The Anatomy of a Literary Hoax (Signed)
New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Books, 1994.
Limited Edition. Hardcover.
#32 of a Limited Edition of 300 copies of which this is one of 50 bound in cloth and printed on Frankfurt paper at the Bird & Bull Press in December 1994.
The story of a 20th-century literary hoax perpetrated between friends. Henry Morris at the Bird & Bull Press added an interesting title to the bibliography of a book the press published in 1979 titled Nagashizuki: The Japanese Craft of Hand Papermaking by Tim Barrett. The bibliographical reference, The Invention of Paper by Daniel Wilcox, was published by the Western Publishing Company, 1971, and was actually a Sesame Street Tell-A-Tale book featuring Ernie the Cave King and Sherlock the Smart Person. Morris, known for waggish pranks, purported to want to test papermaking scholars out there for their attention to bibliographical detail. No one noticed, but Tim Barrett was embarrassed by the addition and Sidney Berger, in a calculated retort, elected to produce a convincing 19th century title page for a fictitious book on papermaking with the same author and title. He contacted Morris to let him know that the publisher and date in the papermaking bibliographical reference was in error and that he had tracked down a copy of the book (originally published by Crosby Lockwood and Son in 1875). Henry Morris was intrigued and reached out to a number of rare book dealers in England to try to find a copy before Sidney Berger admitted his clever ruse.
Item #902412ISBN: 0938768492
6-1/4 x 9-1/4", beige linen over boards with title label printed in brown front panel, deckled edges, 17pp, with tipped-in wine label for Roman Guildwine 1654 Henry Morris typically placed over wine labels on bottles served to his guests, second wine label laid in, a copy of the cover to the Sesame Street booklet bound in.
Very fine in custom acetate dust wrapper.
Price: $250.00