Portraits and Principles of the World’s Great Men and Women, With Practical Lessons on Successful Life by Over Fifty Leading Thinkers.

William C. King, ed.

Portraits and Principles of the World’s Great Men and Women, With Practical Lessons on Successful Life by Over Fifty Leading Thinkers.

Springfield

King-Richardson Co.

1899

Issued in numerous bindings and at various price points, Portraits and Principles was sold door to door by book agents. Binding variants aside, collation of multiple copies reveals a range of other differences in text and illustration. Some were sold with tipped-in portraits and biographical sketches of the “Lights of Canada” or “Leading Boers.” But other, more elaborately planned and expensively produced variations exist. For instance, prohibitionist Wilbur F. Crafts is sometimes substituted for the “Great Reformers” portrait of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. How many variations exist? An ongoing collation project aims to find out.

Jim Kuhn