End of Lakeside Classics

I just received the 2019 edition, Nurse and Spy in the Union Army, and if you read the introduction, it seems this is the final installment in a 117-year series! No more Lakeside Classics books!

:(

Ok, I need to write something about this series -- few seem to care it's ending. But if someone writes something up, an homage, a remembrance, a celebration, perhaps a few more will care. So, for us FANS/ COLLECTORS:

What have you loved about the series?

What books are you now disappointed will never make it into a Lakeside Classic edition?

What are some favorites (Or one...)?

Do you find any additions over the years strange?

Any favorite factoids about the series?

Thanks to any and all who reply! I will absolutely cite anyone's contributions, so be sure to add your preferred social media handle (or if you want to stay anonymous, that's OK too).

I'm wondering why? Did people not appreciate the gift? Was it tool old fashioned? I loved it. The intro always gave the latest in their business world, but maybe they didn't think they were getting any mileage in the modern world. I have the majority of them but still try to hunt down the early years. eta - I have 92 of them.

No idea. I was thinking I may try to contact them and see if they'd expand a little from the statement in the 2019 book. I was also curious about printing numbers -- how many were they printing at various points in time, if they'd be willing to share some info they maybe haven't wanted to share in the past now that the series is wrapping up.

The books stopped being the product of RR Donnelley a couple of years ago, lately they have been produced by LSC Communications which split from Donnelley, and in late 2018 LSC was bought by Quad Graphics. My guess is that Quad Graphics didn’t find it profitable. Or to be more precise, my guess is that the new company objected to the unprofitability of a century-old gesture done for the employees of two companies removed from it.

I guess the Quad Graphics merger didn't go through? And now Quad is getting out of the book printing business entirely. And now LSC is filing for Chapter 11. I imagine the series will remain closed. :(

This is heart breaking. 💔

I’ve been searching for a 2020 hoping they changed their mind. 😢

I've been reading the last one Nurse and Spy in the Union Army. They delivered the bad news in the intro. They mention that the series was never originally intended to be an annual. It's left me hopeful they might put one out again on a more sporadic basis. I doubt it, but one can hope.

Another one bites the dust. 😢40 years ago I worked at this facility for a little while. Their “changing market conditions” is what has led to the demise of our beloved Lakeside Classics. I fear for the future of the publishing industry. https://hickoryrecord.com/news/local/business/employment/rr-donnelly-closing-con...

The printing business has been going out of business for a very long time. We consumers don't read print as much as we used to. I had a boyfriend 30 years ago that worked at the local R.R. Donnelly plant. They printed magazines, like People, back then. Pretty sure they closed that plant more than 10 years ago. My brother went to school to become a printer in the 1970s, he worked at a small mapping company where he hand drew printing plates. That company went out of business. He then got a job at a check printing company. That company changed hands about three to four times before going out of business. (When was the last time you wrote a check? When was the last time you ordered checks?) Printing is a dying business. It is really sad!