first edition
1904 · San Francisco
by Smith, Bertha H. (author). Florence Lundbord (artist)
San Francisco: Paul Elder, 1904. First Edition. Very good. Tall 8vo. 64 pp. With reproductions of 13 eerie illustrations by Florence Lundbord, each with tissue guard, imaginative decorated borders incorporating Native American Indian designs. Original publisher's brick-red heavy cloth (slightly worn at extremities), binding design and endpapers likewise designed by Florence Lundbord, t.e.g. In excellent condition. AN EXTRAORDINARY EXAMPLE OF AMERICAN ART DECO BOOK ARTS, TOO LITTLE KNOWN.
Florence Lundborg (1871-1949) designed the binding, title-page, and decorative borders; her thirteen understated, yet astonishingly beautiful illustrations are right out of the tonalist school of Arthur Wesley Dow.
"One of the great [binding] designs that was ahead of its time is Florence Lundborg's 1904 cover for 'Yosemite Legends' by Bertha Smith. It shows the influence of Albert Pinkham Ryder, and of Whistler, at whose Paris Art Academy she attended from 1897-1900. She had previously studied in San Francisco with Arthur Mathews at the California School of Design. Mathews, who had studied architecture with his father before attending the Académie Julian in Paris, was a strong proponent of the Arts and Crafts aesthetic. Here the mists of Tonalism are gone, but the abstraction to simplified elements remains, with the totemic border rendered in Arts and Crafts style." (Richard Minsky, "Art of American Book Covers" blog).
Lundborg was a member of Les Jeunes ("the Kids"), an eclectic, bohemian group of writers and artists involved with Gelett Burgess's magazine "The Lark," for which she illustrated several covers and posters. Sadly, the original thirteen illustrations for "Yosemite Legends" were lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. In 1909 she traveled through Europe with fellow artist and book designer Belle McMurtry. From 1915 to 1917 Lundborg and McMurtry shared a studio in the Studio Building on Post Street, San Francisco. They moved together to New York in June 1917. After moving to New York, Lundborg began to illustrate books and became known for her illustrations of "The Rubaiyat," "Odes and Sonnets," and of course the present work "Yosemite Legends. Apparently she never married.
THE AUTHOR: Bertha Henry Smith (1872-1922) was a Los Angeles-based magazine and literary writer. Here she presents six Native American legends of the Yosemite Valley: Large Grizzly Bear; Po-ho-no, Spirit of the Evil Wind; Hum-moo, the Lost Arrow; Py-we-ack, the White Water; Tu-tock-ah-nu-lah and Tis-sa-ack; Kom-po-pai-ses, Leaping Frog Rocks.
REFERENCES: Richard Minsky, American trade bindings with Native American themes 1875-1933, p. 62. American decorated publishers' bindings 1872-1929, p. 68. Art of American book covers 1875-1930, p. 83
From the Dorothy Sloan Collection of Women in the West. (Inventory #: 4239)
Florence Lundborg (1871-1949) designed the binding, title-page, and decorative borders; her thirteen understated, yet astonishingly beautiful illustrations are right out of the tonalist school of Arthur Wesley Dow.
"One of the great [binding] designs that was ahead of its time is Florence Lundborg's 1904 cover for 'Yosemite Legends' by Bertha Smith. It shows the influence of Albert Pinkham Ryder, and of Whistler, at whose Paris Art Academy she attended from 1897-1900. She had previously studied in San Francisco with Arthur Mathews at the California School of Design. Mathews, who had studied architecture with his father before attending the Académie Julian in Paris, was a strong proponent of the Arts and Crafts aesthetic. Here the mists of Tonalism are gone, but the abstraction to simplified elements remains, with the totemic border rendered in Arts and Crafts style." (Richard Minsky, "Art of American Book Covers" blog).
Lundborg was a member of Les Jeunes ("the Kids"), an eclectic, bohemian group of writers and artists involved with Gelett Burgess's magazine "The Lark," for which she illustrated several covers and posters. Sadly, the original thirteen illustrations for "Yosemite Legends" were lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. In 1909 she traveled through Europe with fellow artist and book designer Belle McMurtry. From 1915 to 1917 Lundborg and McMurtry shared a studio in the Studio Building on Post Street, San Francisco. They moved together to New York in June 1917. After moving to New York, Lundborg began to illustrate books and became known for her illustrations of "The Rubaiyat," "Odes and Sonnets," and of course the present work "Yosemite Legends. Apparently she never married.
THE AUTHOR: Bertha Henry Smith (1872-1922) was a Los Angeles-based magazine and literary writer. Here she presents six Native American legends of the Yosemite Valley: Large Grizzly Bear; Po-ho-no, Spirit of the Evil Wind; Hum-moo, the Lost Arrow; Py-we-ack, the White Water; Tu-tock-ah-nu-lah and Tis-sa-ack; Kom-po-pai-ses, Leaping Frog Rocks.
REFERENCES: Richard Minsky, American trade bindings with Native American themes 1875-1933, p. 62. American decorated publishers' bindings 1872-1929, p. 68. Art of American book covers 1875-1930, p. 83
From the Dorothy Sloan Collection of Women in the West. (Inventory #: 4239)