A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe - 1968

VERY GOOD condition --- SLIPCASE: Very minor shelf rubbing, otherwise, no issues. BOARDS: Very good condition; no issues. BOOK: Very good condition; no issues. Please inspect photos closely for condition details. Any questions? Please ask.

Here on offer is a very nice copy of Daniel Defoe's classic account of the Great Plague of London, A Journal of the Plague Year, here published by The Limited Editions Club for its subscribers in 1968. Designed & decorated by Richard Ellis, this copy is #993 of 1500 printed and bound in full burlap at the Sign of the Stone Book, Bloomfield, Connecticut. It is illustrated and signed by the artist, Domenico Gnoli. The book is protected from wear by a handsome hardshell slipcase.

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"The Limited Editions Club was founded in 1929 by George Macy (1900-1956) to publish finely made and finely illustrated limited editions of the classics of literature - and of a few carefully selected contemporary titles, such as The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

Most of the books were beautifully illustrated with original artwork by leading book illustrators. In most cases, the illustrators handsigned each copy of the books that they illustrated for the LEC."
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" 'A Journal of the Plague Year: Being Observations or Memorials, Of the most Remarkable Occurrences, As well Publick as Private, which happened in London During the last Great Visitation In 1665', commonly called 'A Journal of the Plague Year' is a book by Daniel Defoe, first published in March 1722. It is an account of one man's experiences of the year 1665, in which the bubonic plague struck the city of London in what became known as the Great Plague of London, the last epidemic of plague in that city. The book is told somewhat chronologically, though without sections or chapter headings, and with frequent digressions and repetitions.

Presented as an eyewitness account of the events at the time, it was written in the years just prior to the book's first publication in March 1722. Defoe was only five years old in 1665 when the Great Plague took place, and the book itself was published under the initials H. F. and is probably based on the journals of Defoe's uncle, Henry Foe, who, like 'H. F.', was a saddler who lived in the Whitechapel district of East London. ..."
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"In 1665 the plague swept through London, claiming over 97,000 lives. Daniel Defoe was just five at the time of the plague, but he later called on his own memories, as well as his writing experience, to create this vivid chronicle of the epidemic and its victims. A Journal (1722) follows Defoe's fictional narrator as he traces the devastating progress of the plague through the streets of London. Here we see a city transformed: some of its streets suspiciously empty, some--with crosses on their doors--overwhelmingly full of the sounds and smells of human suffering. And every living citizen he meets has a horrifying story that demands to be heard."


The above text was taken, respectively, from Wikipedia and Penguin Books Limited (via Google Books). [Defoe, Daniel. A Journal of the Plague Year. United Kingdom: Penguin Books Limited, 2003.]


This handsome, slipcased copy would be a worthy addendum to your collectible books library.