An Alphabestiary

New York: Touchstone, 1966. First edition. Hardcover. Folios as issued laid-in green cloth tray-case. Very good. Hebald, Milton. No text. Large folio, 53 x 38 cm. Limited edition, copy 79 of 100, signed by John Ciardi, with twenty-six poems by Ciardi, [one for each letter of the alphabet] and twenty-six original signed lithographs in black and white and color. The lithographs were printed by the "Il Torcoliere" workshop, Rome. Martin Elting Hebald, more noted for his sculpture contributes his alphabetical vision, each lithograph housed in separate, individual portfolios. Interior contents fresh, bright. and clean. Hebald created a series of pieces in (truncated) 1960 featuring representations of the Zodiac on the exterior of the Pan American World Airways Worldport at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. In Zurich, Hebald was commissioned to do a life sized, full figure portrait of James Joyce, for Joyce's tomb. He also made a bust of British novelist Anthony Burgess. Laid-in the publisher prospectus for the title, and a summary biography of Hebald. Wear at tray-case front cover joints, light cover soiling. (Inventory #: 19033)