[Alyson Kuhn] Candide, Voltaire’s satirical romantic adventure, was first published in 1759. The book created such a splash that 17 editions were published in that year alone. New illustrated editions have continued to attract publishers, readers and collectors in countless countries over four centuries. In 1928 the first book published under the then-new Random House imprint was Rockwell Kent’s edition of Candide.
The illustrations here are from one of only 95 copies “coloured in the studio of the artist,” from the 1928 edition of 1470 numbered copies. I happened to be with Michael Osborne when he bought his copy (not hand-colored) of Kent’s Candide in 2000, following our very first meeting at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum about the possibility of an Alphabetilately exhibit there. But I had forgotten about Kent’s enchanting initial-capital “paragraph designs” for Candide until Michael Schwab, a big Rockwell Kent appreciator, reminded me of them recently. I asked him to select a few of his favorite Kent bookplates for our recent post, “Bookplates du jour,” and he also selected a pair of “stylistic prototypes” for the initials X and Y (from Later Bookplates & Marks of Rockwell Kent). You can X-amine these at the very bottom of this post.
Currently, the New York Public Library is fêting Candide with a big birthday exhibition titled Candide at 250: Scandal and Success. All of the materials in the exhibition are from the New York Public Library’s extensive holdings, with many pieces from a special collection that’s part of the Rare Book Division — including all 17 of the editions published in 1759, the year Candide was born.
If you aren’t able to make the show, the online resources alone qualify as an embarrassment of riches. “On the Road with Candide” offers a treasure trove of digital content, starting with an exploration of the Rockwell Kent edition. Do not pass up the 2-minute Candide YouTube video! The whirlwind tour fast-forwards through Kent’s illustrations at almost flipbook speed, with a grand soundtrack (overture from The Magic Flute), accent marks (touché!), and witty titles (of which my favorite is “The indifferent connoisseur”). And flashing initials and a happy ending (fin).
I learned a lot from Michael Johnson’s op-ed piece in the Jan. 22 New York Times, titled “Voltaire the Survivor.” Johnson, himself a Voltaire scholar, presents a grand overview of the richness of Voltaire’s talents. He cites several lines from Voltaire’s “Poem on the Lisbon Disaster” — a gigantic earthquake that leveled Lisbon in 1755. (Kent scholar Jake Wien, on his recent visit to the exhibit at the NYPL, learned that the earthquake also “leveled” Voltaire’s optimistic streak that everything that happens is for the better, prompting him to pen Candide.)
Voltaire the Novelist and Voltaire the Poet may well have been rivaled, in terms of pages produced, by Voltaire the Correspondent. Johnson reports, “About 15,000 of his private letters have been collected and more are being discovered every year.” All written by hand! Ink about it!
Alyson Kuhn is also enjoying the little gallery of Candide quotations.
