The Spring 1944 Modern Library catalog proclaimed the availability of the illustrated editions "containing the work of America's foremost living artists and book designers." At $1.50 for each boxed copy, it was a nickel more expensive than the giants and a whopping 55¢ (nearly two thirds!) more than the standard editions. It was an instant hit. In a March 1944 letter to his partner Donald Klopfer, who was fighting for the Allies in Europe at the time, Bennett Cerf wrote "The reception of the Illustrated Modern Library books is nothing less than ecstatic."
There were multiple printings of most titles; Shakespeare's Comedies, Shakespeare's Tragedies, Don Quixote, Famous Ghost Stories, and Walden were the only titles that had a single printing.
According to Barry Neavill, identifying a few of the first titles -- Holy Bible, Brothers Karamazov, Wisdom of Confucius, Pickwick Papers, and Tom Jones -- is simple: the words "Modern Library" instead of"Ilustrated Modern Library" appear on both the spine and the title page. Proving the first edition status of the rest is pretty difficult.
Gathered together below are all the examples of the illustrated editions in the ModernLib dust jacket database. Click 
under an image to see a small sample of that title's illustrations. Click the image itself to go to its author's page.
