This limited edition is the first publication of The Ballad of Lemon and Crow by Glenn Todd, a San Francisco writer who grew up in Texas. His regional sensibility is keenly felt in the tale of three generations of neighbors in rural Oklahoma. The illustrations are by Bruce Conner, a native of Kansas and longtime San Francisco artist whose distinctive vision won him a devoted audience. In 2000, Conner announced he was retiring and would not sign or claim any new work as his own; since then, “anonymous artists” have signed in his stead.

With its stark emotions and spare recital of events, The Ballad of Lemon and Crow has many ingredients of the folk tale and the fable. The supernatural and the fantastic occur throughout. In the end the spells and enchantments inexorably unfold to bring about a chaos of murder and revenge, after which only the peace of desolation is left.

Production Details 

• Edition of 300 numbered copies for sale

• Octavo, 10 ¼ by 7 inches, 64 pages

• Bound in black and yellow cloth, printed with an inkblot pattern, in a slipcase

• Arion Press publication #63, 2002

The Portfolio of Prints 

The six images are photogravures from collages of wood engravings. In response to Conner's oval collages, and after the book was printed, Todd wrote a series of six brief prose-poems linking the imagery back to the story. These pieces are printed on the interleaving sheets between the six intaglio prints in the suite.

• Edition of 30 portfolios for sale, signed and numbered by the artist

• British handmade Millbourne Parchment Substitute, 17.25 by 12.75 inches
  Images 10 by 7 inches

• Housed in a black cloth portfolio

• Sold only with a copy of the book