Mosher’s Writings

Catalogues (1893/94-1923) - "The Mosher Books" with biographical, symbolic title page designed by e.a.c. (Elizabeth Alden Curtis). Title page.
“The Mosher Books” with biographical, symbolic title page designed by e.a.c. (Elizabeth Alden Curtis). Title page.

Mosher issued 31 catalogues from 1893-1923 which contain some of his best and most appealing work, both from the literary perspective of Mosher’s forewords, and from the angle of graphic design (see Catalogues under “Book Samples” on this website). The first two catalogues of 1893 & ’94 did not include any forewords, but from 1895 onward Mosher chose to reveal, in an increasingly intense and highly personal way, reasons why he was a publisher and sprinkled in a little about his personal background as well. Richard Le Gallienne referred to the catalogues as expressions of Mosher’s “creative taste” which “vibrate with a passion for literature that speaks for itself, and clearly differentiates Mr. Mosher from his publishing brethren.” It was these forewords–often written in the third person–that Le Gallienne felt transformed “the catalogue raisonné lifted into the region of poetry” A. Edward Newton mentioned that “never before or since, I believe, has a man made such a delicate appeal to the reader and the book-lover” through his book catalogues, and in The Haunted Bookshop, Christopher Morley wrote that he’ll take “some of Mr. Mosher’s catalogues: fine! they’ll show the true spirit of what one book-lover calls bibliobliss.”

The Mosher forewords are here reprinted for the first time since their initial appearance in the original Mosher catalogues.