| Parent company | The Franklin Mint |
|---|---|
| Status | Defunct |
| Founded | 1973 |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | Franklin Center, Pennsylvania |
| Publication types | Leather-bound books |
| Fiction genres | Classics |
The Franklin Library, the distributing arm of the publishing division The Franklin Press (a division of The Franklin Mint), was the United States's largest distributor of great 'classic title' books produced in fine bindings for collectors until the company permanently closed, ceasing all of its publishing activity, in 2000. Its books were designed and bound by The Sloves Organization, Ltd., an affiliate of the Franklin Mint, whose bindery was one of the few in the world devoted exclusively to the crafting of fine leather book bindings.[1]
The Franklin Mint purchased the Sloves Book Bindery in New York City to help jumpstart its book division in the early 1970s. More recent book offerings were produced for The Franklin Library by R.R. Donnelly.
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From its founding in 1973 until its permanent closure in 2000, the Franklin Library, headquartered at Franklin Center PA, near Philadelphia, was one of the two largest publishers of fine leather-bound books in the United States. The unsurpassed quality of Franklin's 'first generation' creations are avidly sought by collectors worldwide.[2] For more than a decade, many classic titles were marshaled into the ranks of several series, each consisting of fifty to one-hundred books. Collectors subscribed to a particular series and received one book per month—as long as their subscriptions remained current—until every title in a given series had been boxed and Benjamin-Franklin-foil-medallion sealed and delivered. It thus required more than eight years to complete an entire set of 100 titles, as for example in The 100 Greatest Books of All Time series.
For many collectors of finely crafted books, the earliest Franklin titles (1974–1986) represent the 'final word' in bookbinding: for 'the Mint' was able to produce in astonishing breadth and array, elegance, beauty, and unsurpassed quality of production, a formidable library of what have since come to represent some of the most definitive 'Rolls Royce' creations ever among leather-bound books.[2] For many a bookbinding connoisseur, the early Franklin Mint creations—whether a stunning gold-stamped, image-embossed 'Oxford/Franklin' masterpiece, a highly coveted 'Signed 60' title, or even that more elusive wonder, the 'Patrons Edition'—represent one of the finest leather-bound print traditions to ever have issued from the nation's top publishing houses.[2]
Although most of the Franklin Library collections were issued in full-leather bindings (at about $28 to $45 per book), some were simultaneously issued in alternate binding materials, such as faux leather—also called 'leatherette', or imitation leather—and cloth, or a combination of both ($15–17 per book). Like all best-bound books, these were printed on archival or acid-free paper to prevent yellowing or tanning over time. The bindings were gold stamped and the page edges were laced in 22k gold gilt to protect the paper from damage by dust or humidity. Other books, such as those in the Franklin Heirloom Series, were issued in quarter-bound leather ($19.50 per book)—'cloth coated' creations with Franklin's trademark 'hubbed' leather spines (a tradition long-forgotten or discarded by most publishers today). Most of the Franklin Mystery Masterpiece titles were issued in leatherette, but a few were also given full-leather treatment.
Some of Franklin Library's later 'second generation' collections were bound in 'bonded leather' (made of leather strips and scraps), which has given rise to a myth that all Franklin books are so bound, and are thus inferior to the product quality and standard of other 'high end' publishing houses (such as Easton Press). If a sewn-in satin bookmarker is absent, then the binding is leatherette; otherwise, it is leather. Many buyers and sellers are unaware of the difference, often resulting in buyers over- or underpaying, as the case may be.
The vast majority of Franklin's collections were designed and bound to the highest publishing standards and quality-control rigor, using the finest available techniques, printmaking resources (including commissioned works by award-winning illustrators), and materials: genuine leather, silken moiré end-sheets, and attached satin-ribbon page-markers. As a cost-cutting measure in tandem with shifts in the U.S. economy and their resultant impact, Franklin Library Press made its foray into 'marbled' end-sheets with its quarter-bound and leatherette editions series.
In addition to the cost of the book, subscribers were asked to pay shipping and handling charges as well as sales tax. Higher prices, inevitably, were required of later subscribers.[1]
Franklin Library Limited First Editions are true limited first printings—issued in very limited numbers (100-1000, seldom more), with that particular designation and craftsmanship that sets them apart from standard 'trade' issues. This special, genuine distinction was impressively achieved by Franklin through the highest-possible production values in fine binding: elaborately designed premium leather covers, hubbed spines, 22kt gilt stamping, even custom-designed slipcases, hand-numbered authenticity certificates, and the true flat-signed signature of many a celebrated author—and through any combination (or perhaps even utilizing all) of the above. Simultaneously, these true first-edition creations were published alongside a given title's more elemental 'trade' release, or subsequently perhaps, as was also customary.
Other publishing behemoths, however, like The Easton Press, took command eventually also of their own specially 'limited' publications in ventures that enlisted similar, premium grades of manufactured paper and other materials to produce their own 'Limited First Editions'. These often are now issued up to a year or more after a given title's 'trade' edition has been published and has already seen a bookseller's shelves—which peculiar habit, therefore, has made the claim of a 'true' Limited First Edition somewhat questionable.
In contrast, it was standard Franklin Library Press practice to contract first with the author, and then with the mass-market publisher, for the printing rights of all "First Edition" titles, thus making a Franklin Library first limited edition a true first edition (published prior to the trade edition). This impressive distinction added considerably to the value of Franklin Library books. And to emphasize this important difference, all of Franklin's own 'trade'-type quarter-bound editions bore a statement conceding to the higher merit of a given title's true first edition by identifying all inferior issues as 'first trade editions' on a given title's copyright pages while also disclaiming: "A signed first edition of this book has been privately printed by the Franklin Library Press." This statement acknowledges that the original Franklin printing of each classic title was, in fact, the true 'First Edition' to ever be issued, pointing up also what was indeed the important difference between a truly special 'first ever' printing of a book and its trade-edition successors—accurately defining in the process what a true "first edition" should be.
Among the questions most often asked about Franklin 'first editions': What precisely is the difference between a Franklin 'First Edition Society' publication (1976–82) and a 'First Signed Edition' (1983–2000)?
The difference lies in the fact that a First Edition Society book is prefaced by a special introductory message to subscribers from the author, and often 'signed' with a printed facsimile signature—that is, a 'print' of the authorial signature, not its authentic (personally) flat-signed manifestation in ink, by hand, as seen in Franklin's elite 'Signed 60' series or in The First Edition Society's later 'Signed' designation series. Each beautifully bound copy of any title within The Signed First Edition Society series (which began in 1983) boasts an authentic, hand-wrought signature by its respective author. Signatures were usually committed to additional separate pages that were later bound into the book, with a separate, loose onion-skin tissue paper placed over it for protection.[1]