Collection Summary
Limited Editions Club
Limited Editions Club Collection
1988-2001
Art Collection AR-00163
18 portfolios, 1 folder (124 prints)
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin
The collection includes eighteen signed artists'
portfolios and one separate print, by seventeen different artists. Fourteen of the
artists are American, including eight African Americans. Also included are
portfolios by the French artists Balthus and Henri Cartier-Bresson, and the Italian
artist Francesco Clemente.
No linguistic material present
Acquisition:
Purchases (R14122, R14350, R14826, R14873), 1998-2001, and Gifts (G10730, G11162,
G11244, G11453), 1996-1998
Access:
Open for research. A minimum of twenty-four hours is required to pull art materials
to the Reading Room.
Processed by:
Helen Young, 2002
Company History
The Limited Editions Club—founded in 1929 by George Macy (1900-1956)—published fine,
illustrated books in limited numbers for member subscribers. Designed and
illustrated on fine paper by leading figures in the graphic arts, most titles were
classics, limited to 1500 copies. After Macy's death in 1956, his wife continued the
work of the firm until 1968 when son Jonathan assumed leadership. The firm was sold
to the Boise-Cascade Company in 1970. Sidney Shiff, the current owner, purchased the
Limited Editions Club in 1979.
Shiff, whose background was in Wall Street investments, transformed the Limited
Editions Club by concentrating on livres d'artiste. He purposefully commissioned
renowned artists—including many African-Americans—and commissioned master printers
and fine presses to oversee a given book's design; artistic inspiration prevailed.
Targeting print connoisseurs and contemporary collectors, Shiff raised the overall
quality of the books and offered club members signed artists' portfolios. The book
illustrations and signed artists' prints are one and the same.
Sources:
Grossman, Carol.
East Side Story: Two Faces of the
Limited Editions Club. Biblio 4, no. 3 (March 1999): 30-39.
Fleming, Margaret W.
Limited Editions Club. Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 46: American Literary
Publishing Houses, 1900-1980: Trade and Paperback, ed. Peter Dzwonkoski.
Detroit: Gale Research, 1986.
Scope and Contents
The Limited Editions Club Collection comprises eighteen signed artists' portfolios of
123 prints, and one separate print, by seventeen different artists. Fourteen of the
artists are American, including eight African-Americans. The collection also has
portfolios by the French artists Balthus and Henri Cartier-Bresson, and the Italian
artist Francesco Clemente.
The works are listed alphabetically by artist. The descriptions include titles of the
corresponding book, and for those books held in the Ransom Center's Library, the
call number is listed. The date of the prints is the same as the corresponding book
unless otherwise noted.
Additional portfolios are expected.
The Art Collection also holds the George Macy Companies Collection, including art
files of works by over 100 artists executed for the Limited Editions Club and the
Heritage Press, circa 1930-1967. The Ransom Center has an additional five Limited
Editions Club signed artists' portfolios in the Photography Collection. The archives
of the George Macy Company are available in the Manuscripts Collection, as are
numerous related published works in the Library.
Limited Editions Club Collection--Item List
Balthus
13
[Illustrations for Octavio Paz's Sight and Touch].
1994.
5 items: t.p., colophon, 3 prints (woodcut, col.); 57.1 x 43.2
cm., in case 63.2 x 59.8 cm.
98.7.1-5
Edition: 3/51. Book available as -f- PQ7297.P285 V57 1994 HRC
10
Fifteen Lithographs for Wuthering
Heights [illustrations for Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights].
1993.
17 items: t.p., colophon, 15 prints (lithograph); 56.3 x 48.3
cm., in case 60.1 x 51.5 cm.
99.4.2.1-17
Edition: 28/51. Book available as -f- PR4172.W7 1993 HRC
11
The Sonnets to Orpheus, Suite
[illustrations for Rainer Maria Rilke's The
Sonnets to Orpheus].
1997.
5 items: t.p., 2 colophons, 2 prints (woodcut, col.); 40.3 x
40.3 cm., in case 44.5 x 43.5 cm.
99.4.1.1-5
Edition: 42/60. Book available as f- PT2635.I65 S613 1997 HRC
8
Beasley, Phoebe. Phoebe Beasley: The
Langston Hughes Suite [illustrations for Langston Hughes'
Sunrise is Coming after
While].
1998.
8 items: t.p., colophon, 6 prints (screen print, col.); 53.3 x
43.3 cm., in case 57.8 x 47.2 cm.
99.3.1-8
Edition: 10/99.
6
Biggers, John. [Illustrations for Maya Angelou's Our Grandmothers].
1994.
7 items: t.p., colophon, 5 prints (lithograph); 61 x 45.8 cm., in
case 63.8 x 48 cm.
97.10.1-7
Edition: 10/60. Book available as -f- PS3551.N464 O97 1994 HRC
12
Cartier-Bresson, Henri. [Illustrations for Arthur Rimbaud's
Vowels].
1996.
5 items: t.p., colophon, 3 prints (woodcut, col.); 46 x 46 cm., in
case 48.3 x 48.8 cm.
99.4.5.1-5
Edition: 4/60. Book available as -f- PQ2387.R5 V6 1996 HRC
9
Catlett, Elizabeth. [Illustrations for Margaret Walker's For My People].
1992.
8 items: t.p., colophon, 6 prints (lithograph, col.); 57.9 x 47.3
cm., in case 60.2 x 49.1 cm.
98.6.5.1-8
Edition: H/C III. Book available as -f- PS3545.A517 F6 1992 HRC
17
Clemente, Francesco. Cathay
[illustrations for Ezra Pound's translation of Li Po's poems, Cathay: Poems after Li Po].
1992.
9 items: t.p., colophon, 7 prints (woodcut, col.), on sheets with
letterpress; 31.9 x 22.3 cm., in case 36 x 86.5 cm.
98.6.6.1-9
Edition: Arch 1/2. Book available as -q- PL3277.E3 P6 1992 HRC
5
Crite, Allan Rohan. [Illustrations for The
Revelation of Saint John the Divine].
[1995], 1994.
17 items: t.p., colophon, 15 prints (engraving, relief); 51.2 x
43.3 cm., in case 56.1 x 47 cm.
98.6.2.1-17
Edition: 37/60. Book available as -f- BS2823 1995 HRC
18
De Kooning, Willem. [Illustrations and letterpress for Frank
O'Hara's Poems].
1988.
21 items: t.p., introduction, colophon, box, 17 prints
(lithograph), 61.2 x 96.6 cm., in case: 68 x 102.9 cm.
92.5.1-21
Edition: VI/XII. Book available as: -f- PS3529.H28 A6 1988 HRC
14
Freilicher, Jane. [Landscape with shrubs, trees; illustration for
John Ashbery's Description of a
Masque].
[1998], undated.
1 item: print (woodcut, col.), image 29.1 x 22.8 cm., on sheet
44.6 x 38.1 cm.
98.12.2
Edition: 29/39.
1
Hejduk, John. Eight Lithographs
[illustrations for Thomas Mann's The Black
Swan].
1990.
10 items: t.p., colophon, 8 prints (lithograph, col.), 33.2 x 24.2
cm., in case 35.3 x 26.1 cm.
98.6.4.1-10
Edition: 18/25. Book available as: -q- PT2625.A44 B4713 1990 HRC
7
Jones, Loïs Mailou. [Illustrations for Léopold Sédar Senghor's
Poems of Léopold Sédar
Senghor].
1996.
8 items: t.p., colophon, 6 prints (screen prints, col.), 52.6 x
42.3 cm., in case 55.2 x 44.5 cm.
98.6.1.1-8
Edition: Arch I/II. Book available as: -f- PQ3989.S47 P6 1996 HRC
19
Kelly, Ellsworth. [Illustrations for Stéphan Mallarmé's Un Coup de Dés...].
1992.
7 items: 2 t.p.s, colophon, 4 prints (lithograph, col.), 63.8 x
54.6 cm., in case 67.5 x 57.4 cm.
97.6.1-7
Edition: Archive II. Book available as: -f- PQ2344.C6 1992 HRC
15
Lawrence, Jacob. Eight Passages
[illustrations for The First Book of Moses,
called Genesis].
1989.
10 items: t.p., colophon, 8 prints (screen prints, col.), 66 x
100.1 cm., in case 72.2 x 107.9 cm.
98.12.1.1-10
Edition: 4/22. Book available as: -f- BS 1233 L397 1989 HRC
2
Saar, Betye. [Illustrations for Zora Neale Hurston's Bookmarks in the Pages of Life].
2000.
9 items: t.p., table, colophon, 6 prints (screen prints, col.),
37.4 x 27.8 cm., in case 41.2 x 31 cm.
2001.2.1-9
Edition: 29/75. Book available as: -f- PS3515.U789 B66 2000 HRC
16
Scully, Sean. [Illustrations for Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness].
1992.
6 items: t.p., colophon, 4 prints (etching, col.), 58.3 x 96.5
cm., in case 63.3 x 101.6 cm.
97.8.1-6
Edition: 9/12. Book available as: -q- PR6005.O4 H4 1992 HRC
4
Welliver, Neil. Two Etchings
[illustrations for William Faulkner's Hunting
Stories].
1988.
3 items: t.p./colophon, 2 prints (etching, col.), 48.5 x 37.9 cm.,
in case 51.1 x 40.3 cm.
98.6.3.1-3
Edition: 59/75. Book available as: -q- PS3511.A86 H8 1988 HRC
3
Wilson, John. [Illustrations for Richard Wright's Down by the Riverside].
2001.
9 items: t.p., table, colophon, 6 prints (etching, col.), 30 x
40.3 cm., in case 32.6 x 44 cm.
2001.5.1-9
Edition: 5/60. Book available as: -f- PS 3545 R815 D69 2001