Henry Ford's 1930 McGuffey's New Fifth Eclectic Reader (inscribed)
PRICE
$
550
Brown ink inscription on first fly leaf that appears to read:
"Celia A. M. Currier,
From Mr. Henry Ford."
McGuffey, WM. H., Eclectic Educational Series: McGuffey's New Fifth Ecletic Reader: Selected and Original Exercises for Schools Eclectic Edition. Cincinnati: Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co, Reprinted by Henry Ford, 1930.
GOOD CONDITION. (No dust jacket.)
Brown leather spine with gold impressed lettering. Top of leather spine has a .25" chip (missing top edge of spine). Firm spine with wear and discoloration along the exterior seam. All pages in tact. Tight binding. Green coth boards with "ECLECTIC EDUCATIONAL SERIES" logo impressed into front and back boards. Green, yellow and brown marbling edges. Front pastedown chips along the inner edge (.5" chip on the bottom and top edge of the inner hinge). Slight toning of pages.
Newspaper article about " "McGuffey's Reader's" glued like a 3M sticky note to front pastedown inner board.
Celia A. M. Currier* Book Plate on first free front endpaper underneath hand written inscription.
Second flyleaf states: "Reprinted by Henry Ford from McGuffey's Fifth Ecletic Reader 1930."
Main title page: " VAN ANTWERP, BRAGG & CO."
Verso Main Title Page: 1857 W.B. Smith followed by 1866 Sargant, Wilson, and Hinkle.
*Note: University of Iowa's Currier Hall is named after Amos & Celia Currier. "Celia Moore Currier taught mathematics and was a Latin instructor in the Classics Department at the State University of Iowa from 1867 to 1874."The automobile inventor and industrialist Henry Ford began collecting McGuffey Readers around 1910. Roger Friedman states "Ford bought every copy that he could find amassing, by the 1930s, a collection of 468 copies of 145 different editions."
Clearly, McGuffey Reader's meant something to Henry Ford. He even printed his own McGuffey Reader's. It appears he took the time to inscribe one of his books that his firm published with a leather spine and addressed it to a noted instructor at what is now the University of Iowa, Celia Currier. (Her husband, Amos, was interim President of the University from 1898–1899.)338 pages.
Approx dimensions: 7.5"x5"x0.875" Approx. weight 0.87 U.S. pounds.
