1Django6924
Longtime members on this site know I have a particular affection for the Club’s products during the life of George Macy, and in the years immediately after his passing when the Club was carried on by George’s wife, Helen. Most of my favorite LECs were produced before the Club was sold, and before the focus shifted to the livres d’ artistes period under Sid Shiff. There is little doubt that Mr. Shiff kept the Club functioning another, almost 30 years, and during his stewardship there were many impressive achievements, but I won’t go into why I much prefer the earlier period.
However, I think that Macy himself would have been delighted by the lineup from 1982, which I consider an annus mirabilis of the Club’s later years. Consider the titles (Thanks to wcarter for making this easily accessible on his site),
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Groups:LIMITED_EDITIONS_CLUB
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams,
The Circus of Dr. Lao, by Charles G Finney,
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury,
The House of the Dead, by Fyodor Dostoevsky,
The Iceman Cometh, by Eugene O'Neill,
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez,
Poems and a Memoir by Seamus Heaney,
Poems of the Caribbean by Derek Walcott,
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
The Threepenny Opera, by Bertolt Brecht
A wonderful mix of classic titles and modern classics. I have owned all of these except the Heaney and Brecht books, and apart from the occasional partial misfire (the “illustration” for the Marquez novel), these are books that in my opinion equal the finest of fine art books. It appears to be the last year when so many titles were offered to the Club’s members.
However, I think that Macy himself would have been delighted by the lineup from 1982, which I consider an annus mirabilis of the Club’s later years. Consider the titles (Thanks to wcarter for making this easily accessible on his site),
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Groups:LIMITED_EDITIONS_CLUB
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams,
The Circus of Dr. Lao, by Charles G Finney,
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury,
The House of the Dead, by Fyodor Dostoevsky,
The Iceman Cometh, by Eugene O'Neill,
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez,
Poems and a Memoir by Seamus Heaney,
Poems of the Caribbean by Derek Walcott,
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
The Threepenny Opera, by Bertolt Brecht
A wonderful mix of classic titles and modern classics. I have owned all of these except the Heaney and Brecht books, and apart from the occasional partial misfire (the “illustration” for the Marquez novel), these are books that in my opinion equal the finest of fine art books. It appears to be the last year when so many titles were offered to the Club’s members.
2GardenOfForkingPaths
>1 Django6924: A terrific series! It's amazing how most of these can still be obtained for quite reasonable sums too.
I would like to acquire the Heaney this year. There's no shortage of copies out there, but I'm just waiting for the right price and fine condition to converge!
Are you not a fan of The Three Penny Opera?
I would like to acquire the Heaney this year. There's no shortage of copies out there, but I'm just waiting for the right price and fine condition to converge!
Are you not a fan of The Three Penny Opera?
3PBB
Definitely a contender for best Series and best calendar year for the LEC. Up there with the Second and Fourth Series and the Shakespeare set.
4Django6924
>2 GardenOfForkingPaths:
Very much a fan of Der Dreigroschenoper (and, for that matter, of the play’s original, The Beggar’s Opera, especially in its LEC version). I have a wonderful LP of Lotte Lenya performing three of Weill’s songs from this play, and others from Mahagonny, and Happy End, and have seen G.W. Pabst’s disappointingly-loose 1931 film adaptation in both his German-language and French-language versions. Back when I was in college and studying German, I read the play in the original German in the assigned Suhrkamp edition, which I still have somewhere.
Oddly, this was one Limited Editions Club I never came across in any of the bookshops I frequented during my LEC-buying splurge from 1980–95. Later, when I primarily acquired books on the internet, I never thought of looking for this particular title, being more interested in finding the much-earlier LECs which I hadn’t found in physical shops—such as the Shakespeare set and The Grapes of Wrath. After retiring, I stopped buying LECs so that is why that title never came into the fold. After seeing this post I checked on eBay and there are several copies in a wide range of prices. The photos of the illustrations by Jack Levine are interesting, and seem to suggest the influence of George Grosz—especially the Grosz of Ecce Homo—who would have been the ideal illustrator (or perhaps Max Beckmann).
I have mentioned Pabst's disappointing film of Der Dreigroschenoper, and there is a hit-and-miss film of The Beggar’s Opera with Olivier as MacHeath (doing his own singing). Best avoid these and hunt up the recording of the Brecht/Weill work by John Mauceri and the RIAS Berlin Sinfonietta with Lenya’s successor Ute Lemper.
For The Beggar’s Opera, I recommend also avoiding recordings using Britten’s reworking of the music and go to the original Pepusch arrangement, which I have enjoyed for 50 years on a 2-LP Everest album conducted by Max Goberman.
Very much a fan of Der Dreigroschenoper (and, for that matter, of the play’s original, The Beggar’s Opera, especially in its LEC version). I have a wonderful LP of Lotte Lenya performing three of Weill’s songs from this play, and others from Mahagonny, and Happy End, and have seen G.W. Pabst’s disappointingly-loose 1931 film adaptation in both his German-language and French-language versions. Back when I was in college and studying German, I read the play in the original German in the assigned Suhrkamp edition, which I still have somewhere.
Oddly, this was one Limited Editions Club I never came across in any of the bookshops I frequented during my LEC-buying splurge from 1980–95. Later, when I primarily acquired books on the internet, I never thought of looking for this particular title, being more interested in finding the much-earlier LECs which I hadn’t found in physical shops—such as the Shakespeare set and The Grapes of Wrath. After retiring, I stopped buying LECs so that is why that title never came into the fold. After seeing this post I checked on eBay and there are several copies in a wide range of prices. The photos of the illustrations by Jack Levine are interesting, and seem to suggest the influence of George Grosz—especially the Grosz of Ecce Homo—who would have been the ideal illustrator (or perhaps Max Beckmann).
I have mentioned Pabst's disappointing film of Der Dreigroschenoper, and there is a hit-and-miss film of The Beggar’s Opera with Olivier as MacHeath (doing his own singing). Best avoid these and hunt up the recording of the Brecht/Weill work by John Mauceri and the RIAS Berlin Sinfonietta with Lenya’s successor Ute Lemper.
For The Beggar’s Opera, I recommend also avoiding recordings using Britten’s reworking of the music and go to the original Pepusch arrangement, which I have enjoyed for 50 years on a 2-LP Everest album conducted by Max Goberman.
5GusLogan
>4 Django6924:
After this pleasant post I cannot hold off following the Brecht trail and recommending the 2010 Duke Special album Mother Courage and her children, which I am sure is available on Spotify etc. I saw the songs performed live in London around that time as part of the play and found them terrific. Sadly I have not yet mastered German, but this will do until I get around to that.
After this pleasant post I cannot hold off following the Brecht trail and recommending the 2010 Duke Special album Mother Courage and her children, which I am sure is available on Spotify etc. I saw the songs performed live in London around that time as part of the play and found them terrific. Sadly I have not yet mastered German, but this will do until I get around to that.
6kdweber
1982, a great year, the year I got married. It is also the first complete LEC series that I acquired.
7wcarter
>1 Django6924:
You triggered me to do a review of my favourite book of 1982, The Circus of Dr.Lao. See here.
You triggered me to do a review of my favourite book of 1982, The Circus of Dr.Lao. See here.
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