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~ News from the Rare Books Department of Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

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Tag Archives: New York

We recommend – Book Arts Program workshop

05 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Recommended Workshop

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50 Books/50 Covers, Adobe Illustrator, AIGA, American Institute of Graphic Arts, Book Arts Program, Book Arts Studio, broadside, Brooklyn, Center for Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago, David Wolske, digital lettering, Free Amos Kennedy, Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum, Herron School of Art & Design, Indiana University, J. Willard Marriott Library, Katharine Coles, letterpress, Louise Fili Ltd, Mary Toscano, New York, photopolymer plates, Proceed to Be Bold, Red Butte Press, Salt Lake City, Society of Typographic Arts, Spencer Charles, The Malby Globes, Type Director's Club, typographic design, University of Utah, Utah Poet Laureate, Whole Foods

Lettering to Letterpress: From Screen to Printed Page
Spencer Charles and David Wolske
June 11–13
Thursday & Friday, 9:00-5:00; Saturday, 10:00–5:00
Book Arts Studio, Marriott Library, Level 4
$270

Take digital lettering to new depths during this three-day intensive with Spencer Charles, one of the rising stars of contemporary typographic design. Participants learn the tools and techniques to make a curvaceous catchword, magnificent monogram, pithy phrase, or dynamite drop cap. Output finished vector drawings to photopolymer plates and produce letterpress printed in limited editions. Printing experience is not necessary, but a working knowledge of Adobe Illustrator is strongly recommended.
– – –
Spencer Charles is a typographic designer and letterer residing in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating from the University of Utah, his interest in hand lettering developed as a chalkboard/signage artist for Whole Foods. In 2011, he moved to New York to work as Senior Designer at Louise Fili Ltd, a design studio specializing in logo, food package, and book design. He is currently working independently and is expanding into typeface design and illustration.
David Wolske is Assistant Librarian (Lecturer) and Creative Director for the Book Arts Program and Red Butte Press. He has taught design, typography, and letterpress printing at Indiana University, Herron School of Art & Design, the Center for Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago, The Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum, and The University of Utah. David’s letterpress work is featured in multiple design and letterpress publications. He holds awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Type Director’s Club, and the Society of Typographic Arts.


PS3553-O47455-M53-2009

The Malby globes
Katharine Coles
Salt Lake City: University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library, Book Arts Program, Red Butte Press, 2009
PS3553 O47455 M53 2009

From the colophon: “To commemorate the rededication of the J. Willard Marriott Library on October 26, 2009, the Book Arts Program and Red Butte Press produced this keepsake. Utah Poet Laureate Katharine Coles and artist Mary Toscano responded to the newly refurbished Malby Globes housed in the library. Designer David Wolske brought the elements together, and Program staff printed the broadside in the Book Arts Studio.” Edition of three hundred and seventy-five copies. University of Utah copy is no. 264, signed by the poet and artist.


Z256-F74-2011

Free Amos Kennedy
Salt Lake City, UT: Book Arts Studio, 2011
Z256 F74 2011

Broadside advertising the closing reception of the AIGA exhibition, “50 Books/50 Covers,” with a screening of the film, “Proceed and Be Bold.” From the colophon: “Design and letterpress printing by Spencer Charles and David Wolske…”

Rare Books is pleased to support the Book Arts Program with its historical, fine press, and artists’ books collections.

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Book of the Week – Incidents of Travel in Central America…

01 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Alexander van Humboldt, ancient, Central America, drawings, Frederick Catherwood, Greeks, Harper, John L. Stephens (1805-1852), John Lloyd Stephens, Levant, lithographs, Lost Tribes of Israel, Martin Van Buren, Mesoamerica, Mesoamerican, New York, ruins, travel



Incidents of Travel in Central America…
John L. Stephens (1805-1852)
New York: Harper, 1841
First edition
F1432 S83

In 1839 John Lloyd Stephens, known for his books on his travels to the Levant, was sent by President Martin Van Buren to Central America on a diplomatic mission. Stephens had interest in Mesoamerica after reading the writings of explorer Alexander van Humboldt. Stephens was accompanied by Frederick Catherwood, an English artist with archaeological experience.

Incidents is illustrated with lithographs of drawings by Catherwood which set the standard for archaeological illustration – accurate and complete depictions of what he and Stephens saw. Stephens’ descriptions were just as accurate. After studying the ruins, he became convinced that, contrary to popular opinion, the ruins were not the work of the Lost Tribes of Israel nor ancient Greeks, but that of the ancestors of the people who continued to populate the area. The work inspired generations of scholars to explore and preserve Mesoamerican ruins.

Reviews of the book were positive. Within three months of publication five thousand copies had sold; by October, 12,000; by December 20,000 in its eleventh printing.

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We recommend – Fantasies & Hard Knocks

29 Friday May 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Recommended Reading

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Alabama, Anthony Burgess, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Biblioteca di via Senato, Book Arts Program at the University of Alabama, Brendan Gill, C. F. Cavafy, Cottondale, Dana Gioia, Ecuador, Ex Ophidia, Ex Ophidia Press, Fantasies & Hard Knocks, fine press, Fulvio Testa, handpress, Italo Calvino, Italy, J. Willard Marriott Library, Jack Spicer, John Cheever, Jorge Luis Borges, Milan, New York, Oregon, Paul Zweig, Plain Wrapper Press, Port Townsend, printers, Quito, R. B. Kitaj, rare books, Richard-Gabriel Rummonds, Rome, San Francisco, Special Collections, University of Utah, Verona

 




FANTASIES & HARD KNOCKS: MY LIFE AS A PRINTER
Richard-Gabriel Rummonds (b.1931)
Port Townsend, OR: Ex Ophidia Press, 2015

Richard-Gabriel Rummonds is recognized as one of the world’s pre-eminent handpress printers of the late twentieth century. For nearly twenty-five years, using the imprints of Plain Wrapper Press and Ex Ophidia, he printed and published illustrated limited editions of contemporary literature on iron handpresses, primarily in Verona, Italy and Cottondale, Alabama. Rummonds’ work has been exhibited in Rome, New York, and San Francisco. In 1999, a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Biblioteca di via Senato in Milan, Italy. His books are held in museums, libraries and private collections worldwide.

Rummonds was appointed founding director of the MFA in the Book Arts Program at the University of Alabama in 1984. He has taught workshops around the world, including the University of Utah.

Fantasies & Hard Knocks, “embellished with over 450 images [most in color] and 65 recipes,” is a candid autobiography chronicling the printing and publishing of Rummonds’ pieces issued with Plain Wrapper Press and Ex Ophidia imprints.

In 1966, Rummonds founded Plain Wrapper Press in Quito, Ecuador, moving it to Verona, Italy in 1970, where he mastered his craft on nineteenth-century handpresses and established a worldwide reputation for excellent fine press productions. In 1982, Rummonds established Ex Ophidia in Cottondale, Alabama.

pg568-569spread

His memoir is filled with deeply personal anecdotes of working closely with many of the most acclaimed and renowned authors and artists of the time, including Jorge Luis Borges, Anthony Burgess, Italo Calvino, C. F. Cavafy, John Cheever, Brendan Gill, Dana Gioia, Jack Spicer, Paul Zweig, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Fulvio Testa, R. B. Kitaj and others.

pg746-747spread

Rare Books, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library holds a significant archive of the works, library, and ephemera of Richard-Gabriel Rummonds.

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Memorial Day 2015

25 Monday May 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Alfred H. Guernsey (1824-1902), Chicago, Civil War, engravings, Harper's Weekly, Henry M. Alden, Kaleidograph Press, Luise Putcamp jr, New York, Sonnets for Survivors, Thomas Nast, United States, Winslow Homer

AFTERMATH

My heart’s a scrapbook pasted by a child.
The lines run rampant and the colors wild
In pictures unrelated, and the words
Hop inconsistent like the tracks of birds.
And every other page holds empty space
Where time tore out the pictures of your face.

Luise Putcamp jr from Sonnets for Survivors, Kaleidograph Press, 1952
“Aftermath” published here with permission of the author



Harper’s Pictorial History of the Great Rebellion
Alfred H. Guernsey (1824-1902)
Chicago, IL: McDonnell Bros, 1866-1868
E468.7 G932 1866 oversize

Culled from the pages of Harper’s Weekly, the most popular magazine of its day, Harper’s Pictorial History of the Great Rebellion illustrated the chronology of the Civil War and a brief history of the United States with an emphasis on the causes of the war. Most of the copy was taken directly from issues of the magazine as it covered the war. Harper’s sent both reporters and artists with the troops. Nearly one thousand original engravings kept recent past in memory: battle scenes, camps, marches, soldier life, portraits of officers, and maps. Artists such as Thomas Nast and Winslow Homer contributed to the magazine. Editors Alfred H. Guernsey and Henry M. Alden worked to compile and publish a definitive history of the war, using their own magazine as their main source, adding unpublished information as well. The Chicago edition was issued contemporaneously with the New York first edition, using the same sheets.

 

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“Time travel exists” – University of Utah student Mary Royal writes about Rare Books impact

22 Friday May 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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1790, Alison Conner, America, American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin, Civil War, Euclid, First Acts of the First Session of Congress of the United States, Gutenberg Bible, history, John Locke, Luise Poulton, Marriott Library, Mary Alicia Royal, Nathaniel Rochester, New York, printing, rare books, Reformation, Rochester, S. J. Quinney College of Law, Special Collections, University of Utah, War of 1812

Time travel exists. On the fourth floor of the Marriott Library I have sat with the founding fathers as they pondered the questions facing the new nation on the heels of the American Revolution, been astounded at the invention of movable type in the revolution of the printing process, and solved mathematical principles with Euclid. While the famous people who turned the wheels of history are not miraculously hiding out on the U’s campus, the works they created are.

QA31-E86-E5-1482-FirstPage

The rare books collection holds treasures from all corners of the globe that are available to anyone who wishes to uncover the magical milestones in history that helped to shape our present reality. A simple trip to the rare books will undoubtedly inspire and present questions that will lead to more trips back to the collection.

My freshman year at the U I took a class on the Reformation. The syllabus for the course dictated that on a certain day we would gather at the rare books collection at the library. At the time I didn’t know what to expect, and I certainly didn’t realize that this one time excursion out of the classroom and into the library would forever change my experience at the U and my understanding and passion for the study of history.

My class filed into the special collections classroom and were told to wipe our hands with baby wipes. As we cleaned our hands a large hardbound book was set before us. The book was obviously old and as the cover was opened to reveal the pages inside, it was clear it was not of this era. The thickness of the pages, paired with the indentation of the lettering on the page served as clues into a past that was far richer than any normal book in the shelves standing in the library below.

As I stared at the pages, completely enamored by their coloration, markings and engravings, the curator explained that the page sitting before us was an original leaflet of the Gutenberg Bible. Yes, that Gutenberg Bible, the first book printed after the invention of movable type. My heart started racing. I was standing in the same room, feet away from one of the most influential pieces of history in the world. This excitement I felt was multiplied when we were informed that we could come forward and hold it in our hands.


I think I partly expected to have to put on special gloves and admire the copy under glass. But as I moved up in the line, it became clear that I could hold the copy, no gloves, no glass, just me and the book. When the curator put the book in my hands, it was a feeling that I had never felt before. I can only explain it as a mixture of admiration, gratitude, and awe. For those brief moments that I held the leaflet of the Gutenberg Bible in my bare hands, the past and present collided. I was touching the same pages that came off the press nearly 550 years earlier.

I ran my hand over the page and could feel the indentations of the letters, and smell the old fibers of the paper. From this point on my experience at the U was forever changed. It wasn’t long after that trip to the rare books that I made the decision to declare my academic major in history. Every history class I took from that moment until my graduation I would find myself returning to the rare books.

Walking through the doors of the collection, for me, was like taking a step outside of the busy world we live in, to spend a few unadulterated moments with my historical friends. There have been times over the years that I have admittedly been moved to tears at the sight of certain books, and have felt completely unworthy to be in their presence. This happened recently during a project for my Worlds of Benjamin Franklin class.

As a requirement of the course we had to pick a book in the rare books to study and report on. After meeting with Luise Poulton, who was more than willing to sit down with me and explore options for the project, I decided upon the First Acts of the First Session of Congress of the United States. The cover of the book had completely separated from the spine of the book and the pages were old, some of them bent, with writing and notes filling the inside.


As I carefully turned the pages, I was overcome with the sense that I was holding a piece of America. This book is a first edition that was printed in 1790. As I researched the book, I discovered that this particular one was once the property of Nathaniel Rochester, a veteran of the Revolutionary War and the founder of Rochester, New York. As I began to unveil the history lurking behind the signatures on the inside cover I discovered that the book had also gone through the hands of veterans of the War of 1812 and the Civil War as well as influential legal minds in our country’s formative years. And finally, as I sat in the rare books reading room, I became the next person in the storied line of individuals who had the fortune of being part of this book’s history.

As a new graduate of the University of Utah’s History department I’ve spent recent days reflecting on my time at the U. During this reflection I have pondered on both the people that shaped my experiences as well as places that aided in the enrichment of educational pursuits. Although I have encountered multiple people and places that influenced the completion of my degree, I can say, without hesitation, that the rare books collection had the greatest impact on my desire to study history.

While my time in undergrad has come to an end, my relationship with the rare books collection is far from over. As I begin my legal studies at the U’s SJ Quinney College of Law this fall, I know I will find myself visiting a new set of historical friends. I’m confident the writings of John Locke have untold stories and lessons to teach me as I pursue my juris doctorate.


I have told Luise Poulton and Alison Conner, curators in the rare books department, on multiple occasions that I wish I could spend all day in the collection, going through the pages of history that the U has been charged with the immense responsibility of caring for. My wish for future generations of students at the U is that they have the opportunity, to visit the collection and experience the unparalleled feeling and emotion that accompany the opportunity to hold history in your hands. How lucky we are, as students past and present of the U, to have access to such a resource!

Mary Alicia Royal, BA, Class of 2015

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Forty Years, in memoriam

30 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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American, aquatint, Boulder, British, Buddha, C. David Thomas, China, Cochin China, collage, Colorado, communists, Cornwall, Daphne, Dong Ho, drawings, Earl of Macartney, Edinburgh Review, Emperor of China, English, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Fred Siegenthaler, French, Fulbright Scholar, George Schneeman (1934-2009), GI Bill, Granary Books, Hanoi, helicopter, Hermetic Press, Ho Chi Minh, HP Photosmart Pro B9180, Huu Mai, Indochina, injet printer, International Volunteer Services, Italy, J. Willard Marriott Library, Jeff Branin, John Balaban, John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Kawabata Press, Korea, Lancashire, letterpress, London, love, magnesium plates, Massachusetts, Millbrook, Minneapolis, Muttenz, National Book Award, National Poetry Society of America, Nepal, New York, Norman Morrison, North Carolina State University, North Vietnam, Orient, Oxford, paper, papermaking, Phan Ke An, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, philately, Philip Gallo, Pleiku, poems, portfolio, postage stamps, President, propaganda, puzzle, Raleigh, Rhamnoneron blansae, Rhode Island School of Design, Richard Nixon, Rives 300 gm, Robert McNamara, Robert W. Chandler, Sir John Barrow (1764-1848), South Hinksey, South Vietnam, Strand, Switzerland, T. Cadell, Ted Berrigan (1934-1983), Tet Offensive, Torpoint, United States, University of Minnesota, University of Tulsa, University of Utah, US Army, Verona, Vietnam, Vietnam War, Vietnamese, W. Davies, Walter Jones, wars, Wellesley, Westview Press, William Alexander, William Carlos Williams Award, woodblock printing



A Voyage to Cochinchina, in the Years 1792 and 1793: containing a general view of the valuable productions and political importance of this flourishing kingdom, and also of such European settlements as were visited on the voyage: with sketches of the manners, character, and condition of their several inhabitants…
Sir John Barrow (1764-1848)
London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies in the Strand, 1806
First edition
DS506 B37 1806

John Barrow traveled with the Earl of Macartney to Cochin China, now known as Vietnam; Madeira; Jamaica; Rio de Janeiro; Java; and Djarkarta as part of the first British embassy to China, from 1792 to 1794. Barrow acted as official interpreter to the Emperor of China, who was contemptuous of the entire mission and dismissed it almost immediately. The Edinburgh Review, October 1806, was as underwhelmed with the Barrows book as the Emperor was with the British: “His views are often narrow, and oftener unsound…deceived by imperfect information.” Barrow had published a work on his travels to China in 1804 and was known as an expert on the Orient. His work evinced a belief in the superiority of British civilization. His extensive notes on Cochin China range from its history to particulars about its art, architecture, and religious ceremonies. According to Barrow the substance of his writings were taken from a manuscript memoir by Captain Barissy, a French naval officer who had commanded a frigate in the service of the King of Cochinchina. Barrow was the son of a Lancashire tanner, educated in the local grammar school. He became a teacher of mathematics to young men headed for a career in the navy. Illustrated with nineteen aquatint plates taken from drawings by William Alexander who also traveled with Macartney. This is the first illustrated English work on southern Vietnam.




The Beacon Banner: Short Stories about the War of Resistance in Vietnam
Huu Mai, et al.
Hanoi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1964
First edition
PZ1 B356 PL4382 E2

Illustrations by Phan Ke An.




Vietnam Poems
John Balaban (b. 1943)
South Hinksey, Oxford: Carcanet Press, 1970
PS3552 A44 V5 1970

During the Vietnam War, John Balaban performed alternative service as a conscientious objector. He went with the International Volunteer Services to Vietnam where he taught until the Tet Offensive during which he was wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel. Balaban has been awarded The Academy of American Poets’ Lamont prize, a William Carlos Williams Award from the National Poetry Society of America, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and was twice nominated for the National Book Award. He was named the 2001-2004 National Artist for the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. In addition to writing, he is a translator of Vietnamese poetry. He is Poet-in-Residence and Professor of English in the creative writing program at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Edition of six hundred copies.




Nam
Jeff Branin
Millbrook, Torpoint, Cornwall: Kawabata Press, 1981
PS3552 R318 N35 1981

Jeff Branin served a tour of duty in the Vietnam War in 1968 and 1969, building bunkers and latrines and serving as a replacement commanding officer. In these poems Branin writes of rocket attacks, casualties, atrocities against civilians and sexual misadventures using the jargon of the Vietnam-era US soldier.




War of Ideas: the U.S. Propaganda Campaign in Vietnam
Robert W. Chandler
Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1981
DS559.8 P65 C45 1981

This book focuses on advertisement techniques used as propaganda by the United States during the Vietnam War. Many of these pieces were taken by American anti-war campaigns for use in their own material. Chandler writes that US propaganda in Vietnam was targeted toward three groups: communists and communist supporters in South Vietnam, masses and elite in North Vietnam, and non-communists in South Vietnam. University of Utah copy gift of Walter Jones, as part of his Collection on the Vietnam and Indochina Wars, donated to the J. Willard Marriott Library in 2011.




In the Nam What Can Happen?
Ted Berrigan (1934-1983) and George Schneeman (1934-2009)
New York: Granary Books; Minneapolis: Hermetic Press, 1997
PS3552 E74 I656 1997

Ted Berrigan was a poet at the epicenter of the sixties literary underground. He served in the US Army, sent to Korea in 1954, where he did not see action. He earned a BA in 1959 and an MA in 1962 from the University of Tulsa under the GI Bill. George Schneeman received a BA in Philosophy and English Literature from St. Mary’s College, began graduate work in English Literature at the University of Minnesota and then enlisted in the US Army. Posted in Verona, Italy, Schneeman began painting. From the colophon: “First made as a one-of-a-kind collaborative book in 1967-68…The present edition is a simulation of the original…” From Granary Books: “The original was passed back and forth between Ted Berrigan and George Schneeman for about a year, remaining in the hands of one or the other for weeks or even months at a time – poet and artist each adding, subtracting, working over words and images. The material used were pen and ink, white acrylic paint and collage…The ‘finished’ project languished in a drawer in Schneeman’s studio on St. Mark’s Place for thirty years. Produced when the Vietnam War was rapidly escalating, this work is by turns surreal, incisive, hip, outrageous, cartoon-like, flip, sinister, humorous, dreamy, sarcastic, witty – always right on target – a vivid evocation of the times and the broad range of emotional responses to the War.” Letterpress printed in several colors from magnesium plates on Rives 300 gm paper by Philip Gallo at The Hermetic Press. Unbound gatherings in a plexiglass case. Edition of seventy copies, twenty lettered (a-t), hors de commerce. University of Utah copy is no. 42, signed by Berrigan and Schneeman.




Vietnamese Hand Papermaking and Woodblock Printing
Fred Siegenthaler
Muttenz, Switzerland: Paper Art, 2003
TS1095 V53 S54 2003

Fred Siegenthaler writes on the nearly extinct traditional manufacture of paper in Vietnam: processes of making inks, paper, and printing. The book includes paper and print samples from Dong Ho, a village famous for its woodblock printing, located just outside of Hanoi. Included are fourteen different original hand papers and six colored original woodcuts. From the colophon: “The text of this book is printed on paper made of Rhamnoneuron blansae…handmade multilayered Daphne paper from Nepal was used for the cover of the book.” Edition of fifty copies, signed by the author.


N7433.4-T478-C4-2009
Christ Meets Buddha
C. David Thomas
Wellesley, MA: C. David Thomas, 2009
N7433.4 T478 C4 2009

In 1968, C. David Thomas joined the US Army and was sent to Pleiku, South Vietnam as a combat engineer and artist. Thomas drew a picture of a fellow soldier’s girlfriend. In lieu of payment for the drawing he asked his friend, who worked in personnel, to change his records and shorten his stint in Vietnam from twelve to eleven months. Thomas was able to return to the United States weeks earlier than originally scheduled. The helicopter on which he routinely rode was shot down during what would have been the twelfth month of his tour of duty. There were no survivors. Thomas holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He was a recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Grant to Vietnam. Thomas describes Christ Meets Buddha as autobiographical and a metaphor for his life. The digitally-created puzzle pieces contain religious imagery, war imagery, and family photographs. From the colophon: “These artist’s puzzle books are comprised of the six separate images…Each image is presented in its own linen box made by craftsmakers in Hanoi, Vietnam. All assembled puzzles are 29×23 inches made from twenty individual pieces. Each puzzle piece is printed using archival paper and ink by an HP Photosmart Pro B9180 inkjet printer. The pieces are then mounted on black felt and handcut…” Edition of ten copies. University of Utah copy is no. 1, signed by the author.




Postage Due: Forever Stamps
C. David Thomas
Wellesley, MA: C. David Thomas, 2009
N7433.4 T478 P67 2009

A series of unofficial postage stamps inspired by people and events from the Vietnam War era. From the introduction: “I never really thought about the importance of how we chose what images to place on our stamps until one day in 1995, when I went to the post office and asked for an interesting stamp. The woman behind the counter handed me a sheet of the recently issued Richard Nixon stamp. This stamp was issued only twenty years after he was forced to resign in disgrace as the 37th President of the United States. Needless to say, I handed them back to her with some choice words…in 1996 I went to the philately society in Hanoi, Viet Nam while doing research for a book on President Ho Chi Minh. I found dozens of stamps of Ho Chi Minh…and…a 1966 stamp depicting the shooting down of the 1,500 US aircraft brought down over North Viet Nam and one with the image of Norman Morrison, the man who immolated himself outside Robert McNamara’s office at the Pentagon. Just a few days before the US Post Office issued Robert Indiana’s LOVE stamp in 1973, the US heavily bombed the densely populated city Hanoi killing hundreds of innocent Vietnamese civilians…I have begun to understand the real power of this little jewel which may be the smallest form of propaganda available to all governments. These miniature posters travel all over the world…” Portfolio of unbound folded leaves issued in black linen box. Edition of twenty-five copies. University of Utah copy is no. 12, signed by the author.

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Mark Strand (April 11, 1934 – November 29, 2014), In Memorium

11 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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A Poet's Alphabet of Influences, Alfred A. Knopf, Atheneum, Austin, Barbara Cash, Bembo, blind-stamp, Blizzard of One, Bonnie Sucec, BookLab, C. N. Potter, Charles Seluzicki, Columbian handpress, Crown Publishers, Curtis Rag, Darker, Day Christensen, Don Howell, Elegy for My Father: Robert Strand, Gretchen Esping, handset, Humanities Research Center, Iowa City, Ives Street Press, Jorge Luis Borges, Josef Albers, K. K. Merker, Kim Merker, Larry Yerkes, Linotype Janson, Luminsim, Maine, Mark Strand, Monotype Univers, Neil Welliver, New York, Oregon, Photo-silkscreens, Pillar Guri Press, Portland, Prose, Pulitzer Prize, Random House, Reasons for Moving, Red Butte Press, Rives BFK, Romanee, Salt Lake City, Selected Poems, Shari Madsen, Sleeping With One Eye Open, Spectrum, Stempel Helvetica, Stone Wall Press, Sweden, Texas, The Continuous Life, The Manuscript Society of America, The Night Book, The Story of Our Lives, Twinrocker Paper Mill, uncorrected proof, University of Texas at Austin, University of Utah, Van Dijck, Vandercook Test, William Pène du Bois (1916-1993), William R. Holman, Windhover, Windhover Press, woodcuts

Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Strand taught at The University of Utah from 1981 to 1993.

“And though it was brief, and slight, and nothing
To have been held onto so long, I remember it,
As if it had come from within, one of the scenes
The mind sets for itself, night after night, only
To part from quickly and without warning.”

From “Luminism,” The Continuous Life


PS3569-T69-S55-1964-pg-28

Sleeping With One Eye Open
Iowa City: Stone Wall Press, 1964
PS3569 T69 S55 1964

Printed by K. K. Merker from Romanée type on Curtis Rag paper. Edition of two hundred and twenty-five copies. University of Utah copy is no. 60.


PS3569-T69-R4-1969-title[

Reasons for Moving
New York: Atheneum, 1968
PS3569 T69 R4 1969

University of Utah copy is poet’s autographed copy.


PS3569-T69-D3-1970-title

Darker
New York: Atheneum, 1970
PS3569 T69 D3 1970

University of Utah copy autographed by the poet.


PS3569-T69-E44-1973-pg-6

Elegy for my father: Robert Strand, 1908-1968
Iowa City: Pillar Guri Press, 1973
PS3569 T69 E44 1973

Photo-silkscreens by Gretchen Esping. Printed by Shari Madsen in 14 pt. Bembo on handmade Japanese Shogun paper. Edition of one hundred and fifty copies.


PS3569-T69-S7-1973-title

The Story of Our Lives
New York: Atheneum, 1973
PS3569 T69 S7

University of Utah copy autographed by the poet.


PQ7797-B635-T4-1975-Texas-poem

Texas
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
Austin: Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, 1975
PQ7797 B635 T4 1975

Translation by Mark Strand. Keepsake for the members of The Manuscript Society of America, designed by William R. Holman. Set in Linotype Janson. Edition of two hundred and ninety-five copies.


PS2569-T69-N55-1985-title-spread[

The Night Book
New York: C. N. Potter: Distributed by Crown Publishers, 1985
First edition
PS3569 T69 N55 1985

Illustrations by William Pène du Bois (1916-1993)


PS3569-T69-P76-1987[

Prose
Portland, OR: Charles Seluzicki, 1987
PS3569 T69 P76 1987

Drawings by Josef Albers. Printed by Barbara Cash at the Ives Street Press, Sweden, Maine. Text set in Monotype Univers. Titles hanset in Stempel Helvetica. Blind-stamp throughout. Paper is Rives BFK. Edition of one hundred and eighty-seven copies. University of Utah copy is no. 80, signed by the poet.


PS3569-T69-B57-1998-cover

Blizzard of one
New York: Alfred A. Knopf: Distributed by Random House, 1998
PS3569 T69 B57 1998

Uncorrected proof.


PS3569-T69-C66-1990

The Continuous Life
Iowa City: Windhover Press, 1990
PS3569 T69 C66 1990

Woodcuts by Neil Welliver. Printed by Kim Merker and Don Howell using a Vandercook Test press from handset Spectrum types on Windhover paper. Binding by Larry Yerkes. Edition of two hundred and twenty-five copies, numbered.


PS3569-T69-A6-1990-cover

Selected Poems
New York: Knopf: Distributed by Random House, 1990
PS3569 T69 A6 1990

Uncorrected proof.


PS3569-T69-P64-1994-spread

A poet’s alphabet of influences
Salt Lake City: Red Butte Press, 1993
PS3569 T69 P64 1994

Drawings by Bonnie Sucec, hand-painted by the artist. Designed, set by hand and printed damp on an 1846 Columbian handpress by Day Christensen. Type is 16 pt Van Dijck. Paper is handmade cotton rag from Twinrocker Paper Mill. Bound and boxed in linen case by BookLab. Edition of seventy-five copies plus 20 copies hors de commerce. This is copy XX, signed by the poet, artist, and printer.

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Book of the Week – The Love Books of Ovid

10 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Aldous Huxley, Antonin Artaud, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Aubrey Beardsley, Belgian, books, Charles Baudelaire, D. H. Lawrence, Ezra Pound, Imagist, Jean de Bosschere, lithographs, love, New York, Oscar Wilde, Ovid, Rarity Press, Richard Aldington, T. S. Eliot


The Love Books of Ovid,: being the amores, ars…
Ovid (43 BCE – 17 or 18 CE)
New York: Privately printed for Rarity Press, 1930
First edition
PA6522 A3 L6 1930

Illustrated with twelve lithographs by Jean de Bosschere (1878-1953), a Belgian writer and painter who worked between the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods. De Bosschere’s writing and art were influenced by a heady group of friends including novelists Aubrey Beardsley, Aldous Huxley, and D. H. Lawrence; Imagist poets Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and Richard Aldington; and others such as Oscar Wilde, Charles Baudelaire and Antonin Artaud.

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Book of the Week – East of Eden

07 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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American, Cain and Abel, Civil War, East of Eden, John Steinbeck, New York, Nobel Prize for Literature, Viking Press, World War I


East of Eden
John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
New York: Viking Press, 1952
First edition
PS3537 T3234 E18

This is the story of two American families between the Civil War and World War I. Of this retelling of the tale of Cain and Abel, John Steinbeck wrote, “[it] has everything in it I have been able to learn about my art or craft or profession in all these years…I think everything else I have written has been…practice for this.” He later called the novel, “the story of my country and the story of me.”

A contemporary reviewer wrote, “Steinbeck is never dull and, even if you miss his message, you’ll not be bored. There is only one Steinbeck and no one writes about ‘his people’ as well.” However, the novel was not generally well-accepted by most reviewers at the time, who judged it heavy-handed and pedantic.

Ten years later, Steinbeck would be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. East of Eden, published in September of 1952 was number one on the bestseller list by November of that year. It has never gone out of print.

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Book of the Week – Gray’s Elegy

29 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week, Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

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architect, chromolithography, Crystal Palace, designer, embossed, English, illustration, interior designer, leather, London, New York, Owen Jones, Thomas Gray


Gray’s Elegy
Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
London, New York: Longman. Wiley and Putnam, 1846
First edition
PR3502 E5 1846

Illuminated by Owen Jones in his characteristic spidery style, this is one of the earliest examples of chromolithography, a method of book illustration that Jones was instrumental in popularizing. Owen Jones was an English architect and designer. His work on the interior of the Crystal Palace and for the Great Exhibition of 1851 brought his name as an interior designer into prominence. This is the first book issued in a kind of binding heretofore generally reserved for illuminated books – deeply embossed to imitate carved wood. The embossing was built up underneath the leather as well as from the top.

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