Monroe Wheeler before MoMA

WHEELER, Monroe, and Glenway Wescott.

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS 1937 [with] NEW JERSEY FARM CHRISTMAS IMAGES.

Clinton, New Jersey: Monroe Wheeler, Christmas 1937.

Privately printed holiday greeting designed and printed by Monroe Wheeler, featuring Glenway Wescott’s seasonal poem “New Jersey Farm Christmas Images,” laid in as a separate folded sheet and hand-signed in red ink by Wescott. Printed on handmade Guarro paper. The main card (28 × 20.5 cm) is folded twice to form four pages; the laid-in poem (24.5 × 18.5 cm) is likewise folded twice. Fine. 

First edition. Scarce and elegant production, predating Wheeler’s tenure at MoMA and reflecting his early commitment to literary-artistic collaboration. The poem evokes quiet rural imagery from the Clinton farm shared by Wescott, Wheeler, and Barbara Harrison. Wheeler’s typographic restraint and choice of fine paper elevate the piece beyond ephemera into the realm of collectible literary artifact.

. Item #809

Not in OCLC. See Season’s Greetings: Holiday Cards by Celebrated Artists from the Monroe Wheeler Archive (Daylight Books, 2023) for contextual discussion.

Price: $150.00