The Emilie Loring Collection

I always have my eye out for different editions of Emilie Loring’s works. Although I collected her first in paperback, I’ve amassed a nice collection of first edition hardbacks, too. Because the earliest ones are now over one hundred years old, it’s no surprise that many come without their paper jackets.

First Cover of Here Comes the Sun!

Rebecca recently discovered a Grosset & Dunlap edition of Here Comes the Sun! that retains the book’s original cover art. (Thanks for sharing, Rebecca!)

Here Comes the Sun! came with an illustration on the frontispiece and an additional acknowledgement of Paul Gill on the title page.

This particular book jacket appeared around 1939, because the list of books on the back includes Across the Years but not There Is Always Love. It was apparently the last book jacket re-printing that was approved before Paul Gill died of a heart attack in 1938.

I’ve never cared for the book’s later cover art. It shows Julie holding a book instead of a letter, and she has dark, not fair, hair. Plus, there’s a cat sleeping at her side, not the frisky Cocker Spaniel, “Sweetie Peach.” I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that this artist never read the book.

Although Paul Gill and The Penn Publishing Company were both in Philadelphia, Gill did only these first two books (1922, 1924) and then concentrated on seaside watercolors.

First Cover of The Trail of Conflict

Now, let’s go on a hunt to find the original cover for The Trail of Conflict. It, too, had a frontispiece illustration, but by W. V. Chambers.

The cover I thought was the original has a watercolor appearance, and the girl’s hairstyle makes me wonder if it might be another cover by Paul Gill. But this isn’t the first cover.

Penn’s advertisement in Bookseller and Stationer (Vol 57, p 4) advertises, “Jacket in colors and frontispiece by W. V. Chambers” and shows a different image.

The only place I’ve seen this one is a beautiful gem in the hands of “thegoodbadbook.”

It’s an especially nice copy, as she describes: “Not only is my copy the original Penn Publishing Company edition, but it’s a complete post-1921 Penn edition, meaning its original perforated bookmark is still attached to the dust jacket’s front flap.” Oh, that would be something to duplicate and share!

See her review of The Trail of Conflict here: thegoodbadbook and take time to look through her other posts. Like me, she’s slowed her posting rate for the time being, but there is a lot of good material in her archives about Emilie Loring’s contemporaries that you are sure to enjoy.

Spring has come–It always does! 🙂 Choose an Emilie Loring that suits the moment, and I’ll be back by the weekend with a post I’ve been working on a while.

Happy Landings!