text: ABAA | A Message to Garcia: Being a Preachment by Elbert Hubbard by Hubbard, Elbert | Search for rare books
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  signed Leather bound 1899	· East Aurora, New York	by Hubbard, Elbert East Aurora, New York: The Roycrofters, 1899. Limited Edition. Leather bound. Very good. St. Jerome and W. W. Denslow. This is number 201 of a signed limited edition of 1000. Approximately 6" x 8.5". 11 numbered pages. Bound in full suede "in de luxe Roycroft style" with a gilt title in a rectangular surround. A limitation statement signed by Hubbard is on the reverse of the title page. The text contains a single hand-tinted ornamental initial on page one. There were apparently several variants of this booklet produced. This one has yellow silk endpapers with a matching bookmark. The often-missing green woodcut portrait by St. Jerome of Captain Rowan (the officer who carried the message) is tipped in. Hubbard's bookplate is affixed to the front flyleaf. (For more information, see Ogle's description and illustration in On a High Shelf V1I on p115.) Clean, fresh pages. Light wear to the cover. The gilt lettering remains bright. Ogle states that this version of the booklet is "the first permanent printing" of the inspirational essay--based on a true story of the Spanish-American War--that made Hubbard famous. It had been printed earlier in the year as an untitled article in the March 1899 issue of the Philistine magazine and as a very scarce 14-page paper-cover promotional pamphlet (which referred to the essay as a "homily" instead of a "preachment") for the New York Central Railroad. The hand-painted ornamental initial on the first line of this printing features a ship designed by W. W. Denslow who was a Roycrofter before he illustrated The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Denslow's "seahorse" logo appears at the lower left corner of the ship initial and also in the center of the title page.