The Scarlet Letter
New York: Random House Inc., 1928. Limited edition, copy #186 of 980. Colored wood block illustrations designed and engraved by Valenti Angelo. Cloth over boards with leather spine. Quarto. [viii], 363 pages.
A lovely limited edition of Hawthorne's most famous book, in which Hester Prynne, condemned by her Puritan New England community to wear a scarlet "A" for adultery, endures her public shame with dignity.
This limited edition is one of the first books to bear the Random House imprint. The firm was founded in 1927 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer with the aim of publishing fine editions "at random." This edition, which was elegantly designed and printed by the Grabhorns in San Francisco and beautifully decorated by Angleo's woodblocks in flat colors at the head of each chapter, certainly achieved the early Random House goal of pairing literary classics with excellent craftsmanship in typography and printing.
Ref. HELLER & MAGEE 112; Cerf, Bennett. 'At Random'.
Bound in coarse khaki cloth over boards with leather spine. Minor extremity rubs, slight sun fading to spine, one small ink check mark to top fore corner of front free endpaper, and a few areas of browning to endpapers from leather turn ins. Hinges sound. A handsome copy. Near fine overall.
Item #2148
Price: $300