Franklin Library – The Ultimate Private Library
From the early 1970s until 2000, Franklin Library, a division of The Franklin Mint developed a following by providing beautifully bound editions that would not break the bank. Known for beautiful leather bindings, Franklin Library books were published in three styles, full genuine leather, imitation leather, and quarter bound genuine leather. The full leather bound editions were produced throughout the Library’s lifespan but the other two styles (imitation and quarter bound) were only published in the 1970s and ‘80s. For this reason all Franklin Library editions are now considered “out of print” and are no longer available for sale from the Franklin Mint.
The 100 Greatest Books of All Time series is among the most collectable Franklin Library collections. Published between 1974 and 1982, the heavily illustrated 100 Greatest Books of All Time collection features remarkable works by literature’s most legendary writers. Readers will find Charlotte Bronte, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Shakespeare, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Goethe, Robert Frost, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville and John Donne among the long list of greats. Along with each book subscribers received a brief reader’s guide commenting on the content of the book and its author, the design and illustration of the volume, and the enduring significance of the work in world literature.
All Editions were produced using high quality paper with pages that are sewn not glued into the binding and gold gilded page edges on all three sides. Raised spine bands give each book that distinctive antique look. The genuine full leather bound editions are the highest quality of the three. While most characteristics remained constant throughout the different series and years of production the style of end papers varied from silk moiré to decorative paper. The full genuine leather binding had 22k. gold lettering and stampings on the spine and covers and is the only edition that has the attached silk page marker.
This exclusive edition of “The 100 Greatest Books Of All Time” was privately printed and bound solely for those who subscribed to the complete collection. The books were never offered to the general public nor were they sold in bookshops and were not sold singly. This superb collection was published in a single Limited Edition.
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Hi there,
Does the FRANKLIN LIBRARY books were printed on archival quality paper like the EASTON PRESS are?
Thank you
Mathieu
The Leather Bound editions were certainly printed on archival paper.
Hello, my father recalls a franklin library book from the 1970’s.
It contained a short story:
An train engineer operates the same route for years and years. On his route, he always sees the same lady in her yard hanging laundry or something and waves to her.
The train engineer retires and decides he wants to meet this lady up close that he’s seen countless times from the train. He approaches her at her home and she turns out to be a small minded, mean individual.
Any idea who the author is or what the book is called?
Thank you,
Chris Jones
Toronto, Canada
Thomas Wolfe’s short story “The Far and the Near” was first published in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1935 and was reprinted later that year in Wolfe’s first short-story collection, From Death to Morning. For a writer known by his long, sprawling novels such as Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life and Of Time and the River, this ultra-shortshort story is a rare occurrence. While Wolfe’s novels have often fallen under criticism for their excessive autobiographical sources, the influence of their editors, and Wolfe’s wordy style, many critics in the last half of the twentieth century began to praise Wolfe for his short fiction. “The Far and the Near” details the story of a railroad engineer in the 1930s who passes a certain cottage every day for more than twenty years, waving to the women who live there but never actually meeting them or seeing them up close. Upon his retirement, he goes to see the women, but they treat him badly and destroy the idyllic vision that he has built up around them. Within its few pages, Wolfe’s short story emphasizes the potentially devastating effects on a person who is forced to confront the reality behind a vision. Since the work was written during the Great Depression , the loss of hope that takes place in the story would have been extremely familiar to Wolfe’s audience. The story can be found in the paperback edition of The Complete Short Stories of Thomas Wolfe, which was published by Collier Books in 1989.