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[Illustration]
THE
STORY OF AN OSTRICH
AN ALLEGORY
AND
HUMOROUS SATIRE
IN RHYME
INTERPRETED AND ILLUSTRATED
BY
EDMUND NOLCINI
PUBLISHED BY THE
HAND PRINT BOOK FOLK,
BACK BAY, BOSTON, MASS.
COPYRIGHTED, 1903,
BY THE
HAND PRINT BOOK FOLK, BOSTON, MASS.
ALL THE ILLUSTRATIONS HERE SHOWN, INCLUDING THE TITLE PAGE, ARE
REPRODUCED FROM PEN DRAWINGS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THIS BOOK, AT GREAT
EXPENSE, AND ALL PERSONS ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED NOT TO REPRODUCE THEM
WITHOUT PERMISSION
PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
[Illustration]
Whatever other merit may be discovered in this book, the publishers
desire to call attention to the fact that, as a whole, it is a
production altogether unique in a field of endeavor where something new
is being constantly sought, but seldom found.
The poem is entirely hand-printed in large and legible letters,
designedly kept free from ornate fancies and, therefore, particularly
easy to read. The hand-printing accords with the adjoining illustrations
as angular and machine-made type never does, giving a pleasing and
harmonious effect to the entire page, a result not to be obtained by the
ordinary art of the printer.
Attention is also called to the illustrations of the volume. Their
merely mechanical arrangement upon the page is in itself unusual, we
might almost say unknown to the reading public, while the imaginative
story that the artist has told in the illustrations that he has
contributed, is not only of the real and material world, but also of
powers behind the scenes, which offer the motives and even supply the
cues of most, if not all of the actors, who perform upon the great stage
of life. In this, too, the book is unusual, if not unique, and offers a
fertile field to the imagination of a discerning public in connection
with the delicious humor of the poem itself.
While, therefore, fully conscious of how far short the volume falls from
what might be done in the direction in which it only points the way, the
publishers offer it as one of a series now in preparation, of similar
works which, it is believed, will be found worthy of more than a few
moments of the amused attention of the reader.