FLAMES OF SUNRISE. A BOOK OF THE MAN CHILD CONCERNING THE REDEMPTION OF ALBION. 1949 - 1953.

Design’d; Illustrated; Letter’d; Hand Printed; & Publish’d; by the Author: Fair Oak, Ashford Hill, Newbury, Berks.

197 pages (paginated by hand in ink), lithographed calligraphic text throughout by Ralph Chubb, hand painted title page, 6 full-page hand painted illustrations, 1 hand painted chapter head piece, 38 full-page illustrations, decorated chapter titles, other sketches and decorations in the text, half vellum titled and decorated gilt on the spine, black cloth sides – bound by G.W. Frewin, edges uncut, a very good copy.

Colophon:

This Book of the Spirit was made & printed  throughout by hand-lithography, by Ralph C., Poet-Artist, of Fairoak in the County of Ham.

Edition of 25 copies.

This is Number 4

Copyright by R.N. Chubb, Fair Oak, Ashford Hill, Newbury.

1953
Ralph Nicholas Chubb (8 February 1892 - 14 January 1960) was an English poet, printer, and artist. Heavily influenced by Whitman, Blake, and the Romantics, his work was the creation of a highly intricate personal mythology, one that was anti-materialist and sexually revolutionary.

Chubb writes in a letter to the original buyer of this book, dated 11:XI:56 (loosely inserted), ‘…I have no copies of my previous hand-printed books left. The editions were small – 30 copies, more or less…..My chief (& most recent) works were two substantial volumes of prophecy,  poetry (mystical for the most part), & allegorical tales, with many illustrations, entitled respectively THE CHILD OF THE DAWN and FLAMES OF SUNRISE. Seven copies of each of these books had certain of the illustrations painted in water-colour. My method of production is peculiar to myself. I print by means of hand lithography. I have a small lithographic press; and I write my poems & tales by hand, lettering them in a script which I have evolved myself, as most suitable to the process & the particular effect I aim at…..The books are necessarily expensive to buy – ranging from 5 to 15, or 18 guineas only, production costs are so high nowadays that my return, from a sale, is little (if at all) more than the production cost.’

Also included are three further letters in which Chubb discusses his publications, how copies might be obtained from various booksellers and his future plans for new works.