A propos de cet article
In the summer of 1928, Nancy Cunard and her companion, the surrealist poet Louis Aragon, began to convert a Norman farmhouse in Réanville, fifty miles from Paris, into a home, and the stable some twenty-five yards away into a printery. For £300, Bill Bird of The Three Mountains Press (which shared its premises at 27 Quia d Anjou, Île Saint-Louis with Robert McAlmon s Contact Editions) had agreed to sell & ship his Mathieu press and all accompanying equipment and accessories to Cunard, as well as sending Maurice Lévy, an experienced printer, to help. Lévy expected to find a submissive young English woman obediently awaiting his arrival to begin her studies, and instead found, [flying] in the face of accepted conventions and long-established rules Cunard and Aragon already turning out sheaves of announcements and stanzas of Lewis Carroll s The Hunting of the Snark. (Aragon was later to translate the Snark into French over four or five days, and the published edition remains one of the most desirable publications from The Hours Press.) George Moore, Cunard s first friend, who was close to her mother, Lady Cunard, and had known Nancy for 30 years, insisted that a revised edition of Peronnik the Fool be granted the honour of the first book published by The Hours Press. The book was printed by Nancy Cunard who worked on it alone during a heatwave, the result of which was an uneven press with the sheets coming out heavily indented at the top and bottom, and she imagined Moore s voice, Come, now! This is not printing. This is Braille. This copy carries the story of the amateur printer through time: the varied pressures across pages, lighter type, darker type, type carrying through the page, the uneven spacing, and shadow of offsetting. Moore made no mention of such, only commenting on the margins. After four revisions of the title page, the book was published and within ten days had paid for itself. A near fine copy with only light rubbing to the spine edges, and similar to the top and tail of the spine and corners. Some pencil unfortunately erased on the ffep. No. 148 of 200 copies, signed on the limitation page by the author.
N° de réf. du vendeur ABE-1769264557194
Contacter le vendeur
Signaler cet article
