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**Rare Vintage Original 1981 Franklin Library Heirloom Library of Greatest Books Prospectus Booklet**An exceptionally scarce, investment-grade promotional retail portfolio prospectus booklet published by The Franklin Library in late 1981. Titled \"The Heirloom Library of the World\'s Greatest Books... A privately published collection of 50 luxurious volumes... without long-term obligation.\"This documentation features a comprehensive multi-page stapled booklet layout mapping exact material criteria, binder specifications, institutional advisory boards, featured master authors, and original 1981 subscription pricing. It serves as essential library provenance documentation for high-value leather-bound book collections and Franklin Library completionists.**Comprehensive Content & Booklet Breakdown:**1. **Franklin Library Craftsmanship Wares:** Detailed feature text outlining the elite production parameters used to construct the 50-volume library. Focuses on the premium choice of quarter-bound genuine leather backstrips and corners seamlessly combined with rich textured fabric cover panels, coordinated decorative endpapers, and an integrated silk ribbon page marker.
2. **Gold Tooling & Page Specifications:** Outlines the high-end hubbed spine design featuring distinct raised horizontal ridges. Documents the application of 22-carat gold tooling accents pressed directly into the leather spine hubs, alongside a special tarnish-free gold-gilded finish treated onto all three edges of the paper text block.
3. **Core Master Literary Cataloging Matrix:** Explicitly lists the definitive authors and cornerstone volumes included in the series subscription, highlighting Dante, Charles Dickens (Great Expectations), Mark Twain (Huckleberry Finn), Homer (The Odyssey), Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms), William Shakespeare, Herman Melville (Moby Dick), John Milton (Paradise Lost), Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass), and Miguel de Cervantes (Don Quixote de la Mancha).
4. **Institutional Board of Advisers:** Logs the academic pedigree behind the book selections, documenting Carlos Baker (Princeton), Malcolm Cowley (Chancellor of the American Academy of Arts and Letters), Robert Stuart Fitzgerald (Harvard), Monroe Kirk Spears (Rice University), Wallace Stegner (Stanford; Pulitzer Prize recipient), and Robert Penn Warren (Yale; three-time Pulitzer Prize recipient).
5. **Original Subscription Pricing & Chronology:** Documents the original premium financial parameters from the period, confirming a guaranteed price lock of £17.50 plus 75p postage per volume. Hard-pins the publication timeline by recording a strict subscription application postmark deadline of 28th February, 1982. Includes the pristine, unclipped London SE6 2BR Freepost business reply card attached to the rear.**Condition Report:**
* Overall: Fine vintage archival condition with bright, rich color printing on heavy semi-gloss paper stock.
* Structural Integrity: Fully complete multi-page stapled booklet format. The original dual metal staples remain sturdy and secure. Internal pages are entirely free from modern clips, tears, stains, or ink writing. The reply card is fully intact.
* Wear: Very minor age-appropriate edge and handling wear from careful long-term storage.
* Please inspect the high-resolution listing photos closely to appreciate the exact physical condition before purchasing.**SHIPPING & PROTECTIVE HANDLING:**
This item will be shipped securely flat-packed in a board-backed protective envelope to ensure it arrives in the exact condition seen. International shipping is available.
