first edition Hardcover
1931 · Los Angeles
by Landacre, Paul
Los Angeles: Bruce McCallister, 1931. First Edition. Hardcover. This is No. 278 of 500 copies signed by Paul Landacre. The artist's finest work, with a foreword by the noted printmaker and critic Arthur Millier. Quarto: unpaginated, with 14 wood engravings, as well as a small woodcut on the colophon. Original orange and gray patterned paper-covered boards, with the printed and engraved title label on the front panel. The engraved bookplate of Lenala Martin, Librarian of Lassen County, appears on the front pastedown. An exquisite example, among the finest we have seen, accompanied by the original glasine wrapper. Housed in a custom chemise and a one-quarter gray morocco over marbled paper slipcase.
"If a picture is worth a thousand words, these elegant wood engravings of one of the California landscapes are an essay of 14,000 words. Paul Landacre (1893-1963) captures much of the flavor of the land in his black-and-white compositions. He was one of the twentieth century's most distinguished wood engravers. Born in Columbus, Ohio, he came to Southern California in the 1920s and spent the rest of his life there [...] In 1930, Landacre and his wife Margaret were invited to take an auto touring trip to Carmel and Big Sur, where he made the studies for several of the engravings in this book. One, 'Point Sur', was honored by the American Institute of Graphic Arts as one of the Fifty Prints of the Year in 1931. (In the previous year his 'Physics Building - UCLA', also to appear in the book, had received that honor.) Later in 1930 the couple visited the Coachella Valley, where Landacre found the inspiration for his 'Indio Mountains' and 'Edge of the Desert'. The other subjects in the book range north and up the coast as far as Big Sur and Monterey" (Zamorano Select 59).
In "Paul Landacre: A Life and Legacy" (1983), Anthony L. Lehman writes, "His very first book, for instance, remains his best. California Hills and Other Wood Engravings (1931) is the cornerstone of any Landacre collection and commands a lofty price on those few occasions when a copy surfaces on a rare book dealer's shelves. And it is not simply its allusiveness that makes it sought after; it is primarily the subject matter and the quality of the prints themselves. (Inventory #: 76834)
"If a picture is worth a thousand words, these elegant wood engravings of one of the California landscapes are an essay of 14,000 words. Paul Landacre (1893-1963) captures much of the flavor of the land in his black-and-white compositions. He was one of the twentieth century's most distinguished wood engravers. Born in Columbus, Ohio, he came to Southern California in the 1920s and spent the rest of his life there [...] In 1930, Landacre and his wife Margaret were invited to take an auto touring trip to Carmel and Big Sur, where he made the studies for several of the engravings in this book. One, 'Point Sur', was honored by the American Institute of Graphic Arts as one of the Fifty Prints of the Year in 1931. (In the previous year his 'Physics Building - UCLA', also to appear in the book, had received that honor.) Later in 1930 the couple visited the Coachella Valley, where Landacre found the inspiration for his 'Indio Mountains' and 'Edge of the Desert'. The other subjects in the book range north and up the coast as far as Big Sur and Monterey" (Zamorano Select 59).
In "Paul Landacre: A Life and Legacy" (1983), Anthony L. Lehman writes, "His very first book, for instance, remains his best. California Hills and Other Wood Engravings (1931) is the cornerstone of any Landacre collection and commands a lofty price on those few occasions when a copy surfaces on a rare book dealer's shelves. And it is not simply its allusiveness that makes it sought after; it is primarily the subject matter and the quality of the prints themselves. (Inventory #: 76834)