Dear Friend,
It is with great excitement that I write to you regarding Paris Press's limited-edition printing of Virginia Woolf’s On Being Ill. This collector's item has been printed in an edition of one hundred, which includes eighty regular and twenty deluxe hand-bound letterpress books.
Paris Press produced this limited edition in order to help raise funds to publish the trade edition of On Being Ill. The Press is a not-for-profit literary press publishing books by women writers that have been neglected by the mainstream publishing world. On Being Ill was published as an individual volume by The Hogarth Press in 1930. The Paris Press edition of On Being Ill closely follows The Hogarth Press's design and includes a brilliant new introduction by Hermione Lee, acclaimed author of the biography, Virginia Woolf (Knopf 1997).
Both limited editions are printed on Zerkall paper. The regular limited edition is bound in unique hand decorated and colored paper wrappers and will be given to donors who contribute $500 or more to the Press's Virginia Woolf Project; the deluxe edition is hand bound in individually decorated paper over boards with hand decorated end sheets and a leather label, and housed in a slipcase, and will be given to donors who contribute $1,000 or more.
Michael Russem of Kat Ran Press in Florence, MA, printed the letterpress sheets of the limited edition, and the renowned binder Claudia Cohen of Easthampton, MA, hand bound the books. Claudia Cohen's clients include Grenfell Press, Gehenna Press, Pennyroyal Press, the Museum of Modern Art, and the New York Public Library. Michael Russem has printed books for The Limited Editions Club, 21st Photography, and Osiris Communications.
On Being Ill was the subject of Hermione Lee's keynote address at the International Virginia Woolf Conference (Smith College) in June 2003. It has been enthusiastically reviewed in publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The New York Review of Books, as well as on Fresh Air /National Public Radio.
In the January 2003 issue of the Virginia Woolf Bulletin, Stephen Barkway gives the Paris Press trade edition of On Being Ill a rave review. He states: "On Being Ill is one of those peculiarly fascinating essays that Woolf wrote which defy categorisation: part meditation, part autobiography and part critical analysis; it refuses to be pigeon-holed…. Woolf chose to issue [this] version as a single book which she set by hand, over four years after it was written; it is unique in this respect. It was published as a signed limited edition by the Hogarth Press and was the only book they issued of hers which seemed to be aimed at collectors…. I have no hesitation in recommending this new edition…. The Paris Press is a non-profit organisation and is to be congratulated on this splendid publication. If you do not already have this essay in your collection, this is a must. If you do, it is an inexpensive luxury."
I hope you will support this exciting project by acquiring a limited edition of On Being Ill for your own collection or for a school, museum, or library of your choice. All contributions to Paris Press are tax-deductible.
With best wishes,
Jan Freeman, Director