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The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, Volumes I & II
Miguel de Cervantes
Alfred A. Knopf, New York
1926
First edition thus; limited edition of 3,000 sets
Translated from the Spanish by John Ormsby; introduction by George Edward Woodberry
As New. An exceptionally well-preserved two-volume set, sound, square, clean, and unmarked, with virtually no appreciable wear to the dark blue cloth bindings or gilt decoration. Gilt top edges remain bright. Interiors are remarkably fresh and clean. A couple of leaves in the preliminary matter of Volume I remain unopened at the fore-edge; these are outside the body of the text and are a nice indication of how little the set has been handled.
Complete in two volumes, bound in dark blue cloth with elaborate gilt ornamental panels to the front boards and spines and gilt top edges. This edition presents John Ormsby’s respected English translation with an introduction by George Edward Woodberry. The typography is particularly noteworthy: the books were set in Suburban French type on the Monotype, a face cut at the suggestion of J. Horace McFarland of the Mount Pleasant Press and inspired by early-18th-century French printing. Composition, presswork, and binding were by the Plimpton Press of Norwood, Massachusetts, with paper manufactured by the Tileston & Hollingsworth Company of Hyde Park. The edition comprises 682 pages across the two volumes.
Published by Knopf in 1926, this handsome edition was limited to just 3,000 sets. Don Quixote needs little introduction as one of the foundational works of the modern novel, but this particular Knopf production is an especially attractive early-20th-century American presentation of the text. The combination of the complete Ormsby translation, Woodberry’s introduction, deliberately chosen period-inspired typography, decorative gilt bindings, and relatively small limitation gives the set considerably more bibliographic character than an ordinary trade edition. The survival of this pair in such unusually fresh condition, with even a few preliminary leaves still unopened, is particularly notable.
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