Print Shop Life: quick clips of recent work

Here are a handful of videos and photos showing various parts of the process of making a letterpress printed book. This particular project, for a private client, involved making one hundred 60-page books and took many months to complete.

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This first video is of me printing some of the book’s pages. Having already hand-set the text with metal type and locked that type up on the bed of the printing press (a Challenge model 15MP), I am cranking the sheets of paper through the cylinder press, one by one, to letterpress print that type.

The next photo and video shows “The Boss”, a guillotine paper cutter with a 23-inch blade, made in St Louis, Missouri, around 1895. It makes short work of trimming the printed book pages.

For those who like to watch paint dry, here’s a nearly-nine-minute video of me hand-sewing the printed pages together to make one (out of a hundred) sturdy book. Actually, this is one of the most enjoyable parts of the process to me!

Last but not least, here is a brief look at putting all that metal type away after printing the book. Each letter and space goes back into its designated little slot in the wooden case that holds all the type. There it will await the next project!

Linji, the Australian Shepherd Shop Dog, finds all of this incredibly boring…

Book Looks: Selections from the Press Library, Part 4

Hello Friends, and welcome back to Book Looks!

I began this blog series in 2021 to highlight some of the interesting volumes here in the St Brigid Press library — from the history of book-making to printing press maintenance, from typography and type design to the biographies of famous (or not) printers, and from paper-making to hand-sewing books. We’ll take a brief look at three volumes today, and spotlight more over time.

This edition of the series is inspired by my trip to Canada last October, where I participated in a marvelous gathering (a “Wayzgoose”) at Gaspereau Press in Nova Scotia. You can read about that adventure HERE.

Thanks for coming along as we browse the print shop shelves!

Emily Hancock

Previous Book Looks editions:

• Book Looks 1

• Book Looks 2

• Book Looks 3

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BOOK LOOKS, PART 4

1. Design With Type by Carl Dair

To learn about the 20th-century-history of typography and design in Canada is to encounter the extraordinary work of Carl Dair. Born in Ontario in 1912, Dair became an exceptional graphic designer, teacher, and type designer, and in 1952 published Design With Type. This relatively slim but comprehensive volume became a staple resource in the trade, and is still available new from the University of Toronto Press who published the revised version in 1967 (although there are many inexpensive used copies floating around for you to snag). “Good design in any field demands that the designer know the materials with which he is working”; this is, essentially, Dair’s purpose for writing this book and his hope for his readers. The well-illustrated, concise tour of the forms and functions of type on the page is all in service of Dair’s ultimate vision —that of encouraging excellence in visual communication, not mere “visual stimulation.” [University of Toronto Press; I recommend the revised version published after 1967.]

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2. Smoke Proofs: Essays on Literary Publishing, Printing & Typography by Andrew Steeves

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My Canadian trip destination last autumn was Gaspereau Press in Kentville, Nova Scotia. Established in 1997 by Andrew Steeves and Gary Dunfield, Gaspereau is a relatively small offset- and letterpress-print shop that has had an outsized impact on the literary culture of its home province and beyond. From the digitally designed, offset-printed with letterpress jacket trade editions of poetry and prose, to Steeves’ completely letterpress printed fine press volumes, each book is an impeccably made home for excellent literature. In 2014, Steeves published a book of his own writing called Smoke Proofs: Essays on Literary Publishing, Printing & Typography. Rather than a “how-to” primer on typesetting or page layout, this collection from a true citizen-publisher is more of a what and why, “identifying issues, challenging dogma and agitating for our full and creative engagement with the many challenges we encounter when we set literary works into type and publish the results.” Steeves and his work have always called on me to be my best creative self for the good of the community I serve, and this book is a superlative guide and goad, inspiration and invitation, that I return to regularly. Smoke Proofs is a trustworthy, hand-held compass for anyone adventuring into the wilds of literary publishing and printing.

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3. Keeping Watch at the End of the World by Harry Thurston

“All of us belong, as much as the black ducks / at rest in the harbour…”

Harry Thurston grew up in Nova Scotia and became a prize-winning poet and environmental journalist, as well as mentor to many students at the University of King’s College. His word-and-image collaborations with the renowned New Brunswick photographer Thaddeus Holownia (several volumes of which have been designed by Andrew Steeves) are exquisite. I was lucky to meet Thurston last autumn and to pick up copies of several of his books published by Gaspereau Press, including the outstanding Keeping Watch at the End of the World. The sea is a central presence in this beautiful collection. Whether writing about his native, booming Bay of Fundy or the Mediterranean’s millennia of layered stories, Thurston’s heart and eye take in and give back to us the intricate, flowing world. His ear, like his pulse, are tuned to the tides — whether oceanic, emotional, or historical. And he is always walking that wrack line, where the sea — whether the sea of time or of memory or of water itself— gives up its mysteries (and takes them back again). Grab a copy of Thurston’s work and enjoy his keen company in “This brief time we have to share / while the tide fills and empties the bay.”

(Apologies for the shadow-dappling on some of these photos below. My photographic error, not on the pages themselves.)

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To close out our little trip to Canada, here’s a final word from Carl Dair — this poster hangs in a prominent position at St Brigid Press:

Well, that’s all for now, friends, as I gotta get back to setting some type ;-) Stay tuned for future installments of Book Looks, and in the meantime, be well and read on!

Emily

St Brigid Press Visits Canada!

The happy gathering at Gaspereau Press, Nova Scotia. Photo by the amazing Thaddeus Holownia .

Hello and Happy Autumn, dear Friends of the Press!

Have you ever heard of a Wayzgoose?? Me either, at least until I entered the world of traditional printing. (FYI, it does not involve a real goose.) Well, I just got back from Canada a couple of weeks ago, having attended my very first Wayzgoose! 

This strange, centuries-old word (with an uncertain derivation, possibly Dutch) originally described a yearly gathering of printing-house workmen to celebrate the end of the summer and the beginning of autumn (the season of working by candlelight; can you imagine? setting tiny type by the wavering flame of a candle?!). The modern Wayzgoose is still a celebration of letterpress printing and traditional book-making, an event for folks who practice and/or just love this craft to gather, share experiences and encouragement, and PRINT together! (In well-lighted spaces ;-)

At the invitation of my friend Andrew Steeves of Gaspereau Press in Kentville, Nova Scotia, I attended their annual Wayzgoose on the third weekend of October. What a marvelous, energetic, generous, convivial, diverse, and inspiring group of folk! Truly, it was a life-highlight for me. 

In the above photo, Andrew Steeves (right), who is the co-owner of Gaspereau Press, the Wayzgoose host, and an outstanding letterpress printer and book publisher, taking a photo of the remarkable Amos Kennedy, Jr., brilliant letterpress printer and community activist from Detroit, Michigan. Soon we were joined by Toronto’s Phoebe Todd-Parrish, a wonderful linocut artist, printer, and human being.

Folks from here and yon gathered to engage with the printer-presenters before the open-house at Gaspereau. A generative mix of poets, curators, general public, architects, photographers, and more.

I was honored to be one of three presenters during the morning session, along with Phoebe Todd-Parrish of Flycatcher Press in Toronto and Amos Kennedy of Kennedy Prints in Detroit. Each of us talked about our print shops, process, and work.

After lunch, Gaspereau Press opened its doors to the public, and several of us held printing demonstrations on various of Andrew’s letterpress equipment. What an absolute joy to help someone print something for the very first time — from seniors to six-year-olds, I watched so many faces brighten with the delight of printing! Which, of course, delighted me.

That joy was infectious, and suffused the whole event. Including in the evening, when a number of poets (those whom Andrew had published during the past year) read from their outstanding work, and then when three literary critics and curators held a round-table discussion with Andrew. From dawn ’til way past dusk, the Wayzgoose catalyzed connections, new- and old-friendships, discovery, inspiration, and, yes again, joy.

Phoebe Todd-Parrish (left) is an awesom printmaker and teacher from Toronto. She and I had the pleasure of collaborating on the demonstration print during the open house portion of the Wayzgoose. She created a linocut image to go with a quote by Henry David Thoreau, and we guided participants in the actual printing of this keepsake. What fun!

“I believe in the forest and in the meadow and in the night in which the corn grows.”

— Thoreau (from “Walking”)

Klara du Plessis is a poet, literary curator, and artist-scholar from Montreal. And she was my most excellent assistant during the open house. We often had a long line of folks waiting to try their hand at printing at the press, and Klara was simultaneously traffic director, printing technique explainer, community engager, and all around joyful presence.

Though I was sad to leave, I was also eager to get home and get back to work in the print shop! During the long drive homeward, I made pages of notes about ideas and projects to come, and will share more about those as they ripen. 

Thank you so much for sharing this inky journey with me, dear friends!

With all best wishes,

Emily

Emily Hancock
St Brigid Press
Afton, Virginia
stbrigidpress.net

Amos (L) and Andrew (R) talkin’ shop in the Gaspereau Press print shop. Andrew is leaning on the Linotype, while Amos is rummaging through the cases of wood type.

Book Looks: Selections from the Press Library, Part 3

Hello, Friends! Book Looks is BACK!

We began this series a couple of years ago, highlighting some of the interesting volumes here in the St Brigid Press library — from the history of book-making to printing press maintenance, from typography and type design to the biographies of famous (or not) printers, and from paper-making to hand-sewing books. We’ll take a brief look at three volumes today, and spotlight more over time. (If you missed the first Book Looks post, read it HERE, and the second Book Looks post HERE.)

Thanks for coming along as we browse the print shop shelves!

Emily Hancock

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BOOK LOOKS, PART 3

Research for a new small letterpress project sent me to the library stacks this very week. I needed to brush back up on the history of type design and printing in northern Italy during the Renaissance period. A niche subject? Yeah. And fascinating! I pulled down a few volumes, books I hadn’t looked at in a while — it felt like catching up with old friends. If you’re into type and printing history, here are some books that just might interest you, too.

1. Historical Types: From Gutenberg to Ashendene by Stan Knight

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As calligrapher and type designer Paul Shaw writes, “Historical Types is a modest book in scale and appearance that deceptively hides a wealth of information…” In under 100 pages, Knight provides an illustrated survey of the high points of type design from the 1450s to the first years of the 1900s — from Nicolas Jenson and Aldus Manutius working in Venice during the period I was studying, through the French Renaissance and Baroque, Neoclassical and Rational, 19th century and Private Press types that followed. Not one to to be wordy, Knight’s descriptions of each type, designer, and accompanying printed examples are short and tight, packing a good bit of info in just over half a page. The real treasure, especially for comparative study, are the large photo reproductions, taking up three-fourths of each two-page spread — we get up close and personal with each typeface, at its original size as well as  enlarged, doing its job on a period manuscript page. Whenever you can get to a special collections and see such early printed books in front of your very eyes, then go. When you can’t, pull Historical Types off the shelf and spend some enjoyable time pouring over this handy home reference of foundational styles of type. (Oak Knoll Press, 2012)

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2. Five Hundred Years of Printing by S.H. Steinberg (revised by John Trevitt)

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If you want a broader education in the history of Western printing, from Gutenberg to post-WWII, then settle in with this volume’s 250 pages of densely packed information. Originally published in 1955, the revised edition has been expanded and updated, including dozens of illustrations of manuscript pages through the ages. In addition to deft histories of printing and publishing technologies, Steinberg and Trevitt are interested in the economic and sociological aspects of the industry as well. They highlight and explore some of the cultural dimensions of book making, from the phenomena of bestsellers and censorship to the role of patrons and libraries. The authors also consider who “the reading public” is at any given time, noting the state of education, literacy, and book- and periodical-selling through the centuries. (Oak Knoll Press, 1996)

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3. Twentieth Century Type Designers by Sebastian Carter

Ok, out of the dusty distant past and into the (relatively recent) present. In this volume, the book designer and printer Sebastian Carter profiles some of the best European and American type designers working from the early 20th century until this book was published in 1987. Frederic Goudy and William Addison Dwiggins are here, as well as Rudolf Koch, Victor Hammer, Jan van Krimpen, Joseph Blumenthal and many more — all of them men, of course, though there is one page devoted to Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse. (You can begin exploring women type designers here and here.) At a few well-illustrated pages per entry, Carter gives us a relatively brief but informative survey of each designer, their history and influences, and a feel for what makes their design(s) unique. I find myself pulling this book off the shelf at regular intervals, while taking a break in the print shop, to dip into the interesting personalities and creativities highlighted herein. (Taplinger Publishing, 1987)

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Well, that’s all for now, friends, as I gotta get back to setting some type ;-) Stay tuned for future installments of Book Looks, and in the meantime, be well and read on!

Emily

Book Looks: Selections from the Press Library, Part 2

Books. It all begins and ends with books here at St Brigid Press. 

Personally and professionally, my life has been significantly shaped by the encounters I’ve had with literature ~ I bet many of you have similar stories. Early in my continuing apprenticeship to traditional printing and book-making, kind friends and mentors in the craft directed me to essential volumes about letterpress, typography, printing history, and more. Those folks and the books they recommended got me started on the right foot, and I return again and again to their wisdom. 

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Over the years, through the generosity of others and through my own acquisitions, the library at St Brigid Press has grown into a rich repository of texts. I thought it might be fun for us all to take a brief look at some of these volumes ~ from type design to press maintenance, printer’s biographies to sewing books.

Here’s the second installment of “Book Looks” ~ short spotlights on some of my favorite volumes from the Press library. Enjoy! (If you missed the first Book Looks post, read it HERE.)

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BOOK LOOKS, PART 2

1. A Short History of the Printed Word, by Warren Chappell & Robert Bringhurst

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This is a good, concise introduction to the history of the origins and development of printing in the West. Warren Chappell’s original text from the early 1970s was revised and updated by Robert Bringhurst in the late 1990s to extend and expand the book’s scope. Beginning with the development of alphabets and cast type, Chappell and Bringhurst then give us a brisk, well-illustrated tour of the 15th-20th centuries: the innovations of type designers and typographers like Aldus Manutius, Simon de Colines, and Bruce Rogers; new techniques in printing illustrations from woodcuts to intaglio methods to electrotyping; and the rise and revolution of newspapers, periodicals, and, in the last chapter, digital production. This book helped me begin to get my head around the complex history of printing in the West, and introduced me to some of the brilliant people who forged new innovations in letterforms, book design, and production processes. Original edition of A Short History of the Printed Word was published in 1970; second edition published by Hartley & Marks, 1999.

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2. Mary Ann Shadd Cary: The Black Press & Protest in the 19th Century, by Jane Rhodes

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One of the many delights of delving into traditional printing and bookmaking has been the discovery of the individuals and communities who built the presses, designed the type, made the books, and passed along the printed word. One of those individuals was Mary Ann Shadd Cary — the first Black female publisher in North America. Cary (1823-1893) grew up well-educated, in a family of free African-Americans in Delaware. Her family was very active in the antislavery movement and in the movement to relocate Blacks to places where slavery had been abolished. One of those relocation areas was what is now Ontario, Canada, and Mary Ann moved there with her brother, first establishing a school and then becoming a journalist and publisher. In 1853, Cary founded The Provincial Freeman, a newspaper “Devoted to anti-slavery, temperance, and general literature.” It also supported women’s suffrage, and it served the region’s African-Canadian community for 4 years. She traveled widely, wrote essays about racial and gender equality, and, after the Civil War and the death of her husband, she moved back to the United States and got a law degree from Howard University. Cary was an amazing woman blazing trails in publishing and civil rights in the 19th century. Mary Ann Shadd Cary: The Black Press and Protest in the Nineteenth Century by Jane Rhodes is published by Indiana University Press, 1998. If Rhodes’ full biography is not for you, then here’s a newspaper article that hits some of the highlights.

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3. Against the Grain: Interviews with Maverick American Publishers, edited by Robert Dana

City Lights. Godine. Copper Canyon. New Directions. These now-legendary independent poetry publishing houses were started by likewise legendary personalities: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, David Godine, Sam Hamill & Tree Swenson, and James Laughlin. In the mid-1980s, the poet Robert Dana interviewed these and a few others who worked on the leading edge of small press publishing in 20th century America. It’s a fascinating read, ranging from the inky details of typesetting to the state of the then avant-garde. I particularly enjoyed “listening” to one of my letterpress heroes, the fine press typographer and designer Harry Duncan: “I print books for somebody who is going to discover the text of the book—poems, stories, and so on—with the same delight that I discover it as I am working on the book.” Against the Grain was published by the University of Iowa Press, 1986.

“There are only two ways to publish. One is to try to figure out what everyone else will like, which I’ve generally found to be totally unsuccessful, because nobody knows. And the other is to know what YOU like... So what I like is what I publish.”

— David Godine

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Stay tuned for future installments of “Book Looks,” friends. In the meantime, be well and read on!

Emily

Book Looks: Selections from the Press Library, Part 1

Books. It all begins and ends with books here at St Brigid Press. 

Personally and professionally, my life has been significantly shaped by the encounters I’ve had with literature ~ I bet many of you have similar stories. Early in my continuing apprenticeship to traditional printing and book-making, kind friends and mentors in the craft directed me to essential volumes about letterpress, typography, printing history, and more. Those folks and the books they recommended got me started on the right foot, and I return again and again to their wisdom. 

View fullsize

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Over the years, through the generosity of others and through my own acquisitions, the library at St Brigid Press has grown into a rich repository of texts. I thought it might be fun for us all to take a brief look at some of these volumes ~ from type design to press maintenance, printer’s biographies to sewing books.

So, here’s the first installment of “Book Looks” ~ short spotlights on some of my favorite volumes from the Press library. Enjoy!

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BOOK LOOKS, PART 1

Well, the beginning is a very good place to start, says the song, so I thought I would share a few of the very first books I read when I set out on this letterpress adventure (almost ten years ago!).

1. Printing For Pleasure, by John Ryder

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John Ryder’s Printing for Pleasure was the very first book I read on the subject. I’m grateful, as that delightful, witty, wise volume helped set the tone for the rest of my letterpress life. First published in 1955 and updated with new material in 1976, Ryder’s volume manages, in less than 150 pages, to tour us deftly through the basics of type, typography, inking and printing, and some fine examples of the work of small presses. He encourages the new printer to develop an eye for detail and a spirit of experimentation. Throughout, the book is chock-full of an inspiring curation of illustrations. Published in the US by Henry Regnery Company, Chicago, 1977.

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2. Letterpress, by David Jury

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In the beginning, of course, I had no idea what “letterpress” printing was. The second book I stumbled upon, a sort of alter-ego to John Ryder, was Letterpress: The allure of the handmade by book and print designer David Jury. As elegantly efficient as is Ryder, this tome is eclectically lavish. Jury piles illustration upon illustration to give an eye-popping tour of printing that may begin historically but is anything but “traditional.” It helped give me a sense of the broad applications of letterpress, introduced me to new ways of imagining the page, and allowed me to begin forming my own sense of what I was and was not interested in. Published by RotoVision, 2011.

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3. These Were The Hours, by Nancy Cunard

Robert Graves. Ezra Pound. Henry Crowder. Samuel Beckett. Some of the early 20th centuries most well-known artistic names were published by a woman with a historic name of her own, Nancy Cunard. Granddaughter of the founder of the Cunard ship company, she was a British heiress who became a poet, printer, and activist against racism and fascism. In France, she established The Hours Press, where she published dozens of literary texts, songs, art catalogues, and more in a flurry of intense work between 1928 and 1931. This book is her fascinating first-person account of her experiences of printing, editing, and the luminous personalities she encountered. Published by Southern Illinois University Press, 1969.

“The smell of printer’s ink pleased me greatly, as did the beautiful freshness of the glistening pigment.”

— Nancy Cunard

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Stay tuned for future installments of “Book Looks,” friends. In the meantime, be well and read on!

Emily

Shelf Life: an interview with Emily Hancock

Hello, Friends,

What a fine time we had talking about printing and poetry with Kristin Adolfson! Thanks to all of you who tuned in to the live event this week. And a big bow of gratitude to our hosts ~ the Virginia Festival of the Book and the Virginia Center for the Book.

Did you miss it?? It's now freely available to watch!
https://www.facebook.com/vabookfest/videos/297255041699409/ 

Kristin and I chat about how I got started with traditional printing, the making of the latest book, and take a walking tour of the print shop.

Enjoy!

Repairing What Breaks

Hello, Friends of the Press,

Sometimes, things break. Whether through long-use, misuse, abuse or neglect, or just plain time and tiredness. Last week a small-but-critical part on the 111-year-old cast-iron Golding Pearl press finally gave out: the chase clamp, which holds the chase (a metal frame which holds the type) in place against the press bed.

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Circled in this photo is the chase clamp. With the aid of a spring, it pivots on a small metal pin, clamping the chase to the press bed.

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Here you can see the chase clamp break ~ snapped in two right at the pin. Unfortunate, but not uncommon for these old pieces of cast-iron.

Sometimes, things can be fixed. I took the part over to a local welder to see if his expertise and tools could repair it. With a mixture of carefulness and long-experience, Stuart was able to bring the clamp back into working order, TIG welding the break with very hard nickel and then polishing it smooth. Thank you, Stuart!

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You can see the bead of nickel where the part was welded back together. It now pivots easily around the pin. (You can also see a decades-earlier weld at the left-hand tip of the clamp.)

The next day, I reinstalled the clamp and inked the press up for a test drive. The part did its job perfectly, and I went on to print about 500 pages that afternoon!

Linji the shop dog was, as usual, unimpressed ;-)

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It feels like there are some big things that are broken in our nation and world right now, and so many people are hurting. There are no easy fixes. The pandemic, centuries of racism and injustice, economic upheaval, and environmental degradation, are turning lives and livelihoods upside down. The suffering is real and deep. Our hearts and minds and hands must work with great carefulness and great courage to fully see, and compassionately meet, the needs of this moment, the needs of our brothers, sisters, and planet.

To help spread words of care and concern, solidarity and urgency, we are continuing to expand our line of The People's Postcards. This week, we debut declarations of Healthcare For All!

Like the Black Lives Matter postcards, these are pre-stamped ~ it's easy to pen a short note to your elected representatives and pop the card right in the mail.

The details:

• Letterpress printed with antique wood type.

• USPS postcard size 6" x 4.25"

• Pre-stamped / postage-paid.

• Packs of 10 ($10) and 25 ($25).

• Proceeds donated to The Poor People's Campaign.

However you choose to join in, thank you all for your efforts towards a more just, loving, and equitable world. We're all in this together.

With gratitude,
Emily

Emily Hancock
St Brigid Press
Afton, Virginia

Pressing on together for change

Hello, Friends of the Press,

The long, costly fight for justice and equality for all Americans is not over. The recent welling of protests against racism and police brutality, and in support of Black and Brown lives and livelihoods, has been unprecedented in the US and around this globe we all call home. Now is the time to press on further, to lift our voices higher, and lean in to the momentum for change across this land.

As Rev. Dr. William Barber and The Poor People's Campaign say, "We Rise Together!"

In support and in aid of the movement for justice and equality for all and the dismantling of racist policies at every level, I'm pumping out a new series of The People's Postcards. Lending the power of the printing press to empower you ~ to tell your elected officials what you think, how you feel, what you want to see accomplished in the next chapter of this experiment called America.

From small-town mayors to big-city senators, chiefs of police to environmental advisory boards ~ take ten minutes to send a note of thanks or challenge, question or urgent appeal. It matters. This is, you are, democracy in action ~ alive and embodied and an agent for meaningful change in the world.

Building on previous editions of The People's Postcards featuring Hamilton, Adams, and Douglass, ready now is this edition for Black Lives Matter:

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• Letterpress printed with antique wood type.

• USPS postcard size 6" x 4.25"

• Pre-stamped / postage-paid.

• Packs of 10 ($10) and 25 ($25).

• Proceeds donated to The Poor People's Campaign.

“A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution.”

— Martin Luther King Jr., in "Why We Can't Wait"

Let's be the change, friends.

In solidarity,
Emily

Emily Hancock
St Brigid Press
Afton, Virginia

In Conversation With Emily

This Spring I was delighted to be interviewed by the amazing Nicole Arnett Phillips of Typograph.her. Nicole is a designer, typographer, printer, and publisher based in New Zealand, and curates an indispensable monthly newsletter of “typographic musings.” Read our conversation about craft, creativity, and printing history: https://www.typographher.com/blog/2020/4/24/in-conversation-with-emily-hancock

“It is a uniquely intimate, valuable thing to hand-set poetry in metal type, letter-by-letter and space-by-space, to touch every textured page as my foot treadles the 125-year-old press, to sew every stitch tight, and then hand that book to someone who may be enlivened by it.”

— Emily Hancock