Odds and Ends in Prose and Verse.

London: Privately Printed at the Chiswick Press,, 1908. A proud Jewish father publishes for his children First and only edition. A truly sumptuous piece of private publishing, produced as a gift for the author's children and grandchildren, handsomely printed at the Chiswick Press and finely bound by an unnamed binder of real quality. Among the varied pieces is "A Dream, by One who Dreamt It", a prose fantasy, conceived at the time of the Dreyfus case, of a Jewish state, "a beautiful land of very vast extent", where Jews, driven out from the civilized countries of Europe by "hatred and envy of the race", live in paradisal self-government. The volume carries the bookplate of Bernard Alexander Isaac (1871-1938). If he is one of the children for whom the book was printed, then "Pater" was Frederick Simeon Isaac (c.1829-1915). With his siblings Benjamin and Alexander, Frederick was a partner in Isaac & Samuel, a City of London firm with worldwide interests. He was also a director of several South American utility and finance companies. In the 1871 Census he was described as a "South American merchant" and in the 1901 Census as a "financial merchant". He left £630,000, including a range of legacies to Jewish charities. The book is likely to have been printed in small numbers and is unsurprisingly rare. There are no copies listed on Library Hub, and Library Hub lists only the Toronto Public Library copy. We were unable to trace any other copy in libraries or auction records. Tall octavo (247 x 184 mm). Photographic portrait of the author as frontispiece with tissue guard, title printed in red and black, decorative opening initials, headpieces, and culs-de-lampe. Finely bound in contemporary dark blue crushed morocco, titles in gilt direct to spine, gilt-ruled raised bands, compartments and turn-ins ruled and richly decorated with foliate and circlet motifs in gilt, boards panelled in single gilt rules with floral and repeat foliate motifs to corners, green silk endpapers, edges gilt, unsigned but evidently quality work. Pictorial bookplate of Bernard A. Isaac to front pastedown. A few minor marks to covers, else a fine copy, printed on thick paper and handsomely bound. Toronto Public Library call number 828 P1283.