A Delicate Balance

San Francisco: Arion Press, 2011. Hardcover. Fine. Hardcover. Number 152 of 300 numbered copies for sale, of which 50 copies were reserved for the Aurora Theatre Company, and 26 lettered copies for complimentary distribution. Signed by the playwright and the illustrator on the colophon. This edition was published by the Arion Press on the occasion of the opening of the Aurora Theatre Company's season in September 2011, its 20th anniversary, with a new production of this play by Edward Albee. It was issued as the 7th work work in the Press's drama series, honoring America's great contemporary playwrights. Edward Albee (1928 - 2016) was a major American playwright who won three Pulitzer Prizes for drama, and a Tony Award for Best Play. In his perceptive introduction theater critic David Littlejohn asks, "By what verbal and imaginative magic does Albee manage to transform stories as mean and vicious as these, relationships so full of contentiousness and spite, into profound and moving theatrical experiences?" [from the prospectus] Tom Holland (1936 - ) is a well known artist based in Berkeley, California. He was a friend of Albee, who suggested him as the artist for this book. There are three illustrations in the book and one on the front cover. They are reproductions of watercolors, printed digitally and tipped into and onto the book. Littlejohn wrote that drinking, as Tom Holland's illustrations suggest, played a large part in this play, as it did in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. This handsome volume is bound in lavender cloth over boards, with an inset on the front cover containing a Holland illustration. It has a purple goatskin spine, with the title stamped in silver foil. Letterpress printed on Revere, an Italian mouldmade paper using American Garamond and Univers types. Accompanied by the prospectus that includes a special invitation inviting the recipient to a publication party for this edition at which the playwright, writer of the introduction, and artist were present. There is also a copy of a letter sent to press subscribers with information about this publication and the forthcoming publication of the Press for that year, Poetry of Sappho. In fine condition with the slightest sunning to the spine. Measures 6.25 x 9.25 inches. 172 pages. PRI/110424.