Franklin Library Books I Bought in 2017

As I greatly appreciate the Franklin Library books, especially those from the 1970's, I though I'd post what I purchased in the last few weeks.

The Baby in the Icebox
Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
Alice Adams, part of my persual of old Pulitzer novels,
The Keepers of the House

All are like new, and after 35 - 40 years, have held up tremendously well. The look as if they were published yesterday.

Such gems from this old publisher.

I, too, have been impressed with the durability of Franklin products. There is no sign of cracking or other deterioration of the leather, fading of the spine, or yellowing of the pages even after decades of standing on open shelves, and I've never applied any kind of leather conditioner. I have noticed some fading around the edges of the moire fabric in a few volumes, but it seems to be present mostly on the red ones. I've not been able to find out what grade of leather they used, but it feels heavier and thicker than Easton's.

I agree that the quality seems a bit better than Easton Press. I enjoy the different colors of moire fabric, like EP used to do. The ones I picked up this month have not fading of the fabric, so must have been stored well. The leather does feel a bit better to the touch than EP. Not enough of a bibliophile to understand why that is though.

>1 sdawson: and >2 jroger1: they are definitely higher quality. Who would ever guess that the most treasured collection was their Oxford library of classics in 50 volumes. The prices they are commanding are absurd. I turned this set down when it was offered since Franklin duplicated works across all their series too many times.

Although most of my collectible book purchases are from the Limited Editions Club and a few other publishers I think that Franklin Library is a treasure. Like many others here I much prefer FL to Easton Press.
I am particularly fond of FL's signed first editions and signed limited editions series. Although I'm not generally one to pay much of a premium for signatures many books from this series can be found under $100. We're talking first editions and limited editions made to FL's usual high standards signed by some of the most iconic writers of the 20th century for less than a hundred bucks. Often much less.
To someone like myself with a limited book budget these truly are gems.
Although these volumes aren't "fine press" by the way people usually define the term they represent a pretty unbeatable value. I am always proud to add a new FL volume to my collection.

I just purchased a brand new copy of Joseph Heller's signed limited edition of Good as Gold for $30 shipped. Simply a fantastic value.

I also have a question for those FL collectors more knowledgeable than myself. Were the illustrations done for the first editions and signed limited series ever used by other publishers for subsequent editions?

>5 zHugh:
That's an interesting question. I owned several signed editions many years ago, but I don't still own them. I don't know who purchased the copyrights from Franklin. Often the artists own the copyright for their own illustrations. Can you tell from the copyright pages?

>6 jroger1:
The copyright page of the one I checked simply says "Special contents © 1981 Franklin Mint Corporation."

>7 zHugh:
The Franklin Mint name still exists. The company was sold to Warner Communications (now Time Warner) in 1980, but it is now owned by Sequential Brands Group. Probably one of those two companies owns the copyrights to the Franklin Library publications, although I couldn't be sure of that. See the Wikipedia entry under "Franklin Mint" and the link below.

http://www.franklinmint.com/store/

>8 jroger1:
Thanks for the info! As far as I've been able to tell it doesn't seem the illustrations commisioned for the FL have been used in other editions.