The Great Gatsby - Illustrated by Michael Graves

[Arion Press]
Fitzgerald, F. Scott; Michael Graves, illustrator.
The Great Gatsby.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1984.

One of 400 copies signed by the illustrator. This was the 15th volume issued by the Press. It is a handsome and rather austere production from this famed press of Fitzgerald's incomparable classic. The illustrations are line drawings done in red by the well known architect Michael Graves. There are no illustrations of the characters. Instead they depict houses, cars, and various objects such as a telephone, martini glasses, a lawnmower and a bouquet in a vase among many others.

Bound in gray paper boards with a green cloth spine and tips, and a white title label. The covers depict the entrance forecourt and rear veranda to Gatsby's mansion. The book was produced under the direction of Andrew Hoyem. The types are Goudy Light and Piehler Capitals and printed on French mould-made Rives paper. Bound by the Schubert Bookbindery. Housed in a slipcase in green cloth with gray paper covers with illustrations of Gatsby's estate and a paper spine label. In fine condition. Measures 7.75 x 10.25 inches. 179 pages. (#37564)

Price: $2,400 

Sigmund Freud's Famous Case of the Wolf-Man - Illustrated by Jim Dine

[Arion Press]
Freud, Sigmund; Richard Wollheim, introduction; Jim Dine, etchings and woodcuts.
The Case of the Wolf-Man.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1993.

Number 126 of 250 numbered copies, signed by the artist on his artist's statement preceding the text. There were also 26 lettered copies for private distribution. This was the forty-first publication of the Press. The text of this book is "From the History of an Infantile Neurosis" that was reprinted in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XVII, pages 7-122, translated from the German under the editorship of James Strachey. The Wolf-Man was the pseudonym given by Freud to his patient, a young Russian man named Sergei Pankejeff. Freud's analysis of the Wolf-Man became his most famous case, centering on the interpretation of dreams and childhood sexuality. In addition to the text of Freud's study, this book includes an erudite and detailed discussion of Freud's work and influence by Richard Wollheim. Wollheim was a British philosopher noted for original work on mind and emotions, especially as related to the visual arts, specifically, painting.

The striking woodcuts and etchings illustrating the book were done by Jim Dine (b. 1935). He is a well-known American artist who rose to prominence in late-1950’s New York. He was closely associated with the Pop Art movement. An innovator throughout his long career, Dine’s extensive output includes paintings, assemblages, sculptures, drawings, prints, and over twelve books of poetry. He has been the subject of more than 300 solo exhibitions around the world, including eleven major surveys and retrospectives since 1970.

The book was designed, printed and bound at the Arion Press under the direction of Andrew Hoyem. Bound in gray cloth with a black cloth spine with titling in silver. The front cover has an image by Dine of a young boy confronting a wolf. Printed in Century Old Style type for the text, with Century Expanded italic and Miller & Richard Old Style capitals for display. The text paper is Johannot mouldmade in France. The etchings and woodcuts are on T.H. Saunders Drawing paper, mouldmade in England. The intaglio prints were editions by Pace Editions in New York. The book is housed slipcase covered in black paper with gray cloth trim with a black title label to spine. Accompanied by prospectus. Book is in fine condition in a near fine slipcase. Measures 10 x 12.5 inches. 114 pages plus illustrations. (#37567)

Price: $800 

Italo Calvino's Surrealistic Historical Fantasy, Invisible Cities - Illustrated by Wayne Thiebaud

[Arion Press]
Calvino, Italo; William Weaver, introduction and translator; Wayne Thiebaud, illustrator.
Invisible Cities.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1999.

Number 76 of 400 copies, signed by the artist in pencil on verso of half-title. This is a complex and masterful production from the famed Arion Press. Author Italo Calvino's (1923-1985) Invisible Cities was first published in Italy in 1972 as "Le citta invisibili," a surrealistic historical fantasy exploring the complex and exotic 55 fictitious cities visited by Marco Polo as he carries on a conversation with the emperor Kublai Khan describing his ever expanding and vast empire. Translated from the Italian and with a new introduction by William Weaver. In his introduction, Weaver describes his first meeting with Calvino in the early 1960s, a relationship that lasted until Calvino's death. At their first meeting Calvino asked Weaver if he would be willing to translate his new book. Weaver agreed to do this, taking a year to do so. At the end of his introduction, Weaver writes that perhaps there is a contradiction in the title of the book. "These cities may have been invisible to the sedentary emperor, but as the tireless Marco Polo made him see the most remote places, so Calvino recreates them for us, and - no matter how distant - they are eminently, unforgettable visible. "

With 12 illustrations by well known artist Wayne Thiebaud (1920 - 2021). "Wayne Thiebaud had the idea for drawings of cities that would be invisible until the reader took the action of turning the page. The concept involved printing his drawings on transparent sheets in different colors of inks." The types are Veronese for the text, handset and in Monotype composition by Mackenzie & Harris, and handset Twentieth Century for display. The drawings are printed on transparent sheets of mylar in different colors of inks, each matching the color of the following sheet underlying it and the number of the chapter on the preceding leaf, such that the images are revealed only when each transparent sheet is turned over and rests on the preceding leaf, allowing the text and images to be read together.

The type on paper and the photopolymer plates for the drawings on mylar were printed by letterpress. The papers, both colored and white, are Tiziano, mould-made at the Fabriano mill in Italy. In a looseleaf binding with white covers and the title in black to front cover. The box housing the book is made of anodized aluminum, comprising a back cover, a lid in place of a front cover, and four U-posts that form a ring binding. The posts rise from the back cover through four slots in the front cover and are held in place by an aluminium rod locking pin that slips through the loops. In fine condition in a fine aluminum box with title and author printed on the spine. Measures 12 x 14 inches. 164 unnumbered pages. Fine. (#37598)

Price: $3,000 

Don Quixote - Illustrated by William T. Wiley

[Arion Press]
Cervantes, Miguel de; Edith Grossman, translator; William T. Wiley, illustrator Two Volumes.
Don Quixote.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2009-2010.

Number 40 of 400 copies for sale and 26 lettered copies for complimentary distribution. Signed and numbered by the artist, William Wiley. This is a superb deluxe edition of Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel and among the greatest works of literature in the world. It was published in two volumes in 1605 and 1615. The Press commissioned the acclaimed translation by Edith Grossman (1936-2023) of the novel. She was considered one of the foremost translators of Spanish language literature. The artist, William T. Wiley, was an American artist. His work spanned a broad range of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, performance, and pinball. At least some of Wiley's work has been referred to as funk art. [Wikipedia] The incidents from the novel that he depicts are comic and tragic.

Bound in three-piece tan pigskin with dark brown spines with gilt titling and a DQ monogram in gold, designed by Wiley, on the front covers. Letterpress printed on all-cotton fiber sheets made for this project by Mead Specialty Papers. The type is Centaur, designed by Bruce Rogers. The initial letters were drawn by Mallette Dean in 1963 for the Grabhorn Press. They were intended to be used with Centaur type. With 97 etched illustrations Housed in slipcases with tan cloth around the top, spine, and bottom, with brown paper sides and a spine label. In fine condition. Accompanied by the prospectus, with an Arion Press bookmark laid into Volume II. Each volume measures 7 x 10.5 inches. Volume I: 574 pages; Volume II: 627 pages. Fine. (#37511)

Price: $5,500 

Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone - a novel of a diamond heist
Illustrated by Stan Washburn

[Arion Press]
Collins, Wilkie; Stan Washburn, illustrations.
The Moonstone.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2012.

Number 101 of 300 numbered copies signed by the illustrator. There were 26 lettered copies for complimentary distribution. Designed and produced by Andres Hoyem. This is the ninety-fifth publication of the Press. This is an elegant edition of the famed novel by Wilkie Collins, first published in 1868. Collins (1824-1889) is perhaps best known for this early work, which established many of the ground rules of the modern detective novel and is also perhaps the earliest clear example of the police procedural genre. [Wikipedia] It was serialized in" All the Year Round" from January to August 1868.

Bound in dark blue cloth with titling in yellow to spine. The black and white illustrations throughout the book are by the well known artist Stan Washburn. Printed on Mohawk Letterpress paper using Inland Caslon, Caslon Bold Condensed, and Mediaeval types. The illustrations were printed from photopolymer plates. Housed in a slipcase covered with yellow paper and dark blue cloth with yellow titling to spine. Affixed to the spine is a yellow Swarovski crystal symbolizing the moonstone of the novel. In fine condition. Measures 6.25 x 9.5 inches. 458 pages plus colophon.  (#37575)

Price: $550 

Sampler - 200 of Emily Dickinson's Poems - Illustrated by Kiki Smith

[Arion Press]
Dickinson, Emily; Kiki Smith, illustrations; Andrew Hoyem, foreword.
Sampler.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2007.

Number 315 of 400 copies. There were also 25 lettered copies for complimentary distribution. Signed by the artist, Kiki Smith, who contributed 206 images to accompany the 200 poems by Emily Dickinson selected for this edition. Dickinson is known to have written more than seventeen hundred poems. The Press selected only poems published prior to 1923 that are clearly in the public domain.

Kiki Smith is a German-born American artist whose work has addressed the themes of sex, birth and regeneration. Her figurative work of the late 1980s and early 1990s confronted subjects such as AIDS, feminism, and gender, while recent works have depicted the human condition in relationship to nature [Wikipedia]. Smith decided to make images in the manner of samplers, traditionally sewn by young women to demonstrate their domestic skills. In the prospectus, the Press writes that the title of the book was chosen for two reasons. It signals that this is a sampling of Dickinson's poetry. And it refers to embroidered samplers from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that inspired to imagery of Smith.

In the foreword, Press owner Andrew Hoyem writes of the complex circumstances surrounding the publication of Dickinson's poems after her death. The book is inventively bound in yellow cloth with a reddish brown leather spine with gilt titling. The title, and author and artist names are embroidered on the front cover in dark red thread. Letterpress printed on paper made by hand at the Twinrocker mill using Walbaum type. Housed in a slipcase with orange cloth covers and light yellow trim. Orange title label to spine. Accompanied by the prospectus. In fine condition in a near fine slipcase that has one small spot where the paper covering the sides is lifting. Measures 7 x 11 inches. 217 pages plus colophon. Fine. (#37520)

Price: $850 

The Hound of the Baskervilles - Illustrated with Photographs by Michael Kenna

[Arion Press]
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan; Michael Kenna, photographs.
The Hound of the Baskervilles.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1985.

One of 400 copies. This was the 16th book from this acclaimed press. Signed by Michael Kenna who provided the beautiful but bleak black and white photographic illustrations for this striking edition. In his photographer's statement, Kenna writes that "he images chosen for the book are deliberately non-specific in terms of time and place - the suggestion of atmosphere being more important to me than literal illustrations. In this way I hope to contribute to the experience of [the book]." The book was designed and produced by the press under the direction of Andrew Hoyem. In the colophon Hoyem thanks Michael McDaniel for suggesting that the book be illustrated with Kenna's photographs.

The book was printed on Monadnock Dulcet paper using three versions of Baskerville type. The book was offset lithographic printed using brown-black duotone with varnish for the photographs. The calligrapher Ward Dunham drew the initial letters to complement the Cloister text used for display. Bound in dark brown cloth with black titling to spine and a black illustration of a paw print on the front cover. Housed in a slipcase with a Kenna photographic image on the covers and edged in brown cloth. White title label to spine. In fine condition. Measures 7.75 x 10 inches. 201 pages plus colophon.  (#37630)

Price: $450 

Deluxe Edition of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land - Illustrated by R.B. Kitaj

[Arion Press]
Eliot, T.S.; Vendler, Helen, essay; Marco Livingstone, essay.
The Waste Land.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2007.

Number 297 of 300 numbered copies of this deluxe edition of Eliot's seminal poem. There were also 26 lettered copies for complimentary distribution. This is the 79th publication from the acclaimed Arion Press. In the prospectus the book is described as the first illustrated edition of Thomas Stearns Eliot's most important work. This is a complex and elegant presentation of Eliot's literary masterpiece that he wrote in the aftermath of the carnage and violence of the first world war and the devastation of a global pandemic. The book is in sections described by the publisher as partitions. There first is an essay on the poem by noted poetry scholar, Helen Vendler. The poem is interspersed with, in detail and entire, the painting "If Not, Not" by R.B. Kitaj.

Kitaj ( 1932 – 2007) was an American artist who spent much of his life in England. He had a significant influence on British pop art, with his figurative paintings featuring areas of bright color, economic use of line and overlapping planes which made them resemble collages, but eschewing most abstraction and modernism. Allusions to political history, art, literature and Jewish identity often recur in his work, mixed together on one canvas to produce a collage effect. [Wikipedia] In an essay by Marco Livingstone describing the poem, written by Kitaj in 1975-76 as an ambitious, mysterious and haunting work that occupies a key position in his history as The Waste Land does in Eliot's. Kitaj in fact took inspiration from Eliot's poem and stated that his picture bears a certain allegiance to it.

The Waste Land was edited, designed, and produced by Andrew Hoyem at his Arion Press. The types are handset 18 point Bauer Bodoni for the poem with larger sizes for display and 12 point Bodoni Book for subsidiary text. Printed on Somerset Book for the text, with Mohawk Superfine for the pictorial pages, printed by color offset lithography. Bound in gray cloth with the title in brown on the front cover and the title, author, and artist on the spine. The binding and the text and pictorial pages are all in fine condition. Accompanied by the prospectus. Measures 12 x 12.5 inches. 68 pages. (#37472)

Price: $1,800 

The Maltese Falcon - Illustrated with Photographs by Edmund Shea

[Arion Press]
Hammett, Dashiell; Edmund Shea, illustrator
The Maltese Falcon.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1983.

One of 400 copies printed under the direction of Andrew Hoyem, the press proprietor. It was the eleventh publication of the press. This copy is inscribed on the colophon: "To Joe Costello/29 VIII 83/Andrew Hoyem." This is a magnificent book from the Arion Press that more than does justice to this Hammett's novel. The preface describes this book as the apex of his work. The publishers write in a preface that "this edition is a tribute to Hammett's achievement. The design of the book reflect the spirit of the period in which it was written while giving its format an enduring presence. The forty-six illustrations are photographs of San Francisco Bay Area locations named or established by Hammett in the narrative. Most pictures were shot around the time of the actual setting of the story, five days during 1928." There are notes at the end of the book identifying each photo and its reference in the text." A few of the photographs are more recent and were provided by California photographer Edmund Shea.

Bound by the Schuberth Bookbindery in gray cloth with a quarter leather black spine with silver titling. On the front and back covers are a striking and stylized image of a falcon done in black leather with silver trim and a red eye. Printed on Byron-Weston Linen Record paper using Bodoni semi-bold and Corvinus medium types. The photo-lithography was by Phelps-Schaefer. Housed in a gray cloth covered slipcase with a black leather spine label with silver titling. In fine condition. Measures 8.25 x 10.25 inches. 291 pages plus photographs. (#37572)

Price: $2,000 

Shirley Jackson's Classic Novel, The Sundial - Illustrated by Miles Hyman

[Arion Press]
Jackson, Shirley; Diane Johnson, introduction; Miles Hyman, illustrator.
The Sundial.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2011.

Number 82 of 300 numbered copies, with 26 lettered copies for complimentary distribution. Signed by the illustrator on the colophon. The prospectus describes this book as a classic of American fiction. It states that this edition has special relevance in being illustrated by the novelist's grandson, Miles Hyman, "who brings his own understanding of the author to the characters he depicts and his selection of accompanying quotations from the novel." The Sundial was written seven years before Jackson's sadly early death at age 48 in 1965. The prospectus notes that the 1950s were a time of imminent social changes and a sensitive time for women in general. After their powerful contributions during the war, they were now sidelined to take up their earlier docile roles. Talented women like Jackson could use her work to express female anger and a sense of powerlessness.

Bound in full orange cloth with title label to spine and a title label affixed to the front cover with an image of a sundial. Letterpress printed with Fridericus and Winchell types on Zerkall book paper. The illustrations are printed by four-color offset lithography on McCoy Silk Book paper. Hyman made fourteen double-page illustrations plus an image for the endpapers, all in full color. Accompanied by the prospectus, which includes one of Hyman's evocative illustrations. A beautiful production in fine condition. Measures 6.5 x 10 1/8 inches. 226 pages plus 56 unnumbered pages for the illustrations.  (#37569)

Price: $450 

Originally Written in the 1760s by a Man Confined to His Room for 42 Days
Journey Round My Room - Photographically Illustrated by Ross Anderson

[Arion Press]
Maistre, Xavier de; Ross Anderson, photographs.
Journey Round My Room.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2007.

Number 237 of 300 numbered copies for sale and 26 lettered copies hors de commerce. In the prospectus the press writes that under the bibliographical heading of "Travel and Exploration," there is a subhead, "Imaginary Journeys," despite the objections of some librarians and collectors that such books belong more properly under fiction or fantasy. But here we have a book based on personal experience by a traveler who goes nowhere outside his living quarters except in his imagination. The author, Xavier de Maistre was born in France in 1763. In 1790 he participated in a duel. The outcome was not known, but de Maistre was punished to spend 42 days confinement to his own quarters for 42 days. During that period he wrote a book, short, but one that had a long influence and has enjoyed virtually uninterrupted publication to this day. The 16 photographic illustrations are by architect Ross Anderson of small models of the room, its furnishings, and the author's traveling coat.

Bound in cloth with light and dark gray and salmon colored vertical stripes with titling in black to the spine. Letterpress printed on Arches Text paper using Suburban French and Gallia types. The photographs were printed by offset lithography. Accompanied by the prospectus. In fine condition. Measures 6 x 8.5 inches. 149 pages plus colophon. (#37632)

Price: $300 

Special Deluxe White Leather Binding
Moby Dick - Illustrated by Barry Moser

[Arion Press]
Melville, Herman; Barry Moser, illustrator.
Moby Dick; Or the Whale.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1979.

One of 265 copies of which 250 copies were for sale. However, this spectacular copy is one of only five specially bound by the press in luxurious white leather. The owner of the press, Andrew Hoyem kept one copy and this copy was owned by a private collector. The whereabouts of the other three copies are unknown, and this special edition has never appeared on the market or at auction. This book has been described by William Everson as "a feat of craftsmanship unexcelled in modern printing," and named by the Grolier Club as one of the 100 most beautiful books of the twentieth century.

According to the 24 page prospectus for the book, this was the sixth publication issued by the press, which is described by them as "one of the most elaborate printing ventures ever to be undertaken by an American press, and nothing will be spared in the effort to make it the finest of books." There is a several page description of the making of this magnificent edition. They write: "Despite many editions -perhaps because of its length - it has not been accorded the full typographical treatment that a classic of its stature deserves"....in the early days of [the press] they considered the possibility of their printing a handset folio Moby Dick. It took ten years from the early discussions for the press to secure the capital for this long-planned venture. They go on to explain in detail the type and paper selection, followed by a section on the illustrations by the renowned artist Barry Moser of the Pennyroyal Press. It was decided from the inception of the project that there would be no dramatic or interpretive scenes that would imposed on the reader's imagination. Instead, the text would be interspersed with informative depictions of subjects mentioned by Melville.

It took 14 months to print this folio copy of Moby Dick. Bound in full white leather with the illustrated image of a whale debossed on the front cover and titling to the spine. With beautiful blue endpapers. The text was set by hand in Goudy Modern, with initial letters printed in blue at the start of each of the 135 chapters in Leviathan Capitals, a special alphabet designed for the purpose by Charles Bigelow & Kris Holmes. Printed on Barcham Green's handmade paper, which is watermarked with the outline of a whale. Very light occasional foxing to fore-edges, not affecting the text pages. Housed in a custom box covered with gray cloth bearing a title label printed on the same white leather used on the special binding. Accompanied by the prospectus. In fine condition. Measures 10 x 15 x 3 inches. 577 pages. (#37467)

Price: $50,000 

Selected Poems of Herman Melville - with Frontispiece by Barry Moser

[Arion Press]
Melville, Herman; Helen Vendler, editor and introduction; Barry Moser, frontispiece.
Selected Poems.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1995.

Number 200 of 250 numbered copies, with 26 lettered copies hors de commerce. It is the forty-seventh publication of the Arion Press and rather scarce with no copies in commerce. The book shares characteristics with the sixth publication of the press, Moby-Dick, by the same author, of 1979, in that the same typeface is used, Goudy Modern ... it is printed on 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, has engraved a new portrait of Herman Melville on Resingrave 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 and conceived in many ways as a companion to the 1979 Moby Dick, one of the most important press books of the twentieth century." [from the Prospectus].

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.

Bound in bright blue cloth with darker blue dyed leather goatskin 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. Accompanied by the prospectus. In fine condition. Measures 7 x 10 inches. 156 numbered pages. (#37584)

Price: $800 

Animal Farm - Illustrated by Jonathan Hammer

[Arion Press]
Orwell, George; Peter Stansky, introduction; Jonathan Hammer, illustrator.
Animal Farm: A Fairy Tale.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2013.

Number 65 of 300 numbered copies signed by the illustrator with 26 lettered copies for complimentary distribution. This was the ninety-ninth publication from this esteemed press. It is a scarce edition of Orwell's satirical novel in the form of a beast fable first published in England in 1945. It tells the story of a group of anthropomorphic farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, the rebellion is betrayed, and under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon, the farm ends up in a state far worse than before. The book was seen as being critical of Stalinist communism. In his introduction, Stansky writes that this may be Orwell's "greatest masterpiece, a perfect text. As a fable about human nature it transcends the political era in which it was written. It is in many ways a despairing book, but it has such compassion and empathy."

The illustrator, Jonathan Hammer, is an American born artist based in Madrid, Spain. Over his career he has worked in several media including works on paper, photography, unique books, sculpture, ceramics, and prints. The prints he created for this book are compelling yet disturbing images in black and red of parts of pig body parts, real and imagined. They are grotesque but fitting for the troubling text of this book.

Bound in brownish orange cloth with a maroon cloth spine and stylized design to covers. Title in gilt to spine. Printed in Times New Roman on Zerkall ivory book paper. Housed in a maroon cloth covered slipcase with brownish orange spine and ends. Book and slipcase are in fine condition. Measures 7.50 x 10.25 inches. 150 numbered pages plus 24 plates. (#37566)

Price: $1,000 

H.G. Wells Novel - an exposé of the pharmaceutical industry in the early 1900s - Tono-Bungay
Illustrated by Sam Washburn with Renderings Based on Original Ads by Andrew Hoyem and Roy Folger

[Arion Press]
Wells, H.G.; Edward Mendelson, notes from the Penguin Classics Edition; Sam Washburn, illustrator.
Tono-Bungay.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2008.

Number 97 of 300 numbered copies for sale. There were also 26 lettered complimentary copies. From the prospectus: H. G. Wells 1866-1946) is best known for his works of science fiction: The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897) and The War of the Worlds (1898). The novel Tono-Bungay (1908-1909) is less well known and not futuristic, although keenly prescient a hundred years later, is his greatest book. The writer Edward Mendelson called it Wells's masterpiece in his perceptive introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of 2005. He continued to say that this is an extremely timely story for its exposé not only of the pharmaceutical industry but of unrestrained financial speculation.

There are fourteen illustrations by Sam Washburn and 20 ads for Tono-Bungay created by Andrew Hoyem and Roy Folger to augment the original drawing of ads laid out by Wells for his book. Bound in dark purple cloth with a white spine label with titling and a front cover image of a white prescription bottle with titling within. Printed in Plantin type by letterpress on Mohawk Via laid paper. Housed in a slipcase with striped print covers affixed to the dark purple cloth covers. Accompanied by a booklet reprinting Mendelson's notes and the prospectus. In fine condition. Measures 6 x 9 1/8 inches. 352 pages. (#37604)

Price: $425 

Deluxe Edition of Leaves of Grass

[Arion Press]
Whitman, Walt; Helen Vendler, introduction.
Leaves of Grass.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2014.

Number 85 of 250 deluxe copies numbered in Arabic, with fifteen copies numbered in Roman for complimentary distribution. This was the 100th publication of the Arion Press. It is one of the most elegant and collectible books issued by the Press. The origins of Arion Press reach back to 1919, when the brothers Edwin and Robert Grabhorn came to San Francisco from Indianapolis. The brothers established the Grabhorn Press, which became one of the foremost fine printing establishments in the United States from the early 1920s to the mid-1960s. They were proponents of what the great bookmaker Bruce Rogers called “allusive printing,” in which the selection of type, decoration, and page layout alluded to aspects of the books’ contents. When the Grabhorn Press closed in 1965, Robert Grabhorn partnered with Andrew Hoyem. Together, Grabhorn-Hoyem preserved and utilized the Grabhorn Press's vast and distinctive holdings of type and equipment. In 1974, Arion Press was officially formed and launched a series of limited-edition books, printed by letterpress and bound by hand. Many of them were illustrated by prominent artists; some were accompanied by separate editions of original prints. To this day, the list of Arion publications is characterized by its diversity, with titles that range from ancient literature to modern classics [From the Arion Press website].

The text for this exceptional book was taken from the 1855 first edition, which contained just a dozen poems, the first, later titled "Song of Myself," was so long that it took up half the pages. The introduction to this edition was written by noted poetry scholar Helen Vendler (who died earlier in 2024). The volume includes the preface to the 1855 edition, plus the text of a letter of praise of his poetry from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Whitman in 1855. There is also a reproduction of a well known image of Whitman at the age of 34, the year before the first edition was published.

Bound in light brown wood boards with a green leather spine with gilt titling. The binding design is a tribute to the Grabhorn edition of 1978-79 in that the boards are wooden, with oak veneer stained yellow-tan, and the spine is goatskin, green for this volume. 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 paper is handmade Langley, from the Barcham Green Mill in England with watermarks of the Press and the Mill. Accompanied by the prospectus, which includes a sample page from the volume. Housed in a green cloth covered slipcase. In fine condition. Measures 10 x 14 inches. 155 pages plus colophon.  (#37486)

Price: $12,000 

Virginia Woolf's Novel Orlando - Addressing Gender and Transgender Issues
Photographically Illustrated by Diana Michener

[Arion Press]
Woolf, Virginia; Diana Michener, photographer.
Orlando: A Biography.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2005.

Number 284 of 400 numbered copies signed by the photographer. There were 26 lettered copies for complimentary distribution. This was the seventy-second publication of the Arion Press. It was first published by Virginia Woolf in 1928. "Inspired by the tumultuous family history of the aristocratic poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West, Woolf's lover and close friend, it is arguably one of her most popular novels; Orlando is a history of English literature in satiric form. The book describes the adventures of a poet who changes sex from man to woman and lives for centuries, meeting the key figures of English literary history. Considered a feminist classic, the book has been written about extensively by scholars of women's writing and gender and transgender studies". [Wikipedia]

It has been described as a funny, exuberant romp, and this fine press edition reflects the relative lightness of this Woolf title. Designed and produced by Press owner, Andrew Hoyem. Printed on Mohawk Superfine paper in Century Bold and Century Expanded types. The photographic illustrations were printed by offset lithography. The artist, Diana Michener uses stylized bird images throughout the book. She says in her artist's note that while she was photographing for Orlando she found a dead bird on the floor of her studio. This image became for her symbolic of Orlando's loss of innocence. There are twelve fold-outs that when opened reveal the striking photographs. Bound in pictorial color paper bird images, with gilt cloth panels adjacent to the images, with the title in white to front cover and spine. Housed in a paper covered slipcase with the same bird images, with gilt spine and top and bottom edges, with title in white to spine. In fine condition. Measures 10.25 x 13 inches. 160 pages plus index, artist's note, and colophon. (#37495)

Price: $500 

The Holy Bible - with Illuminated Initials by Thomas Ingmire

[Arion Press].
The Holy Bible. The New Revised Standard Version of the Old Testament, Apocrypha, and New Testament Two Volumes.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2000.

Number 147 of 400 copies, of which 150 have illuminated initials. An additional 26 lettered copies were printed for presentation to people involved in the project. From the Arion Press website: "Following in the tradition of Gutenberg and other fine printers over more than five centuries, Arion Press created a Folio edition of the Holy Bible using traditional letterpress techniques and the finest materials and craftsmanship. It is the first large folio presentation of the contemporary translation of the New Revised Standard Version, and it is probably the last Bible to be printed by letterpress from metal type. This Bible is intended for liturgical use in church services as well as for personal and institutional collections. Because of its size, it is bound in two volumes for ease of handling and display. Designed for ease of reading from a lectern, the text is set in Romulus, designed by Jan Van Krimpen, a graceful text with clear characters and printed on Somerset mouldmade paper from England. Each book begins with a large red initial letter, created by the noted type designer Sumner Stone. In the limited illuminated edition, these red initials are hand-embellished with genuine gold and watercolors in designs created by calligrapher Thomas Ingmire.

This edition has been set in type, printed, illuminated, and bound entirely in-house. In the tradition of grand printed Bibles, it is a monument to the Scriptures, to fine typography, and to the book arts." This copy has the red initials that are not embellished by the calligrapher Thomas Ingmire. The book has been described as a superb example of fine printing, one of the most important books to be produced by the Arion Press. The Press employed both modern and traditional tools in producing this exquisite volume. The text was generated by computer for composition, ensuring textual accuracy. The data was then transmitted to the Monotype machine for casting individual pieces of type in lines to be made up in pages with handset type for display and printed on a two-color cylinder press, two pages per press n. Typecasting, printing, and binding were done on site by Arion staff, specially trained in the traditional crafts of bookmaking. The paper on which it is printed is mouldmade Somerset, manufactured from all-cotton fiber in England. Bound in fine goatskin with deep violet covers, a black spine, and a red accent stripe.Title in gold to spine. In fine condition. Housed in a black cloth covered box. Measures 13 x 18 inches. 1356 pages. The set weighs about 50 pounds in its box and will require extra postage. (#37645)

Price: $7,000 

Non-Fiction Work - 4 Different Versions of a Colonist Woman Taken Captive by Indians in 1697
Illustrated by Richard Bosman

[Arion Press]
Mather, Cotton; John Greenleaf Whittier, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Richard Bosman, illustrations.
Captivity Narrative of Hannah Duston.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1987.

One of 400 copies signed by the illustrator. This handsome work from the Arion Press offers four versions of events in 1697. In that year an Indian party attacked the colonial settlement of Haverhill, Massachusetts. During the raid, Hannah Duston, a thirty-nine year old was taken captive from her childbirth bed, along with her nurse. Hannah and her fellow captives attacked the Indians in the pre-dawn while they slept and killed all but a squaw and small boy who escaped. When Hannah and her fellow captives returned to civilization, they were rewarded by Massachusetts authorities for their deeds. Indian captivity narratives became one of the first forms of American literature, as these pieces by important American writers show.

The narratives are interspersed with thirty-five woodblock prints by Richard Bosman. Bosman is an American artist, educator, and illustrator. Bosman is best known for his paintings and prints. His work is often related to crime, adventure, and disaster narratives; rural Americana; and nature and domestic themes.

Bound in quarter brown cloth over textured brown paper boards, with a paper spine label printed in black. Printed on Rives heavyweight, a mouldmade paper from France. The types are Frederic Goudy's Kennerley Bold, with Monotype for subsidiary material, with Neuland Inline for display. In fine condition. Folio volume measuring 12.75 x 17 inches. 53 pages plus colophon.  (#37524)

Price: $600 

Paradise Lost - with introduction by scholar Helen Vendler

[Arion Press]
Milton, John; Helen Vendler, introduction; John T. Shawcross, editor of the text.
Paradise Lost: A Poem in Twelve Books.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2022.

Number 174 of 400 numbered copies for sale, with 26 lettered copies printed for complimentary distribution. This beautiful production of Milton's immortal work, the printer Andrew Hoyem writes that this edition pays typographic tribute to two earlier editions of Milton's epic poem: the second edition of 1674, the year of Milton's death, and the second Baskerville edition of 1759, which Hoyem owned and long admired. This edition is presented without explanatory footnotes and omits the Barrow and Marvell poems. However, the earlier examples of textual scholarship prompted the press to obtain a new textual version and to provide an introduction written especially for this edition by the renowned scholar Helen Vendler that offers a fresh perspective on the work. Miltonist John T. Shawcross developed a modernized text.

Bound in black cloth with a brown leather spine label with titling in gilt. Light sunning to spine and label. Printed Goudy Text and Baskerville types on special wove paper made for the press by the Zerkall mill in Germany. The arrangement of pages emulates those of the Baskerville edition but with significant differences as described in the colophon. Housed in a black cloth slipcase with a purple leather title label to spine. With a fleur de lis design on the front cover in light purple. Slipcase has evidence of handling and a shallow bump to the top edge. Overall in about fine condition in a very good slipcase. Does not include prospectus or portfolio. Measures 6 7/8 inches by 10 inches. 397 pages including colophon. (#37605)

Price: $800 

Hon. Francis Thistleton's Political Satire - How I Came to Be Governor of the Island of Cacona

[Arion Press]
Thistleton, the Hon. Francis (William Henry Fleet), Robertson Davies, introduction.
How I Came To Be Governor of The Island of Cacona.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1989.

One of 325 copies. In his introduction, Robertson Davies writes that "in short, the chief reason for republishing this book in its present handsome form is that of a forgotten achievement in a style that is not easily managed, that of true political satire. It is a very funny book...." Originally published in 1852. Bound in brown cloth with a green cloth spine with brown title label. The cover has a map outlining the island and its principal cities. This was the twenty-eighth book to be printed at the press. Printed in Monotype Bell on Mohawk Letterpress Text paper. In fine condition. Measures 5.5 x 8 inches. 204 pages.  (#37607)

Price: $100 

The Age of Innocence - Photographically Illustrated by Stephen Shore

[Arion Press]
Wharton, Edith; Diane Johnson, introduction; Stephen Shore, photographic illustrations; Sandra S. Phillips, note on photographs.
The Age of Innocence.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2004.

Number 288 of 300 numbered copies for sale, signed by the photographer, Stephen Shore. This is an elegant edition of Wharton's masterpiece, The Age of Innocence. In her introduction Diane Johnson writes that Wharton was " the height of her powers. She never surpassed its portrait of the late nineteenth century America she understood so thoroughly and had left behind." The simplicity of the text's printing is juxtaposed with Shores 32 color photographs from the streets of New York and its architecture.

Bound in brown cloth with a photographic spine label with titling. The book was edited, deigned and published by Andrew Hoyem. Letterpress printed on mouldmade Velata paper from Italy, using Ronaldson type for the text with Typo Script for display and DeVinne Outline for initial letters. The photographs were printed by offset-lithography on Potlatch Vintage paper. In a beautiful and colorful slipcase with a wrap-around photograph of a park. The book and its slipcase are in fine condition. Measures 7 x 10 inches. 309 pages plus colophon. (#37528)

Price: $600 

Godot - An Artists' Book Homage to Beckett's Classic Existential Play
Written and Illustrated by William T. Wiley

[Arion Press]
Wiley, William T., author and afterword; David Littlejohn, introduction; Andrew Hoyem, program note and synopsis.
Godot: An imaginary staging by William T. Wiley of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2006.

Number 286 of 300 numbered copies for sale with 26 lettered copies for complimentary distribution. Signed by William T. Wiley on the colophon. This exuberant and mordantly witty edition of this book was published on the hundredth anniversary of Beckett's most famous work. William T. Wiley (1937 - 2021) was an influential artist and educator who helped found the funk art movement and establish the San Francisco Bay Area art scene as an unfiltered alternative to what he saw as the flagrant commercialism of New York, The funk art movement took its name from “Funk,” a seminal exhibition organized by the curator Peter Selz in Berkeley in 1967. It included, among others, Mr. Wiley, the painter Joan Brown, the sculptor Robert Hudson and the ceramist Robert Arneson. None, it seemed, could ever fully agree on what funk art was, only on what it was not [from the NYT obituary of Wiley]

For this Arion Press publication, Wiley made fifty-two cartoon-like drawings. In his program note, Hoyem writes that the audience should remember that this is not the play Godot. It is a book about the play with a critic's appreciation and an artist's comments. It is an artist's book by Wiley inspired by Waiting for Godot. The synopsis is only a guide. This book was designed by Andrew Hoyem, who provided the program note that appears before the curtain rises, and a synopsis that runs in five-line segments beneath the Wiley illustrations. The binding of the book and its slipcase have yellow paper sides and blue cloth spines and labels, imprinted with the titling and images by Wiley. Printed on mouldmade Hahnemüle paper using Century Expanded type. The wordplay on the slipcase includes the palindrome "To Dog Godot" and is surrounded by a field of Irish potatoes. [from the accompanying prospectus] This Arion Press edition was provided for free to purchasers of the bilingual Grove Press edition of Waiting for Godot. It is present here. In fine condition. Measures 10 x 15 inches. 68 pages.  (#37652)

Price: $850 

Poems of W. B. Yeats Illustrated by Richard Diebenkorn
Introduction by Poetry Scholar, Helen Vendler

[Arion Press]
Yeats, William Butler; Helen Vendler, selected and introduction of poems; Richard Diebenkorn, illustrations.
Poems of W. B. Yeats.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 1990.

Number 310 of 426 copies of which 400 were for sale. Signed by Richard Diebenkorn, who provided six etchings. This is lovely edition of the incomparable poetry of the famed William Butler Yeats. The poetry is accompanied by an introduction by noted poetry scholar Helen Vendler (who died in 2024). She provides an empathetic and interesting history of the life of Yeats, who she described as "one of the most gifted, driven, and complex figures of twentieth century art and politics."

The artist Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) was an important American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he began his series of geometric, lyrical abstract paintings. [Wikipedia] Vendler writes in this book's introduction about his engravings for this book, which were a response to Yeats's words as recurrent images of a tattered coat or a coat upon a coat-hanger, which were metaphors for corporal decay and death. "Diebenkorn (in his engraved images of coats) gives us that worst apparition and gives us as well the besmirched and abraded coat of the degraded body."

Bound in quarter red leather with dark green cloth covers with gilt titling to spine. Spine is very lightly sunned and has a few minor spots. Printed on mouldmade English Somerset paper using Worrel Uncial type for the titles, and Monotype Baskerville for the text. Housed in a red and green paper covered slipcase with a green cloth spine. The slipcase has bit of sunning to spine's title label and cloth. Still in near fine condition. Measures 8.25 x 10.25 inches. 171 pages. (#37497)

Price: $2,250 

Benjamin Franklin's Memoirs

[Arion Press]
Franklin, Benjamin.
The Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2006.

Number 293 of 400 numbered copies for sale, with 26 lettered copies printed for complimentary distribution. This title was printed in celebration of the three-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin. The work was more commonly known as the Autobiography, but it was published here under the title Franklin himself used in referring to his manuscript. Unpublished at the time of his death, it has since become the most widely read memoir of all time. The prospectus continues to describe the mysterious path of the memoirs. considered lost for several decades after Franklin's death, and not published from his original manuscript until it was discovered by John Bigelow, the American minister to France in that country in 1867. Despite his many achievements during his illustrious life, Franklin asked to be remembered as a printer. The inscription he wrote for his tombstone reads: "B. Franklin, Printer." He believed in the trade of printing as indispensable to the spread of knowledge and self-governance. It seemed fitting to the Arion Press proprietor, Andrew Hoyem, that an American printer celebrates the three hundredth anniversary of Franklin's birth with a new design and printing of the Memoirs.

The Arion Press opted for a straightforward typographic presentation of Franklin's text without introduction, illustrations, or notes. However, the Press made its own distinctive contribution to the history of printing in the United States. Hoyem took advantage of 21st century technologies to revive what is believed the first type family cut and cast in America in 1800. The type was used by Jane Aitken, daughter of Robert Aitken, the famous printer of the American revolution, for the first printing of the first American translation of the Bible in 1808.

Bound in full brown goatskin, with titling on the spine and an oval silhouette of Franklin in profile stamped in gold, adapted from a postage stamp. Printed on Somerset Book, an English mouldmade paper. There is a frontispiece portrait of Franklin, taken from the one-hundred dollar bill. Accompanied by the prospectus, but does not include the Press keepsake "Franklin's Memoirs Lost and Found. In fine condition. Measures 6.5 x 9 inches. 188 pages. (#37586)

Price: $450