Oak Knoll

Limited to 155 copies, signed by the artist, of which 60 (numbered copies 10-69) were offered for sale in this boxed version, with a separately bound commentary and an extra unbound woodblock print (Broomfield A107b[1]). Spine of clamshell is lightly faded, else a fine copy.

The fourteenth book issued by Yolla Bolly Press, designed and printed by James and Carolyn Robertson in Covelo, CA, by special arrangement with the Jeffers family and Random House, this being the first authorized edition of this great work in volume form. Roan Stallion is considered by many to be the best of Jeffers' blank verse narratives. It is the story of California, a woman who is one-fourth Indian, and her mystical union with a great stallion; it caused a furor when first published in 1925. For this deluxe edition, San Francisco artist Karin Wikstrom conceived, and cut in wood, seven blocks which express the dramatic character of the story and its setting in the rugged and primitive Big Sur landscape. The illustrations are printed on a handpress, from the artist's blocks, in black and colored inks. The text was set by hand in Pegasus, with display lines set in Albertus and printed letterpress on Rives BFK Gray made in France by Arjomari. The book was sewn by hand and bound in flexible boards covered in soft sage gray pigskin suede by Klaus-Ulrich Rotzcher, loosely inserted in a box and slipcase made of archival board and covered in Japanese cotton. The commentary volume by Tim Hunt, editor of the Jeffers collected works published by Stanford University Press, is printed on the same Rives paper as the text, handsewn and bound in wrappers of heavy, rag-content colored papers.