A Canticle for Leibowitz

Walter M. Miller Jr.

Illustrated by Elliot Lang

Introduced by Michael Dirda

A major work of post-apocalyptic science fiction, Walter M. Miller Jr’s best-selling A Canticle for Leibowitz receives its first fully illustrated edition courtesy of Folio, introduced by Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Michael Dirda and with evocative, medieval artwork by Elliot Lang. Limited to 500 copies.

US$600.00
US$600.00
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‘A thought-provoking, often playful, and tantalizingly enigmatic masterpiece.’
  1. Michael Dirda, from his introduction


Explore a world of feudal futurism in the beloved classic A Canticle for Leibowitz, a post-nuclear masterwork featuring 12 full-page pieces of original artwork by premier fantasy artist Elliot Lang. Folio presents Walter M. Miller Jr’s Hugo-award winning novel as never before seen. This vital chapter in the canon of 20th century science fiction takes place in a scorched earth in which an order of monks is dedicated to recovering the remnants of scientific knowledge lost to nuclear war. Evocative, complex and gently funny, A Canticle for Leibowitz most recently provided direct inspiration for the Fallout games and TV show, and has been one of Folio’s most consistently requested titles. Having recommended the book himself, Pulitzer Prize-winning literary essayist Michael Dirda provides an illuminating introduction, while Elliot Lang’s brilliant designs and illustrations create a truly immersive reading experience. Along with medieval-style historiated chapter initials, scrollworked part-titles, ingenious endpaper design, an illustrated cover and slipcase, Lang also contributes an exclusive afterword that tells the uncanny story of his own personal connection to this timeless work of spiritual wonder and post-apocalyptic terror. 

Limited to 500 copies 

Quarter-bound in blocked leather, with cloth sides printed and blocked with a design by Elliot Lang. Set in Kristal with Rotunda Veneta as display 

392 pages printing in black and gold ink throughout on Abbey Pure paper 

Thirty drop-cap illustrations and an illustrated title page and three part-titles 

Frontispiece and 11 full-page colour illustrations, two of which are double-page spreads, printed on Gardapat 13 Kiara paper 

Printed endpapers 

Ribbon Marker 

Gilded book edges 

Metallic gold cloth slipcase printed in black with an original design by Elliot Lang 

Limitation label printed in black and gold ink on Fedrigoni Marina Conchiglia paper signed by Michael Dirda and Elliot Lang 

9˝ x 61⁄4˝

‘As deeply true as any book I’ve read… Prodigiously imaginative and original, richly comic, terrifyingly grim, profound both intellectually and morally, and, above all, is simply a memorable story as to stay with a reader for years’
  1. Edmund Fuller Magazine of Books, Chicago Tribune


Since its first serial publication in a popular sci-fi magazine of the 1950s, A Canticle for Leibowitz has sold over two million copies worldwide and the novel version has never fallen out of print. It was one of the first works of modern science fiction that connected with readers outside the genre fandom and was inspired by Miller’s service during the Second World War the author participated in bombing the centuries-old Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino, a sanctuary that had once housed generations of antique texts. As Michael Dirda’s introduction explains, the three stories in Miller’s epic triptych envision a broken world in which the light of progress brings only darkness, though never quite extinguishes hope. Folio presents this poignant wasteland chronicle signed by both Dirda and illustrator Elliot Lang, in a volume worthy of veneration by the monks of Leibowitz themselves. Lang provides revelatory cover designs for both the gold-cloth slipcase and blocked quarter-leatherbound book, complete with creamy gold-edged Abbey Pure pages. With endpapers depicting sacred pre-war blueprints and illustrations as vivid as stained glass, the book feels like an artefact straight out of Miller’s antique-future world, making this a truly visionary edition of an apocalyptic classic. 

About Walter M. Miller Jr.

Walter M. Miller Jr. (1923–1996) was an American science fiction writer from Florida. He served in the air force during the Second World War and flew in dozens of bombing missions against Italian targets. The trauma of this experience marked him deeply for the rest of his life. In the 1950s Miller published a number of science fiction stories, one of which won the Hugo Award, and three of his novella-length stories became the basis for A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959, Folio 2024). After the success of the novel – which also won a Hugo – Miller continued to write but never completed another full-length book during his lifetime. He died by suicide, at his home in Daytona Beach, shortly after the death of his wife. The sequel to Canticle – Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman (1997)– was completed by Terry Bisson with Miller's approval -- and published posthumously.

About Elliot Lang

Elliot Lang grew up in the American West and now lives in Denver, Colorado. He has been working as an illustrator and designer since 2005, across every discipline from film production and set design to illustration for editorial, advertising and packaging clients. He is passionate about bringing a story and its characters to life and his work includes commissions for Monty Python, the Wall Street Journal and Hachette Book Group, as well as many other publishers, advertisers and manufacturers. He has been recognised by the Society of Illustrators New York, the Society of Illustrators LA, Communication Arts and other bodies, and he exhibits his work across the United States. 

About Michael Dirda 

Michael Dirda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning literary journalist, a weekly books columnist for The Washington Post, and the author of five collections of essays: Readings (2000), Bound to Please (2005), Book by Book (2006), Classics for Pleasure (2007) and Browsings (2015). He has also written the memoir An Open Book (2003) and On Conan Doyle (2012), which received an Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America. His introductions for The Folio Society include The Great Gatsby (2013), Dune (2016), East of Eden (2017), Atlas Shrugged (2018), Cat’s Cradle (2022), Weird Tales (2024) and A Canticle for Leibowitz (2024).

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