The Waste Land Eliot, T.S.; Vendler, Helen (Essay on the Poem); Hoyem, Andrew (Note, Partitioning of the Painting, Poem); Livingstone, Marco (Essay on the Painting); Kitaj, R.B. (Artist) Andrew Hoyem and Arion Press (New),Poetry

Square, 12 1/2 by 12 inches, 68 pages. The types are handset Bauer Bodoni for the poem, with larger sizes for display, and Bodoni Book in Monmotype composition by Mackenzie & Harris for subsidiary text. The images were printed by offset lithography. The papers are Somerset Book, a British mould-made sheet, for the text, with Mohawk Superfine for the pictorial pages. The binding, done in-house, is hand-sewn, in full half-linen cloth, with hand-dyed headbands, and brown titling printed by letterpress on the front cover and spine. Edition of 300 numbered copies, plus 26 lettered copies hors de commerce. We were alerted by the publisher Jonathan Galassi that "The Waste Land" was entering the public domain. The rare book dealer Peter Howard proposed that R.B. Kitaj's painting "If Not, Not" could be an appropriate accompaniment. Our master printer Gerald Reddan suggested dividing up the painting into details that could be distributed throughout the book and then rejoined as a whole at the end. Helen Vender's introduction and art historian and curator Marco Livingstone's piece on the painting rounded out the concept. The pagination was our editorial decision, intended to let the sections and subsections of the poem occupy their own spaces so that Eliot's structure would be reinforced by our typography and page design. Kitaj (1932-2007) disavowed that the figure in the lower left of the painting was intended to be T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), as many assume. He wrote to us that the person was intentionally ambiguous, like so much else in art and poetry. Then, in a post-script, he said, "Print this if you like. If not, not!" ___POSTAGE: International customers, please note that additional postage may apply as the standard does not always cover costs; 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.