American Gods Neil Gaiman

A masterful blend of fantasy, horror, Americana and mythology, American Gods is Neil Gaiman’s exhilarating and imaginative road trip epic, examining faith and mortality in the age of media obsession.

After three years in prison, Shadow is a man who has done his time. No longer afraid of what the future may bring, his only desire is to be reunited with his wife Laura and to start a new life. But just days before his release, Shadow’s best friend and Laura are killed in a car accident, leaving him lost and heartbroken. With his life in shambles and no plans for his future, Shadow accepts a job offer from Mr. Wednesday, a beguiling stranger he meets on his way home who seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself. Being Mr. Wednesday’s bodyguard, driver and errand boy proves more dangerous than Shadow could have ever imagined, taking him on a dark and strange road trip that introduces him to a host of eccentric characters whose fates seem mysteriously intertwined with his own.

Published on June 19, 2001, American Gods was hailed as an instant classic, showered with praise by critics and peers alike. Michael Chabon wrote, “American Gods manages to reinvent, and reassert, the enduring importance of fantastic literature itself in this late age of the world. Dark fun, and nourishing to the soul.” George R.R. Martin praised it as “original, engrossing and endlessly inventive.” Library Journal called it “compellingly imaginative,” while Amazon’s review raved, “American Gods is Neil Gaiman’s most ambitious novel yet. An outside-in and inside-out perspective on the soul and spirituality of America’s obsessions with money and power, our jumbled religious heritage and its societal outcomes, and the millennial decisions we face about what’s real and what’s not.”

In 2002, American Gods won the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, the Hugo Award, the SFX Award and Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel. In 2017, it was adapted into an Emmy Award nominated television series.

Our edition of this modern day classic features the author’s preferred text, a previously published note and afterword by the author, and two sequel novellas, The Monarch of the Glen and Black Dog, making it the most complete edition to date. 

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About the Editions

Our edition of American Gods by Neil Gaiman is presented in four states: Classic, Numbered, Lettered & Roman Numeral. The edition measures 170mm x 243mm (6¾” x 9⅝”) and features ten illustrations by award-winning artist Yoann Lossel, an introduction to the text & afterword by Neil Gaiman reprinted from an earlier edition, and the two American Gods sequel novellas, The Monarch of the Glen & Black Dog. There are nine full color illustrations and one monochrome illustration, all of which feature gold foil accents with offset print production supervised by the artist using his preferred printer.

Interior design & typography is by renowned designer Michael Russem. The text pages are set in Requiem types, and are printed letterpress by Pat Randle & Ellen Bills at Nomad Letterpress on a Heidelberg Cylinder in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom.

A Note on the Typography

Requiem is a distinctive typeface designed by Jonathan Hoefler, inspired by an illustration in a sixteenth-century writing manual, yet infused with modern elegance. Its origins lie in the intersection of historical calligraphy and contemporary design principles, making it a fitting choice for Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods. The novel explores a clash of old and new gods in America, blending ancient mythology with the complexities of modern society.

The Classic edition is limited to 1250 copies. It is a quarter cloth, smyth-sewn binding with a foil blocked embossed paper cover, and a dust jacket featuring gold foil accents. The cloth is Dubletta, a woven cotton fabric with a subtle duo-tone effect. Endsheets are Takeo Tant Select, a unique double-sided embossed paper. The edition is printed letterpress on premium Munken Print and is housed in a slipcase wrapped in Takeo Tant Select with ends capped in black cloth. The book is bound by Garry Phipps and his team at Green Street Bindery in Oxford, United Kingdom. The Classic edition is published as a single volume and is signed by Neil Gaiman and Yoann Lossel.

The Numbered edition is limited to 350 copies and is a Bradel binding in full goatskin featuring an embossed World Tree designed by Yoann Lossel with an inset coin. The coin is custom minted for this edition by Shire Post Mint, also from a design by Yoann Lossel. Volume 1 features a Sun coin in brass and Volume 2 features a Moon coin in nickel silver.

The leather is Goatskin from the Alran Tannery in France. The tannery has been producing some of the finest goat leather since its founding in 1903 in the South of Tarn. The leather is produced in a labor intensive 23-step process which takes 4 weeks to complete. It has a unique natural and rustic grain with a soft yet structured feel and an even, consistent color.

The front and back sections of each volume are black Hahnemühle Bugra with the frontispiece illustration tipped-on in volume 1 within an ornate frame foiled in three shades of gold. Endsheets are Hahnemühle Bugra and head & tail bands are handmade with leather.

The edition is printed letterpress on 118 gsm Mohawk Superfine and is published in two volumes with a tipped-in fold-out of the Classic edition dust jacket art. It is housed in a clamshell enclosure covered in black Dubletta cloth with a leather spine label and velour lined trays, and is signed by Neil Gaiman and Yoann Lossel.

The Lettered edition is limited to 26 copies and is a Bradel binding in full hand-dyed goatskin with covers stamped in gold. The book is section sewn by hand on tapes. Head & tail bands are leather wrapped and embossed with gold foil. Endsheets are hand marbled for this edition by Emily Romero in Haddonfield, New Jersey. Each volume is housed in a quarter leather clamshell enclosure with European cloth sides and a hand-dyed leather spine label.

The front and back sections of each volume are black Hahnemühle Bugra with the frontispiece illustration tipped-on in volume 1 within an ornate frame foiled in three shades of gold. The edition is printed letterpress on 115 gsm mouldmade Somerset and is published in two volumes with a tipped-in fold-out of the Classic edition dust jacket art. This edition also includes a fine art print with genuine gold leaf, and it is handbound by Jacek Tylkowski in Komorniki, Poland.

The Roman Numeral edition is limited to 10 copies numbered I-X. It is hand sewn and covered in full black Katsina fine goatskin from Harmatan and Oakridge Leathers, with a laser cut pattern from a design by Yoann Lossel, reflecting the blocking on the interior illustrations. The leather is overlaid onto hand colored mouldmade Bockingford 190gsm watercolor paper. The endpapers are also of the same hand colored watercolor paper.

The covers feature hand applied dusting of genuine leaf with hand tooled stars and dots in metallic foil, and a hand blocked title in pigment foil, with the volume number hand tooled in pigment foil. The top edge is colored to match with applied genuine leaf. Head & tail bands are leather with hand stitched detail. Volume 1 is red, orange and yellow with genuine 22k yellow gold leaf and gold tooling. Volume 2 is blue, turquoise and green with genuine platinum leaf and silver tooling.

The front and back sections of each volume are black Hahnemühle Bugra with the frontispiece illustration tipped-on in volume 1 within an ornate frame foiled in three shades of gold.

The edition is printed letterpress on 120 gsm handmade Velké Losiny from the historic paper mill in the Czech Republic which was founded in the late 16^th century and continues to produce beautiful handmade paper to this day. The paper for this edition is a special making with a custom watermark of a Gryphon.

Housed in a cloth covered clamshell enclosure with velour trays, the edition is published in two volumes and includes a fine art print with genuine gold leaf, and a print of the Classic edition dust jacket art. The edition is signed by Neil Gaiman and Yoann Lossel, and is hand crafted by multi-award winning bookbinder Kate Holland in Somerset, United Kingdom.

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Matching Numbers and Letters

A Matching Pre-Order email is sent to owners of our previous publication (Swan Song) at 9:00 A.M. PT on the day of announcement. For the Numbered state, the Matching Pre-Order email is sent to owners of Swan Song with a designation of 1-250, and to owners of the Numbered edition of “The Yellow Wall-Paper” with a designation of 251-340 and to Numbered owners of The Amityville Horror with a designation of 341-350. If you did not receive the email, contact us here. If your order is not received before the deadline, your designated number or letter will be assigned to the new owner.

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Order Limits

Please be aware of the order limits for our editions. You can read more about this in the Order Limits article on our support site.

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Illustrations by Yoann Lossel

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Lettered Edition Bookbinding by Jacek Tylkowski

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Letterpress Printing by Pat Randle & Ellen Bills, Nomad Letterpress