PUBLICATIONS OF THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
Philadelphia, The Society, No date, 1898. Item #42363
[1898?]1st separate edition, single fold pamphlet (4 pages), 12mo. Not in Singerman, though Robert Singerman himself suggested to us that the text "seems to be a match for the text in the first volume of the American Jewish Year Book (1899/1900) at pp.294-97.
Our item does not include any pagination and we would consider it to be a first separate edition. The item not listed in any database we were able to consult.
Advertising pamphlet listing imprints of the newly formed Jewish Publication Society, including their first, "Outlines of Jewish History," by Lady Magnus (1890) through Zangwill’s Dreamers of the Ghetto (1898) which is indicated as “Sold to Members only,” probably indicating that it had just come out (or perhaps related to copyright issues with Zangwill). Notably absent is any mention of the American Jewish Yearbook, which began publication in 1899. All items include a short positive review from the American press.
The Jewish Publication Society of America was founded for "’the publication and dissemination of literary, scientific, and religious works giving instruction in the principles of the Jewish religion’; the third of its kind in the United States (see Jew. Encyc. i. 519). Its headquarters are at Philadelphia. It was founded June 3, 1888, at a convention held in Philadelphia.
At the end of the first fiscal year the membership was 1,071; by 1903 it had reached 4,700. Every member of the society receives a copy of each publication; since the society has been in existence over two hundred thousand volumes have been distributed and sold. The society is supported by the income derived from a permanent fund and from membership dues.
As a rule, four, sometimes five, publications a year are issued; the first, 'Outlines of Jewish History,' by Lady Magnus, appeared in 1890. The society issues two series, a 'Special Series' (seven numbers), appearing occasionally, and including short works of a miscellaneous character, and 'The American Jewish Year Book,' published since 1899-1900 (5660)....the society has brought out…translations from German, French, and Hebrew. They include histories, literary, religious, and ethical essays, poems, biographies, proceedings of societies, republications of older classics, and fiction” (Cyrus Adler & Henrietta Szold in the JE, 1905).
A copy may exist at the Dobkin Collection of Feminism; otherwise we could not locate a copy in OCLC-Worldcat, nor using a google serach. Apparently exceedingly rare as such. Lightly rubbed, Very Good Condition (B) (AMR-67-28).
Price: $400.00