A Journal of the Plague Year (Limited Edition)

A Journal of the Plague Year, being observations or memorials of the most remarkable occurrences, as well public as private, which happened in London during the last great visitation of 1665, by Daniel Defoe. London: The Folio Society, 1960.

Very scarce, limited, leather-bound edition, signed by illustrator Peter Pendrey, numbered 21 out of 49. One of the five ultra-rare experimental limited editions that were produced by The Folio Society in 1960 at the request of its members, all featuring full morocco leather bindings, signatures by the illustrators, and numbering on an inserted colophon leaf. Having not proven as popular as the Society initially thought, the actual number of copies bound ranged from only 25 to 75 copies only (as opposed to the original intent to do a limitation run of 250). In order of scarcity, A Journal of the Plague Year is part of only 49 copies made (according to official Folio Society Bibliography) and the fourth rarest after Hermsprong or Man As He Is Not, Robert Bage (25 copies); Memoirs, Louis-Philippe, Comte de Ségur (41 copies); and Vie de Boheme, Henry Mürger (46 copies). The least rare is Lucius Apuleius' The Transformation of Lucius (75 copies), a copy of which (#64) we have in stock as well.  

With woodcuts by Peter Pendrey. Introduction by Kenneth Hopkins. 227 × 149 × 24 mm. Pp. [1–4] 5–248. Type: Plantin. Printed and bound by Richard Clay in full black leather with blind embossing of pillars with skulls to covers and spine, and title in gilt to spine. Top edge gilt. Illustrated endpapers with a stylised view of London and the Thames. No slipcase, as issued (unlike the standard, non-limited edition). Throughout, there are 14 full-page woodcut illustrations in the text, including the frontispiece. A separate colophon leaf, stating that 250 copies were specially bound and signed by Pendrey, is inserted at the end; the 250 is lightly struck off and 49 written above, which is the real limitation of this particular edition.

Condition

This copy has survived well, but has a handful of faults, including the much-dreaded sunning to spine (although perhaps slightly less so than some of the other copies we have seen over the years). There are tiny spots of wear to the leather covers and - most egregious of all - some white paint splattering to rear cover, front turn-in and (only a few small specks) to text block; this does not affect the text, nor the pages themselves in any way. The gilt top shows a little wear with a few hairline scratches, but is otherwise clean and bright, as are the other edges. Internally, this is a clean, bright copy, with stark, often disturbing woodcuts by Peter Pendrey.

Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year is a profound exploration of society's response to calamity, delving into courage, duty, fear, and the human struggle with hope and hysteria amidst an incomprehensible threat such as the plague spreading through London.