The Merry Marcos

8vo. 220 x 150 [8 1/2 x 6 inches]. 141pp. Handsome line drawings by the author at each chapter-opening throughout. Publisher's orange cloth with black stamping on spine and front board; illustrated unclipped jacket in colorful pastels. Book Fine: pristine textblock, with only the slightest shelf wear to foot of spine. Jacket Very Good: spine sunned; closed tear near spine-fold at top of front.

First Edition. Valenti Angelo (1897-1982), whose work is highly prized in the world of the graphic arts, 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 as subjects. In San Francisco he worked with the celebrated Grabhorn Press. Nino, his first book for children, received the Newbery Honor in 1939.

In The Merry Marcos, Angelo novelizes the experiences of an itinerant family of clowns and saltimbanchi touring the villages of northern Italy in the early 20th century. A light-hearted, innocent, youthful version of the picaresque world more grimly depicted in Fellini's La Strada.