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MEYER, Joseph E. (1878-1950). Protection. The Sealed Book. Milwaukee: Joseph E. Meyer Author and Publisher, 1908. FIRST EDITION. Limp blue cloth wraps, bound with brass brads and binding tape as issued. 100 pp. Profusion of illustrations. 8vo. Outer leaves chipped and worn, wraps wrinkled, internally good to very good. RARE; one of only a handful of examples of this edition with which we are acquainted. Meyer began his professional career as a printer and typesetter, sometimes working for the publishers of gambling supply catalogs in Chicago and Milwaukee. This led to his interest in crooked games and cheating, and eventually his authorship of this, his first book. According to the notes of Clarence Meyer, his son, “My father printed this book in a small bedroom in Hammond, Indiana. The pages were made up piecemeal." When finally completed, the books were crudely bound with whatever materials were available; hence, no consistent binding state is known for the first edition, or the second. Joseph Meyer went on to write several classic texts on herbs and home remedies and founded the Indiana Botanic Gardens.