From the publisher:

Essay and edited by Sean Michael Robinson

The Complete Charles Dana Gibson: A Widow and Her Friends (1899-1901) is the first of a three-volume series dedicated to the complete bibliography of perhaps America’s greatest-ever cartoonist, the incomparable Charles Dana Gibson. This first book in The Complete Charles Dana Gibson will present the most beloved and long-form of Gibson’s influential graphic-novel works, The Education of Mr. Pip and A Widow and Her Friends.

The book features stunning reproduction, laboriously sourced and restored from the best possible sources, gorgeous printing that gives unparalleled insight into why Gibson was one of America’s greatest artistic and cultural exports during the decades in which he worked.

The book also includes a long biographical essay by series editor and production artist Sean Michael Robinson that contextualizes Gibson’s work for a modern audience, illuminating his progressive politics, his wry humor, and the explosive mark-making that influenced generations of fine artists and illustrators.

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A long-overdue reappraisal and full restoration of the work of one of the greatest and most influential cartoonists ever to live.

Gibson's work, both poignant and hilarious, has been rarely read since his peak of popularity, and even then, has almost exclusively been seen in cheap, muddy editions that obfuscate the charm and light of Gibson's expressive art. This intensive restoration presents his art in a new light, and gives real charge to the drawings, as they would have been seen on original publication.

During his career, Gibson was regarded as a devastating satirist, a light and frothy entertainment, and a fine artist to rival any American living. This presentation of  three key books from the height of his powers, in pristine form, makes the argument that he was in fact all three, and rightly places Gibson in the company of William Hogarth, George du Maurier, and John Singer Sargent as great artists both documenting and influencing their times.