The Equilibriad

London: Hogarth Press, 1948. Limited Edition. Very good. 8vo, 8 5/8 x 5 5/8 in (220 x 140 mm); pp. 46 + 5 full-page BW plates FROM DRAWINGS by LUCIAN FREUD; title and initials in red ink; buckram-backed marbled boards, gilt titling; bumping on the edges and the tail of the spine, binding firm; toning to end papers, some foxing but not affecting the illustrations which are printed on finer paper; without the scarce original glassine wrapper but protected in a removable mylar archival cover. Copy no 80 of 750 copies, NUMBERED and SIGNED by SANSOM on limitation page. Early in his career Lucian Freud (1922 - 2011) was deeply influenced by the Surrealists and produced many drawings, while later he moved predominantly to oil painting and became famous for his stark and alienated realist portraits. A 2011 retrospective of Freud's works-on-paper at Acquavella Galleries in New York featured original drawings that he made to illustrate Sansom's novella, notably a self-portrait of the young Lucian Freud that represents the book's protagonist.

Written by William Sansom (1912 - 1976), a British novelist and short story writer known for his descriptive prose, 'The Equilibriad' is a novella about a man who wakes up one morning to discover himself physically and psychologically aslant, able to walk only at a 45-degree angle. "William Sansom was once described as London's closest equivalent to Franz Kafka. He wrote in hallucinatory detail, bringing every image into pin-sharp focus." [The Independent, 23 Oct. 2011]

The Hogarth Press was a British publishing house founded in 1917 by Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in Richmond where they began hand-printing books. During the interwar period the Hogarth Press grew from a hobby to a business and they used commercial printers. In 1938 Virginia Woolf relinquished her interest in the business to John Lehmnan. It was sold to Chatto & Windus in 1946. The Press published 527 titles between 1917 and 1946, including the works of the members of the Bloomsbury group, works on psychoanalysis, and translations of foreign works, especially from Russian.