Bibliophiles Delight–The Chemical Wedding

The Chemical Wedding – Small Beer Press Numbered Edition

Back in May this year there was a Kickstarter campaign by Small Beer Press to publish various exclusive hard cover editions of the 400 year old romance The Chemical Wedding in a new version written by the marvellous John Crowley.

I couldn’t resist pledging for a Numbered Edition:

Kickstarter Exclusive Signed, Numbered, Limited Edition.

Limited to 200 numbered copies (not including presentation copies to author, illustrator, and designer).

Signed on a two-color tipped in page by the author John Crowley, the illustrator Theo Fadel, and the designer Jacob McMurray.

Presented in a black cloth slipcase stamped with gold foil and accompanied by an exclusive woodcut hand printed, signed, and numbered in her studio by Theo Fadel.

Smyth sewn in oatmeal linen with black and red foil stamped cover. Printed in black and red ink on a beautiful 70# Finch Opaque Vanilla paper with black endpapers and a black ribbon.

It arrived in the mail yesterday and is a beautiful book as special as promised in the Kickstarter, with an attractive variation of red endpapers and a red ribbon instead of black as described above.

Theo Fadel’s illustrations are playful and apt and the numbered edition includes a separate numbered and signed woodcut by the artist.

Theo Fadel special woodcut

I’m a sucker for slipcased editions and I love ribbon markers. The Chemical Wedding will look splendid  on my bookshelf next to the few precious slipcased editions that I already have in my personal library.

A paperback and ebook will be published on the 400th Anniversary date of the original, 8 November 2016.

There has been no recent news on the other John Crowley book, the 25th Anniversary Edition of Little, Big that I have been awaiting for close to 12 years. 

The last newsletter received in August indicated that the book may go to press by the end of the year, but I hold out little hope of that happening and live in expectation that it will be finally published in 2017.

The Chemical Wedding–Book Collectors Delight

Chemical Wedding cover image from Small Beer Press

I know, I know, I’m still waiting for the publication of John Crowley’s 25th Anniversary Edition (I wish she would wake up!) of his best loved work, Little, Big, but I couldn’t resist pledging to the Kickstarter for The Chemical Wedding, a four hundred year old romance by Christian Rosencruetz (Johann Valentin Andreae), re-imagined by  John Crowley, who dubs it the first Science Fiction novel ever written.

To mark the 400th Anniversary of the work, first published in 1616, Small Beer Press will be publishing this new version in November 2016 in diverse editions, paperback and eBook, and have launched a Kickstarter to fund the more exotic limited editions – an exclusive Hard Cover Edition, a Numbered Edition and a Lettered Edition.

Small Beer Press is an American independent publishing company founded and run by husband and wife team, Gavin J Grant and Kelly Link. They publish a range of fine speculative fiction and non fiction. They also established Weightless Books, a DRM free source of eBooks from independent publishers. 

Anyway, The Chemical Wedding looks as if it will be a splendid edition and a real collectable, destined to become a rare book classic. Illustrated throughout with whimsical woodcuts by Theo Fadel, John Crowley’s artist of choice for the book, makes it extra special.

The Kickstarter offers many reward levels, and there are some tempting goodies, such as (limited) signed and inscribed first editions of John Crowley novels, if you pledge for the Hard Cover. Every level from $10.00 upwards receives a DRM free eBook of The Chemical Wedding in the eBook format of your choice.

If you are a serious bibliophile and love fine editions, the Kickstarter for The Chemical Wedding gives you the opportunity to acquire an exceptionally beautiful first edition at a good price.

Fortunately we will not have to wait 11+ years for it to be published, as Small Beer Press expect the books to be available in October or November 2016.

It will be interesting for me to see which book will arrive first in my mailbox – Little, Big 25 or The Chemical Wedding. Let’s say, I’m not holding my breath for Little, Big as there has been no news on its publication since December last year.