In 1952 Ben Shahn said to Marian Parry, “Marian, make the most beautiful book you can and I’ll take it to Curt Valentin.” She made The Paris Book, which she had conceived of sometime prior to this prompting, and as promised, the book was presented to Curt Valentin who was moved to publish it. Mr. Valentin, who had published several significant, limited edition books in which the writings of poets and novelists were accompanied by illustrations made by contemporary artists, passed away the following year and The Paris Book was never published.

Un-Gyve now publishes this most beautiful book of watercolours in their exquisite detail exactly as was intended in a limited edition of 333 signed by the artist. The Paris Book represents Marian Parry’s affinity for the city in which she spent the first years of childhood: twenty extraordinary illustrations accompanied by her own hand-lettered prose — the story of “an odd bird” and his discovery of Paris.

Marian Parry is an author, poet, illustrator and watercolour artist. Her books have been published by Knopf, Simon & Schuster, Greenwillow, Heritage Press and Limited Editions, Pharos Verlag (Switzerland) and Scholastic Books.

She has had numerous one-person shows. Her work is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Houghton Library of Harvard University and the Smith College Rare Book Room. The main archive of her work is in the print collection of the Boston Public Library.

Founder and senior instructor of the Watercolor Program for the Radcliffe Seminars at Harvard University, she was a fellow in the Bunting Fellowship Program, Radcliffe Institute.