The Step Ladder Volume 1-5 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919 Excerpt: ...No. 42, is on one of his trips to Japan--the tenth or dozenth, we believe. This five-thousand word account of some of the curious ways of the Island Kingdom collectors was written for the Bookfellows while Professor Starr was on his way over, on the steamship "Hawaii Maru;' and the manuscript was mailed back to us from Yokohama. The booklet will be in the familiar dress of our bookly joys, and will have for the frontispiece a portrait of the author in Japanese costume. This little glimpse into the personal side of Japanese life can not fail to interest everyone, and Professor Starr's standing as a leading authority on Japan gives it a value that is unique. Things are looking up. By the time this is published we will probably be located in our own house so that there will not be any changes of address for The Bookfellows hereafter. We are enrolling twice as many new members this year as last with far less effort; about seventy-five percent of the old members are re-subscribing (a very high ratio); sales have increased two hundred per cent; we have some very attractive publishing plans for the near future; new bookly activities impend; and the organs of commercialism have taken to calling us idealists and misquoting and misrepresenting us. Altogether, the situation is highly encouraging. TO THE COLLECTOR Our book Adventures with Books and Autographs is dedicated "To Walter Romeyn Benjamin, Man of Letters, Documents and Clipped Signatures, All Genuine, but None More So than Himself." This may give the impression that Mr. Benjamin has passed into history and is one with the roc and the dodo. Not so. We hasten to dispel the idea. He conducts a very active trade in autographs of the good and great at 1476 Broadway, New York City, and publishes a mo...