THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES A FOUNDLING and an Introduction by J. B. Priestley

LIMITED EDITION, one of only 1500 hand-numbered copies designed by George Macy and SIGNED BY ILLUSTRATOR ALEXANDER KING. With forty full-page illustrations in woodblock style printed in black within red ruled frames, decorated titlepage, chapter-headers, and decorated colophon printed in black and red, all by illustrator Alexander King Large, heavy 8vo, in the publisher’s original full gray flexible goatskin, the spine boldly gilt lettered and decorated, in the red cloth-covered slipcase with printed label. 870pp A very fine copy, one of most difficult early LEC titles to find in nice condition, the binding fresh, the depression era paper in excellent condition, the slipcase beautifully preserved.

Edizione: an eighteenth century literary masterpiece published for the limited editions club. this is a very early work for the club, and is the first of two times they would publish tom jones. the book was designed by george macy himself and printed under his supervision. the print work was done by e. l. hildreth and company of brattleboro and it was bound in brooklyn by g. mckibbin and son.<br> a personal favorite of macy's, the book was illustrated by artist, raconteur, and iconoclast alexander king. king would do two other works for macy; gulliver's travels and the brother's karamazov. king's one illustration of gulliver urinating on a fire in lilliput helped to recover the title which had previously been cast into the genre of children's literature. described as a thief, morphine addict, failing playwright and painter, alexander king was a man of "iconoclastic observations and caustic humor who began his career as a painter of human figures, focused primarily on the face. then he became an art thief, stealing fifty prints from the metropolitan museum. he was jailed twice, and married four times. he wrote a book, "rich man, poor man, freud and fruit," and died one day after appearing on "the today show" to publicize it.