THE BEACH OF FALESA. Introduction by J.C. Furnas. Illustrated with paintings by Millard Sheets.
by Stevenson, Robert Louis
- Used
- Fine
- Hardcover
- Signed
- Condition
- Fine
- Seller
-
Kinzers, Pennsylvania, United States
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About This Item
Printed by the Ward Ritchie Press, Los Angeles, for the members of the Limited Editions Club, New York: 1956., 1956 pp. (xvii), 113 (1). Small folio. Designed, printed, and bound by Ward Ritchie. Set in Intertype Waverly; on Linweave Paper, deckle edged. Bound in paper boards decorated by the artist, backed in brown cloth. Slipcase covered in rice paper, slightly soiled. Number 769 of an edition limited to only 1500 copies, signed by the artist. A fine example. From Wiki: The story is told in the first person by John Wiltshire, a British copra trader on the fictional South Sea island of Falesá. Upon arriving on the island, he meets a rival trader named Case, who (in an apparently friendly gesture) arranges for him to be "married" to a local girl named Uma in a ceremony designed to impress the natives but to be completely non-binding in the view of Europeans. Wiltshire soon discovers that Uma has a taboo attached to her which causes all the other natives to refuse to do business with him, to Case's profit. He also hears rumors of Case having been involved in the suspicious deaths of his previous competitors. Although realising that he has been tricked, Wiltshire has genuinely fallen in love with Uma, and has their marriage legalised by a passing missionary. Wiltshire gradually learns that Case's influence over the villagers stems from their belief that he has demonic powers, as a result of his simple conjuring tricks as well as strange noises and visions they have experienced at a "temple" he has built in the forest. Upon investigating, Wiltshire finds that these experiences are also tricks produced by imported technologies such as luminous paint and Aeolian harps. Wiltshire sets out that night to destroy the temple with gunpowder. Case confronts him and the two men fight, resulting in Case's death. The story concludes with Wiltshire several years later living on another island, still happily married to Uma, worrying about what will happen to his mixed-race children. Stevenson saw "The Beach of Falesá" as the ground-breaking work in his turn away from romanticism to realism. Stevenson wrote to his friend Sidney Colvin: 'It is the first realistic South Seas story; I mean with real South Sea character and details of life. Everybody else that has tried, that I have seen, got carried away by the romance, and ended in a kind of sugar candy sham epic, and the whole effect was lost - there was not etching, no human grin, consequently no conviction. Now I have got the smell and look of the thing a good deal. You will know more about the South Seas after you have read my little tale than if you had read a library.' In an unusual change for Stevenson, but in-line with realism, the plot of the story is less important, rather the realistic portrayal of the manners of various social classes in island society is foregrounded; it is essentially a novel of manners. As Stevenson says to Colvin in a letter, "The Beach of Falesá" is "well fed with facts" and "true to the manners' of the society it depicts." Other than the island itself which is fictional, it contains the names of real people, real ships and real buildings which Stevenson was familiar with from his personal travels in the South Seas. W42 L Language: eng. Signed by Illustrator(s). Hardcover. Fine.
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Details
- Bookseller
- THE FAMILY ALBUM (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 308LEC
- Title
- THE BEACH OF FALESA. Introduction by J.C. Furnas. Illustrated with paintings by Millard Sheets.
- Author
- Stevenson, Robert Louis
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- Printed by the Ward Ritchie Press, Los Angeles, for the members of the Limited Editions Club, New York: 1956.
- Date Published
- 1956
- Keywords
- LITERATURE; ART; ARTIST; ILLUSTRATION; COLOR; DESIGN; BINDING; TYPOGRAPHY; SOUTH PACIFIC; SIGNED; LIMITED EDITIONS CLUB; LEC; GIFT; FINE PRESS; SAMOA JUN
- Bookseller catalogs
- FINE PRESS; PACIFICA;
Terms of Sale
THE FAMILY ALBUM
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
THE FAMILY ALBUM
Biblio member since 2007
Kinzers, Pennsylvania
About THE FAMILY ALBUM
Ron Lieberman, has been an antiquarian bookseller, rare book appraiser, and library consultant for Fifty years. His firm, The Family Album, has issued a series of exceptional catalogs and bibliographic references in a variety of fields, including: Incunabula; Pennsylvania-Americana; German-Americana; Fine Book Bindings; Early Photographica; Printing History & Typography; Classics from the Great Scholar / Printers; Etc. He was the instructor for a series of valuable workshops and courses in the history, taste, and technique of book collecting. He frequently lectures before professional groups of librarians and archivists on: the book trade; collection and building security; disaster preparedness; appraisals; and preservation, conservation, and binding. He has also often appeared on radio and television popularizing the pleasant hobby of antique book collecting. His expert opinion on the book collecting market; values of archives and manuscripts; collection preservation & security; historic photographs; and the value of rare books has been sought by sources as diverse as: the Historical & Museum Commission of PA; the PA State Library; the Library of Congress; the Smithsonian Institution; the FBI; American Bible Society; Money Magazine; Kipplinger Magazine; Conservation Centers; Warmans Antique Price Guides; U.S.A. Today; as well as Universities, Colleges, and Historical Societies throughout the United States. As one of the organizers of the World Library Fund, Mr. Lieberman provides professional analyses of library collections, and helps plan library development for public and private institutions in the United States and abroad. He was a Member of the Board of Governors of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (A.B.A.A.), and Chairman of the A.B.A.A. Security Committee. He was a long-time regular member of the Security Committee of the Rare Book and Manuscript Section (RBMS) of the American Library Association (ALA); and was the Past President of the Middle Atlantic Chapter, A.B.A.A. Mr. Lieberman was also, for many years, a consulting editor and contributor to the Haworth Press journal: "College & Undergraduate Libraries" American Library Association (ALA); + ACRL/RBMS [For 35 Continuous Years] // PA Library Association (PLA) // Bibliographical Society of America // Middle Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) // Society for the History of Authorship, Readership, and Publishing (SHARP) // Philobiblon Club // Etc. Etc.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Folio
- A folio usually indicates a large book size of 15" in height or larger when used in the context of a book description. Further,...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Soiled
- Generally refers to minor discoloration or staining.