Category Archives: Books

books

Ediciones Papeles Privados



Octavio Paz (1914-1998), Instantáneas. Serigrafías de Juan Soriano. (México, D. F.: Papeles Privados; Varia Gráfica y Comunicación; Amigos del Museo de Arte Moderno, 1993). Raúl Herrera Munguía designed the binding and Juan Soriano’s serigraphs were printed in the studio of Jan Hendrix. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2020- in process
“Esta edición, numerada y firmada por los autores, está contenida en un carpeta elaborada en cuero … diseño Raúl Herrera Munguía …” Editores: Fernando Zertuche, Mario del Valle.


Mario del Valle founded Ediciones Papeles Privados (Private Paper Editions) in 1981 and this volume represents the third time they worked with the poet Octavio Paz. Their website notes, in a rough translation:

“In 1981, Ediciones Papeles Privados emerged in Mexico City, an editorial specialized in poetry and art books. One of its fundamental objectives is to continue the tradition of the artisan book producing books to enjoy its content and its invoice. The art of making a book, today, involves using old techniques and combining them with the advantages and qualities of contemporary technology. Hence, Private Papers are interested, on a way, the excellence of the amalgamated content to the visual concept of each edition. …Octavio Paz referred to its creator with the following words: “Mario del Valle is an editor poet who continues the tradition of the publishing poets. This tradition is very old. In Mexico and Latin America in general he gave, among others, Salvador Novo , Xavier Villaurrutia, Miguel N. Lira, Pablo Neruda, Manuel Altolaguirre, Rafael Alberti, Juan José Arreola … The list is big … Their editions are bold, beautiful.” —https://papelesprivados.weebly.com/ediciones-papeles-privados.html

 

Only now have I understood that there was a secret relationship between what I have called my expulsion from the present and the writing of poetry. Poetry is in love with the instant and seeks to relive it in the poem, thus separating it from sequential time and turning it into a fixed present. But at that time I wrote without wondering why I was doing it. I was searching for the gateway to the present: I wanted to belong to my time and to my century. A little later this obsession became a fixed idea: I wanted to be a modern poet. My search for modernity had begun.–Paz Nobel Prize lecture.

Make everything you need for yourself and attempt to not need what you can’t make–Raymond Duncan


The printing press of Raymond Duncan, visited by Orson Welles:

Coming soon to Princeton University Library, the books of Raymond Duncan.

Ernesto Cardenal 1926-2020

The Rev. Ernesto Cardenal, one of Latin America’s most admired poets and priests, who defied the Roman Catholic Church in the 1980s by serving in the revolutionary Sandinista government of Nicaragua, died on Sunday in Managua, Nicaragua. He was 95.

His personal assistant, Luz Marina Acosta, confirmed his death to The Associated Press.

Born to a wealthy Nicaraguan family, Father Cardenal became a prominent intellectual voice of the Nicaraguan revolution and an ardent proponent of liberation theology, a Christian movement rooted in Marxist principles and committed to social justice and uplifting the poor. He was appointed Nicaragua’s first minister of culture after the Sandinistas overthrew the dictator Gen. Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979.

As the Vatican’s opposition to liberation theology intensified in the 1980s under Pope John Paul II, Father Cardenal became a focal point. Before a scheduled visit to Nicaragua in 1983, the pope publicly demanded that Father Cardenal and four other priests who had actively supported the revolution resign their government positions. The Sandinista government refused the demand to replace them, but said its invitation to the pope still stood.

After months of public arguing, the pope accepted the invitation and landed in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital. As he walked along a receiving line on the tarmac shaking hands, the pope seemed taken aback to see Father Cardenal among the dignitaries.

While other priests were in clerical garb, Father Cardenal had shown up wearing a collarless white shirt, slacks and his signature black beret over his thick white hair. When he knelt to kiss the pope’s ring, the pope withheld his hand and wagged his finger at him as he spoke to him, apparently sternly. According to a Vatican official, the pope told Father Cardenal, “You must straighten out your position with the church,” The Associated Press reported.–Elias E. Lopez New York Times March 1, 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/world/americas/ernesto-cardenal-dead.html


Savage Impressions

Thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, P22 Publications released Savage Impressions: An Aesthetic Expedition Through the Archives of Independent Project Records & Press, founded by Bruce Licher. The Graphic Arts Collection just received one of the 350 deluxe editions that include: 12” gold vinyl record titled Tape Excavation consisting of previously unreleased recordings spanning Bruce Licher’s recording career (1980-2019); special letterpress-printed stamp sheet tipped into the book; perforated chipboard letterpress bookplate tipped in, signed and numbered by Bruce Licher; and a letterpress wrap sleeve to hold the book and record together as a set.

Bruce Licher founded Independent Project Press in 1982 after learning the art of letterpress printing at the Women’s Graphic Center in downtown Los Angeles. His initial projects centered around creating album covers, postcards and promotional stamps for his band Savage Republic and for releases on his Independent Project Records label. It didn’t take long before he was producing work for other L.A. underground music groups, along with a growing number of clients in the Los Angeles design community and an array of better-known musicians such as R.E.M, Harold Budd, and Stereolab.

Licher continues to translate his signature artistic design aesthetic to other products: book, magazine, catalog design, elegant and creative business stationery, wedding invitations, wine labels, promotional stamp sheets and booklets, and other letterpress-printed ephemera for clients large and small.

Licher currently works out of his studio on WIllow Street in the Eastern Sierra town of Bishop, California.–https://info701245.wixsite.com/mysite-5/bruce-licher

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/p22/savage-impressions-the-book

 

Savage impressions: an aesthetic expedition through the archives of Independent Project Records & Press, compiled by Bruce Licher and Karen Nielsen Licher. Deluxe edition (Rochester, NY : P22 Publications, 2020). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2020- in process

Mixing tints

Theodore Henry Adolphus Fielding (1781-1851), the elder son of Nathan Theodore Fielding, was a painter, printmaker, and teacher. He published collections of landscapes in aquatint such as: A Picturesque Tour of the English Lakes (1821), Picturesque Illustrations of the River Wye (1822), and Cumberland, Westmoreland and Lancashire Illustrated (1822).

Beginning in 1830, while still a painting instructor to the “senior classes at the Honourable East-India Company’s military Seminary” at Addiscombe, Surrey, Fielding began publishing manuals on painting, perspective, and art theory. In particular, his expertise on mixing color pigments was beautifully documented in physical sample of brightly printed color, as seen here.

The books were so popular and went through so many editions that it is often difficult to put dates to them. For instance, there were “enlarged, 2nd editions” of his On the Theory of Painting in both 1835 and 1836.  Thanks to the generous donation of Dickson Q. Brown, Princeton Class of 1895, the Graphic Arts Collection has two now rare examples:

Theodore Henry Fielding (1781-1851), An introduction to painting in water colors: in theory and practice: with an index of mixed tints, remarks on the chemical properties and permanency of colours, etc., and a manual of lithography (London : D. Bogue, 1852). Graphic Arts Collection Rowlandson 671.2

Theodore Henry Fielding (1781-1851), On the theory of painting; to which is added and index of mixed tints, and an introduction to painting in water-colours, with precepts (London, W.H. Allen, 1836). Graphic Arts Collection Rowlandson 671

 

Fielding included this quote from Sir Joshua Reynolds on the title page of many of his volumes: “The rules of art are not the fetters of genius, they are fetters only to men of no genius.”

Of the nature of colours, nearly all we know is, that they exist in various tinted rays, which combined make pure or colourless light. Could the artist be made acquainted with their physical or first cause, and how objects receive their colours, he might obtain some advantages, for they are not so splendidly and lavishly displayed throughout the works of Nature without some great meaning, otherwise their existence would seem only for our amusement instead of instruction.

 

Neues bilderreiches Poetarium

Andreas Weitbrecht, editor. Neues bilderreiches Poetarium. Zeitschrift für Dichtung und Graphik. (Frankfurt am Main: Andreas Weitbrecht, 1963-65). (42 x 59 cm; 63 x 59 cm; 59 x 83 cm). 5 issues in 4 posters. Graphic Arts Collection 2020- in process

 

 

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a complete set of Poetarium, a rare German “magazine for poetry and graphics” edited by Andreas Weitbrecht. Some of the major writers included over the three years it was published are A.C. Artmann, Johannes Bobrowski, Bazon Brock, Ernst Jandl, Karl Krolow, Friederike Mayröcker, Christoph Meckel, Franz Mon, and Ror Wolf. The graphic artists include Thomas Bayrle, Uwe Bremer, Günter Bruno Fuchs, Bernhard Jäger, Ali Schindehütte, Arno Waldschmidt and many others. The final double number folds out to a wonderful poster by Bayrle and Jäger [above].

Read more about the publication in Bernhard Fischer, Deutsche literarische Zeitschriften, 1945-1970 : ein Repertorium. herausgegeben vom Deutschen Literaturarchiv, Marbach am Neckar (München ; New York : K.G. Saur, 1992). Germanic Languages Graduate Study Room (SD) Oversize Z2225 .F572 1992q. pp. 575-6, no. 818. Every artist and writer presented over the three years is listed here:

Mienenspiel = Facial Recognition

In 1839, Georg Büchner published Lenz, a ground-breaking novella about schizophrenia. In 2020, Ines von Ketelhodt designed and published Mienenspiel, incorporating sections of Büchner’s text onto its reflective pages, placing the reader/viewer in the uncomfortable position of being outside and inside the book at the same time.

The artist writes: “The book investigates the wide range of human facial expressions and the topic of facial recognition. Thanks to the mirror effect of the paper, which is coated in silver foil, viewers see themselves in the book as they turn the pages. They can imitate the illustrations of facial expressions that are printed on the foil, and modify their reflected images accordingly. The text passages from Georg Büchner’s Lenz (1839) describe “all the subtle, barely noticed play of facial features,” “the human nature,” respect and tolerance for individuals, the “unique existence of each being,” as well as Medusa’s head.”

The original German text is printed on each right-hand page, with an English translation on the left. The texts are set around an oval shape that is reminiscent of a mirror or even a face. Viewers can read the text by turning the book counter-clockwise. This also changes the reflected surroundings of the double-page spread.

The face illustrations and texts are letterpress printed with polymer plates on Chromolux paper, which is coated on one side with aluminum. The reverse and uncoated side of the papers are glued together along the front edge.

 

Ines von Ketelhodt, designer, printer, and bookbinder, Mienenspiel (Flörsheim, Germany: Ines von Ketelhodt, 2020). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2020-in process. 40 p., embossed cloth-covered boards housed in a paper-covered slipcase, 35 numbered and signed copies. von.ketelhodt@k-und-m-design.de;  www.tloen-enzyklopaedie.de

The German dramatist and novelist Georg Büchner (1813-1837) died at the sadly young age of twenty-four, leaving the question of what he might have accomplished had he lived longer. In 1828 he became interested in politics and joined a group which later on probably became the Gießen and Darmstadt section of the “Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte” (Society for Human Rights). In 1835, his first play, Dantons Tod (Danton’s Death) about the French revolution was published, followed by Lenz, a novella based on the life of poet Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz.

His unfinished and most famous play, Woyzeck, was the first literary work in German whose main characters were members of the working class. Published after Büchner’s death, it became the basis for Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck, which was first performed in 1925.–[Wikipedia]

Lenz, Georg Büchner’s visionary exploration of an 18th-century playwright’s descent into madness, has been called the inception of European modernist prose. Elias Canetti considered this short novella one of the decisive reading experiences of his life, and writers as various as Paul Celan, Christa Wolff, Peter Schneider, and Gert Hofmann have paid homage to it in their works.

Published posthumously in 1839, Lenz provides a taut case study of three weeks in the life of schizophrenic, perhaps the first third-person text ever to be written from the “inside” of insanity. An early experiment in docufiction, Büchner’s textual montage draws on the diary of J.F. Oberlin, the Alsatian pastor who briefly took care of Lenz in 1778, while also refracting Goethe’s memoir of his troubled friendship with the playwright.”– https://archipelagobooks.org/book/lenz/

 

Artist statement: “Ines von Ketelhodt studied Visual Communication at the University of Art and Design in Offenbach, Germany. Since 1986 she works in the fields of photography, typography, artist’s books, and graphic design. She was a co-founder of the book artists’ collective Unica T (1986–2001). From 1997 to 2006 she worked together with Peter Malutzki on the fifty volumes book art project Zweite Enzyklopädie von Tlön. In 2002 she moved to Flörsheim, Germany and opened a joint workshop with Peter Malutzki. Her main interests include: experimental typography; experimental photography (such as long exposure time, taking photographs by chance); combination of photography and typography; combination of old and new techniques (such as letterpress, original photographic prints, offset and digital printing).”

Princeton students, we now also have access to the 1982 film by Alexandre Rockwell, an adaptation of Lenz, transposed from 18th century Germany to New York in the early 1980s. https://www.kanopy.com/product/lenz

When Worlds Collide: Poetry and Computation

 

Members of the class “When Worlds Collide: Poetry and Computation” visited the Graphic Arts Collection looking at ways the classic poetry book has been deconstructed beginning with Walt Whitman’s 1855 Leaves of Grass to a 2017 scroll edition of Hart Crane’s The Bridge with woodblock prints by Joel Shapiro. A wide variety of materials were pulled including four distinct versions of Stéphane Mallarmé’s Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hazard. Pages designed in positive and negative space are featured in Paul Éluard’s Proverbe, Guillaume Apollinaire’s Calligrammes, and Werner Pfeiffer’s Liber Mobile.

The interdisciplinary seminar, taught by Brian W. Kernighan and Efthymia Rentzou, brings together humanities and applied sciences, addressing questions of literacy, media, and modes of knowledge. The course is organized around poetry and digital technology and explores the history of each as systems of relating, organizing, and understanding the real. Media technologies and means of communication for both poetry and computing — from orality to writing, from the alphabet to the printing press, from the scroll to the book, from computers to the internet — structure our discussion.

Here’s a pdf of the checklist: poetry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mere Bubbles from The Scourge



When it began, The Scourge or Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly specialized in exposing patent medicines, with a chart of fakes in each issue. Each issue had a folding plate, a hand colored etching, that served as illustrations to various articles, only later evolving to single theme political caricature. The plates in the first volume were all by Samuel De Wilde, known for his theatrical portraits exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1792 until 1821. Later issues include plates by George Cruikshank, Charles Williams, and others.

The First Series was published in 66 monthly numbers 1811 to 1816, bound with a yellow pictorial wrappers. Volumes 1-2 were published by the unidentified M. Jones at 5 Newgate Street and sold by J. Johnston, Cheapside and Goddard, Pall Mall. Beginning with volume 3,William Naunton Jones took over as publisher from the same address. The magazine’s title was altered with volume 7 to The Scourge or Literary, Theatrical, and Miscellaneous Magazine. The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to hold a complete set.

January 1811
Samuel De Wilde (1751-1832), “New Roads to the Temple of Fortune” in The Scourge or Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly v.1, frontispiece (London: M Jones, January 1, 1811). An illustration to four articles in the magazine: (1) “John King,” pp. 1-27. (2) “James Henry Leigh Hunt,” pp. 46-64. (3) “Anthony Daffy Swinton,” pp. 27-46: (4) “Rev. William Huntington, S.S.,” pp. 64-77.

 

“Our Artist has omitted the title of the Caricature, which ought to be MERE BUBBLES.”

February 1811
Samuel De Wilde (1751-1832), [Mere Bubbles] in The Scourge or Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly, v.1, before page 85 (London: M Jones, February 1, 1811). An illustration to four articles in the magazine: [1] An account of Mrs. Clarke (pp. 102-36); [2] An account of Sir Godfrey Webster; [3] An account of Mr. William Taylor of the Opera House (pp. 146-64); [4] An account of a quack, Edward Senate, pp. 137-46.

 

March 1811
Samuel De Wilde (1751-1832), “Battle Royal, or Which Has It” in The Scourge or Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly v.1, before p. 175 (London: M Jones, March 1, 1811).
A satire on the hopes of the Opposition that the Prince would dismiss the Perceval Ministry on the establishment of the Regency.

April 1811
Samuel De Wilde (1751-1832), “Truth in Jeopardy, or Power, Versus Freedom” in The Scourge or Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly v.1 (London: M Jones, April 1, 1811). On 4 Mar. 1811 Lord Holland moved for an account of all ‘Information “Ex Officio”‘ in libel cases from 1 Jan. 1801 to the end of 1810.

 

May 1811
Samuel De Wilde (1751-1832), “British Cookery or ‘Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire’” in The Scourge or Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly v.1 (London: M Jones, May 1, 1811). The plate is explained; “That Ney should be in a pickle and Buonaparte in a stew John Bull will think very natural. General Graham . . . [gives] new vigor to the flame of patriotism.” The spitted goose is Massena.

 

June 1811
George Cruikshank (1792-1878), “Dinner of the Four in Hand Club at Salthill” in The Scourge or Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly, v.1, before p. 431. (London: M Jones, June 1, 1811). Illustration to an article ‘The Dinner at Salt Hill’ in The Satirist, March 1, 1811. The Four-in-hand Club met in Cavendish Square, seven members only. The president was C. Buxton (probably Charles, 1787-1817). There is a second state, with the title Bang-up Dinner or Love and Lingo, a frontispiece to Lexicon Balatronicum, A Dictionary of Buckish Slang University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence, compiled originally by Captain Grose . . .’, 1811.

 

July 1811
George Cruikshank (1792-1878), “The Return to Office” in The Scourge or Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly v.2, frontispiece (London: M Jones, July 1, 1811). Also an illustration to The Duke of York, the Whigs and the Burdettites, pp. 1-5.

August 1811
George Cruikshank (1792-1878), “The Blessing of Paper Money, or King a Bad Subject” in The Scourge or Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly v.2, p. ? (London: M Jones, August 1, 1811).

September 1811
George Cruikshank (1792-1878), “Quadrupeds; or the Managers Last Kick. Last Scene” in The Scourge, or Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly v.2, before p. 177 (London: M Jones, September 1, 1811). [On 18 July 1811 a heroic, tragic, operatic drama with the title of the print was played for the first time by the English Opera Company at the Lyceum.]

 

October 1811
George Cruikshank (1792-1878), “The Examination, of a Young Surgeon” in The Scourge or Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly, v.2, before p. 263 (London: M Jones, October 1, 1811). The plate illustrates ‘Medical Science Exemplified’, pp. 263-8, ridiculing the education and examination of surgeons with special reference to two Scottish examiners, clearly David Dundas and Everard Home, both Serjeant-surgeons to the King.

November 1811
George Cruikshank (1792-1878), “Interior View of the House of God” in The Scourge or Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly, v.2, before p. 349 (London: M Jones, November 1, 1811). A savage account of Carpenter, a paper-maker of Neckinger House, appeared in the August number of The Scourge v.2. 94-102. The ‘tickets’ must be the half-sheets signed and sealed by Joanna Southcott, by which the faithful were ‘sealed’ or certificated for the millennium.

December 1811
George Cruikshank (1792-1878), “Princely Piety, or the Worshippers at Wanstead” in The Scourge or Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly v. 2, before p. 473. (London: M Jones, December 1, 1811).

Vol. 3
No. 13. The Rehearsal, or the Baron and the Elephant. January 1st, 1812.
No. 14. The Mountebanks, &c., &c. February 1st, 1812.
No. 15. Princely Amusements, &c., &c. March 1st, 1812.
No. 16. Princely Predictions, &c., &c. April 1st, 1812.
No. 17. The Prince of Wales, &c., &c. May 1st, 1812.
No. 18. The Antiquarian Society. June 1st, 1812.
Vol. 4
No. 19. The Political Medley, &c., &c. July 1st, 1812.
No. 20. The Cow Pox Tragedy. 1812.
No. 21. The Coronation of the Empress of the Nairs. September 1st, 1812.
No. 22. An Excursion to R Hall. October 1st, 1812.
No. 23. The Court of Love, &c., November 12th, 1812.
No. 24. Management of Butts and Hogsheads. December 1st, 1812.
Vol. 5
No. 25. Quadrupeds, or, Little Bonev’s Last Kick. January 1st, 1813.
No. 26. The Storming of Monopoly Fort. February 1st, 1813.
No. 27. John Bull in the Cellar, &c., kc. March 1st, 1813.
No. 28. State Mysteries, or, a Vision of Pall Mall. April 1st, 1813.
No. 29. The Delicate Investigation. May 1st, 1813.
No. 30. A Sepulchral Enquiry into English History. June 1st, 1813.
Vol. 6
No. 31. John Bull in the Council Chamber. July 1st, 1813.
No. 32. Preparing John Bull for General Congress. August 1st, 1813.
No. 33. The Regency Park. September 1st, 1813.
No. 34. Rival Candidates for the Vacant Bays. Oct. 1st, 1813.
No. 35. Benefits of a Plentiful Harvest, November. 1st, 1813.
No. 36. The Sale of the Coal Heaver’s Scraps. Decr.1st, 1813.
Vol. 7—”The Scourge or Literary, Theatrical, and Miscellaneous Magazine.”
No. 37. Smuggling in High Life. January 1st, 1814.
No. 38. The Divine and the Donkey, or Petworth Frolicks. February 1st, 1814.
No. 39. Imperial Botany, &c., &c. March 1st, 1814.
No. 40. Modern Idolatry, or, Editors and Idols. April 1st, 1814.
No. 41. Nic, alias Nap’s March to Elba. May 1st, 1814.
No. 42. Royal Munificence, &c., &c. June 1st, 1814.
Vol. 8
No. 43. Spirits at Work—Joanna Conceiving. July 1st, 1814.
No. 44. The R 1 Pedagogue and his Ushers. August 1st, 1814.
No. 45. A Paradise for Fools, &c. In three compartments. September. 1st, 1814.
No. 46. Hocus Poems, or, Conjurers Raising the Wind. October 1st, 1814.
No. 47. Delivering a Prophetess. Nov. 1st, 1814.
No. 48. The Siege of St. Quentin. December. 1st, 1814.

Vol. 9
No. 49. The Property Tax—Civic Champions, or, the Darling in Danger. January 2, 1815.
No. 50. Amusements at Vienna, &c., &c. Feb. 1st, 1815.
No. 51. John Bull’s Three Stages. In three compartments. March 1st, 1815.
No. 52. The High Winds of March blowing Events from all quarters. April 1815.
No. 53. The Phomix of Elba resuscitated by Treason. May 1st, 1815.
No. 54. Preparing for War. June 1st, 1815.
Vol. 10
No. 55. Nebuchadnazzars Dream. July 1st, 1815.
No. 56. A Financial Survey of Cumberland, &c. August 1st, 1815.
No. 57. Napoleon’s Trip from Elba to Paris, and from Paris to St. Helena. Sept. 1st, 1815.
No. 58. Boxiana, or, The ‘Fancy. October. 1st, 1815.
No. 59. The Progress of Disappointment, or the Hopes of a Day. November 1st, 1815.
No. 60. State of Politicks at the close of the year 1815. December 1st, 1815.
Vol. 11
No. 61. Royal Christmas Boxes and New Year’s Gifts, 1815 & 16. January 1st, 1816.
No. 62. Odds and Ends for February, 1816. In three compartments. Feb. 1st, i816.
No. 63. The Pall Mall Apollo, or, R tv in a Blaze. March 1st, 1816.
No. 64. Royal Nuptials. April 1st, 1816.
No. 65. Economy—Anticipation. Two compartments. May 1st, 1816.
No. 66. A Bazaar. June 1st 1816.

 

 

Willa Cather’s April Twilights

In June 1931, Willa Cather received the first honorary degree awarded to a woman by Princeton University. It was only one of many awards she received, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for her novel One of Ours. Also that year, Cather published a second edition of her first book of poems April Twilight, originally appearing in 1903 (Ex 3670.29.312.1903). This had a special importance to Princeton, as it was printed by Elmer Adler, later to be Princeton’s first curator of graphic arts.

Alfred Knopf wrote to Cather in July of 1922 that he had attracted the interest of “one of the finest printers I know” with the idea of producing “a quite handsome de luxe edition” of Cather’s April Twilights … . He continued, “I can’t point to much work they have done for us except the one full-page advertisement that we had in the New York Times a couple of months ago which attracted a good deal of favorable attention.” The printers in question were Adler’s Pynson Printers, and the deluxe edition they produced was April Twilights and Other Poems (1923). –read more Matthew Lavin “Material Memory,” Studies in the Novel 445, no. 3 (Fall 2013).

Willa Cather (1873-1947), April Twilights and Other Poems (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1923). Graphic Arts RCPXG-5905085 “Of this book, there were printed … by the Pynson Printers … four hundred and fifty numbered copies, each signed by the author”–P. [68].  This edition includes 13 new poems, eliminating 13 from the original volume.

Knopf warned Cather, who insisted on typographic perfection, “Now the point is just this, and I am going to be quite frank with you and expect you to be equally frank with me. The whole job in all its details would have to be left to these printers. In a work, I get the manuscript and we both get finished books. For myself, I am satisfied that I would like the job they turn out. …”


Adler had only recently opened his press but already had a reputation as a perfectionist, as outlined in ‘A Talk of the Town’ piece for the New Yorker in November 12, 1932:

“Mr. Elmer Adler worked in the family clothing-manufacturing business—Rochester-Adler Clothiers of Rochester, N.Y.—for twenty years before, at the age of thirty-eight, he came to the definite conclusion that it was boring him stiff. Then, without any intermediate steps to speak of, he came to New York and started Pynson Printers, Inc., naming it after Richard Pynson, the famous printer of the sixteenth century. It has been one of the few shops in the city doing fine handwork exclusively, and from its presses come the most de-luxe of special editions; the Random House “Candide,” for example.

Mr. Adler had long been interested in fine printing, apparently acquiring the taste when preparing ads for his family’s business; now he is one of the most important experts in the country, advising the Times, Alfred Knopf, and many others about formats and type faces. He had three partners when he started, but two dropped out shortly afterward. He was about to close up the business then, and would have if he hadn’t hired a Miss Greenberg to give him a hand through the last few days. Miss Greenberg was pretty peeved when she discovered the business was folding up just when she arrived and, after looking around a day or two, said: “why fold it up? It’s a nice little business.” So Mr. Adler decided to continue, with Miss Greenberg as business manager that was in 1922.

Two years later, Adolph Ochs picked Pynson as the best printing house and invited it to move into his Times Annex, where he had planned to collect the best practitioners of all the graphic arts. He abandoned this plan later, finding the Times needed all the room itself, but Pynson stayed. It’s still there, occupying a gallery full of bells, a library full of old books, an office, and a large light room full of nine printers, hand-setting. In the printshop is a hundred-year-old press upon which proofs are pulled. In the book room are many rare and typographically interesting books.; firsts of the fifteenth century, and things like that.

Mr. Adler is short, single, clean-shaven, and wears Adler ready-mades. He doesn’t set type himself. It doesn’t interest him, and if it did he’d be out of luck, as the owner of a shop can’t join the union. He designs the books, corrects proof, and the like, Has no salesmen, never solicits work, and takes jobs only on the understanding that he’s the boss so far as printing goes. His shop turns out three or four books a year that people hear about, always in small quantities.

It also prints books privately for amateur poets and such. When the Times’ employees gave Mr. Ochs a testimonial book on his seventieth birthday, Adler printed it: one copy, at a cost of $4,000. He has done special editions of Willa Cather, Lord Dunsany, Arthur Machen, Elinor Wylie, James Stephens, and others. He doesn’t care about the literary quality of his books, however; they’re just fine typography and handmade paper to him. Given a free hand, he’s enjoy getting out an issue of the congressional record. He’s the chief editor, and chief everything else, of the Colophon, the Book-Collector’s Quarterly. It started up two years ago and has done very well, everything considered; editions limited, of three thousand this year. He prints parts of each issue and the rest is done in half a dozen other fine printshops in this country and England.”