Book on LEC due out yet this year

I talked with Carol Grossman this week, and she stated that her book on the LEC would be published sometime this year. It is scheduled to be published by the Oak Knoll Press, and it will be announced there and available at their web site. She didn't have much to say about the content so we will have to wait and see. As a long time collector of LEC's, she at one time had them all, including both Macy's and Shiff's contributions. Some year's back, Carol wrote an article entitled The Decline and Fall of the LEC. From this, I contend that she was a bigger fan of Macy than she was of Shiff, but you never know.

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"... I contend that she was a bigger fan of Macy than she was of Shiff..."

Who isn't? I do not care for the Shiff era at all, with only a handful of exceptions because of design carryover from the old LEC. Sigh.

Does anyone know of an online link to Grossman's "Decline and Fall of LEC" article?

For some reason, literary squabbles have always appealed to me. Salman Rushdie's description of his fight with his former publisher was riveting to read in his memoir. I'd love to know more about the angered LEC subscribers who walked away during the Shiff era.

I love reading 'books about books,' so this one will definitely go on my to-buy list. I have been collecting Heritage Press titles for a little over two years and just acquired my first two LECs within the past week, but I know much about the history of the presses or subscription service. This book will hopefully give me a better understanding of both.

I doubt it. I think Carol's book will be more about Macy's intermingling with the literati of the publishing and printing worlds of the 20s and 30s than about particular books. I could be wrong, but she is too much of a lady to get into paticulars about Shiff etc.

>3 andrewsd: Does anyone know of an on-line link to Grossman's "Decline and Fall of LEC" article?
No, but she published a long and well-illustrated article with a less eye-catching title - East Side Story: Two Faces of the Limited Editions Club - in the March 1999 issue of Biblio, which is accessible at
BIBLIO99

(In fact there are two of her LEC articles there: the second is Market Impressions.)

Thank you for posting this featherwate. It is an interesting insight into her forthcoming book.

A few things in the article bothered me: she talks about the books Macy produced--the Ulysses and Lysistrata, but she fails to mention that he also was the designer of these books, and many other of the LEC's most celebrated volumes. Also, Sid Shiif's comment "Just think of what Macy might have accomplished if he had been able to continue recruiting artists of that caliber Matisse and Picasso...I'm disappointed he never grasped the opportunity to do books with Giacometti, Bonnard and Braque." This is the point wherein Mr. Shiff's thinking and mine diverge: I have seen the illustrations by both Matisse and Picasso, and I am somewhat underwhelmed. But then I'm more interested in the book being well-illustrated than having a celebrity artist illustrate it. And though they may not be in the same stratosphere of celebrity as Matisse and Picasso, the artistic talents of Benton, Curry, Wood and Marsh are not inconsequential, and I think they will be at least as highly respected by posterity as many of Mr. Shiff's artists--even Sean Scully! But even these fine artists are not necessarily the best artists to illustrate a book if one considers that the illustrations are there to serve the words--not vice versa. I'm not surprised to discover Mr. Shiff didn't really seem to have much interest in reading.

>7 featherwate: Django: she wrote this 14 years ago so perhaps her subsequent research will have given her a better appreciation of the breadth and depth of Macy's involvement in the LEC (not to mention in the Heritage Club and its several offspring).
"I'm disappointed he never grasped the opportunity to do books with Giacometti, Bonnard and Braque." (Sid Shiff).
I imagine Macy's experiences with Matisse and Picasso did not encourage him to make a point of seeking out other European 'great masters'! Nor would doing so have fitted in with his aim for the LEC: to produce finely printed, finely illustrated, authentic texts at a price that didn't exclude all but the wealthy collector. As you point out, the book was there to serve the word. His subscribers, more conservative than he was, would not have welcomed a regular diet of what Francis Meynell dismissed as 'the French approach': picture books rather than texts supported by pictures (an approach which would not have translated well to the Heritage books - and what a loss that would have been).
I've got only a couple of Shiff books - Streetcar Named Desire (1982) and Colette's Break of Day (1983; co-designed by Ben Shiff), both of which are fairly traditional. Francoise Gilot wrote that her 12 pictures for Break of Day were meant to "help sustain a mood rather than provide a visual commentary", and her empathy with Colette and her obvious love for the book are such that the pictures definitely enhance rather than dominate the text. The three six-colour silk-screen illustrations in particular are gloriously evocative of France. It's altogether a lovely book and seems to me to be seriously undervalued.

>5 featherwate: Thank you featherwate, you really made my day. That article was immensely interesting. I love reading about the history of publishing/bookselling in America. It is a shame that Shiff turned the LEC into a vanity/art press. I can't wait for Grossman's book to come out.

>7 featherwate:

I must say I have always wanted the LEC Streetcar Named Desire, more for the production and Hirschfeld's illustrations than for the play itself, which has never aroused the same admiration in me that Death of a Salesman, The Iceman Cometh, and Long Day's Journey into Night arouses. I'm sure it's just a case of Williams' milieu doesn't interest me much, but it certainly is one of the most handsome of the later LECs.

I am in total agreement with you on Break of Day, a sumptuous production with great illustrations and a first class piece of 20th century French literature. I actually have two copies--one never read and a second that is almost as fine, but which exhibits sun fading on the spine. I bought the second one from a shop where the dealer had both the Colette book and Jurgen in unread condition but sun fading of the spines; I bought both for less than half what I paid for the pristine Colette, and I considered that purchase a bargain at the time. I don't know why Break of Day is so underrated, when the later Sean Scully-illustrated Heart of Darkness, a book no one I know seems to think highly of, sell for 4 figures. It must be Colette is generally underrated.

I agree that 'Streetcar' and "Break of Day' are superb latter day LECs. as I read 'Stretcar', I can hear a young Brando reciting the play. While Colette's book is sumptuous, a book I woud have liked to be included in the LEC is 'Gigi'. It is hard to believe that Leslie Caron is now in her late 70s.

I pulled out my copy of Break of Day and started reading. Before I pu it down, I had 1/2 of this short book. I next ivestigated my library by browsing the works of Colette. I found a movie of Cheri with Michellle Pfeifer which I didn't know existed. I ordered Cheri, Gigi the book, and Gigi the movie. I just have to hear Hermione Gingold and crew sing once again The Night They invented Champagne.

Break of Day is so evocative of France. The blue silk binding and the beautiful paper used makes this edition very French and sumptuous, along with the silk screens of Francois Gilot.

Don, I'd be interested in your reaction to the Cheri with Michelle Pfeiffer, which I hadn't heard of and hope to hear will be worth seeing.. Pfeiffer's a fine and luminous actress and the director (Stephen Frears) has a good track record. Looking the film up on IMDb I was surprised to find how many films/tv series have been based on Colette's work – Michelle Pfeiffer's will be the sixth Cheri adaptation and there are four Gigis and several films based on the Claudine books – including five silent versions between 1913 and 1917.
(Apparently Colette herself spotted Audrey Hepburn on the film-set of a 1950 French comedy musical and said “That's my Gigi!”, thus ensuring that within a few months Hepburn was on Broadway in Anita Loos' non-musical version of the book – her launching-pad for stardom.)
I first read Colette in the late-1950s following one of the more depressing experiences of my school career - my French literature class being taken as an end-of-term 'treat' to see an allegedly distinguished French company performing some play or other by Racine. To a boy who had been reading and acting in Shakespeare since he was 7 or 8, this stageful of singsong waxworks bore as much resemblance to drama as a one-legged wallaby with gout did to a Jaguar XK140. It might have put me off French literature for life if the following vacation hadn't turned out to be, in the words of the Roseanne Cash song, 'The Summer I Read Colette'. And not only Colette, but also Simenon (well, I thought he was French at the time) and The Penguin Book of French Verse. This was thanks to a holiday job in a small bookshop (shades of Wildcat!) where I hadn't much to do except read. Colette and Simenon were in English, the French verse included Francois Villon, but together they persuaded me there might after all be an enjoyable thing called “French literature” worth studying.

>12 featherwate:

Also based on a Colette work, though I don't know how faithful it is to the original, is a wonderful film by Roberto Rossellini, "Journey to Italy," starring his then-wife, Ingrid Bergman, and George Sanders. It was made when America was still boycotting Bergman's films (because she had the nerve to leave her first husband for Rossellini), and as a result it sank out of sight in this country. I saw it at a Rossellini retrospective at the L.A. County Museum in the 1980s, and I don't know if it is even available on DVD, but is well worth watching.

Bergman also had twins by Rosselini after 'Stromboli'. Probably a good enough reason to leave your husband, or have him leave you. George Sanders was never a starring actor, but he made as much money as the stars did because he was never out of work. I used to go see any movie with him in it. Someone once said he had a perpetual sneer on his face.

I enjoyed him immensly as Rebecca's cousin in the Du Maurier film. The scene where he stole Maximillian de Winter's chicken lunch was hillarious. Also, he was the perfect bastard in The Moon and sixpence. He gave the eulogy for Tyrone Power. He said, "Why not! With Ty's death I will get paid twice for making the movie (something about Solomon).

Even his suicide note was scurrilous. And he supossedly was in goood health. No one knows why he took his own life.

I'll get back with you about Cheri. Haven't watched it yet.

I read the last of Colette's LEC this morning. I enjoyed it much more than I did the first time through in 1983. I loved Audrey Hepburn, but I think Leslie Caron was perfect in the musical Gigi. i I would like to have the movie sound track. I have the instrumental jazz version of Gigi made by Shelley Manne and Andre Previn. Leslie Caron was 25 when she played the sixteen year old Gigi. Hermine Gingold was much more than 25.

You've caused me to go looking for "Journey to Italy" on Netflix, but it's apparently not one they have available.

Phyllis, you might try searching by the stars, or by the original title "Viaggio in Italia." Let me know if you find it, as it's hard to get.

I managed to get my hands on Cheri and watched it last night. Loved it. Gave it five stars. I've always had that fin de siecle/bell epoque type of sensibility. The costuming was fantastically wonderful. Michelle Pheiffer was great. Now I don't feel guilty about having never finished the book.

>17 varielle: " I've always had that fin de siecle/bell epoque type of sensibility."

Have you seen "Casque d'or" by Jacques Becker? Simone Signoret at her most scrumptious in the best depiction of that period I've seen. Based on a true and quite sensational incident involving the Apache subculture.

I just added it in position #327 to my Netflix list. It will be a full time job to actually getting around to watching all the movies on my list.

No news on the Carol Grossman book yet? There is nothing on the web at Oak Knoll, and it seems like her Four Rivers website has been under reconstruction for over a year now.

>20 parchment-: I have been wondering the same thing. I'd love to read that book.

I will drop her an email and report back if I get any news.

Nothing?

I have not talked with Carol, but from what I understand she was working furiously to complete the work by end of year (2103), and was more or less about done....so we should see some definitive plans soon. I will try to reach her again and report back if anything more definite.

>24 busywine: Thanks so much for the update! I will be first in line when that comes out.

I don't suppose the book will be letterpress? I feel that a book on the LEC should be letterpress, although I realize this may not be feasible... sadly.

nope, not letterpress, at least that was never the plan as far as I know

>26 astropi: If you want something like that, get the Quarto-Millenary. It has quickly become one of my most prized LECs. I have been reading it in small sections just to prolong the experience.

I assume this book will be a higher quality glossy paperback.

>28 andrewsd:, the Quarto-Millenary is a great book, well done. However, this book by Mr. Grossman will, content wise, be a whole different matter. All of us LEC lovers will devour the content when it comes out. It will be the be all end all of LEC info! At least, I hope!