This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 5/11/2001.
There was no cable TV, no Internet, no live video from around the world in 1917. The pipeline to the world and down the block was the newspaper, and this bound collection of issues from the English-language Montreal Gazette covers every day from October 1-December 31 is a way to relive the texture of the times when innocence was being tainted by a gathering war in Europe. The Gazette brought the world to its readers for a penny a copy, and when one opens the cover of this 17" x 23 ½" brown-colored album the page one headline on October 1 reads: "Big Battle Is Beginning," over the reporting of a French attack on the Germans in Flanders. War news dominates the pages that follow, but there are also theater listings such as for a new play called "Les Miserables," stock prices, sports pages with Grantland Rice's column, White Sox-Giants World Series news and thorough coverage of the Montreal Canadiens, and ads for women's 12-button gaiters for $1.29. While the album is in good condition, the pages inside have yellowed and are brittle, and some are torn, but the sheer wealth of information here just might make you turn off the TV and leaf through history as it was lived, day by day.