The Soul and Body of John Brown: a poem by Muriel Rukeyser and an old song on etchings by Rudolf C. von Ripper
19401262991940. New York: Lee A. Ault & R. C. von Ripper 1940. <br /> <br /> Huge folio 50 pp. text and illustration engraved throughout on folded leaves separated with tissue guards in stiffened wrappers with an additional suite of 22 plates lacking some together in the original cloth portfolio and card slipcase. Together with seven sheets of proof plates and a folder of five related press clippings bearing the printed label of Monica McCall Inc. Wrappers lightly toned portfolio worn and splitting slipcase considerably worn and stained and lacking spine panel plates themselves are very good throughout with only a hint of age-toning to the outer margins.<br /> <br /> § Copy V signed by Von Ripper and Muriel Rukeyser one of three Rives paper with a suite of etchings on Velin de Normandie from a total edition of 67 copies. This copy belonged to Muriel Rukeyser who has extracted some of the suite of prints they now number 22 and added seven proof sheets some showing and annotating alternate inking options as well as a small collection of related press clippings gathered for her by Monica McCall her literary representative and sometime lover.<br /> <br /> An important collaboration between Rukeyser and the Austrian-born surrealist etcher Rudolph von Ripper 1905-1960 on the eve of America's entry into the Second World War. Rukeyser's poem looks to the legacy of John Brown the militant abolitionist of the 1850s and celebrates the possibility of spiritual renewal through resistance to injustice. It first appeared in the June 1940 edition of Poetry Magazine. Here the poem is fully engraved and illustrated with original etchings by von Ripper and interleaved with the etched verses of the old Civil War marching song. By the time Von Ripper was engaged on this project he was only 35 but had already fought for the French Foreign Legion been imprisoned and tortured by the Gestapo and been wounded while fighting on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. His direct physical experience of the rise of fascism is evident in his visceral Goya-like etchings. The series was exhibited in the Bignou Gallery in New York in 1941. A contemporary review described it is "an unusal undertaking brilliantly executed the drawings forming not so much illustrations or decorations as actual parts of the poem. Realism symbolism powerful design and dramatic presentment mark these plates which form a distinguished piece of bookmaking. unknown
