The Day of the Locust
- SIGNED Hardcover
- San Francisco: Arion Press, 2913
San Francisco: Arion Press, 2913. Hardcover. Fine. Hardcover. Number 84 of 400 numbered copies signed by the photographer, Lucy Gray. There were also 26 lettered copies for complimentary distribution. The author of this pivotal work died at the age of 37 along with his wife in a car crash in 1940, a year after this book was published. It took years for the book to become recognized as an American classic and for critics to agree now that it is the best novel ever written about Hollywood. In his introduction, the film critic and historian David Thomson discusses the novel and its relationship to Hollywood and the movies in the Golden Age of the late thirties and its importance to American fiction. The twenty photographs were taken by Lucy Gray, an award winning photographer and film maker. She and David Thomson, writer of the introduction, are married.
The book was designed and produced by the Press under the direction of Andrew Hoyem. It is bound in a chartreuse cloth with green titling to the spine, and the word "Locust" on the cover with what appear to be a swarm of locusts. It is letterpress printed in Monotype Bodoni Book type on Italian Mouldmade Magnani Velata paper, lighter for the text and heavier for the photographs that are tipped into die-stamped recesses. The photographs are done in the manner of stills as if taken at night. They were printed in duotone over a metallic silver ground, overlaid with varnish. Housed in a green paper covered slipcase, edged in the chartreuse cloth. Accompanied by two copies of the prospectus, one of which has a slip stating that it is a revised prospectus. The first prospectus has a sample photograph from the book. In fine condition. Measures 7 x 9.75 inches. 180 numbered pages plus twenty unnumbered pages for the photographs.
The book was designed and produced by the Press under the direction of Andrew Hoyem. It is bound in a chartreuse cloth with green titling to the spine, and the word "Locust" on the cover with what appear to be a swarm of locusts. It is letterpress printed in Monotype Bodoni Book type on Italian Mouldmade Magnani Velata paper, lighter for the text and heavier for the photographs that are tipped into die-stamped recesses. The photographs are done in the manner of stills as if taken at night. They were printed in duotone over a metallic silver ground, overlaid with varnish. Housed in a green paper covered slipcase, edged in the chartreuse cloth. Accompanied by two copies of the prospectus, one of which has a slip stating that it is a revised prospectus. The first prospectus has a sample photograph from the book. In fine condition. Measures 7 x 9.75 inches. 180 numbered pages plus twenty unnumbered pages for the photographs.