The rights of man (Everymans library, 718A)
by Terry Seymour
Category: Reference

The total number of Everyman's Library volumes that still survive somewhere in the world exceeds 70 million. Since the inception of the Library in 1906, nearly 1200 unique volumes have been published, constantly placing the world's greatest books before a large public. A few of these titles proved unpopular and were never reprinted. But most were reprinted dozens of times, packaged in numerous ways, and benefited from updated editorial work and book design over the last century. Terry Seymour has studied and researched every aspect of this great mass of books. He now captures and distills this knowledge in A Printing History of Everyman's Library 1906-1982. A critical feature, of course, is to update the various collecting factoids that have emerged since 2005 when his Guide to Collecting Everyman's Library was published. The meat of the new book, however, is the Bibliographical Entries section. Each volume that has ever been printed receives its own entry, detailing every printing, each dust jacket variation, any new introductions, updated scarcity numbers, and all relevant notes. Typically an entry contains at least six lines of information, but often much more. In essence, each entry is a story written exclusively about each volume. Armed with this resource, collectors and booksellers can know reliably everything about the Everyman's Library volume that sits on their shelf or is ready to be purchased or sold. They will see how a book fits into the total printing history of that title, and be able to describe and value the book with precision. To further enhance the value of this book, color images illustrate all of the key collecting points. An extensive index of editors, translators and artists is now included. Not just a solo effort, the Printing History has been vetted by other expert collectors, ensuring greater accuracy and comprehensiveness.