Subscription Bland for Edition De Luxe of Graetz's "History of the Jews"

Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, c1910. Presumed First Edition, First printing of this sales brochure thus. Single sheet, printed on both sides. Sheet is approximately 9.5 inches by 12.25 inches, printed in black and red on both sides. The sheet was folded in half to make four pages. It has been folded in half again, and there is wear and tears at the creases. Scarce surviving ephemera. The first page is a sales pitch for the six volume set. the inside two pages is largely taken up with a full size illustration of the volume with brief descriptive notes. The fourth side is the Subscription blank listing the price for the set at $18 to be paid in $3 monthly installments. The volumes remained the property of the Society until paid for in full. If paid in full by check, the purchaser's name would be stamped in gold on each of the volumes 'free of charge'. Among the selling points were that the six volumes contained more than 4,000 and over 8,000 topics in the index. It contained chronological tables and a number of specially prepared color maps and an index to them. The header on this front page, in red, was :Should Be in Every Jewish Home." Date range determined by date of 191_ on the subscription form. Heinrich Graetz (31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsh Graetz to a butcher family in Xions, Grand Duchy of Posen, in Prussia (now in Poland), he attended Breslau University, but since Jews at that time were barred from receiving Ph.D.s there, he obtained his doctorate from the University of Jena. After 1845 he was principal of the Jewish Orthodox school of the Breslau community, and later taught history at the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau (now Wroc aw, Poland). His magnum opus History of the Jews was quickly translated into other languages and ignited worldwide interest in Jewish history. In 1869 the University of Breslau (Wroc aw) granted him the title of Honorary Professor. In 1888 he was appointed an Honorary Member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences. Graetz's history became very popular and influential in its time. The material for Jewish history being so varied, the sources so scattered in the literatures of all nations, and the chronological sequence so often interrupted, made the presentation of this history as a whole a very difficult undertaking. Graetz performed his task skillfully, mastering most of the details while not losing sight of the whole. Another reason for the popularity of the work is its sympathetic treatment. Also, Graetz has been credited with finding a copying error in I Corinthians 1:12 which should have referred to a very early Christian teacher. This history of the Jews is not written by a cool observer, but by a warm-hearted Jew. On the other hand, some of these commendable features are at the same time shortcomings. In his introduction to a 1975 volume of Graetz's essays translated into English, rabbi and historian Ismar Schorsch wrote of History of the Jews: "[It] still remains, a century later, the best single introduction to the totality of Jewish history.... The extraordinary combination of narrative skill and basic research which was the hallmark of Graetz's work has never been matched." Condition: Fair.

Keywords: Subscription Form, Sales Literature, Graetz, Jews, De Luxe Edition, Three-quarter Leather, Persian Morocco Leather, Royal Octavo Volumes, Book-making

[Book #81862]

Price: $45.00

See all items in Jews