Printed & Bound, June 2016
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Printed & Bound A Newsletter for Bibliophiles June 2016 Printed & Bound focuses on the book as a collectible item and as an example of the printer’s art. It provides information about the history of printing and book production, guidelines for developing a book collection, and news about book-related publications and activities. Articles in Printed & Bound may be reprinted free of charge provided that full attribution is given (name and date of publication, title and author of article, and copyright information). Please request Queen Elizabeth II, now the longest reigning British monarch, is an ideal subject for a permission via email fascinating book collection. (Photo above taken during the 2015 Christmas season.) ([email protected]) before reprinting articles. Unless A GOOD YEAR TO COLLECT A QUEEN otherwise noted, all content is written by Paula Jarvis, Editor On April 21, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 90th birthday and Publisher. and thus became the oldest, as well as the longest-reigning, Printed & Bound monarch in British history. Her official birthday celebration, Volume 3 Number 2 however, will be held on June 11, which offers a timely June 2016 Issue opportunity to begin collecting “royal” books. Here are ten titles that will provide a good start. © 2016 by Paula Jarvis c/o Nolan & Cunnings, Inc. The Little Princesses by Marion Crawford 28800 Mound Road Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Warren, MI 48092 Smith Sixty Glorious Years: Our Queen Elizabeth—Diamond Jubilee 1952- Printed & Bound is published in February, June, and October. 2012 by Victoria Murphy Past issues are available in the Queen Elizabeth II: A Birthday Souvenir Album by Jane Roberts “Newsletters” section of The Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage by Gyles Book Club of Detroit website: Brandreth www.bookclubofdetroit.org. Elizabeth by Sara Bradford Queen Elizabeth II: Portraits by Cecil Beaton by Cecil Beaton Majesty: Queen Elizabeth II and the House of Windsor by Robert Lacey The Queen’s Jewels: The Personal Collection of Elizabeth II by Leslie Field Lilibet: An Intimate Portrait of Elizabeth II by Carolly Erickson A YEAR OF NEW COLLECTING OPPORTUNITIES Literary anniversaries bring renewed interest in certainly afford many of the hundreds of authors, not only in the works they wrote but also in books written about Charlotte Bronte and the many works written about them. Just as 2016 is her family. Just two years after Charlotte’s a year to consider beginning a collection about death, her friend Elizabeth Gaskell (best Queen Elizabeth II, so, too, bibliophiles might wish known for her novel Cranford) produced the to consider the following writers and the books first and perhaps most important biography of the author of Jane Eyre. The Life of Charlotte written about them. Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell is a must-have William Shakespeare (baptized April 26, for any Bronte collector. 1564, buried April 25, 1616): The greatest English-language playwright died 400 years Beatrix Potter (July 28, 1866-December ago. Two centuries later, a few people 22, 1943): Born 150 years ago, Beatrix began to express doubts about the Potter gave the world Peter Rabbit (who authorship of the plays attributed to this year became the first character from Shakespeare. Proposed alternative authors children’s literature to appear on a British included Francis Bacon, Christopher coin) and a host of other animal characters Marlow, and Edward de Vere (17th Earl of who continue to delight children and their Oxford). Although these theories continue parents to this day. In addition, Beatrix to be minority opinions in the world of Potter played an important role in land Shakespearean scholarship, books about conservation and preservation in England’s these controversies offer vast and varied Lake District, bred and raised prize-winning collecting opportunities. One of the most Herdwick sheep, bought and restored recent contributions to this debate is farmhouses as part of her effort to preserve traditional fell farming, and was an Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? by authority on traditional Lakeland crafts. At James Shapiro. For a beginning collector in the same time, she maintained a life-long the field of Shakespearean authorship, it’s a interest in mycology (the study of fungi) good place to start. and created meticulous illustrations of the Charlotte Bronte (April 21, 1816-March 31, fungi she studied. Linda Lear’s Beatrix Potter: 1855): The average bibliophile can’t afford a A Life in Nature is an excellent introduction first edition of Jane Eyre, but he or she can to this multifaceted woman. Printed & Bound 2016 June Page 2 The Szyk Haggadah, illustrated between 1934 and 1936, is one of Arthur Szyk’s most famous works. Shown above are three of the 48 miniature illuminations that he created for this masterpiece. ARTHUR SZYK AND HIS ART by Paula Jarvis Polish-Jewish artist Arthur Szyk Bible. Thus, the religious and political (pronounced “schick”) was born in Lodz, themes of his art reflected concerns that had Poland, on June 16, 1894, and died on engaged him throughout his life. September 13, 1951, in New Canaan, Connecticut. During those 57 years, he EARLY INFLUENCES produced an astonishing array of lavish While he was still in his teens, Szyk’s book illustrations and biting political art. teachers advised his father to send him to At the time of his death, Szyk was Paris to study art. There he became best known in his adopted homeland. (He fascinated by medieval illuminated had become a naturalized U.S. citizen in manuscripts, an influence that can be seen 1948.) Beginning in the late 1990s, however, in many of his most famous illustrated his stature in Poland and elsewhere in books. However, from 1912 to 1914 he also Europe began to grow as exhibitions of his produced drawings on political themes that work were mounted in Berlin (Germany) were published in a Lodz satirical magazine. and in Warsaw, Krakow, and Lodz in The contrast between Szyk’s intricately Poland. His reputation in his homeland designed and richly colored illuminations grew further when a documentary about his and his stark and unsettling political art th life was aired on Polish television in 2005. make him a unique figure among 20 century illustrators. EARLY YEARS From France, Szyk returned to Szyk showed artistic promise from an early Poland and then traveled to Palestine. age; he reportedly drew sketches of the However, because Poland was part of the Boxer Rebellion in China when he was just Russian Empire at that time, he had to six years old. Although his family members return to Poland at the outbreak of World were culturally assimilated and didn’t War I. He was conscripted into the Russian practice Orthodox Judaism, he also enjoyed army but managed to escape in 1915 and was drawing biblical scenes from the Hebrew (continued on page 4) Printed & Bound 2016 June Page 3 ARTHUR SZYK (continued from page 3) able to spend the rest of the war in Lodz. Washington Bicentennial Medal from the There he published postcards of Russian American government. soldiers that he had drawn during his brief stint in the army. A year later, Szyk married HITLER AND THE HAGGADAH Julia Likerman. Their son, George, was born As early as 1933, Szyk returned to his in the following year (1917), and their political drawings with caricatures of Hitler daughter, Alexandra, was born in 1922. and his followers. Szyk’s preoccupation When the war ended and Poland with Hitler’s rise and the threat of his Nazi regained its independence, Szyk published regime found its way into Szyk’s his first book of political illustrations masterpiece, his Haggadah, which he worked (English title: Revolution in Germany), which on from 1934 to 1936. The Haggadah, which satirized Germany’s attempts to start a tells the story of the Israelites’ flight from revolution. Then, during the 1919-1920 Egypt, is read every year during the Passover Polish-Soviet War, he became an officer in Seder. Szyk illustrated his version with 48 the Polish cavalry and artistic director of the miniature paintings, many of which army’s propaganda department. That war, incorporated references (including which gained 20 years of independence for swastikas) to the then-current political Poland, marked the end of Szyk’s residence situation. in Poland. He and his family moved to Paris In 1937, Szyk went to London to and lived there until 1933, although he was oversee the production of the book. By the able to visit his homeland during that time. time it was finally published in 1940, many of the most obvious political references, YEARS IN FRANCE such as the swastikas, had disappeared. While in France, Szyk departed from his Whether the pressure to tone down his earlier pen and ink drawings to begin message came from his publishers or from illustrating books with colorful, intricately British politicians who still hoped to detailed art reminiscent of medieval appease Germany is not known. illuminated manuscripts. The Book of Esther Nonetheless, the final version is one of the was published in 1925, followed by most beautiful books ever produced. Flaubert’s Temptation of Saint Anthony in 1926 Printed on vellum in a limited edition of 250 and many other lavishly decorated books. copies, it was also the costliest new book in From 1926 to 1928, he illustrated the Statute the world with a price of 100 guineas of Kalisz, a 45-page-long charter of liberties (USD$520) per copy. that were granted to the Jews of Kalisz in During World War II, Szyk, with his 1264. It showed contributions that Jews wife and daughter (his son had enlisted in had made throughout Polish history and the Free French Forces) went to North honored their participation in Poland’s America to tell the story, through his art, of struggle for independence.