beige stock. Edges trimmed, top edge gilt.)
Author: Ficke, Arthur Davison
Description: Review: "This book belongs in any studio that affects the Japanese print. It is forty seven pages of Baedeker for the man who would travel toward Fuji San. It is inspired verse. It is good criticism. It is sound aesthetics. I do not see how any one who cares for prints can read it indifferently. Mr. Ficke's particular faculty is flawlessness from the mosaic standpoint: one inevitable little word after another. His hold on me depends upon the fact that in his best pieces this self-command never fails. One might say that by mere polish he moves the heart. His longer more diffuse works have never moved me. His type of concentration seems so far impossible for him to achieve in art units that require more than three pages of print to each unit..." Poetry, A Magazine of Verse, April, 1914, P.28-29. Reviewed by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay.
Introduction: "The Ukioye School of Japanese painting, best known of all Japanese schools, but still too little known, is the theme of this group of poems. It were too much to hope that, through them, any new lover could be led to these remarkable paintings and prints ; but at least a few old lovers may be interested to examine an attempt at voicing certain impressions which these works produce in all who are familiar with them.
For the cover-design of this volume, the author is deeply indebted to Mr. Frederick W. Gookin."
Page 7: "Figure of a Girl. By Harunobu, Illustration by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Signed "RFS" bottom right. Page 49: "This edition of Twelve Japanese Painters, by Arthur Davison Ficke, is limited to 250 copies, of which 100 are for sale. Designed and printed by the Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company in Chicago, after which the type was distributed. March, MCMXIII." Signed by the author. (First Edition)
Size: 5.25 x 8.5
Pages: Pp 49
S#: 0120.25.0820
Page 7: "Figure of a Girl. By Harunobu, Illustration by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Signed "RFS" bottom right.Date: 1913
Title: The Printing Art - October, 1913 (Published monthly by The University Press, Cambridge, Mass.)
Author: Anonymous
Description: "The Work of Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Eight pages of typographic and other examples designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago." Includes 16 examples of the work of Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Digital copy.
Size: 8.5 x 11
Pages: Pp 117-124
S#: 0120.20.1118
Pages 117-118
Pages 119-120
Pages 121-122
Pages 123-124Date: Circa 1913
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching, La Poterne #2, possibly 1913.
Description: About 55 miles Southeast of the heart of Paris, there is a small bridge, the Rue du Pont that crosses the Loing. On the west end of the bridge you pass through an arched portal at the base of a tower. It looks very similar to this print, but not exact. On the North side of this arch is a restaurant called the La Poterne, at Moret-Loing-et-Orvanne, (France). On the North side of the restaurant is another smaller arch that matches this print. The sign today marks it as the "Le Pre Margaron." The Library of Congress houses a print attributed to Ralph Fletcher Seymour, but signed Hubbard Fund (possibly owner of print?), 1920s. It is a view from the opposite side of the arch. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was on the staff of the Art Institute of Chicago between 1907 and 1918. While there, he was given a year's paid sabbatical to study art in France. His twelve-month leave began in the summer or early fall of 1912 and ended around September or early October 20, 1913. The Caxtonian, May 2011, page 9. Pulled from an etched copper plate. Under left corner of etching, signed in pencil: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Under right corner of etching, signed in pencil: "La Poterne #2." Hand written in the bottom left corner by Seymour: "La Poterne #2." Just up from the bottom right hand corner of etching, signed in the plate is an overlapping "RFS," and also "Moret O?." Also published in A Portfolio of Etchings By Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Bound into the October, 1915 issue of Architectural Record.
Size: Etching: 6 x 10.4. Paper: 8.4 x 12.75.
S#: 0120.18.0817
Left: Courtesy Ma-Planete.com, Cosmos
Right: View from the opposite side of the
Portal. Courtesy of Google.Date: 1913
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "Mamet's Court, Paris" 1913.
Description: Ralph Fletcher Seymour (March 18, 1876 - January 1, 1966). While working for the J. Manz Engraving Company, Ralph Fletcher Seymour began designing and publishing his own books in his spare time. He was a prolific illustrator, designer and publisher of fine books. He continued publishing books until his death at the age of 89. He was on the staff of the Art Institute of Chicago between 1907 and 1918. While there, he was given a year's paid sabbatical to study art in France. His twelve-month leave began in the summer or early fall of 1912 and ended around September or early October 20, 1913. (The Caxtonian, May 2011, page 9.) In Some Went This Way, Seymour wrote about his time in Paris. "There was an interesting little court in our neighborhood, of which I wanted to make an etching. Levy went around to have a look at it and pronounced it a hopeless subject. Nevertheless I more or less secretly did a drawing and etching of it. A long while later, when time had come for my return to the States, I set up all my newly made etching proofs for inspection by my teachers. Levy regarded this proof for some time and, having forgotten his earlier comment, said, 'That is almost an etching.' It was the nearest to any praise that he gave any of my work." 1945, Chapter VII, p.201. Seymour does not name the court he speaks of, but he could be describing this court. Published in A Portfolio of Etchings By Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Bound into the October, 1915 issue of Architectural Record.Including the cover illustration there are eight illustrations of Seymour's work. Two illustrations included in this portfolio are this etching, "A Little Court in Old Montparnasse" and "The River Gate of Moret, Seen From The Waterside." The portfolio is printed on tissue paper, single sided and folded. The sign in the etching reads (more or less): "Mamet. Planeur Pqub La Taille Douce. Maison." Lower left hand corner of etching, signed in the plate is an overlapping "RFS," and also "Paris MCMXIII." Hand signed in pencil lower left: "Mamet's Court, Paris." Hand signed in pencil lower right: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Size: Etching pulled from a copper plate: 6.5 x 7.8. Framed: 14.5 x 17.
S#: 0120.24.0221
Left: Framed: 14.5 x 17.
Right: Detail of etching. The sign in the
etching reads (more or less): "Mamet.
Planeur Poub La Taille Douce. Maison."1914 Date: 1914
Title: For The Soul of Rafael. With Many Illustrations From Photographs Taken Expressly for this Book by Harold A. Taylor. Decorative Designs by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. (Hard Cover) (Published by A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago)
Author: Ryan, Marah Ellis
Description: First published in 1906. "Upon the appearance of the book has been lavished an amount of attention seldom accorded a book of fiction. It will be printed in two colors with decorations of the most striking character by Ralph Fletcher Seymour." (From McClurg Ad.) Every page is elaborately bordered by an illustration by Seymour. The romantic novel is set in Southern California. "An oath sworn to a dying woman by a young wife is the motif of this romance of old California in the days when American money and men were crowding out the old Spanish families. An old Spanish woman bowed down by misfortunes resolves to retrieve the disasters of her family by mating her last son to the rich descendant of the noble family of Estevan. This girl just from the convent dedicates her life to saving the soul of her unstable husband who is more interested in amusing himself with a bewitching American widow. In order to be true to her vows his wife puts aside her unforgotten romance and makes the man she loves a wanderer and an outcast. Mexicans and Indians play their part in the story which is enacted in or near the old mission of San Juan Capistrano, not far from Los Angeles." (Publisher's Weekly. May 12, 1906, p. 1362.) Top edge trimmed, others uncut. Includes 19 tipped in printed photographs Harold A. Taylor. Original list price $1.50 (1906). (Eleventh Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 8.5
Pages: Pp 378
S#: 0124.22.0214
Date: 1914
Title: Lyrics of a Lad, With a Preface By Maurice Francis Egan (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co., Chicago. Frontispiece is a photogravure reproduction of the author from a photograph by Eugene R. Hutchinson. Title page decoration by Michele Greco.)
Author: Iris, Scharmel
Description: Author's Note: The courteous acknowledgment of the author are extended to The Century Magazine, The Little Review, Atlantic Monthly, Scribner's Magazine, The Forum, Poetry and the Cosmopolitan, of America; The Cork Examiner, Freeman's Journal and Dublin Review, of Ireland; and The English Review and Blackwood's, of England. A compilation of 61 poems. Preface: "...Federico Scharmel Iris was born February tenth, eighteen-eighty-nine, at Florence, Italy. He is the first of the Italians in America to write poetry in English... I did find in his poems the color and the freshness, the inexpressible glowing, almost lucent tints of he peach blossom, the warm lure of spring and of love and of hope... His book is, then, - under the sun or moon, the garden of a young poet, who forgets the brevity of his life and the reality of his grief in the joy of the art he cultivates. You are invited to step into his garden." Printed in an edition of 1000 copies by The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company, Chicago, November MCMXIV. Original list price $1.00. (First Edition)
Size: 5.75 x 8.25
Pages: Pp 77
S#: 0124.21.0114
Date: 1914
Title: The Travail of a Soul (Hard Cover) (Published by the Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co., Chicago. This edition of "The Travail of a Soul", by George F. Butler, is limited to two hundred copies, of which this is number 93. The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co., Publishers. Chicago MCMXIV. [Signed] Geo. F Butler. Printed on beige paper, two-color throughout. The frontispiece is a photogravure)
Author: Butler, George F.
Description: "The eye of the lover of belles lettres searching eagerly the new books for something different, will pause, at first in curiosity, as it falls on 'The Travail of a Soul' by George F. Butler, issued by the Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company. This will be because of the oddly attractive, modest yet de luxe dress. But curiosity will rise to lively interest with the opening of the pages of the book, for here in unique alternation of verse and prose will be seen at last the ever-vital theme of love treated with absolutely new and thrilling colors. For if, in the beginning it seems that the poet has fallen in love, Pygmalion-like with a statue and so fails of originality, it almost at once appears that there are two statues between which there shall be bitter and devastating war..." The National Magazine, August, 1915, p.699. Original list price $2.00. (First Edition)
Size: 7 x 10.75
Pages: Pp 79
S#: 0124.24.0116
Date: 1914
Title: War Rhymes and Peace Poems (Hard Cover) (Published by The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company, Chicago)
Author: Mitchell, Frank Adams
Description: "Every now and then the Chicago business man who would be expected to be sufficiently preoccupied in the successful dispatch of his current affairs turns up as a master in the arts. In evidence is the entrance into poetry of Frank Adams Mitchell whose fugitive verse has frequently enlivened the literature of the association Glee club but who now invites more deliberate consideration of his poetic thought and expression in an artistic book... by which token it may be known that the printer's and binder's crafts have done their part. Forty three poems comprise this collection, none void of wholesome teaching in tuneful form..." Chicago Commerce, December 11, 1914, p.16. Original list price $1.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 53
S#: 0124.23.0415
Date: 1914
Title: When Mona Lisa Came Home. Florence, December 1913 (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, Chicago. Printed on beige paper with the watermark: "A" (Winged), "Albion Text." Top and side edges uncut.)
Author: Leech, Carolyn Apperson
Description: "Only Sprite, the white haired, would have propose such an adventure. All autumn the weather-wise had said "Beautifully enough for Fiesole," and on such afternoons, in the creaking and infrequent tram, with a crowd and assorted company of tourists, we had taken the tiresome journey. But today, as sprite looked from the window, winter winds swirled rain against the panes..." "This addition of "When Mona Lisa Came Home," by Carolyn Apperson Leach, is issued in an addition limited to 500 copies, by the Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company, Chicago, December MCMXIV. Number 301." Inscribed by the author. (First Edition)
Size: 5.75 x 8
Pages: Pp 19
S#: 0124.53.01221915 Date: 1915
Title: A Portfolio of Etchings By Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Bound into the October, 1915 issue of Architectural Record.
Author: Seymour, Ralph Fletcher
Description: An eight page portfolio bound into the October, 1915 issue of Architectural Record. In addition to the cover illustration, it includes eight illustrations of Seymour's work. Cover: "A Portfolio of Etchings By Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Page 2: "The Ancient Castle and Bridge in the Old Part of Montargis." Page 3: "The River Gate of Moret. Seen From the Town Side." Page 4: "Side Entrance to the Church of St. Germain D'Auxerois." Page 5: The River Gate of Moret. Seen From the Waterside. Page 6: A Little Court in Old Montparnasse. Lower left hand corner of etching, signed in the plate is an overlapping "RFS," and also "Paris MCMXIII." Page 7: "A Roman Bridge at Grez. The Ruin at its end Dates From The Time of Charlemagne." Page 8: "The Church of St. Germain D'Auxerois." The portfolio is printed on tissue paper, single sided and folded.
Size: 6.6 x 9.6.
Pages: Pp 8.
S#: 0128.02.0405
Cover: "A Portfolio of Etchings By Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Left: Page 2: "The Ancient Castle and
Bridge in the Old Part of Montargis."
Right: Page 3: "The River Gate of Moret.
Seen From the Town Side."
Left: Page 4: "Side Entrance to the Church
of St. Germain D'Auxerois."
Right: Page 5: "The River Gate of Moret.
Seen From the Waterside."
See original etching.
Left: Page 6: "A Little Court in Old
Montparnasse." Lower left hand corner
of etching, signed in the plate is an
overlapping "RFS," and also "Paris
MCMXIII."
See original etching.
Right: Page 7: "A Roman Bridge at Grez.
The Ruin at its end Dates From The Time
of Charlemagne."
Left: Page 8: "The Church of St. Germain D'Auxerois."Date: 1915
Title: Dramatic Poems, Songs and Sonnets (Hard Cover) (Published by Seymour, Daughaday & Company, Fine Arts Building, Chicago, Illinois. Alderbrink Imprint.)
Author: Robertson, Donald
Description: Dramatic Poems, Songs and Sonnets. By Donald Robertson, Actor. Seymour Daughaday & Company Chicago. Most of these poems are short, the longest being ten pages, and, being more than two hundred in number, represent many moods, occasions and inspirations. To a considerable extent, they reflect stage life and stage friendships. It is proper to observe that a community of artistic interests gives a wide range to such friendships and a sincerity of appreciation based on achievements. Mr. Robertson is firm in his touch with an evidently trained grasp of metrical form and a marked sense of refinement in literary expression. The poems are too numerous to characterize except in a general way, they reveal an amiable nature loyal in friendships true to high ideals in life and are the product of a vigorous and cultivated mind, philosophical and practical, as well as poetic. One may well believe that Donald Robertson, with more concentrated effort on material requiring larger treatment as in dramatic poems or plays, could achieve distinction. This book of poems is largely personal, subjective and reflective; a larger field is open to him in work of a creative kind." The Theater, November 1915, p.252. Frontispiece is a photogravure portrait of the author. Inscribed "To Laurel" by the author. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 8.5
Pages: Pp 238
S#: 0128.70.1221Date: 1915 Title: Poetry, A Magazine of Verse (Published monthly by Seymour, Daughaday and Company, Fine Arts Building, Chicago)
Author: Edited by Harriet Monroe
Description: In 1912 Harriet Monroe approached Seymour about designing and publishing a new literary journal, Poetry Magazine. (Caxtonian, May, 2011, P. 4) The first issue was published in October. Copyright Harriet Monroe. Harriet Monroe, Editor. The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company, Printers, Chicago. It is not indicated, but the cover was most likely designed by Seymour. Page 38 included an ad for Seymour, including the three books translated by Mamah Bouton Borthwick. Through the January 1915 issue, Harriet Monroe is listed as publisher. Some issues indicate Seymour as Printer. The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co. Continued to run ads. Seymour joined with Daughaday, and the February 1915 issue was published by Seymour, Daughaday and Company. They published together through the September 1915 issue, which indicates that they most likely dissolved the partnership. From October 1915 through September 1917, the magazine was published monthly by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Harriet Monroe continued publishing the magazine. Original cover price 15 cents, Annual Subscription $1.50 (April, 1915)
Size: 5.5 x 7.9.
Pages: Pp 52
S#: 0128.14.0114
Date: 1915
Title: The Angel with a Broom (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour for The Cordon) "This is No. xxx (hand written in pencil, possibly a proof) of the first edition of 700 copies printed on hand-made paper at the Alderbrink Press, Chicago. December 1915."
Author: Peattie, Elia W. (Literary Editor of the Chicago Tribune)
Description: A short story about a social worker, two neighboring families she loves, and a handicapped young man in whom she sees visions of an angel sweeping away the evils of war and conflict. The setting is a little street with shops in a lower class neighborhood of Chicago during the early part of World War I. Note: The Cordon was a club that met in the Fine Arts building in Chicago. Cover is stamped and gilt. Original list price 50c. (First Edition)
Size: 4.6 x 6.25
Pages: Pp 29
S#: 0128.20.0415
Title: The Lesbiad of Catullus And Pervigilium Veneris (Mood Transcriptions) And Songs of A Wayfarer (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, Chicago)
Author: Dement, Ruth Sheffield
Description: This volume is divided into three sections, with a title page for each. Letters on the cover are gilt, with a decorative border stamped on the cover. Printed on handmade beige laid paper with the watermark "TUSCANY." Decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Top is trimmed, sides and bottom are uncut. (First Edition)
Size: 5.25 x 8.1
Pages: Pp 53
S#: 0128.57.12181916 Date: 1916
Title: Basia of Joannes Secundus. Translated into English Verse. To Which is Added the Epithalamium with the English Version of George Ogle. Edited with a Prefatory Memoir by Wallace Rice (Hard Cover) (Published by The Charles T. Powner Co. Printed on Caxton Laid Paper. Pages trimmed.)
Author: Secundus, Joannes; Ogle, George
Description: This volume first published in 1901 for Frank Morris At The Colonial Press. Same plates are used in this edition. Johannes Secundus (also Janus Secundus) 1511 - 1536, who died at the age of 26, was a poet of Dutch nationality. Frontispiece is an engraving dated 1730. Title page and initials designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Title page signed lower right "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Initial signed "S." Seymour rarely sign initials. Last page: "This Book is Number 30 [stamped] of an Edition consisting of One Thousand Copies printed upon Caxton Laid Paper. The Title-page and Initials are designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Printed by The Chicago Legal News Company in Chicago for The Charles T. Powner Company." (First Powner Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 9.5
Pages: Pp 111
S#: 0136.12.0121
Frontispiece is an engraving dated 1730.Date: 1916
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago," 1916.
Description: Etching pulled from a copper plate. View of the church from the Southeast. The Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago was organized on February 12, 1871. Later that same year, the great Chicago fire destroyed the existing building. In 1874 the church dedicated a new stone church on the northwest corner of Rush and Superior Streets. By 1911 they had outgrown their building and relocated to Michigan Avenue and Delaware Place. They began building in 1912, and dedicated the new building in 1914. Ralph Fletcher Seymour etched this drawing in 1916, two years after the dedication. This etching was one of six exhibited at "An Exhibition of Etchings" held at the Art Institute of Chicago, February 1 to March 4, 1917. Six of Seymour's etchings were exhibited: Winter; Doorway; Tamarack; Two Trees, Ravinia; Spring in Trepiez; Fourth Presbyterian Church. Signed in plate lower right "Ralph Fletcher Seymour MCMXVI." Signed in pencil, lower left: "To Dorothy Phelps with the regards of Ralph Seymour."
Size: Etching 10.5 x 14. Framed: 19.5 x 23.5.
S#: 0136.05.0119
Left: Courtesy of Google Earth.Date: 1916
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching, "Spring in Trepiez" 1916.
Description: Etching pulled from a copper plate. Village scene with a house snuggled in the trees. Clouds billow over head in the background. This etching was one of six exhibited at "An Exhibition of Etchings" held at the Art Institute of Chicago, February 1 to March 4, 1917. Six of Seymour's etchings were exhibited: Winter; Doorway; Tamarack; Two Trees, Ravinia; Spring in Trepiez; Fourth Presbyterian Church. This etching was also exhibited at the Third Annual Exhibition of "The Brooklyn Society of Etchers" held at the Brooklyn Museum, December 9 to January 5, 1918-1919. Signed in pencil: "Spring in Trepiez. Seymour."
Size: Etching 4 x 5.75. Sheet: 5 x 8.25
S#: 0136.15.0222
Detail.Date: 1916
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching, "Trees" (Possibly "Two Trees") 1916.
Description: Etching pulled from a copper plate. Landscape with two trees, one in the foreground and one to the right behind it. This etching was poissibly exhibited at "An Exhibition of Etchings" held at the Art Institute of Chicago, February 1 to March 4, 1917. Six of Seymour's etchings were exhibited: Winter; Doorway; Tamarack; Two Trees, Ravinia; Spring in Trepiez; and Fourth Presbyterian Church. Signed in the plate upper left, overlapping "RFS" and "MCMXVI." Signed in pencil lower left: "Seymour." Label on verso: "P.292 pos. Ralph Seymour. "Trees." 5 5/8 x 2 5/8" etching. 1.1.: "Seymour" (Note: Etching, which was mounted on a very old and brittle poster board was bent in shipping and cracked the board and etching.)
Size: Etching 2.625 x 5.625.
S#: 0136.17.1123
Date: 1916
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching “A Lake In The Laurentians” Circa 1916 (Not Dated).
Description: The Laurentian Mountains are located in eastern Canada in the province of Quebec. We could not identify a time period where Ralph Fletcher Seymour visited the Quebec area, or for that matter, Canada. An illustration of trees and vegetation along the short of “A Lake In The Laurentians.” Hand written in pencil lower left: “A Lake In The Laurentians. 2/50.” This etching is the seconds of a run of fifty etchings. Signed in pencil lower right: “Ralph Fletcher Seymour.” An etching pulled from a copper plate.
Size: Etching: 7 x 9.5. Sheet: 10.25 x 13.5. Frame: 11.5 x 14.75
S#: 0136.23.0924Date: 1916
Title: Poetry, A Magazine of Verse - February 1916 (Published monthly by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago)
Author: Edited by Harriet Monroe
Description: In 1912 Harriet Monroe approached Seymour about designing and publishing a new literary journal, Poetry Magazine. (Caxtonian, May, 2011, P. 4) The first issue was published in October. Copyright Harriet Monroe. Harriet Monroe, Editor. The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company, Printers, Chicago. It is not indicated, but the cover was most likely designed by Seymour. Original cover price 15 cents, Annual Subscription $1.50.
Size: 5.5 x 8
Pages: Pp 217-270
S#: 0132.23.0217Date: 1916
Title: Poetry, A Magazine of Verse - March 1916 (Published monthly by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago)
Author: Edited by Harriet Monroe
Description: In 1912 Harriet Monroe approached Seymour about designing and publishing a new literary journal, Poetry Magazine. (Caxtonian, May, 2011, P. 4) The first issue was published in October. Copyright Harriet Monroe. Harriet Monroe, Editor. The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company, Printers, Chicago. It is not indicated, but the cover was most likely designed by Seymour. Original cover price 15 cents, Annual Subscription $1.50. 5.5 x 8.
Size:
Pages: Pp 271-326
S#: 0132.24.0217Date: 1916
Title: Poetry, A Magazine of Verse - July 1916 (Published monthly by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago)
Author: Edited by Harriet Monroe
Description: In 1912 Harriet Monroe approached Seymour about designing and publishing a new literary journal, Poetry Magazine. (Caxtonian, May, 2011, P. 4) The first issue was published in October. Copyright Harriet Monroe. Harriet Monroe, Editor. The Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company, Printers, Chicago. It is not indicated, but the cover was most likely designed by Seymour. Original cover price 15 cents, Annual Subscription $1.50.
Size: 5.5 x 8
Pages: Pp 163-218
S#: 0136.13.0221Date: 1916
Title: Paul Verlaine and His Absinthe-Tinted Song. A Monograph on the Poet, with selections from his work, arranged and translated from the French by Bergen Applegate. (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, Chicago. T4"his edition of Paul Verlaine consists of 250 copies on old strathford deckle edge paper and contains an original etching of Paul Verlaine. Published in December, MCMXVI." Frontispiece is an etching, pulled from a copper plate, dark brown ink, 4 x 5.4. Overlapping "RFS" bottom right hand corner. Decorative title page designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Section 1,Melancholia, I. Resignation and II. Nevermoure, pp.44-45, illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Four photogravures are from paintings by Edmund Dulac. Frontispiece and four illustrations are slip-sheeted with tissue. Printed on beige old strathford deckle-edged laid paper with "Old Stratford USA" watermark.)
Author: Verlaine, Paul; Translated by Applegate, Bergen; Biography by Applegate, Bergen
Description: Biography, pages 3-40: "The Man. Wandering from lupanar to lupanar, and from wine-shop to wine-shop, he seems to have staggered out of the pages of Petronius - some vague, indefinite creature, half beast and half man a veritable satyr and who, in the glitter of modern Paris, fared as fatuitously as in a fable. Indeed, well might he be likened to the mythical old Eumpolus, the drunken brawling poet of the Satyricon, reappearing after so many centuries, with a fresh stock of mock-heroic verses and amplifying in some dingy cafe of the Quartier Latin, his tale of the Ephesian matron. His life from early youth appears to have followed the course of a Rake's Progress, as though, during adolescence, he had chosen Hogarth's hero for model. And to what depths this primrose path finally led him to a felon's cell, an exile's garret, and the pauper's bed of death. Let us look at this singular genius in one of his favorite haunts. It is the year 1 893. A basement cafe, Place St. Michel, Paris. The air is fetid with tobacco smoke, mixed with the pungent, acrid odor of absinthe. It is two o'clock in the morning. Some Parisian night birds, souteneurs, piles de joie, and the like, have dropped in to moisten their gullets and look for prey..." (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 9.75
Pages: Pp 212
S#: 0136.04.1118Date: 1916
Title: Paul Verlaine: His Absinthe Tinted Song. A Monograph on the Poet, with selections from his work, arranged and translated from the French by Bergen Applegate. (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, Chicago. Small label on spine: “Paul Verlaine: His Absinthe Tinted Song. Applegatye.” This edition does not include the frontispiece etching. It is also missiong the note, “Published in December, MCMXVI” but copyright date is 1916. Decorative title page designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Section 1,Melancholia, I. Resignation and II. Nevermoure, pp.44-45, illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Four photogravures are from paintings by Edmund Dulac. The four illustrations are slip-sheeted with tissue. Where the four photogravures in the first volume were printed using black ink, thy are printed with brown ink in this volume. Printed on beige paper with the watermark, “D” within a diamond and “Regal Antigue”.)
Author: Verlaine, Paul; Translated by Applegate, Bergen; Biography by Applegate, Bergen
Description: This volume may be a second edition, but it is not stated. Cover design is different. Biography, pages 3-40: “The Man. Wandering from lupanar to lupanar, and from wine-shop to wine-shop, he seems to have staggered out of the pages of Petronius – some vague, indefinite creature, half beast and half man a veritable satyr and who, in the glitter of modern Paris, fared as fatuitously as in a fable. Indeed, well might he be likened to the mythical old Eumpolus, the drunken brawling poet of the Satyricon, reappearing after so many centuries, with a fresh stock of mock-heroic verses and amplifying in some dingy cafe of the Quartier Latin, his tale of the Ephesian matron. His life from early youth appears to have followed the course of a Rake's Progress, as though, during adolescence, he had chosen Hogarth's hero for model. And to what depths this primrose path finally led him to a felon's cell, an exile's garret, and the pauper's bed of death. Let us look at this singular genius in one of his favorite haunts. It is the year 1 893. A basement cafe, Place St. Michel, Paris. The air is fetid with tobacco smoke, mixed with the pungent, acrid odor of absinthe. It is two o'clock in the morning. Some Parisian night birds, souteneurs, piles de joie, and the like, have dropped in to moisten their gullets and look for prey...” (Second Edition??)
Size: 6.25 x 9.75
Pages: Pp 212
S#: 0136.21.0724Date: 1916
Title: Preludes of Poetry and Music (Hard Cover) (Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. Pages uncut.)
Author: Curtis, Irene
Description: "Requests from friends for copies of the poems written by my daughter, Irene, led to the desire to put them into convenient and permanent form. Dear letters have come testifying to the purity, earnestness, and inspiration idealism of her life, and its hoped that this little volume may in a measure perpetuate that influence. After a struggle of three years against failing health, on April 7, 1916, the sweet spirit passed on, and all that is mortal now rests in the family lot at Anamosa, Iowa..." A compilation of 22 poems, and 6 songs. Includes one portrait (frontispiece), an illustration by Frederick Richardson, a handwritten poem and a compilation of three portraits. All are photogravures and is tissued. Original list price $2.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6.4 x 8.75
Pages: Pp 73
S#: 0132.22.0414
Date: 1916
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching, Bookplate for Irene Dwen Pace Andrews, 1916
Description: Text on face: "Irene Dwen Andrews." Irene Dwen Pace Andrews (1892-1962) was a major collector of ex-libris (book-plates). Her collection is now at Yale University. Acquired from The Bookplate Society, London. Signed "RFS" lower left, in the plate. This bookplate listed in Year Book 1929 and dated 1916. Printed on beige laid paper.
Size: 3 x 4.125
S#: 0142.30.05211917 Date: 1917
Title: An Exhibition of Etchings. Chicago Society of Etchers (Digital copy) (Published by the Chicago Society of Etchers and the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago)
Author: Chicago Society of Etchers
Description: Catalogue of An Exhibition of Etchings, Under the Management of the Chicago Society of Etchers. February 1 to March 4, 1917. Held at the Art Institute of Chicago. For this exhibition, 551 etchings were submitted out of which 283 were accepted. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was a member of The Chicago Society of Etchers, and exhibited six etchings at this exhibition: Winter, Doorway, Tamarack, Two Trees, Ravinia, Spring in Trepiez; Fourth Presbyterian Church. (Digital Edition)
Size: 7 x 10.75
Pages: Pp 37
S#: 0138.36.0322Date: Circa 1917
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching, “First Snow,” Circa 1917 (Not Dated).
Description: According to Jim Rosenthal, this etching was produced after a visit to Lincoln Park in Chicago. Lincoln Park is about 3.5 miles north of the Fine Arts Building. Snow blankets the ground, branches, bridge and ledge.
Growing up in Chicago, I have memories of snow blanketing the landscape. I would stand outside, and listen to the absence of sound. Snow had a way of absorbing noise. You could sense the stillness snow created.
Hand written in pencil lower left: “First Snow.” Signed in pencil lower right: “Ralph Fletcher Seymour.” Signed in the plate upper left, overlapping "RFS” within a triangle." Label on back of framed etching: “Kodaks Picture Frames, Novelties. Hobbs & Sutphen. 31-E. Adams St. Chicago.” An etching pulled from a copper plate.
Size: Etching: 3.5 x 6. Sheet: 8.25 x 11. Frame: 9 x 12.5
S#: 0138.45.1024Date: 1917
Title: Music In The Home. An Aid to Parents and Teachers in the Cause of Better Listening. (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Faulkner, Anne Shaw
Description: Many of the chapters in this book are based on articles, which have appeared in the educational numbers of the New York Musical Courier and in a series which were published by the Chicago Sunday Herald during the past year.
Foreword: In my long and varied experience as lecturer on musical subjects before clubs and schools, I have frequently been told by members of my audience: "You know I am not musical, but I love music." It seems to be a very well defined theory that unless one can claim some technical accomplishment in music, one has no right to acknowledge even a love for the art, or to claim the right of being "musical." It has always seemed to me that one who loves music is really often more truly musical than are some artists, whom God has given a pretty talent for reproduction, but who have not the true understanding of the music which they are trying to interpret... (First Edition)
Size: 5.75 x 8.25
Pages: Pp 155
S#: 0138.41.0822Date: 1917
Title: Profiles From China. Sketches in Verse of People & Things Seen in the Interior. (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago, Illinois. A small white label with red Chinese characters is pasted to the cover. Printed on beige laid paper with "Booklet," then a shied with a crown, and within the shield, "The P M Co." then a banner with "Quality" watermark.)
Author: Tietjens, Eunice
Description: Eunice Tietjens was associate editor of Poetry Magazine. Review in The Dial: "A good deal of the discussion as to whether free verse is really poetry has seemed futile to the reviewer... Among those which deserve to be cherished are Mrs. Tietjens's "Profiles from China." The poems are distinguished first by their almost unfailing subjectivity. The writer nearly always interprets each sight in terms of her own reaction. The poetry is personal, intimate, confidential. We do not mean that it is autobiographical, but that Mrs. Tietjens quickly establishes a close relation between herself and the reader. She sees dirty, crowded China with a quick eye, and puts it before us with its gods and beggars, walls, women and dandies, rickshas and camels all portrayed with humor, fear, sympathy, pathos, irony, and imagination. That is, it is weighted with an emotional appeal and lively imagery. We quote from one of the most beautiful." The Dial, April 16, 1917. Original list price $1.00. (First Edition)
Size: 5 x 7.75
Pages: Pp 75
S#: 0138.22.1118Date: 1917
Title: Sammy's Service Star. The Story of a Christmas Angel (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed on beige laid paper. Top edge trimmed, others uncut.)
Author: Faulkner, Georgene
Description: "A short Christmas story dedicated to Sammy at the front and his mother in the home, written by Georgene Faulkner, is published in an art booklet suitable for Christmas greetings. It is entitled Sammy's Service Star and describes Sammy's Christmas Eve in a base hospital at the front before he receives his box and a letter from home and after. Then it takes you back to America, to his home, and tells what the service star means to his mother who is waiting." The Lyceum Magazine, December, 1917, p.46. Frontispiece illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Overlapping RFS left side of illustration. Title page designed by Seymour. RFS lower left.(First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 7.75
Pages: Pp 16
S#: 0138.33.0120
Frontispiece illustration by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Detail is flipped horizontally. Frontispiece illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Overlapping RFS left side of illustration.
Date: 1917
Title: Songs of the Skokie And Other Verse (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago, under the Alder Brink Press Imprint.)
Author: Spicer, Anne Higginson
Description: "If you love modest but sweet and inspiring music you really should read the book yourself." The Chicago Herald. "Indeed her book is a signal addition to the poetry that has come forth from Chicago." The Chicago Tribune. "(The Skokie is the old Indian name for a marshy country lying parallel to Lake Michigan, back of the Ridge, north of the city of Chicago.)" A compilation of 134 poems by Anne Higginson Spicer. Original list price $1.50. (First Edition)
Size: 5.75 x 8.2
Pages: Pp 167
S#: 0138.11.0415
Date: 1917
Title: The Story of Five Dogs (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. Cover stamped and gilt. Photograph glued to cover. Printed on a beige paper. Title page designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.)
Author: Carr, Walter E.
Description: A collection of stories about the author's pet dogs owned over the course of his lifetime. The stories were written for his little daughter. Review in Our Dumb Animals, January, 1918, p.128: "If I were condemned to spend twenty-four hours alone with a single creature," says John Galsworthy, "I would choose to spend them with my dog." Of all animals, the dog has the high honor of constant intercourse with man: his fidelity and intelligence have made him deserving of this distinction. The author of these pleasing stories, a sincere and sympathetic dog lover, had five four-footed members of his household, each differing in kind and personality, but all developing into loyal and lovable specimens of doghood, quickly responsive to the kindly treatment of their master and rewarding him by their affection and interesting behavior. The stories make a strong appeal for better care and more thoughtfulness of the growing dog to read them is to be reminded of the humane duty that we owe to the dog we own. The illustrations of the dogs, as well as the other decorative features are attractive. Original list price $1.00. (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 8
Pages: Pp 34
S#: 0138.35.0521
(Frontispiece and Title Page) Title: Twelve Months With the Birds and Poets (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed on beige laid paper, side is uncut. Limited to two hundred copies. Hand written, "No. 15." Includes 5 illustrations by Fletcher: Frontispiece, Pages 8, 102, 182 and 249. Signed by the author.)
Author: Harper, Samuel A.
Description: "Devoting a chapter to each month in the year, the author pleasantly interweaves his own observations and appreciation of birds with those of the ornithologist and poet. His reading has evidently carried him far afield in both the science and sentiment of ornithology and combining the results of these excursions with his own he has written a volume which contains much of interest for both bird students and general readers. It is a little difficult to reconcile his fondness for the English Sparrow with a genuine love of the birds in whose ways we find some expression of those traits which we commend in mankind but at best we may credit him with the courage to champion a member of the feathered race whose friends are found chiefly among those unfamiliar with other forms of bird life Excellent taste has been shown in the makeup of this book which may well find its way to the library of the nature lover." Bird-Lore, March-April 1918, p.167. Original list price $1.50 (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 9.5
Pages: Pp 295
S#: 0138.12.0216
Five illustrations by Ralph Fletcher Fletcher: Frontispiece, Pages 8, 102, 182 and 249.
1918
(Title Page)
Title: Bethlehem's Gift (Soft Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Arranged by: Free, Margaret
Description:
Size: Story of Christmas from the New Testament. Scripture arranged by Margaret Free. Six full page illustrations by Jessie Arms Botke. End pages also illustrated by Botke. Chapters include: Prophesies, The Annunciation, The Magnificent, Annunciation to Joseph, The Nativity, The Shepherds, The Star of Bethlehem, and Fulfillment. The sixth illustration, The Wise Men, is reduced and affixed to the front cover. Cover text gilt. Printed throughout in two-color. Top and bottom pages trimmed, sides uncut. Original list price 25c. 4.5 x 6.6 (First Edition)
Pages: Pp 22
S#: 0139.06.02144
(Example Spread)Date: 1918
Title: The Brooklyn Society of Etchers. Third Annual Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. December ninth to January fifth, 1918-1919. (Published by The Brooklyn Society of Etchers, Brooklyn)
Author: Brooklyn Society of Etchers
Description: One hundred fifty two etching were on display at the exhibition. Ralph Fletcher Seymour exhibited Spring in Trepiez. (Digital Edition)
Size: 4.75 x 10.75
Pages: Pp 12
S#: 0139.20.0322Date: 1918
Title: From Day to Day. Essays on Things Ordinary (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Boards are covered with a light green paper, the spine is covered in cloth. A label is pasted to the cover and spine.)
Author: Mauran, Grace Goodman
Description: A compilation of 27 essays. Frontispiece is an etching by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, pulled from a copper plate. "RFS, MCMXVIII" bottom right hand corner, etched in the plate. Publisher's description: "Clever essays on various ordinary subjects such as "At the Death-Bed of Hens," "Curtains," "Memories of Maids" and "The Great Adventure." "Introduction. The writing of daily themes is one of the requirements in the courses in English compositions in universities, and, I believe, in high schools and colleges. Within the compass of a page, or a paragraph or two, the student is requested to express views on any subject that may enter his or her head. After dropping these dailies into a theme box, or handing them into the instructor, these budding authors wait, with more or less trepidation, the reading aloud in class of the best, or the worst of these bits of composition, and the verdicts of fellow-students and teacher... The following collection of 'dailies' represent such an accumulation. Whether they may serve as a warning to universities, or merely become a further reproach to the 'house-bound' woman depends upon the verdict of that larger classroom, the public." Original list price $1.25. (First edition)
Size: Etching: 3.2 x 5. Boards: 5.25 x 7.6.
Pages: Pp 120
S#: 0139.11.1019
Frontispiece is an etching by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, pulled from a copper plate. "RFS, MCMXVIII" bottom right hand corner, etched in the plate.Date: 1918
Title: Idylls of the Skillet Fork (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Trimmed top and bottom. Paper label on spine.)
Author: Wild, Payson, S.
Description: Quaint and unusual poems in the vernacular of the native of Egypt, Illinois. Dedication: To The Presiding Spirit (In a Manner of Speaking) Herein Called "B I L L" of Skillet Fork Farm on the Borders of "Egypt." Foreword: Twenty-two of these Bucolics have appeared from time to time during the last three years in "A Line O' Type or Two" of The Chicago Tribune. For permission to reprint them here I am indebted to the genial "Conductor." A compilation of 26 poems. Includes three photographs. Cover printed in four colors. Original list price $1.50. (First Edition)
Size: 5.25 x 7.75
Pages: Pp 80
S#: 0139.09.1114
Date: 1918
Title: Life of Adrienne d'Ayen, Marquise de La Fayette. Translated from the French by S. Richard Fuller (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed on a beige stock with a Watermark: ANGLO-SAXON, J W P CO.)
Author: Guilhou, Marguerite
Description: This little volume - it is scarcely more than an essay - is interesting mainly for the side lights it gives upon the life of the husband of the central figure. The Marquise de La Fayette was a worthy companion to her distinguished husband sharing to the full his liberal and generous ideas and interfusing them with a piety sincere and deep. Her life was a fairly long one, checkered by the varying fortunes into which her husband fell; she was adored, with him, in the early stages of the Revolution, and also shared the odium which finally settled on him, and was responsible for his long imprisonment at Olmutz. His lot there became literally her own, for she journeyed after him and insisted upon becoming his fellow prisoner. They were finally released, after the Marquis had been incarcerated five and his wife two years. The death of the Marquise was a saintly one, well befitting one who had been "so high minded, so heroic in the tragic events of life, so kind, so affable, so simple in the daily routine, so French and so Catholic." Review in The Catholic World, January, 1919, page 544. Includes six half-tone illustrations. Original list price $1.50.(First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 8
Pages: Pp 69
ST#: 0139.08.0814
Date: 1918
Title: My Chicago (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Morgan, Anne
Description: Preface. This book was written when the shadow of war was lowering over this country deepening as the months went by that followed the first year of our entry. They are growing still darker and spreading toward what depths, we do not know; creeping round every home in the land, peering through every window like a sinister stranger. My story deals with happier times... That we shall remember tranquil times, filled with the ardor and the glows of old ambitions, old achievements is sweet and proper... Includes 17 photographs, one portrait signed by author, "Faithfully yours, Anne Morgan, 1918." Original list price $2.50. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 8.25
Pages: Pp 201
S#: 0139.07.0814
Date: 1918
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour Post Card 1918. World War I Red Cross Post Card.
Description: Face: "Artists' Aid To The Red Cross. I want this simple message to reach you Christmas day. When friends bespeak each other in the good old-fashioned way: And this is just the substance of the message that I send. - The thought of you is playing on the heart-strings of a friend. G.H." Signed Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Verso: "This little card is a warm and friendly greeting to you from your own people. You in turn may write you name and a message below and send it back to some one in your home town." Post marked: "U.S. Army Post Office M.P.E.S., Nov 8, 1918." Illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Printed in two-color.
Size: 5.5 x 3.5
S#: 0139.10.1216Date: 1918
Title: Times And Manners. A Pageant (Hard Cover) (Published by the Chicago Women's Club - Chicago. Printed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press. MCMXVIII. Printed on beige paper with the watermark: "SUADE <D> FINISH." Top edge trimmed, others uncut.)
Author: Peattie, Elia W.
Description: One of five hundred copies signed by the author. "Prologue: Governess, who becomes a lady of the Renaissance, and who reads the words of the pageant. First dress, rain coat and hat and galoshes; second dress, golden brocade and pearl head-dress. Pam and Colin, half-grown school children, dressed in modified Kate Greenaway costume. Must look contemporary, but picturesquely so." (First Edition)
Size: 5 x 6.25
Pages: Pp 33
S#: 0139.19.01221919 Date: 1919
Title: Italy and Austria, A Contrast. The Unification of Italy; The Military violence of Austria Against Italy (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago)
Author: Harding, Adelaide Mathews (Mrs. George F. Harding)
Description: Dedicated to: The memory of those Italian soldiers and sailors who went forth to fight the enemies of their country but who did not return. Conclusion: Four Italian heroes achieved the unification of Italy - Giuseppi Mazzini - Vittoria Emmanuelli, II. - Count Camillo Cavour - Giuseppi Garibaldi. Notwithstanding the long years of Austrian domination with its benumbing effect on the populace, Italy has been most fortunate in having courageous, enlightened, far-seeing rulers; from the first King Victor Emmanuel II, down through the reign of her present King Victor Emmanuel III... Original list price $1.75. 4.6 x 7.25 (First Edition)
Size:
Pages: Pp 244
S#: 0141.08.0114
Date: 1919
Title: Laboratories That Turn Losses to Profits (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. Boards are covered in a dark green cloth, title in gilt.)
Author: Crissey, Forrest
Description: "Forrest Crissey was both a writer of fiction and nonfiction. He began as a reporter for the Chicago Times in the early 1880s but left for an editorial position at the Geneva Patrol before the end of the decade. In 1893, Crissey returned to the Chicago Times and subsequently did stints at a number of Chicago-based publications, such as the Chicago Tribune. He worked for magazines as well as newspapers. From 1901 to 1934, Crissey was an editor, the western representative reporter, and wrote stories for the Saturday Evening Post. He was similarly employed for the publication Women's World and The Ladies Home Journal of Philadelphia, to which Jane Addams' contributed, as well. Crissey published his first book, The Country Boy in 1897. Over the course of his career, he went on to publish poems and short stories. Crissey ended his career with a biography in 1939." From the Jane Addams Project. Includes 5 illustrations by an unidentified illustrator. (First Edition)
Size: 3.5 x 5.5
Pages: Pp 62
S#: 0141.13.0321Date: 1919
Title: Notre Pauvre Coeur (Our Poor Heart ) (Soft Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Couverture Par Genevieve Stump. Vignettes Par Anthony Stuffers. Cover By Genevieve Stump. Thumbnails By Anthony Stuffers.)
Author: Boria, Jacques
Description: Published in French. Dedication: "Amour" petit etre mysterieux, qui desire rester anonyme, c'est a toi, que je dedie ces poemes. ("Love" mysterious little being, who wishes to remain anonymous, it is to you that I dedicate these poems.) "This edition of 'Notre pauvre cceur' is limited to 200 de luxe numbered copies on Albion deckle edge paper, bound in special wrappers, and signed by the author ; and 600 copies of the regular edition. Printed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, Chicago, MCMXIX." (Note: This is a regular edition.) Poems are printed on one side of double leaves, folded once in Japanese style, on beige stock with the watermark "Suede <D> Finish." (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 9.3
Pages: Pp 52
S#: 0141.12.1220Date: 1919
Title: Trolley Lines Jotted Down Coming and Going (Stiff cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. Printed on thick beige stock. Top and bottom edges trimmed, sides uncut. Cover illustration by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Signed "RFS" bottom left back cover. Plain stiff paper cover with printed overwrap, wraps top and sides. Cover printed in five colors. Dark green, light and dark blue, dark beige, and yellow.)
Author: Proudfoot, Andrea Hofer
Description: A compilation of 51 poems.
"Trolley Line. Water Front. You who often lie so still. Sifting the dense fumes of the city. Into sea-lights and satin edgings -- You, who flick through the spaces. When from intermittent streets. You call us. With your patches of beauty -- You balmy, crouching blue wonder -- You, who shadow our skyline. And make it dance like a hoyden; Snapping its pattern. Dissolving it back into etchings, Ragging them with your shore-wash -- You, who laugh in your lakebed. And spread out your body, Stretching to show us. Your bowelling vastness..."
Inscribed: "Merry Christmas to Mrs. Ralla B. Hyman - 1919. Andrea Hofer Proudfoot ."Andrea Hofer Proudfoot (1865-1949) founded the League of International Amity in 1913. In July 1915 she, along with Jane Addams, Carrie Chapman Catt, and others spoke in San Francisco at the "International Conference of Women Workers to Promote Permanent Peace." After World War I, Proudfoot, as Secretary of the American Committee For Vienna Relief in Chicago, was awarded the Eiserne Salvator-Medaille by the City of Vienna. (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 7.5
Pages: Pp 72
S#: 0141.14.05211920 Date: Circa 1920
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching, "Mexican Market," Circa 1920.
Description: Etching pulled from a copper plate. Ralph Fletcher Seymour also titled this etching "Market Day at Tamazunchale." Tamazunchale is approximately 330 kilometers north of Mexico City. Just Northwest of the bridge that crosses the Rio Amajac River in Tamazunchale, where Hidalgo Street merges into Morelos Street, the church shown in this etching still exists and is now the Parroquia San Juan Bautista in Tamazunchale, on the corner of Francisco L. Morelos Street and Morelos Street. Nearly one hundred years later, the church has been enlarges, but if you look closely, elements of the old building exist. Signed in plate lower right "R F Seymour." Signed in pencil, lower left: "Mexican Market." Signed in pencil lower right: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour".
Size: Etching 10 x 8. Sheet 12.3 x 10.
S#: 0142.17.0119
Early postcards of the Parroquia San Juan Bautista in TamazunchaleDate: Circa 1920 (Not Dated)
Title: Cupid's Pranks. Collected and Composed by Phoebe Strong Dunham. (Published by the Ralph Fletcher Seymour Company, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. Note: not dated.)
Author: Dunham, Phoebe Strong
Description: A composite of poems by authors that include: Browning, Byron, Shelly, Leigh Hunt, Longfellow, St. Augustine and Homes. Title page has an illustration of cupids tipped in. Printed on beige paper with a "suede <D> finish" watermark. The "D" is within a diamond. Includes eleven illustrations by an unknown artist, but possibly by Seymour. (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 8.1
Pages: Pp 27
S#: 0142.14.1215
Date: 1920
Title: Red Earth: Poems of New Mexico (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed on laid paper with a "Canterbury, The PM Co., Quality" watermark. Top and bottom trimmed, side uncut. Paper covered boards.)
Author: Corbin, Alice
Description: The majority of the poems in this book were first published in "Poetry, A Magazine of Verse." From the Stone Age was printed in "The New Republic"; Tree and Horses and Bird-Song and Wire in "The Dial"; the others appear here for the first time. A collection of 51 poems. Inscribed by the author, "To Mrs. Hunter (Frances Swan Hunter), with cordial regards from, Alice Corbin." This was the authors third published book of poetry: The Linnet Songs (1898), The Spinning Woman of the Sky (1912). She was an associate editor at "Poetry" from 1912 until 1922, and co-edited, with Harriet Monroe, two editions of the anthology "The New Poetry" (1923 and 1932). (First Edition)
Size: 5.4 x 8.5
Pages: Pp 58
S#: 0142.11.0114
Date: 1920
Title: Sketches in Lyric Prose and Verse (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, under the Alder Brink Press Imprint. Printed on Old Stratford deckle edge paper. "This edition of 'Schetches in Lyric Prose and Verse' is limited to 50 de luxe numbered copies on Old Stratford deckle edge paper, signed by the author, and the regular edition. Printed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, Chicago, MCMXX. Number 13." [Signed] Heartfully yours, Natalie W. Price.)
Author: Price, Natalie Whitted
Description: A compilation of 46 poems and verse. "Spring, passing on her way, came to a hill-crest, where Ennui reclined, wrapped in the sleep of weariness. Upon the crusty leaves of winter's hoarding his frame lay motionless, in utter lassitude. So gentle was the tread of Spring, so mute her breath, that he awakened not at her approach. Perceiving him, she smiled and drew near. Bending above him she lifted from her brow a fragrant garland and placed it lightly on his own, and from her tasseled apron she drew a hundred roses, binding them with the tendrils of soft mosses, as a pillow for his head. The trailing vines about her feet she laced into a verdant spread with which she covered him and dotted it with pedaled stars of choicest hue; and in the heart of every flower, and through each palpitating leaf she breathed the fragrance of her own sweet self. With sunshine smiles she chased the shivering gnomes of winter from the surrounding wood, and from the silences she beckoned waiting birds and bade them sing a rhapsody..." Original list price $2.00. (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 8.5
Pages: Pp 80
S#: 0142.13.0116
1921 Date: 1921
Title: Out of The Gathering Basket . A Series of Sketches on Gardens and Books (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Cover design and decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Printed on a beige paper with the watermark "DRESDEN PAMPHLET." Top edge trimmed, others uncut.)
Author: Mauran, Grace Goodman
Description: "During a memorable conversation between Bazarov, the hero of Turgenev's Father and Children, and his fascinating friend, Madame Odinstov, the subject of happiness is introduced, and Madame Odinstov questions: "Tell me why it is that even when we are enjoying music, for instance, or a fine evening, or a conversation with sympathetic people, it all seems an intimation of some measured happiness existing apart somewhere rather than actual happiness such as, I mean, we are ourselves in possession of?' " Frontispiece is an etching from a copper plate by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, printed on beige paper with the watermark "Bay... Strath..." Original list price $1.50. (First Edition) Two copies.
Size: 5.1 x 8
Pages: Pp 101
S#: 0144.09.0316, 0144.12.1217Out of The Gathering Basket frontispiece etchings by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, pulled from a copper plate, and bound into the volume. Etching is plate engraved with his initials, signed lower right. Date: 1921
Title: Vagrants (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Boards are covered in a textured tan paper. The title is printed on a paper label, uneven edges, and affixed to the cover. A printed paper label is also affixed to the spine. Printed on cream colored paper with the watermark "Dresden Pamphlet." Top and side edges trimmed, bottom untrimmed.)
Author: Bennett, Georgia E.
Description: "Vagrants.
Perhaps these vagrants, tattered as they are, and torn,
May find some friendly lodging for the night;
If not, there are broom and bracken on the kindly hills,
And winter snows fall soft and light ."
A compilation of fifty-one poems by Georgia E. Bennett.
Original list price $1.75. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9
Pages: Pp 64
S#: 0144.18.0221Date: 1921
Mary Landon Baker 1928, Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London
Title: Verbum Sapienti (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Boards covered in gray cloth. Gilt lettering stamped on cover. Dust jacket, stiff paper, printed in black. Printed on beige paper with the watermark of the letter "A" superimposed over an eagle with spread wings, and the text "Albion Text." Top and side trimmed, bottom untrimmed.)
Author: Baker, Mary Landon
Description: Mary Landon Baker was born into great wealth in 1901. She published this volume in 1920 (first edition) when she was just 19. Verbum Sapienti, "A word to the wise" a collection of her observations about life and human experience. At 21 she made headlines when she left Allister McCormick of the famous McCormick family (International Harvester), at the alter, then repeated it a number of times. It was reported that by the end of her life she had turned down over 65 proposals. The term "Mary Bakered" became synonymous with no-shows. Page vii (p.1), "God thought, and the Universe became." Page viii, "Perfection is a synonym of Spirit." Page ix, "Forgiveness is enlightenment." Etc. After living most of her adult life in Europe, she past away on July 13, 1961 at 61 years of age. (Second Edition)
Size: 4.5 x 6.5
Pages: Pp 49
S#: 0144.11.0317Date: 1921
Title: Where the Sabots Clatter Again (Seymour) Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, 410 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago. Printed on beige laid paper with the watermark: "Old Stratfords. USA." Top and bottom trimmed, sides uncut.)
Author: Shortall, Katherine
Description: "The Radcliffe Unit in France collaborated with the French Red Cross in its work of reconstruction after the Armistice. It was as a member of this unit and as a chauffeuse in the devastated regions that the writer received the impressions set forth in these sketches." "Published For The Benefit of the Radcliffe College Endowment Fund in an Edition Limited to 150 Copies. Second Edition of 150 Copies." Cover, title page and decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Cover illustration initialed bottom right: overlapping "RFS." (Second Edition)
Size: 5.25 x 7.6
Pages: Pp 40
S#: 0144.19.0521
Cover, title page and decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Cover illustration initialed bottom right: overlapping "RFS."1922 Date: 1922
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "Afternoon on the Desplaines" 1922.
Description: View from the shore. A fisherman sits on the end of a boat floating close to shore. In the background is an arched bridge. Hand written in pencil bottom left: "Afternoon on the Desplaines." Hand written in pencil bottom right: "To Mary Arnold, with the appreciation of Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Etched in plate lower left: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Etched in plate lower right: "MCMXXII Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Size: Etching from a copper plate, 8.6 x 6.6. Sheet size: 12 x 9.75. Framed: 15.75 x 14.5.
S#: 0147.14.1117Left: Detail of "Afternoon on the Desplaines"
Right: Etched in plate lower right: "MCMXXII Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Left: Hand written in pencil bottom left: "Afternoon on the Desplaines."
Right: Hand written in pencil bottom left: "To Mary Arnold, with the appreciation of Ralph Fletcher Seymour."Date: 1922
Title: Faces and Open Doors (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Label pasted on spine.)
Author: Lee, Agnes
Description: A compilation of 52 poems. Although many of Agnes Lee's poems were previously published in numerous magazines, this was the first time to be compiled and published in book form. "This book contains many of my recent poems and I have selected and revised others, from my former volumes, to bear them company. For kind permission for reprinting I thank: Poetry, a Magazine of Verse, The North American Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The Bookman, The Dial, Collier's, The Bellman, The Youth's Companion, The Poetry Journal and The Craftsman." In 1926 won Poetry magazine's Guarantors' Prize, which had previously been won by Robert Frost. Edgar Lee Masters, was an admirer of her poetry. Original list price $1.50. (First Edition)
Size: 5 x 7.75
Pages: Pp 120
S#: 0147.07.1014
Date: 1922
Title: Juliette Recamier. Her Life and Times (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago) Printed on laid paper with the watermark "Albion Text." Top pages are trimmed, other uncut.
Author: Austrain, Delia
Description: "In the library of a certain bachelor, known for his austere and somewhat rigid qualities, a life-sized portrait of Madame Recamier hangs conspicuously. Her piquant loveliness adds an incongruous radiance to the gloomy and rather monotonous room. She is there, I have suspected, because she represents a world he would have liked to live in, a world of free spirit and intellect, of romance, charm and beauty. Delia Austrian's new biography, Juliette Recamier makes you feel that to the author she is the same sort of symbol. You appreciate the industry even enthusiasm that prompted the study, But when you've finished reading it you know as little about the woman as you did from looking at her portrait. You are conscious that she was a vivid and lovely person, that she lived in stirring literary and political times. You know that she lived intensely, thought deeply and suffered much yet she remains after all, an unknown personality..." Florence Guy Woolston, The New Republic, September 20, 1922. Original list price $4.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 10
Pages: Pp 169
S#: 0147.11.1016
Illustrations by Ralph Fletcher SeymourDate: 1922
Title: My Hearthside, Poems written to Sally (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed on a beige paper with the watermark "DRESDEN PAMPHLET." Top and bottom edges trimmed, side uncut. Missing frontispiece portrait.)
Author: Cheney, John Vance
Description: A compilation of 10 poems. "Thou and I. Love, I would have thee as the snow is, white; And pure on hilltops of the winter day; Thou shouldst have sovereign rule, the spirit sway; Of beauty, wide and shining as the light. Thou shouldst be as the evening star is, bright; As heaven can make it; all thy summer way; The melodies of June should sing and play; In thee, the darling of the day and night. But I would have thee human first and last, One not untouched by trouble, sought of sin, Thine innocence not accident, but choice. Fit then my service: I should have no past, No future; newly would my life begin, Obedient to the music of thy voice." Note: The fourth book published by Way & Williams in 1895 was "Queen Helen, and Other Poems" by John Vance Cheney. (First Edition)
Size: 5.25 x 8
Pages: Pp 45
S#: 0147.09.03161923
Date: 1923
Title: Experimenting With Human Lives. The Fine Art Society, Olive Hill, Hollywood, California. (Soft Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. The pages are folded Japanese style and printed in red and black. A strip of cloth, 7" x 1/2" is stapled on the front and back, then glued into a stiff paper cover that wraps around the booklet and forms a folder.)
Author: Wright, Frank Lloyd
Description: This undated pamphlet was written after the 1923 earthquake in Japan. "The rim of the Pacific basin is no place to experiment with human lives in the interests of an architectural expedient. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tokio (sic), all on the rim of this great basin, are infested by that expedient. That expedient is the tall steel frame building we call the skyscraper, and it has no better scientific, aesthetic or moral basis for existence as a bid for human sacrifice then the greed of the speculative landlord, the unworthy ambition of commercialized architects, or false civic pride that encourages and protects both. This great basin of the Pacific is overloaded, - overloaded with gigantic waters. Occasionally, as faults and fissures occur in its floor owing to the strains of this overload, water rushes down with enormous pressure to internal fires - creating steam and gases of incalculable power, seeking escape through other internal crevices leading to the upper air and convulse and alter the confirmation of the earth-crust in doing so..." Frank Lloyd Wright.
Ralph Fletcher Seymour wrote: "Frank Wright went to Japan and built the Imperial Hotel. An earthquake which shattered much of Tokyo left his building uninjured. He consider this to be a justification for his architectural principles and practices and wrote a little monograph to that effect, which I also printed for him..." (p.114) Seymour continued, "There is also a square shaped, thin paper pamphlet, printed in red and black, on pages 1.4.5.8.9, etc. written by Wright on the topic 'Experimenting With Human Lives.' The Fine Arts Society, Olive Hill, Hollywood, California are the alleged publishers. It contains an interesting treatise on the direction of edifices, anywhere, in such a way that they will remain standing, but points out that they should be built in accordance with such sound principles of construction as the author, Frank Lloyd Wright used in his various enterprises and, in particular, in the direction of his famous hotel in Tokyo, which almost alone of the many fine edifices withstood the force of the Tokyo earthquake. He writes that "the solution of all great problem is a simple - that is to say, an organic matter of putting the right thing in the right way in the right place. And because it is simple it is difficult and because it is difficult it is rare." "Some Went This Way," Seymour, 1945, p.125-126.
Robert C. Twombly wrote: "Wright returned to Japan for the last time in November 1922... When the Imperial (Hotel) survived the worst earthquake in Japanese memory, just as Wright said it would, he became something of an international celebrity. Taking advantage of his notoriety, he wrote Experimenting With Human Lives, a pamphlet for the Los Angeles Fine Arts Society... explaining the hotels construction principles. "Frank Lloyd Wright His Life and His Architecture" Twombly, 1979, p.182.
Katherine Smith wrote: "It was at this time (1923) that the Fine Art Society was formed on Olive Hill. One of its goals was to produce 'artistic literature' to distribute throughout the world. Its only known publication was authored by Frank Lloyd Wright, "Experimenting With Human Lives," a pamphlet condemning skyscraper construction in the earthquake-prone Pacific basin which links Tokyo and Los Angeles. This essay seems to be the beginning of Wright's philosophy on low density development which culminate in his writing on Broadacre City." JSAH, Smith, March 1979, p.31, Note 44. Acquired from the estate of Wilbert and Marilyn Hasbrouck. (First Edition) (Sweeney 149)
Size: 7.3 x 6.75
Pages: Pp 12
S#: 0149.00.1217Date: 1923
Title: High Lights and Twilights of Morningshore (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed on a beige laid paper, with "Canterbury <D> Laid" watermark, "D" is within a diamond. Title label pasted to spin. Top and bottom cut, side uncut)
Author: Leslie, Sarah Satterthwaite
Description: "A Refreshing Experience. It is refreshing to pick up a book of poetry that openly adopts forms long known as poetic and then endeavors to make something new of them by dint of fresh phrasing and original combination of lines. The reader of such a book is not troubled by unfamiliar patterns, perhaps unpoetic, too. He reads with a feeling of ease, yet meets now and then with pleasant deviations from the expected. Such in general is the book written by Mrs. Leslie. She is a skillful versifier and possessed of real poetic feeling. She speaks naturally in metaphor..." The Michigan Alumnus, April 10, 1924, p. 785. Cover and Title Page design by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Original list price $2.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 8.5
Pages: Pp 73
S#: 0156.44.0314
Date: 1923
Title: Poems (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. Printed on laid paper with a "Marlowe" watermark. Top edge trimmed, others uncut.)
Author: Clay, Susan
Description: Signed by the author.
"Through The Rain. Come to me beloved, Through the rain! Through the silver stalks of rain; Bending from the sea and blowing, Long and white and swift flowing, Like a wild field of grain. All night, here, have I waited, By the rain, By the far edge of the rain, Thinking still to hear your wet, Hasting foot-step and forget, The wistful, wrestling measures of the rain."
Susan Clay Sawitzky (1897 - 1981) was an American poet and art historian. She was born in Frankfort Kentucky, and grew up on the outskirts of Lexington. She was a great-granddaughter of Henry Clay and a granddaughter of James Brown Clay. In 1927 she married Vassili (William) Sawitzky, an art historian and dealer. The moved east and lived in New York City and Connecticut. "It was Carol Sax, through whom she had met Sawitsky, who introduced her to the publisher of her book of poems. At Sax's invitation, Ralph Fletcher Seymour brought a collection of etchings to exhibit in Lexington. Susan showed him the sites of Lexington and the countryside. The relationship did not become anything more than a professional one despite Mrs. Clay fears. In December 1923, he published Poems by Susan Clay, a collection of twenty-six short poems written between1917 and 1923." Cautious Rebel. A Biography of Susan Clay Switsky, Lindey Apple, The Kent State University Press, Kent Ohio, and London, 1997. (First Edition)
Size: 4 x 6.1
Pages: Pp 32
S#: 0156.58.09171924 Date: 1924
Title: "Our Sentry Go" (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed on beige paper with the watermark: “Warren’s Olde Style.” Cover text gilt. A label is affixed to the spine, gilt lettering, possibly leather. An illustration is stamped on the cover.)
Author: Watson, Jeanette Grace
Description: The story of the world as we have known it in France during the years of war. Introduction: “Low on the earth is the skylark’s nest, – in the Watson, Jeanette Grace soft herbage, and where the little flowers bloom, we're littlest creatures find shelter and voice is too low for our ears sing their songs of Life. The sound of the dew-drop and the sound of the wind when it sweeps by in a storm; voices from the dust and voices from the sky; all these the Skylark hears in his nest and he gives it to us as he mounts and sings in a very ecstasy of joy… So I bring you story of the world as we have known it in France during the years of war; heard it from the lonely and the great; heard it from people of many lands: heard it in a little house near to the heart of it all...” Two copies. One copy rebound. (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 9.5
Pages: Pp 342
ST#: 0164.16.0224, 0164.11.1220Date: 1924
Title: Silhouettes. Monologues, Sketches and Bits of Verse (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, 410 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago. Boards are covered in a modeled blue paper. Decoration and title in gilt on cover. Printed on a thick beige stock, deckle edges side and bottom, top is trimmed.)
Author: Hess, Elizabeth Guion
Description: A compilation of 24 monologues and bits of verse. Foreword: "The art of the one who reads or recites a poem or monologue, and the impersonator who presents an act from a play, portraying several characters, is a much more difficult one than that of the actor who, aided by make-up, costumes, scenery, and other members of the cast, assumes his part, before the rise of the curtain, and remains in it, until the curtain falls..."
"Silhouettes by Elizabeth Guion Hess, published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour is a small well printed volume of monologues and bits of verse written especially for platform use." The Drama Magazine, May 1925. Cover, title and chapter decoration most likely designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Includes the Alderbrink Printers Mark on title page. (First Edition)
Size: 5.75 x 8.25
Pages: Pp 102
S#: 0164.12.0321
Chapter decoration most likely designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.Date: 1924
Title: The Plea of Clarence Darrow, August 22nd 23rd & 25th 1924. In defense of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold Jr. On trial for murder. Authorized and revised edition. Together with a brief Summary of the facts. (Soft Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. Top pages trimmed, others uncut.)
Author: Darrow, Clarence
Description: "Society in its relation to those charged with crime, through its organized agencies first demanded revenge as a punishment, then protection, then restraint. Today it aims to reform or reconstruct the offender, and already anticipates the day when prevention of crime may become a practical achievement. Clarence Darrow gave voice to this forward looking principle of social government in his eloquent plea before the bar of justice, and has expressed it with such clearness and conviction that it must long remain as a masterpiece of pleading for the social outcast and the offender. As such the publishers have undertaken its publication." Original list price 50c. (Revised Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 8
Pages: Pp 121
S#: 0157.12.0314
Date: 1924
Title: The Plea of Clarence Darrow, August 22nd 23rd & 25th 1924. In defense of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold Jr. On trial for murder. Authorized and revised edition. Together with a brief Summary of the facts. (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Top pages trimmed, others uncut. Card cover with labels pasted to face and spine. Note: both hard and soft cover versions are exactly the same inside. Hard Cover missing photograph of Clarence Darrow.)
Author: Darrow, Clarence
Description: "Society in its relation to those charged with crime, through its organized agencies first demanded revenge as a punishment, then protection, then restraint. Today it aims to reform or reconstruct the offender, and already anticipates the day when prevention of crime may become a practical achievement. Clarence Darrow gave voice to this forward looking principle of social government in his eloquent plea before the bar of justice, and has expressed it with such clearness and conviction that it must long remain as a masterpiece of pleading for the social outcast and the offender. As such the publishers have undertaken its publication." (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 8
Pages: Pp 121
S#: 0157.16.12161925 Date: Circa 1925
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "Spring in the South" Circa 1925.
Description: An etching pulled from a copper plate. A lone figure stands next to a fence, under a tree. In the background is a two-story house. The washed clothes are drying in the breeze. Seymour also titled this etching "Spring in Natchez." Natchez, Mississippi is about halfway between Jackson and Baton Rouge, and sits on the banks of the Mississippi River. Not dated. Etched in plate lower left: "R F S." Hand written in pencil lower left: "Spring in the South." Signed bottom right: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Size: Etching pulled from a copper plate 5.4 x 7.4, sheet size 8 x 10.
S#: 0171.29.1018Date: C 1925
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "Country Barn with Horses." n.d. Circa 1925.
Description: Untitled and undated. A farmer is attending to a pair of horses in front of the barn. Tranquil scene of a farm. Drive curves toward the barn. A tree stands behind the fence on the left. Seymour focuses on the barn and its immediate surrounds, and ignores the attached structure on the right. A weather vane tops the front of the barn. Signed in the plate lower right: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Hand signed in pencil lower right: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Seymour signed his plates in this manor during the early to mid 1920s. Imprint from the metal plate is visible. Etching from a copper plate on thick beige stock:
Size: 6.25 x 8.75. Sheet size: 9.25 x 11.5.
S#: 0171.38.1021Date: Circa 1925
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "West Shore - Florida" Circa 1925 (Not Dated).
Description: An etching pulled from a copper plate. A few blades of hardy grass, blown by the wind, sprout up here and there on the beach along the "western shores" of Florida. A storm squall can be seen on the horizon to the far left. A single fishing vessel is out a sea. Etching is not dated, but possibly created on the same trip to the south when Seymour etched "Spring in Natchez." Natchez, Mississippi is about halfway between Jackson and Baton Rouge, and sits on the banks of the Mississippi River. Etched in plate lower left: "Seymour." Hand written in pencil lower left: "West Shore - Florida." Signed bottom right: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Size: Etching pulled from a copper plate 9.75 x 7.25, sheet size 11.25 x 9.
S#: 0171.30.0619Date: 1925
Title: The Street of The Seven Little Sisters. A Tale of Old Cairo and the Great Desert (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago)
Author: Parvis, Gladys
Description: Review: "A tale of Old Cairo and the Great Desert. A fanciful little romance, the story of Cairo and the desert in the days of once-upon-a-time. It is written in something of the spirit of the old Arabian tales, but with more modern realism in treatment. It is about a beautiful and charming girl, at the opening still a child, who lives in the narrow and dirty street with the charming name and fines in that name a door to many romantic imaginings that greatly cheer and brightened her sweet young life. Then swoop down the Bedouins of a particularly wicked tribe and kidnap and carry her grandfather and her goat, all she has in the world. A tall, lean and handsome tentmaker who has been very kind to her comes to her aid, and so does a boy whom she knows, who has been a runner to a rich prince and wears resplendent clothes" The Jewish Transcript, July 3, 1925, Reviewed by Artexum. The cover is most likely illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Title page is by Seymour, "R" bottom left, "S" bottom right. Seven decorative illustrations are possibly by Seymour. Each of the fourteen chapters has a decorative Initial cap, also possibly by Seymour and appear to be woodcut illustrations. (First edition)
Size: 6 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 104
S#: 0171.32.10191926 Date: 1926
Title: Fagots (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building Chicago. Printed on beige paper, trimmed on the top and side, untrimmed along the bottom.)
Author: Hubbard, Susan Weare
Description: A compilation of six poems. "Susan Weare Hubbard is a composer of distinction, and this is what tells in her book, 'Fagots,' which has just been brought out by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. It is a collection of poems recording scenes in Provance, Languedoc and other places... To this reviewer the thing that sets apart these poems is their sincerity, their deep feeling. Some have this feeling for a face, some for a form - this book is a poet's expression of passionate feeling for places... The book making has been, of course, quite secure in the hands of Mr. Seymour, that master of delicate designs..." Agnes Lee Freer. Includes four illustrations, most likely by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. (First Edition)
Size: 4.5 x 6.5
Pages: Pp 19
S#: 0172.27.0316Date: 1926
Title: Jean Blue (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Top edge trimmed, others uncut.)
Author: Terrell, John Upton
Description: The first half of the book is "Jean Blue - A Fantasy of Love." The second half is a compilation of 33 poems by Terrell. "John Upton Terrell, the author of more than 40 books and a historian of the Old West, died in 1988. A Chicago native, Mr. Terrell spent time as a youth on his uncle's ranch in Montana. When he was a teenager, he ran away from home to become a cowboy, and got work as a ranch hand. He later wrote for The San Francisco Chronicle and United Press and covered World War II for Newsweek." New York Times, December 5, 1988. Signed and inscribed by the author. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 8.24
Pages: Pp 111
S#: 0172.28.0416Date: 1926
Title: Palette (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago, Illinois)
Author: de Grasse, Paul
Description: A compilation of 43 poems and 20 sonnets. "Acknowledgment is made to the Chicago Daily News, The Chicago Evening Post and the Chicago Tribune for the privilege of reprinting some of these poems." Boards are covered with a tan paper. The title is pasted to the cover. The spine is black cloth with a label pasted to the spine. Printed on beige paper with the watermark: "WARREN's OLDE STYLE." Top edges trimmed, others uncut.
I Am Two.
There was a painter, once, who painted songs.
There was a singer who contrived, in paint,
Bits of sound-tapestry. There was a quaint
Book-house where those two mad ones had their being.
There is a garden which, they say, belongs
To the house and the two, but that's a folly!
Christmas resides behind a hedge of holly, And Easter in a lily's cup, I know;
But here's no fruit nor flour nor bird for seeing:
Only slight echoes sing awhile and go. (First Edition)
Size: 5 x 8
Pages: Pp 116
S#: 0172.53.1220Date: 1926
Cover Title Page
Title: Pink Lightning, A Collection of Verse (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago) Printed on a beige paper with the watermark "Warren's Olde Style." The top edge is trimmed, others untrimmed. Of note is the dust jacket. Very unique. Unlike any other dust jacket Seymour produced. Possibly handmade paper. Colors and tone are continuous, no dot pattern exists. Possibly a photographic process? We found no other examples of the dust jacket. Design for the cover differs.
Author: Miller, Francesca Falk
Description: A compilation of 57 poems. Preface. Butterflies: "Poems are fragile yellow butterflies, In summertime. Fluttering, elusive, vagrant little things - Mere idle rhyme. One cannot clasp such restless vagabonds, So swift they spin, Unless, perchance, you find them safely caught Upon a pin! Then with their outspread, multi-colored wings, For all to see. The little butterflies may be enjoyed, To some degree. Now, in like manner verses may be bound, Within two covers, And help to pass an idle hour or so, For poetry lovers. So browse a while, but let your fancy reach, Beyond my pen, And, in your vision, see the butterflies, On wing again!" (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 8.75
Pages: Pp 69
S#: 0172.30.0816
Date: 1926
Title: The Way of The Cross. Devotions on the progress of Our Lord Jesus Christ from the Judgment Hall to Calvary. The Stations of the Cross by Alfeo Faggi. Poems by Padraic Colum. (Stiff paper cover. Printed on beige laid paper, trimmed three sides) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Faggi, Alfeo; Colum, Padraic
Description: "This little work is inspired by the Stations of the Cross carved by Mr. Alfeo Faggi for the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle, Chicago. Each station is illustrated, and is accompanied by a short poem from the pen of Mr. Padraic Colum; while there is an appendix of explanation and devotional notes by "E.G.S..." The Connoisseur, Volume 78, 1927, p.244. St. Thomas the Apostle Church, (Hyde Park) Chicago, was designed by Barry Byrne in 1922, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. The bas relief sculptures are incorporated into the walls of the church. There are fourteen Stations of the Cross. The photographs of the sculptures are printed as photogravures. Text is printed in black ink, photogravures printed in dark brown ink. Each photograph is accompanied by a poem written by Padraic Colum. The volume concludes with four pages of "Notes on Alfeo Faggi's Stations of the Cross, in The Church of St. Thomas The Apostle, Chicago." By "E.G.S." (Edited by: Ellen Gates Star.) Original list price $1.00 (The Dial, January 1928, p.124) (First Edition)
Size: 4.75 x 7.4
Pages: Unp Pp 36
S#: 0172.48.0919
Example of the bas relief sculptures incorporated into the walls of the church. There are fourteen Stations of the Cross. The photographs of the sculptures are printed as photogravures.Date: 1926
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour Original Artwork for John Suetterle Taylor Bookplate 1926.
Description: Original pen and ink illustration for John Suetterle Taylor’s Bookplate. Young male and female symbolically water a tree representing the knowledge gained from reading books on Legend, Romance, Poetry, Science, Philosophy and History. The key above the tree represents unlocking knowledge through reading books. The sun rises when attaining knowledge. Lower text: “Ex Libris. John Suetterle Taylor. Signed “Ralph Fletcher Seymour” lower left, below banner. Hand written on matte board: “The original drawing of John’s bookplate by John (sic) Fletcher Seymour of Chicago.” Hand written on matte board lower right: “1923.” This bookplate listed in Year Book 1929 and dated 1926. Illustrated on beige paper. Illustration size: 8" x 12.125".
Size: Sheet: 10". x 14". Matte size: 14" x 19".
S#: 0172.58.0424Date: 1926
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour Original Metal Printing Plates (2) for John Suetterle Taylor Bookplate 1926.
Description: Two original metal printing plates for John Suetterle Taylor’s bookplate, designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Young male and female symbolically water a tree representing the knowledge gained from reading books on Legend, Romance, Poetry, Science, Philosophy and History. The key above the tree represents unlocking knowledge through reading books. The sun rises when attaining knowledge. Lower text: “Ex Libris. John Suetterle Taylor.”
Two plates. One is 1/16" thick mounted to a wooden block, 7/8" thick. The second is solid metal that is 3/8" thick. Both are 2 3/8" wide by 3 9/16" high. Both plates are in reverse. A small hand written note reads: “John’s III bookplate. John (sic) Fletcher Seymour, who made it, is one of the greatest etchers of today - and the fact that he and Johns mother planned it todether makes it very precious.”
This bookplate listed in Year Book 1929 and dated 1926. Illustrated on beige paper.
Size: Two plates. A) Metal plate: 0.0625 (1/16") thick mounted to a wooden block: 0.875 (7/8") thick. B) Solid metal: 0.375 (3/8") thick. Both are 2.375 (2 3/8") wide x 3.5625 (3 9/16") high. Hand written note: 3.5" x 2 3/8"
S#: 0172.59.0524 (1-2)
A small hand written note reads: “John’s III bookplate. John (sic) Fletcher Seymour, who made it, is one of the greatest etchers of today - and the fact that he and Johns mother planned it todether makes it very precious.”
Date: 1926
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "Tree Study" n.d. Circa 1926.
Description: Hand signed in pencil lower left: "Tree Study." Hand signed in pencil lower right: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Ralph Fletcher Seymour (March 18, 1876 - January 1, 1966). While working for the J. Manz Engraving Company, Ralph Fletcher Seymour began designing and publishing his own books in his spare time. He was a prolific illustrator, designer and publisher of fine books. He continued publishing books until his death at the age of 89. Signed in pencil by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. A copy of this etching is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a gift of Chicago Society of Etchers, 1935.13.667.
Size: Etching from a copper plate: 10.125 x 7.875. Framed: 16.25 x 14.75.
S#: 0172.54.0221
Left: Framed: 16.25 x 14.75.
Right: Detail of etching.1927 Date: 1927
Title: From The Top of My Column (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed on laid paper with "Marlowe" watermark. Boards covered in paper, cloth spine. A label is glued to the spine. Top edge is trimmed, others untrimmed.)
Author: Jewett, Eleanor
Description: A compilation to 38 poems first published in the Chicago Tribune. Jewett was an art critic. She obtained a job at the Chicago Tribune in 1917 through the editor, her cousin Colonel Robert McCormick. In 1918, she became the art editor. She retired in 1956. She wrote poems which were published in the Tribune. She also published "In The Wind's Whistle" in 1929. "Acknowledgment is herewith given the Chicago Tribune for their courtesy in permitting the publishers to reprint these poems." Inscribed by the author: "To Mimme, who has always thought I could write - Dec. 1927. Eleanor Jewett." From a newspaper clipping tucked into the pages: "It was always an ultra alluring day for the readers of Eleanor Jewett's column on art in The Chicago Tribune when there was a poem to top the column. Every one has been asking for some time for their preservation in book form. They have just come from the presses just in time to be tucked into Christmas packages. Whenever some painting, or etching, or other work of art especially moved the art editor of our paper she would make a poem about it - and what realer stimulant to the writing of poetry could there be than the emotion springing from the contact with another art? Keats wrote one of his most beautiful things because he had been moved by reading Chapman's translation of Homer. The poems are about all sorts of things - not the paintings themselves, but the feelings that the paintings engendered, but they all show the same sensitiveness to impression that brought words from the greatest lyric poet who ever wrote in English..." (First Edition)
Size: 5.75 x 8.75
Pages: Pp 49
S#: 0198.27.1118Date: 1927
Title: Indian Love Letters (Hard cover) (Published by A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago. Decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.)
Author: Ryan, Marah Ellis; Author of “For the Soul of Rafael”
Description: First published in 1907. This ninth edition deletes Ralph Fletcher Seymour’s cover and endpaper illustrations from the 1907 edition.
Publisher’s description: Seldom have love letters been penned which contained more of the beauty of pathos, the poignancy of despair, than these messages, which seem literally written with the heart's blood of the noble-minded Indian who sent them to a girl he had loved in the East.
But what place could he have in the thoughts and life of an American girl of birth and breeding? Yet he was inspired to write these letters, which breathe the spirit of renunciation and show how inevitable is each one is a veritable prose poem.
Decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Cover. Blue cloth cover with gilt lettering. Inside printing plates are the same. Includes a tipped-in sepia photograph by Edward S. Curtis. Original list price $1.50. (Ninth Edition)
Size: 4.75 x 8
Pages: Pp 122
S#: 0199.16.1024Date: 1927
Title: Intimacies with Inanimates, A Series of Sketches of Domestic Life (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. A paper label is affixed to the cover and spine. Printed on beige laid paper with the watermark: "Marlowe." deckle edge, top and bottom trimmed.)
Author: Mauran, Grace Goodman
Description: Frontispiece is an etching by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, possibly of the author, pulled from a copper plate and bound into this volume. Signed in the plate lower right: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." A compilation of 34 short sketches of domestic life. Also by the author: From Day To Day, 1918; Out of the Gathering Basket, 1921. Inscribed by the author, "Frances C. Hurd. With the affectionate regards of Grace Goodman Mauran." (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 8.1
Pages: Pp 99
S#: 0199.04.0321
Intimacies with Inanimates frontispiece is an etching by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, possibly of the author, pulled from a copper plate and bound into this volume. Signed in the plate lower right: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour."1928 Date: 1928
Title: Across The Gulf. A Narrative of a Short Journey Through Parts of Yucatan With a Brief Account of The Ancient Maya Civilization. (Hard Cover) (Published by The Alderbrink Press, Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Half muslin over decorative paper covered boards. Printed on handmade paper with the "Van Gelder Zonen, Holland" watermark. Top edge trimmed, others uncut, deckled edges. Paper label attached to spine.)
Author: Seymour, Ralph Fletcher
Description: "There is a strange land across the Mexican gulf over which morning mist of opal and silver twist and sway among the tangles of jungle. The sun fighting its way across the country reveals tableaus of vine tangled tree tops, palms and hennequen, or time-scarred gates of old Spanish haciendas..." Not only did Seymour write this volume, but illustrated it, designed the type and also published it. Twenty woodcut illustrations and one folded woodcut map. "This book entitled 'Across The Gulf' is issued in an edition of 425 numbered and signed copies. It is set up in Alderbrink type, illustrated and designed by the author and printed for the Alderbrink Press in Chicago. October, MCMXXVIII. Ralph Fletcher Seymour (signed), Number 224." (First Edition)
Size: 7.75 x 10.8
Pages: Pp 63
S#: 0215.20.0117
Nine of the Twenty woodcut illustrations and one folded woodcut map. Illustrations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Date: 1928
Title: Reminiscences of John V. Farwell by His Eldest Daughter. In Two Volumes. Vol. I (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, In the Fine Arts Building, Chicago U.S.A. Printed on laid paper with the watermark: "(Scale), Utopian." Top edge trimmed, others uncut.)
Author: Ferry, Abby (Farwell)
Description: Some illustrations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. A Brief history of John Villiers Farwell. He was born on July 29, 1825 in Mead's Creek, New York. His brother Charles B. Farwell, become a United States Senator. Farwell moved to Chicago and took a job as a bookkeeper. He then took a position at Wadsworth & Phelps, where he trained several of Chicago's future prominent businessmen, including Marshall Field and Levi Leiter. He became a partner in the firm of Cooley, Wadsworth & Co., which later became Farwell, Field & Co. The company split and Farwell's dry goods house became known as John V. Farwell & Co., and Field & Co became Marshall Field & Co. Farwell was an early leader in the YMCA, and become president of the Chicago chapter. He was acquainted with Dwight L. Moody and was instrumental in the success of Moody Church. Farwell, and his brother Charles, were involved in building the Texas State Capitol in 1879. In exchange for his service as builder, the Farwells were paid with the largest cattle ranch in the world, the 3,050,000-acre XIT Ranch. They oversaw a herd of over 150,000 cattle. He died on August 20, 1908. John V. Farwell & Co. maintained its name until it was purchased by Carson, Pirie & Co. in 1926. (Condensed from Wikepedia.) (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9
Pages: Pp 193
S#: 0215.34.0721
Many illustrations, but only two signed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Left and above: Cover and Title Page: Farmer plowing. By Ralph Fletcher Seymour, signed bottom right: "RFS."
Below: Page 145: An old time dry goods emporium. By Ralph Fletcher Seymour, signed bottom right: "RFS."
Date: 1928
Title: Reminiscences of John V. Farwell by His Eldest Daughter. In Two Volumes. Vol. II (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, In the Fine Arts Building, Chicago U.S.A. Printed on laid paper with the watermark: "(Scale), Utopian." Top edge trimmed, others uncut.)
Author: Ferry, Abby (Farwell)
Description: Some illustrations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. A Brief history of John Villiers Farwell. He was born on July 29, 1825 in Mead's Creek, New York. His brother Charles B. Farwell, become a United States Senator. Farwell moved to Chicago and took a job as a bookkeeper. He then took a position at Wadsworth & Phelps, where he trained several of Chicago's future prominent businessmen, including Marshall Field and Levi Leiter. He became a partner in the firm of Cooley, Wadsworth & Co., which later became Farwell, Field & Co. The company split and Farwell's dry goods house became known as John V. Farwell & Co., and Field & Co became Marshall Field & Co. Farwell was an early leader in the YMCA, and become president of the Chicago chapter. He was acquainted with Dwight L. Moody and was instrumental in the success of Moody Church. Farwell, and his brother Charles, were involved in building the Texas State Capitol in 1879. In exchange for his service as builder, the Farwells were paid with the largest cattle ranch in the world, the 3,050,000-acre XIT Ranch. They oversaw a herd of over 150,000 cattle. He died on August 20, 1908. John V. Farwell & Co. maintained its name until it was purchased by Carson, Pirie & Co. in 1926. (Condensed from Wikepedia.). (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9
Pages: Pp 237
S#: 0215.33.0121
Left: Title Page.
Right: Page 19: Madison Street House.
By Ralph Fletcher Seymour, signed
bottom left: "RFS."
Left: Page 99: The Photographic Album
Title Page. By Ralph Fletcher Seymour,
signed bottom right: "RFS."Right: Page 115: The lake front looking
south, 1865. By Ralph Fletcher Seymour,
signed bottom right: "RFS."
Left: Page 139: Crosby Opera House. By
Ralph Fletcher Seymour, signed bottom
left: "RFS."Right: Page 205: The Court House. By
Ralph Fletcher Seymour, signed bottom
right: "RFS."Date: 1928
Title: Spanish Folk Songs of New Mexico. Collected & Transcribed by Mary R. Van Stone, With a Forward by Alice Corbin (Soft Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, 410 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago)
Author: Van Stone, Mary Van
Description: Cover and title page illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. "The folk-songs included in this volume are sung by the native Spanish-speaking people of New Mexico. The tunes are familiar to anyone who has lived even a short time in the state, but the words are more difficult to discover with any certainty, chiefly because there are so many variants. Usually each song has a fixed stanza or two which everyone knows, and from these proceed and infinite variety of local versions or improvisations, many of which are composed on the moment to suit the occasion, and therefore included by other singers, to become a permanent part of the song. To collect all the variance would be a labor of love beyond the scope and the purpose of this volume, of which 'the song's the thing' and the folk-student may follow the alluring trail as he will..." (Foreword.) (First Edition)
Size: 9.25 x 12.25
Pages: Pp 41
ST#: 0215.21.0917Date: 1928
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "From the Rock of Gibralter" 1928.
Description: In 1928, Ralph Fletcher Seymour traveled to Mexico, then on to Spain and Germany. In Spain, he visited Madrid and Gibraltar and created this drawing. In the volume "Fine Prints of the Year, Etchings and Engravings," Malcolm Charles Salaman, Halton & T. Smith, 1928, p.111 lists the following etchings: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago, Illinois. C.S.E. Etchings: Rag Pickers Court; Church in Burgos; From the Rock of Gibraltar; News of the Day; Old Frankfort, 12 1/2 X 6 1/2, $20; By the Wall of Nery Osmania, 8 3/4 X 11 1/2, $25; The Blue Mask, 12 1/2 X 10, $25; Old Court..." Printed on a very this tan tissue paper, unlike many of his other etchings on thicker paper. Etching from a copper plate. Signed in pencil From the Rock of Gibraltar, Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Not dated.
Size: Matt: 14.5 x 18.75. Etching: 6.5 x 13.
S#: 0215.27.0519Date: 1928
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "Bridge to Toledo" Madrid, Spain, 1928. In 1928,
Description: Ralph Fletcher Seymour traveled to Mexico, then on to Spain and Germany. In Spain, he visited Gibraltar and Madrid and created this drawing. The Bridge of Toledo is on the Southwest side of Madrid and crosses the Manzanares River. It was built during the 1720s in the Baroque style. Toledo is approximately 70 km Southwest of Madrid. Signed in the plate lower left: "RFS" (overlapping). Text in the plate lower left: "The Bridge to Toledo - Madrid." Printed on beige paper. Etching pulled from a copper plate. Signed in pencil: "Bridge to Toledo. Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Not dated.
Size: Etching 7.3 x 10, Frame: 13.25 x 16.5
S#: 0215.37.0222Date: 1928
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "In Naples" Italy Circa 1928 (Not Dated).
Description: In 1928, Ralph Fletcher Seymour traveled to Mexico, then on to Spain and Germany. It is not clear if he visited Italy at that time. Text in the plate lower left: "Santa Elige, Naples." The Arch with the clock face is the "Arco di Sant'Eligio" (Arch of Sant'Eligio). It is suspended between two building. The apartment building on the left and the church on the right. The arch, built to support the bell tower, dates back to 1400. The tower is part of the Sant'Eligio Maggiore Church, built in 1270, which Seymour took creative liberty and did not picture on the right. He did include the apartment building on the left. The Gothic arched entrance to the church is to the right, just before the Arch of Sant'Eligio. (Via S. Eligio, 164, 80133 Napoli NA, Italy.) Printed on beige paper. Etching pulled from a copper plate, 7.3 x 10. Signed in pencil: "In Naples. Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Not dated. Frame:
Size: 13.3 x 17
S#: 0215.36.0222Date: 1928
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "Rag Pickers Court" 1928.
Description: In 1928, Ralph Fletcher Seymour traveled to Mexico, then on to Spain and Germany. In the volume "Fine Prints of the Year, Etchings and Engravings," Malcolm Charles Salaman, Halton & T. Smith, 1928, p.111 lists the following etchings: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago, Illinois. C.S.E. Etchings: Rag Pickers Court; Church in Burgos; From the Rock of Gibraltar; News of the Day; Old Frankfort, 12 1/2 X 6 1/2, $20; By the Wall of Nery Osmania, 8 3/4 X 11 1/2, $25; The Blue Mask, 12 1/2 X 10, $25; Old Court..." Printed on a tan paper. Etching pulled from a copper plate, 7.3 x 10. Signed in pencil: "Rag pickers court. Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Not dated.
Size: Sheet: 9 x 12.
S#: 0215.32.0920Date: 1928
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "Old Frankfort" 1928.
Description: On February 5, 1928, The Chicago Daily Tribune announced: "The Chicago Society of Etchers opened their annual exhibition last week in the print rooms of the Art institute. It is a keen shame that more space Is not allotted to this exhibit. There are 323 etchings hung this year, and another 300 equally good had to be refused. Possibly it may be arranged that the society shall have all the galleries of the print department for this yearly affair. Upstairs, It is true, the Chicago artists have the entire cast wing for their work.... The current show is exceptionally good. The average is so high it is difficult to find peaks. The most satisfactory way, perhaps, is to select the ten which please you the most and dub them your peaks. I tried that, a little, and had for one result this list of etchings which should not be missed; "Eagle," by H. Emerson Tuttle; " Grand Mosque, Kalronan," by Louis C. Rosenberg; " Log Team," by George Soper; " Corn Stubble," by. Lee Sturges; " Comrades All," by George Rosier; " Dancing on Hampstead Heath," by Laura Knight; "Sand Dunes," by Sears Gallagher; "La Mangla, Siena," by John Taylor Arms; "Angker Bayou at Sunset," by Lucille Douglass; " Pig Market," by Pop Hart; "Black Brig," by W. A. Sherwood; " Old Frankfort," by Ralph Fletcher Seymour; " Capitol, Rome," by Geoffrey H. Wedgwood." Page 89. It is also listed in "Fine Prints of the Year" 1928. "Seymour, Ralph Fletcher, Fine Arts Building, Chicago, Illinois. Etchings... Old Frankfort, 12 ½ x 6 ½, $20.00..." Signed in pencil "Old Frankfort, Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Size: Etching from a copper plate, 6.5 x 12.5. Framed: 12.25 x 18.5.
S#: 0215.19.0217Date: 1928
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "Rothenberg Turm" Circa 1928.
Description: In 1928 Seymour produced the etching "Old Frankfort." 174 kilometers to the Southeast is Rothenburg, Germany. Old Rothenburg is filled with many "Turms" ("Towers"). This etching in particular is the "Weisser Turm," on Georgengasse Street, viewed from just across Pfarrgasse Street. When Seymour etched this scene, it was etched on the plate as seen, which when printed, is viewed backwards. It is listed as one of Seymour's etchings in "Fine Prints of the Year" 1928. "Seymour, Ralph Fletcher, Fine Arts Building, Chicago, Illinois. Etchings..." Signed in the plate, bottom left hand corner "RFS." Signed in pencil "Rothenberg Turm, Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Size: Etching pulled from a copper plate, 7.9 x 10.75. Sheet size: 11.5 x 15. Framed: 14 x 17.5.
S#: 0215.22.1017
"Weisser Turm," today. Note: this image has been flipped horizontally to match the view in the etching. Courtesy Google Earth.
1929 Date: 1929
Title: Bellamy's Essays. Touching on Various Subjects from the Cradle to the Grave. (Hard Cover) (Published for the Author by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago)
Author: Bellamy, Temple
Description: A compilation of 13 essays. "Foreward. This book covers various subjects touching upon life from the cradle to the grave. In this sordid world of misery and strife, happiness is often at a premium unless one knows the Philosophies of Life. In the following pages are set forth my philosophy and my only hope is that the reader may receive some benefit there from." Printed on stiff beige paper with the watermark: "Gothic Text." Top edge trimmed, others uncut. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9 9
Pages: Pp 121
S#: 0228.36.1220Date: 1929
Title: Gray Moss (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building. Title page includes Seymour's Alderbrink Press insignia. Printed on a laid paper with a watermark that includes a scale hanging within a circle and the text "Utopian." Top edges trimmed, others uncut.)
Author: Harrison, Edith Ogden
Description: Foreword: "In offering this little volume to her readers the author recognizes that the stories contained therein are exactly what their title expresses, - brief episodes, some true, some with only a semblance of truth for a basis. Born and reared in the Crescent City, the writer's memories cluster about it..." Includes 20 tales of the Old South. "In this characterful book New Orleans, which is the heart of the Old South and which is today so rapidly merging into modern life, is presented in all its naive and impetuous character. Not a story but is founded on some old romance or is an almost literal re-telling of a dramatic episode, and told so beautifully as to hold the reader's interest to the last chapter." Publisher's description. Frontispiece is a portrait of the author. Signed by the author. (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 8.75
Pages: Pp 205
S#: 0228.20.0414
Date: 1929
Title: In The Wind's Whistle (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. Published with the courtesy of the Chicago Tribune, in which these verses first appeared. Printed on laid paper with "Utopian" watermark. Boards covered in paper, cloth spine. A label is glued to the spine.)
Author: Jewett, Eleanor
Description: A compilation to 74 poems first published in the Chicago Tribune. Preface: "...We found all these songs jumping and bumping around in the wind's whistle as the wind ran in and out of our yard and around our house..." Jewett was an art critic. She obtained a job at the Chicago Tribune in 1917 through the editor, her cousin Colonel Robert McCormick. In 1918, she became the art editor. She retired in 1956. She also wrote poems which were published in the Tribune. She first published "From the Top of My Column" in 1927. Dated by the Smithsonian, Archives of American Art, which holds her collection. Signed by both the author and artist. Includes 34 illustrations by Eleanor Duke. Original list price $2.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 83
S#: 0228.19.0414
Date: 1929 Title: Announcing the Publication of Two New Books, Gray Moss by Edith Ogden Harrison, In the Wind's Whistle, by Eleanor Jewett. (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Publisher, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. Printed on laid paper, with a "Linweave Text" watermark.)
Description: In the Wind's Whistle, By Eleanor Jewett. "In the Wind's Whistle," which is published today, is a delightful collection of children's verses written by Eleanor Jewett and illustrated with many drawings by Eleanor Duke... Gray Moss, By Edith Ogden Harrison. The publishers take pleasure in announcing the publication of a book entitled "Gray Moss," being for the most part tales of the Old South... Found within a copy of Gray Moss.
Size: 6.25 x 9.5
S#: 0228.21.0414
Date: 1929
Title: The Anxious Bench or Life at a Prep School (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrook Press, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. Printed on a cream laid paper with a Utopian watermark. Top edge trimmed, others uncut. Illustrated by the author.)
Author: Laflin, Louis E., Jr.
Description: "Roe from the Tennessee Shad. As friend and fellow Princetonian of Mr. Laflin I have long been privy to his abilities, so when I received my review copy of his book I had at it with enthusiasm. Nor was I disappointed. He's done a very interesting piece of work, which will make him conspicuous among writers of boarding-school life and will certainly endear him to the sons of Lawrenceville as the residuary legatee of Owen Johnson in direct apostolic succession. What fun he must have had doing it..." John T. Rodgers, The Princeton Alumni Weekly, January 17, 1930, p.386-7. Original list price $3.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 337
S#: 0228.30.1115
1930
(Title Page) Title: The Scarlet Riders (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed on beige laid paper with a watermark that includes a scale hanging within a circle and the text "Utopian."Top edges trimmed, others uncut. Cover designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Signed lower left: “RFS.”)
Author: Harrison, Edith Ogden
Description: A romantic, western novel about train robbery, banditry and the Royal Mounted Police of Saskatchewan. "...He handed her the little yellow envelope and bowed ceremoniously to Maitland. 'Even in the eyes of your own social world, Lady Millicent,' he proceeded, 'the man whom you have chosen will be regarded as a fit mate for you. His present victory over all his adversaries is only the presage of other and more brilliant victories to come. I have the honor to present to you the new senator from British Columbia.' The End." Born in 1862, Harrison was a well-known author of children's books and fairy tales in the early part of the twentieth century. She was also the wife of Carter Harrison, Jr., five-term mayor of Chicago. L. Frank Baum, an acquaintance, adapted her first book "Prince Silverwings" for the stage. Her novel "The Lady of the Snows" (1912) was made into a full length film in 1915. Signed by the author, "For Althea Parlain..." Two copies, one with a dust jacket. (First Edition)
Size: 6.3 x 8.75
Pages: Pp 188
S#: 0249.38.0814, 0249.70.0924
Date: 1930
Title: War Madness (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago) Printed on beige laid paper with the watermark: "[Scale] Utopian." Top edge trimmed, others uncut.
Author: Capes, Edith Besly
Description: Chapter 1: "The fifteenth of April, nineteen hundred and fifteen, dawned bright and clear, with sunlight sparkling on the water. A few robins trilled in the trees, which showed a faint tracery of green. The grass had lost its sere, brown look and gave promise of awakening life. Here and there on the lawn, crocuses held up their cups. A deep blue had replaced the dull grey sky of winter. Once more the earth lived. The soft breath of the wind blowing in at an open window touched caressingly the cheek of a girl who lay sleeping. She stirred slightly, and as a sunbeam fell upon her eyelids, they fluttered open, disclosing clear blue eyes..." (First Edition)
Size: 5 x 7.9
Pages: Pp 186
S#: 0249.59.1220Date: 1930
Title: Year Book 1929 Of The American Society of Bookplate Collectors & Designers. Washington D.C. (Digital Edition) (Published by The Society,. Printed for Members Only At The Univerity Press of Sewanee, Tennessee)
Author: Seymour, Ralph Fletcher
Description: Section Five of Five Sections: “Regarding Bookplates, By Ralph Fletcher Seymour.”
“It is a pleasant experience, on opening a book, to find a bookplate on the inside cover. On such an occasion the discoverer is predisposed in their favor, as he holds in his eager hands a book, a veritable mirror of life, and the label is in its way a more or less bright mirror of the owner's life. Book plates are, in this way, a pleasant episode, much like a lovely landscape seen in the course of a long trip, and remain a half defined but pleasant help to the business of living thru the day.
“It has become the custom to elaborate a simple label by enriching the design with items expressive of the taste, per sonality or fancy of the owner. This procedure should make a more beautiful and desirable thing out of a plain and serviceable label. It, first of all, should set forth the owner's name, perhaps his residence, and may serve to inform the observer of the profession, avocation or special interests of the owner. They slyly express the secret aspiration of the possessor, thus becoming a contribution to the book in which they appear. Realizing so glorious a destiny is not one of the smallest of achievements for few things which crowd into the pages of a book actually have earned so fair a distinction, but bookplates have been used for hundreds of years and, like old wine and old friends, have arrived at a spiritual develop ment both precious and rare...”
Includes six bookplates designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, and “A Checklist of The Bookplates of Ralph Fletcher Seymour,” from 1902 - 1930. (Digital Edition) (S#249.65)
Size: 8.5 x 11
Pages: Pp 60
S#: 0249.65.0424
1931 Date: 1931
Title: Helvetia by Her Mother: A fragmentary Diary (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, Ill. Blue paper covered boards with dark blue cloth spine. Decorative color title label is mounted to the front cover. Top edges trimmed, others uncut.)
Author: Brown, Helen Deshler
Description: "Helvetia took complete possession of me in Switzerland! I didn't know it at the time. I thought I was just drinking in the beauties of Lake Leman and its mountains... As I look back over the long interlude I realize how many false values of life have fallen away from me and how the non-essentials have retreated to their merited obscurity. Time should never be measured by hours and minutes but by each individual's complete oblivion to it or vivid consciousness of it. I often wonder what God did with himself during the thousand years that seemed to him as one day. Had I but his recipe during these past nine months what a merry twinkling it might have been for me... P.S.: William Tell is three weeks old today..." (Second Edition)
Size: 5.2 x 7.5
Pages: Pp 54
S#: 0300.07.0114
Date: 1931
Title: New Lyrics And a Few Old Ones (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed on beige paper, with the Watermark: A scale within a circle with the text "Utopian." Top edges trimmed, others uncut. Brown title box pasted on black cloth spine.)
Author: Lee, Agnes (Mrs. Freer)
Description: "For most of the poems appearing in this volume thanks are due to Poetry, a Magazine of Verse (Chicago). Fifteen are here reprinted from an earlier book of the Author's, Faces and Open Doors, published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour in 1922. Others have been in magazines. A compilation of 39 poems in three sections. "The reading of Agnes Lee's poems may never have been the privilege of the wide audience upon whose approbation the literary career is supposed to depend. Although her early verse was issued in several regular additions between 1898 in 1914, the deepened sensibility and insight of her later lyrics is assessable only in two special publications: Faces and Open Doors (1922) and the present new collection. These poems have little fundamental affinity with current lyrics styles. Their sentiment is too subdued by candor to win the popular audience; their intellect values remain to unforced and temperate to declare and unusual analytical subtlety. It is a limitation, and yet a distinction, and Agnes Lee's work that permits her to finest attributes, realism and pathos, to neutralize one another. Her work is never marked by the violence of the real or by emotional extravagance..." Poetry Magazine, July 1931, p.221, reviewed by Morton Dauwen Zabel. Inscribed: "To Dear Linda and Bob. From The Author, their Aunt, Christmas, 1930." (First Edition)
Size: 5.6 x 8.2
Pages: Pp 57
S#: 0300.13.0519Date: 1931
Title: When I Was At Farmington (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago)
Author: Ferry, Abby Farwell
Description: "Introduction. My devotion to our beloved Miss Porter I am demonstrating as best I can by compiling these memories of Farmington days. I am only too well aware that I am unworthy the task: ceaseless work cannot take the place of efficiency; the only thing I can claim is, that I have done as well as I could under the circumstances. A word about these circumstances will not be amiss, I hope, and will throw about me some feeling of encouragement knowing that you will understand. This idea was not my own, I must confess but was suggested to me through reading a symposium, of a society, (nameless here) whose members had prepared just such a collection as you have here. I thought, at once, of getting more stories and asked if I could not take this brochure home with me with the idea in view of enlarging it and having it published. This book was typewritten and simply tied with ribbon. Then I knew nothing about Miss Porter's wish." (First Edition)
Size: 6.4 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 296
S#: 0300.11.12171932 Date: 1932
Title: Fur and Feathers and a Few Other People (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Heron, Grace
Description: "Fur and Feathers is Book Number One of the Checker Series." A collection of verses and short stories for children. Seymour also published "What Word Will You Choose," by Heron, 1932. The dust jacket is a decorative transparent tissue. (First Edition)
Size: 7.5 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 50
S#: 0361.06.0315
Date: 1932
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour Illustration "Map of Chicago" (Produced by T.N.T. Co., 1932,)
Description: Original "Map of Chicago for the Year 1933. Portraying some of its History and indicating the approximate location of Points of Historical Interest: also a few of the Present Day Institutions and Civic Improvements." Areal perspective of the city of Chicago. Additional smaller illustrations surrounding the map: Masthead. Left side: Cathedrals of Commerce. South Side Steel Mills. The Union Stock Yards. University of Chicago. La Salle Street and the Northern Trust Company. Right side: 1674, Father Marquette. 1803, The First Fort Dearborn. 1833, The First Bridge. 1871, The Chicago Fire. 1893, The Northern Trust Company Branch at World's Fair. 1915, La Salle Street. Text bottom left: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Text bottom right: "T.N.T. Co. 1932." See additional details...
Size: 22 x 17
S#: 0361.24.0723
See additional details...Date: 1932/2023
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour Illustration "Map of Chicago" (Produced by T.N.T. Co., 1932, Restored and reprinted by Vintage City Maps, 2023.)
Description: "Map of Chicago for the Year 1933. Portraying some of its History and indicating the approximate location of Points of Historical Interest: also a few of the Present Day Institutions and Civic Improvements." Areal perspective of the city of Chicago. Additional smaller illustrations surrounding the map: Masthead. Left side: Cathedrals of Commerce. South Side Steel Mills. The Union Stock Yards. University of Chicago. La Salle Street and the Northern Trust Company. Right side: 1674, Father Marquette. 1803, The First Fort Dearborn. 1833, The First Bridge. 1871, The Chicago Fire. 1893, The Northern Trust Company Branch at World's Fair. 1915, La Salle Street. Text bottom left: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Text bottom right: "T.N.T. Co. 1932." Restored by Vintage City Maps, 2023.
Size: 20 x 24
S#: 0361.23.0323
Date: 1932
Title: "909, Please." A Series Of Sketches Of Hotel Life (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Cover printed in two colors, brown and black. Printed on beige paper with the watermark "Strathmore Broadcaster U.S.A." Top and bottom edges cut, sides untrimmed.)
Author: Mauran, Grace Goodman
Description: Nine stories of Hotel life. Also by the author: From Day to Day, 1918; Out of The Gathering Basket, 1921; Intimacies with Inanimates,1927. Cover and frontispiece mot likely illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Unsigned, but Seymour illustrated the frontispieces in Mauran's other three volumes published by Seymour. Inscribed by the author: "Frances Goodman. With the affection of Aunt. Grace Goodman Mauran." (First Edition)
Size: 5.75 x 8.5
Pages: Pp 49
S#: 0361.21.0521
Cover and frontispiece mot likely illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Unsigned, but Seymour illustrated the frontispieces in Mauran's other three volumes published by Seymour.Date: 1932
Title: Songs And Sonnets, 1915-1932 (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed on stiff, possibly handmade paper. Top is trimmed and gilt, others untrimmed.)
Author: Wyman, Rebecca McDoel
Description: A compilation of 44 Songs and Sonnets by Rebecca McDoel Wyman. "Offering. I am a string of antique Chinese jade // Sent as a gift to my heart's emperor. // Hang me about the throat, // I'll turn as warm as pebbles in June sun. // Shut me again in my dark box and pass, // I'll stay as cool as twilight air in spring, // I'll be as meaningless as clouded glass." "Copyright 1832 by Mrs. William K. Kenly." Kenly was the author's mother. Rebecca McDoel Wyman past away in 1932. Possibly published by Wyman's mother as a memorial to her daughter. "Rebecca McDoel Wyman. Chicago. 1897-1932." Loose 3.1 x 2.25 card placed in pages. "Mrs. William K. Kenly. Twenty-seven Scott Street" which is one of the Brownstones along Chicago's Gold Coast, just blocks off of Lake Michigan. (First Edition)
Size: 5.75 x 8.5
Pages: Pp 77
S#: 0361.10.0317
(Title Page) (Cover with tissue dust jacket) Title: What Word Will You Choose? (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, Ill)
Author: Heron, Grace
Description: "Did you ever try weighing and testing and measuring words against each other to catch their scintillating facets of exact meaning, as a jewel does his gens? All words are worthy in their place and requirement, for every one of them is a faithful conveyor of some meaning..." Cover and title page designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Eight chapters, each begin with stylized initial capital letter. Printed cover is wrapped around stiff boards, folded and glued to the inside front and back boards. Thin tissue dust jacket is wrapped around front and back cover, glued to the inside back cover and appears to be original, but not confirmed. (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 8
Pages: Pp 34
S#: 0361.03.1213
1933 Date: 1933
Title: Feisal The Arabian (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, Illinois. Stiff boards covered in burgundy stock. Title and decoration gilt. Printed on beige laid paper.)
Author: Sperling, Grace Dickinson
Description: Foreword: "The urge which culminated in the writing of this poem, spring from the fist fragmentary notes written by T. E. Lawrence that filtered through the welter of the World War. His graphic delineation of the personality and high moral character of the man Feisal, intrigued my imagination. Lawrence's absolute belief in, and knowledge of Feisal's integrity and purposes, sank so deeply into my own consciousness, that I found myself instinctively seeking for every scrap of information centering around Feisal of Arabia.
It was inevitable that I should do something about it and finally there came a time when I felt impelled to begin the 'writing of it down.'
Then there ensued a period of almost seven years in which I was forced to lay aside my notes, for nothing at all came out of Arabia. At last the veil lifted and I learned with great disappointment that Prince Feisal had not been made King over all Arabia..." Inscribed by the author: "To Mrs. Ole N. Baker. With compliments of the author. 1940." (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 8.6
Pages: Pp 66
S#: 0370.20.0622Date: 1933
Title: Hetaira (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, 410 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago)
Author: Brown, Cornelia Dodd
Description: Dust jacket: "Hetaira is a story lyrical in utterance and with dramatic values. What may not be so apparent, however, to the reader unversed in modern psychology, is that, possibly for the first time in American fiction, Mrs. Brown has treated love in terms of those projections of our own ego and those identifications of ourselves with the traits in others which reflect our own, which have only recently been isolated and described by the psychologist." Foreword: "Athens, for once, had a grey, heavy sky; during the night, fog had been coming in from the distant sea. Just before noon, showers caught me near a curious little shop... I moved toward this brilliant object and bent forward to examine it. Exquisitely sculptured, the figure of a woman stood there in a flowing Grecian robe. Beneath the perfectly carved sandals, was one word: Hetaira. The sheer beauty of this thing was genius; Greek genius of long ago." Two copies, one with dust jacket. Original list price $2.50. (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 8
Pages: Pp 293
S#: 0370.15.0116, 0370.19.0122Date: 1933
Title: The Story of Coal (Soft Cover) (Published by The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois)
Author: The Museum of Science and Industry
Description: Informative booklet about the story of coal. "Coal - man's chief ally in his conquest of the physical world..." The cover illustration is by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Signed in the plate lower left: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 8
Pages: Pp 103
S#: 0370.18.12211934 Date: 1934
Printers Mark on the last page.
Title: Commonplace Book 1854-1934. (Cover affixed to stiff covers.) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago) Signed by the author. "Ellen Dear, Remembering our many happy times. Love Always, Ruth."
Author: Compiled by: Jeffries, Ruth Gaddis
Description: "The young ladies of the middle of the last century did not keep diaries as do the girls of today, telling of their dates and various and sundry swains and suitors and their secret thoughts; but kept what they called their "Common Place Book" - just their thoughts on the common place things of this life, and, as we shall see, many thoughts of the next! Original poems, written both by themselves and their closest friends, and selections of the best loved ones of their times were gathered: here a pressed rose and there a bow knot of silver. Things most dearly prized in their lives and hearts but quaintly labelled "Common Place"..." A compilation of poems and stories. Printers Mark on last page. (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 8.25
Pages: Pp 29
S#: 0376.01.05171935 Date: 1935
Title: A Child’s Bouquet. Fifteen Songs for Children (Published by Writer’s Editions, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Designed and printed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, Chicago, Illinois)
Author: Corbin Alice; Morley, Mary
Description: Cover Designed and Illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. A Child’s Bouquet. Fifteen Songs for Children. Music by Mary Morley. Verse by Alice Corbin.
A Child’s Bouquet.
Wild immortelles and evergreen.
Pointing Time’s slow and endles way,
And just one clover bloom to show
The passing sweetness of Today.
Back page: This edition of 1000 copies of A Child's Bouquet has been designed and printed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, Chicago, Illinois, for Writers' Editions, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Cover and title page art signed: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour," lower left in plate. (First Edition)
Size: 9 x 12
Pages: Pp 21
S#: 0397.85.0324Date: 1935
Title: The Nyum-Nyum. An Anonymous Poem. Illustated With Woodcuts By Suzette Morton. (Privately Printed by Alderbrink Press, Chicago. Boards are covered in paper printed in two color, red and light olive. End pages are light olive and have a "Georgian" watermark. A small label with the title is pasted to the spine.)
Author: Morton, Suzette
Description: "The Nyum-Nyum" is a fanciful children's poem. "The Nyum-Nyum chortled by the sea,
And sipped the wavelets green:
He wondered how the sky could be
So very nice and clean..."
Dedication: "For Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Printed on beige Casinensis Italian hand made paper with the watermark of an elaborate two-headed snake with text below.
The author, Suzette Preston Morton (1911-1996) was an heiress of the Morton Salt Company. She was a granddaughter of Joy Morton. She was twenty four when she published this volume.
Colophon: "This edition, designed & illustrated with cuts on the wood by Suzette Preston Morton, consists of 75 signed & numbered copies printed in Cloister Old Style type on Casinensis Italian hand-made paper at the Alderbrink Press, Chicago, in the month of May, 1935. Number (hand written:) Twenty-two. Suzette Preston Morton." Also signed with an illustration of a smiling cat. Pages are folded at the top and printed single-sided.
Five woodcut illustrations by Morton, printed in two-color. (First Edition)
Size: 5.25 x 6.75
Pages: Pp 16
S#: 0397.77.0222Date: 1935
Title: Through The Years, Poems by Elizabeth Newell (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed on laid paper with "Town Crier Text (American)" watermark. Text is repeated upside down.)
Author: Newell, Elizabeth
Description: Signed by the Author. "Poems which have been printed before are included in this collection by courtesy of and with th consent of The Curtis publishing Company and other publications." A compilation of 90 poems. This volume was dedicated to the Terre Haute Pen and Brush Club. The club was established in 1920. In 1925 and 1934, Newell was a Vice President. Original list price $1.50. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 8.25
Pages: Pp 107
S#: 0397.21.0414
Date: 1935
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching “A Paris Wine Shop” 1935.
Description: “A Paris Wine Shop” was selected as the 1935 Presentation Print by the Chicago Society of Etchers with a prize of $500. It was produced in an edition of 300-350 prints. Title signed in pencil lower left: “A Paris Wine Shop.” Signed in pencil lower right: “Ralph Fletcher Seymour.” Blind stamp of the Chicago Society of Etchers imprint below the title.
Size: Sheet size: 11.25 x 13.25. Etching size: 7.9 x 10
S#: 0397.83.0224Date: 1935
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "A Paris Wine Shop" 1935.
Description: "A Paris Wine Shop" was selected as the 1935 Presentation Print by the Chicago Society of Etchers with a prize of $500. It was produced in an edition of 300-350 prints. Titled and signed in pencil. It was originally titled in pencil, lower left, and signed in pencil, lower right. This etching was butchered by trimming it, pasting the title and signature at the top, and framing it in a 9 x 11.25 frame.
Size: Etching size: 7.9 x 10
S#: 0397.75.1121Date: Circa 1935
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "Cinema in Tasco" Circa 1935.
Description: "Cinema in Tasco" was selected for the Fifth International Exhibition of Etchings and Engravings at the Art Institute of Chicago, November 4, 1938 to January, 1939. The "Cinema in Tasco" appears to be large enough to have a balcony. Stairs can be seen in the background leading to the balcony. The light from the movie projector can be seen coming from the back of the balcony. The viewers in the foreground appear to be more of a Hispanic decent than European or French. Seymour visited Paris in 1935.
There is a small village in Columbia with the name Tasco, but it does not appear large enough to support a cinema. In 1928, Ralph Fletcher Seymour traveled to Mexico, then on to Spain and Germany. It does not appear that he traveled to Columbia on this trip. There is a larger city in Mexico named "Taxco" which has been translated to "Tasco." It is interesting to note that in the Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago Report for the Year Nineteen Hundred Thirty-Five. Volume XXX, No. 3, March, 1936, Part III, listed as a Life Member, page 111, Cordon C. Abbott, Tasco, Guerrero, Mexico.
Side note: This etching was buried in a trunk from the estate of a family that moved from Chicago to the Pacific northwest. It was layered amongst papers from the 1930's. Etching pulled from a copper plate. Signed in pencil: "Cinima in Tasco. Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Size: Sheet size: 12.9 x 10.75. Plate size: 9.6 x 8.5
S#: 0397.82.1122Date: 1938
Title: Fifth International Exhibition, Etching and Engraving (Published by the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois)
Author: Art Institute of Chicago
Description: Catalog for the Fifth International Exhibition, Etching and Engraving. Held at the Art Institute of Chicago, November 4, 1938 to January 9, 1939. Ralph Fletcher Seymour's etching "Cinema in Tasco" was exhibited at the Fifth International Exhibition of Etchings and Engravings at the Art Institute of Chicago, November 4, 1938 to January, 1939. (PDF)
Size: 5.5 x 8.5
Pages: Pp 16
S#: 0460.33.12221936 Date: 1936
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour 1936.
Description: Photographed by Harold E. Way while Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois. In 1937, Seymour painted Abraham Lincoln, on stage, giving a speech at the Lincoln-Douglas debate at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, October 7th 1858. The painting hangs in the college's Old Main. He also etched "Old Main" Knox College, A commemorative etching, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Knox College. Courtesy of Knox College.
Size: 8 x 9 B&W photograph.
S#: 0404.31.0517Date: 1936
Cloth Cover Title Page
Title: Anniversary And Other Poems (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Top and bottom edges trimmed. Side uncut.)
Author: Thayer, Harriet Maxon
Description: A compilation of 39 poems by Harriet Maxon Thayer. "Anniversary.
Again he didn't understand her quite,
Because of that familiar way she had,
Of skipping have a dozen steps or so,
In a literal argument, arriving so,
At what, to her, perhaps, seemed logical,
As in he knows on face..."
Inscribed: M. H. Moran, from Maxie - Harriet Moxon Thayer. Dust jacket cover signed lower left hand corner: "G. S." Original list price $2.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9
Pages: Pp 78
S#: 0404.32.0517, 0404.41.0321Date: 1936
Title: The Art Digest - 1st May, 1936 (Published monthly June - September, Semi-Monthly October - May by The Art Digest, Inc., New York)
Author: Anonymous
Description: " 'Old-Fashioned' Print Wins in Philadelphia. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was awarded the Charles M. Lea prize at the Philadelphia Print Club's 13th annual exhibition of American etching, which will remain on view until May 2. His print, entitled 'Steamboat at the Landing,' shows a seated girl gazing out of a half-curtained window toward the river craft in the distance. 'It is the sort of print,' says C. H. Bonte in the Philadelphia Inquirer, 'that the moderns will call old-fashioned, and it is indeed true that the technique of an older day, involving much more cross-hatching than is customary in such work now, is strongly in evidence..." Includes one illustration of Seymour's work. Original cover price 25 cents.
Size: 8.25 x 11.75
Pages: Pp 21
S#: 0404.30.10161937 Date: 1937
Title: Dinner Table Art for The Tired Business Man. Talks about the Modern and Classic Point of View In Works of Art. (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago)
Author: Pynchon, Adeline Lobdell; With and Introduction by Archipenko, Alexander
Description: A compilation of 60 articles. They have been "reconstructed and edited from some of the illustrated newspaper articles that have appeared weekly under the title of dinner table art in the Chicago Journal of Commerce, those columns which have a more then local or passing interest. Dinner Table Art was a service designed by the publishers to help the "tired business man" to acquire, at least, that's smattering of art knowledge. So many requests for back numbers of the paper have been recorded that it has here been given the more available form of a book..." (Dedication.) (First Edition)
Size: 7.25 x 10
Pages: Pp 138
S#: 0429.35.1017Date: 1937
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "Old Main" 1937.
Description: Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois. In 1937, Seymour painted Abraham Lincoln, on stage, giving a speech at the Lincoln-Douglas debate at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, October 7th 1858. The painting hangs in the college's Old Main. For the 100th anniversary of Knox College, Seymour also etched this illustration. Text etched in lower left corner: "Old Main" Knox College, A Commemorative Etching, 1837-1937. Hand signed in pencil lower left: "Old Main" Knox College. Hand signed in pencil lower right: Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Signed in pencil by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Size: Etching from a copper plate: 12 x 9.4. Sheet size: 14.1 x 10. Framed: 16.5 x 12.5.
S#: 0429.29.0417Set of 5 etched prints by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Date: 1937
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "590 North Prairie Street" 1937.
Description: Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. 590 North Prairie St, Galesburg, IL is a 5,390 square foot home built by George A. Lawrence (1859-1934) in 1898 at a cost of $80,000. Built of Colona Sandstone with marble columns, the Lawrence house was the most expensive house built in Galesburg during the 19th century. Lawrence graduated from Knox College in 1875 and became a successful local attorney and banker, and was a longtime trustee of Knox College. His wife Ella (1857 - 1924), was also a Knox graduate, and was one of the founders of the local Daughters of the American Revolution. They had five children, but two passed away in infancy, a son who died at the age of 12, and a daughter that died at the age of 9. Their fifth child, was a daughter, Ella Rebecca Lawrence (1891-1975). Rebecca was on the faculty of Knox College from 1913-16. After she married John Marshall Lowrie in December, 1916, they moved to New York City. In 1928, she wrote Cambric Tea, a book about growing up in Galesburg. Following her husband's death in 1954, she moved to Chicago. The home remained in her name until after her husbands death when it was reported that she donated it to the local School district. We could not find a record of how the home was used while she was in New York City, but one could speculated from this etching. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. With the Lawrence's close ties to Knox College, Seymour may have taken residence at the home during his tenure at Knox College. Ralph Fletcher Seymour received an Honorary Degree Knox College in 1938. Label on back of frame: "Illinois Camera Shop. Weinberg Arcade. Galesburg, - Ill." Etched in the plate: "590 North Prairie Street." Hand signed in pencil lower right: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour." Etching pulled from a copper plate: Signed in pencil by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Size: 7.4 x 5. Sheet size: 9.75 x 7.5. Framed: 11.1 x 9.1.
S#: 0429.30.0517Date: 1937
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "590 North Prairie Street" Back Yard 1937.
Description: Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. 590 North Prairie St, Galesburg, IL is a 5,390 square foot home built by George A. Lawrence (1859-1934) in 1898 at a cost of $80,000. Built of Colona Sandstone with marble columns, the Lawrence house was the most expensive house built in Galesburg during the 19th century. Lawrence graduated from Knox College in 1875 and became a successful local attorney and banker, and was a longtime trustee of Knox College. His wife Ella (1857 - 1924), was also a Knox graduate, and was one of the founders of the local Daughters of the American Revolution. They had five children, but two passed away in infancy, a son who died at the age of 12, and a daughter that died at the age of 9. Their fifth child, was a daughter, Ella Rebecca Lawrence (1891-1975). Rebecca was on the faculty of Knox College from 1913-16. After she married John Marshall Lowrie in December, 1916, they moved to New York City. In 1928, she wrote Cambric Tea, a book about growing up in Galesburg. Following her husband's death in 1954, she moved to Chicago. The home remained in her name until after her husbands death when it was reported that she donated it to the local School district. We could not find a record of how the home was used while she was in New York City, but one could speculated from this etching. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. With the Lawrence's close ties to Knox College, Seymour may have taken residence at the home during his tenure at Knox College. Ralph Fletcher Seymour received an Honorary Degree Knox College in 1938. Label on back of frame: "Illinois Camera Shop. Weinberg Arcade. Galesburg, - Ill." Etched in the plate: "590 North Prairie Street" and lower left hand corner: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Size: Etching pulled from a copper plate: 7.4 x 5. Sheet size: 9 x 6.5. Framed: 11.1 x 9.1.
S#: 0429.31.0517Date: 1937
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching View From the Back Porch of the Laurence House 1937.
Description: Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. The Laurence House, 590 North Prairie St, Galesburg, IL is a 5,390 square foot home built by George A. Lawrence (1859-1934) in 1898 at a cost of $80,000. Built of Colona Sandstone with marble columns, the Lawrence house was the most expensive house built in Galesburg during the 19th century. Lawrence graduated from Knox College in 1875 and became a successful local attorney and banker, and was a longtime trustee of Knox College. His wife Ella (1857 - 1924), was also a Knox graduate, and was one of the founders of the local Daughters of the American Revolution. They had five children, but two passed away in infancy, a son who died at the age of 12, and a daughter that died at the age of 9. Their fifth child, was a daughter, Ella Rebecca Lawrence (1891-1975). Rebecca was on the faculty of Knox College from 1913-16. After she married John Marshall Lowrie in December, 1916, they moved to New York City. In 1928, she wrote Cambric Tea, a book about growing up in Galesburg. Following her husband's death in 1954, she moved to Chicago. The home remained in her name until after her husbands death when it was reported that she donated it to the local School district. We could not find a record of how the home was used while she was in New York City, but one could speculated from this etching. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. With the Lawrence's close ties to Knox College, Seymour may have taken residence at the home during his tenure at Knox College. Ralph Fletcher Seymour received an Honorary Degree Knox College in 1938. Label on back of frame: "Illinois Camera Shop. Weinberg Arcade. Galesburg, - Ill." Hand signed in pencil lower right: "Seymour."
Size: Etching pulled from a copper plate: 4.5 x 6.6. Sheet size: 13 x 9 folded to 6.5 x 9, forming a "Card." Inside reads "Greetings. John and Rebecca Lowrie, and appears to be produced as a Greeting Card. Framed: 8.25 x 11.25.
S#: 0429.32.0517Date: 1937
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching View From the Back Porch of the Laurence House 1937.
Description: Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. The Laurence House, 590 North Prairie St, Galesburg, IL is a 5,390 square foot home built by George A. Lawrence (1859-1934) in 1898 at a cost of $80,000. Built of Colona Sandstone with marble columns, the Lawrence house was the most expensive house built in Galesburg during the 19th century. Lawrence graduated from Knox College in 1875 and became a successful local attorney and banker, and was a longtime trustee of Knox College. His wife Ella (1857 - 1924), was also a Knox graduate, and was one of the founders of the local Daughters of the American Revolution. They had five children, but two passed away in infancy, a son who died at the age of 12, and a daughter that died at the age of 9. Their fifth child, was a daughter, Ella Rebecca Lawrence (1891-1975). Rebecca was on the faculty of Knox College from 1913-16. After she married John Marshall Lowrie in December, 1916, they moved to New York City. In 1928, she wrote Cambric Tea, a book about growing up in Galesburg. Following her husband's death in 1954, she moved to Chicago. The home remained in her name until after her husbands death when it was reported that she donated it to the local School district. We could not find a record of how the home was used while she was in New York City, but one could speculated from this etching. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. With the Lawrence's close ties to Knox College, Seymour may have taken residence at the home during his tenure at Knox College. Ralph Fletcher Seymour received an Honorary Degree Knox College in 1938. Label on back of frame: "Illinois Camera Shop. Weinberg Arcade. Galesburg, - Ill." Hand signed in pencil lower left: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Size: Etching pulled from a copper plate: 4.5 x 6.75. Green ink. Sheet size: 12.9 x 8.75 folded to 6.4 x 8.75, forming a "Card." Inside printed in Green and black and reads "John and Rebecca Lowrie, Send Holiday Greetings" and appears is produced as a Greeting Card. Framed: 7 x 9.25.
S#: 0429.33.0517Date: 1937
Laurence Residence courtesy of Google.
Title: Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching View of the Southeast corner of the Laurence House 1937.
Description: Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. The Laurence House, 590 North Prairie St, Galesburg, IL is a 5,390 square foot home built by George A. Lawrence (1859-1934) in 1898 at a cost of $80,000. Built of Colona Sandstone with marble columns, the Lawrence house was the most expensive house built in Galesburg during the 19th century. Lawrence graduated from Knox College in 1875 and became a successful local attorney and banker, and was a longtime trustee of Knox College. His wife Ella (1857 - 1924), was also a Knox graduate, and was one of the founders of the local Daughters of the American Revolution. They had five children, but two passed away in infancy, a son who died at the age of 12, and a daughter that died at the age of 9. Their fifth child, was a daughter, Ella Rebecca Lawrence (1891-1975). Rebecca was on the faculty of Knox College from 1913-16. After she married John Marshall Lowrie in December, 1916, they moved to New York City. In 1928, she wrote Cambric Tea, a book about growing up in Galesburg. Following her husband's death in 1954, she moved to Chicago. The home remained in her name until after her husbands death when it was reported that she donated it to the local School district. We could not find a record of how the home was used while she was in New York City, but one could speculated from this etching. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. With the Lawrence's close ties to Knox College, Seymour may have taken residence at the home during his tenure at Knox College. Ralph Fletcher Seymour received an Honorary Degree Knox College in 1938. Label on back of frame: "Illinois Camera Shop. Weinberg Arcade. Galesburg, - Ill."
Size: Etching pulled from a copper plate: 4 x 4. Sheet size: 7 x 8. Framed: 7.75 x 8.75.
S#: 0429.34.0517Date: 1937
Title: 1) Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "590 North Prairie Street" Entrance 1937.
Description: Set of five "Holiday Greetings" cards. Front: View of entrance to the property. Inside: Vase with floral decoration. Each of the five cards is 18" x 6.5, folded to 9 x 6.5. Each card has an etching on the front, and a smaller etching inside with the greeting: "John and Rebecca Lourie Send Holiday Greetings." Early images of the Lawrence house show the estate as a much larger piece of property. The Carriage House still exists today and this may have been the driveway entrance to the Carriage House from Cherry Street. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. 590 North Prairie St, Galesburg, IL is a 5,390 square foot home built by George A. Lawrence (1859-1934) in 1898 at a cost of $80,000. Built of Colona Sandstone with marble columns, the Lawrence house was the most expensive house built in Galesburg during the 19th century. Lawrence graduated from Knox College in 1875 and became a successful local attorney and banker, and was a longtime trustee of Knox College. His wife Ella (1857 - 1924), was also a Knox graduate, and was one of the founders of the local Daughters of the American Revolution. They had five children, but two passed away in infancy, a son who died at the age of 12, and a daughter that died at the age of 9. Their fifth child, was a daughter, Ella Rebecca Lawrence (1891-1975). Rebecca was on the faculty of Knox College from 1913-16. After she married John Marshall Lowrie in December, 1916, they moved to New York City. In 1928, she wrote Cambric Tea, a book about growing up in Galesburg. Following her husband's death in 1954, she moved to Chicago. The home remained in her name until after her husbands death when it was reported that she donated it to the local School district. We could not find a record of how the home was used while she was in New York City, but one could speculated from this etching. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. With the Lawrence's close ties to Knox College, Seymour may have taken residence at the home during his tenure at Knox College. Etched in the plate: "590 North Prairie Street" and lower left hand corner: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Size: Etching pulled from a copper plate: 7.25 x 4.75, inside 2.5 x 3.5. Sheet size: 18" x 6.5, folded to 9 x 6.5.
S#: 0429.56.1022
Left: Detail of Cover Etching.
Right: Inside Etching.
Left: Cover.
Right: Inside.
Left: Early Postcard Circa 1900.
Right: Early Postcard Circa 1908.Date: 1937
Title: 2) Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "590 North Prairie Street" Back Yard 1937.
Description: Set of five "Holiday Greetings" cards. Front: View of the back yard. Inside: View of the veranda. Each of the five cards is 18" x 6.5, folded to 9 x 6.5. Each card has an etching on the front, and a smaller etching inside with the greeting: "John and Rebecca Lourie Send Holiday Greetings." Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. 590 North Prairie St, Galesburg, IL is a 5,390 square foot home built by George A. Lawrence (1859-1934) in 1898 at a cost of $80,000. Built of Colona Sandstone with marble columns, the Lawrence house was the most expensive house built in Galesburg during the 19th century. Lawrence graduated from Knox College in 1875 and became a successful local attorney and banker, and was a longtime trustee of Knox College. His wife Ella (1857 - 1924), was also a Knox graduate, and was one of the founders of the local Daughters of the American Revolution. They had five children, but two passed away in infancy, a son who died at the age of 12, and a daughter that died at the age of 9. Their fifth child, was a daughter, Ella Rebecca Lawrence (1891-1975). Rebecca was on the faculty of Knox College from 1913-16. After she married John Marshall Lowrie in December, 1916, they moved to New York City. In 1928, she wrote Cambric Tea, a book about growing up in Galesburg. Following her husband's death in 1954, she moved to Chicago. The home remained in her name until after her husbands death when it was reported that she donated it to the local School district. We could not find a record of how the home was used while she was in New York City, but one could speculated from this etching. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. With the Lawrence's close ties to Knox College, Seymour may have taken residence at the home during his tenure at Knox College. Etched in the plate: "590 North Prairie Street" and lower left hand corner: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Size: Etching pulled from a copper plate: 7.4 x 5, inside 2.5 x 3.5. Sheet size: 18" x 6.5, folded to 9 x 6.5.
S#: 0429.57.1022
Left: Detail of Cover Etching.
Right: Inside Etching.
Left: Cover.
Right: Inside.Date: 1937
Title: 3) Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching of the George A. Lawrence House Back Porch 1937.
Description: Set of five "Holiday Greetings" cards. Front: View of the back porch. Inside: Etching of a holly branch. Each of the five cards is 18" x 6.5, folded to 9 x 6.5. Each card has an etching on the front, and a smaller etching inside with the greeting: "John and Rebecca Lourie Send Holiday Greetings." Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. 590 North Prairie St, Galesburg, IL is a 5,390 square foot home built by George A. Lawrence (1859-1934) in 1898 at a cost of $80,000. Built of Colona Sandstone with marble columns, the Lawrence house was the most expensive house built in Galesburg during the 19th century. Lawrence graduated from Knox College in 1875 and became a successful local attorney and banker, and was a longtime trustee of Knox College. His wife Ella (1857 - 1924), was also a Knox graduate, and was one of the founders of the local Daughters of the American Revolution. They had five children, but two passed away in infancy, a son who died at the age of 12, and a daughter that died at the age of 9. Their fifth child, was a daughter, Ella Rebecca Lawrence (1891-1975). Rebecca was on the faculty of Knox College from 1913-16. After she married John Marshall Lowrie in December, 1916, they moved to New York City. In 1928, she wrote Cambric Tea, a book about growing up in Galesburg. Following her husband's death in 1954, she moved to Chicago. The home remained in her name until after her husbands death when it was reported that she donated it to the local School district. We could not find a record of how the home was used while she was in New York City, but one could speculated from this etching. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. With the Lawrence's close ties to Knox College, Seymour may have taken residence at the home during his tenure at Knox College.
Size: Etching pulled from a copper plate: 4.5 x 6.75, inside 2.5 x 3.5. Sheet size: 18" x 6.5, folded to 9 x 6.5.
S#: 0429.58.1022
Left: Inside Etching.
Left: Cover.
Right: Inside.Date: 1937
Title: 4) Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "590 North Prairie Street" Living Room 1937.
Description: Set of five "Holiday Greetings" cards. Front: View of the living room. Inside: View of the interior. Each of the five cards is 18" x 6.5, folded to 9 x 6.5. Each card has an etching on the front, and a smaller etching inside with the greeting: "John and Rebecca Lourie Send Holiday Greetings." Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. 590 North Prairie St, Galesburg, IL is a 5,390 square foot home built by George A. Lawrence (1859-1934) in 1898 at a cost of $80,000. Built of Colona Sandstone with marble columns, the Lawrence house was the most expensive house built in Galesburg during the 19th century. Lawrence graduated from Knox College in 1875 and became a successful local attorney and banker, and was a longtime trustee of Knox College. His wife Ella (1857 - 1924), was also a Knox graduate, and was one of the founders of the local Daughters of the American Revolution. They had five children, but two passed away in infancy, a son who died at the age of 12, and a daughter that died at the age of 9. Their fifth child, was a daughter, Ella Rebecca Lawrence (1891-1975). Rebecca was on the faculty of Knox College from 1913-16. After she married John Marshall Lowrie in December, 1916, they moved to New York City. In 1928, she wrote Cambric Tea, a book about growing up in Galesburg. Following her husband's death in 1954, she moved to Chicago. The home remained in her name until after her husbands death when it was reported that she donated it to the local School district. We could not find a record of how the home was used while she was in New York City, but one could speculated from this etching. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. With the Lawrence's close ties to Knox College, Seymour may have taken residence at the home during his tenure at Knox College. Etched in the plate: "590 North Prairie Street" and lower left hand corner: "Ralph Fletcher Seymour."
Size: Etching pulled from a copper plate: 7 x 5, inside 2.75 x 3.75. Sheet size: 18" x 6.5, folded to 9 x 6.5.
S#: 0429.59.1022
Left: Detail of Cover Etching.
Right: Inside Etching.
Left: Cover.
Right: Inside.Date: 1937
Title: 5) Ralph Fletcher Seymour etching "590 North Prairie Street" Sitting Room 1937.
Description: Set of five "Holiday Greetings" cards. Front: View of the sitting room. Inside: Bird cage. Each of the five cards is 18" x 6.5, folded to 9 x 6.5. Each card has an etching on the front, and a smaller etching inside with the greeting: "John and Rebecca Lourie Send Holiday Greetings." Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. 590 North Prairie St, Galesburg, IL is a 5,390 square foot home built by George A. Lawrence (1859-1934) in 1898 at a cost of $80,000. Built of Colona Sandstone with marble columns, the Lawrence house was the most expensive house built in Galesburg during the 19th century. Lawrence graduated from Knox College in 1875 and became a successful local attorney and banker, and was a longtime trustee of Knox College. His wife Ella (1857 - 1924), was also a Knox graduate, and was one of the founders of the local Daughters of the American Revolution. They had five children, but two passed away in infancy, a son who died at the age of 12, and a daughter that died at the age of 9. Their fifth child, was a daughter, Ella Rebecca Lawrence (1891-1975). Rebecca was on the faculty of Knox College from 1913-16. After she married John Marshall Lowrie in December, 1916, they moved to New York City. In 1928, she wrote Cambric Tea, a book about growing up in Galesburg. Following her husband's death in 1954, she moved to Chicago. The home remained in her name until after her husbands death when it was reported that she donated it to the local School district. We could not find a record of how the home was used while she was in New York City, but one could speculated from this etching. Ralph Fletcher Seymour was artist in residence at Know College, Galesburg, Illinois, in 1937. With the Lawrence's close ties to Knox College, Seymour may have taken residence at the home during his tenure at Knox College. Etched in the plate: "590 North Prairie Street."
Size: Etching pulled from a copper plate: 7.4 x 5, inside 2.75 x 3.75. Sheet size: 18" x 6.5, folded to 9 x 6.5.
S#: 0429.60.1022
Left: Detail of Cover Etching.
Right: Inside Etching.
Left: Cover.
Right: Inside.1939 Date: 1939
Title: Immortality And Other Poems: A Compilation of Poems Selected from Pink Lightning, Lake of Stars, Prodigal, Across the Little Space, “1812" Together with Recent Verse. (Hard Cover) (Published by Alderbrink, Ralph Fletcher Seymour Publisher, Chicago)
Author: Miller, Francesca Falk
Description: A Compilation of 188 poems written by Francesca Falk Miller.
Immortality.
And there shall come a day ... in Spring
When death and winter
Loose their chill, white hold
Quite suddenly. A day of sunlit air
When winging birds return,
And earth her gentle bosoms bare
So that new, thirsty life
May nurture there.
That breathless hour ..
So filled with warm, soft miracles
That faith is born anew.
On such a day...
I shall return to you...
Page 8: The courtesy of the Chicago Tribune, Good House-keeping, Cosmopolitan, New York Times, New York Herald, Houston Post, the Fort Worth Record, the San Antonio Express, the Waco (Texas) Times-Herald, The Household, Progress, Viewpoints and other magazines for permission to reprint certain of these poems is greatly acknowledged. (First Edition)
Size: 5.8 x 8.6
Pages: Pp 199
S#: 0501.62.0724Date: 1939
Title: Seven Stars (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, Illinois)
Author: DeLamarter, Jeanne
Description: Compilation of 40 poems by the author.
Seven Stars. Slowly the desk unfolds across the heaven, softly rests the cloud upon the moon, wind flows gently eastward over grass.
I count the early stars, and there are seven; I walk beneath their shining little light, and shall not wait to look and count again.
The ghostly clouds creep sideways up the sky. My foot steps make gray patterns in the dew."
Seymour also published Chess Game and Other Poems, DeLamarter, in 1952. (First Edition)
Size: 5.75 x 9
Pages: Pp 66
S#: 0501.51.0620Date: 1939
Title: Siftings (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press Chicago, Illinois. Printed on beige paper, top edge trimmed, others uncut.
Author: Jensen, Jens
Description: "Preface. By the open fire memories of earlier days came back for rehearsal, memories of my wanderings in many lands, memories of my own little world in the heart of mid-America. For more than 30 years notes have been recorded without any thought of putting them into readable shape. But here they are - experiences with the soil." The beginning of each chapter is decorated with a small illustration, printed in green. Text is printed in black. The Alderbrink imprint on the title page is also printed in green. At the end of the book, there are two fold-out pages with illustrations of Columbus Park, Chicago, and a "Rural Community Recreation Center." (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 9.5
Pages: Pp 110
S#: 0501.38.0118Date: 1939
Title: Twelve Moods in Rhythm (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed on a beige laid paper with the watermark "Town Crier Text. Made in The U. S. A." Top edge trimmed, others untrimmed. Title Page illustration most likely by Seymour.)
Author: Hubbard, Susan Weare
Description: A compilation of twelve poems, with the addition of a thirteenth, "A Christmas Watch." "[ I ] Into an empty room, through half closed lattice, a sunbeam lilts its way. Light shod it slips across the polished floor, Darts between slender pillars to rest upon a mirror, A mirror, tarnished, dim - But of a sudden, come to life, Glowing in its own leaping flame. Why is the room so bright? Why is there perfume of flowers.." Not only was Hubbard a writer, but also a composer who published at least 5 musical scores. This is the second volume we have located to date published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. The first being "Fagots." Original list price $1.25. (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 7.5
Pages: Pp 33
S#: 0501.33.03171940 Date: 1940
Title: Under One Roof (Hard Cover) (Published posthumously by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. Mauve paper covered boards, spine is cover in black cloth. Label with title is affixed to spine. Printed on tan stock with the watermark: A scale within a circle with the text "Utopian." Edges trimmed.)
Author: Lee, Agnes
Description: A compilation of poems selected by Agnes Lee before her death. Agnes Lee was born Martha Agnes Rand in Chicago, the second daughter of William H. Rand, of the map publishers Rand, McNally & Company. She married Francis Watts Lee in 1900. In 1911 she Chicago surgeon Otto Freer. "A Word Before. These are selected as the poems I have cared to preserve under one roof. Those included here represent work of earlier in later years. But I have left unspecified any order of dates; for it seems to me that youth and maturity must speak for themselves. I have used archaism only when truth to the remoteness, in time, of certain speech exacted it, as in three of the pieces in Legends, and in Saint Anne's Lullaby..." Frontispiece is a portrait of the author. (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 8.25
Pages: Pp 184
S#: 0531.90.0321
Frontispiece is a portrait of the author Agnes Lee.1941 Date: 1941
Title: Artist In Living, Anne and Vibe Spicer, With Some Unpublished Poems by Anne Higginson Spicer (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Compiled by: Hall, Lucy Duncan; Sanborn, Louise Kirkland; Sears, Dorothy
Description: Foreword: "To have known Anne and Vibe Spicer is to have glimpsed life as something very different form the ordinary, humdrum sense of existence. To them life was alluring, enchanting, full of worthwhile things to do, of beauty, of challenge. They met its challenge with a gallant spirit, an out-giving friendliness, with enthusiasm and courage..." (First Edition)
Size: 5.9 x 8.75
Pages: Pp 180
S#: 0571.11.0314
Date: 1941
Title: As Day Breaks (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Watts, Edith Allen; Inscribed by the author: "For, Mary Lester Luther, in loving remembrance of our precious times together. Edith Allen Watts."
Description: This is "the first book written by Miss Watts. The seventy-five poems constitute a constructive appreciation of some of the serious and amusing emotions which color and vitalize our days. They are distinguished by imagination, beauty of form and construction and may be fairly classified as literature... Appreciators and friends of the accomplished author will welcome this book to their collection of modern verse." Publisher's Description. Preface: "...Though no effort has ever been made to publish them, some of these verses have been previously printed in Verse Craft; Muse Anthology; Poetry Digest Anthology 1939; Golden Gate Anthology; New York World's Fair Anthology of Verse, et cetera. E. A. W. Chicago, September 1941." Original list price $2.00. (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 8.25
Pages: Pp 88
S#: 0571.09.0214
Date: 1941 Title: Announcing the Publication of "As Day Breaks" by Edith Allen Watts. (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Description: A flyer and order form. "The publishers take pleasure in announcing the publication of the first book written by Miss Watts. The seventy-five poems constitute a constructive appreciation of some of the serious and amusing emotions which color and vitalize our days. They are distinguished by imagination, beauty of form and construction and may be fairly classified as literature... Appreciators and friends of the accomplished author will welcome this book to their collection of modern verse." Order form removed from bottom of the page.
Size: 5.25 x 5.5
S#: 0571.10.0214
Date: 1941
Title: Contourscaping (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Root, Ralph Rodney
Description: Root was a landscape architect noted for his formalism in style and approach. "Landscaping is an activity dealing entirely with display plantings of trees, shrubs, vines, and garden flowers, and the making of lawns, is the opinion of the many, and that anyone having anything to do with horticultural things is a landscape architect..." Roots fifth book on landscaping. Includes 38 illustrations, one in color. Drawings by Margrette Oatway Dornbusch, Landscape renderings by Frank Polito, Photographs by Vories Fisher. 1,000 copies published. Original list price $10.00. (First Edition)
Size: 7.5 x 10.25
Pages: Pp 246
S#: 0571.14.1014
Date: 1941
Title: Reminiscences of a Schoolmaster (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Dodge, Chester C.
Description: Foreword: "In the following pages Mr. Chester C. Dodge traverses his fifty-four years in the service of education to give us the Reminiscences of a School Man. The first eight of those years were spent in the schools of various small towns once suburbs of Chicago - Englewood, Town of Lake, Hyde Park - a novitiate, in a manner of speaking, which successfully prepared him from his larger sphere of activities in Chicago..." (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 7.75
Pages: Pp 148
S#: 0571.12.0314
Date: 1941
Title: The Ice Age and The History of The Earth (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Dankoler, Harry E.
Description: "The author of this book has expounded a long standing theory regarding the change in the polarity of the earth, which may have brought the present polar regions from the tropics to the Frigid Zone, and emphasizes the facts concerning the 'inter-glacial' periods caused every 25,800 years by the Precession of the Equinoxes..." (Dust jacket) Signed by the author. Frontispiece is a photograph of the author. Illustration and cover design by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Original list price $2.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6.3 x 9.3
Pages: Pp 154
S#: 0571.13.0814
1942 Date: 1942
Title: Camouflage With Planting (Soft Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymopur, Chicago)
Author: Root, Ralph Rodney (The author of Contourscaping, 1941)
Description: This volume outlines strategies for protective planting for defense using trees, shrubs, vines and grass based on leaf color. Illustrated by Margrette Oatway Dornbusch.
Foreword: “The purpose of this book is directional. To point out some of the basic principles of camouflage as applied to landscape architecture in general and contourscaping in particular. The use of plant material is a protective factor developed with modern methods of warfare and today is an important part of civilian defense as well as mobile defense on the battle front.
Camouflage has many ways of working but the principal aim of all of them is concerned with the time element-to delay for a few seconds a bombardier's recognition of an object or its exact location as a part of the ground pattern over which he is flying may be the means of saving it from destruction.
The use of plant material for shadow elimination, ground pattern material and tonal harmony is of special value to all kinds of camouflage work and especially in camouflage where planting is an important part of its makeup. Original list price $1.50. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9
Pages: Pp 79
S#: 0593.24.09241943 Date: 1943
Title: For His Return (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, Illinois. Bound in dark blue cloth with gilt lettering.)
Author: Fowler, Elsie Melchert
Description: The poems in this book have long been due for presentation in permanent form. The writer Elsie Melchert Fowler has written for magazines and newspapers; some of these poems have been set to song or heard over broadcasts on the air. A considerable range of subject matter and high standard of imagination and of writing give this collection interest and value (dust jacket front flap). No anthology of poems written against the sounding-board of this world's present agony, will be complete unless it contains Elsie Melchert Fowler's "For His Return." When I read this poem over the radio, I had more requests for a copy than any poem I have ever read in twenty year of broadcasting... Dr. Preston Bradley. A collection of 65 poems. Original list price $1.50. (First Edition)
Size: 5.75 x 8.75
Pages: Pp 77
S#: 0595.04.0114
1944
Date: 1944
Title: Baymeath (Hard Cover DJ) (Privately Printed. Produced by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Designer Publisher, Chicago, Illinois. Cover and illustration on title page by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Cover printed in three colors, dark blue, gray and green.)
Author: Bowen, Louise de Koven
Description: Bowen was also the author of Open Windows, 1946, also published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Chicago Tribute Biography: Louise DeKoven Bowen, 1859–1953, Social reformer.
Although she lived with all the privileges of wealth, Louise DeKoven Bowen dedicated her life to social reform in Chicago...
Bowen's career as a civic leader began in 1893 when Jane Addams asked her to join the Hull-House Woman's Club. In 1912, she established the Joseph T. Bowen Country Club (named for her late husband), a summer camp near Waukegan for underprivileged children of the Hull-House neighborhood. After Addams died in 1935, Bowen became the president of the Hull-House Association....
Review by Brad Emerson, 2011: “The little volume is a charming window into that pre War era, filled with happy reminiscences of tennis and croquet, garden parties, sailing and dancing — and the people behind the scenes who made the summers of leisure possible.
“An establishment like Baymeath required servants, and lots of them. In her book, Mrs. Bowen chronicles them all — her first color-blind gardener, (not a good part of a gardener’s job description), who fortuitously ran away with a neighbor’s wife, and was replaced with a Scotsman trained in England. The head gardener lived in a charming cottage at the gate, and there were half dozen gardener’s assistants who kept the formal gardens, the cutting and kitchen gardens, wild garden and greenhouses in show condition.
“The stables, later garages, required more staff, who also lived on premises — the stable hands who cared for the horses that were brought each summer by train, the grooms and coachmen who wore elegant liveries that were as expensive as Paris gowns, the head butler who lived in another cottage on the estate, the housekeeper, cook, scullery maids and chambermaids who lived in 10 bedrooms on the second floor in the service wing, and a flotilla of governesses...” (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 8.75
Pages: Pp 137
S#: 0605.10.0824
Title page illustration by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.Date: 1944
Title: Growing Up With Chicago (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, 410 Michigan Ave, Chicago. In 1947, Harrison authored With The American Red Cross in France 1918-1919, also published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour)
Author: Harrison, Carter H.
Description: Excerpts courtesy of The Newberry Library, Chicago: Carter Henry Harrison IV, like his father, was a five term Democratic mayor of Chicago (1897-1905, 1911-15). He was born on April 23, 1860. In 1874, his father was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He attended Yale University Law School and practiced law until 1891 when he and his brother took over the operation of the Chicago Times, which their father had recently purchased. On the final day of the World Columbian Exposition, Harrison's father was assassinated in his home by Patrick Prendergast on October 28, 1893. In 1894, they sold the Chicago Times and he focused his energies on his real estate investments until he followed in his father's footsteps and successfully ran for mayor in 1897. When America entered World War I, Harrison desperately wanted to participate, but was too old to serve in the military. Eventually, Harrison was made a Captain in the American Red Cross and stationed in Toul, France, a few miles behind the front lines, where he worked to help make life more comfortable for the American troops stationed and recovering at the several field hospitals located there. In 1933 he was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for the Northern District of Illinois by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. He retired from public service for good at the age of 84. He was an avid art collector and donated his substantial art collection to the Art Institute of Chicago, including works by Paul Gauguin, Mary Cassatt, Claude Monet, and Toulouse-Lautrec. He died on Christmas Day, 1953, at the age of ninety-three. On New Year's Eve of that same year, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution recognizing his accomplishments as mayor, Collector of Internal Revenue, world traveler, and patron of the arts. The resolution stated, in part, that "from such men as Carter H. Harrison, men of integrity, vision, high civic ideals and unswerving zeal, we shall take example." Two copies, one with a dust jacket, one without. Original list price $3.50. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 375
S#: 0605.02.1115, 0605.03.1117
Date: 1944
Title: Residue (Seymour) (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, Chicago, Ill. This edition of P{oems entitled "Residue" is limited tyo 500 cxopies printed on Tweedweave D. E. Paper. Top and bottom edges trimmed, sides uncut.)
Author: Miller, Gerhard C. F.
Description: Dust jacket: "The poems and three reproductions of water color illustrations which comprise this volume Residue, reveal the writer and artist as one possessed of uncommon viewpoint and intentions. They furnish evidence that the real understanding of things, such as makes it worth while writing books, is not learned from books, but from adventures in living. Mr. Gerhard Miller, the author of Residue, has travelled far among too many sorts of people, sailed boats through too many lake blows, spent too much time in the woods and felt too many burning suns to use traditional phrases for expressing his understanding of and love for living. He writes what he feels to be worth while... The cover design has been cut for printing by himself..." Inscribed by the author. Original list price $2.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6.5 x 9
Pages: Pp 73
S#: 0605.07.01231945 Date: 1945
Title: How Buddhism Left India (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Undated. Top and sides cut, bottom uncut. Decorations, Cover and title page designed by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.)
Author: O'Connor, Nellie Johnson
Description: Preface: "Traveling through India, I realized for the first time that while Gautama Buddha was born in India and his followers at the time of his death were numbered by thousands, today there are but few Buddhists in India... With this in mind, I became interested in making a study of causes... with the following results." Publishing dates very widely, 1900 to 1957. She wrote an article on parental insolvent in education, published in "The Elementary School Teacher, March 1904. The 1914 "Women's Who's Who in America", indicates that Nellie M. Johnson married John O'Connor (1852-1923) in 1887. They had two children. She was interested in civic work. By 1914, She was the retired president of the Chicago Women's Club, and was the acting president of Mary Thompson Hospital Chicago for Women and Children, and was active in the Chicago Woman's Friends in Council City Round Table, A member of the Evangelical Church and favored woman suffrage. In 1915 she and her husband were very active in the Red Cross. There are a couple of clues that help in dating this volume. Page 84: "It has been estimated that there are perhaps out of 350 million people in India..." It was around 1948 that India reached that population. Page 85: "Ghandi... is still himself a Hindu." Present tense. Ghandi past away on January 30, 1948. P. 85: "... followers of Christ in Palestine. According to the latest records, out of a population of over a million, there are only about 135,000 Christians in Palestine, one-quarter as many as the Jews (540,000)..." She refers the the area now called Israel, as Palestine. Israel gained independence as a nation on May 14, 1948. Records indicate that in 1944, there were 135,000 Christians in Palestine, and 554,000 Jews. This would indicate that she wrote this after 1944 when records were available, but before 1948. In looking at the Bibliography list, the latest volume we were able to date was published in 1931. Includes six photographs. (First Edition)
Size: 5.5 x 8.5
Pages: Pp 87
S#: 0647.20.0214
Date: 1945
Title: Some Went This Way, A forty Year Pilgrimage Among Artists Bookmen and Printers (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Publisher, Chicago, Illinois)
Author: Seymour, Ralph Fletcher
Description: "The material in this book relates to times and events about which not much seems to have been written but which should interest those who care for the arts, books and printing. There are until now untold stories of our own artists, painters, poets, sculptures, dancers and architects who did their work among us..." (Dust jacket.) He also touches on his time in the Fine Arts Building, Chicago, his relationships with Harriet Monroe, Chauncey Williams, Francis Fisher Browne (two Wright clients), and Frank Lloyd Wright. "Mr. Williams suggested that we try to catch Frank Lloyd Wright at home some Sunday and pay him a call. We were successful. Mr. Wright then lived in Oak Park. Through the floor and ceiling of his dining room grew a live tree, the flourishing branches of which shaded the roof. This house was built in Wright's typical and fascinating architectural style, audacious in plan, new in form... He was an authority on Japanese prints and wrote a monograph on the subject which I published... He also laid two manuscripts by Ellen Key on my table, for publication, on which he had the American rights..." p.113-114. Includes 24 decorative illustrations. Original List Price $3.50. (First Edition)
Size: 5.75 x 9
Pages: Pp 294
S#: 0647.19.0114
1946 Date: 1946
Title: Open Windows (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Bowen, Louise deKoven
Description: Preface. Many men have been famous raconteurs. Few women have ever found their way into this distinguished group. Among those of recent years, the Abou Ben Adham is Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen of Chicago, whose wit, understanding, and versatility have made her the joy of all her listeners. Perhaps one of the most significant comments was made by a friend who said: "It never matters how many times I have heard these stories. They never grow stale..." Helen M. Bennett. Two chapters on Jane Addams and the Hull House.
Cover, decorative designs, title page and fifteen illustrations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. (First Edition)Size: 6 x 8.75
Pages: Pp 272
S#: 0685.10.0214
Cover, decorative designs, title page andfifteen illustrations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Left: Title page illustration signed by Seymour with a small "S" lower right.Date: 1946
Title: Stained Glass Windows. Poems and Fragments of Prose (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago)
Author: Veeder, Grace Neahr
Description: For A. H. V. II. "My long-time Love, at fifty years. How young your kindly face appears. To An impartial eye. Your walk. Is buoyant still and, as you talk, Your voice, unchanged, the spirit cheers. Yet from your lips one sometimes hears. Regret that scarce a soul reveres. Your actual age. - 'Tis quite a shock, My long-time Love! Oh let one thought assuage such fears, A greater power than might bring tears, Or make of others' rights a mock, Your tenderness, when tempests rock, Your patience, till the tumult clears, My long-time Love." (First Edition)
Size: 6.5 x 9.5
Pages: Pp 95
S#: 0685.16.05161947 Date: 1947
Title: Clipped Wings (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Title page includes Seymour's Alderbrink Press insignia. Printed on a cream laid paper with a Tweedweed watermark. Top edge trimmed, others uncut.)
Author: Sanderson, Isabel
Description: A compilation of 67 poems. Foreword: "I do not mind that life has clipped my wings - Poetry, which seems machine-made and unnatural to so many misled souls, is as natural as breathing, or eating, or loving. Poetry and prose are the two halves of the same terrain, the continent of man's expression in words..." Isabel Sanderson, a North Shore (Chicago) poet, was the author of three books of poetry, this her third. She worked with veterans at Hines Hospital in creative writing and poetry, helping many of them get their works published. She past away in 1987. Includes one portrait of the author by Gilbert Seehausen. Two copies, one with and one without dust jacket. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9
Pages: Pp 90
S#: 0720.13.1115, 0720.21.1217
(Frontispiece and Title Page) Title: Sad Azrael And Other Poems (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, 410 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago. Printed on a beige paper, top and bottom edges trimmed, outside uncut. "This is one of an edition of 100 numbered copies of a book entitled Sad Azreal. Decorations, Illustrations and Format by Ralph Fletcher Seymour" Hand lettered: "Number 43." )
Author: Raymond, Clifford
Description: Raymond joined the Tribune as a reporter in 1898. He became the chief editorial writer in 1939, and retired in 1942. He published several volumes of fiction and poetry. This is a compilation of 17 poems and includes two etchings pulled from copper plates, bound into the volume. Each etching is plate engraved with his initials, and signed lower right in pencil. (First Edition)
Size: 7 x 10
Pages: Pp 41
S#: 0720.18.0216
Etchings by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, pulled from copper plates, and bound into the volume. Each etching is plate engraved with his initials, and signed lower right in pencil.
Date: 1947
Title: With The American Red Cross in France 1918-1919 (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Boards covered in red cloth, text in gilt on cover and spine.)
Author: Harrison, Carter H.
Description: Excerpts courtesy of The Newberry Library, Chicago: Carter Henry Harrison IV, like his father, was a five term Democratic mayor of Chicago (1897-1905, 1911-15). He was born on April 23, 1860. In 1874, his father was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He attended Yale University Law School and practiced law until 1891 when he and his brother took over the operation of the Chicago Times, which their father had recently purchased. On the final day of the World Columbian Exposition, Harrison's father was assassinated in his home by Patrick Prendergast on October 28, 1893. In 1894, they sold the Chicago Times and he focused his energies on his real estate investments until he followed in his father's footsteps and successfully ran for mayor in 1897. When America entered World War I, Harrison desperately wanted to participate, but was too old to serve in the military. Eventually, Harrison was made a Captain in the American Red Cross and stationed in Toul, France, a few miles behind the front lines, where he worked to help make life more comfortable for the American troops stationed and recovering at the several field hospitals located there. In 1933 he was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for the Northern District of Illinois by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. He retired from public service for good at the age of 84. He was an avid art collector and donated his substantial art collection to the Art Institute of Chicago, including works by Paul Gauguin, Mary Cassatt, Claude Monet, and Toulouse-Lautrec. He died on Christmas Day, 1953, at the age of ninety-three. On New Year's Eve of that same year, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution recognizing his accomplishments as mayor, Collector of Internal Revenue, world traveler, and patron of the arts. The resolution stated, in part, that "from such men as Carter H. Harrison, men of integrity, vision, high civic ideals and unswerving zeal, we shall take example." Seventeen vignette illustrations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.5
Pages: Pp 341
S#: 0720.12.1214, 0720.26.1019
Left: Foreword. (Signed "S" bottom right.)
Right: Chapter I. (Signed "S" bottom left.)
Left: Chapter II. (Signed "S" bottom left.)
Right: Chapter III. (Signed "S" bottom left.)
Left: Chapter IV. (Signed "S" bottom right.)
Right: Chapter V. (Signed "S" bottom right.)
Left: Chapter VI. (Signed "S" bottom left.)
Right: Chapter VII. (Signed "S" bottom left.)
Left: Chapter VIII. (Signed "S" bottom right.)
Right: Chapter IX. (Signed "S" bottom right.)
Left: Chapter X. (Signed "S" lower right.)
Right: Chapter XI. (Signed "S" lower right.)
Left: Chapter XII. (Signed "S" lower right.)
Right: Chapter XIII. (Signed "S" bottom right.)
Left: Chapter XIV. (Signed "S" lower right.)
Right: Chapter XV. (Signed "S" lower right.)
Left: Afterword. (Signed "S" lower right.)1948 Date: 1948
Title: Never To Forget (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Alderbrink, Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, Illinois. Printed on stiff beige paper, with the watermark: "U.S.A., Strathmore, Alexandra, Japan. Pages are trimmed top and bottom, others uncut.)
Author: Fuller, Eugene White
Description: Acknowledgment for permission to reprint these verses is made to the Chicago Tribune. The writer is indebted also to Mr. Charles Collins for the titles and to the following artists who have enlivened these pages with illustration: W. Russell Button, William E. Macy, Ralph Fletcher Seymour and William B. Timlin. From a clipping set inside the pages, published in the Chicago Tribune: This book is a collection of poems, largely sonnets, which have appeared in this column with the signature, E. W. F. It has been published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour (Alderbrink Press) in his best style - admiral typografy (sic), pen-and-ink illustrations, choice paper. It is, in fact, as handsome a book of verse as any connoisseur of "the art preservative" could desire, and we have no doubt that the Caxton club members, who cherish such fine craftsmanship, will gaze upon it with full approval.
Mr. Fuller's sonnets were inspired, for the most part, by classic figures in world literature, and he has been notably successful in recording impressions and interpretations of his models in the compact sonnet form.
"Never To Forget" contains 86 poems, of which 76 are on themes in the field of literary biografy (sic). The subjects range from great names of the Greek and Latin classics to Mark Twain and A. Conan Doyle. (Includes a poem, John Keats.)
The illustrations, 11 in number, are by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, W. Russell Button, William E. Macy, and William B. Timlin. Seymour we think did most of them but we have identified two Buttons, since we are familiar with the work of this artist, who is a Line O' Type contributor, signing himself as Shandy Gaff.
We identified four illustrations by Seymour, p.16, signed "RFS" bottom left; p.25, signed "S" bottom right; p.44, signed "RFS" (in reverse) left; p.77, signed "Seymour" bottom right. Macy (2), Timlin (2), and Button (3). (First Edition.)
Size: 6.25 x 9
Pages: Pp 103
S#: 0746.36.0121
Left: P.16, signed "RFS" bottom left.
Right: P.25, signed "S" bottom right.
Left: P.44, signed "RFS" (in reverse) left.
Right: P.77, signed "Seymour" bottom right.1949 Date: 1949
Title: A Minstrel Friar, His Legacy of Song (Hard Cover DJ) Signed by the author. (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, Illinois)
Author: Tucker, Irwin St. John
Description: Verses signed "Friar Tuck" have appeared over a period of some thirty-five years in Chicago's newspaper columns. Thousands have treasured these poems, some of which, set to music, have been widely sung. Over thousands have met in person the Friar, who in real life is the Rev. Irwin St. John Tucker, pastor of the Little church at the End of the Road, and also a veteran member of the editorial staff of the Herald-American... From the first childish doggerel to the concluding Vision of the Whirlwind, they breathe a spirit of deep devotion and calm unshakable faith. The publisher believes reading of the book will provide an unforgettable experience" (dust jacket). Original list price $3.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 248
S#: 0798.13.0214
1950 Date: 1950
Title: A Dead Red Rose. An Aviator's Adventures With Desert Angels (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. On beige paper with the watermark "Ragston - S - N.")
Author: Aten, Marion
Description: A poem in six parts. "Would you know the ways of women? Ask them, of the wild flowers. Ask them of the sunflower with nodding head of gold. Ask them of the moonflower with pale face white and cold. Seek them in the fragrance of the blossoms balmy bosoms, And the softness of their petals; or the cactus' thorny trimming. Find them where you will, Sir, But ask it not a woman." Title page and decorations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.26
Pages: Pp 99
S#: 0831.63.0617Date: 1950
Title: Cruises In The Sun (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour)
Author: Curtis, Kent
Description: A compilation of three previously published books. "The Blushing Camel" was published in 1927 by Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. "Drumbeater's Island was published in 1928 by Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. "The Cameleers" was published serially in the American Boy, from December, 1932 through February, 1933. Fictionally set in south Florida in the early part of the 20th century. "The author has contributed over 60 black and white drawings throughout the text. These are specifically hand colored in the 100 copies of a limited edition." (Dust Jacket.) Original list price $3.25. Two copies, with and without dust jacket. 6.25 x 9.25 (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 287
S#: 0831.46.0415, 0831.53.0317
Date: 1950 Title: Lady in Law. A Biography of Mabeth Hurd Paige. Sketching Seventy Five Picturesque and Dramatic Years As Seen Through Her Eyes. (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Aldrich, Darrach
Description: "Lady in Law is the story not only of the significant events of her early life - told with sympathy and humor - but of her increasing participation in public affairs with its ever present necessity of deciding between questions of principle and of expediency. She stood for those she believed to be right. In these battles, which were a vital part of her public work, Mrs. Paige represented the convictions of many people because of which this narrative is, in a way, a picture of one phase of the social and economic story of Minnesota through the past fifty years..." (Back Cover) Signed by the author. (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 347
S#: 0831.49.0316
Date: 1950
Title: Patria Mia. A Discussion of The Arts. Their Use & Future in America (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Pound, Ezra
Description: Patria Mia is Ezra Pound's appraisal of the meaning of the arts and their probable development. This author is recognized by many of his contemporaries as a significant, brilliant and sometimes erratic poet and essayist, and an authority on qualities and forms of literary expression. His analysis and judgments are sought and respected by most of the modern school. He blasted his own path, starting at Hawley, Idaho, getting as far as the University of Pennsylvania by his 16th year, Hamilton college two years later, then to Italy and the stark lands of Spain, and, by 1914 to London.. Patria Mia was written and sent to this office for publication many years ago, lost at that time and recently rediscovered. Written by one of America's great literary characters, from a constructive standpoint, it should be thoughtfully read by those interested in the possible place and influence of the literary arts in this country. (First Edition)
Size: 6.1 x 8.5
Pages: Pp 97
S#: 0831.86.0420Date: Circa 1950
Title: The Last Wanigan (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, Not dated.)
Author: Curtis, Kent
Description: First published in 1929 by Coward-McCann, New York. "In 1915 and again in 1916, the author, with three good companions, voyaged in canoes from the Turtle river, which joins (or used to) the Manitowish to from the Flambeau; down the Flambeau to the Chippewa and down the Mississippi ... twenty-one days to Prairie du Chien. In those days it was one of the world's finest canoe trips... But a third trip, in 1923..." (Dust Jacket.) Includes over 60 black and white drawings by the author. Not dated, but back flap of the dust jacket includes a description of "Cruise in the Sun," also by Curtis, published by Seymour in 1950. Original list price $3.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 151
S#: 0831.39.0814
1951 Date: 1951
Title: Fun In Verse (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Foreword by Thomas Dreier.)
Author: Frost, Mary
Description: In these two serious days it is more than ever a pleasure to find the chewer quip, the wise aphorism, dressed in gay colors of jollity, to find the presenting of a few of life's heavy requirements in guise of friendly jokes. This desirable experience may be found in the pages of Mrs. Frost's delightful book. Fun In Verse. One of Chicago's features in things that happen and written her viewpoint down for the delectation of her friends... (Dust jacket.) Original list price $2.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6.25 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 48
S#: 0857.25.0415
Date: 1951
Title: Spindrift (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, The Alderbrink Press, Chicago. Printed on a light beige stock, trimmed top and bottom, others uncut.)
Author: Fuller, Eugene White
Description: A compilation of 28 verses, some of which first appeared in the Chicago Tribune. "Look where the spindrift on that blackened crest, Rides like a horseman plunging up the wind, High struggling image, to the gods addressed, All soon, engulfed, down-beaten and chagrined." Original list price $2.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9
Pages: Pp 43
S#: 0857.27.0116
1952 Date: 1952
Title: Chess Game and Other Poems (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: DeLamarter, Jeanne
Description: A compilation of 53 poems. "Thanks are due the Christian Science Monitor for permission to reprint 'In Miniature," and the Chicago Tribune for permission to reprint several other poems in this volume." "Marching across the squares they go their ways, inexorably piloted by had, by brain and thought are woven in a maze of war and beauty, visioned, destined, planned, slanting sun diffuses them through sherry..." (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9
Pages: Pp 70
S#: 0910.28.1014
1953 Date: 1953
Title: Corridors Of Time (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Alderbrink. Printed on beige laid paper with the watermark:"Linweave Text [Overlapping "LT" ] Made in U.S.A." Top and bottom edges trimmed, side uncut. Boards covered in dark brown cloth, text on cover and spine gilt.)
Author: Sanderson, Isabel
Description: The second book published by the author. A compilation of 73 poems. Her verses were published in many national magazines, and she also wrote many verses for Hallmark greeting cards. She wrote three books of poetry, Clipped Wing, 1947, Corridors of Time, 1953, and Candles in My Heart, 1957. Her most famous poem 'He Ain't Heavy, Father. He's My Brother,' was used on Christmas cards sold by Boys Town near Omaha Nebraska.' Frontispiece is a portrait of Isabel Sanderson by John Howard. Inscribed by the author: "For Hazel & Charles Schroeder - with many thanks for your interest. Isabel Sanderson." Divided into five parts. Each part is decorated with a simple illustrations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9
Pages: Pp 92
S#: 0987.125.0521
Frontispiece is a portrait of Isabel Sanderson by John Howard.
Divided into five parts. Each part is decorated with a simple illustrations by Ralph Fletcher Seymour.
Date: 1953
Title: Pale Ink. Two Ancient Records of Chinese Exploration in America (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Printed on fine beige paper with the watermark "Alexandra Japan, Strathmore, U.S.A." Top edge trimmed, others uncut.)
Author: Mertz, Henriette
Description: "Preface. Four thousand years is a long time to wait. One of the stories, recounted here for the very first time, has waited that long - the second story has waited fifteen hundred years. Both stories, written in China and appearing here in English translation, were written at an early date and both have been carefully preserved in the Chinese archives from that day to this - both still exist. This writing hopes to show that the context of both documents is true. The earliest one has been assumed to be mythological and the later one, false. The reason for the assumption is that we have never understood them. The ever-present puzzle of the earliest of Chinese expeditions to America, has been a problem that we have not as yet solved. The two stories, given here, cannot be presumed to be the very first actual journeys that took place but they are, in my opinion, rather the first geographical descriptions so recorded and the record preserved. Other migrations undoubtedly took place thousands of years earlier but we do not know when. The writer is deeply conscious of the fact that many errors may occur on the following pages. In various instances throughout the translations, two or three nearby mountain peaks might well have fulfilled the requirements set forth in the Classics the wrong peak may have been chosen. Exploratory matter is always imperfectif one waited until perfection were reached, little would be accomplished. In bringing to light the truth of that which has been written in both ancient documents, the field of archeology has been freely drawn upon for corroborative evidenceand it has produced many of the answers... It is believed that if the Chinese Classics were re-studied, with faith in their veracity, we may well find that much has been recorded, the truth of which we little suspected..." Two copies. One copy with dust jacket, one copy signed by the author. (First Edition)
Size: 6.5 x 10
Pages: Pp 158
S#: 0987.89.0317, 0987.93.09171954 Date: 1954
Title: Carving His Own Destiny. The Story of Albin Polasek (Soft Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Sherwood, Ruth
Description: This biography of a great American sculptor-artist, Albin Polasek, selected a the one of foreign birth "to have contributed most richly to American culture," tells of his boyhood life in the Besksydy Mountains of old Moravia, now Checko-Slovakia, an environment strange and unfamiliar to Americans, and now forever past... The edition is handsomely designed and produced. Forty-one full page reproductions of sculptural works enrich its more than 400 pages. It is printed on heavy, fine paper, with dramatic pictorial jacket. Edition limited. Price of book $5.50. (Publisher's description.) (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.5
Pages: Pp 453
S#: 1045.25.0214
Date: 1954 Title: "Carving his own Destiny, The Story of Albin Polasek." Sherwood, Ruth, 1954.
Description: (Sales brochure) A Biography by Ruth Sherwood. This biography of a great American sculptor-artist, Albin Polasek, selected a the one of foreign birth "to have contributed most richly to American culture," tells of his boyhood life in the Besksydy Mountains of old Moravia, now Checko-Slovakia, an environment strange and unfamiliar to Americans, and now forever past... The edition is handsomely designed and produced. Forty-one full page reproductions of sculptural works enrich its more than 400 pages. It is printed on heavy, fine paper, with dramatic pictorial jacket. Edition limited. Price of book $5.50. Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Publisher, Chicago. Pp 4.
Size: 6.25 x 9.4
S#: 1045.24.0214
Date: 1954
Title: Materialization Of An Urge (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Weissenborn, Leo J.
Description: A registered architect since 1932, Weissenborn was a native of Sauk City, Wisconsin, and achieved his greatest frame in Chicago. His numerous architectural achievements began with his work on the famous Chicago Tribune Tower and his later project included the WGN Studio Building in Chicago. Chapter XI... "No story of contemporary architects would be complete without some reference to Frank Lloyd Wright who's colorful career began in Wisconsin then expanded to all parts of this country and foreign lands. My parental grandparents became well acquainted with his uncles when they came to Springgreen, (sic) Wisconsin to trade in the country store ran by my grandfather. My first contact with him was when I was looking for a position as draftsman, and was interviewed by him, in Silsbee's office in Chicago. In later years when visiting Taliesin, before the advent of the Second World War, with a group of friends, I attended one of his Sunday afternoon motion picture shows with chamber music interludes and refreshments - all at a fifty cent admission fee. After the entertainment he was want to stand by the entrance and greet his visitors. He inquired of me as to the number in our group and invited us to stay for supper. Before I could answer, Woltersdorf of the party spoke up and declared it was impossible for us to stay - two of the group, Ralph Fletcher Seymour and Woodbridge Dickerson are still provoke because of having missed the event. One of Frank Lloyd Wright's most charming creations was the Midway Gardens in Chicago, now extant only in a Dutch Publication of his work..." Inscribed by the author. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 63
S#: 1045.43.1117Date: 1954
Title: Nothing But Nonsense (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Lyon, Leverett
Description: Light verses from the pen of an experienced and usually serious-minded writer. A compilation of 117 poems.
Higher Education.
"I read a book on writing verse;
It stirred me, so, for good or worse,
Though no one but myself I please,
I started writing lines like these.
I read a book on mathematics;
Became an expert on quadratics.
Geometry's for me a cinch;
From calculus I hardly flinch.
I read a book called 'Atom Splitting:
How Do It - Standing Up or Sitting.'
The flash was bright; the noise was loud; I vanished in a mushroomed cloud!"
"Acknowledgment for permission to reprint many of these verses is made to the Chicago Tribune and to The Wall Street Journal, in one or the other of which they first appeared." Original list price $2.00. Inscribed by the author. 5.6 x 8.2. (First Edition)Size:
Pages: Pp 118
S#: 1045.27.1214
Date: 1954
Title: Our Midwest: Episodes in the Life of Some Individuals Who Helped Shape the Growth of Our Midwest; Stories of Certain Settlements, Roads, Taverns, and Experiences Encountered when Traveling in the Early Days. (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, Illinois)
Author: Seymour, Ralph Fletcher
Description: Written, illustrated and published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. "A book of historical episodes and stories told informally and with some humor, of events in lives of various personalities who were factors in the character forming days of the ever changing mid-west, of religious and economic experiments, early settlements, first roads, tavern life, highway hold-ups, Indians wars, frontier romances, notable deeds of our forefathers; who through it all managed to stay alive, putting in most of the first hundred years learning how to live with Nature and most of the second hundred learning how to live with each other." (Publisher's description.) 72 illustrations by Seymour. Signed by author. Two copies, with dust jacket and without. Original list price $4.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.3
Pages: Pp 165
S#: 1045.22.0214
Date: 1954 Title: Our Midwest: Episodes in the Life of Some Individuals Who Helped Shape the Growth of Our Midwest; Stories of Certain Settlements, Roads, Taverns, and Experiences Encountered when Traveling in the Early Days. (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, Illinois)
Description: Brochure for the book written, illustrated and published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. "A book of historical episodes and stories told informally and with some humor, of events in lives of various personalities who were factors in the character forming days of the ever changing mid-west, of religious and economic experiments, early settlements, first roads, tavern life, highway hold-ups, Indians wars, frontier romances, notable deeds of our forefathers; who through it all managed to stay alive, putting in most of the first hundred years learning how to live with Nature and most of the second hundred learning how to live with each other." (Publisher's description.)
Size: 6.25 x 9.4. Pp 4. Includes Post Card 3.25 x 5.5.
S#: 1045.23.0214
1955 Date: 1955
Title: Man's High Adventure. With an Introduction by Dr. A. J. Carlson, Ph.D. (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Harper, Samuel A.
Description: "...This book is a simple explanation and correlation of a few of the great and more important facts of modern science in the hope that the reader may be able the better to understand something of the origin and nature of man and his relationship to the universe, and his present and future responsibility for the improvement of himself and the human race..." (Back cover.) Inscribed by the author, "Inscribed with the best wishes of the author - Samuel A. Harper." Cover as well as title page Printer's Device illustrated by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Original list price $3.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6.1 x 8.75
Pages: Pp 135
S#: 1092.96.0716Date: 1955 Title: "Man's High Adventure." Harper, Samuel A., 1955.
Description: (Sales brochure) With an Introduction by Dr. A. J. Carlson, Ph.D., John P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor (Emeritus) of Physiology, University of Chicago, etc. Dr. Carlson, Scientist and Philosopher, calls this book "a new religion, - Humanism" the credo of which is that "the responsibility for a better mental and physical world is on you and me, - on man, not on traditional gods and devils." It is a timely and significant work by a layman who has here written a book in the field of science for "the common man." This book thus points out the path which man should follow, and marks some of the vital truths he must learn to use in realizing his "high adventure." It is the flowering of the life experiences of a philosopher - lawyer, - fascinating and thought inducing. Price of book $3.00. Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Publisher, Chicago.
Size: 5.6 x 8.25. Pp 4. Includes Post Card 3.25 x 5.5.
S#: 1092.58.0214
1956 Date: 1956
Title: Siftings, A Major Portion of The Clearing and Collected Writings (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Jensen, Jens
Description: "Siftings" was first published by Seymour in 1939. "The Clearing was first published in 1949 by Seymour. "This edition of 'Siftings,' a major portion of 'The Clearing' and collected writings by Jens Jensen has been produced in response to the requirements of the many nature lovers and Garden Club members who regard the works and the philosophy of Jens Jensen as one of the more significant contributions toward a better understanding of man's relation to nature; whose teachings become more important as our culture grows more complex." (Back Cover) Original list price $3.25. (First Editions)
Size: 6.25 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 145
S#: 1147.60.0914
Date: 1956 Title: "Siftings, The Major Portion of The Clearing and Collected Writings." Jensen, Jens, 1956.
Description: (Sales brochure) Announcing the Republication in a New and More Complete Edition. The philosophy of Jens Jensen is again available to nature lovers after too long an absence. The re-issue of "Siftings" in its entirety, as sell as a major portion of "The Clearing" and other short essays is another important garden milestone. Mr. Jensen is with justice called the "Thoreau of the Twentieth century". Coming to America as a youth from Denmark, he began his career in this country working as a day laborer in the old west parks of Chicago... In the Spring of 1935, he moved to the upper Green Bay Peninsula, Wisconsin, where he established "The Clearing", a settlement comprising classrooms, lecture room, dormitories, dining halls, private cabins, etc. Here students gathered from all over the United States to hear Jensen talk of the necessity for a vital understanding of nature's meaning in men's lives... Price of book $3.25. Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Publisher, Chicago. Pp 4.
Size: 6.5 x 8.75
S#: 1147.56.0214
Date: 1956 Title: "Siftings, The Major Portion of The Clearing and Collected Writings." Jensen, Jens, 1956.
Description: (Sales brochure) One of America's truest Nature Lovers. This book is a "must" for those who concern themselves with the meaning of Nature in men's lives. The author's understanding of this necessity gained him great authority. The publication of this significant volume is sponsored by The National Council of State Garden Clubs. All profits from the sale of this edition will be donated to the Permanent Home Fund of the National Council of State Garden Clubs, Inc. Price of book $3.25. Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Publisher, Chicago. Pp 6.
Size: 3.7 x 5.5, one panel is perforated mailing card.
S#: 1147.57.0214
1957 Date: 1957
Title: Candles In My Heart (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Alderbrink, Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Board covered in red cloth, lettering in gilt.)
Author: Sanderson, Isabel
Description: The third book published by the author. A compilation of 77 poems. "Evanston Illinois. Isabel Saunders Sanderson, a poet whose most familiar line, 'He Ain't Heavy, Father... He's My Brother,' became a slogan for Boys Town and the title of a pop music hit in the 1970s, died Saturday at age 73. Mrs. Sanderson also wrote verses for Hallmark greeting cards. Her verses were published in many national magazines, and Mrs. Sanderson also wrote three books of poetry, 'Corridors of Time', 'Candles in My Heart' and 'Clipped Wing.' Her most famous poem 'He Ain't Heavy, Father. He's My Brother,' was used on Christmas cards sold by Boys Town near Omaha Nebraska.' Obituary, Desert Sun, July 4, 1987. Inscribed by the author, "For Eva Pettersen - with all good wishes. Isabel Sanderson." The book is divided into four parts. Each part is decorated with a simple illustration most likely by Seymour. Original list price $2.50. Two copies, one with dust jacket. (First Edition)
Size: 6.1 x 9.1
Pages: Pp 96
S#: 1205.116.0121, 1205.100.1019Date: 1957
Title: Humorettes (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, under the Alder Brink Press Imprint. Illustrated by Don Goodman.)
Author: Scholz, Irene Matthews
Description: "Much of my material has been published in: The Chicago Daily Tribune, The Reader's Digest, J.A.M.A., The Camel's Trail, Golf World, Golf Digest, etc. (I could go on, and on, but from here on I'd be fibbing)" This book of verse is a compilation of 243 poems by the author and 16 illustrations by Don Goodman. Signed by the author. (First Editions)
Size: 6 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 117
S#: 1205.67.0415
1958 Date: 1958
Title: Abstractions 101 (Hard Cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Dust Jacket is folded and glued around stiff boards. Printed on beige paper.)
Author: Anderson, Camille
Description: A compilation of 101 numbered Abstractions. "Preface: Do not scoff, These verses hold meetings apt and penetrating, Now lingering, On the fringes of the consciousness, Then quickly, Brought to focus in a sudden burst, Of, Insight." Signed by the author. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 7.75
Pages: Pp 111
S#: 1259.75.05211959 Date: 1959
Title: Traveler's Return (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago. Printed on cream stock with the watermark: "Old Stratford. U.S.A." Top and bottom edges trimmed, sides uncut. Boards covered with beige cloth.)
Author: Fuller, Eugene White
Description: A compilation of 32 poems.
A Voyage.
From oceans farthest silence
The tide comes in unseen;
It nudges the keel from the sand bed,
It pushes the ponderous mansion
Away from the rigid shore
To cast it alone to the sea,
To the hazards unknown of the sea.
Like a loose, wet garment folding
In its arms the spinning world;
What is this familiar mystery -
The sea? This eternal tremble
That is life. Swarming with nerves,
That with its tributary net
Cools, warms and fertilizes
The stolid fresh of earth.
That was never young and is not old;
Joyously free from the sneer of time.
Without beginning, becoming, ending,
Yet every hour remade.
With no means of propogation,
Yet the chief begettor of it -
Parent of life itself...
Cover illustration most likely by Ralph Fletcher Seymour. Eugene White Fuller also was the author of Never To Forget and Spindrift. (First edition)
Size: 6.25 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 63
S#: 1377.130.01211963 Date: 1963
Title: A Singing Reed (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago, Alderbrink Press.)
Author: Iris, Scharmel
Description: A compilation of 63 poems. "Acknowledgment is due the following magazines in which some of these poems first appeared: The New York Times, The Ladies Home Journal., The Little Review, The Stylus, Poetry." Introduction: "...Scharmel Iris comes before us today in a volume that does not depend for its reception upon his life history of struggle with misfortune or upon the praise of other poets. He stands upon his work. These selections from a great mass, the production of years, seems to me to be of a singularly uniform excellence..." Robert Morss Lovett.. Signed by the author. Original cover price $3.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6.1 x 9.25.
Pages: Pp 64
S#: 1565.45.1114
1964 Date: 1964
Title: Inspiration, An Essay By Louis H. Sullivan, Architect. Read at the Third Annual Convention of the Western Association of Architects at Chicago, November 17, 1886.) (Soft Cover, Stiff cover) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour)
Author: Sullivan, Louis H.
Description: Louis Henry Sullivan was born in 1856 and died in 1924. Frank Lloyd Wright worked in his office, before starting his own firm, and years later wrote, "I have tried - with honest arrogance - to describes the tragedy, triumph, and significance of the great man who invariably signed himself Louis H. Sullivan; to tell you why I, through never his disciple - nor that of any man - called him Liebermeister." Sullivan was 30 years old when he read this before the convention. "The following essay inaugurates an exposition of this doctrine, briefly stated: That art exists, first, as a potentiality in nature; that its second phase takes form in the personal identity of the artist communing with nature; that this phase culminates in inspired desire; that its third phase is manifest as action: the artist executing and completing a work..." (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 8
Pages: Pp 36
S#: 1596.55.0116
Date: 1964
Title: Spanish Earth (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Chicago)
Author: Iris, Scharmel
Description: Compilation of 64 poems. "This is the fifth book of poems by Scharmel Iris, poet-in-residence at Lewis College, whose greatness as a poet has been acclaimed by some of the noted writers of our age. He is internationally recognized. Salvador de Madariaga, historian of the Spanish race, writes in his preface to the assembled poems, 'This poetry is Spanish poetry, written in English...' Roy Campbell... says in his epilogue: 'I have no hesitation in pronouncing this book a triumph of the poetic imagination..." (Back cover.) Original list price $3.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 77
S#: 1596.48.1014
1965 Date: 1965
Title: The Judgment Seat. Introduction by Dame Edith Sitwell (Hard Cover DJ) (Published by Ralph Fletcher Seymour)
Author: Iris, Scharmel
Description: "To run across a book of beautiful poems in today's troubled world may be likened to the finding of a cool spring in a desert - not often come upon! It is a pleasure to announce the publication of a new book of this character. The comments by notables in the field of literature bear out, give substance to this statement. The Judgment Seat is Scharmel Iris' latest publication." Dust jacket. Comments by Carl Sandburg, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and Robert Frost. Original list price $3.00. (First Edition)
Size: 6 x 9.25
Pages: Pp 65
S#: 1628.54.1116INLAND PRINTERS Date: 2003
Title: Inland Printers, The Fine-Press Movement in Chicago, 1920-45 (Soft Cover) (Published by The Caxton Club of Chicago, Chicago)
Author: Editor: Rossen, Susan F.: Introduction: Gehl, Paul F; Chapter on Seymour: Joyce, Thomas J.
Description: Published in connection with the exhibition "Inland Printers: The Fine-Press Movement in Chicago, 1920-45," organized by The Caxton Club of Chicago and held from January 10-February 21, 2003, at Columbia College Chicago Center for the Book & Paper Arts. Publisher's description: "This book and exhibition provide a glimpse of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s through the products of its small and fine presses. The city has been portrayed many times in terms of its contributions to mass culture, especially the graphics of advertising. To our knowledge, no one has given equal attention to these small- press works, often created by the same women and men who designed billboards, trade-book jackets, and magazines...." Chapter One: Ralph Fletcher Seymour, Publisher (1897-1963; Alderbrink Press (1905-39). Also an additional sixteen chapters on individual small and fine presses. Original list price $15.00. (First Edition)
Size: 8.5 x 11
Pages: Pp 40
ST#: 2003.57.1018BACK TO TOP
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