Momaday, N. Scott

In the presence of the sun: sixteen Plains Indian shield drawings [publisher's proofs]

Santa Fe, New Mexico: The Rydal Press, 1991. Publisher's proof of N. Scott Momaday's "In the Presence of the Sun: Sixteen Plains Indians Shield Drawings," one of three suites reserved and not previously offered for sale. Includes sixteen shields, each letterpress printed on 10" x 12" paper, hand-colored, embossed with NSM's imprint, and signed by Momaday, who was also the artist. Unnumbered as issued. Accompanying each shield is a text insert printed on 8.5" x 11" paper, each telling the story of the respective shield. Includes tissue guards; collected in a mauve clamshell case; text applied to the cover. Includes original envelope in which Momaday initialed and hand-wrote the gathering's title for the publisher. All near fine.

Included is a signed letter from Clark Kimball, publisher for The Rydal Press. Letter describes this edition of the plates: "The plates for the limited edition book IN THE PRESENCE OF THE SUN were so well received that I decided to do 48 complete separate suites of 16 images each on special paper. Each image was hand colored, signed, numbered and embossed with the author/artist, N. Scott Momaday's, chop. I reserved the first three suites as 'Publisher's Proofs' and never offered them for sale -- they are identical to the other 48 suites except that they were not numbered. Herewith is one complete set of the 'Publisher's Proofs' of the plates for IN THE PRESENCE OF THE SUN." 

Item #2687

"N. Scott Momaday was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, to a father of Kiowa Indian heritage and a mother of European and Cherokee heritage. He spent much of his childhood on Navajo, Apache, and Jemez Pueblo reservations in the Southwest, where his parents taught. He earned his BA from the University of New Mexico and a MA and PhD from Stanford University. His first novel House Made of Dawn (1968) won a Pulitzer Prize and brought attention to Momaday as a leading figure in a Native American literary renaissance." (Poetry Foundation).

Price: $4,800.00