England’s Child: The Carillon and the Casting of Big Bells [Special Edition Yoko Ono cover]

Scarce limited edition in purple silk-covered boards, 310 pages, featuring a cover image by Yoko Ono, “Bell of Peace”, part of a permanent installation by the artist in Towada City, Japan.) The late great Jill Johnston’s final work. Johnston (1929-2010) was a radical cultural critic, lesbian feminist, provocateur and champion of avant-gardes but this beautifully written memoir focuses on discoveries about the father she never met, bellfounder Cyril Johnston, one of two Englishmen who introduced the carillon to North America, including John D. Rockefeller’s at Riverside Church in New York City (where the present bookseller accompanied Johnston at a reading she did thereOno and Johnston became friends in the early 60s, shared Fluxus friends and tendencies, and Ono contributed this untitled tipped-in photo work to 26 copies of the book which are lettered A-Z. This is Copy Y and is signed by both Johnston and Ono on the colophon page. Silky purple boards handbound by James Tapley. Trade edition also available.