Lawrence was honored and fascinated by the chance to work with Rogers, because of his admiration for Rogers' book design. Barry Moser created the wood engravings and planned the typographic format for this edition. While researching his illustrations for this edition, Moser also illustrated The Aenid and The Inferno . Influences from Dante and Virgil pushed me away from the narrow initial impulses and stretched my imagination toward a broader, more catholic emphasis. . . . I chose to see Homer's characters close-up.
All readers are illustrators.
We all see ourselves in the mirror of the writer's art. The narrative of Odysseus' ordeals is read through me, reflected in me, as it is in you. We are mirrors of his ordeals. His eyes are our eyes. His pain is our pain.