The ModernLib ML Database |
An ongoing project of ModernLib content contributors
|
The ModernLib Modern Library database contains images and information about individual Modern Library titles (1917-1970) largely unavailable elsewhere in the Web or in printed form. It supplants (but does not replace) information in the Toledano Guide. The database is the heart of ModernLib.
Images
The database contains more than 2000 dust jacket and related images (most enhanced or reconstructed from original scans in an attempt to represent ideal states) and includes a wide variety of variations and types: pictorials, design types, and all text styles found on flexie's and hardbacks; illustrated edition acetates and box images as well as the illustrations themselves; and P-series numbered paperbacks (as opposed to the college paperback editions).
A title or author might be missing from the database because no one has submitted a dust jacket image. (Click here to see a table of dust jackets likely to be missing from the database.) If you have a qualifying dust jacket that isn't shown, please let me know: The database will grow only as collectors like you submit new entries.
The date above a dust jacket refers to the printing date of the specific physical dust jacket that was scanned for the image. It doesn't imply that the jacket image shown is a first edition dust jacket, nor that it isn't. Sometimes (but not always) first edition jackets are noted as such.
Access to Information: Key to Symbols & Icons
All titles on each Author page have at least one clickable icon associated with them. Most have more. Here's what clicking an icon brings up:
|
|
Here's where all the most important facts and figures about an individual title are gathered — as many as 15 separate indicators including first edition points, dates in print, confirmed sightings of DJ and binding types, genre and curriculum info; plus sales figures, notes about printing history, and other stuff. Sometimes contains links to further information or graphics. (Click here to see a detailed example.) |
 |
Link to a web-based author biography (detailed when I can find it, sketchy when I can't), when possible at sites specializing in that author. (Click here to learn more about web-based biography links.) |
|
|
Table of contents of a specific title. Reserved for books of essays, short stories, anthologies, and the like. |
 |
As above, but with at least one entry in the table linked to web-based content. (Click here to learn more about web-based content links.) |
 |
Link directly to the web-based complete text of a work, sometimes with graphics and/or ancillary information. (Click here to learn more about web-based content links.) |
 |
Opens offsite table of contents of a title; the ToC links to web-based contents. When this icon appears in the writer's name field, it usually points to a writer's web-based collected works. (Click here to learn more about web-based content links.) |
 |
Metacontent about a title (plot summary, historical context, importance, criticism, and so on) or an author's complete works (style, influences, school of thought). Either opens a local window or links to an external page. (Click here to learn more about metacontent.) |
|
|
Blurbs from the panels and flaps of dust jackets, with original capitalization, punctuation, and spelling preserved. |
 |
Found below boxes and/or acetates of illustrated editions, shows several representative illustrations for that title. |
|
+
|
Found next to author's name, indicates that selection(s) by author appear in anthology. Clicking icon goes to page bottom to list of selections. |
 |
Gets this table |
You'll also find that most pages end in this Running Torchbearer icon: 
Clicking it brings you to the ModernLib Home Page.
How the Database is Organized
Individual titles are grouped under their author's name and are displayed with all accumulated dust jacket variations and specific information (such as first edition points) grouped by title. For example, there are eight dust jacket variations shown for Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
As well as a general index to the entire Website, indexes exist with a variety of focuses: You can search by author, book title within publishing formats (regular issues, giants, numbered paperbacks), or genre. In addition to these composite indexes, separate searches exist for all illustrated issues, for dust jacket images created by specific designers, for anthologies of works written by multiple authors, and the pictorial djs of the 1930's (Toledano types Dj 6 & Dj 7). This last search presents a visual index; clicking an image brings you to that author's page. Here are the indexes:
Authors
Titles
- Regular issues sorted by title
- Giant issues sorted by title
- Numbered paperback issues sorted by title
Graphical Indexes (Members Only)
Specialties
- Selected images sorted by designer
- All titles sorted by genre
- Specific titles organized into a "liberal arts" context
General Index to Entire Site
About the Reliability of Information
Information in the database—indeed, information throughout this Website—was gathered from sources that I believe to be reliable. But I couldn't check out every purported fact, observation, first edition point, etc. to verify the information. ModernLib is a cooperative venture: If you find something that isn't true, please let me know and I'll update it.
