John Ebey, CC class of 1963, has been a great friend to CC Special Collections for decades. In 2000, he donated the Aralia Press Collection, and over the next 25 years he donated dozens of other fine press books, almost always asking us not to credit him publicly. He also gave us high spots from his own collection, including a first edition of George Orwell’s 1984, and he provided us with funds to purchase several amazing rare books, including a 15th century Golden Legend, the first collected Sappho, Aldrovandi’s illustrated history of monsters from 1642, and a 1995 edition of W.S. Merwin’s The Real World of Manuel Córdova, a fan-fold book stretching to 15 feet long when extended.
After he died earlier this year, we learned from his wife Susan that many more books were coming our way. This week we received over eighty books made by the Arion Press, the Yolla Bolly Press, Pacific Editions, and others.
Especially noteworthy among these is the Arion Press 1979 large paper limited edition of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick illustrated by Barry Moser. The initial letter “C” on the first page (“Call me Ishmael”) is truly iconic. (Confession: it is my personal favorite initial letter in all the world, and has been since I first saw a copy of the book in library school in the 1990s.)
Most of the books behave the way you expect books to, but the Arion Press edition of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities opens up a little differently:
It doesn’t feel, look, or even SOUND like a typical book as you open it.
We are very excited to catalog these books and make them available to students and other researchers. Thank you very, very much, John and Susan Ebey. Colorado College Special Collections wouldn’t be what it is without you.