Generic Denslow

Happy New Year! After a slow start, I'm finally getting around to a new blog posting!

I first saw one of these generic bindings by W. W. Denslow on the Hungry Tiger Talk blog, and of course I started looking for examples. Over the New Year's weekend, I went on an antiquing expedition, and managed to hit the jackpot, finding several copies from several different dealers!

This binding was designed for the Donohue & Henneberry publishing company. The name changed to Donohue Brothers, and finally was shortened to Donohue, the same company that produced cheaper editions of a number of the early L. Frank Baum books. Examples of all three names can be seen on the bindings pictured.

Quite a variety of titles were issued in this cover, in various colors - I have blue, green, brown and grey - and sometimes the same title is seen in different colors. The copies I have are all stamped in red and either black or dark green. It's a fairly elaborate design, compared to some of Denslow's other cover work - I just wish the publisher had stamped the book titles on the front cover, within the box that seems designed to hold a title!