book lore contribution #473

The last book Alice Neel illustrated was the Limited Edition Club's, Fall of the House of Usher by Poe printed by the Anthoensen Press. It is a wonderful, folio sized edition illustrated with Neel's dark and striking plates (and includes her "skull" self portrait). She was dying as she did the work of this book and the press knew it. It was to be a limited edition of 600 volumes and, as Neel's health deteriorated, Anthoensen sent a sheath of blank leaves to Neels home. She signed 400 of them before she died and these leaves later had the colophon page printed upon them, above her signature. It is stories like this that make me love books and bookmen all the more. (N.B. I want a bit of credit for avoiding the easy, "Quoth the illustrator, Nevermore." Oh, well, perhaps not avoided afterall...)