Thread Name: Candide Editions - Modern Library

From: cionescu at mta.ca (Christina Ionescu)
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 19:55:04 +0000

Dear esteemed members of the list,

I am in the process of writing an article in French on the editions of Candide published in the Modern Library with the number 47. I have been able to locate four pre-1970 editions with dust jackets and am interested in inventorying more. Needless to say, I unintentionally walked into a minefield, but it's been fun.

If any collectors own copies with dust jackets and are willing to share information, please do contact me off the list. I would be most grateful for some help.

With many thanks, Christina

--- Dr. Christina Ionescu Director, Visual and Material Cultures Programme Professor, Modern Languages and Literatures Mount Allison University


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From: lathbury at gmu.edu (Roger Lathbury)
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 20:56:17 +0000

Dear Professor Ionescu:

I'm a now retired English professor from George Mason University in Virginia and ran my small publishing operation, Orchises Press, for years. I've long been interested in publishing and publishing history and your e-mail caught my eye.

Not sure if this will interest you or whether you know it already, but Candide was one of the first books Bennett Cerf published even before he and Donald Klopfer took over the Modern Library from Boni and Liveright. Of course, this title had been in the Modern Library even when Horace Liveright owned it.

Candide is an attractive book for a publisher because it is short (economical to produce), easily translated and is of course an exhilarating "read." I taught it numerous times, in translations by John Butt and Robert Adams, in a "Modern European Masterworks" class. Given the current pandemic, it would be wonderful for the classroom these days (cf. the Lisbon earthquake).

This first Candide that Cerf published (1928) was illustrated by Rockwell Kent, with whom Cerf attended school at Columbia University. Here is a link to a picture of that edition:

https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/more-furniture-collectibles/collectibles-curiosities/books/candide-voltaire-illustrated-rockwell-kent-signed-numbered-1928/id-f_5422553/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvL7skIGW6QIVClYMCh0W-QoAEAQYASABEgKHBvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Of course, this is not a Modern Library book, but it is in the lineage.

Kent provided the "house" logo for Random House and of course memorably illustrated many books in his lifetime, notably Moby-Dick for the Lakeside press (1930) and his own books N by E, Voyaging, probably others.

I'm on the Modern Library list but am more of a reader than many of the collectors in this group. Plus ou moins, je suis confortable en fran?ais?Candide ?tait un des premiers livres que j'ai lu dans cette langue?but I taught in English, of course. It bothered me that the Modern Library never highlighted the translators on their jackets or spoke much about the matter of translation when it was producing translated work. The style of Voltaire is everything, so the issue of the translator is of paramount importance.

Good luck with your article.

Cheers,

Roger Lathbury


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From: gpj17gpj at gmail.com (Gary Johnson)
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 14:23:07 -0700

Professor Ionescu--

I have the* Candide *47.2 in the h5 pictorial jacket, 1955,

and

*Candide and Other Writings* 47.3 in the i pictorial jacket, 1963.

If either may be of use to you, I would be happy to answer any questions I can about them.

Gary Johnson


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From: jbkrygier at owu.edu (John Krygier)
Date: Sun, 3 May 2020 08:33:51 -0400

The question is, are all the ML editions illustrated here:

http://www.modernlib.com/authors/vAuthors/VoltaireJackets.html

John K.


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From: wexfordlass at aol.com (wexfordlass at aol.com)
Date: Sun, 3 May 2020 15:07:35 +0000 (UTC)

Professor Ionescu, I have 3 copies of Candide in Modern Library editions. ?2 have no dust jackets and no publishing date. ?One has faux leather in green with Modern Library stenciled on the bottom of the spine. ?The other is a brown cloth binding with the oak tree symbol along the spine. The dust jacket is on a 1956 edition "edited with an introduction by Haskell M. Block". ?It is entitled Candide and Other Writings. Colleen Walsh


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From: cionescu at mta.ca (Christina Ionescu)
Date: Fri, 8 May 2020 19:49:32 +0000

Hi Colleen (if I may),

Thank you very much for sharing this information.

You probably have the second one in my inventory - green leather with ML stencilled.

I think that the oak tree on the spine edition is one of the 1930+, numbered 47.2 by Andes. I am waiting for my copy of that edition, so it will not be in my inventory. I bought one with a dust jacket

You appear to have 47.4 in my inventory, either the first edition or a reprint.

If you could check your editions against the ones in my inventory (I sent it to you via Wetransfer) and let me know if I am right, I would be immensely grateful.

With best wishes, Christina


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From: cionescu at mta.ca (Christina Ionescu)
Date: Fri, 8 May 2020 20:39:41 +0000

Hi John,

Thank you for your message. It would be nice if the site were organized by copies with the following information provided in addition to the dust jacket (in full): spine and cover; endpapers; half-title and title-page; copyright; illustrations; table of contents; and catalogues. As it is, it serves the needs of the collector particularly well, but it is less useful to the researcher. I realize that it would take funding and a collective effort to produce what I have in mind, and I am most grateful to have that information as is, as a starting point for my own research.

I am interested in comparing the dust jackets produced for the various editions of Candide, but only the front cover is reproduced on the website. And there is a small error - when you click on the first prototype to enlarge it, the corresponding image is not the same.

I only have one copy of the first type of dust jacket and am missing the 1929-1930 one. I can't find a copy for sale to buy it, so I would like to locate a collector who might be willing to send me scans thereof.

And I do not have any dust jackets that are not inventoried on the website. I suspect variations of the prototypes exist - for example, the two copies of Candide and Other Writings that I have possess identical dust jackets, save for the inside. The catalogue reproduced on one one inventories 377 titles; the other, accompanying a reprint, lists 393 titles.

With best wishes, Christina


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From: jbkrygier at owu.edu (John Krygier)
Date: Sat, 9 May 2020 09:02:16 -0400

Hi Christina,

Modernlib is the product of lots of collectors sharing info (so crowdsourcing). The collector focus is balanced by one of our members, Gordon Neavill at Wayne State University, who has a massive scholarly bibliographic database of all ML titles. Thus he would be a good person to contact for scholarly, bibliographic details for any given ML title. Modernlib.com did not need to repeat his work!

I might suggest listing the titles you have and the ones you think you are missing. Dr. Neavill may be able to fill in missing editions.

Then, let this group know and some of the folks here have specific missing editions.

Keep in mind that the scans on Modernlib have been collected over a long time and the collectors that contributed them may no longer be collecting.

As for the different number of titles listed on the jacket backs: this is an important way of dating the books as many did not have printing dates. What the books did have is the latest list of ML titles, and that number dates the jacket (and most likely the book) to the spring or fall of a particular year:

http://www.modernlib.com/General/DatingKey.html

Thus, if you want, you should be able to get copies of specific printings of the title.

Hope this helps!

John Krygier


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From: johnwolansky at verizon.net (johnwolansky at verizon.net)
Date: Mon, 18 May 2020 13:03:28 +0000 (UTC)

Good morning, Christina. I thought I would have another look at the page of images you sent, thinking I could provide additional scans.? Unfortunately, the link expired and I did not save the original file. Did you need a scan of the front jacket panel of the Candide with an illustration of a man being lashed by another?? Rereading your email, I see you also want scans of title pages, half title pages, etc. If you resend the page you originally sent and a list of what scans you need from the copies I have, I will do my best to help. JWOL?


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