Desire for a Beginning Dread of One Single End
by Edmond Jabès, Ed Epping, Rosmarie Waldrop

In a series of short aphoristic assertions, Jabès continues his lifelong interrogation of "The Book" within the cultural legacy of the Jewish tradition and its interpretative practices as framed within the 20th century. Jabès's life work is charged in part by the Mallarméan concept of limit, of space beyond limit, and the space defined by such a limit. A sense of melancholy and loss permeates this work, an overwhelming sense of mortality, as suggested by the title. "Serene old age, like a blindfold. The kindness of age" reads one of the passages. Desire for a Beginning Dread of One Single End is the last substantial work of Jabès to be translated into English (by Rosmarie Waldrop). It is here sparely treated with subtle digital images made by Ed Epping and printed in several colors.

Printed offset in an edition of 2,000 copies bound of which 42 copies, which include special inserts, are bound in boards, of which 12 are hors commerce.