Love Finds the Way

Love Finds the Way

Paul Leicester Ford

Illustrations by Harrison Fisher, Decorations by Margaret Armstrong

New York: Dodd Mead & Company

October, 1904

2nd edition

Signed Binding by Margaret Armstrong
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These green ribbed covers were glued to the boards on the bias so that the ribbing is diagonal. The back is plain, but the front and spine are stamped and filled with gilt, white, and green. Most of the gilting on the front is a back-fill to help highlight the flowers and vines and create a border for the title while the gilt stamped author's name is below the decoration. The spine has the title and author's name gilt stamped, and though flowers are blind stamped, the vines and leaves are stamped and painted in two shades of green. The publisher's name at the bottom is also gilt stamped.
This is a signed binding and we tried to provide a close-up of the intertwined MA within the vines on the front cover. MA is Margaret Armstrong one of the first women in the book decorative arts field at the end of the 19th and early 20th century.
The textblock is made of heavy and darkened wood pulp paper. The top edge has been cut and is painted with gold leaf, while the foredge and bottom edge are deckled (uncut).
Armstrong is also responsible for the page decoration and they look like lithographs that were hand-painted, while the frontispiece and the plates are also lithographs, but only in black and they were designed by Harrison Fisher. The style of the page decorations and the plates are very different. Tissues are present for the frontispiece and plates (thin pieces of paper to protect plates and catch off-bleeding, which these have done).
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Paul Leicester Ford was an American historian, biographer, and novelist who wrote about famous Americans. He was also an editor of such works as The Works of Thomas Jefferson and The Federalist. This historical novel was posthumously published.
Ford lived from 1865-1902.
Margaret Neilson Armstrong is an American author, illustrator, and designer famous for her Art Nouveau book cover styles. She is known to have designed at least 314 covers, including this one.
Armstrong lived from 1867-1944.
Harrison Fisher was an American illustrator of magazines and books. He is remembered for his drawings of women.
Fisher lived from c.1875-1934.

Literature

SPECIAL PS1692 .L60 1904

Hardcover book, 8.875 x 6.125 inches

English

This book has another record in the "Beautiful Books" Exhibit Collection.
This book can be seen in the photograph, Display Case 6.

Book