Rehearsal and Initial Editions of The Chicago Sun -- Bound Volume

Chicago Sun Times, 1941 As stated in the letter from founder Marshall Field and publisher Silliman Evans, this volume contains -- the eight rehearsal editions of The Chicago Sun, and the edition of December Fourth, Nineteen Forty One, Volume 1, Number 1 of Chicago’s “New Morning Newspaper”. They are the first tangible embodiment of a conviction that Chicago needed and wanted a newspaper of integrity which would command the respect and support of its readers. The “rehearsal” editions collected here for the first time were not placed on sale, and never until now were seen outside the Sun's offices. They were produced by an organization of skilled craftsmen so that The Chicago Sun would have maturity, and soundness of format, when it was first offered for sale. The transition from the first faltering experiment to the finished product purchased on December 4 by 896,000 persons is a measure of the eagerness with which the public greeted the first edition. Formal felicitations from personages whose names are in themselves news were not the only evidence that the advent of the Sun was sincerely welcomed. On the first day of publication the Sun’s telephone switchboards were so heavily swamped by incoming calls that 7272 “busy” signals were recorded by the telephone company between 5 A. M. and midnight. The first press run started at midnight, December 3. The story of that first edition is told in a special section of the edition itself, reproduced in this volume. Three days later the United States was at war, and the Sun was on the street with its first extra. The volume is ove-rsized, measuring 18" x 24". There is scuffing and some scarring to the brown leather covers; an ex-library bookplate on pasted inside the front cover and there is a hist.ref # on the lower spine. The pages are age-browned and edgeworn, with some small tears. In 1948, The Sun merged with the Chicago Daily Times and became the Chicago Sun-Times.