Captivity Narrative of Hannah Duston.; with thirty-five wood-block prints by Richard Bosman Cotton Mather, John Greenleaf Whittier, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau; Glenn Todd (Introduction); Richard Bosman (Artist) Andrew Hoyem and Arion Press (New),History

Folio, 16 3/4" by 12 1/2", 56 pp. The narratives are handset in 18-point Kennerly Bold, designed by Frederic W. Goudy. The introduction and subsidiary material are in Kennerly Bold, in Monotype composition by Mackenzie-Harris. The display type is Neuland Inline, designed by Rudolph Koch. The paper is French mould-made Rives heavyweight. The binding, done in-house, is hand-sewn, with a brown linen cloth spine, sides coverd in Sugikawashi, a Japanese handmade paper made from cedar-bark fibers, and a paper spine label. In the days before computer-generated page layouts it was necessary to use pieces of paper to organize a book. We took proofs of the woodblock prints cut by the artist Richard Bosman and tried to figure out what they referred to in the four accounts of the agonizing story of Hannahy Duston, retold over 150 years, of her capture by Indians, the murder of her child, her transfer by her captors to an Indian family who had converted to Christianity and were kind to her, her killing of that family, and her escape, with her nursemaid and an unrelated young boy, back to "civilization" in a canoe stolen from the family she had killed. Was she a heroine or a criminal or a witch? This question has not been resolved, even after the matter was preached from the pulpit by Mather and considered by such a peacable person as Thoreau. We laid the proofs on the floor of the library and meeting room of Arion Press and put them in an order, then set the type to conform to the space left over from the prints on the pages. At first we were unsure that the artist had read all the accounts, but eventually the woodblock prints fell into place, and we determined that Bosman, who had been recommended to us by his dealer Brooke Alexander, had indeed understood what transpired in actuality and in the versions written by these major figures in American history. ___POSTAGE: Please note that this is an exceptionally large volume and additional postage may apply; please inquire for details. ___Swan's Fine Books is pleased to be a member of the ABAA, ILAB, and IOBA and we stand behind every book we sell. Please contact us with any questions you may have, we are here to help.