In the recent Books and Vines review of Robert Louis Stevenson’s New Arabian Nights, subscriber Don Floyd mentions the fact that two stories contained therein, A Lodging for the Night and The Sire de Malatroit’s Door, were also presented by the Limited Editions Club (LEC) as the sixth book of their first series (1929-1930), published as Two Mediaeval Tales. It so happens that Books and Vines contributor DlphcOracl has this edition in excellent shape, and has sent me pictures which are included below.
As George Macy mentions in the prospectus for the 1930 edition, A Lodging for the Night, a romantic yarn about Francois Villon, is perhaps the finest short story in the English Language. The Sire de Malatroit’s Door is also an outstanding short story, well thought of critically. Besides being included in the aforementioned LEC version, the outstanding L-D Allen Press published a beautiful volume of The Sire de Malatroit’s Door in 1952 for The Book Club of California (titled in French ‘La Porte De Maletroit‘). DlphcOracl was also able to provide pictures of this fantastic edition along with sharing this information:
It was published in 1952 while the Allens were on a two-year sabbatical in France, studying the art of letterpress printing and traveling across Europe visiting the great private presses and paper mills specializing in handmade papers. This followed their publication of Tolstoy’s What Men Live By. The book, appropriately enough, was done in the Frnech style. It has parchment paper binding and covers and it is contained within a separate open-ended stiff binding and boards, then all is enclosed in a separate slipcase.
While New Arabian Nights is still fresh in your mind, it is as good of time as any to post these two editions as a follow up. The coloring on both is fantastic. George Macy described the work of C.B. Falls, the illustrator of Two Mediaeval Tales, as “marked with a boldness, a vivid romanticism and a zest for gorgeous color.” Based on the sample below, it is hard to disagree with that assessment. The coloring is also excellent in the Allen Press edition and, as with all Allen Press books, the paper and type is second to none (as you can see if you select the pictures below to see them full screen).
About the LEC Edition
- Published in 1930
- Illustrated with eight full page drawings in color and a series of squared initials printed in four colors, by C.B. Falls, who also signs this edition
- Introduction by Clayton Hamilton
- Printed by The Marchbanks Press, New York in Jenson type on heavy, pure white Aurelian paper
- Full natural cowhide binding with stamping in blind and in gold
- 86 pages, 7 1/4″ x 9″
- Limited to 1500 copies
Pictures of the LEC Edition
(All pictures on Books and Vines are exclusively provided to highlight and visualize the work being reviewed. A side benefit, hopefully, is encouraging healthy sales of fine press books for the publishers and fine retailers that specialize in these types of books (of which Books and Vines has no stake or financial interest). Please note that works photographed are copyrighted by the publisher, author and/or illustrator as indicated in the articles. Permission to use contents from these works for anything outside of fair use purposes must come directly from the copyright owner and no permission is granted or implied to use photo’s found on Books and Vines for any purpose that would infringe on the rights of the copyright owner.)
About the L&D Allen Press Edition
- Designed and printed by L-D Allen Press while temporarily established at the Villa Deveron, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France
- Printed in two colors from Garamond type, hand-set
- Printed on Richard de Bas hand-made paper
- Bound French style with flexible covers
- Enclosed in a slipcase with the title stamped in gold
- Decorations from woodblocks cut by Ray Bethers and printed in three colors, consists of four full page illustrations, together with headband, initials and border
- Page size is 8″ x 5 1/2″
- Limited to 300 copies
Pictures of the L&D Allen Press Edition
(All pictures on Books and Vines are exclusively provided to highlight and visualize the work being reviewed. A side benefit, hopefully, is encouraging healthy sales of fine press books for the publishers and fine retailers that specialize in these types of books (of which Books and Vines has no stake or financial interest). Please note that works photographed are copyrighted by the publisher, author and/or illustrator as indicated in the articles. Permission to use contents from these works for anything outside of fair use purposes must come directly from the copyright owner and no permission is granted or implied to use photo’s found on Books and Vines for any purpose that would infringe on the rights of the copyright owner.)
It seems the experts are arguing about what most would consider trivialities. And Macy produced a great many books worse than Two Medieavel Tales. Such as Looking Backward which after insertion in its supposedly innovative plastic slipcase took the judicious application of an axe to remove it.
I would rather have some inauspicious typesetting than suffer through some of Macy’s innovative ideas which didn’t pan out such as the binding of The Last of the Mohicans which started deteriorating from the moment it was inserted in its mailing package.
I like the Stevenson book, but maybe it’s because I had to work so hard to find my Fine copy which now resides in its special cloth- covered slipcase lined with French velour.
The Allen Press book ‘La Porte de Maletroit’ was published early in their careers as fine press printers. These Allen Press books were commissions from the Book Club of California and it would be another decade before they decided to set out on their own, “quit their day jobs”, and make designing and producing private press books of the highest quality a full time proposition.
One can see evidence of this by closely examining the ‘sample text illustration with decorative initial letter #3 (macro view)’. If one clicks on this image, waits for the enlargement and then clicks over the image a second time, a very detailed view will reveal that their typesetting was still a work in progress. Note the wide variance in spacing between the words of “and bowed” versus the spacing in the words “with the assistance”. They were still becoming acclimated to the art of letterpress printing with a hand press and it would be another decade before they truly hit their stride with the beginning of their Great Folio Series of books, producing books that were the equal of nearly any other private press of the 20th Century,
One man’s meat…as they say. I tend to be on the fence about this one; I’m not crazy about the typography for reasons stated above, but I like the illustrations very much, which seem to me to be totally apropos for the stories. I love the hand-carved capitals, and the blind-stamped design for the binding (although the cowhide on my copy hasn’t held up well under the stress of frequent openings–the boards have separated from the spine).
I think Macy was speaking in respect of the members of the Club when he criticized the book so harshly: considering this slim volume cost the same as Series One’s Gulliver’s Travels, The Decameron, Robinson Crusoe and Baron Munchausen, I can see why some might have felt it was rather overpriced. Still, I would hardly call it “a rank failure.”
Robert:
I defer to your knowledge of fine press printing and book design with regard to how the LEC “Two Mediaeval Tales” should have been optimally done. That said, I own over one hundred of the LEC titles and I respectfully disagree with George Macy. This is one of my LEC favorites precisely because it is a bit quirky and different from the garden-variety LEC book. It has a distinct personality which is very much in keeping with the title and period of the two short stories. Many of the LEC books have a generic look and feel to me unless they have exceptional illustrations or very unusual bindings.
If I meet ol’ George in the afterlife I will reassure him that I do not feel cheated owning this edition.
Chris, it is interesting to read Macy’s comments about Two Medieval Tales in the Quartomillenary; after discussing how men like Marchbanks and C.B. Falls were “gods to worship when I was in school,” he goes on:
“It is out of this generalization that I find the only excuse for the publication of this book. I think it a rank failure. I think Mr. Falls knew what he wanted to do, but did not know how to translate his intentions into readable typography. I was afraid of Mr. Falls and Mr. Marchbanks [the printer], and the members of the Club had to pay ten dollars each for a very poor book because of my craven fear.”
In all the comments Macy ever published, he never leveled such adverse criticism at any of his books. I think he was being unduly harsh, as the book does have some felicities, but I agree that the medieval-flavored type–Jenson (and linotype rather than hand set)–requires a larger font, careful kerning, more spacious page layout, and more leading to be pleasing to the eye. The effect here is rather blocky and ungracious.