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The Road Is Wider Than Long. An Image Diary from the Balkans July-August 1938 [inscribed to Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington]

The Road Is Wider Than Long. An Image Diary from the Balkans July-August 1938 [inscribed to Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington]

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The Road Is Wider Than Long. An Image Diary from the Balkans July-August 1938 [inscribed to Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington]

by Penrose, Roland

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  • first
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About This Item

London: London Gallery Editions, 1939. First edition. Publisher's wood-grain boards, lettered on the front board and spine (design by Hans Bellmer). Photographic endpapers. Photomontage frontispiece; 37 black and white photographs and a drawing, text in black and red. Some minor foxing to boards, slight chipping to head of spine.

One of 500 numbered copies, this is number 132 (H.C.). Originally created as a unique visual diary dedicated by Penrose to Lee Miller as a souvenir of their travels through the Balkans in 1938. The following year, Penrose created this edition: "I amused myself further by finding a friendly printer who happily put at my disposal his entire stock of type which I used freely in unconventional lay-outs to emphasise what I had to say." In his afterword to the Getty facsimile published in 2003, curator Weston Naef said of it, "the 1939 edition of The Road Is Wider Than Long occupies an unheralded place in the history of early modern artists' books. It is one of the few books by a Surrealist artist to have been illustrated with photographs. It is also one of the first artists' books to use the new and inexpensive method of offset lithography printed on ordinary commercial printing paper rather than traditional lithography printed on expensive handmade paper and issued in a very limited edition."

Roland Penrose was the primary carrier of surrealism from France to England. He organized the International Exhibition of Surrealism in London in 1936, and a solo show of Max Ernst's in London in 1937. Leonora Carrington saw this show and was immediately captivated; "I fell in love with Max's paintings before I fell in love with Max." She met him at a dinner party soon afterwards, and their amour fou began immediately. Max and Leonora remained close to Penrose and his partner (later wife) Lee Miller, both of whom visited them when they lived in Saint-Martin d'Ardèche in the south of France before the war disrupted their bliss.

This copy is inscribed to Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst, with a drawing of an eye within a heart and a warm dedication to his longtime friend and mentor Ernst, "qui a eté la boussole vertical de ma route depuis LONGTEMPS." Although the inscription is undated, the book must have been given to Max and Leonora in 1939, the year of publication, the year in which their idyllic existence in southern France was destroyed. Penrose and Miller's journey through the Balkans was similarly overshadowed by impending war; an evocative and poignant object.

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Details

Bookseller
Triolet Rare Books, ABAA US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
2427
Title
The Road Is Wider Than Long. An Image Diary from the Balkans July-August 1938 [inscribed to Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington]
Author
Penrose, Roland
Book Condition
Used
Quantity Available
1
Edition
First edition
Publisher
London Gallery Editions
Place of Publication
London
Date Published
1939

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About the Seller

Triolet Rare Books, ABAA

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2020
Los Angeles, California

About Triolet Rare Books, ABAA

Triolet Rare Books, member ABAA/ILAB, specializes in twentieth century art and literature with a focus on modernism, livres d'artistes, poetry, and the avant-garde.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

First Edition
In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
Offset
A technique of printing where the inked image or text is ...
Spine
The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
Chipping
A defect in which small pieces are missing from the edges; fraying or small pieces of paper missing the edge of a paperback, or...
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"...
Inscribed
When a book is described as being inscribed, it indicates that a short note written by the author or a previous owner has been...
Facsimile
An exact copy of an original work. In books, it refers to a copy or reproduction, as accurate as possible, of an original...

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