by Edgar Allan Poe, with six full-page pen-and-ink illustrations by Rūta Kuzmickas.

The Press got its start with an edition of Poe's The Masque of the Red Death, funded only a month before the Coronavirus pandemic began in earnest. Eerie timing. Two years later, the Press announced an edition of The Cask of Amontillado. Now, to complete a trilogy of sorts, we are happy to share with you our edition of The Tell-Tale Heart!

Poe is the quintessential American author. As one scholar put it, “Whether or not America has produced a greater genius than Poe, it would be hard to prove that it has produced one more original.” In The Tell-Tale Heart, he presents once again a story of captivating simplicity — of a man driven mad by an obsession, of guiltless admission. It is perhaps Poe's most famous story because it is so disorienting. 

The No Reply edition has been designed as a reaction to the story. We have employed colors, tones, textures, and an artistic vision to make Poe's writing visceral for the reader. Exceptionally fine papers from Papeterie St.-Armand, Velke Losiny, and master marbler Claire Guillot should mark this edition for distinction.

Few artists are as suited to illustrate Poe as Rūta Kuzmickas. Her signature style blends the real with the unreal. With six full-page pen-and-ink artworks (as well as two large ornaments and a calligraphed title), reproduced with a crisp letterpress bite, Poe's story comes to life. The sinews of the heart, the film over the eye, the folds of guilt and paranoia all come together in a stylistic tour de force. In our estimation, Kuzmickas is an illustrator second to none because she not only illustrates a story but reveals its heart.

EDITION NOTES

• The twenty-sixth edition from No Reply.

Standard | Strictly limited to 250 numbered copies…

• Printed letterpress by hand using a Vandercook Universal I proofing press.

• Hahemühle Biblio paper mould-made and Dassel, Germany. 

• Six full-page illustrations by Rūta Kuzmickas, as well as two illustrated ornaments and a calligraphed title. 

• Typeset in Perpetua.

• Hand-bound in a German style using a tooled Elephant Hide spine and St. Armand hand-made boards. 

• Hahnemühle Bugra endpapers.

• 28 pages, measuring 5 ½ by 10½ inches.

• Signed by Kuzmickas.

• An optional slipcase can be added on.

De Luxe | Strictly limited to 26lettered copies…

• Note: Because the materials for the De Luxe state are exceptionally fine and hand-made specially for the edition, we cannot make a prototype! It would be prohibitively expensive to commission the necessary materials for even one before the edition is funded.

• Printed letterpress by hand using a Vandercook Universal I proofing press.

• Hand-made paper from the legendary mill at Velke Losiny, Czechia. 

• Six full-page illustrations by Rūta Kuzmickas, as well as two illustrated ornaments and a calligraphed title. 

• Typeset in Perpetua.

• Hand-bound in a German style using a tooled genuine parchment spine and fantastical Claire Guillot hand-marbled boards. 

• 28 pages, measuring 5 ½ by 10½ inches.

• Signed by Kuzmickas.

• Strictly limited to twenty-six lettered copies.

• Housed in a solander case.