A Characterful Binding
POUND, Ezra.
An Autobiographical Outline. [New York], Nadja, (colophon: March) 1980.
Squarish 8vo, ff. [1, blank], [9]; printed on Saunders paper, ff. [2]–[9] printed on rectos only, fly-title and f. [9] printed in lavender ink; an excellent copy in textured and moulded black morocco, three black morocco-lined vellum slips as closures to fore-edge, fitting recesses in the front board and held in place by fixings in the shape of the characters ‘囚 夫 囚’ (qiu fu qiu), edges stained black, black endbands sewn on squared cores, doublures of pared black suede, black morocco joints, black paper endleaves; preserved in its black felt-lined cloth box.
First separate edition, numbered 114 of 226 copies, in an attractive binding by David Sellars.
Written as a letter to Louis Untermeyer in 1932 ‘in order to put the facts straight’, Pound’s Outline gives a somewhat telegraphic third-person summary of his life and works, ending with some remarks on how the latter ought to be judged. This very brief autobiography was first published in the Paris Review (Summer/Fall 1962) and appears here for the first time in book form.
The binding is an attractive example of the work of David Sellars, known for his experimental use of form and texture and for his sculptural leatherwork; his mature work, as here, uses muted colours to limit distractions from the form of the book. The three Chinese characters to the front board, acting as fixings for the vellum closures, likely have some connection to Pound’s well-known fascination with China and its poetry, though together they do not form a meaningful phrase. Could the repeated character 囚 qiu – ‘prisoner’ or ‘to imprison’, literally a man 人 in an enclosure – refer to Pound’s madness-inducing confinement in a cage near Pisa in 1945 while charged with treason?
Gallup A103. For the binding, see ‘David Sellars: an Interview’ in The New Bookbinder 4 (1984), pp. 15–27.