Recently published in the US by Beehive Books of Philadelphia is a new, lavish illustrated edition of David Lindsay's classic 1920 novel, A Voyage to Arcturus. The illustrations are by Jim Woodring, brightly colored and striking in an individualist style. Whether this psychedelic surreal style is appropriate for Lindsay's novel is a matter of personal taste. But the production quality of this new edition is very high. Here I share a few highlights to showcase this new edition.
First, the oversized book comes in a box:
Opening the box you see the slip-cased book:
And pulling the book out of the slipcase, one sees:
Opening to some random pages, there are double-spread illustrations, and pages mixing illustration and text:
And finally, an illustration of Sullenbode, followed by the facing page of text:
Yes, saw this; another great book spoiled by an interminable Alan Moore foreword. Writes with his mouth full.
ReplyDeleteWow! I wouldn't have thought of Jim Woodring as a potential illustrator for Arcturus, and I think I'll stick with my own visual imagination rather than letting him influence it, but it's nice that someone wanted to do this.
ReplyDeleteDo we know which text they used, per your own prior post about errors in certain old editions?
I supplied the text, transcribed from the 1920 first edition (the only text that Lindsay himself proofed).
DeleteThe Alan Moore introduction is reprinted from the 2002 Savoy Books edition.
I don't mind the Moore introduction.
DeleteIt's a very well made book and, finally, with restored, clean text. But Woodring, stylistically, didn't seem an appropriate artist to me -- and then he got on the Talk Gnosis podcast and revealed not only a gross misunderstanding of the book, but he lacked sympathy toward it and Lindsay. In fact, he was downright insulting.
Yes, that Woodring podcast was a huge embarrassment. I've never encountered so many incorrect statements and gross misunderstandings about Lindsay in one place before. The podcast is best forgotten.
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