GOMBROWICZ W. - Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy. Illustrated by Tadeusz Kantor.

GOMBROWICZ Witold - Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy. Warsaw 1958; PIW. 8, pp. 87, [1], folding plates. 5. broch., wraps.
Tightly taped small edgewear, back cover slightly yellowed, some yellowing of extreme pages, good condition inside. The only book illustrated by Tadeusz Kantor. A beautiful example of the interplay of the works of two outstanding artists. Kantor designed the wrapper and 5 illustrations placed on fold-out boards. The titles of the engravings are printed on the back of each board: The Court and the Sunset, Yvonne and the Aunts, The King and the Queen, The Sins of the King and the Queen, The Feast.
Gombrowicz's first drama. It was not premiered until the wave of the post-October thaw; in 1957 the Warsaw Dramatic Theater staged "Ivona," directed by Halina Mikołajska. The edition presented here is the first edition in its own right (the first printing appeared in two consecutive issues of "Skamander" in 1938) and the only one during the author's lifetime. The next edition was not published until 1971 in "Collected Works" (vol. 5, Paris, Inst. Literacki).
W. Gombrowicz (1904-1969) - novelist, playwright, since 1939 residing in exile, one of the most outstanding Polish writers of the 20th century.
T. Kantor (1915-1990) - painter, theater director, animator of artistic life, founder of the avant-garde theater Cricot 2, one of the most interesting modern Polish artists.