Fads and Fancies of Representative Americans at the Beginning of the 20th Century: Being a Portrayal of their Tastes, Diversions and Achievements.

MANN, William d'Alton.

$6,500.00

Item Number: 129391

New York: Town Topics Publishing Company, 1905.

First edition of this lavishly published work regarding New York’s wealthy society at the time, including names such as John Jacob Astor, J. Pierpont Morgan and Henry Huntington. Folio, original full green morocco, elaborate tooling to the spine, front and back panels, green silk doublures and endleaves, all edges gilt. Illustrated hundreds of photogravures, all edges gilt. Signed by William Mann, the publisher of Town Topics. Includes sketches of Astor, Pell, Yerkes, Stanford White, Flagler, Schwab, Depew, C.P. Huntington, H.E. Huntington, Chanler, Cleveland, Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, Foxhall Keene, and many others. In fine condition. Housed in rare original felt-lined wooden box with latches. An exceptional production.

William d'Alton Mann was a businessman and newspaper and magazine publisher during the civil war. He developed the Mann Boudoir Car, a railroad sleeping car, and published the Mobile Register, The Smart Set, and Town Topics. Mann came to be known for his dubious practices. For example, he created the "blind item," a gossipy news story in which the details of a private happening are reported while the identities of the people involved are not revealed. Mann used this as blackmail to publicly threaten an individual into doing his will, lest Mann chooses to expose him.