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E 302 FSA3 1715

AN INTRODUCTION

TH

HIS complimentary edition for our friends of the Eleventh Annual Convention of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World was not intended to add another English Classic to the many already published, but to convey, in its mechanical detail, the ideas of THE LAKESIDE PRESS in workaday book-making. And who could more happily act as the standard-bearer of such ideas than Benjamin Franklin, the patronsaint of American printers, and the pioneer of truth in advertising, who, in his wide experience, showed the true spirit of progressiveness, tempered with sterling common sense?

This little volume goes forth as a modest protest against the present craze for so-called "Editions de Luxe"-books printed in unreadable type, on hand-made paper, on handpresses, and sold at prices prohibitory to all except the rich. Such books may have their places in the collection of the dilettante, or on the shelves of those who affect a love for fine books, and thus attempt to convey an impression of literary culture. But to fulfil its grand mission of giving and preserving to the world the great thoughts of men, a book must be

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within reach of that world.

To return in the

name of art to the costly and elaborate antique methods of performing by hand what can be cheaply and better performed by machines seems a crime against progress.

In opposition to these attempts, this volume stands for the machine-made book. Its paper, its type-setting, its presswork, and its binding all are the product of the very latest labor-saving machines. It aims to be readable rather than eccentric, plain rather than decorative, tasteful rather than unique, useful rather than useless; withal, to hold to the essence of the art of the old masters of book-making, and not to copy the mechanical shortcomings which they themselves strove so hard to overcome.

In the production of this book, The Lakeside Press takes pride, for, with the exception of the paper, it is entirely a product of the Pressan accomplishment possible in no other printing establishment in America. The type, known as the Lakeside Old Style, was designed by its artists to meet the need of an old style a trifle heavier and more easily read than any hitherto made, but free from any of the eccentricities of the types of William Morris and his numerous followers. The type was also cast in the Press's own foundry. In fact, the entire production-type-setting, electrotyping, binding, and even the ink-making—was made possible by the complete facilities of the plant. If, in a modest way, this volume conveys

the idea that machine-made books are not a crime against art, and that books may be plain but good, and good though not costly, its mission has been accomplished.

THE PUBLISHER.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF

'BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

D

TWYFORD,

At the Bishop of St. Asaph's, 1771.

ancestors.

EAR SON: 1 have ever had pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of my You may remember the inquiries I made among the remains of my relations when you were with me in England, and the journey I undertook for that purpose. Imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life, many of which you are yet unacquainted with, and expecting the enjoyment of a week's uninterrupted leisure in my present country retirement, I sit down to write them for you. To which I have besides some other inducements. Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of, which, with the blessing of God, so well succeeded, my posterity may like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to be imitated.

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