Lyra's Books A Christmas Carol

Based on a suggestion on the Dorian thread, I went ahead and started this new thread. Not much to talk about yet, but this should be an impressively illustrated publication with 12 letterpressed B&W illustrations and 6 tipped in color plates. Just hoping that if the numbered has marbled boards they will be appropriately beautiful. I did see a comment from Rich on FB which raises a little concern over the publication timeline (anticipated near Christmas 2022).

"if we can’t get it out for this Christmas it will have to postponed for quite a while. No point in delivering Christmas stories in May!"

So if this won’t be done by Christmas 2022 will there be a wait of close to another year?

>1 punkzip: I'm quite excited for this one, and (not to knock Dorian) glad to hear that it will have a drastically different design. I'll admit to initially being underwhelmed by another edition of a book that I already own multiple great copies of, but Gary Gianni's art is fantastic, works great for letterpress, and I'm glad to see it in multiple publication this year.

That timeline comment is a bit concerning, but it sounds like they're really trying. If I understood correctly, Hand & Eye recently posted that Dorian is already at the printer, and it sounds like Rich has finished the binding design for Frozen Hell, so hopefully there won't be too many cascading delays.

Just to add some content to the topic, here's one of the the teaser images from the press:

I'm sure this will be amazing. Truth be told, I really wish he had picked just about any other Dicken's novel, because I feel Christmas Carol has seen SO many fine press releases... but, again, I know this edition will be gorgeous and I am sure it will sell incredibly well :)

>4 astropi: One of the reasons for fine presses often choosing this novella may be its brevity - the technical challenges (& price) around letterpress printing & binding a full Dickens novel of over 700 pages i’m sure may be considerable.

I think Marcelo mentioned in the Dorian thread that A Christmas Carol was something Gary Gianni really wanted to do and that is why they decided to choose it as the next Lyra's Classic

>6 Praveenna_Nagaratnam: While I understand readers wanting something new and unique, I think a lot of wonderful work comes from artists seeing something that's been done a thousand times already and feeling the conviction that they can make it into something new and unique.

>7 NathanOv: 👍 👍 👍 Spot on 👍 👍 👍

I found the bit about the timing interesting as well. For sure A Christmas Carol would be perfect in December, but would sales languish in February or March?

I’d personally be a happy customer no matter the month.

>9 What_What: The plan is to pre-order in Sept and have the book in people's hands by Christmas.

>6 Praveenna_Nagaratnam: Absolutely! It has been part of Gary's desires to do his take on the story for decades, you can't go against that sort of passion by an artist, you have to find a way to do it with them.

>8 grifgon: How did you get those emoji's?!!

>10 marceloanciano: But is the plan if - due to unforseen circumstances - the book cannot be delivered by Christmas, it will not be released until around Christmas 2023, as suggested in Rich's FB post?

>13 punkzip: Yep! But we should know that by Sept..

>14 marceloanciano: In that circumstance, would this mean that the Lyra's Press title would be the next publication then?

>7 NathanOv: So true!

>15 punkzip: Lyra's Press's next will be in the summer, if all goes to plan, Arete's between them.

>17 marceloanciano: Oooh.. Are we getting any hints? 😂

>18 Praveenna_Nagaratnam: My lips are sewn shut!

>18 Praveenna_Nagaratnam: For some reason, I thought that Christmas Carol would come before the Lyra's Press title, perhaps because it was revealed earlier but I see this was wrong. I think the Lyra's Press announcement should be coming VERY soon, at least that what Rich is implying on FB. "Very shortly" -exact words.

>19 marceloanciano: Machine sewn or hand sewn?

Not sure if there would be enough demand to warrant, but would love to see chimes and cricket on the hearth.
Hard to find good quality LEC versions, and barbarian chimes is out of my price range.

>22 trentsteel: I believe the Barbarian Chimes is also just the play, as is the Barbarian Christmas Carol.

The Barbarian Press version is a play, as the poster above noted, but a different play:
http://www.barbarianpress.com/archives/christmascarol.html

“ We should also add that this dramatic adaptation of Dickens’ best-known story has its own delights. Produced on the stage less than two months after the novel first appeared, this was one of several adaptations presented in London that season, only one of which was authorized by Dickens. This version by Barnett opened on the same night as the authorized version, but is vastly more entertaining. Full of the meat of Victorian melodrama, it is in one sense an outrageous vulgarization of the novel, but it gives a fascinating glimpse of how domestic popular theatre took authors like Dickens to their understanding.”