Two Modern Library Classics
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Faust. Modern Library, 1950. Hardbound. Translated by Bayard Taylor. $20.
Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. Modern Library, 1950. Hardbound. Translated by John Carlyle and Philip Wicksteed. Intro by C. H. Grandgent. Bibliography by Ernest H. Wilkins. $20.
Two Modern Library editions of two philosophical masterpieces, representing the 'Shakespeares' of both northern and southern Europe. Peak mid-century chic, ready for the postwar market with iconic Rockwell Kent–designed end-sheets, jackets reverse printed with the publisher's catalog, and covers exemplifying the Modern Library ethos: classics interpreted for the everyman and marketed with chiseled Roman capitals, eye-catching rubricated color schemes, and caricature-ish tableaux.
Both books have tight, square spines and former owner names/inscriptions to the front flyleaves, but else clean, unmarked interiors. Only very minor shelf-wear to both. Mylar-protected jackets are not price-clipped and have some areas of moderate to heavy edge-wear, including a few small chips. Fiction.
