Gambling Memorabilia Featuring the Collection of Tom Blue

Meyer, Joseph E. Protection. The Sealed Book. Milwaukee: Joseph E. Meyer, Author and Publisher, 1908. First edition. Limp purple cloth wrappers. Printed on slick yellow paper. Profusion of illustrations of crooked gambling equipment, faro and casino items, slot machines, and more. 8vo. 100pp. Covers peeling and soiled; marginal dampstaining toward rear, but very good overall. Rare. Meyer began his career as a printer and typesetter, sometimes working the publishers of gambling supply catalogs in Chicago and Milwaukee. This led to his interest in crooked games and cheating, and eventually to writing this book. According to the notes of Clarence Meyer, the author’s son, “My father printed this book in a small bedroom in Hammond, Indiana. The pages were made up piecemeal.” When completed, the books were crudely bound with whatever spare materials were available; hence, no consistent binding state is known for the first edition, or the second. The book would see numerous editions over the next several decades, becoming a standard and widely distributed reference, but first editions rarely surface. Meyer went on to write several classic texts on herbs and home remedies, and founded the Indiana Botanic Gardens.