Product Details

The Tower of Babel. Hamburg: Printed for James Laughlin by Richard von Sichowsky, Summer 1957. Limited edition, one of 250 numbered copies, this being no. 94, signed by Thomas Merton and by the artist Gerhard Marcks on the limitation page. Folio. Hand-press printed in Garamont-Antiqua on handmade paper by J. W. Zanders, Düren, and illustrated with striking woodcuts by Marcks. Bound in the publisher’s original gray paper-covered boards with vellum spine, spine lettered in gilt. A finely produced private-press edition of Merton’s poetic meditation on the Biblical theme of Babel, notable for the bold, modernist woodcut illustrations and high-quality materials characteristic of James Laughlin’s fine printing projects of the period. Condition: Very good. Boards lightly rubbed with mild toning to the vellum spine; interior clean and bright; signatures clear. A well-preserved example of this fragile production.