This edition was limited to 200 copies which were signed by John Vassos. SUL's copy is number 150, PDV's unnumbered. Collection of SUL, PDV.
THE BALLAD OF / READING GAOL / BY OSCAR WILDE / CONCEPTIONS BY JOHN VASSOS / [illustration of vulture hovering over gallows] / NEW YORK E.P. DUTTON & CO., INC. MCMXXVIII
In the 1930 printing, the title page is identical with the only change being MCMXXX. The copyright date remains 1928. Collation and pagination are also identical with the exception of [84] and [122] which are unnumbered in the 1930 printing. The 1930 printing also lacks the interleaving sheets. Ltd edition, collection SUL. (1) Regular edition collection PDV, MN, SUL.
240 x 195mm. Bound in quarter black cloth with blue laid paper sides; title, stamped in gold and centered on spine; image of vulture stamped in black with gold "clouds" on lower right corner; endpapers of greyish blue paper (stock on ltd. edition of heavier weight; text and illustrations printed on same stock; interleaving tipped on before illustrations; descriptive text to illustrations (blank on recto, text verso facing illustration); illustrations printed on same stock as text (verso blank). There is no difference in materials or organization between the limited and the regular edition. The only difference is that [vi], the copyright notice, also contains the statement, "This edition limited to 200 copies of which this is #." Horodisch, in his bibliography claims to have seen a copy of the 1930 printing without the ornament on the front cover. (2)
i half title ii notice of prior illustration of Salome iii blank iv frontispiece v title page vi copyright notice vii dedication "To all prisoners" viii blank 1 half title 2 blank 3-4 5-8 9-10 11-14 15-16 17-20 21-26 27-30 31-34 35-38 39-42 43-46 47-50 51-54 55-58 59-62 63-66 67-70 71-72 73-76 77-78 79-82 83-88 89-92 93-104 105-108 109-110 111-114 115-116 117-120 121-124 = 66 leaves
This edition contains 16 illustrations including the frontispiece which are included in the pagination.
iv Frontispiece
6-7 ...That little tent of blue / Which prisoners call the sky
12-13 ...each man kills the thing he loves.
18-19 ...but each man does not die.
28-29 ...I never saw a man who looked / So wistfully at the day
36-37 ...and drank the morning air.
44-45 ...but it is not sweet with nimble feet / To chance upon the air!
52-53 ...Gaped for a living thing
60-61 ...The phantoms kept their tryst
68-69 ...Justice of the Sun
74-75 ...like a madman on a drum
80-81 ...in the crystal of a dream
90-91 ...Horror stalked before each man, / And Terror crept behind
106-107 ...Pale Anguish
112-113 ...silence is more awful far...
118-119 ...the holy hands that took / The Thief to Paradise.
The Ballad of Reading Gaol's 1930 printing was also issued in a rust/terracotta full cloth with the title stamped in black; text centered and justified. Collection PDV, SUL.
OSCAR WILDE / THE BALLAD OF / READING GAOL / [ornament of vulture just below text]
Identical to Variant 1 but in full blue cloth. Collection PDV.
Identical to Variant 1 but in full linen colored cloth. Collection PDV.
Dust-jacket exterior identical on both printings. "Blurbs" different between two printings.
OSCAR WILDE / THE BALLAD OF / READING GAOL / [EPD logotype] / CONCEPTIONS BY / JOHN VASSOS
Type in gold on black background; bordered by narrow gold rule and blue panels; title centered and justified, other type centered.
THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL [Title centered on spine]
VASSOS' INTERPRETATION / OF WILDE'S MASTERPIECE, / ILLUSTRATING THE EMO- / TIONAL EXPERIENCES OF / A CONDEMNED PRISONER / IN HIS LAST DAYS
1928: Front "blurb:" brief biographic sketch of Vassos. Rear "blurb": advertisement for Salome, illustrated by Vassos.
1930: Front "blurb:" advertisement for other titles illustrated and written by Vassos. Includes Ultimo and Contempo as well as the three Wilde titles. Also indicates availability of boxed set. Rear "blurb": various brief reviews of Vassos' illustrations of the Wilde titles by Edwin Bjorkman, James Daugherty, Elmer E. Brown, Jim Tully, and Harry Hansen.
In E.P. Dutton's 1929 "Catalogue of Publications," the limited edition
of 200 copies of The Ballad of Reading Gaol was listed at $10 and the
regular edition at $3.50. By 1946, the price had increased to $3.75 on the
regular edition and was short-listed. The limited edition ceased being carried
by 1936 and is assumed to have sold out. An internal document from E.P. Dutton
showing John Vassos' royalties earned dated June 3, 1933 shows that between
October 5, 1928 and April 30, 1933 7,719 copies of the regular edition of were
sold, earning Vassos $1,539.10 at $.20 each. This report also shows that between
October 5, 1928 and April 30, 1929 4,283 copies were sold, between May 1, 1929
and October 31, 1929 sales dropped off to 743 only to jump back up to 1,032 from
November 1, 1929 and April 30, 1930. After that, they declined again. No
distinction was made between the 1928 and 1930 printings, although the numbers
suggest that the first 5,026 units sold could constitute the first printing,
with the balance being those sold up to that date from the 2nd
printing.(3) This information is based on a
letter and chart of production costs from the firm of Myer and Greene, CPA to
John Macrae dated May 17, 1929. The costs are broken down into their components:
manufacturing, editorial, jobbing, advertising, royalties... to arrive at a
sales price. (4) The contract between E.P. Dutton
and Vassos dated July 11, 1928 specified that Vassos was to supply 16
illustrations, one dust-jacket design and the binding design. It also outlined
the royalty agreement. No mention was made of the number to be printed.(5)
This title was also offered in a boxed set with the
other Wilde titles for $10.
The archives of both the John Vassos and E.P. Dutton Papers between them contained 3 additional items relating to The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Dutton's "Weekly Book News," n.d. featured a letter from Warden Lawes of Sing Sing prison to Vassos in which he states that this "is one of the most artistic and satisfactory works that has fallen into my hands in man a day. Each illustration is a story in itself and marvelously interpreted..." Dutton adds that "The Ballad already promises to lead the Christmas sales this year." Other titles in contention included A.A. Milne's House at Pooh Corner and Wyndham Lewis' A Christmas Book.
In a letter
dated February 2, 1929, thanking John Macrae for a copy of the book Clarence
Darrow speaks about criminals and the orthodox treatment of the
"unfortunate," and especially against capital punishment. Darrow
acknowledges Macrae's belief that "great things come from what society
believes a poluted (sic) source... I would guess that the common idea that you
refer to, about the horrible crime of homosexuality, has been pretty much
knocked to pieces. I think it is universally regarded by intelligent men as
pathological today. Of course, the Courts treat it as a crime, but you cannot
expect much from Courts. They only read law books and the older they are, the
better." The reference to the "crime" of homosexuality is a
reference to Wilde's own incarceration for "buggery" after which he
wrote The Ballad.
A review of the book in the Galveston (TX) News dated October 28, 1928 praised the conceptions, as Vassos called his artwork, and drew comparisons to the work of the "older" Aubrey Beardsley who the unnamed reviewer claimed was "a master of the flowing line." According to this individual, what is lacking in Vassos' work is the "strained neuroticism of Beardsley." In the same review, the artist James Daugherty is quoted as saying "the imagination is plunged into vast rhythms of time and space — through which the soul of man moves in a series of astounding adventures comparable only to those fantastic dream experiences which Dr. Freud had so ingeniously interpreted."
The Galveston Review article also sheds light on research which Vassos did before beginning his work. In the course of his research, Vassos visited a number of jails and interviewed condemned criminals. "What I wanted was to get at the state of mind of a man condemned to death, to feel myself something of this hopelessness of waiting for the inevitable. First he seems to hope for rescue... Then comes horrible helplessness and despair followed by passive dumb resignation. Finally a serenity and peace of mind comes to his aid; he enters into a state almost spiritual."
The review concludes by mentioning that Vassos is now at work on a series of "decorations" for The Harlot's House due to be published in the following year (1929). He is also said to be working on a series of drawings for the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe, a series which never seemed to have come to fruition.
Abraham Horodisch, in a bibliography of The Ballad of Reading Gaol examines all of the editions known to him of this work, many of them illustrated. Horodisch, it appears, did not approve of Vassos' conceptions. Comparing The Ballad to Salome he states, "if his plates to Salome are full of pathos this fits well enough with the text. Not only is the play a tragedy, but its structure and language are of a certain theatrical showiness which an illustrator may legitimately imitate, but to embellish a work like The Ballad with opera settings seems hardly permissible, and this is just what Vassos has done... Of The Ballad with its tragedy and its vehemently accusing spirit, there is not the faintest trace." Writing of the blurb on the back of the dust-jacket, Horodisch remarks that "the author of the blurb must have overlooked that the theme which Wilde develops is not the feelings of the murderer, but those of his fellow-prisoners." In his physical description he notes of the 2nd (1930) edition, "that it is identical except that the binding lacks the ornament on the front cover." Examination of 3 copies of this "edition" lead me to conclude that it may well be yet another variant. Horodisch concludes by acknowledging that the illustrations were successful because of the publication of what he refers to as a "second edition." (6)
1. The Syracuse University Library's copy of this book was inscribed to a Mrs. Isaacs by Bea and Hugo Knudsen. Hugo Knudsen was the inventor of the Knudsen process which was used in printing the majority of Vassos' works.
2. Horodisch, Abraham. Oscar Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol. New York: Aldus Book Company. 1954. pp 105-106.
3. E.P. Dutton Papers, Box 55, Vassos, John and Ruth, Correspondence. John Vassos: Royalty Earned and Deductions to Apr. 30, 1933. June 2, 1933.
4. E.P. Dutton Papers, Box 10, publication schedules...letters/reports.
5. E.P. Dutton Papers, Box 55,Vassos, John and Ruth, Correspondence.
6. Horodisch, Abraham. Oscar Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol. New York: Aldus Book Company. 1954. pp 54-55.
