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Schocken Books, New York. Published date: 1965. Softcover, printed paper wrappers; [46] pp (unnumbered); approximately 23 cm. First Schocken paperback edition, 1965 (stated); later printing, probable 1979 (based on number line). ISBN 0-8052-0359-1. Illustrated throughout with black and white drawings and Hebrew letterforms by Ben Shahn.
In good condition. Original orange illustrated paper covers with light to moderate edge wear, rubbing, surface creasing, and small areas of color loss along edges and corners; spine creased with wear but still solid. Binding sound. Interior pages lightly toned with age but clean and unmarked. Illustrated adaptation of an ancient legend from the Zohar (Sefer Ha-Zohar, Book of Splendor), recounting a kabbalistic creation narrative in which the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet present themselves before God, each seeking to be chosen as the instrument of creation. [From back cover] THE ALPHABET OF CREATION is a small gem from a great treasure chest: The Zohar, The Book of Splendor, the controversial mystical work of Moses de Leon, a scholar of thirteenth-century Spain. The legend fired Ben Shahn's imagination. He promptly turned the words and letters into a kind of visual magic in which the true spirit of the wonderful is magnificently suggested. There are forty-six pictures all together, the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet and twenty-four drawings. BEN SHAHN, who became one of America's greatest artists, was born in Russia in 1898. His graphic work has had wide circulation and acclaim both in museums and in the many books he has illustrated and designed. He died in 1969.