Golden Gate

New York: Viking Press and the Junior Literary Guild, 1939. 8vo. 235 x 160 mm., [9 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches.].  273pp.  All illustrations by the author, in handsome block-print style; Angelo was a specialist in linocut. Publisher's pinkish-tan cloth with dark brown stamping on spine and front cover; illustrated jacket, notched as issued (but unclipped), in tan and metallicized gold. Book Near Fine: seemingly barely read; normal age-browning to pastedowns.  Jacket Very Good: slight abrasions to edges, two short closed tears on rear near top of spine-fold.

First Edition. Valenti Angelo (1897-1982), whose work is highly prized among graphic artists and collectors, was born in Massarossa, in Tuscany, and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 8. After a period in New York City, he settled in California where he became a leading engraver and printer, specializing in the linocut as a medium, and in evocative Southwestern night and desert scenes. In San Francisco he worked with the celebrated Grabhorn Press. Nino, his first book for children, received the Newbery Honor in 1939.

In Golden Gate, Angelo provides a sequel to the earlier autobiographical Nino, in which he had recreated his very youngest years in Tuscany. Golden Gate restarts the story of his childhood after the American arrival.