CONTEMPO, PHOBIA AND OTHER
GRAPHIC INTERPRETATIONS, John Vassos, 1976

First edition:

Title page:

John VASSOS / [horizontal rule] / CONTEMPO, / PHOBIA AND OTHER / GRAPHIC INTERPRETATIONS / With a Foreword by P.K. THOMAJAN / DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC., NEW YORK

300 x 220mm. Paperback binding; cover illustration from Gray's Elegy (p. 77) with title and mention of 116 plates; rear cover describes Vassos' work and mentions influences. Collections of PDV, SUL, CUL.

i blank ii frontispiece iii title page iv copyright notice v artist's acknowledgments vi publisher's note vii-xi foreword by P.K. Thomajan xii blank 1-115 plates = 64 leaves

Index of illustrations:

Only illustrations not shown in other works will be listed.

15 Salome (1926): Princess Receives Jokanaan's Head. Earlier version of book illustration for theater program cover.
23 The Ballad of Reading Gaol: endpaper design not used in book (the feeling of imprisonment).
24 The Ballad of Reading Gaol: endpaper design not used in book (freedom; destruction of the prison).
102 "Okhi" (1939): the Greek word for "no," the nations reply to the invading Fascists; one of Vassos' few posters.
104 Magazine illustration (1931): no title given depicts a Man and a ghost in a forest. Publication not identified.
105 Magazine illustration (1931): man returning to a devastated land (unpublished). Publication not identified.
 106 "Tango Tragico" (1935): magazine illustration. Publication not identified.
107 "The Island of the Dead" (no date): unpublished magazine illustration
108 Curtain design for Billy Rose Musical production (1926): never realized
109 Design for a "Ballet Mécanique" in Billy Rose show (1926): unproduced
110 Magazine illustration (1931): for story about super-ants taking over the earth.
111 Study for General Tires ad campaign (1924).
112 Ad for Cammeyer shoe salon (no date).
113 Ad for Cammeyer shoe salon (no date).
114 Ad for the Packard car (no date).
115 Ad for a Bonwit Teller perfume, Fleur de Jasmin (no date).

 

This volume is a retrospective bibliography of Vassos' work. The only part written by Vassos is an "Artist's Acknowledgment," in which he thanks John Mayfield and the Syracuse University Library for the loan of 33 original illustrations, including 23 from Phobia, as well as all the other lenders of original artworks. The reproductions in this work are far superior and more faithful to the original than the original reproductions, most produced by the Knudsen Process. This is due to the tremendous gains made in offset printing since the illustrations original publication, something also mentioned in the publisher's note (p. vi). Much of the personal information about Vasso, and his work, has been derived from P.K. Thomajan's foreword. Thomajan was a close personal friend of Vassos as well as a poet who passed away in 1991.(1)

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1. Personal note to the author from his widow, Charlotte Thomajan in response to a query regarding the foreword. October 1996.