OP: Not a Station but a Place
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Synergistic Press, San Francisco, 1979. Near Fine. First printing.
In the early 1970s, M.F.K. Fisher’s artist friend Judith Clancy had produced a portfolio of drawings and collaged menus evoking the old, elegant Gare de Lyon train station in Paris. Clancy hoped to publish her portfolio and asked Fisher to write the introduction, which she did with enthusiasm.
Fisher’s contribution is a chronicle of her many visits to and through the station over the years, poetically evoking the unique energy of the waystation: “As far as I can know or learn, no other railroad station in the world manages so mysteriously to cloak with compassion the anguish of departure and the dubious ecstacies of return and arrival.”
And every trip was an event, generally preceded by a breakfast, lunch, or sometimes a dinner in one of the station’s many well-known cafes and restaurants, clearly as central to the voyage as the grand railroad coaches or the “silver tracks” themselves. Clancy’s energetic line drawings pair naturally with Fisher’s evocative writing.
The book was issued in 1979 by the somewhat obscure Synergistic Press of San Francisco in three editions: A paperback; a handsome hardcover, issued without dust jacket; and a limited edition of 250 slipcased copies, which currently trade on the pricey side. We are offering here the hardcover, bound in black cloth with the title stamped in gold on the spine. The copy is Near Fine with minor scuffing to the case—otherwise clean, tight, and a stated first edition.
