Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Calvino, Italo; William Weaver [Translator]. The Silent Mr. Palomar. Targ Editions, New York, 1981.
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First edition. One of a limited 250 copies signed by Italo Calvino. Contains ten pieces, all which feature Mr. Palomar, seven of which would later appear in the 1983 complete Italian and the 1985 English editions; the remaining three have not been reprinted since. [iv], 25, [3] pp. Bound in publisher's original black paper-covered boards over marbled spine cloth; in glassine wrap reproducing the frontis woodcut of Calvino printed in white; errata slip laid in. A Fine copy with slight offsetting to front board from the white print of glassine. Glassine is Near Fine with light wear and small chip at rear panel This is the thirteenth of twenty five books published by William Targ from his home in Greenwich Village, during his retirement from publishing. Well-respected in the publishing field, Targ was best-known for publishing The Godfather by Mario Puzo. Designed and printed by hand at the Grenfell Press, on Fabriano Roma, an all-rag handmade sheet. With woodcuts by L. Grenfelli.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Price: US$1288.47 + shipping
Description: First edition, one of 250 copies signed by Calvino, printed on handmade paper and finely bound. The book was "printed by hand, during the dog days of August, by the Grenfell Press" (colophon), a small press founded in 1979 by Leslie Miller and specializing in artist's books, they have printed editions of John Ashbery, William Burroughs, and Susan Howe, among others. This edition was published by Targ Editions, a one-man publishing house founded by William Targ, former editor-in-chief at G. P. Putnam's Sons, where he is noted for publishing Mario Puzo's The Godfather. Targ Editions published only 25 books, including work by John Updike, Saul Bellow, Tennessee Williams, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Norman Mailer. As Targ himself wrote: "Each of these books is individually designed (no two formats are alike) and they are produced by letter press and are hand-bound. The various printing papers are of high quality, and enduring - mainly of rag, and deckle-edged. The bindings are of pictorial or decorated boards, and or cloth over boards. Each book is signed by its author. The editions are limited to between 150 and 350 copies each." Octavo. Original patterned cloth-backed black boards by A. Horowitz & Son (the colophon states Tapley-Rutter, but a laid-in errata slip corrects this), paper spine label printed in black, fore and bottom edges untrimmed, grey endpapers. With original printed glassine jacket. Woodcut frontispiece and initial letters by L. Grenfelli. A fine copy in the original glassine, a couple of tiny nicks to top edge, else fine.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom