Description

New York: Albondocani Press, 1971. 7 3/4 inches. 54,[2] pp., containing six illustrations. Publisher's marbled wrappers, paper cover label. Fine.

Numbered 20 of an edition of 226 copies (200 numbered copies for sale, and 26 lettered and not for sale). The first publication in book form of two stories Ronald Firbank wrote during his years at Cambridge, which first appeared in Cambridge’s undergraduate magazine, The Granta, in 1906 and 1907. In an unpublished memoir of Edward Gorey and the Albondocani Press, Albondocani founder George Bixby recounts approaching Gorey about illustrating the work:

“I thought the Firbank stories would be an ideal project for illustrations by Gorey, told him about the stories, and asked him if he would be interested in making some drawings to accompany them. He was immediately interested. ‘Firbank is one of my oldest passions,’ he told me. In The Blue Aspic, Gorey’s spoof of opera, the hero, ‘Jasper went without lunch three days running to buy Caviglia’s recording of “Vivi con una mira” from Il fiore sotto il piede.” This title is a translation of The Flower beneath the Foot, the title of one of Firbank’s novels.”

Gorey initially produced two section title page drawings with title lettering for the stories. After Bixby received the proofs of the of the text from printer William Ferguson in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he observed that because of the breaks in the stories, he was left with four pages that contained only half a page of text. Gorey volunteered to make four additional drawings to fill the spaces. “We had previously discussed a fee for his work, but he told me that since he wanted to do the drawings for these stories he would leave it up to me to pay him whatever I could manage. Since the project was being done on a shoestring budget, I offered Gorey $100, and he accepted my offer without further comment.”

With a foreword by Firbank biographer and bibliographer Miriam J. Benkowitz.

Benkovitz A26. Toledano B52b. From the collection of George Bixby.

Included with the book is an unbound signature of six leaves of The Wavering Disciple sent by the printer to George Bixby – pages [11]-22, including the illustrated title and two text illustrations – and a one-page printed checklist of Albondocani Press Publications (circa 1971).

Fine Print

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