HUBBARD, Elbert. The Philosophy of Elbert Hubbard. - Lot 202

HUBBARD, Elbert. The Philosophy of Elbert Hubbard. First edition, a copy from the first printing, beautifully bound and signed by the author’s son. New York [East Aurora, N.Y.], The Roycrofters, 1916. In-8 (200 x 120 mm). Red half-maroquin with corner pieces, ribbed spine decorated with a rich Art Deco design featuring small gilt ironwork, gilt head. Contemporary binding. 174, and [2] pp. In English, Cracks at the first joint, head re-glued, a fragment missing from the bottom of the spine. First edition. One of 13 copies in the headprint on Japanese paper, this one signed by the author’s son (no. 9). Adorned with an etched portrait of Elbert Hubbard as a frontispiece. Very beautiful layout, lovely woodcut typographic ornaments, green border fillets on every page. A posthumous work edited by John T. Hoyle. Contains previously unpublished texts by Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915), an avant-garde thinker, visionary, man of action, and popular philosopher, deeply committed to the ideals of freedom, craftsmanship, and democracy. Hubbard is best known for founding the Roycrofters community and publishing house in East Aurora, New York, in 1895, which became one of the pillars of the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States. This collection brings together eighteen essays devoted to freedom, responsibility, and economics, but also addresses societal themes such as marriage and divorce, motherhood, vaccination, and equal suffrage. The book opens with this statement: “So this, then, is an essay on the American philosophy. The American philosophy is founded on the science of economics.” A beautiful copy in a deluxe Art Deco binding.