BARTHELME, Donald. City Life. London: Jonathan Cape. 1971. 8vo. Publisher’s uncorrected proof copy of the first British edition. Softcover wraps in Cape’s usual format—pink wraps with title and blurb for review to front cover, in the proof dust jacket, oversized and off-centre thus, with printed ‘proof only’ to rear flap, the jacket designed by Stanley Chapman. An about fine copy. The book a trifle bumped at extremities, very mild wrinkling to spine. Some glue residue to gutters of front and rear joints, as per usual with Cape proofs, with mild toning to inside covers, else clean. The dust jacket unclipped (£1.50 net) and gently rubbed and creased to spine head and tail, corners. A pleasing example, scarce.
Barthelme’s third collection of fictional stories which sprawl along city life, often at lightning speed. ‘The feats of his imagination are metaphors for contemporary madness' [blurb]. The book’s lunatic tempo is matched only by its decidedly innovative dust jacket, a wraparound design by Stanley Chapman, who offers very few examples in the medium, all of which present a world fragmented, surreal, fantastic. Chapman was, alongside Bill Botten, Leigh Taylor, Craig Dodd and several others stalwarts of the Jonathan Cape design team, helping the publisher to move away from the mostly typographical designs of the mid-century—usually by the wonderful Hans Tisdall—and into an ambitious and experimental new style.
BARTHELME, Donald. City Life. London: Jonathan Cape. 1971. 8vo. Publisher’s uncorrected proof copy of the first British edition. Softcover wraps in Cape’s usual format—pink wraps with title and blurb for review to front cover, in the proof dust jacket, oversized and off-centre thus, with printed ‘proof only’ to rear flap, the jacket designed by Stanley Chapman. An about fine copy. The book a trifle bumped at extremities, very mild wrinkling to spine. Some glue residue to gutters of front and rear joints, as per usual with Cape proofs, with mild toning to inside covers, else clean. The dust jacket unclipped (£1.50 net) and gently rubbed and creased to spine head and tail, corners. A pleasing example, scarce.
Barthelme’s third collection of fictional stories which sprawl along city life, often at lightning speed. ‘The feats of his imagination are metaphors for contemporary madness' [blurb]. The book’s lunatic tempo is matched only by its decidedly innovative dust jacket, a wraparound design by Stanley Chapman, who offers very few examples in the medium, all of which present a world fragmented, surreal, fantastic. Chapman was, alongside Bill Botten, Leigh Taylor, Craig Dodd and several others stalwarts of the Jonathan Cape design team, helping the publisher to move away from the mostly typographical designs of the mid-century—usually by the wonderful Hans Tisdall—and into an ambitious and experimental new style.
