Seven Trees: Limited Fine Press Edition

North Andover: Kat Ran Press, 1998. First Edition. Large Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. 0x0x0. Eichner, Sara. Signed by author. Signed by illustrator. Limited edition, hand numbered #35 on limitation page, and signed by Julia Alvarez and Sara Eichner. Faint stain on rear panel of clamshell case. Original mailing envelope from Kat Ran Press containing a duplicate prospectus laid in. 1998 Large Hardcover. Unpaginated. Folio in publisher's clamshell case with prospectus. One of 65 copies, only 50 of which were available for sale.From the enclosed prospectus: "Julia Alvarez and Sara Eichner have worked separately to create the combined suite of poems and prints, Seven Trees. This second offering from the Kat Ran Press is the first printing of Ms Alvarez's most recent series of autobiographical poems. Each poem, like a growth ring on a tree, represents a different stage of maturation and development in the poet's life... Sara Eichner celebrates the intimate structures of trees from a more immediate standpoint. Ms Eichner's lithographs, meticulously drawn with tusche washes, capture the inner forms of trees... composed in the English Monotype cutting of Eric Gill's Perpetua at the Press and Letterfoundry of Michael and Winifred Bixler, in Skaneateles, New York. From these types, Michael and Katherine Russem have carried out the printing on papers handmade at the Velke Losiny mill in the Czech Republic. Ms Eichner's seven lithographs have been printed on handmade Japanese papers by Herb Fox at his shop in Merrimac, Massachusetts, and carefully adhered to the text sheets. Sixty-five books, consisting of 30, 11 1/4 x 16 inch leaves, have been bound by David Bourbeau in the studio style of his Thistle Bindery. A decorative homage to both the poems and lithographs, each volume has been covered in a handmade sheet of flax paper, laboriously dyed and re-dyed in a rich brown stain made from crushed walnut hulls. The finished book is placed in a folding cloth presentation case by Barbara B. Blumenthal working in collaboration with the Bindery. All colors, materials, and details have been carefully selected for their harmonious relations to the themes and sentiments established by the poet and artist..." Kat Ran Press began publishing and designing books in 1994, and is still in business today. After her death in 2009, it became known that Katherine Russem was actually the name of Michael Russem's beloved labrador-husky mix.