Leaves of Grass
San Francisco: The Arion Press, 2014. A sumptuous 2014 offering by the Arion Press of San Francisco, celebrating the 100th title of the Press with this lovely reprinting of Whitman's timeless "Leaves of Grass". #155 OF 275 COPIES PRODUCED (all of which apparently sold out very quickly to the Press's subscribers) plus an additional 15 copies, "numbered in Roman, for complimentary distribution". An immaculate copy: Light-brown wooden boards backed by a grass-green morocco spine. Folio, deckled fore and bottom-edges. Introduction by Harvard's formidable Helen Vendler (who has worked with Andrew Hoyem on a number of Arion Press titles), this text based on "the text of the 1855 first edition". Also includes a pristine example of the publisher's printed, light-green cloth slipcase. From the colophon: "'Leaves of Grass' is the one hundredth publication of the Arion Press. The book was designed and produced under the direction of Andrew Hoyem. The types are Goudy Californian (designed for the University of California Press in 1938) for the text, and Trajan capitals, also by Frederic Goudy, for initial letters and titling. The poetry was set by hand from type freshly cast by Mackenzie & Harris; the introduction, preface and subsidiary material were composed and cast in Monotype, also by M & H Type. The paper is handmade Langley, from the Barcham Green Mill in England, a special order in 1985, with watermarks of the Press and the Mill. The printing was done on a Thomson Laureate letterpress with paper dampened." One of the great fine press renderings of a work of American poetry. Fine. Item #21269
Price: $10,000.00