The Illuminated Desert

Salt Lake City, UT: Canyonlands Natural History Association, 2008. First edition. Hardcover. Very good +/very good +. Chloe Hedden. SIGNED. Thin folio [33.5 cm] Illustrated paper covered boards. The book has a small ding to the bottom front board near the spine. In a price-clipped dust jacket with a 1/4" closed tear to the top edge along the fold of the front inside flap, and the publisher's "Autograph Copy" label on the front panel. Words by Terry Tempest Williams. Art by Chloe Hedden. Calligraphy by Chris Montague. This copy is signed by all 3 contributors on the title page. This charming production is patterned after the illuminated manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The author describes it as: "...a naturalist's book of prayers, a collection of episodes, seen by two students of the natural world." The volume is arranged alphabetically with each page representing a different letter of the alphabet (A is for Antelope). The pages are beautifully illustrated in their entirety. A glossary at the end of the book provides natural histories to accompany the small devotions of the desert alphabet.