When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN — ALCUIN: A DIALOGUEGehenna Press, 1970Printer’s CopyLeonard BaskinOne of 300 CopiesOriginal Marbled SlipcaseEarly American Women’s Rights & Feminist Thought
BROWN, Charles Brockden. Alcuin: A Dialogue. Edited, with an afterword, by Lee R. Edwards. Northampton, Massachusetts: The Gehenna Press, 1970.
The Gehenna Tracts, No. 3. Printer’s Copy, so designated in the colophon in place of a number. From an edition limited to 300 copies. Set in Centaur and Arrighi types and printed on Monadnock WvG paper, with presswork by Harold McGrath. Portrait of Charles Brockden Brown by Leonard Baskin. Original orange cloth-backed marbled boards, preserved in the original matching marbled slipcase.
A handsome and especially interesting copy of this finely produced Gehenna Press edition of one of the most significant early American texts concerned with the social and political rights of women.
The distinction of this example lies in its colophon designation as a Printer’s Copy rather than as one of the ordinarily numbered copies. Such copies have particular appeal within private-press collecting, preserving a direct association with the physical production of the edition.
Founded by artist, sculptor, and printmaker Leonard Baskin, the Gehenna Press became one of the most important American private presses of the twentieth century. Baskin’s books are distinguished by the close integration of typography, illustration, paper, and binding, and by the press’s unusually strong relationship between literary text and graphic art.
Alcuin is an elegant example of that approach. The text is set in Centaur and Arrighi, two of the great typefaces associated with twentieth-century fine printing, and printed on Monadnock WvG paper. The title page incorporates Baskin’s portrait of Charles Brockden Brown, while the presswork was executed by Harold McGrath, an important figure in American fine printing and printmaking.
The restrained design is particularly appropriate to Brown’s dialogue, allowing one of the more radical texts of the early American republic to stand at the center of the production.
Charles Brockden Brown occupies a foundational place in American literature and is frequently identified as one of the earliest American writers to attempt to support himself professionally through literary work. Best known for the Gothic novels Wieland, Ormond, Arthur Mervyn, and Edgar Huntly, Brown also participated deeply in the political and philosophical debates of the revolutionary and early national periods.
Alcuin is particularly remarkable in this context.
Originally published in 1798, the dialogue addresses questions of women’s education, marriage, economic independence, employment, and political equality. Its intellectual setting was the transatlantic debate over the rights of women that followed works such as Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. The complete text ultimately develops a striking vision of gender equality, and modern scholarship treats Alcuin as an important early American contribution to feminist and utopian political thought.
The Gehenna Press edition is significant in its own right because it brought together the complete portions of the dialogue in a single volume. A contemporary dealer description of the edition notes that the first portions appeared in 1798, while material subsequently published in connection with William Dunlap’s biography of Brown was incorporated into the complete text presented here.
The result is a book with unusually broad collecting appeal, sitting at the intersection of American literature, women’s rights history, feminist thought, private-press printing, and Leonard Baskin’s graphic art.
The present copy is additionally distinguished by its Printer’s Copy status. Rather than receiving one of the edition’s numerical designations, the colophon has been specifically marked “Printer’s Copy,” making it a special issue associated with the production of the book itself.
CONDITION
Very Good, preserved in the original slipcase.
The orange cloth spine remains bright and attractive overall, with slight sunning. The marbled paper boards are well preserved and present handsomely.
Internally clean and fresh overall, with light foxing or discoloration to the endpapers and very occasional minor handling marks. Small penciled notation to the front blank.
The colophon is clearly designated “Printer’s Copy.”
The original marbled slipcase is present and remains sound, with light shelfwear consistent with age.
A particularly appealing copy of an important Gehenna Press production, combining Leonard Baskin design and portraiture, Harold McGrath presswork, a 300-copy limitation, original slipcase, and the unusual Printer’s Copy designation, together with one of the most provocative early American discussions of women’s equality.
Collector interest: Leonard Baskin; Gehenna Press; American private press; fine printing; Charles Brockden Brown; early American literature; feminist literature; women’s rights; utopian thought; Printer’s Copies; limited editions.
