Editions
To date we have published eleven titles, seven of which feature specially commissioned illustrations. At the beginning of each is a page ‘for your correspondence,’ in case you want to add a few words of your own, and every book comes with its own envelope, so it’s ready to mail onward.
Paravion’s Christmas Edition: ‘The Dead’ by James Joyce
In celebration of the 2011 winter holiday season, Paravion Press presents James Joyce’s Christmas story with specially commissioned illustrations by William Bock. This limited edition of 500 copies features a hand-set letterpress broadside and tailored wrapping paper so the book can be shared, perhaps by mail.
The Cities: New York
A story by O. Henry, verse by Walt Whitman, and an essay by Maxim Gorky comprise the first in our Cities series, collecting great voices inspired by the world’s great capitals. We begin with New York.
These titles have just rolled off the press; we haven’t even had the chance to shoot photographs of the finished product yet. Watch this space.
The titles
Boredom
Maxim Gorky (1868-1936)
Maxim Gorky (Alexei Maximovich Peshkov) was a journalist and writer. He was arrested several times for his public opposing to the Tsarist regime. He was friends with all the Russian luminaries of the time and in 1906 was sent by the Bolsheviks to the United States on a fundraising trip. It was during his 1907 visit to New York that he composed the essay, ‘Boredom.’ Although there are mysterious circumstances surrounding his death, fans can rest assured that Gorky was well looked after by Stalin and Molotov, who were among those who carried the coffin during his funeral.
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The Voice of the City
O. Henry (1862–1910)
O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) was a writer of playful short stories where unexpected endings hooked a mass audience but did not satisfy contemporary critics. In a surprise ending, O. Henry is now best known for the O. Henry Award, a critically prestigious annual prize named after Porter and awarded to writers of outstanding short stories.
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Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
This selection from Leaves of Grass, beautifully illustrated by William Bock, is a direct address to future readers: “And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.” Follow Whitman as he takes you on a journey across the East River from Manhattan into Brooklyn.
Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
Walter Whitman was a poet, essayist, and humanist whose ability to capture the American character has led critics to dub him “America’s Poet.” According to some sources, Whitman served as the source for Bram Stoker’s protagonist, Dracula.
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Two Fables
How the First Letter Was Written
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Rudyard Kipling was an imensly popular British author born in Bombay. He was the first and youngest English language writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was an active Freemason and rose as high as secretary of his Lodge. He was offered knighthood several times but declined.
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The Hunting of the Snark
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898)
Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was an English author, logician, and Anglican deacon. His use of absurd comedy carefully disguised the ample layers of interpretation available in his stories and poems. His most famous works are in the genre of literary nonsense, but it was his work as a mathematics tutor at Oxford which provided his most stable income security. He died, like so many before him, of influenza.
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Valentine’s Day 2011
We printed a special edition of Katherine Mansfield’s short story, ‘Feuille d’Album’, with new illustrations by Alex Citrin, for Valentine’s Day 2011. This tender, honest observation on the drama of the human heart is the perfect gesture of artful amour and sure to win the affections of your intended sweetheart. Don’t be shy! As Cicero sagely pointed out, a letter does not blush.
Our first series
Our first series features stories by Katherine Mansfield, Saki, Sherwood Anderson and Anton Chekhov, and an essay by Mark Twain. Produced in a limited edition of 500, the first 100 of which are individually hand-stitched and available to purchase individually or as a complete set, exclusively through our online shop.
The titles
Feuille d'Album
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923)
Virginia Woolf once said Katherine Mansfield produced ‘the only writing I have ever been jealous of.’ Mansfield was born in New Zealand but spent most of her working life in Britain becoming, along with D.H. Lawrence and Woolf, one of the most accomplished writers of the Modernist short story. After an initial love of Oscar Wilde’s stabs at the genre, Chekhov was her great inspiration in later life. Her great talent was cut short due to the contraction of tuberculosis during the First World War and her subsequent death at the age of 34.
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The Lumber Room
Saki (1870–1916)
Hector Hugh Munro, pen name Saki, was a British writer, whose witty stories satirised Edwardian society and culture. He spent time in Burma, as part of the Imperial Indian police but eventually became a journalist, stationed at one point in Russia, where he witnessed Bloody Sunday. His stories often focus on the victory of Nature over the hypocrisies of Edwardian society. He died at the age of 43 after signing up to fight in the First World War, even though he was officially over age. It is said that he returned to the front may times even though sick and injured. He was shot eventually by a German sniper; many sources have said his last words were ‘put that bloody cigarette out’.
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Sophistication
‘There is a time in the life of every boy when he for the first time takes the backward view of life.’ In this beautifully atmospheric story Anderson explores the existential shifts that occur on the cusp of adolescence with adulthood. His characters, amongst the frantic noise of small town America, find the space and the silence to share theses new feelings and to explore Anderson’s interesting take on companionship in the modern age.
Sherwood Anderson (1876–1941)
Anderson seems to have had many lives; he was married four times. His creative life began in 1912 when, after suffering a mental breakdown, he was found wandering in a cornfield. He shortly after left his wife, children and manufacturing job and moved to Chicago to pursue a literary career, becoming a symbol of bravery for young writers of the period. He became famous for his sequence of interrelated short stories, Winesburg, Ohio.
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On the Decay of the Art of Lying
In this wonderfully witty essay, Twain complains of the prostitution of the noble art of lying, which he declares to be “the fourth Grace, the tenth Muse, man’s best and surest friend.” Twain delivers a sharp critique of American society, revealing the multiple falsehoods that occur under the guise of truthfulness and going so far as to suggest that the ‘brutal truth’ should be completely eradicated. A linguistic delight and as relevant today as it was over a hundred years ago.
Mark Twain (1885–1910)
Twain held a remarkably varied number of jobs throughout his life: a typesetter, a printer’s apprentice, a journalist and a pilot of a boat on the Mississippi river. He failed to find gold in the great gold rush and finally settled with journalism. A truly American voice, Twain was eventually heralded as the greatest American humorist of his age. William Faulkner called Twain ‘the father of American literature’. Born during a visit by Haley’s Comet, he died on its return at the age of 75.
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The Beauties
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904)
Undoubtedly one of the masters of short story writing, Chekhov, a doctor by trade, famously said ‘If medicine is my lawful wife, then literature is my mistress.’ Early in his life he supported his struggling family with a speedy literary output but his talent was soon clear and he began to concentrate more on the artistry of his prose. His first longer story ‘The Steppe’, won him national acclaim, and so, eventually, did his remarkable work for the Russian stage.
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