Benito Cereno

The Nonesuch Press, 16 Great James Street, London, 1926 124 pages, Folio. No DJ. Limited Edition of 1650 copies, of which this is no.804. Six full-page illustrations by E. McKnight Kauffer. Text reproduced from that of the First Edition (1856) of "The Piazza Tales". Printed in the Walbaum type, pictures hand-colored through stencils at the Curwen Press upon Van Gelder paper. 31.5 x 21 cm. Red cloth boards with gilt lettering along spine. Bevelled edges. Spine slightly faded. [McKitterick, Rendall, & Dreyfus, 36]. Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890-1954) rose to fame as a poster designer for London Transport & Shell. His illustrations for this book (printed by the Curwen Press0 used watercolour or gouache. Desmond Flower, quoted in Haworth-Booth's biography of Kauffer, states that the frontispiece to Benito Cereno is "one of the most brilliant designs ever conceived; with pen and two tints- grey and mauve - he built up a shimmering design of a ship becalmed at last light which has an intricate beauty of which the eye can never tire"(1979). Catharine Shipps writes "Benito Cereno's message resonates with the current efforts of activists to bring attention to the ways in which authority figures translate the activities of black citizens. America is increasingly debating the biases among our authority figures, specifically those involved in law enforcement. For instance, recent attention to law enforcement discrimination towards black Americans has spawned the group #BlackLivesMatter, which fights for justice in such cases. Benito Cereno is riddled with translations that create crises for the characters and readers forced to interpret ambiguous signals that serve to reveal their prejudiced perspectives. I suggest that the text, especially in its deposition section, undermines the authority of law enforcement narratives by subtly revealing the cultural biases that sometimes guide them." (Everything was mute and calm; everything grey; Benito Cereno, White Authority and #BlacklivesMatter. 2015).. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/No Jacket.