White Collar - Novel in Linocuts by Giacomo Patri

 

Giacomo Patri

  1898 - 1978 (biography)

1938 (this edition published 1940) 

122 linocuts (black and white as well as color) 

images: various; book: 9-7/8 x 7-3/8 x 1/2" 

unsigned, as published 

not stated, as published; from the third and final printing by Patri 

typset introductory page by Rockwell Kent; typeset afterword by John L. Lewis 

 

slick wove 

published 

Pisani Printing & Publishing Co., San Francisco 

24113 

SOLD

A "wordless novel" - what would now be called a graphic novel - created by the San Francisco-based artist Giacomo Patri a la Frans Masreel and Lynd Ward. Illustrating the collapse of the American workforce after the 1929 stock crash and what ensued, it follows the experiences of a successful white-collar worker who, after plummeting into poverty, losing his home and faith, and becoming estranged from his family, witnesses a worker's rights rally and begins to find hope. It took Patri eight years to complete, starting in 1930 as the Depression began to take hold. This book was used as promotional work by the labor movement of the Bay Area. From the Labor Archives and Research Center, SF State University: "Published in the late 1930s, the novel contrasts isolated poverty with the alternative: united action of the white collar worker with their blue collar brethren through the labor movement." From the third printing overseen by Patri, which followed two hand-bound editions. Illustrated in 122 linocuts printed primarily in black and white with some images printed in orange. The cover is simply illustrated with the main figure printed in white ink on black card stock, the only text being on the spine. Giacomo Patri was a lifelong labor rights supporter and taught at the California Labor School, which operated from 1942 until 1957 when McCarthyism forced it to close. He also founded his own art school which he operated from 1948 to 1966.