ELBERT HUBBARD'S SCRAP BOOK

New York: William H. Wise & Company, 1923. First Edition. . Large Softcover. Good Plus. Elbert Hubbard was a writer, philosopher, publisher and artist as well as a successful businessman and is best remembered today as the founder of the Roycroft artisan community in western New York in the late 19th -- early 20th century. The Roycroft campus in E. Aurora, NY, has been restored and is now a National Historic site. One of Hubbard's lifelong habits was jotting notes to himself about things he read or heard or saw. After Hubbard and his wife died in 1915 when the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine, the Roycrofters community, including his sons, gathered and edited many of his notes and published them in scrapbook form. First edition. About 8 1/4 x 11 inches, 228 pages plus 12 pages of indices of subjects, authors and poetry. Includes a fronrtispiece b & w photo of Hubbard and on the front pastedown, a photo of Hubbard clipped from the NY Times. The book, printed and bound by the Roycrofters, is on handmade paper and bound by heavy ribbon threaded through holes punched in the margin. The title on the front cover is in red and the triangular graphic design under the title is red and black. This copy's covers are worn on the edges and corners with no loss of design or content. Covers and text edges are slightly soiled. The front endpage, with the NY Times clipping, has worked loose from the binding and is laid-in. O/w, text is complete and clean. There are scattered underlinings and marginalia in pencil that appear to have been written in the 1930s and that stop about page 41. Laid-in between pages 138-139 is a period magazine cartoon by Strothmann from the 1930s. It should be noted that Hubbard described himself as an anarchist and socialist with strong beliefs in artistic and political freedom. His widely known essay, "A Message to Garcia," was the basis for two movies in 1916 and 1936. [Due to its size and weight, the book will require additional postage for priority/express orders and for orders outside the U.S.].