Printed in an edition of 2000 copies. Volume I of a series of three installments, not yet completed. Praised as "a masterpiece of book production" and "a product of enthusiasts" by critic Wilfried F. Schoeller, the book traces the early 20th-century history of the Insel publishing house. Insel earned its renown by turning book production into an art form as it printed the works of classic authors and gave a new generation of writers, such as Rainer Maria Rilke, their start. The editor, Brinks, reveals Insel's high aesthetic standards through sumptuous illustrations of its work. In all, there are 240 illustrations, seven of which are foldouts, many polychrome with three and four colors, and many with stunning gold print. One splendid example of the high-quality illustrations is the foldout of a series of classics, The Thousand and One Nights and the Decameron, the bindings designed by Marcus Behmer. The colors are so rich and the detail so striking that the reader almost feels he can touch and leaf through the deckled pages of the books shown. Another example depicted is that of Henry van de Velde's designs for the covers of Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra, as well as sample pages from the edition, both finely detailed with gold print. Text edited by Brinks with seventeen essays contributed by him and twelve other specialists such as Juergen Suess, Marcus Haucke, and Suzanne Buchinger. Essays beautifully printed with wide margins and double-spaced on Gardapat paper in cursive Borgis White Antiqua. Outstanding documentation for the essays at the back of the book, as well as detailed indices for artwork and literary sources. Accompanying the book is a slim briefcase volume containing twelve facsimile resolution papers and eight folder reproductions in their original format. Distributed for Triton in North America by Oak Knoll Press. In German.