“IT IS NOT WHAT WE KNOW OF STONEHENGE THAT HAUNTS US”
FOWLES, John and BRUKOFF, Barry. The Enigma of Stonehenge. London: Jonathan Cape, (1980). Oblong octavo, original half black morocco, photographic endpapers, original slipcase; laid-in vintage color print measures 8 by 10 inches, signed on the recto. $850.
Signed limited first edition of Fowles’ evocative thoughts on Stonehenge, number 63 of only 100 copies signed by Fowles and photographer Brukoff, “a fine book of photographs” (New York Times) with 16 color and 44 black-and-white photogravure plates and a laid-in vintage 8 by 10-inch full-color print signed, numbered and dated by Brukoff.
In Stonehenge "John Fowles provides the text for this fine book of photographs of Barry Brukoff… [describing] his fascination since boyhood with those mysterious boulders standing in solitude on the Salisbury Plain. Recounting the theories about the ancient monument as a religious temple or astronomical calendar or both" (New York Times), Fowles writes that "It is not what we know of Stonehenge that haunts us, but what we do not know and shall never know. It is like some very ancient and corrupt text, of which one can decipher just enough to be sure it is very important, but never enough to establish exactly what it is saying" (9). "By a leap of the imagination, Stonehenge plays a significant part" in Fowles' haunting novel 1985 novel A Maggot (New York Times). This volume's 60 visually stunning color and black-and-white images by Brukoff share the iconic beauty of his later photobooks on Machu Picchu (2001) and Greece (1998). With additional in-text images. Vintage full-color print, "63/100," signed and dated "1980" by Brukoff on the recto.
A fine copy with a fine print.