#Abraham Colish

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Staff Pick of the Week

First serialized in Pearson’s (UK) and Cosmopolitan (US) in 1897, H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds wasn’t the very first alien story ever told, but it is probably the most enduring and culturally significant of those early tales. Wells wasn’t just drawing on the nascent genre of science fiction but also the (earthly) invasion literature that was first popularized by George Tomkyns Chesney’s The Battle of Dorking ( Blackwood's Magazine, 1871). Wells later wrote that War of the Worlds was inspired by the genocidal treatment of Aboriginal Tasmanians by British colonizers.

The Limited Edition’s Club edition of H.G. Well’s War of the Worlds was published in 1964. It is illustrated with ten color lithographs, drawn directly on the plates by Joeseph Mugnaini, as well as a number of smaller line drawings by the artist. We posted a few years ago about the Limited Editions Club edition of The Time Machine, also illustrated by Mugnaini. These two books were originally issued together in an ochre-yellow slipcase that matches the end papers; the linen-weave book-cloth bindings are dyed in an opposite color scheme (black with a red spine label for The Time Machine and red with a black spine label for War of the Worlds). The boxed set was designed by Peter Oldenburg and printed on white wove paper from Curtis Paper Company by Abraham Colish at his press in Mt. Vernon, NY. The lithographs were pulled by master printer George C. Miller. 

I love how Mugnaini’s colorful illustrations manifest a sense of unease: the yellow and red skies backing the alien invaders, the extreme heat of blue streaked flames, the kaleidoscopic ruins of a building. Mugnaini was best known for his many collaborations with another Science Fiction heavyweight: Ray Bradbury, including cover art for the first paperback and hardback editions of Fahrenheit 451. A previous Staff Pick featured Mugnaini’s illustrations for the Limited Editions Club of Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles.

You can find more posts on the work of H. G. Wells here.

Check out more from illustrator Joe Mugnaini here.

And here you can find more from Limited Editions Club.

For more Staff Picks here. 

-Olivia, Special Collections Graduate Intern

#Staff Pick of the Week #The War of the Worlds #H. G. Wells #Joe Mugnaini #Joseph Mugnaini #Limited Editions Club #Fine Press Books #Fine Press #Invasion Literature #SF #SFF #Science Fiction #Ray Bradbury #lithographs #color lithographs #color lithography #Peter Oldenburg #Curtis Paper Company #Curtis Paper Mill #Abraham Colish #Press of A. Colish #olivia

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It’s Fine Press Friday! 

This week, in honor of Ramadan, we’re taking a peek at a 1958 Limited Editions Club (LEC) publication of The Koran: Selected Suras from our collection. This modern, handsomely bound and illustrated collection of texts from the Qu‘ran was translated into English by Australian American scholar of Asian studies Arthur Jeffery (1892-1959), and features decorations in grayed blue and red ink from Italian American printmaker, illustrator, and author Valenti Angelo (1897-1982). The title page and the page opposite the opening sura were also hand-illuminated in gold by Angelo. The text, which features Bembo type and Civilité headings, is printed in black ink on custom made tan Arak paper from Curtis Paper Company, a paper mill in Newark, Delaware known for its manufacture of high-quality rag papers using 19th-century Fourdrinier machinery. The work was printed by Abraham Colish (1882–1963, otherwise known as A. Colish) and bound in cloth covered boards which were hand stamped with decorations in blue, red, and gold. It was released in an edition of 1500 copies, all of which were signed by the illustrator.  

رمضان مبارك (Ramadan Mubarak) 

Find more materials related to the Quran (including original manuscripts and alternate translations in Latin, French, and German) in UWM’s Special Collections 

View more Fine Press Friday posts 

View another Ramadan post 

View more Bembo and Civilité posts 

View more Valenti Angelo posts 

View more A. Colish posts 

View more Limited Editions Club posts 

-- Ana, Special Collections Graduate Intern

#Ramadan #Fine Press Fridays #Quran #Koran #Limited Editions Club #Valenti Angelo #Arthur Jeffery #Bembo #Civilité #Curtis Paper Company #Press of A. Colish #Ramadan Mubarek #Ana