Inner Circle

Jerzy Peterkiewicz, Inner Circle, London: Macmillan, 1966

pp. 186; 27 full-page line drawings by Souza of which the frontispiece is a colour lithograph and the remaining drawings are tipped-in plates specially printed on beige matte paper; green cloth boards with dust jacket.
9 x 6 in (22.8 x 15.2 cm)

Line illustrations by F N Souza illustrating the Polish poet and novelist Jerzy Peterkiewicz's offbeat futurist narrative.

The frontispiece was hand printed in black ink (there are very noticeable variations between different copies of it) on a standard colour printed London tube map, these maps were probably specially made for Souza as they were not normally available on the type of paper used or with blank versos.

Like F N Souza, the novelist, poet, teacher and critic Jerzy Peterkiewicz was an immigrant to England, who made a name for himself in London in the 1950s. His style of writing, often referred to as an early brand of science-fiction, won him much acclaim, and his books like 'Isolation' (1959) and 'The Quick and the Dead' (1961) soon led him to be identified as one of the leading novelists of his generation. This narrative of 'Inner Circle', which navigates the past, present and future, seems to draw parallels with the seamless comingling of reality and fantasy in Souza's art. It may have been for this reason, perhaps, that Souza agreed to design the jacket for this volume, and also to contribute twenty-seven drawings relating to the text, including an illustration of the author's dedication on the last page. Each of Souza's drawings, including several intricately cross-hatched figurative works, has been given a full-page in the book.

Note: Images of the inside pages of the present lot are from a similar lot in a previous auction and are meant for reference only.