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STELES - WITH AN ORIGINAL LITHOGRAPHIC COVER BY SAM FRANCIS
(FRANCIS, SAM). Segalen, Victor. Translated by Michael Taylor. Santa Monica, CA: The Lapis Press, 1987. First Edition Thus 1/150 Deluxe. Tall 8vo. Lithographic Boards. Illustrated Book. Fine/No Jacket - As Issued. np, illustrated in b&w, with an original color lithograph as the cover. Designed by Les Ferriss, Jaime Robles, and Jack W. Stauffacher. "The first edition of "Steles" contained forty-eight poems and was printed on the press of the Lazarist fathers at Beidang in Northern China in August, 1912. It was probably composed by Chinese hands, but each detail of the book from the round mark used to indicate breaks in the poems, to the yellow ribbons which made opening the slender volume an act of ceremonial unbinding, was chosen by the author Victor Segalen - a thirty-four year old officer in the French Navy who had arrived in the Far East two years earlier. Only eighty-one copies were made". This exquisitely adorned, translated edition of that extraordinarily scarce tome was issued by Sam Francis' Lapis Press in 1987. It features calligraphy by Sam's great friend Walasse Ting (of "One Cent Life"), typesetting by Patrick Reagh, and its beautiful wraparound cover is an original Sam Francis lithograph. A most handsome example of the deluxe edition limited to one hundred and fifty unnumbered copies SIGNED by Sam Francis and translator Michael Taylor in black ink at the rear colophon, as issued. 0-932499-22-8 Inventory Number: 023411