My Book of Golden Thoughts Whitman 1931 Miniature Gift Book Inscribed 1937 For Sale

Whitman of Racine, Wisconsin made these to be given. A small pebble-grained gift book with a gilt title panel on the front, a few dozen leaves, and on each one a thought worth keeping — Shakespeare, Franklin, Chaucer, Kipling, Dickens, Pope, Dryden, Goldsmith, Emerson, Carlyle. The sort of thing that sat on a side table and got picked up for two minutes at a time, which is exactly what the woman who gave this one away said it was for.

On the front endpaper, in a fine steady hand: Christmas 1937. Mother dear — Just a wee book to pick up when you sit down, in the evening — Love, Masie. Somebody called Masie gave her mother this book in the Christmas of 1937, and wrote down exactly how she hoped it would be used. Inside, small pencil check marks sit beside a handful of the quotations. Her mother read it, and she marked her favourites. That inscription is staying right where it is and it is photographed in full.

📚 Book Details

• 🏢 Publisher: Whitman Publishing Company, Racine, Wisconsin
• 📅 Year: 1931, copyright Whitman Publishing Company
• 📄 Format: Hardcover miniature gift book, salmon-orange pebble-grained boards with a gilt title panel and blind-stamped scroll ornament. No dust jacket issued.
• 🔖 ISBN: none — this book predates the ISBN system
• ✍️ Compiler: NOT NAMED. The copyright page reads only: Copyright 1931, Whitman Publishing Company, Racine, Wisconsin, Printed in U.S.A. No compiler or editor is credited anywhere in the book.
• 💎 Provenance: handwritten gift inscription on the front endpaper, Christmas 1937, signed Masie — left visible and fully photographed
• 📝 Contents: short quotations and verses from Shakespeare, Franklin, Chaucer, Kipling, Dickens, Pope, Dryden, Goldsmith, Emerson, Carlyle and others
• ✅ Best For: collectors of miniature and gift books, Whitman collectors, commonplace-book and quotation readers, ephemera and provenance collectors, and anyone who likes a small handsome old book

📋 Condition: Very Good

• ⚠️ VINTAGE 1931 — please read every line below and study all 8 photos.
• ⚠️ Handwritten gift inscription in ink on the front endpaper, dated Christmas 1937 — disclosed as provenance, deliberately left visible
• ⚠️ Small PENCIL CHECK MARKS beside a handful of the quotations through the book
• ⚠️ Rubbing at the corner tips and along the board edges
• ⚠️ A small chip at the head of the spine
• ⚠️ Light general soiling and fading to the plain rear board; paper toned to cream
• ✅ Gilt title panel bright and fully legible, blind-stamped ornament crisp
• ✅ Binding tight and square, boards firm, pages secure
• ✅ No other writing and no staining on any page seen
• ✅ Not a library copy — no stamps, pockets, spine labels or date-due slips

🦆 Papa Duck Homeschool | Gresham, Oregon
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