Physical
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Two independant editions. The first is a limited edition and signed by Szyk on final, numbered 1190 of 1950. A very good copy bound in the original half leather boards, rubbed in spine, with slipcase.
The second is the trade edition of the same book printed by the Heritage Press, bound in the original boards, with the slipcase. |
Detailed
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The book of Ruth in English with the illustrations. George Macy (1900-1956) founded the Limited Editions Club in 1929 to publish fine illustrated books, mostly classics, in limited numbers for member-subscribers. Most titles were limited to 1500 copies, were designed and illustrated by leading figures in the graphic arts, and were printed on fine paper. New introductions were written for many titles. From the base established by the Limited Editions Club, Macy broadened his publishing activities with The Heritage Press, a series of unlimited, less-expensively produced reprints of titles previously issued by the Limited Editions Club. After Macy's death in 1956, his wife continued the work of the firm until 1968 when son Jonathan assumed leadership. The firms were sold to the Boise-Cascade Company in 1970, and in 1979, Sidney Shiff purchased the Limited Editions Club.
Arthur Szyk (1894–1951), illustrator, miniaturist, and cartoonist. Born in Lodz, Poland, he studied at Cracow and in World War I fought in the Russian army and was taken prisoner; afterward he fought under General Sikorski against the Bolsheviks. Subsequently in Paris, he illustrated books, among them The Book of Esther, Flaubert's Temptations of Saint Anthony, Pierre Benoit's Jacob's Well, and Ludwig Lewisohn's Last Days of Shylock. In 1934 the Polish government sent him to the United States, where he exhibited at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., and in many museums. His series of miniatures on the history of the American Revolution was sent as a gift by the Polish government to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In England, at the outbreak of World War II, he turned his pen to caricatures for British papers and periodicals. In 1940 he went to the U.S., where he drew cartoons lampooning the Nazi leaders. These were collected in a volume, The New Order (1941). He also illustrated books such as the Rubbiyat of Omar Khayyam (1940). Szyk was noted for his refined draftsmanship and calligraphy, in the style of medieval manuscript-illumination, as shown in an edition of the Charter of Kalisz, in a sumptuous edition of the Haggadah (executed 1932–36; published 1940), and in the highly decorated Declaration of Independence for the State of Israel (1948). These were executed in a close imitation of the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages. His colors had the luminosity of Gothic stained glass windows. His Hebrew lettering was superbly decorative and his illuminations sometimes showed a close acquaintance with Jewish legend. |
