Samson and Delilah: From the Book of Judges according to the Authorised Version

1925

Special Collections BS1303 1925. Reproduced by permission of the Robert Gibbings Estate and the Heather Chalcroft Literary Agency

Waltham St Lawrence, Berkshire: The Golden Cockerel Press

Robert Gibbings and Eric Gill had known one another since the formation of the Society of Wood Engravers. In November 1924 Eric Gill made his first visit to the Gibbings at the GCP. Fiona MacCarthy writes that Gill and Gibbings had a ‘common background of religion and rebellion’ and that ‘they answered an emotional need in one another’. Indeed, from Gill’s first visit in 1924 they developed a close and intimate relationship. Weekends at Waltham St Lawrence included nude drawing and dancing, and eventually a sexual relationship with both Gibbings and his wife. This 1925 edition of the Old Testament story of Samson and Delilah includes seven wood engravings by Gibbings which he thought ‘too black and heavy’ for the type. Indeed, this image of Samson fighting the lion is dark but it is strikingly well-proportioned and beautifully executed.