Two important things to note before we dive in: Rip Van Winkle is in stock and shipping—this is not a pre-order; and starting with this title, “publisher’s rights” (Deluxe #1-200 and all Lettered copies) are now transferable. See our FAQ page for more information on rights.

By Washington Irving 
Illustrated by Petar Meseldžija

“He even ventured, when no eye was fixed upon him, to taste the beverage, which he found had much of the flavour of excellent Hollands. He was naturally a thirsty soul, and was soon tempted to repeat the draught. One taste provoked another, and he reiterated his visits to the flagon so often that at length his senses were overpowered, his eyes swam in his head, his head gradually declined, and he fell into a deep sleep.”

First published in 1819 as part of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle quickly became one of the most beloved stories in early American literature. Appearing in the same collection that would introduce readers to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the tale helped establish Irving as the first American author to gain wide recognition on both sides of the Atlantic.

Set among the wooded slopes of New York’s Catskill Mountains, the story follows Dutch-American villager Rip Van Winkle, an easygoing man who wanders into the hills seeking a brief escape from the frustrations of home. There he encounters a group of mysterious Dutchmen whose strange drink sends him into a deep and enchanted sleep. When Rip finally awakens, twenty years have passed, and the quiet colonial world he once knew has given way to the restless energy of a new nation shaped by the American Revolution.

Blending folklore, gentle humour, and a touch of the supernatural, Irving’s story captures the uneasy feeling of waking to a world that has changed beyond recognition. More than two centuries after its first publication, Rip Van Winkle endures as one of Irving’s most popular and recognizable works—an imaginative story about what it means to wake and find that the world has quietly become something new.

The Atlantic notes that Rip Van Winkle is “more than just an account of a very long nap, it is a story about the role of memory in the young republic; it’s about how to create something new while retaining a connection to what came before. America’s first folktale, in other words, is a folktale about the making of America.”

Nearly four years in the making, Conversation Tree Press is proud to present a new edition in a beautiful, oversized format—one that does justice to the scale of Peter Meseldžija’s remarkable artistic achievement.

Edition Details

Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving is limited to 276 copies and is published in two states: a Deluxe Edition and a Lettered Edition, along with a few sets of sheets for custom binding. All copies are in stock and shipping.

A brief overview of the edition, with additional details below:

• Binding Design: The bindings and enclosures of both states were designed by Tony Geer and make prominent use of orange, reflecting the colour’s long association with the Dutch.
• Artwork: Petar Meseldžija has contributed 12 original paintings and 11 drawings, printed letterpress, to the edition.
• Typography: Interior design and typography are by Jason Dewinetz of Greenboathouse Press.
• Letterpress printing: Hand & Eye Editions, in England, has printed the edition on these papers:
  • Deluxe Edition: Hahnemuhle Ingres Ivory 150gsm mould-made paper.
  • Lettered Edition: Zerkall 8888 White Rough 120gsm mould-made paper, from our dwindling stock following the closure of the Zerkall mill in 2021.
    
  • Sheets: Also on the Zerkall 8888 White Rough 120gsm mould-made paper.
• Binding: The books were handbound by Ludlow Bookbinders in England.
• Format: Both states have a trim size of 240 × 340 mm (9.5 × 13.4 in) and 44 pages including front and back matter. All copies include a ribbon marker and head- and tailbands.
  

As with every Conversation Tree Press book, you can expect:
- All colour artwork reproduced in full colour across all editions.
- All artwork included in every state.
- A limited edition that will never be reprinted.
- A custom, handmade slipcase or other enclosure made of thick, sturdy boards with the insides lined in Suedel for maximum protection, at no additional cost.

 

Deluxe Edition

Availability:
1. Monday March 9th at 10am ET: Email sent to collectors who have Deluxe rights from Sea of Tranquility with a private link to pre-order a matching copy of Rip Van Winkle numbered from #1-200.
2. Thursday March 12th at 12pm ET: Unclaimed copies between #1-200, and copies #201-250 available to the public. Any available copies between #1-200 (i.e. those with publisher’s rights) will be assigned first based on order time.

The Deluxe Edition is limited to 250 hand-numbered copies in a binding designed by Tony Geer. It is quarter bound in real goatskin leather and hand marbled papers by Daniela Prina.

The binding makes prominent use of orange, a nod to Rip’s Dutch heritage and the colour’s long association with the Netherlands.

The top edge is gilded and the title and author’s name are stamped in gold on the spine.

The text and pen-and-ink artwork is letterpress printed on the luxurious ivory Hahnemühle Ingres 150gsm (100lb) mould-made paper.

All the deckled edges from the mould-made sheets have been preserved. 

The full colour paintings are reproduced via offset printing and tipped in by hand.

Each copy is enclosed in a custom slipcase handmade by Ludlow Bookbinders. The sides are wrapped in paper and the top is capped in the same orange leather as the book. The interior of the slipcase is lined with Suedel, a soft, flocked material that cushions and protects the book.

All copies of the book are accompanied by a portfolio of unfolded reproductions of all of Petar’s Rip Van Winkle paintings, including those we weren’t able to accommodate in the book itself. See the Artwork section below for more information.

The Deluxe Edition is unsigned.

US$575. In stock and shipping.

Transferable Publisher’s Rights

The first 200 copies come with the right of first refusal to pre-order a matching number of Perdido Street Station in June, along with any Short Stops titles published between now and then. Starting with Rip Van Winkle, these rights are now referred to as “publisher’s rights” and they are transferable (previously only “series rights” for The Foundation Trilogy and Weird. were transferable).

See our Schedule page for other upcoming titles, including Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Octavia Butler’s Kindred, Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, and others, and our FAQ page for more info on rights.

Lettered Edition

Availability:
1. Monday March 9th at 10am ET: Email sent to collectors who have Lettered rights from Sea of Tranquility with a private link to pre-order a matching copy of Rip Van Winkle.
2. Thursday March 12th at 12pm ET: Unclaimed copies will be made available to the public.

The Lettered Edition is limited to 26 copies inscribed A to Z. Each copy is handbound by Ludlow Bookbinders and the binding is designed by Tony Geer.

It is a full leather binding in the same orange, full grain goatskin leather used in the Deluxe, a nod to Rip’s Dutch heritage and the colour’s long association with the Netherlands.

The front board features an inset giclée print of Petar Meseldžija’s haunting oil painting of Rip descending the Catskill Mountains after his extended nap, surrounded by complementary vines and thorns foil-stamped in gold. 

The spine has three hubs and a black leather label foil-stamped with the title and author’s name. The top edge is gilded. 

The text and pen-and-ink artwork is letterpress-printed on Zerkall 8888 White Rough 120gsm mould-made paper. As some collectors may know, the Zerkall Mill produced some of the finest papers for years, with many of their ranges becoming staples among letterpress printers over that time.

Unfortunately, a flood in 2021 years forced the closure of the mill and since then Zerkall paper has become almost impossible to find. This edition utilizes some of the very limited stock that we were fortunate enough to acquire some time ago. 

All the deckled edges from the mould-made sheets have been preserved. 

Each copy includes a large, original piece of artwork by Petar, signed and tipped into the book.

Two other examples of the original art included in each copy of the Lettered Edition are pictured above.

The full colour paintings are reproduced via offset printing and tipped in by hand.

The hand-marbled endpapers from Daniela Prina utilized on the boards of the Deluxe Edition are used as endpapers on the Lettered Edition. 

The book is housed in a handmade solander box covered in a beautiful two-tone Coloretta cloth with a foil-stamped leather label inset on the spine. The insides are lined with plush Suedel material.

All copies of the book are accompanied by a portfolio of unfolded reproductions of all of Petar’s Rip Van Winkle paintings, including those we weren’t able to accommodate in the book itself. See the Artwork section below for more information.

Apart from the signed, original artwork tipped into each copy, it is otherwise unsigned.

US$1,695. In stock and shipping.

Transferable Publisher’s Rights

All Lettered books come with the right of first refusal to pre-order a matching letter of Perdido Street Station in June, along with any Short Stops titles published between now and then. Starting with Rip Van Winkle, these rights are now referred to as “publisher’s rights” and they are transferable (previously only “series rights” for The Foundation Trilogy and Weird. were transferable).

See our Schedule page for other upcoming titles, including Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Octavia Butler’s Kindred, Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, and others, and our FAQ page for more info on rights.

Sheets

A few copies in sheets, printed on Zerkall 8888 White Rough 120gsm mould-made paper, will also be available for custom binding at some point in the future. These are folded, unsewn, include all of the artwork, a portfolio, and a different colophon page from the others. Price to be set. 

Production Status

Production status is a new section we’re introducing as we announce the full edition details and begin accepting orders. It allows collectors to see exactly how far along we are in the production process. This one’s easy: it’s all done and ready to ship!

Petar Meseldžija’s Artwork

Petar Meseldžija devoted two years to painting and illustrating Rip Van Winkle, a project dear to his heart. In the end, he turned in twelve paintings, a number of which are in landscape format, and eleven pen-and-ink illustrations. 

Portfolio of paintings

While each of the twelve paintings is stunning in its own right, including all of them was impractical due to the length of the work and where the text fell on each spread.

To ensure that collectors are able to appreciate and enjoy all of Petar’s work, we’ve included a portfolio with each copy of Rip Van Winkle.

The portfolio includes reproductions of all of Petar’s paintings, including the three that didn’t make their way into the book. The wider paintings, presented as fold-outs in the book, are unfolded in the portfolio.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Petar Meseldžija (b. 1965, Novi Sad, Serbia) is a painter and illustrator celebrated for his luminous and intricately detailed fantasy art. After studying painting at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, he began his career in comics before devoting himself fully to illustration and painting following his move to the Netherlands in 1991. His work has appeared in numerous illustrated books and has earned multiple Spectrum awards for contemporary fantastic art. Meseldžija’s paintings have been exhibited internationally and are held in private collections worldwide.

Typography

We’re proud to be collaborating once more with fellow Canadian Jason Dewinetz, on the interior design of Rip Van Winkle.

Jason is a letterpress printer, type caster, and typographer from Vernon, BC. He is the proprietor of Greenboathouse Press, a current board member and past North American Chair of the Fine Press Book Association, and teaches publication design at Okanagan College. His design and production work for his own titles has brought in more than a dozen national book design awards, including multiple Alcuin Awards in the Limited Editions category.

Jason drew the custom title lettering and set the text in Nicolas Jenson.

Letterpress Printing by Hand & Eye Letterpress

We are proud to be collaborating once more with Phil Abel and the team at Hand and Eye Letterpress, who previously printed our edition of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and The Faery Handbag. Hand and Eye has a distinguished history of not only letterpress-printing their own editions, but collaborating with Folio Society, No Reply Press, Lyra’s Books, and, of course, with Marcelo Anciano on their very own Areté Editions..

Hand Binding by Ludlow Bookbinders

Ludlow Bookbinders, located in Shropshire, England have been keeping the craft of English bookbinding alive for generations. They’ve hand bound a number of Conversation Tree Press editions before and we were immensely pleased at the work they did on this edition of Rip Van Winkle.

Washington Irving

Washington Irving (1783–1859) was an American essayist, historian, and storyteller widely regarded as the father of the American short story and one of the first American authors to achieve international fame. Born in New York City, he gained lasting recognition with The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1819–1820), which includes Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, two stories often regarded as among the first great American short stories.