The Mystery Of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens cheapest Oxford University Press Limited Edition 1985

The Mystery of Edwin Drood
by
Charles Dickens

Illustrated by Luke Fildes & Charles Collins
Oxford University Press - Franklin Library
Library of the World's Greatest Books 1985
Limited Edition of 1 of 7500

Condition: Near fine never read condition, red full leather edition with gold decorations on the the covers and title in gold on the spine. Standard Franklin Library quality with cloth end pages and silk page marker. The covers are clean and unmarked and the gold decorations are sharp and bright. The corners are sharp and bump free. The gold page edges are bright and shiny with just two minor rubs on the side edge. There are no marks or writing inside. There are several full page b&w illustrations throughout. Book size is 6 by 9.75 inches tall, 304 pages. This printing was limited to 7500 copies.

About Franklin Library Books:
Bound in genuine premium leather
Intricate gilt stamped cover designs
The page ends are gilded in 22-karat gold
22-karat gold-stamped spine accents
Distinctive raised spine hubs
With satin ribbon page marker
Printed on archival-quality paper
Smyth-sewn pages
Cloth end pages

The Franklin Library, the publishing division of The Franklin Mint, was of course, at one time, the nation's largest publisher of great books in fine bindings. Founded in 1973, it ceased publishing in 2000 and was purchased by Easton Press. Its early editions ~ fully bound in genuine premium-grade, hand-cut leather, selected for quality of grain and texture ~ were designed and bound by The Sloves Organization, Ltd., an affiliate of the mint, whose bindery was one of the few in the world devoted exclusively to the crafting of fine leather books.

Printed from 1981 to 1985,* the Oxford/Franklin volumes are gorgeous ~ absolutely stunning in their production qualities. Oxford University Press, in fact, specially chose the publishing division of The Franklin Mint to design and produce its World's Great Books series because of Franklin's unsurpassed skill in achieving a premium-quality product: each Oxford book must also be 'a wonder' in the finest of bookbinding traditions and, if possible, exceed Franklin's high standard. By that prestigious election, Franklin thus was also doubly honored and formally recognized for the awesome reputation it had achieved in the publishing world throughout the decade of the 1970s.

It is because of that 'brief, shining moment' in publication history that these fine classic Oxford/Franklin editions generally surpass anything else ever produced either before or after that time by any of today's renowned publishing giants. Relatively few titles in the multi-edition Great Books series were given the fabulous full-leather treatment; most were quarter-bound volumes ~ very lovely indeed by the lights of their own publication merits ~ but still unable to boast the same 'Rolls Royce' elegance of their full-leather counterparts.

*This was the same glorious period of time when The Franklin Mint and Oxford University Press collaborated to also produce a stunning 21-volume dualtone premium leather (burgundy/navy blue 'leather upon leather', with trademark inner-board gilt stamping, or 'ticking') Limited Edition set of "the Great Inimitable's" complete works, The Oxford Library of Charles Dickens (1982-85). Featuring Dickens' original illustrators' works on premium archival paper (mimicking in glorious fashion the original Nonesuch editions of the 1930s), the set was privately printed and bound, and limited to only 7,500 copies for those very lucky subscribers. Much the same was done to honor London's Bard in Franklin/Oxford's three-volume Library of cheapest William Shakespeare.