Fabyan, George. The Keys for Deciphering The Greatest Work of Sir Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam Viscount St. Alban. First Edition. Geneva, IL: Riverbank Laboratories, 1916.

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Fabyan, George. The Keys for Deciphering The Greatest Work of Sir Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam Viscount St. Alban. First Edition. Geneva, IL: Riverbank Laboratories, 1916.

Binding: Hardcover (Original Cloth). Book Condition: Very Good Condition. Size: 9" -11" - Small Quarto (Sm. 4to). 100 pages. Item Type: Book.

Text block is tight, bright and unmarked. The front flap contains "The Bi-formed Alphabet Classifier" with the shaded parts cut out to use and the directions for its use printed on tissue paper. There are other papers laid in by a previous owner as he or she worked on application of the cipher.

Hardbound in brown cloth over boards with the title and decoration in black on the front cover. The corners are sharp, with some wear at the tips. A previous owner has written the letters of the alphabet with their corresponding a/b patterns in ink on the inside back cover.

Although Fabyan supported the work, the credit for the work on the cipher primarily goes to his analyst Elizabeth Wells Gallup. His argument (supported by Gallup's work detailed here) that Francis Bacon had hidden codes in Shakespeare's works identifying him as the real author was discredited in the 1950s by William and Elizebeth Friedman, who began their work in cryptology at Riverbank Laboratories. Nonetheless, this book is both an important early work of the Baconian school and in the development of modern cryptology during World War I. Riverbank's seminal contribution to code breaking has been recognized by the National Security Agency. (The Friedman's life-long work in cryptology with the government led the NSA to name one of its buildings the William and Elizebeth Friedman Building.)

OCLC (No. 2114491) identifies 34 institutional holdings, including Folger Library, Library of Congress, University of Chicago, Newberry Library, Northwestern University, New York Public Library, Yale University, Harvard, University of Oxford.

Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: 1 lb 8 oz. Category: Literature & Literary; Shakespeare, William; Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626 -- Cipher; United States; 1900-1920; Science & Technology. ISBN: No ISBN. Inventory No: 1323.
PRICE: $US 300.00