Helena Bochorakova’s 1st wordless novel, Z Mého Dětství, is believed to be the first wordless novel by a female. It is a memoir of Bochořáková’s girlhood in the Moravian region of the Czech Republic.
- Title: Z Mého Dětství: Kniha Dřevoryty (From My Childhood: A Book of Woodcuts)
- Author and Illustrator: Helena Bochořáková-Dittrichová
- Introduction: Arne Novák, a Czech historian and critic
- Year: 1929
- Publisher: Orbis
- Place of publication: Prague
- Printer:
- Copyright: Bochořáková?
- Language: Czech titles, etc
- Unpaginated
- Printed: recto
- Editions
- 10 copies numbered and signed, on true Japan,
- 50 numbered, on Ullersdorf,
- plus an popular/Trade edition (edition size not stated but other Trade editions seem to be done in 300 copies)
- Description: 95 woodcuts for the story, woodcut title, woodcut used for front cover and woodcut used for the DJ; 10 page preface written by Arne Novák.
- The title page and the Trade cover were done as a woodcut and one can make out the accent marks over Bochořáková Dittrichová. In the French and English later editions, the accent marks are absent.
Z Mého Detství – 10 copies numbered and signed, on true Japan
- Size:
- Dust jacket: I doubt it. The trade edition had a DJ and given that the paper thickness, etc would be different, it is unlikely the DJ would fit this special edition.
- Binding: hard cover – but I have not seen a copy
- This should be numbered (out of 10) and also signed in pencil.
Z Mého Detství – 50 numbered, on Ullersdorf
NOTE: while some copies may be signed, the edition only needs to be numbered.
- 6″ x 4.5″
- Original quarter vellum,
- grey boards with gilt device based on one of the woodcuts.
- Fore- and bottom edges uncut, with a number of leaves left unopened.
- With an introduction by Czech literary critic and historian Arne Novák.
- Limited edition, one of 50 hand-numbered copies on Ullersdorf paper
- some may be signed by Bochorakova-Dittrichova in pencil on title page.
- 14, [194] pages.
Trade – 300? copies
- The Trade edition was not numbered and only some copies were signed – not sure why any were signed but it may have been a simple case of owners approaching the artist asking for a signature.
- Copies were issued with a dust jacket.
- Slipcase – I have seen one copy with a slipcase but oddly, no dust jacket. It had the title and author’s name written in ink on the spine of the slipcase – for this reason I suspect the slipcase was an aftermarket production.
- The DJ was printed from woodblocks
- The medallion in the centre of the DJ was a separate woodblock that was reused in the French and English editions.
- paper covered boards with small woodcut on the front cover.
