Here's something we weren't expecting!  The Complete Charles Dana Gibson: A Widow and Her Friends is a nicely produced and very crisply printed (in China by Shanghai KS Printing, Inc.) on excellent paperstock, this 224 page, horizontally-formatted, oversize (12" x 9") hardcover comes complete with Smyth-sewn binding at a price that makes it nigh on irresistible to anyone with more than a passing interest in Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the "Gibson Girl" and perhaps the most famous American illustrator at the dawn of the 20th century.

It features three narrative works, each of which is composed as a series of full page captioned drawings that gradually cohere into a comprehensible story, a now somewhat archaic from that dates from the 18th century (if not before) and that Gibson sharpened and polished with his laconic wit – and, of course – amazing drawing chops, for which he was, and continues to be, justly renowned,

The Education of Mr. Pipp (1899)

Americans Drawn By (1900)

A Widow and Her Friends (1901)

There is also a heavily illustrated introductory essay by series editor, Sean Michael Robinson.  Yes, you heard that right: this is only the first of a three-volume series!

Wow!