Thursday, June 15, 2017

Three nifty old sports-themed book covers

Full disclosure: Between the inventory from Mom's estate and my recent move (reminders that we rarely control the timing of Big Events in life), I have a moderately dire need right now to downsize quickly, before I become like the Collyer brothers. This post will allow me to move three books — a substantial space savings — on to their new Forever Homes. So you might be seeing a few more posts like this in the coming days, as The Lessening continues.


  • Title: Ethel Morton at Sweetbrier Lodge
  • Series: The Ethel Morton Books
  • Author: Mabell Shippie Clarke Smith (1864-1942)
  • Cover illustrator: Unknown
  • Publisher: The Goldsmith Publishing Company, Cleveland
  • Year of publication: 1915
  • Pages: 247
  • Excerpt: "You want to repeat in the furniture the colors of the rug," she said. "They give you a wide range of tones because these Oriental rugs may have as many as twenty-five shades of blue, so finely graduated that you can hardly tell them apart, except with a reading glass."
  • Notes: The dust jacket indicates this hardcover's price was 50 cents. ... The tennis game on the cover illustration is a bit misleading, with regard to the contents of the book, which seems mostly to be about interior decorating, travel, history lessons and finding a husband.


  • Title: Paul Jones, The Naval Hero of 76
  • Subtitle: The Fearless Fighter and Commander of the American Revolution
  • Author: Lieut. John Troy Burden
  • Publisher: Hurst & Company, New York
  • Year of publication: 1900 [?]
  • Pages: 399
  • Excerpt: But Jones, whatever he might think, was not of the temperament to which the cultivation of maize and tobacco — which in America about that period must have comprehended "the rural life in all its joy and elegance" — could long remain the favorite scheme.
  • Notes: Once again, the cover is misleading. The ice hockey player must have been a generic illustration used for a series of Hurst & Company books aimed at a young audience. The book itself is a rather dense history of the life of the famed naval commander. It's thick with long excerpts from letters and other works, and it isn't exactly light reading. ... Three names of former owners are written on the title page:
    • 1. Ray Bailey, Xmas 1905
    • 2. For Richard Frederick Birthday. 13 year old. From Aunt Gertrude F. 1938.
    • 3. John Brake 1972



  • Title: Marjorie Dean, High School Senior
  • Series: Marjorie Dean High School Series (Book 4 of 4)
  • Author: Pauline Lester (pen name for Josephine Chase)
  • Cover illustrator: Unknown
  • Publisher: A.L. Burt Company, New York
  • Year of publication: 1917
  • Pages: 302
  • Excerpt: The "witches' deadly brew" proved to be very excellent chicken boullion [sic], which did not come amiss after Marjorie's ride in the cool autumn air. By the time she had finished it, her goblin conductor had scurried away to answer the ring of the door bell, leaving her to mingle with the other sinister shapes that wandered singly or in twos and threes about the room.
  • Notes: Following the Marjorie Dean High School Series, there was the four-book Marjorie Dean College Series and the six-book Marjorie Dean Post-Graduate Series. ... The name "Anna Kass" is written in cursive on the first page. ... There are 16 pages of advertisements at the back of the book for other juvenile series, including The Ranger Boys Series, The Radio Boys Series, Princess Polly Series, The Virginia Davis Series and The Merry Lynn Series.

See also

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