Selections from the Studio and Personal Archive of Barry Moser Lots 571-687
B
Introduction
arry Moser was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1940. He was educated early on at a military academy there, The Baylor School, then at Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He did graduate work at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1970. He studied with George Cress, Leonard Baskin, Fred Becker, and Jack Coughlin. Following his first encounters with Baskin and master pressman Harold P. McGrath, Moser found his calling and soon embarked on a career that has lasted over fifty years, in which he immersed himself in every aspect of fine press book production, from design to illustration and printing. While teaching at Williston Academy in Easthampton, Massachusetts in 1969, Moser founded the Castalia Press, the predecessor of what would be renamed the Pennyroyal Press, which is now widely recognized for its finely printed and illustrated editions of some of the greatest works of literature—noted for their artful combination of Moser’s striking imagery and letterpress text. Moser’s Pennyroyal Press edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1982) won the American Book Award for Design and Illustration in 1983. Its success was followed up with four major large-scale editions of literary classics from the Press: Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass (1982), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1984), Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1985), and L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1985). Beyond the Pennyroyal Press, Moser has illustrated and/or designed over 300 titles, including the Arion Press Moby-Dick (1977) and the University of California Press The Divine Comedy of Dante (1980-84). In 1999 Moser produced the Pennyroyal Caxton edition of the King James Bible, a masterpiece of book illustration and production, incorporating Moser’s stunning woodcuts to create what ranks among the greatest achievements of the twentieth century book making. In addition to being an illustrator, Moser is also a printer, painter, printmaker, designer, author, essayist, and teacher. He has been on the faculty of the Department of Illustration Studies at the Rhode Island School of Design, for many years he was on the faculty of the Williston Northampton School. Moser is currently the Irwin and Pauline Alper Glass Professor of Art at Smith College, as well as the Printer to Smith College. The present Selections from the Studio and Personal Archive of Barry Moser, includes many of his own retained copies, trial proofs, deluxe suites of prints, rare early works and broadsides from the nascent Pennyroyal Press, engraved blocks, drawings and watercolors spanning his productive career. The catalogue also includes a section of books from Moser’s library, including books from other presses, first editions, and presentation copies. This collection comprises the most comprehensive group of Moser material ever offered at auction, and represents the full range of Moser’s creative process—from his own annotated source material, preliminary drawings, through trial designs and proof impressions to the final productions of many of his most celebrated works. It also reflects his close relationships with the numerous poets, authors, scholars and colleagues with whom he collaborated with on many of his book projects over his prolific career.
Note: For reference citations in this catalogue we refer to the Pennyroyal Checklist of books, posters and broadsides from the Pennyroyal Press, 1969-1986, compiled by J. P. Dwyer and printed by the Pennyroyal Press, 1986. For the clarity of citation in this catalogue the distinction [B] has been added before the citation number to distinguish the ‘Broadsides & Posters’ section of the checklist, and [M] to the ‘Miscellany’ section in the checklist.
V I E W T H E C O M P L E T E C ATA L O G U E AT H I N D M A N A U C T I O N S . C O M 183
