Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - CONVERSATION TREE PRESS LE 2024

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - CONVERSATION TREE PRESS DELUXE LIMITED EDITION 2024

A PICTORIAL REVIEW

No. 2 of 175 copies
Eight tipped-in colour full page illustrations (two fold-out), and six pen and ink drawings printed letterpress by Jacob Dhein who signed the book.
Letterpress printed by Phil Abel and Robert Hetherington on a Heidelberg cylinder press at Hand and Eye Editions.
Printed on Madrid Litho 160gsm paper.
Handbound by Ludlow Bookbinders in white goatskin leather with extensive foil stamping, done in three passes, forming an intricate floral motif in green, gold and blue.
Letterpress printed on Madrid Litho 160gsm paper.
Endpapers are light blue Hahnemuhle Bugra.
Top edge gilded.
Yellow page marker ribbon.
Slipcase handmade by Ludlow Bookbinders wrapped in blue Dubletta fabric with white cloth caps.
25.8x18.6cm.
236 pages
US$625

One of the most beautiful fine press books ever produced.







































































An index of the other illustrated reviews in the this series can be viewed here.

>1 wcarter:

"One of the most beautiful fine press books ever produced."

Agree. Perfect book design and execution in all aspects. For fine & private press book collectors, it is instructive to compare this edition and its production values to the recent Folio Society editions of other classic sci-fi novels, specifically A Canticle for Leibowitz and Neuromancer. For Americans purchasing these FS editions:

A Canticle for Leibowitz - $600.

Neuromancer - $600.

The execution on this particular copy is clearly not perfect, from the photos it looks like the spine is collapsing on both sides when the book is opened which is concerning. Beautiful book which is why you might want to get it replaced with a copy with a solid spine and hinge so that it will last through plenty of reading.

>4 edkennedy: I don’t think the spine looks remotely close to “collapsing”, just a bit of creasing at the sides of the spine when opened which I believe is totally normal with leather bindings. It appears structurally sound to me.

Beautiful book. Definitely one of the high points of binding design in the past few years. I didn’t pull the trigger on this one, but have been enjoying the photos shared online.

>5 Nightcrawl: Creasing should appear if at all on the hinge not the spine. It doesn't look right to me, I don't think I have any leather book where the spine does this. I only bring it up because the cover design is beautiful and it would be a shame to have a flawed copy.

Does the colophon say there are 175 deluxe which are numbered from 1-200? Why wouldn’t they be numbered 1-175?

>1 wcarter: Happy to hear you're pleased and I will pass on your feedback to everyone involved. I've also sent you a followup email about the binding.

>7 DMulvee: The limitation is indeed 175 and the error is mine. The Deluxe state was initially planned to be 200 and then changed to 175 at the last minute. While I updated the first paragraph of the colophon across all three states of the book, I missed the update in the second paragraph of the Deluxe. Apologies for the confusion and just to be clear - there aren't any copies numbered 176-200.

Thanks as always for the great photos!

>1 wcarter: “One of the most beautiful fine press books ever produced.”

I couldn’t agree more. It’s easily one of my favorite fine press books and, IMHO, CTP has established itself as one of the absolute top tier presses.

I can’t think of another book that has three states with all three so attractive but in different ways

Stunning production! The white leather cover is just fabulous. Reminiscent of classic books from the golden age :)

>4 edkennedy:
On close examination of the book I can see no problems with the spine. The leather creases in different ways on different books and my binding appears to be very sound and robust. I have no concerns and did not notice the slightly different creasing until you mentioned it.