Connecticut River Book Auction
January 6 at 6 pm
South Congregational Church: 949 Main Street in South Glastonbury, CT 06073
www.ctriverbookauction.com
860-908-8067
Inspection begins at noon

SOUTH GLASTONBURY, CONN. — In January across much of the United States trees dot the landscape like match sticks occasionally draped in powdery white but more often resembling a soiled blanket sorely in need of a wash. At the Connecticut River Book Auction’s Friday, January 6 auction, owner Tom Gullotta and staff look to liven up this drab, chilly month with a rarely found complete signed portfolio of Mexico in Color by Elma Pratt.

Born in 1888 of well-to-do parents, Pratt was educated at Oberlin College, Boston New School of Design and Columbia University. Inspired by the folk art she saw in Poland, she began the International School of Art, which operated in Europe, the United States and Mexico for more than 30 years.

One result of her teaching and traveling across Mexico was Mexico in Color. Published in 1947 in an edition of 2,000 copies, it consists of 10 two-page folios, each containing one page of text and a silkscreen. Each silkscreen measures approximately 17½ by 12 inches, designed by Pratt and printed by Adrian Duran in Mexico City.

Opening each of these folios, one is immediately struck with the vibrant use of color and the choice of subject matter that brings simultaneously a sense of warmth and calm to the viewer. Artist, educator, collector and philanthropist, Pratt died in 1977, donating her extensive art collection to Miami University Art Museum in Oxford, Ohio.

Joining Pratts Color in Mexico is a limited edition of Marc Franz’s Stella Peregrina issued in 1917. Franz was a German painter and printmaker associated with the German Expressionist movement. This collection of poems and prints was published after his death at Verdun during World War I. Not surprisingly, in the 1930s Franz was condemned as a degenerate artist by the Nazis, but thankfully his work has survived to be appreciated today.

The auction will be conducted at the South Congregational Church, 949 Main Street. For information, 860-908-8067 or www.ctriverbookauction.com.

It may be cold outside but the 200 plus lots of history, art, fiction, and ephemera we have should warm the souls of book enthusiasts across the country.
For those with an interest in history there is a Robert F. Kennedy signed copy of Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. A Biography examining this civil rights leader’s life and a first edition of Kennedy’s The Enemy Within with a RFK signed letter.There are also limited editions of Jenkins The Most Remarkable Texas Book Fourteen Hundred and 91 Days in the Confederate Army with a Leaf from the Original Printing and Kelly & Howe’s Miles Goodyear First Citizen of UtahTrapper,Trader and California Pioneer. Students of the Underground Railroad will be interested in Pattit’s first person account Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad Comprising Many Thrilling Incidents of the Escape of Fugi- tives from Slavery. Then there is the disturbing three volume Texas legislature investigatory hearings into a special group of Texas “Loyalty Rangers” that may have been responsible for killing thousands of Hispanics from 1914 to 1919.
We continue to be rich in detective and mystery fiction much of it signed.To provide just two examples, there is a signed limited edition of Leonard’s Bandits and first edition copies in dj of MacDonald’s The End of the Night, Cancel All Our Vows and The Crossroads. Not a fan of detective stories, well then, we have first U.S. editions of Sabatini’s rarely found The Sea-Hawk and TheTrampling of the Lilies and two cased first edition copies of Hawthorn’s The House of the Seven Gables. Still not enticed, then how do signed copies of Mill- er’s Plain Girl, Albee’s The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and
Updike’s Marry Me or first editions in dj of Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead and Capote’s In Cold Blood sound? Oh, and we almost forgot to mention the 6 volume Limited Editions Club publication of Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
Are you a poetry or drama aficionado? If the answer to that question is yes then consider signed copies of Miller’s The Creation of theWorld, Muldoon’s Hay, Nemerow’s Inside the Onion, Ginsberg’s White Shroud Poems 1980-1985, and Simon’s Lost inYonkers.
Lastly, for lovers of illustration and fine printing we have a limited edition elephant folio copy of Marc Franz’s 1917 Stella Peregrina, nine original pen and ink sketches done by Reginal Bathurst Birch most noted for his illustration of Little Lord Fauntleroy and a rarely found complete portfolio of Elma Pratt’s Mexico in Color.