Twin Peas in a Pod

Earnest Elmo Calkins contracted with the Pynson Printers of New York in 1925 to produce 200 copies of this book, which he distributed as Christmas presents to friends and clients. There was a vogue for this kind of thing among wealthy Americans in the 1920s. Relics of their enthusiasm come across my desk at the library with some regularity, as this one did today. The (first) Great American Depression (in the 1930s) rather curbed this fad.


Libraries like mine in San Francisco tend to value these slim privately printed pieces more for design than text. If the tycoon hired a good-enough press, then his work will be preserved even if it is gibberish. The binding paper here is pretty amazing (irregular diagonal dots silk-screened in two colors). Ditto the oddball typography and placement of the label.


The author was a boom-time advertising executive, "deafened by illness as a lad" according to his brief biographical entry on AdAge.com.


I glanced at the text, expecting the platitudes of Dale Carnegie.


On the first page the author asserts that Christian missions to China and other non-Western countries are in reality no better than a convenient cover for economic imperialism and serve primarily to open up markets. He goes on to warn against what we now call "globalization" and the cultural diversity it will destroy. Everyone will be like two peas in a pod, everyone will resemble Americans, and that will be a great loss – according to Earnest Elmo Calkins back in 1925.