MEN OVER 25 - Scripps College

MEN
OVER
25
scripps college press

Jack Stau‡acher at The Greenwood Press. Alaµair Johnµon and Francis Butler at Poltroon Press.
Jerry Reddan, Mat Kelsey and Larry Van Velzer at the Arion Press in San Francisco, working on Flatland published in 1980.

MEN OVER 25: CALIFORNIA EDITION
Printing Letterpress for Over a Quarter of a Century
Exhibition at Denison Library
in Celebration of the 70th Anniversary
of the Founding of the Scripps College Press
Scripps College, Claremont, California
O∂ober 24 to December 4, 2012
¥
Curated by Professor Kitty Maryatt,
Dire∂or of the Scripps College Press
with the help of Sally Preµon Swan Librarian
Judy Harvey Sahak
SCRIPPS COLLEGE PRESS
2012

Men Over 25: ALPHABETICAL
1. Pall Bohne (Brookhaven Press)
Page
4
2. Jonathan Clark (Artichoke Press) 14
3. Norman Clayton (Classic Letterpress) 34
4. Charles Hobson (Pacific Editions) 30
5. Andrew Hoyem (The Arion Press) 8
6. Alaµair Johnµon (Poltroon Press) 10
7. Bill Kelly (Brighton Press) 32
8. Tom Killion (Quail Press) 20
9. Peter Koch (Peter Koch, Printers) 16
10. Gerald Lange (The Bieler Press) 22
11. Patrick Reagh (Patrick Reagh, Printers) 6
12. Jerry Reddan (Tangram) 12
13. Harry Reese (Turkey Press) 18
14. Jack Werner Stau‡acher (The Greenwood Press) 1
15. Peter Thomas (Peter and Donna Thomas) 24
16. Lawrence Van Velzer (Foolscap Press) 28
17. Gary Young (Greenhouse Review Press) 26

Men Over 25: CHRONOLOGICAL
Date when printers firµ µarted to learn letterpress printing:
not necessarily the date when press was eµablished
1934 Jack Werner Stau‡acher (The Greenwood Press) 1
1959 Pall Bohne (Brookhaven Press) 4
1959 Patrick Reagh (Patrick Reagh, Printers) 6
1961 Andrew Hoyem (The Arion Press) 8
1970 Alaµair Johnµon (Poltroon Press) 10
1972 Jerry Reddan (Tangram) 12
1973 Jonathan Clark (Artichoke Press) 14
1974 Peter Koch (Peter Koch, Printers) 16
1974 Harry Reese (Turkey Press) 18
1975 Tom Killion (Quail Press) 20
1975 Gerald Lange (The Bieler Press) 22
1975 Peter Thomas (Peter and Donna Thomas) 24
1975 Gary Young (Greenhouse Review Press) 26
1977 Lawrence Van Velzer (Foolscap Press) 28
1985 Charles Hobson (Pacific Editions) 30
1985 Bill Kelly (Brighton Press) 32
1987 Norman Clayton (Classic Letterpress) 34
Page

Laµ year we celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Scripps College Pess by mounting an
exhibit of books from Denison Library, called Women Over 25, by women who had been printing by letterpress
for at leaµ 25 years. There were forty-one women from all over the United States profiled in this
exhibit. Many of the books chosen had been µudied by µudents in my classes and used for exhibitions
for at leaµ 25 years. Only books printed by women who were µill a∂ive in the field, in letterpress printing
and/or teaching, were included in the exhibit. The books were shown in the Clark Humanities Museum
and at Denison Library in O∂ober of 2011.
A supplemental exhibit called Women ’Way Over 25 was mounted at Denison Library, in order to put on display
several significant books we have from earlier periods. All of the women shown in the exhibit were
invited to a panel discussion called Crazy about Letterpress following the Goudy Le∂ure given by Kathleen
Walkup, and fourteen were able to attend.
We decided to continue this research this year by exhibiting books from Denison Library by men who
have been printing by letterpress for at leaµ 25 years, and who are µill a∂ive in the field. We limited this
exhibit to letterpress printers in California in order to prepare for my le∂ure, Men and Women Over 25,
California Edition, in O∂ober of 2012 for the Book Club of California event called ’Way Out Weµ. There
are seventeen California printers profiled in this show. We intend to eventually complete this survey by
including the reµ of the men from all over the United States who have books at Denison Library and who
have been working at leaµ 25 years in letterpress.
This catalog does not include photographs of the works exhibited, but we have taken photographs of all
the books and hope to enlarge the catalog in time. The catalog is available as a pdf file on the website for
the Scripps College Press.
You’ll notice in reading these fascinating biographies how many men have collaborated with each other
and with the Women Over 25 over the years.
Kitty Maryatt, Dire∂or of the Scripps College Press
INTRODUCTION

1934
Jack Werner Stau‡acher: The Greenwood Press 1
Jack Werner Stau‡acher firµ µarted printing with a 3 x 5 Kelsey press in 1934 at the age of 14, in San
Mateo. In 1936, he purchased a Chandler & Price 10 x 15 platen press and ATF Garamond types. He and
his father built a µudio in 1936 in the backyard of their home. Jack was artiµically influenced by his older
brother Frank, who went to Art Center in Los Angeles µarting in 1937 (his untimely death was in 1955).
Jack visited John Henry Nash, the Grabhorns, and Taylor & Taylor in 1937. His firµ book, published in
1941, was Three Choice Sketches by Geo‡rey Crayon, Gent., by Washington Irving. “I handset the whole book under
the open sky of San Mateo: typesetting became ritualiµic.” He was intereµed in both horse and bicycle polo and
published Bicycle Polo, Technique and Fundamentals in 1942.
Jack was drafted into the army in 1942 during WWII and returned by 1944 with his “inner landscape altered.”
In 1947, he moved the Press from San Mateo to San Francisco, and in 1948, he collaborated with Adrian
Wilson on, And Who Wants Peace? by Eric Gill. Jack made an important purchase from Stempel Typefoundry
in 1950, the Kis-Janson types: “pure, workmanlike letters, communicating e‡ortlessly; attention to serifs & to the thick
& thin of lines; the human scale is preserved in each size; Updike again as reference to Kis-Janson as the key to further discipline
& µudy; involvement in the hiµory of Kis-Janson & the evolution of 16th and 17th century types.”
The Book Cub of California held an exhibition of The Greenwood Press books in 1951. By 1952 and 1953,
Jack was making an intense µudy of the Kis-Janson types with the discovery of a 1685 type specimen of
the face. He published Janson: A Definitive Colle∂ion, in 1954. “Meditations on the Kis-Janson image drove the Press
near to disaµer financially, caught between dream & the reality; nevertheless the book began to emerge in a natural flow
shaped by devotion.” [In 1983, he published a major work in the hiµory of printing, Nicholas Kis, by György
Haiman.]
In the early 50s, Jack eµablished an informal luncheon group with Adrian Wilson, The Graphic Roundtable,
meeting at the Basque Hotel du Midi in North Beach. In 1955, he was awarded a year-long Fullbright
to µudy in Florence, but ended up µaying three years. “I began to explore the origins of the book in relation to the
ethos of place—the subtle interrelation of all the arts in the hiµory of a culture.” Jack returned in 1958 and was appointed
assiµant professor of Typographic Design at Carnegie Inµitute of Technology in Pittsburgh, reeµablishing
the legacy of Porter Garnett with the New Laboratory Press. He invited Hermann Zapf to
teach a six-week seminar on book design and lettering, which led to the design of a special typeface for
the Hunt Botanical Library called Hunt Roman. [In 1965, Jack designed the book, Hunt Roman: The Birth of
a Type for the Pittsburgh Bibliophiles. In 1994, he edited and designed a book on Porter Garnett for the
Book Club of California called Porter Garnett, Philosophical Writings on the Ideal Book.]
Jack left Pittsburgh in 1963 to become Typographic Dire∂or of the Stanford University Press and µarted
teaching in the Department of Design at the San Francisco Art Inµitute in 1964. He set up Typographic
Workshop 17, “which sought to rescue the dignity of hand-eye skills & to rea∑rm the role of craftsman.” In 1965, Jack
designed The Journal of Typographic Research with overlapping letters of the alphabet on the cover. “The design
was created dire∂ly from the proof press, leaving the materials at hand to help in the process of design.”
Stanford held a definitive exhibition of his books in 1966: “refle∂ions on the halting beginnings that grew towards
a conµant simplification in the unlimited possibilities of the typographic page.” Jack left Stanford to reopen The
Greenwood Press in 1966 and bought a Vandercook proof press. He produced The Seacoaµ of Bohemia for
The Book Club of California. The firµ book published by The Greenwood Press since 1955 was Albert Camus
and the Men of the Stone, produced in 1971.

2
Jack Werner Stau‡acher: The Greenwood Press 1934
Jack replied to a critical letter in 1969 on the use of unjuµified lines (“ragged right”) in the journal Landscape:
“Given an underµanding of the technological changes involved in contemporary typography, the typographer continually
seeks ways to achieve greater flexibility. His basic concern is with the intera∂ion between author and reader, and the unjuµified
line in Landscape is simply employed to help ease the communication between these participants.”
In 1972, Jack began extensive typographic experiments with Plato’s Phaedrus, which was published in
1977, along with a well-received supplement: The Search for the Typographic Form of Plato’s Phaedrus. Jack experimented
for four years before resolving the presentation. The explanatory supplement details hiµorical
research on both handwritten and typeset versions of Phaedrus, and the seven µages of designs and correspondence
with Chuck Bigelow. “The design of the Phaedrus was born out of the thoughtful considerations of the
text. I hope it contributes something to a fresh way of looking at design in literary material.”
In 1974, Jack eµablished the Cowell Press at UC Santa Cruz, having been awarded the Regents’ Professorship.
In 1976, he was invited to be a part of the Typographic Advisory Board for Adobe Syµems. Alaµair
Johnµon wrote a featured article on The Greenwood Press for Fine Print in 1978. In 1979, Jack eµablished
the Center for Typographic Language. He also helped eµablish the North Point Press with William Turnbull
that year. In 1984, Jack became typographic consultant for the Lapis Press of Sam Francis and a consultant
to Autologic, Inc. working with Sumner Stone and Fred Brady.
Jack was invited to Hungary in 1985 for the tricentenary of the printing of Nicholas Kis’s Amµerdam
Bible. In 1986, he had a retrospe∂ive exhibition at Gleeson Library, University of San Francisco, and published
Queen of Hearts by Vi∂oria Nelson. Sumner Stone brought a Macintosh to Stau‡acher’s µudio in
1987 and Jack learned to develop computer skills. In 1989, he published his firµ digitized book done at
the press: Goethe and False Subje∂ivity by Leo Lowenthal. Jack was awarded The Middleton Award by the
American Center for Design in Chicago in 1991.
In 1993 Jack had another full year: he gave a le∂ure at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library in
Los Angeles and his books were exhibited there; he traveled to the Greek temples in Italy; and he researched
works of Porter Garnett at the Bancroft Library. In 1995, Jack designed type specimens for the
Stone Type Foundry. In 1997, he designed and worked with Sumner Stone on the firµ issue of Type, A Journal
of the Association Typographique Internationale. In 1999, The Book Club of California published A Typographic
Journey: The Hiµory of The Greenwood Press and Bibliography, 1934–2000 edited by Stau‡acher and awarded him
the Oscar Lewis Award. In 2004, Jack was awarded the AIGA Medal. He continues to work daily at The
Greenwood Press in San Francisco.
(Notes in quotes are taken dire∂ly from Stau‡acher’s Hiµory of The Greenwood Press)

1934
Jack Werner Stau‡acher: The Greenwood Press 3
A. Three Choice Sketches By Geo‡rey Crayon, Gent., Washington Irving, Illuµrations by Frank Stau‡acher, The
Greenwood Press, 1941, 83 pages, 250 copies
This is the firµ book published by The Greenwood Press. The three tales included: The Stout Gentleman, The
Adventure of my Uncle, and Horsemanship, and were taken from Washington Irving’s Bracebridge Hall & Tales of
a Traveller. It was designed, printed and entirely handset in Garamond 12 pt. type. In A Typographic Journey,
Stau‡acher says, “Handset the whole book under the open sky of San Mateo: typesetting became ritualiµic.” The three
images were drawn by Jack’s brother Frank, who also sent a copy of the book with a letter to the New York
Times for a review, which was subsequently written by Edward Laroque Tinker.
B. And Who Wants Peace?, Eric Gill, Illuµration by Mary Fabilli, The Greenwood Press, 1948, 8 pages, 1000
copies
The address originally given by Eric Gill at Kingsway Hall in London on November 11, 1936 includes these
words: “Modern war is a remedy worse than any conceivable disease. During the laµ war they called conscientious obje∂ors
cowards. It was the grosseµ lie.” The eight-page large-format book was produced after WWII by Adrian Wilson
and Jack Werner Stau‡acher at The Greenwood Press. It was handset in Eric Gill’s Perpetua type and
printed on Tovil handmade paper. Two woodcuts by Mary Fabilli accompany the address.
C. Janson: A Definitive Colle∂ion, Jack Werner Stau‡acher, The Greenwood Press, 1954, 68 pages, 350 copies
Jack Stau‡acher wrote this horizontal-format book about the fascinating hiµory of the Pseudo-Janson
types, or Dutch Old Face. Five type specimen pages are included, along with showings of several sizes of
the Stempel Janson fonts acquired by Stau‡acher. Multiple images printed in ruµ accompany the text.
At the end of the book, he usefully compares Stempel Janson with Merganthaler Linotype Janson, Lanµon
Monotype Janson, Monotype Ehrhardt, and Monotype Van Dijck.
D. Porter Garnett : Philosophical writings on the ideal book, compiled by Jack Werner Stau‡acher, The Book Club
of California, 1994, 251 pages, 450 copies
Typographer and printer Porter Garnett, 1871–1951, taught at the Carnegie Inµitute of Technology in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. It was the only university at the time which gave a degree course in printing technology,
and our own Dr. Joseph Foµer, Professor at Scripps College from 1947–1971, µudied with Garnett.
Jack Stau‡acher taught at Carnegie when he returned from his Fullbright sojourn in Italy. The book was
designed by Jack Stau‡acher with typesetting by Francesca Stau‡acher. It was printed o‡set on Mohawk
Superfine and set in Cycles, a typeface designed by Sumner Stone. The o‡set printing was done by
Phelps/Schaefer in Brisbane, California with binding by Cardoza-James Binding Company, San Francisco.
E. A Typographic Journey: The Hiµory of the Greenwood Press and Bibliography, 1934–2000, Jack Werner Stau‡acher,
Bibliography by Glenn Humphreys, The Book Club of California, 1999, 323 pages, 450 copies
This is an enlightening hiµory of the Greenwood Press, written and designed by Jack Werner Stau‡acher
himself. Included are numerous letters to and from notables in the book world. It was set in the typeface
Cycles, designed by Sumner Stone, with the exception of captions on pages 54 and 74 set in Trajan, designed
by Carol Twombly. The typesetting was done by Francesca Stau‡acher and Kina Sullivan. The
book was printed on Mohawk Superfine by by Phelps/Schaefer, Brisbane, California. The hardcover binding
was by Cardoza-James Binding Company, San Francisco.

4
Pall Bohne: Brookhaven Press 1959
I got my µart in printing at General Business Forms, in the copy preparation department in late 1959.
Work was slow at my previous job as a land surveyor. A friend suggeµed that I try GBF because I could
use a T-square and a triangle, the basic tools of copy preparation in o‡set lithography. The company also
had a small letterpress department, which reminded me of my 7th grade experience. So I bothered the
old-timer at GBF to let me print some bookplates. That’s how the whole thing led up to my printing and
binding shop.
In the early 60s, I bought a 5 x 8 inch letterpress and type from L.A. Typefounders. I bought a better press
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
photo of me at my Press in the mid-sixties. Since then I’ve acquired a series of machines for both printing
and bookbinding.
My firµ real book was printed and bound later in the sixties. So far, I’ve printed eight miniature books
and three normal-sized books, along with booklets and ephemera. One of the larger books was about the
firµ press eµablished in the San Gabriel Valley, called The Willow Dale Press, 1879, With Notes on the Hiµory of
the Amateur Press in California. The µory of this Press was written by Carey Bliss, who worked at the Huntington
Library. The book included samples from the Press held in a special envelope glued on the inside
of the back board. Only 132 copies were printed and bound at my Brookhaven Press, now located in Alta
Loma, not far from Scripps College.

1959
Pall Bohne: Brookhaven Press 5
A. An Original Leaf from the Kleine Print Bybel c. 1750, Essay by Ruth E. Adomeit, Dawson’s Book Shop, 1991, 20
pages, 60 copies
A small illuµrated leaf from an 18th-century miniature pi∂ure Bible is tipped onto the page following
the title page. The leaf is about 1.5 inches tall x 1 inch wide. The Dutch Bible was printed in The Hague in
two volumes, and each of the 86 engravings was printed only on one side. The endpapers were made in
Dutch gilt; the same pattern was printed by letterpress for the cover papers. The book was printed and
bound by Pall Bohne.
B. The Willow Dale Press, 1879, With Notes on the Hiµory of the Amateur Press in California, Carey S. Bliss, Dawson’s
Book Shop, 1975, 19 pages, 132 copies
Carey Bliss long had a desire to recognize and honor the great army of teenage boys and girls who operated
the amateur printing presses in the Vi∂orian Age in America. Miss Anetta Carter had kept a cache of
papers printed and edited by her father and aunt in San Gabriel, and through her, Carey Bliss was able to
research his proje∂ and present this book. Florence and Arthur Carter printed the firµ newspaper in the
San Gabriel Valley. It was printed on a foot-powered Columbian Number 2 press with a 6 x 9 chase, which
is illuµrated in the book. The book was printed and bound by Pall Bohne in Rosemead, California. The
type is Bembo and is printed on Warren’s Olde Style paper. Ten copies have an original issue of the Willow
Dale Press inserted in a special envelope inside the back cover.

6
Patrick Reagh: Patrick Reagh, Printers 1959
I began printing on Chriµmas day, 1959. I received a present of a 3 x 5 Kelsey tabletop press, some type,
ink, and a brand-new Rouse composing µick. I had several printing ventures as a boy and teenager. The
Muµard Seed Press was a joint venture between my father and me. We µarted the Muµard seed Press in
my bedroom and printed our holiday cards and party invitations for fun. I soon discovered that people
would pay for printing, so I became a job printer. I printed a flyer that said "Your Name and Address on
100 Envelopes for $1.25—professionally printed." I placed the flyer on doorµeps on about 3 square blocks
in my neighborhood and was soon overwhelmed with orders. The firµ poem I printed was the Jabberwocky
from Alice in Wonderland: it also served as a specimen of the types I had at the time. My moµ successful
venture was when I was 13 and printed “Kissing Permits” for my classmates, although the boys’
vice principal confiscated the balance of the run before it was sold out.
I began a formal union apprenticeship in 1969 with Andresen Typographics (in Los Angeles), an advertising
typographer. It was a 5-year apprenticeship in a shop in the middle of the transition between “hot” and
“cold” type. They had two Linotypes and hundreds of cases of type. My firµ 3 months I did nothing but
shovel old slugs into a giant cauldron and poured molten lead into shiny new ingots (pigs) to be used to
by the Linotypes. All the apprentices were being trained in the new methods. We were required to take
classes at LA Trade Tech as part of our training. The classes at Trade Tech were pitifully behind what we
were already doing at the shop, so it was an exercise in futility. Moµ of the time I did paµe-up and camera
work. I ran a machine called a Typositor that set headlines. I wasn’t much of a typiµ, so I didn’t run the
Alphatypes which were the photo-composition machines used at Andresen. Whenever they needed someone
on the floor (the floor meant the metal type se∂ion) they would pull me because I was the only apprentice
that had experience with metal type. It was a good general education in how a produ∂ion shop
works. If nothing else, I learned what it meant to meet a deadline.
After the five-year apprenticeship, I went to work at the Plantin Press with Lillian Marks. I was the laµ
employee there when it ceased printing in 1981. I went to work there after Saul had died. My father had
known Saul, and the Marks’s were family friends. Lillian’s laµ two employees had given notice and she
called to see if I would be intereµed in working for her. Of course I jumped at the opportunity even though
I would be making about half of what I was being paid at the union shop. I was determined to learn how
to print and design books of the quality that the Plantin Press produced. It was absolute trial by fire. I
learned how to operate the Monotype caµer and Heidelberg cylinder press with only a few cursory lessons
from some former employees. I read a lot of manuals and went in on my own time on weekends to
pra∂ice. Eventually I was comfortable doing everything except keyboarding (the lack of typing skills
again), but Lillian did all the keyboarding for the Monotype. Several other printers came and went, but I
hung in and became basically the whole work force until the end.
I µarted my commercial operation (called Patrick Reagh, Printers) in Los Angeles after leaving the Plantin
Press. Like the Plantin Press, my letterpress printing was a business enterprise that printed books and
ephemera for other publishers and clientele while attempting to maintain the µandards of a fine press.
In the laµ several years of the Plantin Press, the work was winding down and I µarted setting up shop in
the time I wasn’t working for Lillian (the hours of work µarted dwindling at the PP). There was a wonderful
place called Printers’ Metal Service in an induµrial se∂ion of Huntington Park. They bought whole print
shops in au∂ions and had two large warehouses crammed to the ceiling with cases, cabinets, presses,

1959
Patrick Reagh: Patrick Reagh, Printers 7
type and all manner of printing tools and supplies. They were open on Saturdays and my father and I
would go down there and scrounge around and pick up odds and ends for the Muµard Seed Press. It was
fun haggling with George Ayd, the owner, over what were already ridiculously low prices. To this day, my
shop µill has moµ of the cases and cabinets and type I bought there. Type cases were 50 cents apiece. It
was in the 70s and letterpress equipment was being dumped all over the place. One day I saw a Monotype
caµer, keyboard and a Miehle Vertical printing press. Because I could operate the Monotype and I knew
the days were numbered for the Plantin Press, I took the plunge and bought the package of typecaµers
and press for $1,000 and rented a µorefront in downtown L.A. and was in business.
I worked there until 1981 when I moved to Glendale and set up shop with Vance Gerry. We were partners
for one of the happieµ printing years of my life. Vance bowed out graciously after the firµ year. He wanted
to do more of his own work. So I continued the commercial operation that grew to nine employees at one
point. We designed and printed many books, poµers, ephemera, etc. to a pretty large client base. Things
slowed down in the 90s and I got the urge to relocate to a place where I could live and work on the same
property: maybe a more rural location where I could convert an outbuilding into my shop. We located
such a place in Sebaµopol that was a former chicken ranch with a big barn that now houses my shop. I
have been working solo since 1995 when we moved. An occasional intern has assiµed me, but I µill do
moµ of the work myself. The laµ several years have found me sitting in front of a computer doing book
design and layout, but my heart is always with the type and presses.
A. Saul Marks & the Plantin Press, The Life & Work of a Singular Man, Lillian Marks, The Plantin Press, 1980, 194
pages, 350 copies
As a biographical tribute to her husband by Lillian Marks, this book presents fascinating details of Saul
Marks’ early life, work ethic and pra∂ices as well as the development of The Plantin Press. It includes an
introdu∂ion by Richard F. Do∂er and preface by Lawrence Clark Powell. The book was printed at the
Plantin Press by Lillian Marks, with the assiµance of Juan Melgoza, Patrick Reach and Jerry Simon.
B. Examples of Printing Designed by Students at the Scripps College Press, 1946–1971, Joseph Arnold Foµer, privately
printed, 1985, 119 pages, 200 copies
Dr. Joseph Foµer compiled a book of his µudents’ work at the Scripps College Press fourteen years after
he retired from Scripps College, after 25 years of teaching. He explains that the course was not to train
µudents to become printers, but to develop critical µandards that could be applied to other fields as well.
Emphasis was placed on design rather than technique. The book is divided into four parts, which refle∂
four kinds of proje∂s: broadsides, greeting cards, bookplates, and book pages. It was printed at Patrick
Reagh, Printers, which was then in Los Angeles, and has a hard-cover binding by Bela Blau.
C. The Plantin Press of Saul and Lillian Marks, A Bibliography, Tyrus G. Harmsen & Stephen Tabor, The Press of
Patrick Reagh, 2005, 151 pages, 351 copies
This bibliography of the work of The Plantin Press was inµigated by Ty Harmsen after the 1980 book by
Lillian Marks was published. Ty knew Saul and Lillian Marks µarting in the 1950s. It was subsequently
extended and the descriptions made uniform by Stephen Tabor. Of the 351 copies, 75 numbered and 26
lettered copies include original Plantin Press ephemera. The binding is by Mariana Blau of A-1 Bookbinders,
Los Angeles. The binding of the lettered copies is by Bonnie Thompson Norman, who worked with Saul
and Lillian Marks when she lived in California.

8
Andrew Hoyem: The Arion Press 1961
I µarted printing by letterpress in January 1961, so since 2011 I have been at it for fifty years. When I began
at Auerhahn Press, on Franklin Street in San Francisco, I had no experience in printing. At age 25, I had
recently been released from the United States Navy after a three and a half year hitch: six months in Reserve
O∑cer Training and three years as an o∑cer, beginning as an Ensign, ending as a Lieutenant Junior
Grade. Prior to that I had graduated with a B. A. degree from Pomona College, in Claremont, California,
one of the associated colleges, along with Scripps College, where this exhibition is to be held. At Auerhahn
I joined in partnership with Dave Haselwood, who had founded the Press in 1958 to print and publish
Beat Generation writers, mainly poets, and to do general fine printing. We learned by making miµakes.
In the fall of 1964 I was hired by the Grabhorn Press, located around the corner on Sutter Street, as a parttime
pressman. There I learned more in a week than I could in a year’s time on my own. After a year of
my working part-time at the Grabhorn Press and full-time at the Auerhahn Press, we dissolved the Auerhahn
partnership; I hired Dave Haselwood (until he moved to a farm in Petaluma and became a Zen prieµ)
and Glenn Todd (for some thirty years), and we moved the Press to Commercial Street. In mid-1966, after
the Grabhorn Press closed, upon the retirement Edwin Grabhorn, I joined in partnership with Robert and
Jane Grabhorn, and we took about half of the Grabhorn printing equipment. The balance of the equipment
was acquired from Edwin Grabhorn’s widow in 1972. The company was subsequently called Grabhorn-
Hoyem. Its publishing program grew, as did the number of commissioned proje∂s, particularly books
for the Book Club of California.
After the deaths of Robert and Jane Grabhorn in 1973, the name of the Press was changed to Arion, for
the legendary Greek poet saved from the sea by a dolphin. In 1979, Moby-Dick was published with the
help of a limited partnership. Three of the inveµors formed a corporation with me in 1980, and in the
mid-eighties the Press moved to Bryant Street as a sub-tenant of Mackenzie & Harris. In 1989, M & H Type
was acquired by the corporation. Along the way, the µa‡ grew to a dozen people, and the publishing program
became more ambitious, with the eµablishment of a series of illuµrated books containing original
prints by prominent contemporary artiµs such as Jim Dine, Robert Motherwell, Wayne Thiebaud, and
more recently Kiki Smith, Raymond Pettibon, and Julie Mehretu.
In 2001 the company moved to the Presidio, where it has been located for a dozen years as a cultural tenant
of this national park. The publications of Arion Press are nearing a total of 100 books. The non-profit
Grabhorn Inµitute, begun in 2000, is now responsible for the preservation and perpetuation of this
hiµoric fine printing and bookmaking facility.

1961
Andrew Hoyem: The Arion Press 9
A. The Wake, Andrew Hoyem, The Auerhahn Press, 1963, 29 pages, 785 copies
Thirty-two poems written by Andrew Hoyem were handset in Caslon and printed on a Hartfold press.
Some titles included are: The Dare, She Let Her Hair Down for a Ladder, A Heartache. A lovely excerpt: “Words are
birds: all mine flew away.” Seven hundred fifty copies were printed on Curtis Rag in Fabriano wrappers, and
thirty-five were on Hammer & Anvil paper; these few were hand-bound at the Schuberth Book Bindery in
quarter blue Oasis leather with cloud paper over boards. Andrew was a graduate of Pomona College; in
1957 several of his poems were published in an anthology at Pomona College.
B. The Temple of Flora, Botanical notes compiled and poetry sele∂ed by Glenn Todd and Nancy Dine, Engravings
by Jim Dine, The Arion Press, 1984, 64 pages, 175 copies
The Temple of Flora, published in 1807 by Dr. Robert John Thornton, is among the moµ famous illuµrated
books of all time. The Arion Press edition is modelled on the original edition in scale and scheme of presentation.
The artiµ Jim Dine created 28 dry-point engravings for his own interpretations of twenty-four
plants, with four more drawn from other sources. This monumental book has a relief sculpture set into
the cover of the containing box.
C. United States Conµitution 1787–1987, The Arion Press in association with the Library of Congress, 1987, 63
pages, 500 copies
The book was published for the Bicentennial of the adoption of the Conµitution in 1787. The Twinrocker
paper was specially made for the edition, with initial letters drawn and gilt by Thomas Ingmire. The type
is a large, handset Deepdene, designed by Frederic W. Goudy, and caµ by Mackenzie-Harris. The vellum
binding is sewn over red thongs, which are laced across the printed cover.
D. The King-Fisher Letters, Jane Grabhorn, The Arion Press, 2007, 32 pages, 400 copies
This keepsake publishes for the firµ time a series of fanciful and mildly malicious fi∂ional letters written
by Jane Grabhorn. Jane was the wife of Robert Grabhorn, the younger of the two brothers whose Grabhorn
Press, which operated in San Francisco from 1920 through 1965, was among the foremoµ fine book printers
in the nation. Jane herself was a printer of humourously facetious booklets and broadsides, under the
µyle of the Jumbo Press, and was a serious literary publisher, along with her partner William Matson
Roth, at the Colt Press. The drawings are by Sherwood Grover, and the book includes memories of the
Grabhorns by Edith Hartnett. The book was bound into a printed paper cover.

10
Alaµair Johnµon: Poltroon Press 1970
I µarted letterpress printing in 1970. I had immigrated to the USA and was then living in Santa Barbara,
California. (Incidentally, I had gone to a polytechnic college in London as an Advertising and Marketing
major and my room-mates were in the print produ∂ion program with teachers including Hansjörg Mayer
—if only I had known!) As a college dropout, I had a series of awful jobs: fruit picker, house painter, shipping
clerk, door-to-door salesman, gardener, bicycle mechanic, so I went to the unemployment o∑ce: They
said they had jobs that were only available to minorities! I told them I was definitely a minority—a Scotsman.
They sent me to McNally & Loftin, a printing and publishing plant that set books in Linotype and
printed them 16-up on flatbed cylinder presses. I µarted as shipping clerk and o∑ce boy but inveigled
my way into the back shop until I was running a repro press and learning how to set corre∂ion lines on
the Linotype. The boss, Bill McNally, was very indulgent to me, and seeing my intereµ, gave me more
chores in the shop. The foreman was an old-timer named Morris who didn’t say much; the Linotype operators
also worked the night shift on the local paper. I proof-read books for Black Sparrow Press and
wrote an index for a book McNally published. I met Graham Mackintosh and Noel Young and discovered
I had found my calling. Graham told me the small press scene was centered in San Francisco, and so I
moved north in 1974.
I spent a year working with Wesley Tanner at Arif Press in Berkeley. He taught me the fine points of letter-
and word-spacing, type choice, make-ready and platen presswork. I also took courses in Linotype operation
and process camerawork at Laney College in Oakland. I spent one day a week at the Bancroft
Library at UC Berkeley, reading and µudying their colle∂ion. (Then I would go to the Pacific Film Archive
and learn film hiµory!)
I met Frances Butler in 1975. We collaborated on four broadsides and she asked me to help her teach a
class in “Printing on the Iron Handpress” at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library. We µarted Poltroon Press in
April, 1975, at firµ using a Vandercook 219 in her fabric printing µudio.
Whereas I had learned classical Morisonian typography from Wesley Tanner, Frances exposed me to Rodchenko,
Piet Zwart, Tschichold and others. I sought out Jack Stau‡acher who was a µruggler in the wilderness
of San Francisco’s archaic fine press scene, and we became allies.
My primary reason for being involved in printing and publishing was to print my own work. I was dabbling
in concrete poetry and its visual expression, but found myself increasingly drawn to hiµorical pursuits.
I spent two years working on my firµ major work, the Auerhahn Press Bibliography. Its publication upset the
“old boy” network in San Francisco, so I retreated to the seventeenth century for my next proje∂ and
spent two years working with Hendrik Vervliet on Cyrillic and Oriental Typography in Rome, the only fulllength
monograph on Robert Granjon. Since then I have published two more small press bibliographies,
a discography of Do∂eur Nico (an African musician), and several other works.
Other than a piece by Thomas Love Peacock, we have always published original work. We have varied intereµs,
so this includes poetry, prose, dete∂ive fi∂ion, poµers, archite∂ure, bibliographies, illuµrated
books, experimental works, hiµory, interviews, criticism, typography and commissions.
We have both made many one-of-a-kind books, broadsides, poµers, collages and monoprints juµ for fun.
My heros are Kurt Schwitters and Bill Dwiggins.
As more people have entered the field and the polymer-plate mashers with their digital mindsets have
devalued the art of letterpress, I have devoted more time to scholarly pursuits; as a result I have a long

1970
Alaµair Johnµon: Poltroon Press 11
record of journalism. When the PCBA quarterly Ampersand fell in my lap, I edited it for 15 years, always
hoping for a coup that would take it away. I have contributed to Fine Print, Bookways, Print, APHA Journal,
the British Printing Hiµorical Society Journal and, increasingly, online blogs such as Booktryµ and Smashingmagazine,
as well as updating my monthly world music magazine (www.muzikifan.com).
I like to have a long-term proje∂ in hand, and have completed several, including Alphabets to Order (British
Library, 2000), which I worked on for over two decades. I recently put together Typographical Touriµs
(Poltroon Press, 2012), an anthology of writing about tramp printers (begun while I was writing Alphabets
to Order and continued while I was working as a volunteer at the California Hiµorical Society Library). My
book on the Language Poetry wars, Life of Crime, likewise had fomented in my brain for a long time and it
was also a relatively quick produ∂ion. On the other hand, the William Loy book, Nineteenth-century American
Designers and Engravers of Type (Oak Knoll, 2009), on which I collaborated with Stephen O. Saxe, took over
a year of solid work (day and night). My juµ-finished biography and bibliography of Richard Auµin, the
type-cutter, and his son Richard T. Auµin, wood-engraver, took eight years of research, but entailed many
trips to British libraries, so it was not a hardship. Another ridiculously long-term proje∂, Rambling in the
Vernacular, my µudy of folk lettering worldwide, has yet to be published. I don’t worry about marketing
and diµribution, I am writing for the random reader a century hence who finds my book in the µacks
and shares a smile with me.
A. Cimmerian Lodge, Thomas Love Peacock, Illuµrations by Frances Butler, 1976, 19 printed pages
Mr. Fax immediately recognized the poeticopolitical, rhapsolicoprosaical, deisidaemoniacoparadoxographical, pseudolatreiological,
transcendental meteorosophiµ, Moley Myµic, Esquire, of Cimmerian Lodge (Thomas Love Peakcock). Peacock
was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and they influenced each other’s work. He wrote satirical
novels, each with the same basic setting: chara∂ers at a table discussing and criticising the philosophical
opinions of the day. Peacock can be regarded as in many ways a focal point, both for his conne∂ions and his intereµs,
in the pre-Reform period, especially in 1810–1820. I regard “Cimmerian Lodge” as primarily a remarkably vivid and vigorous
piece of creation, benefitting if anything from its sources and not to be limited by analysis of them (David Gallon). Composition
was by Wesley B. Tanner; the book was designed and printed by Alaµair Johnµon. Bound in cloth
patterned with frogs.
B. Cyrillic & Oriental Typography in Rome at the End of the Sixteenth Century: An Inquiry into the Later Work of Robert
Granjon (1578–90), Hendrik D. L. Vervliet, Translation by Alaµair Johnµon, 1981, 66 pages, 500 copies
Hendrik D. L. Vervliet inveµigates the life and works of the French type designer and punch-cutter Robert
Granjon, and more particularly his µay in Rome. Composition in Mergenthaler Galliard, a phototype of
Matthew Carter, based on later designs of Robert Granjon. Translation and typography by Alaµair
Johnµon. Printed o‡set by Creative Arts Press for Poltroon Press.
C. Pshaw: 30 years of Poltroonery, 1975–2005, Alaµair Johnµon and Frances Butler, Poltroon Press, 2005, 42
pages, 100 copies
Alaµair and Frances each write animatedly about the ephemeral materials that they have produced for
over thirty years, including wine labels, invitations, broadsides, announcements, type specimens, spoofs
and satirical works. The calligraphy and pochoir are by Frances, while the typography and printing are by
Alaµair Johnµon. Dozens of samples are tipped-in, and several colors of papers are utilized. The book
was hard-bound by Arnold Martinez.

12
Jerry Reddan: Tangram 1972
My firµ experience with letterpress equipment was in 1972 at Eureka Printing, a job shop in Eureka, California.
There was a C & P, which was used for die cutting and scoring. It was on this press that I printed
handset poems by friends. After four and a half years, Barbara and I moved to Berkeley to µart a one-year
apprenticeship with Wesley Tanner at his Arif Press. Upon completion of my year with Wesley, I worked
with Adrian Wilson, printing Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. In the late 70s I µarted
working full-time at Andrew Hoyem’s Arion Press and was there until 2011.
Tangram µarted in 1987 with a chapbook of poems by Jim Dodge. Over 50 chapbooks of poetry and many
broadsides were printed on equipment at Arion in my spare time. I continue this arrangement today.
*Andrew Hoyem mounted an exhibition of books printed by Jerry Reddan in the Arion Press gallery in
2007 and poµed the following on his website:
Jerry Reddan is the maµer printer at Arion Press, where he has been employed since 1977, thirty years in
September, 2007. He µarted with Moby-Dick, helping with hand-composition of that 600-page novel. Reddan
has been responsible for typography and presswork on such proje∂s as: Triµram Shandy by Laurence
Sterne, Ulysses by James Joyce, Poems of W. B. Yeats, The Physiology of Taµe by Brillat-Savarin, Invisible Cities by
Italo Calvino, Cane by Jean Toomer, and The Holy Bible.
In addition to his full-time work as a printer, Jerry has been very a∂ive with his private press, producing
a long liµ of literary pieces, mainly poetry, written by accomplished friends and well-known writers who
earned his admiration. Using the facilities of Arion Press on his own time, he has published books, broadsides,
and other ephemera, since 1987 under the Tangram imprint, but also dating back to his beginnings
as a printer.
After service in the U.S. Navy, Jerry Reddan attended Humboldt State College. In 1972 he returned to
Humboldt County to find work in a print shop. He began in the bindery at Eureka Printing Company,
owned by Jerry Carter, and trained on small o‡set presses, firµ a Chief 15, then a Solna 125. While there,
he printed by o‡set Ralph Nelson’s translation of the Mayan Popol Vuh, with design and produ∂ion by Barbara
Llewellyn, and learned to use letterpress equipment to print broadsides.
In 1975–6, Reddan served a year’s apprenticeship with Wesley Tanner at Arif Press in Berkeley. In 1976–7
he worked at Adrian Wilson’s Press in Tuscany Alley in San Francisco on Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s
Garden of Verses. He did some personal proje∂s while at these notable presses. When he came to Arion
Press on Commercial Street in San Francisco, Jerry continued his private printing before and after hours
and on weekends.
This exhibition celebrates Tangram, named for a Chinese puzzle of seven pieces (five triangles, one square,
and a rhomboid) that can be arranged into a square. The firµ Tangram imprint was The Tunnel, a poem by
Jim Dodge dedicated to Jack Spicer, in 1987. In 1988, he began a yearly Winter Solµice greeting with Dodge.
The firµ Tangram chapbook was by Dodge and the second by Jerry Martien, both Humboldt County writers.
Since then, as he says, publications have popped up like mushrooms in the redwoods.
Tangrams are precious in the niceµ possible ways. They are modeµ but exquisite editorially and typographically,
perfe∂ in presswork, choice of paper and binding materials. Some special bindings have been
done by Peggy Gotthold, for many years a colleague at Arion Press. The editions are limited to very few
copies, generally no more than one hundred fifty. Tangram is truly a private press, nearly a secret, the per-

1972
Jerry Reddan: Tangram 13
sonal expression of a discerning reader and a great craftsman. To the extent Tangram is public, some
copies are o‡ered to the world by rare book dealers. Fortunate are they who have Tangrams on their shelves
or can see a sele∂ion of them as in this exhibition.
A. Home: A Prayer for the World Where You Found It, Robert Sund, Tangram Press, 1991, 4 pages, 225 copies
The three-part poem is presented in an unfolding triptych format. It is preceded by: “Lift your voice. Pick it
up like a µone, and lift it over your head.” The poem is printed with Monotype Caslon on Somerset, an English
mouldmade paper.
B. Between the Rocks, Poems by Hilda Morley, Tangram, 1992, 17 pages, 180 copies
Hilda Morley writes, “These poems should be seen as the markings on a map of inner and outer hardnesses, the colors
of rock sometimes lit by grass, trees, flowers. They mark a rocky path bordering a desert, over µone bridges on green water,
or along precipices where tree-roots can grow upward as well as downward, according to the weights and balances of gravity.”
The nine poems were printed from Monotype Ehrhardt on Mohawk Letterpress Text and sewn in paper
wrappers.
C. Before the Beginning: New Poems, 1991–1995, M. C. Richards, Tangram, 1995, 20 pages, 180 copies
Mary Caroline Richards writes, “These are a sele∂ion of poems that came between 1991 and 1995—after the publication
of Imagine Inventing Yellow. They celebrate various themes: in praise of color, prayer, body hunger, thanksgiving for daily
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
light.” The sixteen poems were printed on mouldmade Zerkall with Monotype Bembo and sewn into Lama
Li, a handmade paper from Nepal. The frontispiece is from a drawing by the author.

14
Jonathan Clark: Artichoke Press 1973
I got involved with printing around 1973, when a friend, Garner Tullis, opened a printmaking atelier in
Santa Cruz. (I was 21 years old.) He had a Washington-Hoe hand press (sans tympan and frisket) and some
type, but knew nothing about letterpress. I also knew nothing, but he o‡ered to let me figure it out if I
would then teach him. I had a trade school textbook, and Lewis Allen’s book, so I set to work, deµroying
a lot of his type in the process.
I got intereµed because I wanted to do books or portfolios of my own photographs, so the firµ thing I
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
is pretty atrocious! I’d gotten a lot of µrange 18th-century paper from Kenneth Patchen, so I used
some of that; the paper was rather elegant for a firµ attempt. I was really thrilled with the whole thing,
and that was that.
I was self-taught and never had any kind of inµru∂ion. Though I was a µudent at UC Santa Cruz when
William Everson and Jack Stau‡acher were teaching there, I was working in photography, and never took
their classes. (I did µop by for a few minutes one time when Jack was operating the Vandercook, and he
showed me the basics: that’s the sum of my formal printing education.)
I µarted Artichoke Press in 1975, when I set up an old Vandercook 219 in my garage. The firµ items I
printed were broadsides and such. Then I µarted in on a very elaborate book by my friend the photographer
Wynn Bullock, called The Photograph As Symbol. It was letterpress-printed on handmade paper, with
letterpress halftone reprodu∂ions of his photos, printed from copper engravings. (I called on Ansel Adams
for advice, since he used to publish lovely books with L P halftones. He sent me to HS Crocker, where the
old pressmen gave me some tips.) Being young and crazy, I undertook to do the half-leather bindings myself,
not knowing anything about it. What was I thinking? To this day I’ve only managed to bind half of
the edition of 200.
After a while, I µarted taking on commissions for other photographers and artiµs. I did a lot of big portfolio
pages, for Ruth Bernhard, Dennis Hopper, Graham Nash, and such. In 1984, I did my firµ Book Club
of California book, Mexico On Stone, printed from Monotype with letterpress facsimiles of lithographs,
printed from photopolymer plates (I was an early adopter). Then in 1985 I took over what was left of Lawton
Kennedy’s business and was crazy busy for several years with all kinds of high-class job work. I also
did a lot of bespoke letterpress printing for other publishers (Limeµone Press, Eaµ Side Editions) and
µarted designing for o‡set, working with a local trade lithographer. These days I’m back to publishing
limited editions of my own, often combining letterpress and digital printing. I also do books for others,
and special commissions, and continue to do a lot of my own photography.

1973
Jonathan Clark: Artichoke Press 15
A. The Photograph as Symbol, Wynn Bullock, Artichoke Editions, 1976, 17 pages, 200 copies
This book was “an attempt to create a work expressive of W. Bullock’s laµ ideas through words and images.” The manuscript
was diµilled from over 200 pages of notes, in which Bullock µruggled to discern the nature and
fun∂ion of symbols in photography. The result was six paragraphs of concise, closely-written text accompanied
by six photographs. The varnished letterpress reprodu∂ions of the photos are painµakingly
printed by hand from copper engravings. The binding is half-leather goatskin lettered in gold leaf. The
type is handset Janson and Weiss initials on handmade Fabriano Royal paper. Designed, printed and
bound by Jonathan Clark at the Artichoke Press.
B. Cut-paper: Photographs by Frederick Sommer/Frederick Sommer Makes a Cut-Paper: Photographs by Jonathan Clark,
Frederick Sommer and Jonathan Clark, Artichoke Editions, 1998, 24 pages, 950 copies
This book is a photographic presentation of extraordinary cut-paper artworks by Frederick Sommer
(1905–1999), shown on both sides of the accordion-folded book. Jonathan Clark wrote “From Idea to Image”
and “From Image to Display,” and the other texts are by Frederick Sommer. Frederick Sommer was photographed
by Jonathan Clark at his home in Prescott, Arizona in April of 1995. The book was printed o‡set
at The Stinehour Press in Vermont.
C. Treasures of the Book Club Library, Part Three, Compiled by Barbara Jane Land, Book Club of California, 2004,
56 pages
This keepsake for the year 2004 featuring thirteen treasures of The Book Club of California Library was
written by Barbara Jane Land, who also prepared the firµ two parts, issued in 1997 and 2000. It was designed
and produced for members of the Club by Jonathan Clark at the Artichoke Press. The photography
and scanning was also done by Jonathan Clark. (Part Two of the series was also designed and produced
by Jonathan Clark.) The thirteen bifolia are printed o‡set in color by Shoreline Printing, with four remarkable
images in each se∂ion, along with a description of each treasure. Bound in a paper wrapper.

16
Peter Koch: Peter Koch, Printers 1974
In 1974, I returned (from San Francisco and a grunt job in nuclear physics at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory)
to my hometown, Missoula, Montana in order to begin my real vocation as a designer/printer and publisher
of a literary magazine. I was thirty at the time, and knowing little about what I was trying to do, I acquired
a Chandler and Price Old Series 8 x 12 jobbing press. On its long journey to my µudio on North Second
Street, that 75-year-old press had traveled from Ohio to the headwaters of the Missouri River, over the
continental divide, and up to the headwaters of the Bitterroot River where I found it in the Ravalli County
Republican newspaper o∑ce in the spring of 1975. We celebrated its 100th anniversary (December 12,
1999) in my Berkeley µudio where it is in continuous use today. Beµ tool I ever bought.
I am a self-taught printer who carefully µudied high school and technical school manuals for the pressman
as I began to build my firµ form. When I ran aground on a tough problem, I would turn to a local job
printer for advice. They were usually helpful but somewhat diµant, as they could tell that I was not a
fundamentaliµ Chriµian or a “live-free-or-die” self-µyled Republican, and were we to enter into conversation,
we would all too soon discover our di‡erences.
My firµ printed piece was a trade-card adorned with a photographic portrait of Montana’s early newspaperman
Josiah Dimsdale, author of The Vigilantes of Montana. My second a∂ was to print a poem I had written
to my wife, Shelley Hoyt-Koch, and then the cover of Montana Gothic Number 3. The firµ book of poems,
Born, by Michael Poage, soon followed.
A few months into the process of learning how to operate a press, I volunteered at Miles Romney’s Weµern
News newspaper and printing o∑ce in Hamilton, Montana (pop. 2000) for about six weeks in the summer
of 1975. At the same time, I was deeply submersed in teaching myself the subtleties of typography and
the hiµory of printing by reading every book on the subje∂ that inter-library loan and the University of
Montana Library could provide. In Miles’ shop I learned a number of shortcuts that applied to hand-feeding
and make-ready on a platen job press while imprinting envelopes and the occasional graveside card
for the local funeral parlor—and that pretty much finished o‡ my formal “educational” process.
In 1979, five years into my private µudies, I did serve a year-long formal apprenticeship with Adrian Wilson
and his wife Joyce Lancaµer at their Press in Tuscany Alley. It was with Adrian and his friend Jack
Stau‡acher that I went to typographic “finishing school.” You can see their influence in my book Handbook
of Ornament, which won several book design awards the year it was published—thanks to the disciplined
care that I felt I had to take in order to µand with the Elders.
I eµablished Black Stone Press in 1974 specifically to publish Montana Gothic, an Independent Journal of Literature
and Graphics, and to print (letterpress) what I considered intelle∂ually and visually µimulating
books, prints, and ephemera. I began by printing books of poetry and illuµrating experimental writing
by my friends, fellow artiµs, and writers. I specialized (at the time) in what I chara∂erized as cowboy
surrealism, maverick poets, and pre-Socratic philosophers. In the early 1980s I began printing under my
own name Peter Koch Printer, and I assigned the plural “s” when I apprenticed Richard Seibert in the late
1990s.
To be a “Printer” has always meant to me to be an a∂or on the intelle∂ual µage of my time and place—
much as it was when the greateµ scholar-printer of the 15th century, Aldus Manutius, eµablished his
press in Venice. I have an exalted view of the great printers and wish to join them in working in the vineyards
of the text. As a typographer I belong to the tradition of scholar-printers who serve the book both

1974
Peter Koch: Peter Koch, Printers 17
as an artiµ/craftsman and as a publisher. For me, the deep art of the book is typographic in its basic discipline.
I have µudied typography with all the great printers by closely examining their books and the
typefaces therein, paying homage when I felt the spirit was appropriate and improvising when my playful
inµin∂s were aroused.
Since the early 1980s an increasing variety of books, portfolios, and collaborative livres d’artiµe have issued
from the Press. These works spring from a variety of sources, including private commissions, collaborations
with photographers and painters, and bibliophile editions from the Book Club of California,
Mills College Center for the Book, and Rainmaker Editions. I have a particular a‡e∂ion for the bibliographic
work I do for Stanford University Libraries, the Grolier Club and other bibliographic sources. Over
the paµ ten years, in addition to the poetry and philosophical work that continues to issue from my private
press, Editions Koch, I have been collaborating with my wife Susan Filter on proje∂s related to her
artiµ and poet friends in Venice and Tangier—our Venetian adventures have added some mighty fine
books to our liµ of publications.
There is a small but not microscopic portion of my work that some consider as artiµ books. Works like
The Defi∂ions of Diogenes, WORDSWORDS (Ur-text—3 vols.), Hard Words, Nature Morte and The Loµ Journals of Sacajewea
are my artworks in the sense that when I collaborate with the writer, photographer, bookbinder, or
papermaker, something definitive springs from my imagination fully engaged. I add myself into the equation
not as servant but as an equal-in-collaboration. In these cases I work more or less like a worm feeling
his way in the tunnels of personal chaos and (rarely) like an Osprey hovering above a high mountain river
looking for the flash of a cutthroat in the dark water. I am a man disciplined by my environment: from
cowboy surrealism to Venetian classicism—and Viva la di‡erence!
A. Diogenes : Defi∂ions, Thomas McEvilley, Peter Koch, Printer, 1994, 64 pages, 500 copies
“Every age that needs him recreates its own Diogenes,” explains Robert Bringhurµ in the introdu∂ion. Author
Thomas McEvilley presents the early Greek philosopher as a performance philosopher: twenty-one sele∂ed
anecdotes or performance pieces were prepared by the author, were hand-lettered by Chriµopher Stinehour,
and were printed letterpress by Peter Rutledge Koch. The book was printed from photo-polymer
plates with the assiµance of Richard Siebert. The typefaces used are Adobe Caslon, Gills Sans, and Bifur.
Binding by Arnold Martinez. Exhibit includes 11 cards with lettering by Chriµopher Stinehour in a box.
B. Zebra Noise with a flatted 7th, Richard Wagener, Peter Koch, Printer, 1998, 78 pages, 70 copies
A wood-engraved letter of the alphabet precedes each text written by Richard Wagener, accompanied by
an extraordinary wood-engraved image of an inse∂, bird, mammals or fish facing the text. The book was
designed and printed on Zerkall paper by Peter Koch and Richard Wagener. The text was composed in
Ehrhardt type by the Golgonooza Letter Foundry. The book was bound by Peggy Gotthold.
C. The Fragments of Parmenides & an English translation by Robert Bringhurµ, Wood engravings by Richard Wagener,
Editions Koch, 2003, 52 pages, 146 copies
The main text was printed in a new Greek type called Parmenides Greek, designed and cut by hand in
µeel by Dan Carr for this edition. The English translation was set in Monotype Dante at the Golgoonoza
Letter Foundry. The Greek type on the cover is Diogenes, designed by Chriµopher Stinehour in digital
format at his µonecutting µudio. The book was printed on Zerkall paper at Peter Koch, Printers. The
wood engravings were printed by Richard Wagener. Of the edition of 146 copies, 120 were numbered and
quarter bound in leather by Peggy Gotthold, and 26 copies were lettered A to Z and were bound in leather
by Daniel Kelm.

18
Harry Reese: Turkey Press 1974
In early 1974, I took a beginning typography course at Rhode Island School of Design, an ele∂ive course
for non-majors. It was my firµ year in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at Brown University, and
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
& Price in O∂ober 1974. I have never taken a class in letterpress printing. David Cooper, a friend from
high school in Whittier and undergrad days at UC Santa Barbara, was a Ph.D. µudent then at Brown, and
we taught each other to print by operational trial and error methods, reading military letterpress printing
manuals, and looking at books in the John Hay Library. We tempered what we knew and didn’t know yet
with nervous telephone calls late in the evening to Rosmarie Waldrop (poet, printer and co-publisher of
Burning Deck). But the moµ I have learned about making books by hand has come from the 35+ years of
close working on typography, design, printing, publishing, papermaking, bindings, and artwork with Sandra
Liddell Reese, whom I met on my birthday in 1975, and who joined me as a full-time creative partner
in 1977 when we moved from Berkeley to our present home in Isla Viµa.
In the Fall of 1973, I began working as assiµant for the poet and translator, Edwin Honig, who eµablished
Copper Beech Press on the Brown campus in early 1973. I designed three Copper Beech Press books before
I began making books of my own. I had asked Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop if I could work with them at
Burning Deck, as an intern or press assiµant, but when they told me they already had someone working
with them, I decided to µart my own press. The entire faculty I worked with at Brown—especially Edwin
Honig, Keith Waldrop, James Schevill, and Michael Harper—encouraged me to continue my work with
Turkey Press.
I eµablished Turkey Press in 1974 on my birthday, O∂ober 9. In 1980, after designing and letterpress
printing modeµ books of poetry for five years, I met the multi-artiµ Bern Porter, who said: “Don’t repeat
yourself.” Since then, these words have proved prophetic, for we have tried not to repeat what we have already
done, but inµead to learn and show something new (at leaµ for us) with each new book or print
proje∂. Printing is an important part of what we do, but we consider ourselves more as makers of contemporary
art than as printers, since we will engage the oldeµ or the neweµ methods and technologies
to accomplish what we want to do.

1974
Harry Reese: Turkey Press 19
A. Whalesongs, Robert Gibb, Turkey Press, 1979, 44 pages, 100 copies
Fourteen poems by Robert Gibb were printed in black with slate blue titling. Designed and letterpress
printed by Harry Reese and Sandra Reese on Rives Heavyweight paper. The type was handset in 14 pt.
Centaur. The book was bound by Sandra Liddell Reese using Harry Reese’s handmade paper on the cover
inset.
B. Five Meters of Poems, Carlos Oquendo de Amat, Translated by David M. Guss, Woodcuts by Antonio Frasconi,
Turkey Press, 1986, 34 printed pages, 40 copies
Following the format of the original, this firµ English language edition consiµs of eighteen typographically
playful poems in a visual sequence of accordion-folded panels. When fully extended, it measures
five meters long by 10 inches high. The book is set in Goudy Modern. The paper is Barcham Green’s handmade
India O∑ce paper. The book was printed and bound by Sandra Reese.
C. Fables, Michael Hannon, Drawings by William T. Wiley, Turkey Press, 1988, 45 printed pages, 125 copies
Poems by Michael Hannon were printed on kozo natural paper, with kakishibu paper for the cover, handmade
at the Fuji Paper Mills Cooperative in Japan. The drawings, which accompany each of the thirteen
poems, were relief printed from photoengraved plates in black and aubergine. Designed, handset, printed
and bound by Sandra and Harry Reese using Spe∂rum, Neuland and Albertus typefaces.
D. The Sea Gazer, Michael Hannon, Turkey Press, 2007, 25 pages, 75 copies
The book is based on an artiµ’s book produced by Harry Reese in 2003. The illuµrations were printed
from wood blocks onto Kitakata paper and cut on a Roland plotter. The flexible binding consiµs of yellow
printed paper on the front, and black on the back, with a creme spine. Harry µates: Michael Hannon’s work
has commanded my attention since I firµ met and published him twenty-five years ago. My choral arrangement of the
µanzas of this poem to accompany my images openly invites our readers to sing or sway along with us to their own intimations
of delight and dread, of fear and rage, and of thought and its unknowable opposite.

20
Tom Killion: Quail Press 1975
I began printing in 1974 at Cowell College, UC Santa Cruz, on the Cowell Press where Jack Stau‡acher was
teaching a class for two semeµers (I think). Then I took an independent µudy with William Everson, who
was printing Granite & Cypress at the Lime Kiln Press that year. These two wonderful printers (and human
beings!) really got me intereµed in printing, but I learned much of the technical points from my µudent
colleagues, particularly Richard Bigus, Felicia Rice and Peter Thomas.
I did work with both Richard Bigus (Labyrinth Editions) and Peter Thomas (Good Book Press) on several
proje∂s in the late 1970s, but moµly I learned from trial and error on my own press (see below); this was
OK because my main intereµ was printing wood and linoleum cuts.
I bought an Asbern AD-1 in 1977 for $350.00 when they were literally tossing printing equipment out the
windows of the old brick buildings South of Market in San Francisco. Rick Bigus and I went up together
a few times and filled my 1949 International pick-up with type cases and other items. I founded the Quail
Press in that year and printed my second book on it (the Asbern, µill my only press): Fortress Marin. It was
a disaµer, as I had no money and used a cheap Japanese machine-made paper full of lint that clogged the
ink and letters—what a mess! Nothing like the firµ book I had printed on handmade Hosho at the Cowell
Press. But I persevered and have printed five of my own books of woodcut prints and poetry, moµly, on
Japanese papers, and over 450 relief prints, many elaborate multi-colored ones, along with quite a few
broadsides and other little jobs.

1975
Tom Killion: Quail Press 21
A. The Coaµ of California : Point Reyes to Point Sur, Tom Killion, Wood engravings and linocuts by Tom Killion,
Quail Press, 1979, 38 pages, 126 copies
The evocative text of The Coaµ of California was written by Tom Killion, who µates in his introdu∂ion: The
Coaµ of California unfolds its long poem; wrapped around the points and coves, rivermouths and shifting sandbars, fingers
slipping between the hills, written on the floating world of wind and sea. The text is in two parts: one part consiµs
of descriptions in Italic beneath the images, and the other part is a long poem, Glacial Miµ, made up of
twenty fragments. The images by Tom Killion were printed (moµly in blue) from linocuts and wood engravings.
The type was set in Centaur and Arrighi. The book was printed on Hodomura, with lace paper
Unryu and endpapers of Kochi. The large, horizontal book was bound at the Schuberth Bookbindery.
B. In Medias Res : Canto One of an Autobiographical Epic, Duµ Shall Be the Serpent’s Food, William Everson, Woodcuts
by Tom Killion, The Press in Tuscany Alley, 1984, 28 pages, 226 copies
This large-format autobiography by William Everson, 1912–1994, was printed by Adrian Wilson at The
Press in Tuscany Alley. William Everson was, of course, also a printer, but health issues did not allow him
to print the book. Tom Killion created two forceful woodcuts for In Medias Res. The handmade paper was
specially produced for Adrian by Barcham Green and watermarked with his type-juggler logo. The type
in Centaur and Arrighi was composed by Mackenzie-Harris. The binding was done by the Schuberth Bookbindery
in Dutch linen sides with an inset woodcut device and a spine of blue oasis morocco.

22
Gerald Lange: The Bieler Press 1975
My firµ introdu∂ion to letterpress printing was in high school. I printed my required business card on a
C & P and indulged in the traditional pra∂ice of tossing lead type at other µudents. Amazingly, years
later, I was told that renowned printers who apprenticed with Lillian Marks played the very same game.
I’d completely forgotten about this high school experience until I µarted printing in 1975 while taking a
class with Walter Hamady. I wondered why I knew the job case to so well and then it came to me, like
riding a bicycle. I was then in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin and intereµed in publishing
and the course was recommended. I found Hamady to be quite inspirational, both in craft and in his artiµic
approach to printing. His approach to book design/µru∂ure was insightful.
My education beyond the couple of years I spent repeating Walter’s class was primarily self-learning. I
read everything I could find in the library (which Hamady seemed to disapprove of), Allen’s Printing with
the Handpress, Rogers’ Paragraphs on Printing, Dowding’s Finer Points in the Spacing and Arrangement of Type, etc.
But I µill could not get a handle on typography until I found a book by Vojtech Preissig. He had designed
a book of a work by Edgar Allen Poe for Random House which used his Preissig Antiqua typeface and the
moment I opened it, I had the epiphany (which I believe is a requirement, and can’t otherwise be taught).
He is µill one of my favorite typographers.
Hamady required µudents eµablish a press, so my firµ printed produ∂ions under The Bieler Press imprint
were in 1975. My father always called me “bieler” so before I founded the press I called him up for a
definition. I had found one in an old German di∂ionary that indicated boy-child (archaic). He explained
it was a boy who has his own mind about how he did things. That was a no-brainer. I initially published
books of poetry and fi∂ion, mainly µu‡ that I found intereµing. Several of the authors of my early books
have a∂ually become well known. Ted Kooser became U.S. Poet Laureate: he was the author of The Blizzard
Voices. Eventually though, I began to seek out more conceptually inspired work, work that simply grew
from an idea of my own. One of the beµ collaborative experiences of my later career was working with
photographer/book artiµ Je‡ery Atherton on Black-letter: an interpretation of events relating to the time and presence
of Johan Gutenberg. It is one of those great but ignored works: too intelle∂ual, too artiµically arcane,
not in tune with the pap of the contemporary. Nevertheless, an amazing work, and the one that I will
µand by.

1975
Gerald Lange: The Bieler Press 23
A. Common Ground, Gerald Williams, Drawings by Ben-Zion Schechter, The Bieler Press, 1980, 33 pages,
150 copies
Twelve poems about life’s aspirations and a∂ions are accompanied by pointilliµ drawings on the facing
pages. The text was set in Goudy Village No. 2 and the titling is in Goudy Thirty. The type and engravings
were printed damp on Charter Oak paper from Barcham Green. Saan paper from the Schoolmeeµer Mill
of VanGelder was used for the covers and Fabriano Roma for the endsheets.
B. A Printer’s Dozen, Philip Gallo, Engraving by Gaylord Schanilec, The Bieler Press, 1992, 21 pages, 200 copies.
A dozen full-page poems address the a∂ual a∂ of printing, ink on your hands, working with paper, composing
µicks, the evils of print and even the hellbox. It was designed and printed by Gerald Lange at The
Bieler Press facilities on the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles. The book was handset
in ATF Garamond Bold and Trump Medieval Bold and printed on Invi∂a, an English mouldmade paper.
The sheets were bound by Robin Price into covers of Larroque Black and endpapers of Moriki Black.
C. Black-letter: An interpretation of events relating to the time and presence of Johann Gutenberg, Je‡rey Atherton, The
Bieler Press, 2000, 41 pages, 120 numbered and 26 lettered copies
Black-letter is a speculative examination based on the extant Gutenberg research and hiµorical µudies of
the time period. The book was drawn from an idea by its publisher Gerald Lange, who was also responsible
for its contextual arrangement and typographic design. The cover image is a reprodu∂ion of author Je‡rey
Atherton’s µudio photograph, “Mirror and mould.” The book was digitally set in Miller Text from Carter
& Cone Type and in Cézanne from the P22 typefoundry. The digital imaging was printed from photopolymer
plates, and the photographic image was printed from glass plates using the venerable collotype
process. The paper is Umbria Bianco, a handmade paper imported from the renowned Fabriano paper mill.
The book was bound at The Wide Awake Garage by Daniel E. Kelm.

24
Peter Thomas: Peter and Donna Thomas 1975
In the fall of 1973, I took a year o‡ college at UC Santa Cruz to be an a∂or at the Reniassance Pleasure
Faire, and in the spring of 1974 I set up a booth to teach papermaking and bookbinding. I did not know
how to make paper or bind books, but I got books from the library and figured out enough to fool people
into thinking I knew what I was doing. In 1975, I returned to UCSC, with no real dire∂ion in my µudies.
One day I noticed an old acorn-shaped iron hand press in the foyer of the McHenry Library; when asking
about it, I was told that William Everson, the poet laureate of Kresge College who dressed in buckskin
and bear claws, taught µudents to use the press while printing fine press books. I didn’t know what “fine
press” was, but thought to myself, “Since I am making books and paper, I should know how to print.” So
I signed up for the class. There were four or five other µudents in the class, and as Everson’s apprentices,
it was our job to help bring his visions into concrete forms. We did not have much creative input. He
would bring his ideas, brew on the problems till they were solved, then we would do the work. Everson
led us through the myµeries of the art in silences broken by cries to the gods for mercy, and we produced
books like Granite and Cypress and The American Bard, books which combined maµerful and innovative printing
with µunning bindings to create some of the fineµ examples of Fine Press Printing.
During my µudies at UCSC I had the opportunity to work with Sherwood Grover, retired Grabhorn Press
printer, at the Cowell Press, and I also took an adult night school class in letterpress printing at Santa
Cruz High School. My firµ press was a beat-up Challenge Proof Press that the high school was getting rid
of. Donna and I µarted working together at this time, both at the Renaissance Faire and in my small shop
I had built in a shed made out of a wooden house truck camper shell. We o∑cially µarted our business
in 1977, and made our firµ book, The Three Cedars, in 1978. Soon after that, in exchange for a binding job, I
got a Minerva treadle platen press; so then we had two old, cranky presses. Years have passed and we have
upgraded both the shop and the equipment. We have two Vandercook Universal One presses, a Pearl press
and a bunch of old metal type, a bindery, and a papermill. We make both fine press and artiµ’s books, always
using paper we make ourselves, and we bind the books, too.
As I look back at our firµ books, I see Everson’s influence. I guess I couldn’t avoid it. Not that our books
looked like Everson’s; it was more about the pervasive influence of his basic design concepts (e.g. limiting
the mixture of typefaces, using only basic colors, and lining up elements of the book from cover to cover).
Mid-career, as I began to explore the excitement and freedom of the artiµ’s book, I found limitations in
Everson’s fine press aeµhetic. I began to explore the use of colored inks, colored paper, mixing typefaces,
and wood type, and µru∂ural bindings. Now, after over 30 years making books, my own voice as a book
artiµ speaks louder than the whisper of Everson’s early influence. This can be seen clearly in books like
Real Accordion Book, The Ukulele Book Series, and fine press artiµ’s books like The Hiµory of Papermaking in the
Philippines or Not Paper.

1975
Peter Thomas: Peter and Donna Thomas 25
A. The Tarantella Rose, William Everson, Peter and Donna Thomas, 1995, 18 printed pages, 75 copies
These six poems by William Everson had never been integrated into his colle∂ed work, so The Tarantella
Rose continues the work which was begun by Everson at the Lime Kiln Press in 1976. Peter had worked
with William Everson while he was a µudent at the Lime Kiln Press.
B. Almoµ Paper, Peter and Donna Thomas, 1997, 21 pages, 100 copies
This miniature book explains what paper is, and what kinds of materials are paper-like but are not paper.
Small swatches of these materials are tipped in. The pages were printed on the Thomas’ own handmade
paper. The book was bound Coptic-µyle in thin wood boards.
C. The Hiµory of Papermaking in the Philippines, Peter and Donna Thomas, 2005, 43 printed pages, 75 copies
Peter Thomas went to the Philippines in 1990 to research papermaking and presents his research, with
samples, in this large-format book. One page in each se∂ion is extended in length to accommodate a sample
of the paper. The six se∂ions include information on ramie, abaca, cogon, latbang, pakak, and salago.
The book was printed on paper made from cotton rag that was pigment-dyed with raw umber, and was
printed using Goudy Modern and Neuland typefaces. The illuµrations were printed from linoleum blocks
carved by Donna Thomas. The cloth used on the binding is called T’nalak: it is woven from abaca fiber by
the T’boli people in South Cotabato. The patterns in the cloth are created before the cloth is woven by
employing a complex method of ikat, a wax-resiµ tie-dye.
D. Not Paper, Peter and Donna Thomas, 2010, 20 pages, 48 copies
Here Peter describes materials that are not paper: amate, birch bark, papyrus, parchment, tapa, Tyvek and
wasp neµ, with small swatches of these materials tipped in. The text is an adaptation of their 1997 miniature
book, Almoµ Paper. The format is accordion-fold, with a shorter µrip of paper with samples sewn in.
The book was printed in Centaur, Neuland and old wood type on Peter’s handmade paper. It is handbound
in leather by Peter and Donna Thomas.

26
Gary Young: Greenhouse Review Press 1975
After completing my MFA in Poetry in 1975, I returned to my home in Santa Cruz and enrolled in a high
school night course to learn o‡set printing. I intended to save money by printing the poetry journal I was
then editing. There was a hulking Chandler and Price platen press in a corner of the print shop there, and
I asked the inµru∂or if I could tackle the old machine. He told me the press was soon to be scrapped,
and added, “forget about it, letterpress is obsolete.” I ignored his advice, quit my job, bought a press of
my own, and µarted the Greenhouse Review Press.
By sheer luck, I met a man in that night class, Gene Holtan, who became my deareµ friend and mentor.
Gene had worked as a typographer and illuµrator for two decades, and had worked closely with Saul and
Lillian Marks. Over the years, Gene gave me the benefit of his vaµ typographic knowledge; whatever I
may have accomplished of any worth owes a debt to Gene. I had µudied with William Everson while an
undergraduate at UCSC, but as a poet, not as a printer. I came to know him well after I returned to Santa
Cruz, and his council was always welcome and wise.
I have always focused on poetry books and broadsides, and generally incorporate some printmaking into
my proje∂s. In addition to my letterpress books, I have illuµrated many books for other presses, and
have also published a large number of trade books—poetry, anthologies, even a novel. I try to keep the
door open.
I have printed some twenty-five letterpress books of poetry over the years, and countless broadsides.
While I intend to print more books by hand, my work teaching Creative Writing and dire∂ing the Cowell
Press at UCSC leaves me little time to focus on my own proje∂s. Poetry has always been the engine for
my printing, but because printing a letterpress book is so time-consuming, I have taken to publishing
more and more books digitally. I have so far designed and published a dozen books of poetry for trade
diµribution. I enjoy bringing worthy texts to life, and typography is in many ways easier to manipulate
on the computer screen than in the composing µick. Having said that, I could never give up letterpress.
The weight of the type in my hand, the sound of the ink on the rollers—no computer program can match
the physical pleasures of printing by hand.
I printed D. J. Waldie’s translation of Mallarmé’s Un Coup de Dés juµ before digital typography came into
maturity, and if I had µarted the book even two or three years earlier than I did, I would have designed
it on the computer and printed it from photoengravings. As it was, I followed the proofs of the abandoned
Vollard edition held in the Houghton Library at Harvard, and tried to mimic Mallarmé’s typographic script
using a wide variety of handset typefaces. At the time I printed this book, my own poetry was undergoing
a transformation, which Un Coup de Dés helped me to articulate. I had begun writing prose poems, poems
that I conceived as being long, one-line poems, poems that might not be encumbered by a book’s gutter.
My Brother’s in Wyoming was designed and printed under the influence of Un Coup de Dés. I wanted to print
a book that would privilege my images, and utilize the page spread as a single unit. This book is intended
to be read across the gutter, and like A Throw of the Dice, invites the reader to µretch the traditional applications
of space, type, image and traje∂ory in the codex.

1975
Gary Young: Greenhouse Review Press 27
A. The New Days, Poems by Sherod Santos & Lynne McMahon, Brandenburg Press, 1988, 18 pages, 100 copies
This poetry book in two parts was designed, illuµrated with woodcuts, and printed by Gary Young at the
Greenhouse Review Press for Brandenburg Press. The firµ se∂ion showcases a multi-part poem by Sherod
Santos, The Sheltering Ground, and the second contains Lynne McMahon’s poem, The New Days. The display
type is handset Garamond. The text was composed on “Old Wrangler” by Felicia Rice. The text paper is
Frankfurt, the endsheets are Unryu, and the cover is St. Armand paper.
B. Poem : A throw of the Dice will never abolish Chance, Stéphane Mallarmé, American translation by D. J. Waldie,
Illuµrations by Gary Young, Greenhouse Review Press, 1990, 44 pages, 60 copies
This new translation of Mallarmé’s (1842–1898) seminal poem, originally published in a journal, was made
with meticulous reference to the surviving proof pages of the abandoned (in 1898) firµ edition book
produ∂ion supervised by Mallarmé. The Greenhouse Review Press publication of A Throw of the Dice
reµores to readers Mallarmé’s final evocation of a terrible beauty. The book was designed, printed, and
signed by Gary Young and Felicia Rice at the Greenhouse Review Press in Santa Cruz, California. The polychrome
woodcut illuµrations are by Gary Young, who is also an award-winning poet. The paper is Umbria,
handmade in Italy by the Fabriano mill. Several cuttings of Bodoni were employed. The binding is full
leather goatskin in black.
C. A Canticle to the Waterbirds, William Everson, Alcatraz Editions, 1992, 16 pages, 61 copies
William Everson writes: “Waterbirds was written early in my Catholic life: I hadn’t gone through the monaµic mill
yet. I was living at Maurin House in Oakland, trying to find myself in this new religion, confronting the awkwardness of
being on skid row twenty-four hours a day, and the poem juµ came right out.” The long horizontal format is imposing
and µarts with a double-page woodcut by Daniel O. Stolpe. The book was conceived as a vehicle to cement
the energies of paµ apprentices and friends of the author. The book was handset in Weiss Roman and
was printed by Felicia Rice and Gary Young at the Bear’s Tooth Studio. The paper was handmade by Peter
Thomas. The binding was done by Maureen Carey.
D. My Brother’s in Wyoming, Poems and drawings by Gary Young, Greenhouse Review Press, 1994, 32 printed
pages, 45 copies
Drawings which accompany two poems are separated by four pages of drawings on a green ground. The
drawings were taken from sketchbooks produced over the course of a dozen years. The paper is Gutenberg
Laid; the type is Lutetia. Booklab executed the binding.

28
Lawrence Van Velzer: Foolscap Press 1977
Letterpress printing is probably in my DNA. My father taught letterpress printing to high school µudents
in Los Angeles, and he also worked for a commerical firm and set type for newspapers. My grandfather
was the printer/publisher of a newspaper in San Diego County in the 1880s and 1890s. The newspaper
was printed on a hand press and involved the whole family. I got my own press around 1977 and was basically
self-taught, because my father, by this time, was retired. I think my firµ printing press represented,
for me, a tool with which I could create something with my own hands dire∂ from my mind. Cut out the
middle man. I firµ printed some of my own poetry. I printed business cards for my friends and persuaded
others they needed business cards, and a number of so-called commercial jobs. But moµly, I associated
a letterpress with beautiful books and later discovered the meditating value of handsetting type.
I µarted working for Andrew Hoyem at Arion Press in 1982. This is where I really learned letterpress printing:
on-the-job training. Andrew Hoyem hired me to assiµ Jerry Reddan with a large press newly inµalled
at Arion Press, a 21 x 28 Miller two-color letterpress. But I also printed on all the platen presses in the
shop, set type, made up pages, corre∂ed type, cut paper, did type diµribution, and, on occasion, worked
in the bindery. Andrew felt that members of the Press needed to be able to µep into any job that needed
doing. And so, when the Press moved from Commercial Street into M & H Type Foundry, we all became
movers and did carpentry work for the new space on Bryant Street in San Francisco. I worked for Arion
Press for twelve years.
With Peggy Gotthold, I µarted Foolscap Press in 1990. We publish literature, moµly, along with some
non-fi∂ion. I’ve written a couple of our books along with a keepsake published on our favorite holiday,
which falls each year on April 1µ.

1977
Lawrence Van Velzer: Foolscap Press 29
A. The Man in Asbeµos, An Allegory of the Future. Stephen B. Leacock, 1990, 28 pages, 150 copies
This µory was firµ published in 1911: Leacock forces us to face our µill-uncertain future, but we find ourselves
enjoying the experience. The book was printed with Monotype Sans Serif caµ at M & H Type, on a
Hacker Hand Press on Mohawk Superfine and was bound in Japanese bookcloth.
B. Gaillard Durfort: An Ordinary Frenchman’s Ride Up & Down Hiµory, Laurent Durfort, 2004, 18 pages
The text is related by Laurent Durfort, “in honor of his late grandpère’s birthday falling this year on 1 Avril 2004.”
Gaillard Durfort worked on the Ei‡el tower, making meticulous drawings of the individual pieces of the
tower, which are presented in the book. He had no formal training in engineering or archite∂ure.
C. Dire∂ion of the Road, Ursula K. Le Guin, Woodcut by Aaron Johnson, 2007, 12 pages, 120 copies
This short µory by Ursula K. Le Guin is printed on wrinkly white linen paper made by Le Papeterie Saint-
Armand. The original anamorphic woodcut by Aaron Johnson is presented as part of the portfolio box
which also houses the cylindrical mirror with which to view the print. The typeface used is Monotype
Bembo, caµ at the Michael Bixler Press & Typefoundry. The book was printed letterpress on only one side
of the paper and bound at Foolscap Press.
D. For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn, Alix Chriµie, Michael Palin, Susan Straight, Michael Katakis, Nataly
Adrian, Lawrence G. Van Velzer, 2010, 53 pages, 200 copies
Six writers were each commissioned to write a six-page µory, which are presented and bound together
as µaggered gatherings. All are inspired by the succin∂ words of Erneµ Hemingway: For sale, baby shoes,
never worn. The book was designed, printed and bound by Lawrence G. Van Velzer and Peggy Gotthold. It
was printed with handset Garamond types on Frankfurt cream paper. The six se∂ions are sewn onto an
accordion µru∂ure of Bockingford paper.

30
Charles Hobson: Pacific Editions 1985
My life in books began in 1984 when a friend died young, and several friends and I organized a small book
of his writing. We had it printed at the Weµ Coaµ Print Center, a small poetry press in Berkeley. It was a
revelation to me that a human being could make a book.
In 1985, at the suggeµion of my friend, the letterpress printer Marie Dern, I took a seminar class at UC
Berkeley taught by Wesley Tanner. In the class we µudied the hiµory of the book using the resources of
the Bancroft Library and printed a small book on an 1857 Albion hand press. That was the beginning of
my experience in letterpress printing. At the end of the semeµer, I invited Wesley to work with me on a
book proje∂ I’d developed called Quartet. It became a limited edition of 125 copies with essays by Lewis
Thomas and etchings by Joseph Goldyne. I named my publishing venture Pacific Editions.
Since 1986 I have published more than thirty artiµ’s books using my own images and design. In 2008
Stanford University acquired a complete colle∂ion of my books and an archive of my design work. While
I do not print letterpress myself, many of the books employ letterpress printing by others working in collaboration
with me. In addition to Wesley Tanner, I have worked with Jack Stau‡acher, Les Feriss and
Andrew Hoyem.
The essential focus of my work has been the integration of text, image and µru∂ure to create an interaction
with the subje∂ matter. An example I use to explain this is a book I did in 2002 entitled Taking O‡
Emily Dickinson’s Clothes. The book is based on a poem by Billy Collins, and in order to read it, one muµ remove
a garter belt and unbutton the pages. I find this a very e‡e∂ive description to give to someone who
asks, “What is an artiµ’s book?”

1985
Charles Hobson: Pacific Editions 31
A. Writing On the Body: Degas’s Words About Drawing the Figure, Paµel and photogravures by Charles Hobson,
Pacific Editions, 1999, 19 pages, 45 copies
Photogravure etchings from mixed media figure drawings by Charles Hobson combined with fragments
of Degas’ handwriting face eight typographic fragments of writing by Degas. The etchings were hand-colored
with paµel by Charles Hobson. The text was handset in Méridien type and printed on BFK Rives by
Jack Stau‡acher at the Greenwood Press. The accordion-fold book was bound in cloth by John DeMerritt.
The cloth is printed with Degas’ handwriting, and the paper sides of the binding include a printed and
hand-painted dancing image. A writing pen with the title on it is a∑xed to the spine.
B. The Writer, Richard Wilbur, Images by Charles Hobson, Pacific Editions, 2004, 7 printed pages with 5
vellum leaves, including a flip book with 48 printed pages, 54 copies
Richard Wilbur’s evocative poem has been made as a two-part limited edition. The full text has been
printed letterpress using photopolymer plates by Charles Hobson with the kind assiµance of Les Ferriss.
The type is 14-point Courier and is printed on Rives BFK. The pages have been interleaved with vellum
sheets printed with digital pigment prints and hand-cut with the shapes of a µarling in flight, based on
drawings by Charles Hobson. The accompanying flip book, or “flutter book,” containing a sele∂ion of certain
words from the poem, has been bound as an accordion and scored so as to permit viewing in an extended
manner. A clamshell box holds both parts; a digital pigment print hand-colored by the artiµ is
enclosed at the back. John DeMerritt provided the binding, with the assiµance of Kris Langan.
C. The Mappiµ, Barry Lopez, Images by Charles Hobson, Pacific Editions, 2005, 15 pages with 8 transparencies,
48 copies
Images of hands emulating geµures of a map maker at work have been reproduced as digital pigment
prints on transparent film. Each accordion-fold book has been assembled using original USGS maps for
the concertina binding and sele∂ed pages, and the cover has been wrapped with a reprodu∂ion of a 1911
map of Bogotá from the colle∂ion of the Library of Congress. Landscape images have been created as
monotypes with paµel and printed as digital pigment prints. The text has been printed letterpress by Les
Ferriss on BFK Rives using Garamond Narrow typeface. John DeMerritt made the slipcase covered with
wood-grain paper and board covers with the assiµance of Kris Langan. The book design and images have
been created by Charles Hobson, who assembled the book with the assiµance of Alice Shaw.
D. Quarantine, Eavan Boland, Images and design by Charles Hobson, Pacific Editions, 2011, 13 printed pages,
42 copies
The poem describes the death of a man and his wife, who died “of cold, of hunger, of the toxins of a whole hiµory.”
The images are monotypes of bundled twigs that have been printed as high-resolution digital prints with
additional paµel finishing. The text is 12 pt. Palatino and has been printed letterpress on BFK Rives by
JR Press, San Francisco. The black pages are Stonehenge and have been hand-painted with acrylic for the
two pages at the center of the accordion.

32
Bill Kelly: Brighton Press 1985
I µarted letterpress work in 1985. I was working at that time as a maµer printer to various artiµs working
in printmaking. DeLoss McGraw, an artiµ I was printing with at the time, was using the work of W. D.
Snodgrass as inspiration for his paintings and prints. As fate would have it, San Diego State University
was closing its letterpress department and we very naively bought it. No experience whatsoever; we didn’t
really know what a type µick was. The desire was there, and Snodgrass and Del willing. We learned by
doing. Years later we µarted donating type and “things” back to San Diego State. Michele Burgess is now
teaching letterpress and bookmaking at the same university.
We worked with a few local job printers. They were quite good at helping us. Moµly I traveled to other
presses around the country. Early on I met Gerry Lange, Robin Price, and Andrew Hoyem. I juµ liµened
and admired and took notes. This was very important to our development. Very early on the Getty had a
symposium and we crashed it. Hearing Walter Hamady and Gunnar Kaldeway argue about this intriguing
a∂ivity and liµening to David Godine tell the participants that we were a tiny slice of the printing pie
hooked me. Dick Higgins was a survivor who had done wonderful books, and William Gass gave a very
moving talk that romanticized our colle∂ive work. What more does one need to chart a course?
A dream has come true. From the firµ book with Del and De in 1985, Brighton Press has worked with poets
and artiµs. Forty plus books later we µill feel the calling to produce books that bring new writing to light
and pair these works with original print medium. Our laµ book with Ruth Stone and Michele Burgess
feels like an homage to how a book comes into exiµence. I have had a desire from the very beginning to
see how writers write, how visual artiµs see and feel the words, and how a very skilled group of artisans
make this thing real. Not done yet, but the challenge is µill there.

1985
Bill Kelly: Brighton Press 33
A. Figures Made Visible in the Sadness of Time, Poems by Peter Everwine, Etchings by Bill Kelly, Brighton Press,
2003, 42 pages, 40 copies
The book was designed by Bill Kelly in close collaboration with the poet and Michele Burgess. The poems
were printed letterpress by Nelle Martin, the etchings were hand-wiped by Bill Kelly and printed with the
assiµance of Alvin Buenaventura, and an original pochoir appears on the title page. The pages are folded
at the foredge. The tea-dyed linen cover bears a µencil that was hand-cut by the artiµ and hand-µamped
through twelve templates by Sonja Jones.The paper is hand-crafted by Twinrocker and the book was
bound by Mark Tomlinson.
B. How It Is, Peter Everwine, Woodcut by Bill Kelly, Brighton Press, 2005, 18 pages, 30 copies
The poem, How It Is, appears on the final page of the accordion-folded book, after the multi-page woodcut
by Bill Kelly. The format is horizontal, and the proportions are unusual: about four times as wide as it is
tall. The poem was handset in Bembo type and was printed letterpress by Nelle Martin. The woodcut by
Bill Kelly was printed from the block on Seichosen paper mounted on Twinrocker Walnut paper. The book
was bound by Sonja Jones and Michele Burgess.
C. Diana In Sight, Nancy Willard, Photographs by Eric Lindbloom, Brighton Press, 2009, 20 printed pages,
30 copies
There are eight archivally hand-printed Diana photographs by Eric Lindbloom, who µates: These photographs
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
camera, with its physical and hiµorical weight on my back. They were part of a series called “Private Lives of Public Places.”
The poems were handset in Spe∂rum and printed letterpress by Nelle Martin on Twinrocker handmade
paper. The books were designed and bound in Japanese cloth and marbled paper by Michele Burgess, with
the assiµance of Sonja Jones.

34
Norman Clayton: Classic Letterpress 1987
I µarted letterpress printing in 1987 in the Type Shop at the Rhode Island School of Design. The Type
Shop was where the entire vision for a book proje∂ could be realized. It was thrilling for me to discover
this as an art µudent with intereµs in everything: typography, photography, letterpress printing and
hand bookbinding. My greateµ experience was µudying with Inge Druckrey, a German-born, Swisstrained
perfe∂ioniµ who had a beautiful touch with everything she did. It seemed like we spent an entire
semeµer in the Type Shop training the eye by letterspacing our µationery with coppers and slips of paper
when 1/2 point was juµ too thick. During the class, this was very tedious, but with years of hindsight, it
was one of the moµ valuable experiences I had in school. Inge didn’t teach me how to print: she taught
me how to see.
After graduating from RISD, I had the good fortune to run a letterpress shop for Michael Osborne in Berkeley,
µarting in 1991. At One Heart Press, Michael was intereµed in producing high-quality printing, so he
was very generous giving me time to develop my skill. It was, of course, many years before I became a fine
printer, but I was always motivated to uphold the higheµ µandards. Jim Wehlage is my mentor: he has
helped me tremendously over the years, later selling me his shop, Classic Letterpress, when he wanted to
retire. I have designed and printed many books for myself and clients over the years. Refle∂ing on my
hiµory, I am reminded of how my community of teachers and fellow printers have conµantly inspired
and encouraged me.

1987 Norman Clayton: Classic Letterpress
35
A. A Trip to the Yosemite, Carolyn G. Van der Burgh, Introdu∂ion by Carolyn Lansden Whittle, Line drawings
by Jane Gyer, Yosemite Association: Yosemite National Park, California, 2002, 33 pages, 250 copies
This is an account of an Eaµ Coaµ traveler’s journey, in about 1903, by train from San Francisco and by
µage from Merced to Yosemite, attended by di∑culties, but resulting at laµ in her exploration of the magnificent
Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Grove. The book was printed in light gray/brown ink on one side
of sheets folded at the foredge and bound in the Japanese µab-sewn µyle at the spine. The book was
printed letterpress by Norman Clayton and J. Chadwick Johnson at One Heart Press on Mohawk Superfine
text. Designed by Michael Osborne Design.
B. Undersea, Rachel L. Carson, Illuµrated by Dugald Stermer, Nawakum Press, 2010, 26 pages, 110 copies
Rachel Carson writes, “If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because
no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.” The poem was set in a large size of the typeface,
Granjon, with Burgues Script initials, and was letterpress-printed from photopolymer plates on Hahnemühle
Biblio by Norman Clayton of Classic Letterpress. The illuµrations of Dugald Stermer were digitally
reproduced by Digital Grange on an Epson Stylus Pro. The cover paper is Carson Crackle from Cave
Paper. The binding and box were produced by John DeMerritt.

Colophon
The entries in this catalog were written by Kitty Maryatt, and were gleaned from the book itself, or possibly
from websites, internet articles or catalogs. The short biographies were written by the letterpress printers
themselves, with some editing when necessary for this catalog.
The catalog is available in pdf form from the website, www.scrippscollege.edu/campus/press or in printed
form. For those who could not view the exhibit in person, photographs of the books would be a welcome
addition to this catalog, an addition hoped for at a later date.