American Buffalo by David Mamet, with art by Michael McCurdy.

Arion Press – Limited Edition

American Buffalo by David Mamet, with five wood engravings by Michael McCurdy, 1992.

American Buffalo is the first dramatic work produced by the Press, and it is the first major work of one of our best contemporary playwrights. For this edition Mamet has written a new foreword, which divulges the real-life origins of the play, a long-running poker game in a junk shop in Chicago, where the author got the nickname "Teach", for having taught at a state penitentiary where some of his fellow players had done time. David Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize for his play Glengarry Glen Ross. His controversial play of 1993, Oleanna, was made into a movie directed by the playwright. Michael McCurdy is a prolific book illustrator, well known for his skill as a wood engraver.

Format: 10-3/4 by 8 inches, 118 pages. The text type is 12-point Monotype De Vinne with larger sizes handset for display. A second color of ink, blue-green, is used for display lines, and the wood engravings are printed in a third color, a slightly greyed black ink. The paper is Byron Weston all-cotton ledger. The binding is full blue-green cloth with titling on silver foil and a buffalo-head nickel embedded in the front cover. Numbered and signed by the author and artist. Edition of 400 copies, $350.00..

Accompanying the book as a premium is the first edition of an essay by David Mamet, The Cabin, with an additional wood engraving by Michael McCurdy, produced as a 16-page booklet, format 8-1/2 by 5-1/2 inches, printed from Goudy Old Style type, in black and brown inks, on machine-made paper, handsewn in brown wrappers with label of wood-veneer paper. Edition of 400 copies.

About the Arion Press

Since its inception in 1974, the Arion Press has published 81 deluxe limited editions that are breathtaking in their scope and artistry. Combining notable literature illustrated with original artwork from prominent artists, Andrew Hoyem and his team at the Arion Press have carried on the tradition of the livre d’artiste in spectacular fashion. Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times put it best when he wrote, "The Arion Press produces some of the most beautiful limited-edition, hand printed books in the world."