The Oresteia
The Oresteia was the final collaboration of Baskin and Hughes, who died in 1998. Ted Hughes translated Aeschylus’s monumental Trojan War trilogy into a free-text saga.
Baskin had long conceived of the design for the work; he had designed and carved all the wood blocks, and had finished the book design just days before his death on June 3, 2000.
The Oresteia was published posthumously by the “syndics” of the Gehenna Press. Carol Hughes and Lisa Unger Baskin, wives of the artists, signed the colophon page.
Once again, Baskin drew on Bruce Rogers’s elegant font, Centaur, with its italic version Arrighi (designed by Frederic Warde), to convey the powerful story.
Aeschylus. The Oresteia a version by Ted Hughes. The Gehenna Press, 2001.
Aeschylus. The Oresteia a version by Ted Hughes. Gorgon. Part Two: Choephori. Woodcut by Leonard Baskin. The Gehenna Press, 2001.
Block for Gorgon from The Oresteia.
Collection of Lisa Unger Baskin, Courtesy Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York.
Aeschylus. The Oresteia a version by Ted Hughes. Zeus. Part Three, The Eumenides. Woodcut by Leonard Baskin. The Gehenna Press, 2001.
Aeschylus. The Oresteia a version by Ted Hughes. Colophon. The Gehenna Press, 2001.