Tag: Allen Press

Book Edition Reviews, Book Reviews, Books

Hard High-Country Poems, by Michelangelo, Peter Koch Printers (2015), & Michelangelo: Sonnets, Allen Press (1991)

{Ed. Note: Thank you to Peter Koch and Robert Bringhurst for assisting me by pointing out some embarrassing type-o’s and other items needing correction. I have always remarked that the editor of Books and Vines better never leave his day job!} Michelangelo (1475-1564, full name Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni) is synonymous with the High Renaissance and Mannerism.  His influence on Western Art is beyond measurement. In … Continue reading Hard High-Country Poems, by Michelangelo, Peter Koch Printers (2015), & Michelangelo: Sonnets, Allen Press (1991)

Chris T. Adamson1 Comment
Book Edition Reviews, Books

Across the Plains, by Robert Louis Stevenson, Allen Press (1950)

Across the Plains is the second of three travel books from Robert Louis Stevenson describing his travel to and across America in 1879-1880. While the first work in this travel memoir trilogy, The Amateur Emigrant, focuses on his journey by ship from Europe to New York City, Across the Plains begins with Stevenson’s arriving in New York City and goes on to describe his train journey, filled with fellow immigrants, from New York … Continue reading Across the Plains, by Robert Louis Stevenson, Allen Press (1950)

Chris T. Adamson3 Comments
Book Edition Reviews, Books

The Beast in the Jungle, by Henry James, Allen Press (1963)

Henry James wrote the novella The Beast in the Jungle in 1903. First published as part of a collection called  The Better Sort, The Beast in the Jungle came to be considered one of his best works. In the preface to this edition, Clifton Fadiman agrees and expands on why: “For me this is the best of James’s shorter fictions, combining the utmost concentration of effect with … Continue reading The Beast in the Jungle, by Henry James, Allen Press (1963)

Chris T. Adamson3 Comments
Book Reviews, Books

Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, Allen Press (1988) and Limited Editions Club (1940)

{Ed. Note: Updated on 1/12/2015 with pictures of the Allen Press Deluxe edition, thanks to Jen Lindsay who was the binder for these special editions.} Romeo and Juliet is, along with Hamlet, the most well known and performed of William Shakespeare‘s plays. Its tragic plot and theme of young love struggling against fate and/or chance is woven into the minds of anyone with even a basic level of familiarization … Continue reading Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, Allen Press (1988) and Limited Editions Club (1940)

Chris T. Adamson13 Comments
Book Edition Reviews, Books

Rappaccini’s Daughter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Allen Press (1991)

{Ed. Note: Updated on June 16, 2016 after amore careful review based on comments from a Books and Vines reader.} It is amazing that after 51 years of publishing fine books, Lewis and Dorothy Allen still had it within them to publish, as their 56th publication, Rappaccini’s Daughter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Along with two final books published after this one (Michelangelo: His Sonnets, and The Life … Continue reading Rappaccini’s Daughter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Allen Press (1991)

Chris T. Adamson6 Comments
Book Edition Reviews, Books

The Splendid Idle Forties: Stories of Old California, by Gertrude Atherton, Allen Press (1960)

Gertrude Atherton (1857 – 1948) was an American author best known for her novels set in her home state of California. She was a prolific writer of short stories and articles, in addition to her novels. Her best-known works are Black Oxen (1923) and the short story collection titled The Splendid Idle Forties (1902). She also attained critical success in the non-fiction realm with The Conqueror (1902), a biography of Alexander Hamilton. Atherton was often … Continue reading The Splendid Idle Forties: Stories of Old California, by Gertrude Atherton, Allen Press (1960)

Chris T. Adamson4 Comments
Book Reviews, Books

Youth, by Joseph Conrad, Allen Press (1959)

The twenty-second publication from the Allen Press is, to my eye, the greatest of their many great works. Just back from their two years of typographic study and printing in France, Lewis and Dorothy Allen embarked on what was to be a period of tremendous work on a series of folio sized publications, of which Youth, from Joseph Conrad, is the first. The Allens’ interest in … Continue reading Youth, by Joseph Conrad, Allen Press (1959)

Chris T. Adamson5 Comments