MEN OVER 25 - Scripps College
MEN OVER 25 - Scripps College MEN OVER 25 - Scripps College
MEN OVER 25 scripps college press
- Page 2 and 3: Jack Stau‡acher at The Greenwood
- Page 4 and 5: Men Over 25: ALPHABETICAL Page 1. P
- Page 7: INTRODUCTION Laµ year we celebrate
- Page 10 and 11: 2 Jack Werner Stau‡acher: The Gre
- Page 12 and 13: 4 Pall Bohne: Brookhaven Press 1959
- Page 14 and 15: 6 Patrick Reagh: Patrick Reagh, Pri
- Page 16 and 17: 8 Andrew Hoyem: The Arion Press 196
- Page 18 and 19: 10 Alaµair Johnµon: Poltroon Pres
- Page 20 and 21: 12 Jerry Reddan: Tangram 1972 My fi
- Page 22 and 23: 14 Jonathan Clark: Artichoke Press
- Page 24 and 25: 16 Peter Koch: Peter Koch, Printers
- Page 26 and 27: 18 Harry Reese: Turkey Press 1974 I
- Page 28 and 29: 20 Tom Killion: Quail Press 1975 I
- Page 30 and 31: 22 Gerald Lange: The Bieler Press 1
- Page 32 and 33: 24 Peter Thomas: Peter and Donna Th
- Page 34 and 35: 26 Gary Young: Greenhouse Review Pr
- Page 36 and 37: 28 Lawrence Van Velzer: Foolscap Pr
- Page 38 and 39: 30 Charles Hobson: Pacific Editions
- Page 40 and 41: 32 Bill Kelly: Brighton Press 1985
- Page 42 and 43: 34 Norman Clayton: Classic Letterpr
- Page 44: Colophon The entries in this catalo
<strong>MEN</strong><br />
<strong>OVER</strong><br />
<strong>25</strong><br />
scripps college press
Jack Stau‡acher at The Greenwood Press.<br />
Alaµair Johnµon and Francis Butler at Poltroon Press.<br />
Jerry Reddan, Mat Kelsey and Larry Van Velzer at the Arion Press in San Francisco, working on Flatland published in 1980.
<strong>MEN</strong> <strong>OVER</strong> <strong>25</strong>: CALIFORNIA EDITION<br />
Printing Letterpress for Over a Quarter of a Century<br />
Exhibition at Denison Library<br />
in Celebration of the 70th Anniversary<br />
of the Founding of the <strong>Scripps</strong> <strong>College</strong> Press<br />
<strong>Scripps</strong> <strong>College</strong>, Claremont, California<br />
O∂ober 24 to December 4, 2012<br />
¥<br />
Curated by Professor Kitty Maryatt,<br />
Dire∂or of the <strong>Scripps</strong> <strong>College</strong> Press<br />
with the help of Sally Preµon Swan Librarian<br />
Judy Harvey Sahak<br />
SCRIPPS COLLEGE PRESS<br />
2012
Men Over <strong>25</strong>: ALPHABETICAL<br />
Page<br />
1. Pall Bohne (Brookhaven Press) 4<br />
2. Jonathan Clark (Artichoke Press) 14<br />
3. Norman Clayton (Classic Letterpress) 34<br />
4. Charles Hobson (Pacific Editions) 30<br />
5. Andrew Hoyem (The Arion Press) 8<br />
6. Alaµair Johnµon (Poltroon Press) 10<br />
7. Bill Kelly (Brighton Press) 32<br />
8. Tom Killion (Quail Press) 20<br />
9. Peter Koch (Peter Koch, Printers) 16<br />
10. Gerald Lange (The Bieler Press) 22<br />
11. Patrick Reagh (Patrick Reagh, Printers) 6<br />
12. Jerry Reddan (Tangram) 12<br />
13. Harry Reese (Turkey Press) 18<br />
14. Jack Werner Stau‡acher (The Greenwood Press) 1<br />
15. Peter Thomas (Peter and Donna Thomas) 24<br />
16. Lawrence Van Velzer (Foolscap Press) 28<br />
17. Gary Young (Greenhouse Review Press) 26
Men Over <strong>25</strong>: CHRONOLOGICAL<br />
Date when printers firµ µarted to learn letterpress printing:<br />
not necessarily the date when press was eµablished<br />
Page<br />
1934 Jack Werner Stau‡acher (The Greenwood Press) 1<br />
1959 Pall Bohne (Brookhaven Press) 4<br />
1959 Patrick Reagh (Patrick Reagh, Printers) 6<br />
1961 Andrew Hoyem (The Arion Press) 8<br />
1970 Alaµair Johnµon (Poltroon Press) 10<br />
1972 Jerry Reddan (Tangram) 12<br />
1973 Jonathan Clark (Artichoke Press) 14<br />
1974 Peter Koch (Peter Koch, Printers) 16<br />
1974 Harry Reese (Turkey Press) 18<br />
1975 Tom Killion (Quail Press) 20<br />
1975 Gerald Lange (The Bieler Press) 22<br />
1975 Peter Thomas (Peter and Donna Thomas) 24<br />
1975 Gary Young (Greenhouse Review Press) 26<br />
1977 Lawrence Van Velzer (Foolscap Press) 28<br />
1985 Charles Hobson (Pacific Editions) 30<br />
1985 Bill Kelly (Brighton Press) 32<br />
1987 Norman Clayton (Classic Letterpress) 34
INTRODUCTION<br />
Laµ year we celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the <strong>Scripps</strong> <strong>College</strong> Pess by mounting an<br />
exhibit of books from Denison Library, called Women Over <strong>25</strong>, by women who had been printing by letterpress<br />
for at leaµ <strong>25</strong> years. There were forty-one women from all over the United States profiled in this<br />
exhibit. Many of the books chosen had been µudied by µudents in my classes and used for exhibitions<br />
for at leaµ <strong>25</strong> years. Only books printed by women who were µill a∂ive in the field, in letterpress printing<br />
and/or teaching, were included in the exhibit. The books were shown in the Clark Humanities Museum<br />
and at Denison Library in O∂ober of 2011.<br />
A supplemental exhibit called Women ’Way Over <strong>25</strong> was mounted at Denison Library, in order to put on display<br />
several significant books we have from earlier periods. All of the women shown in the exhibit were<br />
invited to a panel discussion called Crazy about Letterpress following the Goudy Le∂ure given by Kathleen<br />
Walkup, and fourteen were able to attend.<br />
We decided to continue this research this year by exhibiting books from Denison Library by men who<br />
have been printing by letterpress for at leaµ <strong>25</strong> years, and who are µill a∂ive in the field. We limited this<br />
exhibit to letterpress printers in California in order to prepare for my le∂ure, Men and Women Over <strong>25</strong>,<br />
California Edition, in O∂ober of 2012 for the Book Club of California event called ’Way Out Weµ. There<br />
are seventeen California printers profiled in this show. We intend to eventually complete this survey by<br />
including the reµ of the men from all over the United States who have books at Denison Library and who<br />
have been working at leaµ <strong>25</strong> years in letterpress.<br />
This catalog does not include photographs of the works exhibited, but we have taken photographs of all<br />
the books and hope to enlarge the catalog in time. The catalog is available as a pdf file on the website for<br />
the <strong>Scripps</strong> <strong>College</strong> Press.<br />
You’ll notice in reading these fascinating biographies how many men have collaborated with each other<br />
and with the Women Over <strong>25</strong> over the years.<br />
Kitty Maryatt, Dire∂or of the <strong>Scripps</strong> <strong>College</strong> Press
1934<br />
Jack Werner Stau‡acher: The Greenwood Press 1<br />
Jack Werner Stau‡acher firµ µarted printing with a 3 x 5 Kelsey press in 1934 at the age of 14, in San<br />
Mateo. In 1936, he purchased a Chandler & Price 10 x 15 platen press and ATF Garamond types. He and<br />
his father built a µudio in 1936 in the backyard of their home. Jack was artiµically influenced by his older<br />
brother Frank, who went to Art Center in Los Angeles µarting in 1937 (his untimely death was in 1955).<br />
Jack visited John Henry Nash, the Grabhorns, and Taylor & Taylor in 1937. His firµ book, published in<br />
1941, was Three Choice Sketches by Geo‡rey Crayon, Gent., by Washington Irving. “I handset the whole book under<br />
the open sky of San Mateo: typesetting became ritualiµic.” He was intereµed in both horse and bicycle polo and<br />
published Bicycle Polo, Technique and Fundamentals in 1942.<br />
Jack was drafted into the army in 1942 during WWII and returned by 1944 with his “inner landscape altered.”<br />
In 1947, he moved the Press from San Mateo to San Francisco, and in 1948, he collaborated with Adrian<br />
Wilson on, And Who Wants Peace? by Eric Gill. Jack made an important purchase from Stempel Typefoundry<br />
in 1950, the Kis-Janson types: “pure, workmanlike letters, communicating e‡ortlessly; attention to serifs & to the thick<br />
& thin of lines; the human scale is preserved in each size; Updike again as reference to Kis-Janson as the key to further discipline<br />
& µudy; involvement in the hiµory of Kis-Janson & the evolution of 16th and 17th century types.”<br />
The Book Cub of California held an exhibition of The Greenwood Press books in 1951. By 1952 and 1953,<br />
Jack was making an intense µudy of the Kis-Janson types with the discovery of a 1685 type specimen of<br />
the face. He published Janson: A Definitive Colle∂ion, in 1954. “Meditations on the Kis-Janson image drove the Press<br />
near to disaµer financially, caught between dream & the reality; nevertheless the book began to emerge in a natural flow<br />
shaped by devotion.” [In 1983, he published a major work in the hiµory of printing, Nicholas Kis, by György<br />
Haiman.]<br />
In the early 50s, Jack eµablished an informal luncheon group with Adrian Wilson, The Graphic Roundtable,<br />
meeting at the Basque Hotel du Midi in North Beach. In 1955, he was awarded a year-long Fullbright<br />
to µudy in Florence, but ended up µaying three years. “I began to explore the origins of the book in relation to the<br />
ethos of place—the subtle interrelation of all the arts in the hiµory of a culture.” Jack returned in 1958 and was appointed<br />
assiµant professor of Typographic Design at Carnegie Inµitute of Technology in Pittsburgh, reeµablishing<br />
the legacy of Porter Garnett with the New Laboratory Press. He invited Hermann Zapf to<br />
teach a six-week seminar on book design and lettering, which led to the design of a special typeface for<br />
the Hunt Botanical Library called Hunt Roman. [In 1965, Jack designed the book, Hunt Roman: The Birth of<br />
a Type for the Pittsburgh Bibliophiles. In 1994, he edited and designed a book on Porter Garnett for the<br />
Book Club of California called Porter Garnett, Philosophical Writings on the Ideal Book.]<br />
Jack left Pittsburgh in 1963 to become Typographic Dire∂or of the Stanford University Press and µarted<br />
teaching in the Department of Design at the San Francisco Art Inµitute in 1964. He set up Typographic<br />
Workshop 17, “which sought to rescue the dignity of hand-eye skills & to rea∑rm the role of craftsman.” In 1965, Jack<br />
designed The Journal of Typographic Research with overlapping letters of the alphabet on the cover. “The design<br />
was created dire∂ly from the proof press, leaving the materials at hand to help in the process of design.”<br />
Stanford held a definitive exhibition of his books in 1966: “refle∂ions on the halting beginnings that grew towards<br />
a conµant simplification in the unlimited possibilities of the typographic page.” Jack left Stanford to reopen The<br />
Greenwood Press in 1966 and bought a Vandercook proof press. He produced The Seacoaµ of Bohemia for<br />
The Book Club of California. The firµ book published by The Greenwood Press since 1955 was Albert Camus<br />
and the Men of the Stone, produced in 1971.
2<br />
Jack Werner Stau‡acher: The Greenwood Press 1934<br />
Jack replied to a critical letter in 1969 on the use of unjuµified lines (“ragged right”) in the journal Landscape:<br />
“Given an underµanding of the technological changes involved in contemporary typography, the typographer continually<br />
seeks ways to achieve greater flexibility. His basic concern is with the intera∂ion between author and reader, and the unjuµified<br />
line in Landscape is simply employed to help ease the communication between these participants.”<br />
In 1972, Jack began extensive typographic experiments with Plato’s Phaedrus, which was published in<br />
1977, along with a well-received supplement: The Search for the Typographic Form of Plato’s Phaedrus. Jack experimented<br />
for four years before resolving the presentation. The explanatory supplement details hiµorical<br />
research on both handwritten and typeset versions of Phaedrus, and the seven µages of designs and correspondence<br />
with Chuck Bigelow. “The design of the Phaedrus was born out of the thoughtful considerations of the<br />
text. I hope it contributes something to a fresh way of looking at design in literary material.”<br />
In 1974, Jack eµablished the Cowell Press at UC Santa Cruz, having been awarded the Regents’ Professorship.<br />
In 1976, he was invited to be a part of the Typographic Advisory Board for Adobe Syµems. Alaµair<br />
Johnµon wrote a featured article on The Greenwood Press for Fine Print in 1978. In 1979, Jack eµablished<br />
the Center for Typographic Language. He also helped eµablish the North Point Press with William Turnbull<br />
that year. In 1984, Jack became typographic consultant for the Lapis Press of Sam Francis and a consultant<br />
to Autologic, Inc. working with Sumner Stone and Fred Brady.<br />
Jack was invited to Hungary in 1985 for the tricentenary of the printing of Nicholas Kis’s Amµerdam<br />
Bible. In 1986, he had a retrospe∂ive exhibition at Gleeson Library, University of San Francisco, and published<br />
Queen of Hearts by Vi∂oria Nelson. Sumner Stone brought a Macintosh to Stau‡acher’s µudio in<br />
1987 and Jack learned to develop computer skills. In 1989, he published his firµ digitized book done at<br />
the press: Goethe and False Subje∂ivity by Leo Lowenthal. Jack was awarded The Middleton Award by the<br />
American Center for Design in Chicago in 1991.<br />
In 1993 Jack had another full year: he gave a le∂ure at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library in<br />
Los Angeles and his books were exhibited there; he traveled to the Greek temples in Italy; and he researched<br />
works of Porter Garnett at the Bancroft Library. In 1995, Jack designed type specimens for the<br />
Stone Type Foundry. In 1997, he designed and worked with Sumner Stone on the firµ issue of Type, A Journal<br />
of the Association Typographique Internationale. In 1999, The Book Club of California published A Typographic<br />
Journey: The Hiµory of The Greenwood Press and Bibliography, 1934–2000 edited by Stau‡acher and awarded him<br />
the Oscar Lewis Award. In 2004, Jack was awarded the AIGA Medal. He continues to work daily at The<br />
Greenwood Press in San Francisco.<br />
(Notes in quotes are taken dire∂ly from Stau‡acher’s Hiµory of The Greenwood Press)
1934<br />
Jack Werner Stau‡acher: The Greenwood Press 3<br />
A. Three Choice Sketches By Geo‡rey Crayon, Gent., Washington Irving, Illuµrations by Frank Stau‡acher, The<br />
Greenwood Press, 1941, 83 pages, <strong>25</strong>0 copies<br />
This is the firµ book published by The Greenwood Press. The three tales included: The Stout Gentleman, The<br />
Adventure of my Uncle, and Horsemanship, and were taken from Washington Irving’s Bracebridge Hall & Tales of<br />
a Traveller. It was designed, printed and entirely handset in Garamond 12 pt. type. In A Typographic Journey,<br />
Stau‡acher says, “Handset the whole book under the open sky of San Mateo: typesetting became ritualiµic.” The three<br />
images were drawn by Jack’s brother Frank, who also sent a copy of the book with a letter to the New York<br />
Times for a review, which was subsequently written by Edward Laroque Tinker.<br />
B. And Who Wants Peace?, Eric Gill, Illuµration by Mary Fabilli, The Greenwood Press, 1948, 8 pages, 1000<br />
copies<br />
The address originally given by Eric Gill at Kingsway Hall in London on November 11, 1936 includes these<br />
words: “Modern war is a remedy worse than any conceivable disease. During the laµ war they called conscientious obje∂ors<br />
cowards. It was the grosseµ lie.” The eight-page large-format book was produced after WWII by Adrian Wilson<br />
and Jack Werner Stau‡acher at The Greenwood Press. It was handset in Eric Gill’s Perpetua type and<br />
printed on Tovil handmade paper. Two woodcuts by Mary Fabilli accompany the address.<br />
C. Janson: A Definitive Colle∂ion, Jack Werner Stau‡acher, The Greenwood Press, 1954, 68 pages, 350 copies<br />
Jack Stau‡acher wrote this horizontal-format book about the fascinating hiµory of the Pseudo-Janson<br />
types, or Dutch Old Face. Five type specimen pages are included, along with showings of several sizes of<br />
the Stempel Janson fonts acquired by Stau‡acher. Multiple images printed in ruµ accompany the text.<br />
At the end of the book, he usefully compares Stempel Janson with Merganthaler Linotype Janson, Lanµon<br />
Monotype Janson, Monotype Ehrhardt, and Monotype Van Dijck.<br />
D. Porter Garnett : Philosophical writings on the ideal book, compiled by Jack Werner Stau‡acher, The Book Club<br />
of California, 1994, <strong>25</strong>1 pages, 450 copies<br />
Typographer and printer Porter Garnett, 1871–1951, taught at the Carnegie Inµitute of Technology in Pittsburgh,<br />
Pennsylvania. It was the only university at the time which gave a degree course in printing technology,<br />
and our own Dr. Joseph Foµer, Professor at <strong>Scripps</strong> <strong>College</strong> from 1947–1971, µudied with Garnett.<br />
Jack Stau‡acher taught at Carnegie when he returned from his Fullbright sojourn in Italy. The book was<br />
designed by Jack Stau‡acher with typesetting by Francesca Stau‡acher. It was printed o‡set on Mohawk<br />
Superfine and set in Cycles, a typeface designed by Sumner Stone. The o‡set printing was done by<br />
Phelps/Schaefer in Brisbane, California with binding by Cardoza-James Binding Company, San Francisco.<br />
E. A Typographic Journey: The Hiµory of the Greenwood Press and Bibliography, 1934–2000, Jack Werner Stau‡acher,<br />
Bibliography by Glenn Humphreys, The Book Club of California, 1999, 323 pages, 450 copies<br />
This is an enlightening hiµory of the Greenwood Press, written and designed by Jack Werner Stau‡acher<br />
himself. Included are numerous letters to and from notables in the book world. It was set in the typeface<br />
Cycles, designed by Sumner Stone, with the exception of captions on pages 54 and 74 set in Trajan, designed<br />
by Carol Twombly. The typesetting was done by Francesca Stau‡acher and Kina Sullivan. The<br />
book was printed on Mohawk Superfine by by Phelps/Schaefer, Brisbane, California. The hardcover binding<br />
was by Cardoza-James Binding Company, San Francisco.
4<br />
Pall Bohne: Brookhaven Press 1959<br />
I got my µart in printing at General Business Forms, in the copy preparation department in late 1959.<br />
Work was slow at my previous job as a land surveyor. A friend suggeµed that I try GBF because I could<br />
use a T-square and a triangle, the basic tools of copy preparation in o‡set lithography. The company also<br />
had a small letterpress department, which reminded me of my 7th grade experience. So I bothered the<br />
old-timer at GBF to let me print some bookplates. That’s how the whole thing led up to my printing and<br />
binding shop.<br />
In the early 60s, I bought a 5 x 8 inch letterpress and type from L.A. Typefounders. I bought a better press<br />
later, a 6 x 9 inch Sigwalt, which I µill use. At L.A. Type I noticed a proof press, which can be found in the<br />
photo of me at my Press in the mid-sixties. Since then I’ve acquired a series of machines for both printing<br />
and bookbinding.<br />
My firµ real book was printed and bound later in the sixties. So far, I’ve printed eight miniature books<br />
and three normal-sized books, along with booklets and ephemera. One of the larger books was about the<br />
firµ press eµablished in the San Gabriel Valley, called The Willow Dale Press, 1879, With Notes on the Hiµory of<br />
the Amateur Press in California. The µory of this Press was written by Carey Bliss, who worked at the Huntington<br />
Library. The book included samples from the Press held in a special envelope glued on the inside<br />
of the back board. Only 132 copies were printed and bound at my Brookhaven Press, now located in Alta<br />
Loma, not far from <strong>Scripps</strong> <strong>College</strong>.
1959<br />
Pall Bohne: Brookhaven Press 5<br />
A. An Original Leaf from the Kleine Print Bybel c. 1750, Essay by Ruth E. Adomeit, Dawson’s Book Shop, 1991, 20<br />
pages, 60 copies<br />
A small illuµrated leaf from an 18th-century miniature pi∂ure Bible is tipped onto the page following<br />
the title page. The leaf is about 1.5 inches tall x 1 inch wide. The Dutch Bible was printed in The Hague in<br />
two volumes, and each of the 86 engravings was printed only on one side. The endpapers were made in<br />
Dutch gilt; the same pattern was printed by letterpress for the cover papers. The book was printed and<br />
bound by Pall Bohne.<br />
B. The Willow Dale Press, 1879, With Notes on the Hiµory of the Amateur Press in California, Carey S. Bliss, Dawson’s<br />
Book Shop, 1975, 19 pages, 132 copies<br />
Carey Bliss long had a desire to recognize and honor the great army of teenage boys and girls who operated<br />
the amateur printing presses in the Vi∂orian Age in America. Miss Anetta Carter had kept a cache of<br />
papers printed and edited by her father and aunt in San Gabriel, and through her, Carey Bliss was able to<br />
research his proje∂ and present this book. Florence and Arthur Carter printed the firµ newspaper in the<br />
San Gabriel Valley. It was printed on a foot-powered Columbian Number 2 press with a 6 x 9 chase, which<br />
is illuµrated in the book. The book was printed and bound by Pall Bohne in Rosemead, California. The<br />
type is Bembo and is printed on Warren’s Olde Style paper. Ten copies have an original issue of the Willow<br />
Dale Press inserted in a special envelope inside the back cover.
6<br />
Patrick Reagh: Patrick Reagh, Printers 1959<br />
I began printing on Chriµmas day, 1959. I received a present of a 3 x 5 Kelsey tabletop press, some type,<br />
ink, and a brand-new Rouse composing µick. I had several printing ventures as a boy and teenager. The<br />
Muµard Seed Press was a joint venture between my father and me. We µarted the Muµard seed Press in<br />
my bedroom and printed our holiday cards and party invitations for fun. I soon discovered that people<br />
would pay for printing, so I became a job printer. I printed a flyer that said "Your Name and Address on<br />
100 Envelopes for $1.<strong>25</strong>—professionally printed." I placed the flyer on doorµeps on about 3 square blocks<br />
in my neighborhood and was soon overwhelmed with orders. The firµ poem I printed was the Jabberwocky<br />
from Alice in Wonderland: it also served as a specimen of the types I had at the time. My moµ successful<br />
venture was when I was 13 and printed “Kissing Permits” for my classmates, although the boys’<br />
vice principal confiscated the balance of the run before it was sold out.<br />
I began a formal union apprenticeship in 1969 with Andresen Typographics (in Los Angeles), an advertising<br />
typographer. It was a 5-year apprenticeship in a shop in the middle of the transition between “hot” and<br />
“cold” type. They had two Linotypes and hundreds of cases of type. My firµ 3 months I did nothing but<br />
shovel old slugs into a giant cauldron and poured molten lead into shiny new ingots (pigs) to be used to<br />
by the Linotypes. All the apprentices were being trained in the new methods. We were required to take<br />
classes at LA Trade Tech as part of our training. The classes at Trade Tech were pitifully behind what we<br />
were already doing at the shop, so it was an exercise in futility. Moµ of the time I did paµe-up and camera<br />
work. I ran a machine called a Typositor that set headlines. I wasn’t much of a typiµ, so I didn’t run the<br />
Alphatypes which were the photo-composition machines used at Andresen. Whenever they needed someone<br />
on the floor (the floor meant the metal type se∂ion) they would pull me because I was the only apprentice<br />
that had experience with metal type. It was a good general education in how a produ∂ion shop<br />
works. If nothing else, I learned what it meant to meet a deadline.<br />
After the five-year apprenticeship, I went to work at the Plantin Press with Lillian Marks. I was the laµ<br />
employee there when it ceased printing in 1981. I went to work there after Saul had died. My father had<br />
known Saul, and the Marks’s were family friends. Lillian’s laµ two employees had given notice and she<br />
called to see if I would be intereµed in working for her. Of course I jumped at the opportunity even though<br />
I would be making about half of what I was being paid at the union shop. I was determined to learn how<br />
to print and design books of the quality that the Plantin Press produced. It was absolute trial by fire. I<br />
learned how to operate the Monotype caµer and Heidelberg cylinder press with only a few cursory lessons<br />
from some former employees. I read a lot of manuals and went in on my own time on weekends to<br />
pra∂ice. Eventually I was comfortable doing everything except keyboarding (the lack of typing skills<br />
again), but Lillian did all the keyboarding for the Monotype. Several other printers came and went, but I<br />
hung in and became basically the whole work force until the end.<br />
I µarted my commercial operation (called Patrick Reagh, Printers) in Los Angeles after leaving the Plantin<br />
Press. Like the Plantin Press, my letterpress printing was a business enterprise that printed books and<br />
ephemera for other publishers and clientele while attempting to maintain the µandards of a fine press.<br />
In the laµ several years of the Plantin Press, the work was winding down and I µarted setting up shop in<br />
the time I wasn’t working for Lillian (the hours of work µarted dwindling at the PP). There was a wonderful<br />
place called Printers’ Metal Service in an induµrial se∂ion of Huntington Park. They bought whole print<br />
shops in au∂ions and had two large warehouses crammed to the ceiling with cases, cabinets, presses,
1959<br />
Patrick Reagh: Patrick Reagh, Printers 7<br />
type and all manner of printing tools and supplies. They were open on Saturdays and my father and I<br />
would go down there and scrounge around and pick up odds and ends for the Muµard Seed Press. It was<br />
fun haggling with George Ayd, the owner, over what were already ridiculously low prices. To this day, my<br />
shop µill has moµ of the cases and cabinets and type I bought there. Type cases were 50 cents apiece. It<br />
was in the 70s and letterpress equipment was being dumped all over the place. One day I saw a Monotype<br />
caµer, keyboard and a Miehle Vertical printing press. Because I could operate the Monotype and I knew<br />
the days were numbered for the Plantin Press, I took the plunge and bought the package of typecaµers<br />
and press for $1,000 and rented a µorefront in downtown L.A. and was in business.<br />
I worked there until 1981 when I moved to Glendale and set up shop with Vance Gerry. We were partners<br />
for one of the happieµ printing years of my life. Vance bowed out graciously after the firµ year. He wanted<br />
to do more of his own work. So I continued the commercial operation that grew to nine employees at one<br />
point. We designed and printed many books, poµers, ephemera, etc. to a pretty large client base. Things<br />
slowed down in the 90s and I got the urge to relocate to a place where I could live and work on the same<br />
property: maybe a more rural location where I could convert an outbuilding into my shop. We located<br />
such a place in Sebaµopol that was a former chicken ranch with a big barn that now houses my shop. I<br />
have been working solo since 1995 when we moved. An occasional intern has assiµed me, but I µill do<br />
moµ of the work myself. The laµ several years have found me sitting in front of a computer doing book<br />
design and layout, but my heart is always with the type and presses.<br />
A. Saul Marks & the Plantin Press, The Life & Work of a Singular Man, Lillian Marks, The Plantin Press, 1980, 194<br />
pages, 350 copies<br />
As a biographical tribute to her husband by Lillian Marks, this book presents fascinating details of Saul<br />
Marks’ early life, work ethic and pra∂ices as well as the development of The Plantin Press. It includes an<br />
introdu∂ion by Richard F. Do∂er and preface by Lawrence Clark Powell. The book was printed at the<br />
Plantin Press by Lillian Marks, with the assiµance of Juan Melgoza, Patrick Reach and Jerry Simon.<br />
B. Examples of Printing Designed by Students at the <strong>Scripps</strong> <strong>College</strong> Press, 1946–1971, Joseph Arnold Foµer, privately<br />
printed, 1985, 119 pages, 200 copies<br />
Dr. Joseph Foµer compiled a book of his µudents’ work at the <strong>Scripps</strong> <strong>College</strong> Press fourteen years after<br />
he retired from <strong>Scripps</strong> <strong>College</strong>, after <strong>25</strong> years of teaching. He explains that the course was not to train<br />
µudents to become printers, but to develop critical µandards that could be applied to other fields as well.<br />
Emphasis was placed on design rather than technique. The book is divided into four parts, which refle∂<br />
four kinds of proje∂s: broadsides, greeting cards, bookplates, and book pages. It was printed at Patrick<br />
Reagh, Printers, which was then in Los Angeles, and has a hard-cover binding by Bela Blau.<br />
C. The Plantin Press of Saul and Lillian Marks, A Bibliography, Tyrus G. Harmsen & Stephen Tabor, The Press of<br />
Patrick Reagh, 2005, 151 pages, 351 copies<br />
This bibliography of the work of The Plantin Press was inµigated by Ty Harmsen after the 1980 book by<br />
Lillian Marks was published. Ty knew Saul and Lillian Marks µarting in the 1950s. It was subsequently<br />
extended and the descriptions made uniform by Stephen Tabor. Of the 351 copies, 75 numbered and 26<br />
lettered copies include original Plantin Press ephemera. The binding is by Mariana Blau of A-1 Bookbinders,<br />
Los Angeles. The binding of the lettered copies is by Bonnie Thompson Norman, who worked with Saul<br />
and Lillian Marks when she lived in California.
8<br />
Andrew Hoyem: The Arion Press 1961<br />
I µarted printing by letterpress in January 1961, so since 2011 I have been at it for fifty years. When I began<br />
at Auerhahn Press, on Franklin Street in San Francisco, I had no experience in printing. At age <strong>25</strong>, I had<br />
recently been released from the United States Navy after a three and a half year hitch: six months in Reserve<br />
O∑cer Training and three years as an o∑cer, beginning as an Ensign, ending as a Lieutenant Junior<br />
Grade. Prior to that I had graduated with a B. A. degree from Pomona <strong>College</strong>, in Claremont, California,<br />
one of the associated colleges, along with <strong>Scripps</strong> <strong>College</strong>, where this exhibition is to be held. At Auerhahn<br />
I joined in partnership with Dave Haselwood, who had founded the Press in 1958 to print and publish<br />
Beat Generation writers, mainly poets, and to do general fine printing. We learned by making miµakes.<br />
In the fall of 1964 I was hired by the Grabhorn Press, located around the corner on Sutter Street, as a parttime<br />
pressman. There I learned more in a week than I could in a year’s time on my own. After a year of<br />
my working part-time at the Grabhorn Press and full-time at the Auerhahn Press, we dissolved the Auerhahn<br />
partnership; I hired Dave Haselwood (until he moved to a farm in Petaluma and became a Zen prieµ)<br />
and Glenn Todd (for some thirty years), and we moved the Press to Commercial Street. In mid-1966, after<br />
the Grabhorn Press closed, upon the retirement Edwin Grabhorn, I joined in partnership with Robert and<br />
Jane Grabhorn, and we took about half of the Grabhorn printing equipment. The balance of the equipment<br />
was acquired from Edwin Grabhorn’s widow in 1972. The company was subsequently called Grabhorn-<br />
Hoyem. Its publishing program grew, as did the number of commissioned proje∂s, particularly books<br />
for the Book Club of California.<br />
After the deaths of Robert and Jane Grabhorn in 1973, the name of the Press was changed to Arion, for<br />
the legendary Greek poet saved from the sea by a dolphin. In 1979, Moby-Dick was published with the<br />
help of a limited partnership. Three of the inveµors formed a corporation with me in 1980, and in the<br />
mid-eighties the Press moved to Bryant Street as a sub-tenant of Mackenzie & Harris. In 1989, M & H Type<br />
was acquired by the corporation. Along the way, the µa‡ grew to a dozen people, and the publishing program<br />
became more ambitious, with the eµablishment of a series of illuµrated books containing original<br />
prints by prominent contemporary artiµs such as Jim Dine, Robert Motherwell, Wayne Thiebaud, and<br />
more recently Kiki Smith, Raymond Pettibon, and Julie Mehretu.<br />
In 2001 the company moved to the Presidio, where it has been located for a dozen years as a cultural tenant<br />
of this national park. The publications of Arion Press are nearing a total of 100 books. The non-profit<br />
Grabhorn Inµitute, begun in 2000, is now responsible for the preservation and perpetuation of this<br />
hiµoric fine printing and bookmaking facility.
1961<br />
Andrew Hoyem: The Arion Press 9<br />
A. The Wake, Andrew Hoyem, The Auerhahn Press, 1963, 29 pages, 785 copies<br />
Thirty-two poems written by Andrew Hoyem were handset in Caslon and printed on a Hartfold press.<br />
Some titles included are: The Dare, She Let Her Hair Down for a Ladder, A Heartache. A lovely excerpt: “Words are<br />
birds: all mine flew away.” Seven hundred fifty copies were printed on Curtis Rag in Fabriano wrappers, and<br />
thirty-five were on Hammer & Anvil paper; these few were hand-bound at the Schuberth Book Bindery in<br />
quarter blue Oasis leather with cloud paper over boards. Andrew was a graduate of Pomona <strong>College</strong>; in<br />
1957 several of his poems were published in an anthology at Pomona <strong>College</strong>.<br />
B. The Temple of Flora, Botanical notes compiled and poetry sele∂ed by Glenn Todd and Nancy Dine, Engravings<br />
by Jim Dine, The Arion Press, 1984, 64 pages, 175 copies<br />
The Temple of Flora, published in 1807 by Dr. Robert John Thornton, is among the moµ famous illuµrated<br />
books of all time. The Arion Press edition is modelled on the original edition in scale and scheme of presentation.<br />
The artiµ Jim Dine created 28 dry-point engravings for his own interpretations of twenty-four<br />
plants, with four more drawn from other sources. This monumental book has a relief sculpture set into<br />
the cover of the containing box.<br />
C. United States Conµitution 1787–1987, The Arion Press in association with the Library of Congress, 1987, 63<br />
pages, 500 copies<br />
The book was published for the Bicentennial of the adoption of the Conµitution in 1787. The Twinrocker<br />
paper was specially made for the edition, with initial letters drawn and gilt by Thomas Ingmire. The type<br />
is a large, handset Deepdene, designed by Frederic W. Goudy, and caµ by Mackenzie-Harris. The vellum<br />
binding is sewn over red thongs, which are laced across the printed cover.<br />
D. The King-Fisher Letters, Jane Grabhorn, The Arion Press, 2007, 32 pages, 400 copies<br />
This keepsake publishes for the firµ time a series of fanciful and mildly malicious fi∂ional letters written<br />
by Jane Grabhorn. Jane was the wife of Robert Grabhorn, the younger of the two brothers whose Grabhorn<br />
Press, which operated in San Francisco from 1920 through 1965, was among the foremoµ fine book printers<br />
in the nation. Jane herself was a printer of humourously facetious booklets and broadsides, under the<br />
µyle of the Jumbo Press, and was a serious literary publisher, along with her partner William Matson<br />
Roth, at the Colt Press. The drawings are by Sherwood Grover, and the book includes memories of the<br />
Grabhorns by Edith Hartnett. The book was bound into a printed paper cover.
10<br />
Alaµair Johnµon: Poltroon Press 1970<br />
I µarted letterpress printing in 1970. I had immigrated to the USA and was then living in Santa Barbara,<br />
California. (Incidentally, I had gone to a polytechnic college in London as an Advertising and Marketing<br />
major and my room-mates were in the print produ∂ion program with teachers including Hansjörg Mayer<br />
—if only I had known!) As a college dropout, I had a series of awful jobs: fruit picker, house painter, shipping<br />
clerk, door-to-door salesman, gardener, bicycle mechanic, so I went to the unemployment o∑ce: They<br />
said they had jobs that were only available to minorities! I told them I was definitely a minority—a Scotsman.<br />
They sent me to McNally & Loftin, a printing and publishing plant that set books in Linotype and<br />
printed them 16-up on flatbed cylinder presses. I µarted as shipping clerk and o∑ce boy but inveigled<br />
my way into the back shop until I was running a repro press and learning how to set corre∂ion lines on<br />
the Linotype. The boss, Bill McNally, was very indulgent to me, and seeing my intereµ, gave me more<br />
chores in the shop. The foreman was an old-timer named Morris who didn’t say much; the Linotype operators<br />
also worked the night shift on the local paper. I proof-read books for Black Sparrow Press and<br />
wrote an index for a book McNally published. I met Graham Mackintosh and Noel Young and discovered<br />
I had found my calling. Graham told me the small press scene was centered in San Francisco, and so I<br />
moved north in 1974.<br />
I spent a year working with Wesley Tanner at Arif Press in Berkeley. He taught me the fine points of letter-<br />
and word-spacing, type choice, make-ready and platen presswork. I also took courses in Linotype operation<br />
and process camerawork at Laney <strong>College</strong> in Oakland. I spent one day a week at the Bancroft<br />
Library at UC Berkeley, reading and µudying their colle∂ion. (Then I would go to the Pacific Film Archive<br />
and learn film hiµory!)<br />
I met Frances Butler in 1975. We collaborated on four broadsides and she asked me to help her teach a<br />
class in “Printing on the Iron Handpress” at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library. We µarted Poltroon Press in<br />
April, 1975, at firµ using a Vandercook 219 in her fabric printing µudio.<br />
Whereas I had learned classical Morisonian typography from Wesley Tanner, Frances exposed me to Rodchenko,<br />
Piet Zwart, Tschichold and others. I sought out Jack Stau‡acher who was a µruggler in the wilderness<br />
of San Francisco’s archaic fine press scene, and we became allies.<br />
My primary reason for being involved in printing and publishing was to print my own work. I was dabbling<br />
in concrete poetry and its visual expression, but found myself increasingly drawn to hiµorical pursuits.<br />
I spent two years working on my firµ major work, the Auerhahn Press Bibliography. Its publication upset the<br />
“old boy” network in San Francisco, so I retreated to the seventeenth century for my next proje∂ and<br />
spent two years working with Hendrik Vervliet on Cyrillic and Oriental Typography in Rome, the only fulllength<br />
monograph on Robert Granjon. Since then I have published two more small press bibliographies,<br />
a discography of Do∂eur Nico (an African musician), and several other works.<br />
Other than a piece by Thomas Love Peacock, we have always published original work. We have varied intereµs,<br />
so this includes poetry, prose, dete∂ive fi∂ion, poµers, archite∂ure, bibliographies, illuµrated<br />
books, experimental works, hiµory, interviews, criticism, typography and commissions.<br />
We have both made many one-of-a-kind books, broadsides, poµers, collages and monoprints juµ for fun.<br />
My heros are Kurt Schwitters and Bill Dwiggins.<br />
As more people have entered the field and the polymer-plate mashers with their digital mindsets have<br />
devalued the art of letterpress, I have devoted more time to scholarly pursuits; as a result I have a long
1970<br />
Alaµair Johnµon: Poltroon Press 11<br />
record of journalism. When the PCBA quarterly Ampersand fell in my lap, I edited it for 15 years, always<br />
hoping for a coup that would take it away. I have contributed to Fine Print, Bookways, Print, APHA Journal,<br />
the British Printing Hiµorical Society Journal and, increasingly, online blogs such as Booktryµ and Smashingmagazine,<br />
as well as updating my monthly world music magazine (www.muzikifan.com).<br />
I like to have a long-term proje∂ in hand, and have completed several, including Alphabets to Order (British<br />
Library, 2000), which I worked on for over two decades. I recently put together Typographical Touriµs<br />
(Poltroon Press, 2012), an anthology of writing about tramp printers (begun while I was writing Alphabets<br />
to Order and continued while I was working as a volunteer at the California Hiµorical Society Library). My<br />
book on the Language Poetry wars, Life of Crime, likewise had fomented in my brain for a long time and it<br />
was also a relatively quick produ∂ion. On the other hand, the William Loy book, Nineteenth-century American<br />
Designers and Engravers of Type (Oak Knoll, 2009), on which I collaborated with Stephen O. Saxe, took over<br />
a year of solid work (day and night). My juµ-finished biography and bibliography of Richard Auµin, the<br />
type-cutter, and his son Richard T. Auµin, wood-engraver, took eight years of research, but entailed many<br />
trips to British libraries, so it was not a hardship. Another ridiculously long-term proje∂, Rambling in the<br />
Vernacular, my µudy of folk lettering worldwide, has yet to be published. I don’t worry about marketing<br />
and diµribution, I am writing for the random reader a century hence who finds my book in the µacks<br />
and shares a smile with me.<br />
A. Cimmerian Lodge, Thomas Love Peacock, Illuµrations by Frances Butler, 1976, 19 printed pages<br />
Mr. Fax immediately recognized the poeticopolitical, rhapsolicoprosaical, deisidaemoniacoparadoxographical, pseudolatreiological,<br />
transcendental meteorosophiµ, Moley Myµic, Esquire, of Cimmerian Lodge (Thomas Love Peakcock). Peacock<br />
was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and they influenced each other’s work. He wrote satirical<br />
novels, each with the same basic setting: chara∂ers at a table discussing and criticising the philosophical<br />
opinions of the day. Peacock can be regarded as in many ways a focal point, both for his conne∂ions and his intereµs,<br />
in the pre-Reform period, especially in 1810–1820. I regard “Cimmerian Lodge” as primarily a remarkably vivid and vigorous<br />
piece of creation, benefitting if anything from its sources and not to be limited by analysis of them (David Gallon). Composition<br />
was by Wesley B. Tanner; the book was designed and printed by Alaµair Johnµon. Bound in cloth<br />
patterned with frogs.<br />
B. Cyrillic & Oriental Typography in Rome at the End of the Sixteenth Century: An Inquiry into the Later Work of Robert<br />
Granjon (1578–90), Hendrik D. L. Vervliet, Translation by Alaµair Johnµon, 1981, 66 pages, 500 copies<br />
Hendrik D. L. Vervliet inveµigates the life and works of the French type designer and punch-cutter Robert<br />
Granjon, and more particularly his µay in Rome. Composition in Mergenthaler Galliard, a phototype of<br />
Matthew Carter, based on later designs of Robert Granjon. Translation and typography by Alaµair<br />
Johnµon. Printed o‡set by Creative Arts Press for Poltroon Press.<br />
C. Pshaw: 30 years of Poltroonery, 1975–2005, Alaµair Johnµon and Frances Butler, Poltroon Press, 2005, 42<br />
pages, 100 copies<br />
Alaµair and Frances each write animatedly about the ephemeral materials that they have produced for<br />
over thirty years, including wine labels, invitations, broadsides, announcements, type specimens, spoofs<br />
and satirical works. The calligraphy and pochoir are by Frances, while the typography and printing are by<br />
Alaµair Johnµon. Dozens of samples are tipped-in, and several colors of papers are utilized. The book<br />
was hard-bound by Arnold Martinez.
12<br />
Jerry Reddan: Tangram 1972<br />
My firµ experience with letterpress equipment was in 1972 at Eureka Printing, a job shop in Eureka, California.<br />
There was a C & P, which was used for die cutting and scoring. It was on this press that I printed<br />
handset poems by friends. After four and a half years, Barbara and I moved to Berkeley to µart a one-year<br />
apprenticeship with Wesley Tanner at his Arif Press. Upon completion of my year with Wesley, I worked<br />
with Adrian Wilson, printing Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. In the late 70s I µarted<br />
working full-time at Andrew Hoyem’s Arion Press and was there until 2011.<br />
Tangram µarted in 1987 with a chapbook of poems by Jim Dodge. Over 50 chapbooks of poetry and many<br />
broadsides were printed on equipment at Arion in my spare time. I continue this arrangement today.<br />
*Andrew Hoyem mounted an exhibition of books printed by Jerry Reddan in the Arion Press gallery in<br />
2007 and poµed the following on his website:<br />
Jerry Reddan is the maµer printer at Arion Press, where he has been employed since 1977, thirty years in<br />
September, 2007. He µarted with Moby-Dick, helping with hand-composition of that 600-page novel. Reddan<br />
has been responsible for typography and presswork on such proje∂s as: Triµram Shandy by Laurence<br />
Sterne, Ulysses by James Joyce, Poems of W. B. Yeats, The Physiology of Taµe by Brillat-Savarin, Invisible Cities by<br />
Italo Calvino, Cane by Jean Toomer, and The Holy Bible.<br />
In addition to his full-time work as a printer, Jerry has been very a∂ive with his private press, producing<br />
a long liµ of literary pieces, mainly poetry, written by accomplished friends and well-known writers who<br />
earned his admiration. Using the facilities of Arion Press on his own time, he has published books, broadsides,<br />
and other ephemera, since 1987 under the Tangram imprint, but also dating back to his beginnings<br />
as a printer.<br />
After service in the U.S. Navy, Jerry Reddan attended Humboldt State <strong>College</strong>. In 1972 he returned to<br />
Humboldt County to find work in a print shop. He began in the bindery at Eureka Printing Company,<br />
owned by Jerry Carter, and trained on small o‡set presses, firµ a Chief 15, then a Solna 1<strong>25</strong>. While there,<br />
he printed by o‡set Ralph Nelson’s translation of the Mayan Popol Vuh, with design and produ∂ion by Barbara<br />
Llewellyn, and learned to use letterpress equipment to print broadsides.<br />
In 1975–6, Reddan served a year’s apprenticeship with Wesley Tanner at Arif Press in Berkeley. In 1976–7<br />
he worked at Adrian Wilson’s Press in Tuscany Alley in San Francisco on Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s<br />
Garden of Verses. He did some personal proje∂s while at these notable presses. When he came to Arion<br />
Press on Commercial Street in San Francisco, Jerry continued his private printing before and after hours<br />
and on weekends.<br />
This exhibition celebrates Tangram, named for a Chinese puzzle of seven pieces (five triangles, one square,<br />
and a rhomboid) that can be arranged into a square. The firµ Tangram imprint was The Tunnel, a poem by<br />
Jim Dodge dedicated to Jack Spicer, in 1987. In 1988, he began a yearly Winter Solµice greeting with Dodge.<br />
The firµ Tangram chapbook was by Dodge and the second by Jerry Martien, both Humboldt County writers.<br />
Since then, as he says, publications have popped up like mushrooms in the redwoods.<br />
Tangrams are precious in the niceµ possible ways. They are modeµ but exquisite editorially and typographically,<br />
perfe∂ in presswork, choice of paper and binding materials. Some special bindings have been<br />
done by Peggy Gotthold, for many years a colleague at Arion Press. The editions are limited to very few<br />
copies, generally no more than one hundred fifty. Tangram is truly a private press, nearly a secret, the per-
1972<br />
Jerry Reddan: Tangram 13<br />
sonal expression of a discerning reader and a great craftsman. To the extent Tangram is public, some<br />
copies are o‡ered to the world by rare book dealers. Fortunate are they who have Tangrams on their shelves<br />
or can see a sele∂ion of them as in this exhibition.<br />
A. Home: A Prayer for the World Where You Found It, Robert Sund, Tangram Press, 1991, 4 pages, 2<strong>25</strong> copies<br />
The three-part poem is presented in an unfolding triptych format. It is preceded by: “Lift your voice. Pick it<br />
up like a µone, and lift it over your head.” The poem is printed with Monotype Caslon on Somerset, an English<br />
mouldmade paper.<br />
B. Between the Rocks, Poems by Hilda Morley, Tangram, 1992, 17 pages, 180 copies<br />
Hilda Morley writes, “These poems should be seen as the markings on a map of inner and outer hardnesses, the colors<br />
of rock sometimes lit by grass, trees, flowers. They mark a rocky path bordering a desert, over µone bridges on green water,<br />
or along precipices where tree-roots can grow upward as well as downward, according to the weights and balances of gravity.”<br />
The nine poems were printed from Monotype Ehrhardt on Mohawk Letterpress Text and sewn in paper<br />
wrappers.<br />
C. Before the Beginning: New Poems, 1991–1995, M. C. Richards, Tangram, 1995, 20 pages, 180 copies<br />
Mary Caroline Richards writes, “These are a sele∂ion of poems that came between 1991 and 1995—after the publication<br />
of Imagine Inventing Yellow. They celebrate various themes: in praise of color, prayer, body hunger, thanksgiving for daily<br />
fare, the ecology of imagination. I like the play of perspe∂ives in this colle∂ion—a gathering in the soul of such a versatile<br />
light.” The sixteen poems were printed on mouldmade Zerkall with Monotype Bembo and sewn into Lama<br />
Li, a handmade paper from Nepal. The frontispiece is from a drawing by the author.
14<br />
Jonathan Clark: Artichoke Press 1973<br />
I got involved with printing around 1973, when a friend, Garner Tullis, opened a printmaking atelier in<br />
Santa Cruz. (I was 21 years old.) He had a Washington-Hoe hand press (sans tympan and frisket) and some<br />
type, but knew nothing about letterpress. I also knew nothing, but he o‡ered to let me figure it out if I<br />
would then teach him. I had a trade school textbook, and Lewis Allen’s book, so I set to work, deµroying<br />
a lot of his type in the process.<br />
I got intereµed because I wanted to do books or portfolios of my own photographs, so the firµ thing I<br />
printed was a little (4 x 5 inch) folder to go with a set of six prints. It was kind of cute, though the typography<br />
is pretty atrocious! I’d gotten a lot of µrange 18th-century paper from Kenneth Patchen, so I used<br />
some of that; the paper was rather elegant for a firµ attempt. I was really thrilled with the whole thing,<br />
and that was that.<br />
I was self-taught and never had any kind of inµru∂ion. Though I was a µudent at UC Santa Cruz when<br />
William Everson and Jack Stau‡acher were teaching there, I was working in photography, and never took<br />
their classes. (I did µop by for a few minutes one time when Jack was operating the Vandercook, and he<br />
showed me the basics: that’s the sum of my formal printing education.)<br />
I µarted Artichoke Press in 1975, when I set up an old Vandercook 219 in my garage. The firµ items I<br />
printed were broadsides and such. Then I µarted in on a very elaborate book by my friend the photographer<br />
Wynn Bullock, called The Photograph As Symbol. It was letterpress-printed on handmade paper, with<br />
letterpress halftone reprodu∂ions of his photos, printed from copper engravings. (I called on Ansel Adams<br />
for advice, since he used to publish lovely books with L P halftones. He sent me to HS Crocker, where the<br />
old pressmen gave me some tips.) Being young and crazy, I undertook to do the half-leather bindings myself,<br />
not knowing anything about it. What was I thinking? To this day I’ve only managed to bind half of<br />
the edition of 200.<br />
After a while, I µarted taking on commissions for other photographers and artiµs. I did a lot of big portfolio<br />
pages, for Ruth Bernhard, Dennis Hopper, Graham Nash, and such. In 1984, I did my firµ Book Club<br />
of California book, Mexico On Stone, printed from Monotype with letterpress facsimiles of lithographs,<br />
printed from photopolymer plates (I was an early adopter). Then in 1985 I took over what was left of Lawton<br />
Kennedy’s business and was crazy busy for several years with all kinds of high-class job work. I also<br />
did a lot of bespoke letterpress printing for other publishers (Limeµone Press, Eaµ Side Editions) and<br />
µarted designing for o‡set, working with a local trade lithographer. These days I’m back to publishing<br />
limited editions of my own, often combining letterpress and digital printing. I also do books for others,<br />
and special commissions, and continue to do a lot of my own photography.
1973<br />
Jonathan Clark: Artichoke Press 15<br />
A. The Photograph as Symbol, Wynn Bullock, Artichoke Editions, 1976, 17 pages, 200 copies<br />
This book was “an attempt to create a work expressive of W. Bullock’s laµ ideas through words and images.” The manuscript<br />
was diµilled from over 200 pages of notes, in which Bullock µruggled to discern the nature and<br />
fun∂ion of symbols in photography. The result was six paragraphs of concise, closely-written text accompanied<br />
by six photographs. The varnished letterpress reprodu∂ions of the photos are painµakingly<br />
printed by hand from copper engravings. The binding is half-leather goatskin lettered in gold leaf. The<br />
type is handset Janson and Weiss initials on handmade Fabriano Royal paper. Designed, printed and<br />
bound by Jonathan Clark at the Artichoke Press.<br />
B. Cut-paper: Photographs by Frederick Sommer/Frederick Sommer Makes a Cut-Paper: Photographs by Jonathan Clark,<br />
Frederick Sommer and Jonathan Clark, Artichoke Editions, 1998, 24 pages, 950 copies<br />
This book is a photographic presentation of extraordinary cut-paper artworks by Frederick Sommer<br />
(1905–1999), shown on both sides of the accordion-folded book. Jonathan Clark wrote “From Idea to Image”<br />
and “From Image to Display,” and the other texts are by Frederick Sommer. Frederick Sommer was photographed<br />
by Jonathan Clark at his home in Prescott, Arizona in April of 1995. The book was printed o‡set<br />
at The Stinehour Press in Vermont.<br />
C. Treasures of the Book Club Library, Part Three, Compiled by Barbara Jane Land, Book Club of California, 2004,<br />
56 pages<br />
This keepsake for the year 2004 featuring thirteen treasures of The Book Club of California Library was<br />
written by Barbara Jane Land, who also prepared the firµ two parts, issued in 1997 and 2000. It was designed<br />
and produced for members of the Club by Jonathan Clark at the Artichoke Press. The photography<br />
and scanning was also done by Jonathan Clark. (Part Two of the series was also designed and produced<br />
by Jonathan Clark.) The thirteen bifolia are printed o‡set in color by Shoreline Printing, with four remarkable<br />
images in each se∂ion, along with a description of each treasure. Bound in a paper wrapper.
16<br />
Peter Koch: Peter Koch, Printers 1974<br />
In 1974, I returned (from San Francisco and a grunt job in nuclear physics at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory)<br />
to my hometown, Missoula, Montana in order to begin my real vocation as a designer/printer and publisher<br />
of a literary magazine. I was thirty at the time, and knowing little about what I was trying to do, I acquired<br />
a Chandler and Price Old Series 8 x 12 jobbing press. On its long journey to my µudio on North Second<br />
Street, that 75-year-old press had traveled from Ohio to the headwaters of the Missouri River, over the<br />
continental divide, and up to the headwaters of the Bitterroot River where I found it in the Ravalli County<br />
Republican newspaper o∑ce in the spring of 1975. We celebrated its 100th anniversary (December 12,<br />
1999) in my Berkeley µudio where it is in continuous use today. Beµ tool I ever bought.<br />
I am a self-taught printer who carefully µudied high school and technical school manuals for the pressman<br />
as I began to build my firµ form. When I ran aground on a tough problem, I would turn to a local job<br />
printer for advice. They were usually helpful but somewhat diµant, as they could tell that I was not a<br />
fundamentaliµ Chriµian or a “live-free-or-die” self-µyled Republican, and were we to enter into conversation,<br />
we would all too soon discover our di‡erences.<br />
My firµ printed piece was a trade-card adorned with a photographic portrait of Montana’s early newspaperman<br />
Josiah Dimsdale, author of The Vigilantes of Montana. My second a∂ was to print a poem I had written<br />
to my wife, Shelley Hoyt-Koch, and then the cover of Montana Gothic Number 3. The firµ book of poems,<br />
Born, by Michael Poage, soon followed.<br />
A few months into the process of learning how to operate a press, I volunteered at Miles Romney’s Weµern<br />
News newspaper and printing o∑ce in Hamilton, Montana (pop. 2000) for about six weeks in the summer<br />
of 1975. At the same time, I was deeply submersed in teaching myself the subtleties of typography and<br />
the hiµory of printing by reading every book on the subje∂ that inter-library loan and the University of<br />
Montana Library could provide. In Miles’ shop I learned a number of shortcuts that applied to hand-feeding<br />
and make-ready on a platen job press while imprinting envelopes and the occasional graveside card<br />
for the local funeral parlor—and that pretty much finished o‡ my formal “educational” process.<br />
In 1979, five years into my private µudies, I did serve a year-long formal apprenticeship with Adrian Wilson<br />
and his wife Joyce Lancaµer at their Press in Tuscany Alley. It was with Adrian and his friend Jack<br />
Stau‡acher that I went to typographic “finishing school.” You can see their influence in my book Handbook<br />
of Ornament, which won several book design awards the year it was published—thanks to the disciplined<br />
care that I felt I had to take in order to µand with the Elders.<br />
I eµablished Black Stone Press in 1974 specifically to publish Montana Gothic, an Independent Journal of Literature<br />
and Graphics, and to print (letterpress) what I considered intelle∂ually and visually µimulating<br />
books, prints, and ephemera. I began by printing books of poetry and illuµrating experimental writing<br />
by my friends, fellow artiµs, and writers. I specialized (at the time) in what I chara∂erized as cowboy<br />
surrealism, maverick poets, and pre-Socratic philosophers. In the early 1980s I began printing under my<br />
own name Peter Koch Printer, and I assigned the plural “s” when I apprenticed Richard Seibert in the late<br />
1990s.<br />
To be a “Printer” has always meant to me to be an a∂or on the intelle∂ual µage of my time and place—<br />
much as it was when the greateµ scholar-printer of the 15th century, Aldus Manutius, eµablished his<br />
press in Venice. I have an exalted view of the great printers and wish to join them in working in the vineyards<br />
of the text. As a typographer I belong to the tradition of scholar-printers who serve the book both
1974<br />
Peter Koch: Peter Koch, Printers 17<br />
as an artiµ/craftsman and as a publisher. For me, the deep art of the book is typographic in its basic discipline.<br />
I have µudied typography with all the great printers by closely examining their books and the<br />
typefaces therein, paying homage when I felt the spirit was appropriate and improvising when my playful<br />
inµin∂s were aroused.<br />
Since the early 1980s an increasing variety of books, portfolios, and collaborative livres d’artiµe have issued<br />
from the Press. These works spring from a variety of sources, including private commissions, collaborations<br />
with photographers and painters, and bibliophile editions from the Book Club of California,<br />
Mills <strong>College</strong> Center for the Book, and Rainmaker Editions. I have a particular a‡e∂ion for the bibliographic<br />
work I do for Stanford University Libraries, the Grolier Club and other bibliographic sources. Over<br />
the paµ ten years, in addition to the poetry and philosophical work that continues to issue from my private<br />
press, Editions Koch, I have been collaborating with my wife Susan Filter on proje∂s related to her<br />
artiµ and poet friends in Venice and Tangier—our Venetian adventures have added some mighty fine<br />
books to our liµ of publications.<br />
There is a small but not microscopic portion of my work that some consider as artiµ books. Works like<br />
The Defi∂ions of Diogenes, WORDSWORDS (Ur-text—3 vols.), Hard Words, Nature Morte and The Loµ Journals of Sacajewea<br />
are my artworks in the sense that when I collaborate with the writer, photographer, bookbinder, or<br />
papermaker, something definitive springs from my imagination fully engaged. I add myself into the equation<br />
not as servant but as an equal-in-collaboration. In these cases I work more or less like a worm feeling<br />
his way in the tunnels of personal chaos and (rarely) like an Osprey hovering above a high mountain river<br />
looking for the flash of a cutthroat in the dark water. I am a man disciplined by my environment: from<br />
cowboy surrealism to Venetian classicism—and Viva la di‡erence!<br />
A. Diogenes : Defi∂ions, Thomas McEvilley, Peter Koch, Printer, 1994, 64 pages, 500 copies<br />
“Every age that needs him recreates its own Diogenes,” explains Robert Bringhurµ in the introdu∂ion. Author<br />
Thomas McEvilley presents the early Greek philosopher as a performance philosopher: twenty-one sele∂ed<br />
anecdotes or performance pieces were prepared by the author, were hand-lettered by Chriµopher Stinehour,<br />
and were printed letterpress by Peter Rutledge Koch. The book was printed from photo-polymer<br />
plates with the assiµance of Richard Siebert. The typefaces used are Adobe Caslon, Gills Sans, and Bifur.<br />
Binding by Arnold Martinez. Exhibit includes 11 cards with lettering by Chriµopher Stinehour in a box.<br />
B. Zebra Noise with a flatted 7th, Richard Wagener, Peter Koch, Printer, 1998, 78 pages, 70 copies<br />
A wood-engraved letter of the alphabet precedes each text written by Richard Wagener, accompanied by<br />
an extraordinary wood-engraved image of an inse∂, bird, mammals or fish facing the text. The book was<br />
designed and printed on Zerkall paper by Peter Koch and Richard Wagener. The text was composed in<br />
Ehrhardt type by the Golgonooza Letter Foundry. The book was bound by Peggy Gotthold.<br />
C. The Fragments of Parmenides & an English translation by Robert Bringhurµ, Wood engravings by Richard Wagener,<br />
Editions Koch, 2003, 52 pages, 146 copies<br />
The main text was printed in a new Greek type called Parmenides Greek, designed and cut by hand in<br />
µeel by Dan Carr for this edition. The English translation was set in Monotype Dante at the Golgoonoza<br />
Letter Foundry. The Greek type on the cover is Diogenes, designed by Chriµopher Stinehour in digital<br />
format at his µonecutting µudio. The book was printed on Zerkall paper at Peter Koch, Printers. The<br />
wood engravings were printed by Richard Wagener. Of the edition of 146 copies, 120 were numbered and<br />
quarter bound in leather by Peggy Gotthold, and 26 copies were lettered A to Z and were bound in leather<br />
by Daniel Kelm.
18<br />
Harry Reese: Turkey Press 1974<br />
In early 1974, I took a beginning typography course at Rhode Island School of Design, an ele∂ive course<br />
for non-majors. It was my firµ year in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at Brown University, and<br />
although I was taught to set type and design with it, I did not learn to print until I bought a 10 x 15 Chandler<br />
& Price in O∂ober 1974. I have never taken a class in letterpress printing. David Cooper, a friend from<br />
high school in Whittier and undergrad days at UC Santa Barbara, was a Ph.D. µudent then at Brown, and<br />
we taught each other to print by operational trial and error methods, reading military letterpress printing<br />
manuals, and looking at books in the John Hay Library. We tempered what we knew and didn’t know yet<br />
with nervous telephone calls late in the evening to Rosmarie Waldrop (poet, printer and co-publisher of<br />
Burning Deck). But the moµ I have learned about making books by hand has come from the 35+ years of<br />
close working on typography, design, printing, publishing, papermaking, bindings, and artwork with Sandra<br />
Liddell Reese, whom I met on my birthday in 1975, and who joined me as a full-time creative partner<br />
in 1977 when we moved from Berkeley to our present home in Isla Viµa.<br />
In the Fall of 1973, I began working as assiµant for the poet and translator, Edwin Honig, who eµablished<br />
Copper Beech Press on the Brown campus in early 1973. I designed three Copper Beech Press books before<br />
I began making books of my own. I had asked Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop if I could work with them at<br />
Burning Deck, as an intern or press assiµant, but when they told me they already had someone working<br />
with them, I decided to µart my own press. The entire faculty I worked with at Brown—especially Edwin<br />
Honig, Keith Waldrop, James Schevill, and Michael Harper—encouraged me to continue my work with<br />
Turkey Press.<br />
I eµablished Turkey Press in 1974 on my birthday, O∂ober 9. In 1980, after designing and letterpress<br />
printing modeµ books of poetry for five years, I met the multi-artiµ Bern Porter, who said: “Don’t repeat<br />
yourself.” Since then, these words have proved prophetic, for we have tried not to repeat what we have already<br />
done, but inµead to learn and show something new (at leaµ for us) with each new book or print<br />
proje∂. Printing is an important part of what we do, but we consider ourselves more as makers of contemporary<br />
art than as printers, since we will engage the oldeµ or the neweµ methods and technologies<br />
to accomplish what we want to do.
1974<br />
Harry Reese: Turkey Press 19<br />
A. Whalesongs, Robert Gibb, Turkey Press, 1979, 44 pages, 100 copies<br />
Fourteen poems by Robert Gibb were printed in black with slate blue titling. Designed and letterpress<br />
printed by Harry Reese and Sandra Reese on Rives Heavyweight paper. The type was handset in 14 pt.<br />
Centaur. The book was bound by Sandra Liddell Reese using Harry Reese’s handmade paper on the cover<br />
inset.<br />
B. Five Meters of Poems, Carlos Oquendo de Amat, Translated by David M. Guss, Woodcuts by Antonio Frasconi,<br />
Turkey Press, 1986, 34 printed pages, 40 copies<br />
Following the format of the original, this firµ English language edition consiµs of eighteen typographically<br />
playful poems in a visual sequence of accordion-folded panels. When fully extended, it measures<br />
five meters long by 10 inches high. The book is set in Goudy Modern. The paper is Barcham Green’s handmade<br />
India O∑ce paper. The book was printed and bound by Sandra Reese.<br />
C. Fables, Michael Hannon, Drawings by William T. Wiley, Turkey Press, 1988, 45 printed pages, 1<strong>25</strong> copies<br />
Poems by Michael Hannon were printed on kozo natural paper, with kakishibu paper for the cover, handmade<br />
at the Fuji Paper Mills Cooperative in Japan. The drawings, which accompany each of the thirteen<br />
poems, were relief printed from photoengraved plates in black and aubergine. Designed, handset, printed<br />
and bound by Sandra and Harry Reese using Spe∂rum, Neuland and Albertus typefaces.<br />
D. The Sea Gazer, Michael Hannon, Turkey Press, 2007, <strong>25</strong> pages, 75 copies<br />
The book is based on an artiµ’s book produced by Harry Reese in 2003. The illuµrations were printed<br />
from wood blocks onto Kitakata paper and cut on a Roland plotter. The flexible binding consiµs of yellow<br />
printed paper on the front, and black on the back, with a creme spine. Harry µates: Michael Hannon’s work<br />
has commanded my attention since I firµ met and published him twenty-five years ago. My choral arrangement of the<br />
µanzas of this poem to accompany my images openly invites our readers to sing or sway along with us to their own intimations<br />
of delight and dread, of fear and rage, and of thought and its unknowable opposite.
20<br />
Tom Killion: Quail Press 1975<br />
I began printing in 1974 at Cowell <strong>College</strong>, UC Santa Cruz, on the Cowell Press where Jack Stau‡acher was<br />
teaching a class for two semeµers (I think). Then I took an independent µudy with William Everson, who<br />
was printing Granite & Cypress at the Lime Kiln Press that year. These two wonderful printers (and human<br />
beings!) really got me intereµed in printing, but I learned much of the technical points from my µudent<br />
colleagues, particularly Richard Bigus, Felicia Rice and Peter Thomas.<br />
I did work with both Richard Bigus (Labyrinth Editions) and Peter Thomas (Good Book Press) on several<br />
proje∂s in the late 1970s, but moµly I learned from trial and error on my own press (see below); this was<br />
OK because my main intereµ was printing wood and linoleum cuts.<br />
I bought an Asbern AD-1 in 1977 for $350.00 when they were literally tossing printing equipment out the<br />
windows of the old brick buildings South of Market in San Francisco. Rick Bigus and I went up together<br />
a few times and filled my 1949 International pick-up with type cases and other items. I founded the Quail<br />
Press in that year and printed my second book on it (the Asbern, µill my only press): Fortress Marin. It was<br />
a disaµer, as I had no money and used a cheap Japanese machine-made paper full of lint that clogged the<br />
ink and letters—what a mess! Nothing like the firµ book I had printed on handmade Hosho at the Cowell<br />
Press. But I persevered and have printed five of my own books of woodcut prints and poetry, moµly, on<br />
Japanese papers, and over 450 relief prints, many elaborate multi-colored ones, along with quite a few<br />
broadsides and other little jobs.
1975<br />
Tom Killion: Quail Press 21<br />
A. The Coaµ of California : Point Reyes to Point Sur, Tom Killion, Wood engravings and linocuts by Tom Killion,<br />
Quail Press, 1979, 38 pages, 126 copies<br />
The evocative text of The Coaµ of California was written by Tom Killion, who µates in his introdu∂ion: The<br />
Coaµ of California unfolds its long poem; wrapped around the points and coves, rivermouths and shifting sandbars, fingers<br />
slipping between the hills, written on the floating world of wind and sea. The text is in two parts: one part consiµs<br />
of descriptions in Italic beneath the images, and the other part is a long poem, Glacial Miµ, made up of<br />
twenty fragments. The images by Tom Killion were printed (moµly in blue) from linocuts and wood engravings.<br />
The type was set in Centaur and Arrighi. The book was printed on Hodomura, with lace paper<br />
Unryu and endpapers of Kochi. The large, horizontal book was bound at the Schuberth Bookbindery.<br />
B. In Medias Res : Canto One of an Autobiographical Epic, Duµ Shall Be the Serpent’s Food, William Everson, Woodcuts<br />
by Tom Killion, The Press in Tuscany Alley, 1984, 28 pages, 226 copies<br />
This large-format autobiography by William Everson, 1912–1994, was printed by Adrian Wilson at The<br />
Press in Tuscany Alley. William Everson was, of course, also a printer, but health issues did not allow him<br />
to print the book. Tom Killion created two forceful woodcuts for In Medias Res. The handmade paper was<br />
specially produced for Adrian by Barcham Green and watermarked with his type-juggler logo. The type<br />
in Centaur and Arrighi was composed by Mackenzie-Harris. The binding was done by the Schuberth Bookbindery<br />
in Dutch linen sides with an inset woodcut device and a spine of blue oasis morocco.
22<br />
Gerald Lange: The Bieler Press 1975<br />
My firµ introdu∂ion to letterpress printing was in high school. I printed my required business card on a<br />
C & P and indulged in the traditional pra∂ice of tossing lead type at other µudents. Amazingly, years<br />
later, I was told that renowned printers who apprenticed with Lillian Marks played the very same game.<br />
I’d completely forgotten about this high school experience until I µarted printing in 1975 while taking a<br />
class with Walter Hamady. I wondered why I knew the job case to so well and then it came to me, like<br />
riding a bicycle. I was then in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin and intereµed in publishing<br />
and the course was recommended. I found Hamady to be quite inspirational, both in craft and in his artiµic<br />
approach to printing. His approach to book design/µru∂ure was insightful.<br />
My education beyond the couple of years I spent repeating Walter’s class was primarily self-learning. I<br />
read everything I could find in the library (which Hamady seemed to disapprove of), Allen’s Printing with<br />
the Handpress, Rogers’ Paragraphs on Printing, Dowding’s Finer Points in the Spacing and Arrangement of Type, etc.<br />
But I µill could not get a handle on typography until I found a book by Vojtech Preissig. He had designed<br />
a book of a work by Edgar Allen Poe for Random House which used his Preissig Antiqua typeface and the<br />
moment I opened it, I had the epiphany (which I believe is a requirement, and can’t otherwise be taught).<br />
He is µill one of my favorite typographers.<br />
Hamady required µudents eµablish a press, so my firµ printed produ∂ions under The Bieler Press imprint<br />
were in 1975. My father always called me “bieler” so before I founded the press I called him up for a<br />
definition. I had found one in an old German di∂ionary that indicated boy-child (archaic). He explained<br />
it was a boy who has his own mind about how he did things. That was a no-brainer. I initially published<br />
books of poetry and fi∂ion, mainly µu‡ that I found intereµing. Several of the authors of my early books<br />
have a∂ually become well known. Ted Kooser became U.S. Poet Laureate: he was the author of The Blizzard<br />
Voices. Eventually though, I began to seek out more conceptually inspired work, work that simply grew<br />
from an idea of my own. One of the beµ collaborative experiences of my later career was working with<br />
photographer/book artiµ Je‡ery Atherton on Black-letter: an interpretation of events relating to the time and presence<br />
of Johan Gutenberg. It is one of those great but ignored works: too intelle∂ual, too artiµically arcane,<br />
not in tune with the pap of the contemporary. Nevertheless, an amazing work, and the one that I will<br />
µand by.
1975<br />
Gerald Lange: The Bieler Press 23<br />
A. Common Ground, Gerald Williams, Drawings by Ben-Zion Schechter, The Bieler Press, 1980, 33 pages,<br />
150 copies<br />
Twelve poems about life’s aspirations and a∂ions are accompanied by pointilliµ drawings on the facing<br />
pages. The text was set in Goudy Village No. 2 and the titling is in Goudy Thirty. The type and engravings<br />
were printed damp on Charter Oak paper from Barcham Green. Saan paper from the Schoolmeeµer Mill<br />
of VanGelder was used for the covers and Fabriano Roma for the endsheets.<br />
B. A Printer’s Dozen, Philip Gallo, Engraving by Gaylord Schanilec, The Bieler Press, 1992, 21 pages, 200 copies.<br />
A dozen full-page poems address the a∂ual a∂ of printing, ink on your hands, working with paper, composing<br />
µicks, the evils of print and even the hellbox. It was designed and printed by Gerald Lange at The<br />
Bieler Press facilities on the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles. The book was handset<br />
in ATF Garamond Bold and Trump Medieval Bold and printed on Invi∂a, an English mouldmade paper.<br />
The sheets were bound by Robin Price into covers of Larroque Black and endpapers of Moriki Black.<br />
C. Black-letter: An interpretation of events relating to the time and presence of Johann Gutenberg, Je‡rey Atherton, The<br />
Bieler Press, 2000, 41 pages, 120 numbered and 26 lettered copies<br />
Black-letter is a speculative examination based on the extant Gutenberg research and hiµorical µudies of<br />
the time period. The book was drawn from an idea by its publisher Gerald Lange, who was also responsible<br />
for its contextual arrangement and typographic design. The cover image is a reprodu∂ion of author Je‡rey<br />
Atherton’s µudio photograph, “Mirror and mould.” The book was digitally set in Miller Text from Carter<br />
& Cone Type and in Cézanne from the P22 typefoundry. The digital imaging was printed from photopolymer<br />
plates, and the photographic image was printed from glass plates using the venerable collotype<br />
process. The paper is Umbria Bianco, a handmade paper imported from the renowned Fabriano paper mill.<br />
The book was bound at The Wide Awake Garage by Daniel E. Kelm.
24<br />
Peter Thomas: Peter and Donna Thomas 1975<br />
In the fall of 1973, I took a year o‡ college at UC Santa Cruz to be an a∂or at the Reniassance Pleasure<br />
Faire, and in the spring of 1974 I set up a booth to teach papermaking and bookbinding. I did not know<br />
how to make paper or bind books, but I got books from the library and figured out enough to fool people<br />
into thinking I knew what I was doing. In 1975, I returned to UCSC, with no real dire∂ion in my µudies.<br />
One day I noticed an old acorn-shaped iron hand press in the foyer of the McHenry Library; when asking<br />
about it, I was told that William Everson, the poet laureate of Kresge <strong>College</strong> who dressed in buckskin<br />
and bear claws, taught µudents to use the press while printing fine press books. I didn’t know what “fine<br />
press” was, but thought to myself, “Since I am making books and paper, I should know how to print.” So<br />
I signed up for the class. There were four or five other µudents in the class, and as Everson’s apprentices,<br />
it was our job to help bring his visions into concrete forms. We did not have much creative input. He<br />
would bring his ideas, brew on the problems till they were solved, then we would do the work. Everson<br />
led us through the myµeries of the art in silences broken by cries to the gods for mercy, and we produced<br />
books like Granite and Cypress and The American Bard, books which combined maµerful and innovative printing<br />
with µunning bindings to create some of the fineµ examples of Fine Press Printing.<br />
During my µudies at UCSC I had the opportunity to work with Sherwood Grover, retired Grabhorn Press<br />
printer, at the Cowell Press, and I also took an adult night school class in letterpress printing at Santa<br />
Cruz High School. My firµ press was a beat-up Challenge Proof Press that the high school was getting rid<br />
of. Donna and I µarted working together at this time, both at the Renaissance Faire and in my small shop<br />
I had built in a shed made out of a wooden house truck camper shell. We o∑cially µarted our business<br />
in 1977, and made our firµ book, The Three Cedars, in 1978. Soon after that, in exchange for a binding job, I<br />
got a Minerva treadle platen press; so then we had two old, cranky presses. Years have passed and we have<br />
upgraded both the shop and the equipment. We have two Vandercook Universal One presses, a Pearl press<br />
and a bunch of old metal type, a bindery, and a papermill. We make both fine press and artiµ’s books, always<br />
using paper we make ourselves, and we bind the books, too.<br />
As I look back at our firµ books, I see Everson’s influence. I guess I couldn’t avoid it. Not that our books<br />
looked like Everson’s; it was more about the pervasive influence of his basic design concepts (e.g. limiting<br />
the mixture of typefaces, using only basic colors, and lining up elements of the book from cover to cover).<br />
Mid-career, as I began to explore the excitement and freedom of the artiµ’s book, I found limitations in<br />
Everson’s fine press aeµhetic. I began to explore the use of colored inks, colored paper, mixing typefaces,<br />
and wood type, and µru∂ural bindings. Now, after over 30 years making books, my own voice as a book<br />
artiµ speaks louder than the whisper of Everson’s early influence. This can be seen clearly in books like<br />
Real Accordion Book, The Ukulele Book Series, and fine press artiµ’s books like The Hiµory of Papermaking in the<br />
Philippines or Not Paper.
1975<br />
Peter Thomas: Peter and Donna Thomas <strong>25</strong><br />
A. The Tarantella Rose, William Everson, Peter and Donna Thomas, 1995, 18 printed pages, 75 copies<br />
These six poems by William Everson had never been integrated into his colle∂ed work, so The Tarantella<br />
Rose continues the work which was begun by Everson at the Lime Kiln Press in 1976. Peter had worked<br />
with William Everson while he was a µudent at the Lime Kiln Press.<br />
B. Almoµ Paper, Peter and Donna Thomas, 1997, 21 pages, 100 copies<br />
This miniature book explains what paper is, and what kinds of materials are paper-like but are not paper.<br />
Small swatches of these materials are tipped in. The pages were printed on the Thomas’ own handmade<br />
paper. The book was bound Coptic-µyle in thin wood boards.<br />
C. The Hiµory of Papermaking in the Philippines, Peter and Donna Thomas, 2005, 43 printed pages, 75 copies<br />
Peter Thomas went to the Philippines in 1990 to research papermaking and presents his research, with<br />
samples, in this large-format book. One page in each se∂ion is extended in length to accommodate a sample<br />
of the paper. The six se∂ions include information on ramie, abaca, cogon, latbang, pakak, and salago.<br />
The book was printed on paper made from cotton rag that was pigment-dyed with raw umber, and was<br />
printed using Goudy Modern and Neuland typefaces. The illuµrations were printed from linoleum blocks<br />
carved by Donna Thomas. The cloth used on the binding is called T’nalak: it is woven from abaca fiber by<br />
the T’boli people in South Cotabato. The patterns in the cloth are created before the cloth is woven by<br />
employing a complex method of ikat, a wax-resiµ tie-dye.<br />
D. Not Paper, Peter and Donna Thomas, 2010, 20 pages, 48 copies<br />
Here Peter describes materials that are not paper: amate, birch bark, papyrus, parchment, tapa, Tyvek and<br />
wasp neµ, with small swatches of these materials tipped in. The text is an adaptation of their 1997 miniature<br />
book, Almoµ Paper. The format is accordion-fold, with a shorter µrip of paper with samples sewn in.<br />
The book was printed in Centaur, Neuland and old wood type on Peter’s handmade paper. It is handbound<br />
in leather by Peter and Donna Thomas.
26<br />
Gary Young: Greenhouse Review Press 1975<br />
After completing my MFA in Poetry in 1975, I returned to my home in Santa Cruz and enrolled in a high<br />
school night course to learn o‡set printing. I intended to save money by printing the poetry journal I was<br />
then editing. There was a hulking Chandler and Price platen press in a corner of the print shop there, and<br />
I asked the inµru∂or if I could tackle the old machine. He told me the press was soon to be scrapped,<br />
and added, “forget about it, letterpress is obsolete.” I ignored his advice, quit my job, bought a press of<br />
my own, and µarted the Greenhouse Review Press.<br />
By sheer luck, I met a man in that night class, Gene Holtan, who became my deareµ friend and mentor.<br />
Gene had worked as a typographer and illuµrator for two decades, and had worked closely with Saul and<br />
Lillian Marks. Over the years, Gene gave me the benefit of his vaµ typographic knowledge; whatever I<br />
may have accomplished of any worth owes a debt to Gene. I had µudied with William Everson while an<br />
undergraduate at UCSC, but as a poet, not as a printer. I came to know him well after I returned to Santa<br />
Cruz, and his council was always welcome and wise.<br />
I have always focused on poetry books and broadsides, and generally incorporate some printmaking into<br />
my proje∂s. In addition to my letterpress books, I have illuµrated many books for other presses, and<br />
have also published a large number of trade books—poetry, anthologies, even a novel. I try to keep the<br />
door open.<br />
I have printed some twenty-five letterpress books of poetry over the years, and countless broadsides.<br />
While I intend to print more books by hand, my work teaching Creative Writing and dire∂ing the Cowell<br />
Press at UCSC leaves me little time to focus on my own proje∂s. Poetry has always been the engine for<br />
my printing, but because printing a letterpress book is so time-consuming, I have taken to publishing<br />
more and more books digitally. I have so far designed and published a dozen books of poetry for trade<br />
diµribution. I enjoy bringing worthy texts to life, and typography is in many ways easier to manipulate<br />
on the computer screen than in the composing µick. Having said that, I could never give up letterpress.<br />
The weight of the type in my hand, the sound of the ink on the rollers—no computer program can match<br />
the physical pleasures of printing by hand.<br />
I printed D. J. Waldie’s translation of Mallarmé’s Un Coup de Dés juµ before digital typography came into<br />
maturity, and if I had µarted the book even two or three years earlier than I did, I would have designed<br />
it on the computer and printed it from photoengravings. As it was, I followed the proofs of the abandoned<br />
Vollard edition held in the Houghton Library at Harvard, and tried to mimic Mallarmé’s typographic script<br />
using a wide variety of handset typefaces. At the time I printed this book, my own poetry was undergoing<br />
a transformation, which Un Coup de Dés helped me to articulate. I had begun writing prose poems, poems<br />
that I conceived as being long, one-line poems, poems that might not be encumbered by a book’s gutter.<br />
My Brother’s in Wyoming was designed and printed under the influence of Un Coup de Dés. I wanted to print<br />
a book that would privilege my images, and utilize the page spread as a single unit. This book is intended<br />
to be read across the gutter, and like A Throw of the Dice, invites the reader to µretch the traditional applications<br />
of space, type, image and traje∂ory in the codex.
1975<br />
Gary Young: Greenhouse Review Press 27<br />
A. The New Days, Poems by Sherod Santos & Lynne McMahon, Brandenburg Press, 1988, 18 pages, 100 copies<br />
This poetry book in two parts was designed, illuµrated with woodcuts, and printed by Gary Young at the<br />
Greenhouse Review Press for Brandenburg Press. The firµ se∂ion showcases a multi-part poem by Sherod<br />
Santos, The Sheltering Ground, and the second contains Lynne McMahon’s poem, The New Days. The display<br />
type is handset Garamond. The text was composed on “Old Wrangler” by Felicia Rice. The text paper is<br />
Frankfurt, the endsheets are Unryu, and the cover is St. Armand paper.<br />
B. Poem : A throw of the Dice will never abolish Chance, Stéphane Mallarmé, American translation by D. J. Waldie,<br />
Illuµrations by Gary Young, Greenhouse Review Press, 1990, 44 pages, 60 copies<br />
This new translation of Mallarmé’s (1842–1898) seminal poem, originally published in a journal, was made<br />
with meticulous reference to the surviving proof pages of the abandoned (in 1898) firµ edition book<br />
produ∂ion supervised by Mallarmé. The Greenhouse Review Press publication of A Throw of the Dice<br />
reµores to readers Mallarmé’s final evocation of a terrible beauty. The book was designed, printed, and<br />
signed by Gary Young and Felicia Rice at the Greenhouse Review Press in Santa Cruz, California. The polychrome<br />
woodcut illuµrations are by Gary Young, who is also an award-winning poet. The paper is Umbria,<br />
handmade in Italy by the Fabriano mill. Several cuttings of Bodoni were employed. The binding is full<br />
leather goatskin in black.<br />
C. A Canticle to the Waterbirds, William Everson, Alcatraz Editions, 1992, 16 pages, 61 copies<br />
William Everson writes: “Waterbirds was written early in my Catholic life: I hadn’t gone through the monaµic mill<br />
yet. I was living at Maurin House in Oakland, trying to find myself in this new religion, confronting the awkwardness of<br />
being on skid row twenty-four hours a day, and the poem juµ came right out.” The long horizontal format is imposing<br />
and µarts with a double-page woodcut by Daniel O. Stolpe. The book was conceived as a vehicle to cement<br />
the energies of paµ apprentices and friends of the author. The book was handset in Weiss Roman and<br />
was printed by Felicia Rice and Gary Young at the Bear’s Tooth Studio. The paper was handmade by Peter<br />
Thomas. The binding was done by Maureen Carey.<br />
D. My Brother’s in Wyoming, Poems and drawings by Gary Young, Greenhouse Review Press, 1994, 32 printed<br />
pages, 45 copies<br />
Drawings which accompany two poems are separated by four pages of drawings on a green ground. The<br />
drawings were taken from sketchbooks produced over the course of a dozen years. The paper is Gutenberg<br />
Laid; the type is Lutetia. Booklab executed the binding.
28<br />
Lawrence Van Velzer: Foolscap Press 1977<br />
Letterpress printing is probably in my DNA. My father taught letterpress printing to high school µudents<br />
in Los Angeles, and he also worked for a commerical firm and set type for newspapers. My grandfather<br />
was the printer/publisher of a newspaper in San Diego County in the 1880s and 1890s. The newspaper<br />
was printed on a hand press and involved the whole family. I got my own press around 1977 and was basically<br />
self-taught, because my father, by this time, was retired. I think my firµ printing press represented,<br />
for me, a tool with which I could create something with my own hands dire∂ from my mind. Cut out the<br />
middle man. I firµ printed some of my own poetry. I printed business cards for my friends and persuaded<br />
others they needed business cards, and a number of so-called commercial jobs. But moµly, I associated<br />
a letterpress with beautiful books and later discovered the meditating value of handsetting type.<br />
I µarted working for Andrew Hoyem at Arion Press in 1982. This is where I really learned letterpress printing:<br />
on-the-job training. Andrew Hoyem hired me to assiµ Jerry Reddan with a large press newly inµalled<br />
at Arion Press, a 21 x 28 Miller two-color letterpress. But I also printed on all the platen presses in the<br />
shop, set type, made up pages, corre∂ed type, cut paper, did type diµribution, and, on occasion, worked<br />
in the bindery. Andrew felt that members of the Press needed to be able to µep into any job that needed<br />
doing. And so, when the Press moved from Commercial Street into M & H Type Foundry, we all became<br />
movers and did carpentry work for the new space on Bryant Street in San Francisco. I worked for Arion<br />
Press for twelve years.<br />
With Peggy Gotthold, I µarted Foolscap Press in 1990. We publish literature, moµly, along with some<br />
non-fi∂ion. I’ve written a couple of our books along with a keepsake published on our favorite holiday,<br />
which falls each year on April 1µ.
1977<br />
Lawrence Van Velzer: Foolscap Press 29<br />
A. The Man in Asbeµos, An Allegory of the Future. Stephen B. Leacock, 1990, 28 pages, 150 copies<br />
This µory was firµ published in 1911: Leacock forces us to face our µill-uncertain future, but we find ourselves<br />
enjoying the experience. The book was printed with Monotype Sans Serif caµ at M & H Type, on a<br />
Hacker Hand Press on Mohawk Superfine and was bound in Japanese bookcloth.<br />
B. Gaillard Durfort: An Ordinary Frenchman’s Ride Up & Down Hiµory, Laurent Durfort, 2004, 18 pages<br />
The text is related by Laurent Durfort, “in honor of his late grandpère’s birthday falling this year on 1 Avril 2004.”<br />
Gaillard Durfort worked on the Ei‡el tower, making meticulous drawings of the individual pieces of the<br />
tower, which are presented in the book. He had no formal training in engineering or archite∂ure.<br />
C. Dire∂ion of the Road, Ursula K. Le Guin, Woodcut by Aaron Johnson, 2007, 12 pages, 120 copies<br />
This short µory by Ursula K. Le Guin is printed on wrinkly white linen paper made by Le Papeterie Saint-<br />
Armand. The original anamorphic woodcut by Aaron Johnson is presented as part of the portfolio box<br />
which also houses the cylindrical mirror with which to view the print. The typeface used is Monotype<br />
Bembo, caµ at the Michael Bixler Press & Typefoundry. The book was printed letterpress on only one side<br />
of the paper and bound at Foolscap Press.<br />
D. For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn, Alix Chriµie, Michael Palin, Susan Straight, Michael Katakis, Nataly<br />
Adrian, Lawrence G. Van Velzer, 2010, 53 pages, 200 copies<br />
Six writers were each commissioned to write a six-page µory, which are presented and bound together<br />
as µaggered gatherings. All are inspired by the succin∂ words of Erneµ Hemingway: For sale, baby shoes,<br />
never worn. The book was designed, printed and bound by Lawrence G. Van Velzer and Peggy Gotthold. It<br />
was printed with handset Garamond types on Frankfurt cream paper. The six se∂ions are sewn onto an<br />
accordion µru∂ure of Bockingford paper.
30<br />
Charles Hobson: Pacific Editions 1985<br />
My life in books began in 1984 when a friend died young, and several friends and I organized a small book<br />
of his writing. We had it printed at the Weµ Coaµ Print Center, a small poetry press in Berkeley. It was a<br />
revelation to me that a human being could make a book.<br />
In 1985, at the suggeµion of my friend, the letterpress printer Marie Dern, I took a seminar class at UC<br />
Berkeley taught by Wesley Tanner. In the class we µudied the hiµory of the book using the resources of<br />
the Bancroft Library and printed a small book on an 1857 Albion hand press. That was the beginning of<br />
my experience in letterpress printing. At the end of the semeµer, I invited Wesley to work with me on a<br />
book proje∂ I’d developed called Quartet. It became a limited edition of 1<strong>25</strong> copies with essays by Lewis<br />
Thomas and etchings by Joseph Goldyne. I named my publishing venture Pacific Editions.<br />
Since 1986 I have published more than thirty artiµ’s books using my own images and design. In 2008<br />
Stanford University acquired a complete colle∂ion of my books and an archive of my design work. While<br />
I do not print letterpress myself, many of the books employ letterpress printing by others working in collaboration<br />
with me. In addition to Wesley Tanner, I have worked with Jack Stau‡acher, Les Feriss and<br />
Andrew Hoyem.<br />
The essential focus of my work has been the integration of text, image and µru∂ure to create an interaction<br />
with the subje∂ matter. An example I use to explain this is a book I did in 2002 entitled Taking O‡<br />
Emily Dickinson’s Clothes. The book is based on a poem by Billy Collins, and in order to read it, one muµ remove<br />
a garter belt and unbutton the pages. I find this a very e‡e∂ive description to give to someone who<br />
asks, “What is an artiµ’s book?”
1985<br />
Charles Hobson: Pacific Editions 31<br />
A. Writing On the Body: Degas’s Words About Drawing the Figure, Paµel and photogravures by Charles Hobson,<br />
Pacific Editions, 1999, 19 pages, 45 copies<br />
Photogravure etchings from mixed media figure drawings by Charles Hobson combined with fragments<br />
of Degas’ handwriting face eight typographic fragments of writing by Degas. The etchings were hand-colored<br />
with paµel by Charles Hobson. The text was handset in Méridien type and printed on BFK Rives by<br />
Jack Stau‡acher at the Greenwood Press. The accordion-fold book was bound in cloth by John DeMerritt.<br />
The cloth is printed with Degas’ handwriting, and the paper sides of the binding include a printed and<br />
hand-painted dancing image. A writing pen with the title on it is a∑xed to the spine.<br />
B. The Writer, Richard Wilbur, Images by Charles Hobson, Pacific Editions, 2004, 7 printed pages with 5<br />
vellum leaves, including a flip book with 48 printed pages, 54 copies<br />
Richard Wilbur’s evocative poem has been made as a two-part limited edition. The full text has been<br />
printed letterpress using photopolymer plates by Charles Hobson with the kind assiµance of Les Ferriss.<br />
The type is 14-point Courier and is printed on Rives BFK. The pages have been interleaved with vellum<br />
sheets printed with digital pigment prints and hand-cut with the shapes of a µarling in flight, based on<br />
drawings by Charles Hobson. The accompanying flip book, or “flutter book,” containing a sele∂ion of certain<br />
words from the poem, has been bound as an accordion and scored so as to permit viewing in an extended<br />
manner. A clamshell box holds both parts; a digital pigment print hand-colored by the artiµ is<br />
enclosed at the back. John DeMerritt provided the binding, with the assiµance of Kris Langan.<br />
C. The Mappiµ, Barry Lopez, Images by Charles Hobson, Pacific Editions, 2005, 15 pages with 8 transparencies,<br />
48 copies<br />
Images of hands emulating geµures of a map maker at work have been reproduced as digital pigment<br />
prints on transparent film. Each accordion-fold book has been assembled using original USGS maps for<br />
the concertina binding and sele∂ed pages, and the cover has been wrapped with a reprodu∂ion of a 1911<br />
map of Bogotá from the colle∂ion of the Library of Congress. Landscape images have been created as<br />
monotypes with paµel and printed as digital pigment prints. The text has been printed letterpress by Les<br />
Ferriss on BFK Rives using Garamond Narrow typeface. John DeMerritt made the slipcase covered with<br />
wood-grain paper and board covers with the assiµance of Kris Langan. The book design and images have<br />
been created by Charles Hobson, who assembled the book with the assiµance of Alice Shaw.<br />
D. Quarantine, Eavan Boland, Images and design by Charles Hobson, Pacific Editions, 2011, 13 printed pages,<br />
42 copies<br />
The poem describes the death of a man and his wife, who died “of cold, of hunger, of the toxins of a whole hiµory.”<br />
The images are monotypes of bundled twigs that have been printed as high-resolution digital prints with<br />
additional paµel finishing. The text is 12 pt. Palatino and has been printed letterpress on BFK Rives by<br />
JR Press, San Francisco. The black pages are Stonehenge and have been hand-painted with acrylic for the<br />
two pages at the center of the accordion.
32<br />
Bill Kelly: Brighton Press 1985<br />
I µarted letterpress work in 1985. I was working at that time as a maµer printer to various artiµs working<br />
in printmaking. DeLoss McGraw, an artiµ I was printing with at the time, was using the work of W. D.<br />
Snodgrass as inspiration for his paintings and prints. As fate would have it, San Diego State University<br />
was closing its letterpress department and we very naively bought it. No experience whatsoever; we didn’t<br />
really know what a type µick was. The desire was there, and Snodgrass and Del willing. We learned by<br />
doing. Years later we µarted donating type and “things” back to San Diego State. Michele Burgess is now<br />
teaching letterpress and bookmaking at the same university.<br />
We worked with a few local job printers. They were quite good at helping us. Moµly I traveled to other<br />
presses around the country. Early on I met Gerry Lange, Robin Price, and Andrew Hoyem. I juµ liµened<br />
and admired and took notes. This was very important to our development. Very early on the Getty had a<br />
symposium and we crashed it. Hearing Walter Hamady and Gunnar Kaldeway argue about this intriguing<br />
a∂ivity and liµening to David Godine tell the participants that we were a tiny slice of the printing pie<br />
hooked me. Dick Higgins was a survivor who had done wonderful books, and William Gass gave a very<br />
moving talk that romanticized our colle∂ive work. What more does one need to chart a course?<br />
A dream has come true. From the firµ book with Del and De in 1985, Brighton Press has worked with poets<br />
and artiµs. Forty plus books later we µill feel the calling to produce books that bring new writing to light<br />
and pair these works with original print medium. Our laµ book with Ruth Stone and Michele Burgess<br />
feels like an homage to how a book comes into exiµence. I have had a desire from the very beginning to<br />
see how writers write, how visual artiµs see and feel the words, and how a very skilled group of artisans<br />
make this thing real. Not done yet, but the challenge is µill there.
1985<br />
Bill Kelly: Brighton Press 33<br />
A. Figures Made Visible in the Sadness of Time, Poems by Peter Everwine, Etchings by Bill Kelly, Brighton Press,<br />
2003, 42 pages, 40 copies<br />
The book was designed by Bill Kelly in close collaboration with the poet and Michele Burgess. The poems<br />
were printed letterpress by Nelle Martin, the etchings were hand-wiped by Bill Kelly and printed with the<br />
assiµance of Alvin Buenaventura, and an original pochoir appears on the title page. The pages are folded<br />
at the foredge. The tea-dyed linen cover bears a µencil that was hand-cut by the artiµ and hand-µamped<br />
through twelve templates by Sonja Jones.The paper is hand-crafted by Twinrocker and the book was<br />
bound by Mark Tomlinson.<br />
B. How It Is, Peter Everwine, Woodcut by Bill Kelly, Brighton Press, 2005, 18 pages, 30 copies<br />
The poem, How It Is, appears on the final page of the accordion-folded book, after the multi-page woodcut<br />
by Bill Kelly. The format is horizontal, and the proportions are unusual: about four times as wide as it is<br />
tall. The poem was handset in Bembo type and was printed letterpress by Nelle Martin. The woodcut by<br />
Bill Kelly was printed from the block on Seichosen paper mounted on Twinrocker Walnut paper. The book<br />
was bound by Sonja Jones and Michele Burgess.<br />
C. Diana In Sight, Nancy Willard, Photographs by Eric Lindbloom, Brighton Press, 2009, 20 printed pages,<br />
30 copies<br />
There are eight archivally hand-printed Diana photographs by Eric Lindbloom, who µates: These photographs<br />
were all about the joy of using the light-hearted Diana, a toy camera, after a long apprenticeship with a 4-foot x 5-foot µand<br />
camera, with its physical and hiµorical weight on my back. They were part of a series called “Private Lives of Public Places.”<br />
The poems were handset in Spe∂rum and printed letterpress by Nelle Martin on Twinrocker handmade<br />
paper. The books were designed and bound in Japanese cloth and marbled paper by Michele Burgess, with<br />
the assiµance of Sonja Jones.
34<br />
Norman Clayton: Classic Letterpress 1987<br />
I µarted letterpress printing in 1987 in the Type Shop at the Rhode Island School of Design. The Type<br />
Shop was where the entire vision for a book proje∂ could be realized. It was thrilling for me to discover<br />
this as an art µudent with intereµs in everything: typography, photography, letterpress printing and<br />
hand bookbinding. My greateµ experience was µudying with Inge Druckrey, a German-born, Swisstrained<br />
perfe∂ioniµ who had a beautiful touch with everything she did. It seemed like we spent an entire<br />
semeµer in the Type Shop training the eye by letterspacing our µationery with coppers and slips of paper<br />
when 1/2 point was juµ too thick. During the class, this was very tedious, but with years of hindsight, it<br />
was one of the moµ valuable experiences I had in school. Inge didn’t teach me how to print: she taught<br />
me how to see.<br />
After graduating from RISD, I had the good fortune to run a letterpress shop for Michael Osborne in Berkeley,<br />
µarting in 1991. At One Heart Press, Michael was intereµed in producing high-quality printing, so he<br />
was very generous giving me time to develop my skill. It was, of course, many years before I became a fine<br />
printer, but I was always motivated to uphold the higheµ µandards. Jim Wehlage is my mentor: he has<br />
helped me tremendously over the years, later selling me his shop, Classic Letterpress, when he wanted to<br />
retire. I have designed and printed many books for myself and clients over the years. Refle∂ing on my<br />
hiµory, I am reminded of how my community of teachers and fellow printers have conµantly inspired<br />
and encouraged me.
1987 Norman Clayton: Classic Letterpress<br />
35<br />
A. A Trip to the Yosemite, Carolyn G. Van der Burgh, Introdu∂ion by Carolyn Lansden Whittle, Line drawings<br />
by Jane Gyer, Yosemite Association: Yosemite National Park, California, 2002, 33 pages, <strong>25</strong>0 copies<br />
This is an account of an Eaµ Coaµ traveler’s journey, in about 1903, by train from San Francisco and by<br />
µage from Merced to Yosemite, attended by di∑culties, but resulting at laµ in her exploration of the magnificent<br />
Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Grove. The book was printed in light gray/brown ink on one side<br />
of sheets folded at the foredge and bound in the Japanese µab-sewn µyle at the spine. The book was<br />
printed letterpress by Norman Clayton and J. Chadwick Johnson at One Heart Press on Mohawk Superfine<br />
text. Designed by Michael Osborne Design.<br />
B. Undersea, Rachel L. Carson, Illuµrated by Dugald Stermer, Nawakum Press, 2010, 26 pages, 110 copies<br />
Rachel Carson writes, “If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because<br />
no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.” The poem was set in a large size of the typeface,<br />
Granjon, with Burgues Script initials, and was letterpress-printed from photopolymer plates on Hahnemühle<br />
Biblio by Norman Clayton of Classic Letterpress. The illuµrations of Dugald Stermer were digitally<br />
reproduced by Digital Grange on an Epson Stylus Pro. The cover paper is Carson Crackle from Cave<br />
Paper. The binding and box were produced by John DeMerritt.
Colophon<br />
The entries in this catalog were written by Kitty Maryatt, and were gleaned from the book itself, or possibly<br />
from websites, internet articles or catalogs. The short biographies were written by the letterpress printers<br />
themselves, with some editing when necessary for this catalog.<br />
The catalog is available in pdf form from the website, www.scrippscollege.edu/campus/press or in printed<br />
form. For those who could not view the exhibit in person, photographs of the books would be a welcome<br />
addition to this catalog, an addition hoped for at a later date.