Solitaries : Numbered/Limited, fanciful and absurd stories by Eiger, Albin [pseud. Rolf Henkl, then Rolf Hennequel] - 1961

Newham, Tasmania: The Wattle Grove Press. Very Good- with no dust jacket. 1961. Limited Signed Edition. Hardcover. The covers are soiled, also creased at the edges, bumped at the corners, and have wear to the fragile spine paper as most copies are. Head and head corners of all leaves are bumped, conforming to the bumped covers.; The ten stories, within, are varied and entirely fanciful. If the ancient world, flagellant monks, mothers, soldiers, blasphemy, digestive function, animal sacrifice, fascists, foamy seas, Fate, nausea, wax, sex desire, a tuba, fiery protuberances, cranks turning and cameras clicking, a dual Mussolini, the Khyber-Sight-Seeing-Company, gypsyesque womenfolk, a well-known hygienic contraption, Doctor Guillotin who "makes death quicker and easier," Patagonians, a degraded teenaged anarchist, the whirring of a fireball, a woman who did not approve of dog-keeping, beautiful tarantella dancers, the coupes of the funicular, a somersaulting mouse and a hundred similar ones, a new race of lizards with human-like faces, atomic trains, a rain of propaganda slips, and underpaid female members of the white collar class might interest you, then you need this book for bed time reading most evenings. Boldly and whimsically numbered "i59" and signed in stylized initials "AE" on the limitation page. Copy 159 of a stated edition of 1000. Although the press issued at least 37 works by Hennequel and others, I believe it unlikely that the press published any edition larger than a few hundred. Letterpress printed in Italian Cloister Script on cream-colored laid paper by Azure. Stiff, glossy, white card covers with a quarter paper spine that is side-punched and bound with white cord. Starts with a page having only a vignette drawing, presumably of the Wattle Grove Press building, a little cottage with trees behind it. Postscriptum by P(ercy).R(eginald). Stephensen, a friend and business associate of Hennequel (Albin). The ten stories ensue, then an Index of the stories that's essentially a table of contents, and a page of Errata with a Note to Story VII.X. Rolf Hennequel (originally Rolf Henkl), 1895-1971, founded The Wattle Grove Press in 1958 to publish his own works, but expanded to publish limited editions of other regional authors. His own published works used the pseudonym Albin Eiger. The press proof and documents related to Solitaries reside in the National Library of Australia. No dust jacket, as-issued.Internally, quite clean. Conservatively VG-, perhaps closer to VG.; Large 8vo 9" - 10" tall; 50, [7] pages; Signed by Author .