Uncle Sam's A B C Book Printed on Linen [cover title]

[Chicago]: W.B. Conker Company, 1897. Very good.. [12]pp. Publisher's self wrappers printed in red, white, blue, and black, the interior text printed in red and black. The whole printed on linen. Moderate wear and rubbing, minor soiling and toning, some light bleedthrough from the portions printed in red. A rare educational book printed entirely on linen and intended to teach the alphabet to American children at the turn of the 20th century. The book begins with a full page printing of the alphabet in both upper case (black) and lower case (red). The remainder of the text contains twenty-six illustrations (three per page) and three words of text paired with a letter of the alphabet printed in red upper case. For example, the letter "A" is illustrated with a fisherman standing by an acorn tree on which an axe leans, and the words "Acorn," "Axe," and "Angler" printed beneath the picture. The letter "B" shows a boy riding a bicycle on the shore with a hot-air balloon floating in the sky in the background, above the words "Bicycle," "Boy" and "Balloon." The text continues in this way throughout the alphabet. The fact that the book was printed on linen most likely accounts for the fact that it still exists at all and wasn't read to death, likely a purposeful tactic by the publisher.

The work is quite rare, with only a single copy of an example dated 1887 at the Free Library of Philadelphia, and just one other copy of the present work, dated 1897, at SMU.