The Four Seasons of Mary Azarian

Boston: David Godine, 2014. Second Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/very good. Oblong quarto; pp; 109, (i), Plate List; One hundred six beautifully illustrated plates in color and black and white by Mary Azarian; blue cloth and beige paper covered boards lettered in gilt in a pictorial dust jacket; near fine in a very good jacket;. Signed by both Mary Azarian and Lilias Hart Macbean on the title page; Ever since (and well before) Godine published her first book, A Farmer's Alphabet in 1981, Mary Azarian has been hard at work cutting soft pine in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Last year she was awarded what she richly deserves: the Caldecott Medal. This retrospective volume is not intended to illustrate a particular story, but to display the full range of her abilities, and it is arranged (as seems logical to us) according to the seasons she celebrates in her art. In all, we have reproduced fifty of her hand-colored woodcuts in full color and an equal number in black and white. The book is large format because that is the way she works and that's what does her work justice. The text, written by her friend Lilias Hart, discusses not only her work, but also what life is like in the rigorous reaches of Northern Vermont.