“FOR JANE, WHO LOVES LIFE”

GILL, Brendan. Wooings. Verona, Italy: Plain Wrapper, 1980. Tall quarto, original decorative brown and gold paper boards, uncut, original chemise and slipcase. $350.

Signed limited first edition of poetry by Brendan Gill, number 148 of only 155 copies signed by him, an especially memorable presentation/association copy further inscribed by him to respected philanthropist Jane Engelhard, “For Jane, who loves life and generates a similar love in others, with the affectionate greetings of Brendan Gill, October 8th, 1981.”

This elegant signed limited edition of only 155 copies presents five poems by literary giant Brendan Gill, who was "a pillar of New York's civic, social and literary life for nearly half a century… Starting in 1936, when he was hired by Harold Ross as a staff writer for The New Yorker, Gill's literary range came to encompass poetry, fiction, reporting, biography, social history and criticism in the fields of books, film, theater and architecture" (New York Times). Of this volume's five poems, "Ferragosto" and "Norfolk" were written for this edition. Also featured are "Easter," which first appeared Harper's, and "In Wicklow" and "Voices," which earlier appeared in The New Yorker. Produced with handmade paper printed with handset type on an 1847 R. Hoe Washington hand press by Gabriel Rummonds and Alessandro Zanella. Decorative boards designed by Fulvio Testa and printed by Gino Beradinelli. With laid-in errata leaf. Recipient Jane Engelhard was a well-known American philanthropist.

A fine presentation copy with a distinctive association.