In the Penal Colony by Frank Kafka (Deluxe Edition, signed by artist Michael Hafftka)

First Edition thus, First Printing (Limited Edition Club, 1987). Fine in a fine, sand cloth clamshell box. Presents as new. Limited to 800 copies, this being number 783.Includes four full-page lithographic plates by artist Michael Hafftka; printed on hand-made Japanese paper and protected by fine tissue guards. Signed Hafftka on the colophon. Octavo (7" x 10-1/4"). 53 pp. A stunning work and edition.

In the Penal Colony is one of the best-known short stories by Franz Kafka. Indeed, it's widely regarded as Kafka's most acclaimed and widely discussed shorter work after The Metamorphosis. Kafka wrote In the Penal Colony over a period of two weeks in 1914, while he was at work on his novel, The Trial. He revised the story in 1918, as he was dissatisfied with the story’s original ending, and it was published in 1919. Equal parts autobiographical, political, and theological in nature, it's a gripping tale that is as compelling and relevant today as when it was written.

Michael Hafftka (b. 1953) was born in Manhattan, NY. His parents, Eva and Simon Hafftka, were European refugees and Holocaust survivors. One of the leading figurative expressionists of the post war era. His art is in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, and other museums in the US around the world. A prolific artists, Hafftka has created art for only four books, In the Penal Colony being one of them.  

Translated from the original German by Willa and Edwin Muir. Softcover, beautifully bound and sewn in vellum paper wrappers with yapp edges and the author's name printed in black on the spine; with sewing bands are visible on the wrapper sides. Clamshell box is covered in light grey cloth with a small printed label on the spine bearing the author's name. Box lined in soft, black felt. Book design by Benjamin Shiff and hand-sewn and -bound by Carol Joyce. Set in monotype Walbaum at the Out of Sorts letter foundry in Mamaroneck, N.Y. and printed on Magnani paper at the Shagbark Press in South Portland, ME.