The Godfather by Mario Puzo - Lettered Edition

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With its brilliant portrayal of the Corleone family, The Godfather by Mario Puzo burned its way into our national consciousness as the definitive novel of the Mafia underworld. Don Vito Corleone is the head of a New York Mafia family, presiding over a vast underground empire that includes rackets, gambling, bookmaking and unions from his fortress of a home in Long Island.

His influence runs through all levels of American society, from the cop on the beat to the nation’s leading politicians. But he is constantly at war with the four other families of the New York Mafia in their endless fight for power. As Corleone’s desperate struggle to control the Mafia underworld unfolds, so does the story of his family.

By the time Mario Puzo’s fictional account of the Corleone family arrived on bookshelves in 1969, organized crime had been prevalent in the news for nearly two decades, instilling fear and fascination into the hearts of the American public. When The Godfather first appeared on The New York Times bestseller list, the newspaper reported that the novel was “bound to be hugely successful, and not simply because the Mafia is in the news. Mr. Puzo’s novel is a voyeur’s dream, a skillful fantasy of violent personal power without consequence.”

It remained on The New York Times bestseller list for 67 weeks, and sold over nine million copies in two years. In 1972, The Godfather was turned into the incomparable film of the same name, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

A tale of family and society, law and order, obedience and rebellion, The Godfather reveals the dark passions of human nature played out against a backdrop of the American dream.

The fine press limited edition of The Godfather by Mario Puzo is presented in three states: Lettered, Numbered and Artist editions.

LETTERED EDITION

• 6¼" x 9⅜" trim size.
• 600 Pages.
• Limited to 26 copies.
• Signed by Francis Ford Coppola, Anthony Puzo and Art Werger.
• Full black goatskin binding as a Jan Sobota two coverboard structure.
• Blind embossed leather headbands.
• Doublures are black goatskin.
• Endleaves are Fedrigoni paper.
• Cover and doublures are stamped in blind and gold.
• Binding design inspired by the work of bookbinder, calligrapher and typographer Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse.
• Handbound by Jacek Tylkowski in Komorniki, Poland.
• Introduction by Francis Ford Coppola from the 50th Anniversary edition.
• A note by Anthony Puzo.
• Fourteen original copper plate intaglio illustrations by Art Werger.
• Illustrations are all original impressions, hand printed by the artist from the copper plates on Hahnemühle Biblio. Each print requires a separate inking, wiping, and running through the press, and each resulting print is considered an original work of art.
• All fourteen illustrations are original aquatints except for the frontispiece which is a mezzotint.
• Prints are guarded in with Japanese Shiohara handmade paper.
• Set in Requiem and printed letterpress on mouldmade Arches Wove paper by Bradley Hutchinson and Max Koch on a Heidelberg Cylinder in Austin, Texas.
• Fore- and lower-edges are deckled.
• Housed in a quarter leather clamshell enclosure with a rounded spine and gold lettering.
• Bookmark with all pre-orders.

Published editions may differ slightly from mockups and prototype designs.
Illustrations © 2021 by Art Werger.