Kent, Rockwell. One of 1000 sets. 280 woodcut illustrations by Rockwell Kent. 3 vols. 4to. Publisher's black cloth stamped in silver with design by Kent. Some offsetting to pages, otherwise near fine in like original aluminum slipcase.

Item #374720

A nice set of one of the most famous illustrated American books of the twentieth century.

In 1926 The Lakeside Press launched their ‘Four American Books’ campaign that aimed to produce illustrated books to rival those of the private presses of Europe. Moby Dick is widely considered the greatest of the four. Rockwell Kent saw his illustrations as "literary woodcutting," although his illustrations are not woodcuts, but rather ink and wash. So successful and captivating were Kent’s designs that this edition is credited with finding the novel a wider audience and cementing the status of Moby Dick as an American classic. William Kittredge, Director of Design and Typography at the Lakeside Press, was so bold as to tell Kent: "We will all go jump in the lake if this book is not the greatest illustrated book ever done in America"