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Book Looks: Selections from the Press Library, Part 4

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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, 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.]

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

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.

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.)

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

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Book Looks: Selections from the Press Library, Part 3

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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

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

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)

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

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)

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)

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

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Book Looks: Selections from the Press Library, Part 2

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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. 

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.)

BOOK LOOKS, PART 2

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Emily

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Women in Literature: Past, Present, & Future

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Women in Literature: Past, Present, & Future

Last week, I had the great pleasure of being a guest in a Women in Literature class at Northern Virginia Community College (Woodbridge). Professor Indigo Eriksen, a fabulous poet and teacher whom I had met some years ago at a poetry festival, invited me to show her students a simple sewn binding technique that they could use for their end-of-term chapbook projects.

"Women in Literature" students hand-sewing their first notebooks.

"Women in Literature" students hand-sewing their first notebooks.

That initial intent blossomed into spending an hour and a half with her wonderful class, sharing about the history of women in printing and publishing, sewing a couple of notebooks together, and letterpress printing a keepsake on an old traveling press. Later that afternoon, I gathered with about twenty other students in the campus auditorium to talk about poetry, writing, language, and to read a bit from my own work in The Open Gate: New & Selected Poems. 

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I was incredibly moved and invigorated by the engagement of these young women in the class, and the women & men at the reading. They were so present, interested and interesting, bright, and energized. They asked thoughtful, insightful questions, and deepened my own curiosity and understanding about language and literature. The students in the class took to sewing like ducks to water, and they are now part of the great lineage of women who have made a book! I am honored to have crossed paths with them all, and look forward to seeing their creative lives unfold. 

Here's a video of a happy printer ~ Janae printing her first letterpress piece on the 1930 Kelsey 3x5 press!

Here are a few photos from our conversation later that afternoon about poetry, writing, and publishing:

Here are a few slides from what I shared with the students about the history of women in printing and publishing. It's a long and vibrant history, one that they are now a part of!

Many, many thanks to Professor Indigo Eriksen, the fantastic students at Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge, and Deans David Epstein & Michael Turner for inviting me to spend a wonderful afternoon with them!

All best wishes to all, 

Emily Hancock

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Printing, Circa 1776

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Printing, Circa 1776

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a demonstration of the University of Virginia’s replica wooden common press:

The common press at the University of Virginia.

The earliest printing presses in Europe, from the time of Johannes Gutenberg and his associates Peter Schöffer and Johann Fust, were constructed primarily out of wood. Using similar technologies as contemporary agricultural presses (for winemaking, papermaking, olive oil extraction, and linen pressing), these 15th century printing presses used a wooden screw to lower a heavy wooden plate onto a bed holding cast metal type. The screw was turned by pulling a lever, or "bar" (also called the Devil's Tail ;-). Wooden common presses remained in use until the early 1800s, when iron handpresses and new types of cylinder and platen presses were developed.

Josef Beery demonstrating UVA's wooden common press.

UVA’s common press was constructed in the 1970s, as a result of research at the Smithsonian Institution on the "Franklin" common press. It is on display in the Harrison Small Building’s South Gallery. Though the bar is kept locked for safety most of the time, you can still walk right up to the press and examine much of its design and function. Occasionally, folks associated with UVA’s Rare Book School offer working demonstrations.

The session I attended last week was lead by Josef Beery ~ book designer, letterpress printer, woodcut artist, papermaker, educator, and cofounder of the Virginia Arts of the Book Center in Charlottesville. A practitioner of the printing arts for many decades, Beery is a perfect guide to the history and use of this fascinating press.

When you finish marveling at the wooden common press, head downstairs to the Albert & Shirley Small Special Collections Library. A highlight of the Library’s wonderful collection of rare books and manuscripts (including significant holdings in the history of books and printing) is a rare first-printing of the Declaration of Independence, printed the night of July 4th by John Dunlap. It’s on permanent display along with many other early printings of the document (the world’s most comprehensive collection of these) near the Library’s entrance.

If you're ever in the vicinity of Charlottesville, Virginia, don't miss this chance to see the common press, the Declaration of Independence, and many other artifacts of printing-circa-1776!

* For more information on early American printing history, visit the American Printing History Association (APHA) website.

* To follow the fascinating process of reconstructing a wooden common press, visit Seth Gottlieb's blog post series at APHA.

* Watch Josef Beery demonstrating the traditional method of using ink balls to apply ink to the type on a common press:

Josef Beery using traditional ink balls to apply ink to the type on the University of Virginia's replica wooden common press.

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Diary of a Printed Page

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Diary of a Printed Page

I must confess ~ each time a piece of paper goes into the printing press blank and emerges again filled with words, I am astonished. 

What still feels like the sudden epiphany of language out-of-nothing is not, in fact, miraculous. It is careful, collaborative craftsmanship by author and papermaker and metal-caster and printer, among others. It’s a strangely fluid movement of human and machine ~ an always-changing choreography of eye and iron, hand and fiber, thought and ink and breath. 

Joyous!

Here’s a little photo diary from today’s print run. I was printing the second color (in red) on the title page of St Brigid Press’s newest book, forthcoming in early February.

Thanks so much for joining us on this journey. All best to you all,

St Brigid Press

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How Type is Made, Part 2

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How Type is Made, Part 2

Traditional letterpress printing requires physical letters, cast from metal or carved from wood, which get inked and pressed into paper to make a print. In the last post, we took a look at the process of making type from metal (if you missed it, click here). In this installment, we’ll see how it’s created from wood.

Civil War recruitment poster.
From the International Printing Museum website.
http://www.printmuseum.org/museum/wood-type-2/

Wood came to be used as a material for making letters for printing primarily in the 1800s, when the printing and advertising industry became more widespread. Imagine trying to lift a big “Wanted”-poster-sized chase of metal type — pretty darn heavy! (See the photo of a Civil War recruitment poster.) Letters carved and routed from holly or maple were MUCH lighter, and could be made MUCH larger than their metal counterparts. 

Here at the Press, we’re fortunate to care for and print with a nice selection of wood type, most of which was made between 1875 and 1910. If used with plenty of TLC, it’ll outlast us (just like our presses)!

Here's a slide-show of some of the materials and tools used to create wood type, along with some of the type in our collection here at the Press:

A lot of vintage type, however, either went to the scrap heap decades ago, is just too damaged to print well anymore, or is too scarce and expensive for most printers to purchase. Thankfully, there are a few excellent folks who are making brand new type from wood today!

Here is a great interview (4 mins) of Geri McCormick of Virgin Wood Type (Rochester, NY), by Frank Romano.

And another great short (1 min) video of Scott Moore, of Moore Wood Type (in Ohio), making new wood type:

Want to know more about the wonderful world of wood type?

Here are some great resources ~

Thanks for joining us on this journey into type! Please sign up below for more occasional dispatches from letterpress land!

St Brigid Press

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A Letterpress Lexicon, Part 1

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A Letterpress Lexicon, Part 1

Hi, dear Friends of St Brigid Press,

As many of you know, I love language. And one of the things that has been exceedingly enjoyable about learning the craft of traditional printing is learning its associated lexicon ~ the words and phrases that identify printing's particular tools and processes.

In this occasional blog series, "A Letterpress Lexicon," I thought I'd share with you some of my favorites. Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today's three words are

CHASE, FURNITURE, and QUOIN

CHASE:  A chase is an iron or steel rectangular frame into which the type to be printed is placed. After the type is secured, the chase is lifted into the bed of the printing press, the type is inked, and an impression is made upon paper.

FURNITURE:  Wooden or metal furniture is used to surround the block of type within the chase, taking up any extra space between type and chase edge. Wooden furniture, such as we use here at St Brigid Press, is traditionally made from kiln-dried hardwoods, and comes in standard sizes to fit the job.

QUOIN:  A quoin is an adjustable metal wedge used to tighten and "lock" the type and furniture in the chase. Although there are a variety of styles, all quoins operate with the basic principle of applying pressure to secure the form, allowing the chase to be safely lifted into the printing press.

And here's a short little video that puts all these pieces together!

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Minding Our "P"s and "Q"s

Setting the type for the Introduction in "A Commonplace Book," letter-by-letter and space-by-space. Not to mention our "b"s and "d"s!

There are a host of everyday words and phrases that have their origin in the printing tradition. Here are a couple of fun facts from the Press today:

"Minding one's 'p's and 'q's" began as an admonition to the typesetter, to look carefully at which letters he or she was choosing when setting a text. Since moveable type (for more on this, see Here) is set upside-down and backwards, the cast-metal "p" looks like a "q" and vice versa, sometimes causing confusion at best and misspelled words at worse. Lowercase "b" and "d" offer the same challenge, though I'm not aware of a phrase commemorating these letters ;-)

Can you guess which letters I'm holding in the composing stick? Type is set upside-down and backwards, so the brain has to do a bit of gymnastics to read this: from left-to-right, the letters read "p", "q", "b", and "d".

And here's another set of words from printing history ~ "uppercase" and "lowercase."

"Uppercase" and "Lowercase"

In traditional printing, the individual metal letters with which words and sentences are composed are stored in carefully organized drawers called cases. Originally, one case held all of the small letters and was positioned on a rack near the printer; another case held all of the larger letters, for the beginnings of sentences, titles, and such, and this case was placed in a rack immediately above the small-letter case. Thus was born "uppercase" and "lowercase."

Upper- and lowercases filled with type, at the Government Printing Office, circa 1910. (Photo from glass negatives by Harris & Ewing, courtesy of www.shorpy.com)

So there's our little dose of printing history for today. Now it's back to the Shop to set some type!

All best to all,

St Brigid Press

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