Shadow

BROWN, Marcia. Shadow. From the French of Blaise Cendrars. Translated and illustrated by Marcia Brown. NY: Charles Scribners Sons [1982]. 4to, [40]pp. Orange quarter-cloth stamped in gold with purple boards pictorially blind stamped. Color illustrations on every page. Upper and lower edges sunned, with upper edge showing sunning and the text from upper portion of the jacket transferred to the underlying board, spine ends lightly rubbed, else an internally clean, tight copy in original color pictorial dust jacket (head of spine panel a bit worn, no medal affixed).

First edition. 1983 Caldecott Medal Winner! The village storytellers and shamans of an Africa that is passing into memory called forth for the poet Blaise Cendrars an eerie image, shifting between the beliefs of the present and the spirits of the past. Shadow…/ It does not cry out,/ it has no voice…/ It can cast a spell over you…/ It follows man everywhere,/ even to war… Marcia Brown’s stunning illustrations in collage, inspired by her travels in Africa, evoke the atmosphere and drama of a life now haunted, now enchanted by Shadow.