Arion Press - The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde

I did not see a topic regarding this edition and since it seems at least the art direction is not hideous (looking at you Exit Ghost), let's have a place to discuss it. I also did not see a review online or a comment on social media, so what do think the AP subscribers who are here ?

Production details : http://www.arionpress.com/catalog/114.htm
The book is quarto in format, 12 ¼ x 8 ¼ inches, 152 pages. The type is Bookman in Monotype and hand composition, ornamented with initial Phyllis capitals. Sandow Birk has created nineteen original drawings that have been reproduced by polymer plates. In addition to the frontispiece, “Love and Death,” each of the nine stories is depicted by both a full-page image and a smaller vignette. The type and artwork have been printed by letterpress on mouldmade Magnani 90gsm Raffaello.
800$.
November 2018.



Currently sitting on my "Maybe" buying list...

An alternative is:-
https://www.flickr.com/photos/warwick_carter/33147601898/in/dateposted-public/

>2 wcarter:

Yes, and i placed an order but after 6 months it still not has shipped .... :s

I cant recommand a cheaper Beehive alternative for the time being.

>3 Niurn:
You should chase them up about this, as mine arrived in January.

1)Your link is actually broken. This is an issue with librarything. If you notice, it tries to take you to "https" but the actual site does NOT have https! Here is the corrected link:
www.arionpress.com/catalog/114.htm

I recall the beehive press book being discussed somewhere. It's great, but NOT letterpress. Still, $800...
and, now apparently AP is going the way of EP and FS by releasing "deluxe" editions: The 25-copy deluxe edition has decorative initials foil stamped in 22k gold. It is hand sewn with linen thread and silk headbands; bound in half olive green leather with cloth sides and gold titling; and housed in a slipcase
Still, can't blame them if that generates revenue. Although, does this mean the regular edition does NOT come with a slipcase? If you're paying $800, at least have it come with a slipcase folks...

The only quibble I have with the $800 standard edition is that the binding is machine sewn, not hand sewn with silk thread as it should have been. That said, there are several positive aspects to this edition:

1. It is the first private press (letterpress) book to combine the two original Oscar Wilde fairy tale collections, 'The Happy Prince and Other Tales' and 'House of Pomegranates', into one volume.

2. The illustrations are edgy, original and appropriate, bringing these 100 year old tales into the 21st century. It is one of the few books in recent Arion Press times in which they have gotten the illustrations "right".

3. The standard book is elegant and well designed. The book is a generous full quarto size (12 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches), the type and presswork are pleasing to my eye and the letterpress work is imprinted on mouldmade Magnani Raffaello paper (excellent).

At $800, it is expensive but certainly not out of the question.

Memo to astropi: Both standard and deluxe editions are slipcased. The $2,200 deluxe edition of 25 copies sold out in a heartbeat.

>3 Niurn: I lost mine in transit. How do i know? Because i asked Beehive via mail what happened. I got my answer a couple of hours later. So yours are probably lost in transit to. But you will never get a replacement if you don`t write them about the issue. Here is my answer:

`It was shipped over a month ago, but it appears to have somehow been lost in transit. We'll ship a replacement right away -- via DHL this time, rather than USPS, which is much faster and more reliable.

Thank you so much for your patience, and for your generous order. I feel terrible it's taken so long for us to get it to you. It'll ship tomorrow, and should arrive by the end of the week, or early next week it at the latest.

Take care and be well`

: Five days later i had the books in my home. No drama whatsoever, only good service.

>3 Niurn:
>7 Pellias:

The Beehive Books edition of 'The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde' may not be letterpress but it is well worth owning. I purchased it along with their edition of H.G. Wells' 'The Island of Dr. Moreau' and both are worth acquiring. The bindings are beautifully designed, the quarto (4.v.o.) size is perfect reading size for fantasy books, and Yuko Shimizu's full page and double-page illustrations, along with her illustrative wrap-around design for the binding covers are all splendid.

Money well spent.

To give a bit of context, i live in a faraway place, a small french island in the South Pacific, and i honestly don't track shipments as it always takes more than a month and curious things happen regularly during transit. Last year, christmas gifts where stuck in an australian airport for three months because someone forgot to process them. I also use kickstarter where you routinely have to wait the better part of a year (Thornwillow and such). So Pellias is right to chastise me, i didn't follow up on this.

Prompted by >4 wcarter: and >7 Pellias: , i emailed Beehive and they replied :

I'm so sorry about this, Fabien! Your book will ship tomorrow. Deepest apologies for our error, I'm frankly not sure how this slipped past us.

Josh O'Neill
Publisher, Beehive Books

So a small blip but everything should be resolved.

Sorry to resurrect a dormant topic, but I was wondering if anybody who had this volume could post a few more pictures of it? Alternatively, I'd be interested in a review of the Beehive by anyone who owns it.

>10 -Ophidian-: I don’t have the Arion Press, but you also asked about the Beehive edition, which I think is beautifully done. Here’s a video review for some insights into the production value and illustrations: https://youtu.be/9E0lhrDqDwY

>11 skullduggery: Are the Beehive books bound in cloth or paper? I keep reading that they are clothbound but during the video the reviewer says they are bound in paper and it does look like a textured paper. Perhaps my eyes are deceiving me.

>10 -Ophidian-: I would also like photos of the Arion Press oscar wilde if anybody has it!

>12 GardenOfForkingPaths: I don't have the Beehive's Wilde yet, but I do have their The Island of Doctor Moreau. It has a stitched binding and is bound in illustrated paper-covered boards. It has no dustjacket but has a very attractive and sturdy die-cut slipcase. The slipcase is debossed and embossed and those parts are highlighted with some kind of metallic-colored coating. And the illustrations are stunning. I think Beehive offers very nice value for the price.

>12 GardenOfForkingPaths: >14 whytewolf1: I can confirm 'The Willows' is the same style of binding - printed paper-covered boards. Going back to the original Kickstarter looks like maybe they'd planned for cloth originally.

Agreed on the value, aside from the illustrations, they had introductions written for at least the first set they released (though oddly enough don't even mention this on their website).

Ramsey Campbell wrote the intro for 'The Willows', Guillermo Del Toro for 'The Island of Dr Moreau' and Michael Cunningham for 'The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde'.

>14 whytewolf1: >15 jeremyjm:

Thank you! A shame they couldn't go with cloth. Nevertheless, the illustrations look absolutely brilliant. It's probably a good opportunity to break free from my usually conservative tastes in book design and try something a bit different.

I noticed their most recent Kickstarter update mentions an upcoming edition of The Great Gatsby with illustrations by the Balbusso Sisters.

In any case, my apologies to people interested in the Arion Press edition for steering away from the original topic of this thread.

>16 GardenOfForkingPaths: As others have noted, all their books in this series are bound in paper. Though the signatures are sewn, I don't think the paper hinge will last. It feels like the quality of a college textbook. The illustrations are very nice and the only reason for buying the book. The signed limited editions are very over-priced, they're just the standard edition with a signed and numbered bookplate pasted onto the front endpaper. On Amazon, the book costs $65.

>17 kdweber: "The signed limited editions are very over-priced, they're just the standard edition with a signed and numbered bookplate pasted onto the front endpaper."

I was just considering this since they're about to launch a Kickstarter for their new trio of illuminated editions. I believe the next three are going to The Great Gatsby, Kwaidan, and A Voyage to Arcturus. As you say, the illustrations are the reason to buy the books, and I had already decided the S/N editions would not be worth it. The only thing I may be tempted by is a remarqued edition of the Gatsby if they offer it, as I was blown away by the teaser image they shared for that edition.

>17 kdweber: That doesn't sound good especially since the Kickstarter campaign mentions that one of the aims of the project is to make sturdy books that can be passed on through the ages! At $65 i'd buy it for the artwork, but for some reason it's twice that on Amazon UK at the moment. Thanks for your thoughts, everyone. Clearly they are working with some very fine illustrators indeed, and at least from a design perspective creating some pretty unique looking works.

The Arion Press offering is too expensive for me and the only other edition i've been looking at is the Folio Society edition from the 1950s (I'm not too keen on the artwork for the most recent FS edition).

Whoa whoa whoa!!! I've been waiting for YEARS for somebody to finally publish a properly bound edition of A Voyage to Arcturus. One of the most incredible novels of the 20th century that no-one's heard of. Kwaidan is also a classic collection of Japanese horror tales, compiled by Lafcadio Heaern from oral traditions; it's VERY famous in Japan but not so much outside of Japan. Where did you hear the news about those?

>20 -Ophidian-: I heard about the Gatsby and got the artwork on what was probably the final update on their last Kickstarter which was posted just a few days ago. The others, believe it or not, were mentioned in a Facebook ad I saw that they were doing to get newsletter signups.

>20 -Ophidian-: Savoy Books released a limited edition of Voyage to Arcturus in 2002. I don’t think it qualifies as private or fine press, but my sense is that it was positively reviewed in terms of physical quality. I haven’t seen it in person, but my expectation would be something like Centipede or Subterranean. Probably as good or better than Beehive. Unfortunately the Savoy edition is quite scarce now and has been priced accordingly, if you can even find a copy.

Bit of trivia: Harold Bloom claimed to have read Voyage hundreds of times, and it inspired his one published attempt at fiction (which I have yet to read), The Flight of Lucifer.

By the way, how’s the paper in Beehive edition of The Willows? Is it matte? For some reason I had the impression that it was semi glossy, which put me off, despite The Willows being one of my favorite eerie tales.

>23 abysswalker: Paper is ok, but nothing special - relatively heavyweight, no texture, not glossy. No one is going to mistake it for 'fine press', but there is enough here (art, introduction, slipcase) to justify the price and shelf-space. Full disclosure - I'm a huge Paul Pope fan, so this wasn't a hard sell for me.