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Battle Hymn of the Kingdom
Frances Eugenia Bolton
Pacific Press Publishing Company, San Francisco, Oakland, Kansas City & New York
1898
First Edition
Very Good. Sound and square with a clean, well-preserved interior. Green cloth boards remain bright, with light shelf wear, scattered small marks and mild soiling, particularly to the rear board. Light soiling and a few spots to the endpapers, including a moisture stain along the rear hinge. Inscribed opposite the title page, “Merry Christmas / from / Ralph, Evelyn and Mildred West.” Otherwise unmarked and exceptionally attractive for a book of this age.
An unusually handsome late-Victorian production, bound in green cloth with an elaborate front-board design printed in green, silver and gilt depicting a dove, palm fronds and landscape motifs. This is the publisher’s presentation edition, originally advertised as printed on heavy enameled paper, bound in art vellum cloth and finished with a gilt top. The extended illustrated poem is accompanied by fifteen original full-page halftone engravings, with decorative green ornaments and distinctive Arts and Crafts-influenced typography throughout. Contemporary Pacific Press advertising specifically promoted the illustrations as original works produced for the volume.
Published in 1898, Battle Hymn of the Kingdom is a striking piece of American religious bookmaking from the turn of the century. Bolton was a Seventh-day Adventist writer, hymn author and former assistant to Ellen G. White, and the poem presents the Christian struggle between earthly conflict and the promised peace of Christ’s kingdom. Contemporary advertisements marketed this elaborate version as a holiday gift book at 50 cents, alongside a cheaper 25-cent leatherette trade edition. Original copies are decidedly uncommon today; the Library of Congress copy has been digitized, and relatively few original examples appear in the current antiquarian market.
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