Modern Library Jacket and Binding Subtype Finder

Collectors have long known that book bindings as well as DJ backs can be useful in identifying a date range for a book’s printing. But over the last few years observant collectors have noticed that there are subtypes—minor variations in style and text content—that can more tightly focus in on a date. So far variations in bindings have been uncovered for binding 5 and in dust jacket backs for styles a, b, h, and l through o. (By the way, these discoveries have opened new collecting areas: collecting all DJ back subtype variations for a particular title, collecting titles only with a specific subtype DJ back, and so on.)

Using the pull-down menu, choose the binding or DJ back you’re interested in; then click Update. In the table that appears a dot in a cell below a letter or number identifies the reported subtype. A dot below X indicates a report of a major type without the subtype specified; this usually means the report came in before the subtypes had been discovered. If a row is shaded in blue, it is extremely likely that all instances in existence for that title have been reported. Click a style letter or number for information about that style’s parameters.

If you know of a subtype for a title that doesn’t appear in the list after you click Update, or of a subtype not reported here for a listed title, please let us know.


Select jacket/binding type to display titles with subtypes:  

Displaying subtype information for jacket type Gb:

X
Gb1
Gb2
Gb3
Gb4
Gb5
Anna KareninaTolstoy  
   
Basic WritingsFreud     
Best Known NovelsEliot
     
Bulfinch's MythologyBulfinch  
  
CapitalMarx
     
Coming Struggle For PowerStrachey   
  
Complete NovelsAusten  
   
Complete Novels/Selected TalesHawthorne     
Complete Plays of Gilbert & SullivanGilbert etc.   
  
Complete Poems of Keats & ShelleyKeats etc.
     
Complete WorksHomer  
 
Complete Works and LettersLamb    
 
Complete Works of Lewis CarrollCarroll   
  
Conquest of Mexico and Conquest of PeruPrescott   
  
X
Gb1
Gb2
Gb3
Gb4
Gb5
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Volume 1)Gibbon
     
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Volume 2)Gibbon
     
Don QuixoteCervantes
     
Eleven PlaysIbsen
     
English Philosophers from Bacon to MillMisc     
EssaysMontaigne  
   
Forty Days of Musa DaghWerfel   
  
French RevolutionCarlyle  
  
History of GreeceBury   
  
History of the Great American FortunesMyers
     
Intelligence in the Modern WorldDewey
     
Jean ChristopheRolland    
Leaves of GrassWhitman
     
Les MiserablesHugo  
   
X
Gb1
Gb2
Gb3
Gb4
Gb5
Life of Samuel Johnson L.L.D.Boswell 
    
Look Homeward, AngelWolfe    
 
MediciYoung 
   
Metropolitan Opera GuideMisc
     
Moonstone/Woman in WhiteCollins
     
New Anthology of Modern PoetryMisc
     
Origin of the Species/Descent of ManDarwin  
   
PhilosophyNietzsche     
Plutarch's LivesPlutarch 
 
  
Poems & PlaysBrowning
     
Poems and PlaysTennyson     
Renaissance in Italy Vol ISymonds  
   
Renaissance in Italy Vol IISymonds  
   
Story of American LiteratureLewisohn     
X
Gb1
Gb2
Gb3
Gb4
Gb5
Studs LoniganFarrell     
Three NovelsScott
     
Tom JonesFielding
     
Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry FinnTwain     
Twelve Famous Plays of the Restoration and Eighteenth CenturyMisc 
  
U.S.A.Dos Passos
     
War and PeaceTolstoy     
Wealth of NationsSmith   
  
Totals (50 titles)
17
4
10
8
5
15