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Aeneas Press edition 20th Century

Kilo

Being the Love Story of Eliph' Hewlitt, Book Agent

by Ellis Parker Butler 1869–1937

The book, and the century it came out of.

Eliph’ Hewlitt sells Jarby’s Encyclopaedia of Knowledge and Household Recipes door to door through the small towns of Iowa, and decides to marry a woman he has not met, using the encyclopaedia as his method. Butler wrote Pigs Is Pigs, a six-page joke that sold in the millions; this 1907 novel is Iowa itself — the depot, the store, the newspaper — and the book agent is a masterpiece. Illustrated with 57 full-page plates — paintings by Bischoff, Millet and Geselschap among them.

Eliph’ Hewlitt, book agent, seated in his weather-beaten top buggy, drove his horse, Irontail, carefully along the rough Iowa hill road that leads from Jefferson to Clarence.
The first sentence of Kilo
A note on this edition

Kilo, by Ellis Parker Butler, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 176 pages
Reading time
about 4 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501909410
The plates

57 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

The Gleaners, Jean-François Millet
The Gleaners Jean-François Millet 1857
The Beer Drinker, Q323110
The Beer Drinker Q323110 1858
Children in the forest, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller
Children in the forest Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller 1858
Studio interior, Céline Dornier
Studio interior Céline Dornier 1855
Landscape, John William Casilear
Landscape John William Casilear 1852
Lake George, John William Casilear
Lake George John William Casilear 1857
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of Kilo as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of Kilo as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

Kilo, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Comedy & Satire shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501909410, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of Kilo?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Ellis Parker Butler's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 176 pages, which is roughly about 4 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
If this one suits you
Kilo
$4.99
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