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Raven: A Collection of Woodcuts (1975)

Hardcover book w/cloth slipcase
Dale DeArmond
Published by Alaska Northwest Publishing
Edition of 1250
Unknown proofs were produced

Softcover book (released in 1986)

FOR ALL RAVENS EVERYWHERE –
HUMAN AND AVIAN

Editor's note: there are thirty woodcut illustrations (plus one more) in this book, images originally produced in 1963 as part of DeArmond's "Raven" series; they are shown below (click on any for more information). The hardcover version is individually numbered and signed by the artist; unsigned publisher's proofs, originally marked as such and sent as early copies (likely for review by journalists) have surfaced. It won an award for outstanding design and manufacture from Bookbuilders West in 1976. In advance of this book's release, the Raven on the cover was issued as a print in 1974. It was Dale's second book after Juneau: A Book of Woodcuts.

Bob Henning, who was interested in ravens and in my woodcuts, agreed to publish the book through his firm, Alaska Northwest Publishing Company, and made a very handsome hardcover book of it, but it was frightfully expensive. A couple of years ago, they did a quality paperback which was really what I wanted in the first place.

Dale, on the original $100.00 retail price of the hardcover book from 1975; interviewed by Jean Lester and first published in 1992.

From the verso of the softcover version:
In this charming book, well-known Alaskan artist Dale De Armond has translated the ancient Tlingit myths of RAVEN into easy and pleasurable reading to accompany a series of her wood-block prints. It's a unique combination, achieved with sensitivity and humor.

The 28 legends De Armond chose are the Tlingit versions of such universal myths as the Creation, the Great Flood and the Virgin Birth. Their principal character is, of course, RAVEN the Creator.

De Armond's empathy with her subject shows in her remark that "The story of Raven has come from the dim past, but the descendants of Raven are still with us, especially out in the villages – great, black, lordly rogues, strolling on the beaches, gossiping on the rooftops, conferring on the docks."

Click here for more on DeArmond's "Raven" series.

Original price:
$100.00 (hardcover – ISBN 0-88240-040-1)
$13.95 (softcover – ISBN 0-88240-309-5)
ISBN 13: 9780882400402
ISBN 13: 9780882403090