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VOYAGES.
(New York: [Gehenna Press for the] Museum of Modern Art, 1957). 255 x 290 mm. (10 x 11 1/2"). [12] leaves (including one blank). No. 735 of 975 numbered copies (and 25 lettered copies).
Original blue stitched paper wrappers, printed paper label on cover. Housed in the original matching folding paper portfolio with printed label on cover and spine. With six wood engravings and one woodcut (three on tissue and one on handmade green paper), one of these double-page and two in color, all by Leonard Baskin. SIGNED BY THE ILLUSTRATOR on the limitation page. Inside of folding slipcase with the bookplate of Isabel and Charles Goodwin. Brook 11; Artist & The Book 13. Portfolio spine and lower portion of cover with faint, uneven sunning, a little wear to spine ends, otherwise fine, and the well-protected book inside in virtually perfect condition.
This is the wonderfully illustrated Gehenna Press edition of avant-garde poet Hart Crane's famous romantic verses. Crane (1899-1932) composed this series of six poems about falling in love in the early days of his romance with Danish sailor Emil Opffer, with the cycle being initially published in 1926 as the final section of the poet's first major publication, "White Buildings." Literary scholar Brian Reed writes for the Poetry Foundation that "'Voyages' is a 20th-century masterpiece not because its author is queer but because lauding queer love requires a reckless openness to and acceptance of emotions so intense, so fiery, that they burn away your past self. No going back afterward; no underbrush left to hide in. You must consign yourself to the 'harbor of the phoenix' breast,' as Crane puts it in 'Voyages VI,' and trust in rebirth, in poetry, and in love." One of the preeminent American artists of the 20th century, the illustrator (and designer and printer) here, Leonard Baskin (1922-2000), considered himself primarily a sculptor, but he is best known for his woodcuts, book illustrations, and the fine books created at the Gehenna Press, which he founded in 1942, while still a student at Yale. This Gehenna Press production was the second of a series of limited editions put out by the Museum of Modern Art. It was well-received, being selected as one of the "Fifty Books of the Year 1957" by the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Baskin's illustrations are naturalistic and textural, with the spikes of shells, tendrils of seaweed, and raging, swirling wave surfaces exuberantly depicted through Baskin's deft carvings. The illustrations are in constant interaction with the text, both thematically and physically: two are printed on thin tissue, allowing the viewer to read the poem through the illustration. Our copy has the bookplate of Isabel and Charles Goodman, who built a sizable library with a particular focus on book arts and American 20th century private presses. Their donation of more than 1,300 volumes to Isabel's alma mater, Wellesley College, now makes up a large part of that college's Book Arts collection. (ST20338-105)
Price: $150.00