Paratext_Odyssey

There are other pages with information aside from the story of Odysseus. All of them are in the beginning of the book, there aren't any closing statements or advertisements. There aren't any advertisements at all in this book at all. The closest this book comes to that are the letters written by George H. Palmer and N.C.Wyeth. Their passion for their life work as well as the job of completion for Homer's //The Odyssey// seemed enough for me. Also the rarity of this books adds to a self advertisement or self promotion. Right across from the publisher's information, it states that only five-hundred-fifty copies were produced, five-hundred of those can be purchased; and of those five-hundred, this copy is number two hundred and sixty.

This is a letter written from George Herbert Palmer, the translator of this version of Homer's //The Odyssey//. It is addressed to Houghton Mifflin Company while still working at Harvard. His letter is about his experience with this story. Of the first times he sat in on a middle school class, he said " I was shocked to find it giving more attention to its words and its grammar than to its poetry” and “to simplify my rendering and rid it of unnatural language, I rewrote it from cover to cover thirteen times.” He also mentioned N.C.Wyeth and his great admiration for him: “...no one has [dove] more deeply into the heart of the odyssey than he...those who inspect his drawings will swiftly feel what words report more slowly.” And then signs at the bottom "Very Lively Yours, George Herbert Palmer, May 1, 1929"



This is a letter from N.C.Wyeth, the illustrator of this version of Homer's //The Odyssey.// There isn't a direct audience, aside from the reader, in comparison to Palmer's letter. It is also printed, rather than hand written, which shows a more distanced approach when it come to writing.

This I am unsure what it means. I have tried to look up information on its purpose or dedication but no information came up.



This is the opening page, the frontispiece. There is a wonderful example of hierarchy of text with the title and the original author largest while the translator and illustrator are in a smaller text size. At the bottom of the page, the publisher's information, or colophon, of Houghton Mifflin Company and Riverside Press is separated by a small print, in blue and black in. This is the same one that is first seen on the cover of the book except in gold ink.

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