The First Woodcut Novel Published By A Woman

Z MÉHO DĚTSTVÍ [From My Childhood]

By Helena Bochořáková-Dittrichová

(1929)

Signed limited edition of this landmark graphic novel, one of just 50 copies.

Near fine.

Price: $10,000.00

Z MÉHO DĚTSTVÍ [From My Childhood]

"Bochořáková-Dittrichová quietly strengthened the case for topics such as domestic life to be seen as legitimate art subjects rather than as easily dismissed female fodder." — Rebecca Gross

A wordless graphic memoir of Bochořáková-Dittrichová's provincial girlhood in the Moravian region of what is now the Czech Republic, Z MÉHO DĚTSTVÍ ("From My Childhood") is widely recognized as the first wordless novel published by a woman. A series of 95 woodcut vignettes ("a novel of impressions" according to David Beronä) printed rectos only that carefully balance the quotidian realities of daily life with the wonder of childhood, DĚTSTVÍ shows the influence of Frans Masereel — the Flemish originator of the form whose work Bochořáková-Dittrichová encountered in Paris — but "is a refreshing divergence from [his] squalor" (Beronä). A rare book in any version (there was also a trade, as well as deluxe issue of 10 copies on Japan paper of the first edition). OCLC locates just eight copies in the US (and just three elsewhere), with many major institutions lacking. A beautiful example of this predecessor to Marjane Satrapi, Phoebe Gloeckner, and Alison Bechdel.

Read more: Beronä, Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels; Gross, "Bringing an Artist to Light."

The Object

Praha [Prague]: Orbis, (1929). 6" x 4.5". Original quarter vellum, grey boards with gilt device based on one of Bochorakova-Dittrichova woodcuts. Fore- and bottom edges uncut, with a number of leaves left unopened. With an introduction by Czech literary critic and historian Arne Novák. Limited edition, one of 50 hand-numbered copies on Ullersdorf paper (this #22) signed by Bochorakova-Dittrichova in pencil to title page. 14, [194] pages. Some occasional spotting to boards, light foxing to endpapers, faint rubbing to vellum. Else sharp and clean.

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