Quality published by Paul Elder & Co, printed under the direction of John Henry Nash. Rust cloth flexible binding, decorated in black with gilt lettering, with 33 tipped-in b/w illustrations of authors and places associated with the "good old books." Uncut pages.

Admiring look at great literature, with lots of paste-down illustrations of great books and the writers who made them great.

"And so, in this roundabout way, I come back to my library shelves, to urge upon you who now are wrapped warm in domestic life and love to provide against the time when you may be cut off in a day from the companionship that makes life precious. Take heed and guard against the hour that may find you forlorn and unprotected against death’s malignant hand. Cultivate the great worthies of literature, even if this means neglect of the latest magazine or of the newest sensational romance. Be content to confess ignorance of the ephemeral books that will be forgotten in a single half year, so that you may spend your leisure hours in genial converse with the great writers of all time." p.xviii

“So may you come into the true Kingdom of Culture ... and may you be armed against the worst blows that fate can deal you in this world.”
― George Hamlin Fitch