Canada, Commonwealth. A National Encyclopedia Of Canadian Biography (1935)

Hardcover, Oxford blue cloth cover, with a pebbled Prussian blue leather strip placed on the spine that wraps around to the front and back covers, along with triangular pieces in the upper and lower corners on the front and back covers, entitled "National Encyclopedia of Canadian Biography", the title in gold-coloured ink and library reference marked "920 Ref" in white marker on the spine. The book credits two Directing Editors with its creation, Jessie Edgar Middleton and W. Scott Downs, and was published by The Dominion Publishing Company, Limited of Toronto, Ontario in 1935. The book begins with a Preface by The Dominion Publishing Company, Limited, that states the basic purposes and content within, as of 1935: "The National Encyclopedia of Canadian Biography is designed to serve Canada as the other national collections of biography serve their respective countries. Canada, standing in full statute among the powers of the world, deserves to have the record of her achievement, as written in the lives of her men and women who have contributed to her greatness, placed in enduring form. Thinking people everywhere are alive to the importance biography, and not alone the biographies of great leaders but of all those who achieve in their particular department of life, whether in science, in law or medicine, in the arts, in industry or invention, in the pulpit or press, or in any other activity in life. These volumes are to contain splendid records of foremost citizens, those whose minds could "furnish forth empires," but they also are to perpetuate the records of those lives in which merit and accomplishment, without the spectacular, predominate. The National Encyclopedia of Canadian Biography has as its purpose the recording of the "innumerable biographies" which Carlyle declared "are the essence of history" and which, because of the greatest complexity of modern life, we "need to have written" more than in any previous period. The value of such a series to libraries and reference centres has been demonstrated beyond the need for discussion, and the literary and advisory cooperation that have been freely extended have been most heartening. Research and compilation are going forward without interruption, and the "Encyclopedia" will grow in volume and importance with the passing of time." This particular volume was part of the Reference Section of the Westminster Hospital Library in London, Ontario, as evidenced by its numerous markings. There is a label placed on the inside front cover inscribed "For Reference / Do Not Take From This Room", as well as being stamped in black ink "Westminster Hospital Library" on the front endpaper and "Westminster Hospital /Dept. of Veterans Affairs / Library" on the page facing the Preface and on the back endpaper. The book contains 398 pages of text of biographies of Canadians who have achieved status in science, in business, in law, in politics, in medicine, in the arts, in industry, in religion, in the military, as educators, etc., printed in black ink, on a thick newsprint-like stock, with over sixty black and white photographs of prominent Canadians, along with a facsimile signature at the base of each photo, printed on the same type thick newsprint-like stock or on a bright white paper stock, interspersed throughout the book, each of the photographs with a vellum insert to protect them from the text, with gold leaf on the top of the pages, the book weighing 2.2 kilograms, measuring 195 mm (w) x 275 mm (h) x 62 mm (d). It exhibits wear along the edges and seams on the cover, the extensive wear on the top and bottom of the spine exposing the underlying paper binding support, light soiling on the edges of the pages, with most of the photographs printed on the thick newsprint-like stock having offset onto the adjoining text page, the photographs printed on the bright white paper stock remaining pristine. Fine.

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