Cameo Classics

Grosset & Dunlap (New York, US)
Series dates: 1935-1948
Size: 5.5″ x 8.5″

cameoclassics_logo

The Cameo Classics were a Grosset & Dunlap reprint series of illustrated classics published from 1935 until the late 1940s. The books were mostly Illustrated Editions Co. books rebranded with the Cameo Classics series name. The books had a clear, acetate dust jacket and were boxed in a slipcase with an illustrated cover. The series contained illustrated versions of classic titles published earlier in more expensive editions. The price per volume started at .69 cents and was gradually lowered to .59 and .50 cents per volume by the late 1930s. A mostly complete list of titles includes:

Romeo & Juliet
The Taming of the Shrew
The Merchant of Venice
Macbeth
Sonnets
Twelfth Night
As You Like It
Othello
A Shropshire Lad
Cyrano de Bergerac
Light Operas of Gilbert & Sullivan
Pirates of Penzance, Pinafore, Mikado & Bab Ballads
Adventures of Baron von Munchausen
Faust
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Leaves from the Diary of Samuel Pepys
Candide
A Christmas Carol and the Cricket on the Hearth
Soldiers Three and Other Stories
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Barrack Room Ballads & Departmental Ditties & Other Verses
A Doctor of the Old School
Sonnets From the Portuguese
Treasure Island
The Cherry Orchard and Other Plays
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
The Complete Angler
Drum Taps
Green Mansions
The Purple Land
The Gold Bug and Other Tales

This copy of A.E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad is undated but probably around 1935-1937. The slipcase for each book has a unique graphic printed on paper glued to the case. The illustration is one of the illustrations from the book. The series name is indicated on the front of the slipcase.

cameoclassics_boxfront

The case itself has a subtle alligator skin pattern pressed into the cardboard.

cameoclassics_boxback

A clear acetate jacket covers the book itself. The black cloth binding has gold stamping and a plastic cameo embedded in the front of the book. The series name is also on the front cover of the book.

cameoclassics_bindfront

The half-title page:

cameoclassics_halftit

The same illustration used on the slip-case faces the title page.

cameoclassics_tit

The copyright page includes the date of the original book copyright but not this Cameo Classics reprint date of publication.

cameoclassics_cr