Propertius in Love. Done into English verse from the Latin by Jack Lindsay with XVIII illustrations by Norman Lindsay.

This is a rare or used book from the Berkelouw Rare Books Department.

London: Fanfrolico Press 1927. Folio bound in original brown morocco-backed goat vellum boards with decoration in gilt by Norman Lindsay on front board (slightly shelf-soiled). Uncut. (90pp.). With large title-vignette and 17 illustrations by Norman Lindsay. Issued for subscribers only. This English edition was limited to 60 copies numbered and signed by Jack Lindsay this being No. 30. Printed at the Chiswick Press on Van Gelder handmade paper. Slight foxing on end-papers otherwise a fine copy of an exceptionally rare item. NOTE: Writer/scholar Jack Lindsay's (1900-1990) rendering of the love affairs of the ancient Roman poet Sextus Propertius into English enhanced by the pen drawings of his father the artist Norman Lindsay (1879-1969). This is one of the earliest productions of the Fanfrolico Press the private press founded by Jack Lindsay and John Kirtley in Sydney in 1925 and re-established in London in 1926 best known for its scholarly erotica. In London Jack and Kirtley hoped it is said "to promote Norman Lindsay's notion of a sexually utopian Australian renaissance." (Oxford DNB 2004) As Lindsay writes his "method of selection" with regard to the present work "omits the aetiological element accentuates the character of Propertius as lover rather than as doctus poeta & thus seeks to achieve a living & coherent picture of a personality amiable amorous and bravely at the mercy of his instincts" (p. 89). Books of the Fanfrolico Press are highly collectible and this is no exception.