Recitativ

Recitativ / az Babits Mihály. - Nyugat: Szépirodalmi szemle, [1972]. - 131 p.; 56x40 mm. - ISBN 9631510107

Dark green, leather-textured material, with gilt titling, border, blindstamped price on back cover; color-printed, design dustjacket. Miniature reproduction of the edition of 1916.









Mihály Babits, (1883 - 1941) was a Hungarian poet and journalist. After his study - Hungarian, Latin and French with a particular interest in the philosophy of Schopenhauer and Nietsche - at the Budapest University he worked as a teacher in Szeged and Budapest and was editor of the Nyugat Magazine.In 1934 he wrote a standard book on West European Literature (Az Európai irodalom történette). He was also one of the most important literary translators of Hungary; a.o. Sophokles, Goethe, Shakespeare and Baudelaire. His most outstanding work is the complete translation of Dantes Divina Comedia in 1940.

Tongues of flame

Tongues of Flame; poems / by Kalman L. Levitan. - Palm Beach Gardens (Florida): Kaycee Press, 1989. - 53x65 mm., oblong. – no pag. - ISBN 0911694196

Blue leather binding with title in gold on front and spine. Blue marbled endpapers. Set by Gazebo Press in Souvenir type. Printed by Ward Schori Press on Natural Mohawk Vellum. Bound by Hugo Grummich.200 copies.

There is a loose erratum on blue paper with an apologia:
It’s the nightmare of a printer,
To find lurking on a page,
A ghastly, glaring typo,
When it’s much too late to change!


Rabbi Kalman L. Levitan (1917-2002), writer and teacher and for many years Jewish Chaplain for the Air Force.
He was the founder and first chairman of the Miniature Book Society. He was a devoted collector of miniature books. His large private collection, started with a miniature Hebrew prayerbook given to him by his father, was dispersed in 1997 and after his death the remaning volumes donated to two University Libraries. I have in my collection several volumes with the bookplate of Levitan. Kaycee Press was his imprint for at least three miniature books.

Ward Schori journalist and professional printer in Evanston Illinois. Established the Schori Press as a commercial printing house till 1980. After his retirement he owned a “basement print shop” where he printed and published most of his miniature books untill his dead in 1994.

Hugo Grummich, born in 1926 in Bosnia. He apprenticed with his uncle’s book binding company, where he became a master bookbinder, emigrated tot the US and started the Cincinnati Bindery in 1964. He won numerous awards for the quality of his work, including pieces for the Kennedy family, the Smithsonian and the Vatican.