Phantom Club Papers [with] Phantom Club Papers, Second Series

Milwaukee: Privately Published, 1906, 1910. First Edition. First printings. Two small octavo volumes (20cm); uniform green cloth with gilt titles and rules; 127+156pp. Minimally worn; first volume over-opened between frontispiece and title page (but holding strong); Very Good. From the library of Republican Party politician David Van Alstyne, with his printed bookplate to each volume. First volume with tipped-in letter presenting the set to Mrs. Van Alstyne, signed by Victoria Winburn Gregory, the wife of Club contributor John Goadby Gregory.

Collected papers presented by members at meetings of the Phantom Club, a private men's literary and social club founded in Milwaukee in 1894. These volumes were presumably printed in very small quantities for distribution to members and their friends (as of 1910, the Club had a total of 14 members). Contributors include DeWitt Davis, George Record Peck, Joseph Quarles, Ogden Hoffman Fethers, and others; the most frequent contributor by far, however, is the aforementioned John Goadby Gregory, seven of whose works appear here. Gregory was at this time Editor-in-Chief of the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, and also a prominent figure in Wisconsin Republican politics.