New York Aurora Village Roycroft Shop 1898

Number 18 of 470 copies. Dickinson's wove paper 290 × 230 mm. Green half cloth spine. Paper covered boards. Title in gilt on the green cloth on upper board. Some slight wear to corners, head and base of spine else a very good copy. The Deserted Village was the first book which W.W. Denslow designed for the Roycroft Press. Denslow's 19 initials are outline letters, embellished with scrollwork, spiral flourishes, shamrocks, and other ornamental devices throughout the book. These letters are printed in green and filled in by hand with gold paint. Designer and illustrator W.W. Denslow, writer and publisher Elbert Hubbard and fantasy fiction author Frank L. Baum are linked in this particular copy as Denslow illustrated Baum's Wizard of Oz, along with other titles by him, and it is Baum's photograph which is loosely inserted in the book – perhaps it was his copy? An interesting connection nonetheless. This copy is one of the first 40 copies. Others amongst this first 40 were all reputedly produced as extra illustrated editions, although this copy does not have illustrations beyond the decorated letters by Denslow. Hubbard began his own printing concern, the Roycroft Press in 1893, inspired by William Morris's Kelmscott Press.