Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus…

West Hatfield [Massachusetts]: Printed by Harold McGrath at Pennyroyal, 1983. Barry Moser's Favorite Pennyroyal Book
"Frankenstein"

[MOSER, Barry, illustrator]. [PENNYROYAL PRESS]. SHELLEY, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus… The 1818 text in three volumes. Illustrated by Barry Moser and with essays by Ruth Mortimer, Emily Sunstein, Joyce Carol Oates, and William St. Clair. West Hatfield [Massachusetts]: Printed by Harold McGrath at Pennyroyal, 1983.

Limited to 350 numbered copies, of which this is number 164 signed by the artist. With an additional suite of the wood engravings, each signed in pencil (truncated) by the artist.

Folio (13 1/2 x 10 inches; 342 x 254 mm.). xvi, 282, [2, blank], [1, colophon], [3, blank] pp. Fifty-two wood-engravings by Barry Moser printed in several colors. Printed in Poliphilus and Blado with Wilhelm Klingsporschrift on Pulegium archival paper manufactured by the Strathmore Paper Company, Woronoco, Massachusetts.

Bound by Sam Ellenport at the Harcourt Bindery, Boston, in publisher’s quarter tan morocco over maroon cloth boards. Spine ruled in gilt and blind (the blind rules extending onto the covers) in compartments with burgundy morocco gilt lettering label (the calligraphic lettering on the spine label by Yvette Rutledge). Top edge gilt. Some very light foxing to fore-edge and preliminary leaves, otherwise a fine copy. The additional suite of wood engravings laid into a maroon cloth portfolio. Housed together in the publisher’s maroon cloth slipcase.

“I’m often asked, which of my books is my favorite and I usually respond with the single word Frankenstein. It is my favorite because it, more than the others, exemplifies what I hold to be ideal: it holds together as a unit, a coherent whole with type, text, and images well-balanced and well paced. Frankenstein marks the first instance of the use of multiple color block prints in a Pennyroyal book as well as the first collaboration with Joyce Carol Oates, who will do the introductions to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula in time to come” (Pennyroyal).

Pennyroyal 29. (Inventory #: 06168)