Selected Poems - Arion Press, limited edition of 250 (1995)

San Francisco, Arion Press, 1995, hardcover in slipcase, 7" x 10.25" No. 131 of 250 numbered copies, with 26 lettered copies hors de commerce. It is the forty-seventh publication of the Arion Press. Edited and with an introduction by Helen Vendler, frontispiece portrait by Barry Moser. This Arion edition uses the same typeface (Goudy Modern) as the earlier Arion edition of Moby-Dick (1979. It also uses the same paper, which was made for that edition by hand to the specifications of the press at the Barcham Green Mill in England and bears watermarks of the mill, the press, and of a sperm whale; and the same artist, Barry Moser. Moser has engraved a new portrait of Herman Melville for the frontispiece. The text type was composed and cast on the Monotype by Mackenzie & Harris. The display type is Goudy Open and was set by hand. The book was designed and produced by Andrew Hoyem. Bound in bright blue cloth with darker blue dyed leather goat skin bands left over from the earlier Moby Dick. The bands run across the top and bottom edges of the book with title and author in silver foil. Printed on octavo sized paper of 6.75 x 9 7/8 inches using Goudy Modern type in a smaller point size than the 1979 volume. Top page edges trimmed, while the fore-edge and bottom edges are untrimmed. The signatures were folded by hand and each copy was sewn by hand with linen thread over linen tapes. Housed in a blue cloth slipcase with blue goatskin title label to spine. This book was suggested to Hoyem by the renowned scholar of poetry, Helen Vendler. She regarded Melville as among the greatest American poets of the 19th century and was eager to make a selection that would show the variety of his best poetry. Despite the importance attached to his poems today by scholars and critics, seldom did readers have any appreciation for Melville the poet. Light foxing in the bottom margins of the last 3 text pages and the colophon. The fixed endpapers show what might be shadows from the glue and some foxing. The text pages are crisp and clean. Top page edges trimmed, the fore-edge and bottom edges are untrimmed.

Product Info

Publisher: Arion Press

Year: 1995

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

First Edition

Seller Info

HonoluluRareBooks

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Country: United States