SAMPLE BOOKS
SAMPLE BOOKS
 In the 19th and even into the 20th century, books were often sold door-to-door by salesmen (and -women) bearing "sample books" like those in this offering. These were mini-versions of the books being sold that had been specifically designed for an agent's show-and-tell—bearing, usually, the volume's title-page, table of contents, and most thrilling illustrations and "bits" (sometimes from proofs or early states), with standard and perhaps optional binding samples glued to the pastedowns. Also present might be "bound-in leaves of recommendations, advertisements, and conditions of sale, tipped-in sales speech slips, handbills, and broadside puffs, loosely inserted leaflets and pamphlets of sales advice, and leaves and chits of manuscript additions solicited by agents from their territories' influential citizens" (Arbour, xi). Buyers should be aware that consecutive reading of extensive blocks of text is not possible with the "samples" below—they were DESIGNED to be tantalizing!
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A SAMPLE BOOKRolt-Wheeler, Francis. The world war for liberty. A comprehensive and authentic history of the war by land, sea and air. National Pub., (copyright 1918). 8vo. [32] pp.; 20 double-p. plts. 
• Arbour 1384. Publisher's red cloth, front cover stamped in white, black, and gilt in pictorial vignette, back cover with gilt-stamped title; spine slightly sunned, with cloth rubbed over corners and spine extremities. Front free endpaper with pencilled owner's name (Mr. Theodore Kenyon). Some leaves lightly age-toned. (15155)
ENJOYABLE
Dictionaries for
Adults
& Children(Saleman’s
Sample Book). Lewis, William Dodge, ed.
The new Winston simplified dictionary and reference library. Philadelphia: Universal
Book & Bible House, copyright 1937. 8vo (22.5 cm, 8.9"). Frontis., [approx.
145] pp.; 25 plts. [with] Brown, Thomas Kite,
Jr., ed. The new Winston
simplified dictionary for young people. Philadelphia: Universal Book & Bible
House, 1937. Frontis., [approx. 126] pp.; 20 plts.
The outer binding is red textured cloth with the front cover stamped in black and gilt, and the interior front cover sample for the children’s version is a different red textured cloth stamped in black. The leaves for subscribers’information are unused.
• Not in Arbour. Publisher’s cloth as described above, gently worn with corners rubbed and small scrape to front cover. Interior clean.
A
GORGEOUS!
Mock-UpWeaver,
G.S. The heart of the world: Or home and its wide work. Chicago: Elder
Publishing Co., 1883. 8vo (22.7 cm, 8.9"). Various pagings, 7 plts.
As
may be imagined, there is much here on and for women. At the
back of the volume are a number of leaves for recording subscribers’ names
and preferences, here left blank.
Another Weaver endeavor, The Lives and Graves of Our Presidents, received
the sample treatment in the same year, and is described in Arbour’s
Canvassing Books.
• Not in Arbour. Dark brown morocco, covers framed in blind-stamped foliate and arabesque designs, front cover with gilt-stamped decorative title and vignette. Front pastedown shows half-morocco option with spine folded in, back pastedown shows cloth option also with spine folded in. Upper page edges gilt, other edges marbled. Some foxing to and around plates, otherwise clean.
American
Books
Bindings &
Bookselling
(Reference). Arbour, Keith (comp.). Canvassing
books, sample books, and subscription publishers's ephemera 1833–1951 in the
collection of Michael Zinman. Ardsley, NY: The Haydn Foundation for the Cultural
Arts, 1996. Tall 8vo. 517 pp.
• Publisher's cloth. New.
As it happens, CDB wrote the notice of this book for the journal Rare Books & Manuscripts Librarianship. To learn more about Arbour's book and the phenomenon of the "sample book," you can click here for the full text of her review.
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