Brown University’s John Hay Library exhibition of

Illustrating the Good Life:

The Pissarros’ Eragny Press, 1894-1914

Note: The descriptions below are all by Dr. H. R. H. Beckwith

Ten Spiritual Designs, enlarged from Proofs of the

Originals on Copper, Wood and Stone of Thomas

Calvert. Portland, Maine: Thomas Bird Mosher, 1913.

Mosher included a slip of paper in his

Calvert book crediting Lucien Pissarro with the designs

for ornaments used in the text. In his forward and on

page three of the text, Mosher combined a floral band

from the Pissarros’ Abregé de l’art poétique, with a red

initial A from the Eragny Descent of Ishtar. Philip R.

Bishop traced both of these books to Mosher’s collection.

Following Eragny Press precedent, Mosher also carefully

chose the paper for his books. It is not known why Mosher

chose to acknowledge his use of Pissarro’s designs in this

book, but it is one of his most visually impressive volumes.

In 2000 it was chosen by Martin Hutner and Jerry Kelly

as one of the hundred best books of the last hundred years

in their A Century for the Century exhibition at the Grolier

Club. Furthermore, in form and content it is very much in

keeping with the pastoral, harmonious natural world found

in Eragny Press illustrations and ornaments.

Brown University Library gift of S. Foster Damon

Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass. Portland, Maine:

Thomas Bird Mosher, 1919.

Writing in the American Mercury in May of 1924, Harry

Lyman Koopman proclaimed that “discussion of modern

fine printing in America may well begin with the work of

Mosher.” And indeed, Mosher’s careful choice of paper,

good quality ink, and ornament borrowed from the

Eragny Abregé de l’art poétique, epitomizes Anglo-French

attitudes to fine printing as interpreted by Lucien Pissarro.

Besides giving Mosher ideas about book ornamentation,

Eragny books provided him with examples of how effective

good paper and ink were in producing visual impact.

Brown University Library, gift of Philip D. Sherman in

honor of his teacher Harry L. Koopman

James Lane Allen. The Last Christmas Tree – An Idyl

of Immortality. Portland, Maine: Thomas Bird

Mosher, 1914.

Printed at the beginning of World War I, this Mosher

work concerns death, hope and remembrance. From

Eragny Press books Mosher used form and colors that

underscore these messages, red for blood and green for

hope. He was probably also influenced by the traditional

use of red and green during the Christmas season when

these works were printed. On the cover of The Last

Christmas Tree – An Idyl of Immortality, he used the

repeating lotus-flower pattern from the Eragny Press

settings of Perrault’s fairy tales.

Brown University Library