Signed Limited Edition • First Illustrated Edition • Frasconi Woodcuts

Isaac Bashevis Singer • Yentl the Yeshiva Boy • 1983 • Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York

One of 450 numbered copies, signed by Singer and Antonio Frasconi, with woodcuts printed in black and orange

Yentl the Yeshiva Boy is one of Isaac Bashevis Singer's most enduring stories, a tale of learning, disguise, gender, faith, and desire that has moved far beyond its original literary setting. First published in Yiddish and later translated into English, it became one of Singer's best-known works, widely recognized also through its 1983 film adaptation.

This is the first illustrated signed limited edition, published in New York by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1983. The edition was limited to 450 numbered copies, signed by both Isaac Bashevis Singer and the artist Antonio Frasconi. This example is copy number 445. The limitation page confirms the edition statement and bears both signatures.

Singer's story follows Yentl, a young woman whose hunger for religious learning cannot be contained by the expectations placed upon her. In this edition, the text is joined to Frasconi's powerful woodcuts, whose black and orange forms give the book a visual force equal to the drama of the story itself. The result is not merely an illustrated text, but a carefully made collector's edition in which literature, Jewish cultural memory, and graphic art meet on the page.

Antonio Frasconi was one of the major woodcut artists and book illustrators of the twentieth century, known for bringing a bold, human, and deeply expressive graphic language to the books he illustrated. His work here gives Yentl a strong physical and visual identity: stark portraits, ornamental designs, and flame-like printed forms that echo the book's themes of study, secrecy, and inner transformation.

Illustration

Illustrated throughout with woodcuts by Antonio Frasconi, printed in black and orange. The woodcuts include full-page portraits, ornamental devices, and large initial forms integrated into the text. Their graphic directness gives the edition much of its distinction and makes this one of the more visually compelling signed Singer limited editions.

Bibliographical Note

Yentl the Yeshiva Boy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983. First edition thus; first illustrated edition. Translated from the Yiddish by Marion Magid and Elizabeth Pollet. Woodcuts by Antonio Frasconi. Limited to 450 numbered copies signed by the author and the artist, this copy numbered 445. Published simultaneously in Canada by Collins Publishers, Toronto. Printed in the United States of America.

Binding

Publisher's white cloth with embossed torch device to the upper cover, spine lettered in black, housed in the original brown cloth slipcase. The pale cloth binding and restrained exterior allow the strong interior woodcuts to carry the visual drama of the edition.

Condition

A clean, well-preserved copy in the original white cloth binding and brown cloth slipcase. The limitation page is present and signed by both Isaac Bashevis Singer and Antonio Frasconi. Interior fresh and attractive, with the woodcuts presenting beautifully. Slipcase structurally sound.

A desirable dual-signed limited edition of one of Singer's most famous stories, distinguished by Frasconi's woodcuts and preserved in the original slipcased format.