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1Django6924
UK_History_Fan brought up the subject of Balzac's excursion into the "wink-wink, nudge-nudge" genre, particularly as it pertains to the LEC 3-volume set designed by Dwiggins. I frankly like the set for design, but don't think much of the literary content. If I didn't admire Dwiggins as a designer, I probably wouldn't have bought this, as I got the Heritage exclusive edition of this work when I was a Heritage Club member, and admire it from the production standpoint.
In fact, I've decided it will be my next "kid brother" posting. Look for it here (all those who are interested!)
In fact, I've decided it will be my next "kid brother" posting. Look for it here (all those who are interested!)
2Django6924
Well, I had planned to post this tonight, but now PhotoBucket is no longer permitting "Third Party Hosting" so it will have to wait until I find another site where I I can upload my pictures.
3wcarter
>2 Django6924:
I had the same problem, and now I use the Junk Folder in the Member Gallery of my LT profile.
Photobucket demanded US$400 to release the photos I had already uploaded. Fortunately I had backups on my desktop computer.
I had the same problem, and now I use the Junk Folder in the Member Gallery of my LT profile.
Photobucket demanded US$400 to release the photos I had already uploaded. Fortunately I had backups on my desktop computer.
4Django6924
When I joined the Heritage Club back in the 1960s, my first year’s subscription included the Contes drolatiques, or Droll Stories by Honoré de Balzac. I had read Balzac’s great short story “Gobseck” in a Comparative Literature course, and started Droll Stories with keen anticipation. As for the stories themselves, I was very disappointed. Although a few of the stories show some of Balzac’s powerful insight into the human character—“The Succubus” for example—most read like concupiscent stories shared among prep-school adolescents (at least adolescents in those more innocent days before the Sexual Revolution and the Internet).
My disappointment from a literary standpoint was offset by my admiration for the production qualities of the book itself, especially the illustrations by the prodigiously-talented Boris Artzybasheff. The 65 black-and-white illustrations succeed where the stories themselves did not, in being “droll’”—both witty and suggestive but never crude nor predictable. Years later, when I began to learn more about the Heritage Press and the differences between Heritage exclusives and their reprints of LEC offerings, I acquired the 1939 first issue of Droll Stories, and my pleasure in the production quality of the book increased. Whereas my later printing may have been electroprint, and was on a fine quality alpha cellulose paper, the 1939 was letterpress-printed (Baskerville linotype) on a rag furnish paper from the estimable Worthy Paper Company, a paper which despite the description in the Sandglass (9B) as a “smooth” paper, has a definite laid finish texture, which can be seen in the photographs below, and which adds to the tactile pleasure of turning the pages. Only the first printing has this paper and the colophon describing the production details. Again, aside from the physical charms of the paper, printing and binding—a sturdy red linen with a clever spine label in black and gray with the title and a reproduction of the frontispiece illustration in gilt—the main reason I cherish the book is the work of the illustrator.
Boris Artzybasheff was a name unfamiliar to me at the time, and this was his only work for the Macy companies. However, I had been seeing his work for years without realizing it because my mother subscribed to Time and Life and Artzybasheff did many covers and illustrations for those magazines from the 1940s up to the end of his life in 1965. His facility was amazing—he worked in styles ranging from Art Deco-ish woodcuts (see the illustrations for the books Creatures and Orpheus: Myths of the World by Padraic Colum), Dali-esque propaganda illustrations, and magazine cover art in a photo-realist style that must have been the envy of Norman Rockwell. His illustrations for industrial ads during World War !! usually displayed a style which seems unique to him and can only be described as “mechanical anthropomorphism.” Whereas Giuseppe Arcimboldo had created portraits of people out of fruit, flowers and various fauna, Artzybasheff gave human qualities to machinery. In his ads, magazine illustrations, and gallery art during the war
(at which time he was an expert advisor to the U.S. Department of State, Psychological Warfare Branch), he was as much a soldier in the fight against the Axis powers as his Macy compatriot Arthur Szyk, and I think it a shame that the Heritage Press did not issue a companion volume to Ink and Blood dedicated to the work of Artzybasheff.
Indeed, it’s a shame that he never did another book for the Macy companies. If you look at some of his other book illustrations, the work for Padraic Colum’s books (especially interesting are the knight at the ocean’s edge and the Arts-and-Crafts style endpapers for The Forge in the Forest, the wonderful Aesop’s Fable which is noted in the Sandglass, and his phantasmagorical illustrations for the first edition of Finney’s The Circus of Dr. Lao, one realizes that Artzybasheff may have made a wise financial decision in moving from book illustration to commercial art, but we who love fine illustrated books were the losers. (I hope members here will forgive me for including so much non-Macy material in this post.)
My disappointment from a literary standpoint was offset by my admiration for the production qualities of the book itself, especially the illustrations by the prodigiously-talented Boris Artzybasheff. The 65 black-and-white illustrations succeed where the stories themselves did not, in being “droll’”—both witty and suggestive but never crude nor predictable. Years later, when I began to learn more about the Heritage Press and the differences between Heritage exclusives and their reprints of LEC offerings, I acquired the 1939 first issue of Droll Stories, and my pleasure in the production quality of the book increased. Whereas my later printing may have been electroprint, and was on a fine quality alpha cellulose paper, the 1939 was letterpress-printed (Baskerville linotype) on a rag furnish paper from the estimable Worthy Paper Company, a paper which despite the description in the Sandglass (9B) as a “smooth” paper, has a definite laid finish texture, which can be seen in the photographs below, and which adds to the tactile pleasure of turning the pages. Only the first printing has this paper and the colophon describing the production details. Again, aside from the physical charms of the paper, printing and binding—a sturdy red linen with a clever spine label in black and gray with the title and a reproduction of the frontispiece illustration in gilt—the main reason I cherish the book is the work of the illustrator.
Boris Artzybasheff was a name unfamiliar to me at the time, and this was his only work for the Macy companies. However, I had been seeing his work for years without realizing it because my mother subscribed to Time and Life and Artzybasheff did many covers and illustrations for those magazines from the 1940s up to the end of his life in 1965. His facility was amazing—he worked in styles ranging from Art Deco-ish woodcuts (see the illustrations for the books Creatures and Orpheus: Myths of the World by Padraic Colum), Dali-esque propaganda illustrations, and magazine cover art in a photo-realist style that must have been the envy of Norman Rockwell. His illustrations for industrial ads during World War !! usually displayed a style which seems unique to him and can only be described as “mechanical anthropomorphism.” Whereas Giuseppe Arcimboldo had created portraits of people out of fruit, flowers and various fauna, Artzybasheff gave human qualities to machinery. In his ads, magazine illustrations, and gallery art during the war
(at which time he was an expert advisor to the U.S. Department of State, Psychological Warfare Branch), he was as much a soldier in the fight against the Axis powers as his Macy compatriot Arthur Szyk, and I think it a shame that the Heritage Press did not issue a companion volume to Ink and Blood dedicated to the work of Artzybasheff.
Indeed, it’s a shame that he never did another book for the Macy companies. If you look at some of his other book illustrations, the work for Padraic Colum’s books (especially interesting are the knight at the ocean’s edge and the Arts-and-Crafts style endpapers for The Forge in the Forest, the wonderful Aesop’s Fable which is noted in the Sandglass, and his phantasmagorical illustrations for the first edition of Finney’s The Circus of Dr. Lao, one realizes that Artzybasheff may have made a wise financial decision in moving from book illustration to commercial art, but we who love fine illustrated books were the losers. (I hope members here will forgive me for including so much non-Macy material in this post.)
5UK_History_Fan
Robert, as always amazing knowledge and insight, thanks for sharing! I too am now an admirer of the work of this illustrator thanks to your examples.
6NYCFaddict
Great post! Thanks for sharing.
7UK_History_Fan
Robert, I forgot to mention last night (I generally resist long posts via iPad...too much tapping!), that I actually owned the Artzybasheff edition of the Heritage Press Droll Stories once upon a time. I never read it, and in an earlier mad furry and futile attempt to avoid duplicate titles, I sold it to a friend. Now I wish I had kept it as undoubtedly I will end up purchasing a replacement copy!
8Django6924
>7 UK_History_Fan:
Oh no! I can totally relate; in my younger days, I often loaned or gave away many HP books--especially when I started acquiring the same title in LEC versions. Many of those I have had to re-purchase. The most painful examples of this are when I loaned my HP, got it back minus the Sandglass, and had to purchase another HP copy just to get the Sandglass! Thankfully Mr. Bussacco's Sandglass Companion book came to my rescue, so I don't do that now.
Oh no! I can totally relate; in my younger days, I often loaned or gave away many HP books--especially when I started acquiring the same title in LEC versions. Many of those I have had to re-purchase. The most painful examples of this are when I loaned my HP, got it back minus the Sandglass, and had to purchase another HP copy just to get the Sandglass! Thankfully Mr. Bussacco's Sandglass Companion book came to my rescue, so I don't do that now.
9UK_History_Fan
>8 Django6924:
That sounds like something I would do...ok, let's be honest...something I have done, purchasing a second copy of a book just to get the publisher's paraphernalia (Monthly Letter, Sandglass, Franklin Library Notes)!!!!
That sounds like something I would do...ok, let's be honest...something I have done, purchasing a second copy of a book just to get the publisher's paraphernalia (Monthly Letter, Sandglass, Franklin Library Notes)!!!!
10BuzzBuzzard
>2 Django6924: >3 wcarter: I stopped using Photobucket about half a year ago. I had had problems uploading material and at some point just gave up on the service. May be this was due to my free subscription. At the time I made a conscious decision to leave my photos there so they are available on LT. Too many times I have looked through old GMD threads for reference and the pictures that were there once were no longer available. Is there any LT etiquette about this?
The HP edition of Droll Stories is a nice edition. However when previously Robert mentioned his disappointment with the stories I decided to part with it despite the droll pictures. A decision I don't regret.
The HP edition of Droll Stories is a nice edition. However when previously Robert mentioned his disappointment with the stories I decided to part with it despite the droll pictures. A decision I don't regret.
11WildcatJF
10) Kinda had the same experience. Great art, but wasn't too wowed by the text. So I sold it off. It wasn't complete as it was. I would consider a repurchase if I found it complete and in rather good condition, though, as I am trying to collect all the exclusive HPs (save the four Artist volumes and their folios, when applicable).
12featherwate
Impressive work! I wouldn't be surprised if his illustrations for The Circus of Dr Lao were an influence on another Macy contributor, Domenico Gnoli. It's not apparent in Gnoli's pictures for the LEC/HP A Journal of the Plague Year, or his hyperrealist paintings, but in the fantastical drawings he made of odd creatures inserted into domestic settings.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a books-man as well as a flower-and-vegetable one, and so is a 20thC follower of his, Andre Martins de Barros, as demonstrated by this portrait of a collector being absorbed both in and by the objects of his passion...it's a warning to us all:
Edited to remove a misattribution - see below >13 Django6924:
Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a books-man as well as a flower-and-vegetable one, and so is a 20thC follower of his, Andre Martins de Barros, as demonstrated by this portrait of a collector being absorbed both in and by the objects of his passion...it's a warning to us all:
Edited to remove a misattribution - see below >13 Django6924:
13Django6924
Jack, my eyes ain't able to make out any of the titles here, but given the Wimsey-trademark monocle, I would assume it is a collection of incunabula, apparently bound in the 19th century (probably calf).
14featherwate
>13 Django6924:
You're right, of course, Robert. I checked three sources which ascribed it to Arcimboldo, but was too lazy to listen to my own doubts saying no, it can't be, keep checking, you numskull. Baaad research.
it's the work of surrealist pasticheur Andre Martins de Barros, born 1942.
You're right, of course, Robert. I checked three sources which ascribed it to Arcimboldo, but was too lazy to listen to my own doubts saying no, it can't be, keep checking, you numskull. Baaad research.
it's the work of surrealist pasticheur Andre Martins de Barros, born 1942.
15BuzzBuzzard
I stand corrected on my previous comment. Photobucket put an ax on my LT pictures already. Classy.
16wcarter
>15 BuzzBuzzard:
Very classy, I agree, and a form of blackmail considering the price they are demanding for restoration of the photos.
I have uploaded a lot of my missing photos to my LT junk folder now, and link from there to the talk thread. I am slowly replacing the missing pictures as I come across them in threads.
Very classy, I agree, and a form of blackmail considering the price they are demanding for restoration of the photos.
I have uploaded a lot of my missing photos to my LT junk folder now, and link from there to the talk thread. I am slowly replacing the missing pictures as I come across them in threads.
17Django6924
Of course Photobucket could have been abused--commercial image hosting, pornography, etc.--which forced them into this position after several years of free hosting, but the proliferation of ads, popups and the rather exorbitant fee they are charging now makes me less likely to give them the benefit of the doubt.
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