Chaucer, Geoffrey, 1340?-1400.
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer; Done into Modern English Verse by Frank Ernest Hill and Newly Revised for this Edition. New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1946.
Item in Process (ANB3919)
Gift of Loryn Romadka, from the collection of Austin F. Lutter.
Special Collections, Golda Meir Library

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This is the second limited edition of 1500 copies of The Canterbury Tales published by the Limited Editions Club. The translation is identical to the one appearing in the 1934 Club edition.

George Macy decided to commission Arthur Szyk to illustrate a second edition of The Canterbury Tales after viewing a series of drawings made as costume designs for the ballet, The Dybbuk. Macy was so taken with the miniature paintings, he asked Syzk to illustrate Chaucer's pilgrims.

Szyk prepared artwork for three editions published by The Limited Editions Club, The Book of Job, The Book of Ruth and The Canterbury Tales. Szyk was a Polish artist whose work centered on the medieval miniature and was a painter rather than an illustrator. Some scholars believe his work in these three books are among the few artistic failures of the Limited Editions Club. They feel his use of color is too gaudy and unfashionable in relationship to Chaucer's text.