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SELECTED
BY THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF
GRAPHIC ARTS AS ONE OF THE 50 BOOKS OF THE YEAR
(Kent, Rockwell). Mazer, Ben. Rockwell Kent’s Bookplate for
John Whiting Friel. Boston: Boss Fine Books / Boss Fine Art, 2002.
Quarto. 16pp. Available in brown-red wrappers or crimson cloth.
Four original vintage prints from 1953 and one facsimile reproduction
tipped in. Some deckle edges. As new.
The largest of the four sizes of the Kent Friel bookplate is the
biggest of all Rockwell Kent bookplates. It's large format shows
off the richness and expansiveness of Kent’s design; Philadelphia
book collector John Whiting Friel wanted it to adorn his folio books.
Coinciding with the publication of two other important books about
Kent, this limited edition publication--which features all four
sizes of the original 1953 bookplate tipped in, together with a
facsimile reproduction of the rare Kent Friel Society of Jesus bookplate--tells
the previously unpublished story behind the creation of the bookplate,
including much that is of interest about its printing, and the roles
of both Kent and Friel in its conception.
The book is designed by Jerry Kelly and finely printed by letterpress
on mold-made Zerkall paper in an edition limited to 200 regular
copies. A special clothbound edition, limited to 50 copies, is numbered
and signed by the author and the publisher, and enclosed in a handsome
slipcase of grey paper covered boards.
Ben Mazer is the author of a collection of poems, White Cities,
published by Barbara Matteau Editions, and has contributed widely
to American and international periodicals, including Harvard
Review, Verse, Jacket Magazine, Pequod, The Boston Phoenix, Agenda,
Leviathan Quarterly, Stand, Thumbscrew and Harvard Magazine.
He is a contributing editor to Fulcrum: an annual of poetry and
aesthetics.
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