Laughing Boy - By Oliver La Farge - Extra-Illustrated by Ernest Franklin

Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin, 1929. First Edition, First Printing. This copy has been extensively extra-illustrated in the 1990s by Navajo artist Ernest Franklin and then bound in an amazing designer binding by the Dragonfly Bindery-Studio. The late Ernest Franklin was famous for his illustrations of the novels of Tony Hillerman, and in this special copy of this classic Pulitzer Prize winning novel of Navajo life, Franklin has drawn and added 10 original full page signed watercolor illustrations of the text. Additionally there is a signed ink drawing portrait of the book’s protagonist Laughing Boy, plus 21 small pen & ink Franklin drawings each at the beginning of the individual chapters. The book has been bound in a special artists binding which recreates a wraparound Navajo blanket using pieces of colored leather in black, red, and white. The book is also enclosed in a matching designer leather and cloth clamshell box. The whole production is very striking and attractive. This volume is a remarkable cumulative achievement and perhaps is Ernest Franklin’s finest illustrated book.