Blake and the youthful ancients: being portraits of William Blake and his followers engraved on wood by Leonard Baskin and with a biographical note by Bennett Schiff

1956. Northampton, Mass.: Gehenna Press, 1956.

Small 4to, [11 inc. the first blank]pp. 18 b/w plates printed on Japan vellum with a title-sheet printed in red on plain paper preceding each image. Stapled into wrappers, very good.

§ "Fifty copies of this book have been printed by Esther and Leonard Baskin at the Gehenna Press in Northampton Mass." This is copy number "X" which indicates a proof copy since the edition was issued in a quarter morocco binding and this copy is unbound. Six copies are recorded on WorldCat to which add Toronto (Fisher Library) and Essick (CA). Leonard Baskin's note, from the Bibliography: "This was the last book which was made with my hands, that cessation a benefaction since I was a compositor & pressman of no distinction. This book is an homage to Blake & the dear youths who plied him with honour in his late age. My increased skill in woodengraving is here made manifest & a pattern for a kind of Gehenna Press book makes its beginning here; an introduction succeeded by a series of prints. The title-page reveals the novice's poking into historical sources & exemplars.".