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Tag Archives: Prose

An Impression of Spring

20 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Bertram Rota, British, cardboard, commercial, gesso, Gogmagog Press, Hosho, Japanese, landscape, leaves, London, Morris Cox, panorama, plywood, poetry, printer, private press, Prose, seasons, seeds, spring, twigs, varnish


“Now sprigs are pricked by bursting buds,
and threading the trees the wind’s weft
skittles, drops and spurts again,
rubbing along the ground to tease old leafings
of skittering litter, scratching swirl…

Between bettling sky and buxom earth —
a mazed and frilling lightning flash!
The eye bleaches and goes black.
A far-off tracking thunder rolls
and tight, hard raindrops teem and patter,
hiss an sheen in rimplin rods…
till overhead the ragging cloud thins off
in clean-washed grin, and sun-bowl tips
over the giggling earth its molten gold.”

An Impression of Spring: A Landscape Panorama
Morris Cox (1903-1998)
London: Gogmagog Press: Dist. by Bertram Rota, 1966
ND497 C748 A43 1966

Gogmagog Press was a one man operation: for more than forty years Morris Cox — artist, writer, and printer — worked alone, using simple tools and creating one of the most important of British post-war private presses. Cox experimented with various aspects of his craft,  always paying meticulous attention to detail.

Morris Cox’s poetry and prose rarely found commercial publication. For this reason, in middle-age, Cox began Gogmagog Press, in order to distribute his work. It was only then that his poetry began to be championed, for the poetry was as good as the press production. Word and image are so intertwined that one divorced from the other leaves only half an experience.

The texture of the prints derives from the unusual printing blocks used to create them. Cox mounted sheets of cardboard onto plywood and layered them with gesso, next adding materials from nature like seeds, leaves, and twigs. These elements were varnished to strengthen them.

Impressions is one of four works on the seasons, all considered to be the peak of Cox’s achievement as a printer. Printed on Japanese ‘Hosho’ paper. Edition of one hundred numbered and signed copies. Rare Books copy is no. 23.

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Book of the Week — On Painting

17 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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aquating, architecture, blind, Brunelleschi, carborundum, copper, copperplate oil, Donatello, drypoint, engineering, etching, Florence, goatskin, inks, intaglio, Italian, Leon Battista Alberti, London, Masaccio, mathematics, mezzoting, Michael R. Thompson Rare Books, painter, Perspex, pigments, poetry, Prose, relief, sand grain, sculpture, Susan Allix, Tuscan, zinc

ND1130-A4813-1999-ColorBlock
“Colour and light have an important relationship in the act of seeing…colours multiply among themselves, but, like the elements, there are only four true colours from which other species of colour are born. There is red, the colour of fire; blue, of air; green, of water; and earth, ashen grey…from these four colours according to the addition of light or dark, black or white, are made innumerable other hues. Therefore the mixing in of white will not change the basic colour, but just make tints;’ and black has a similar power, with its addition making an almost infinite number of colours. You can see colours alter in the shade; when the shade deepens the colours fade, when the light brightens they become brighter and clearer.” — Leon Battista Alberti

ON PAINTING
Leon Battista Alberti (1401-1472) and Susan Allix
London: 1999
ND1130 A4813 1999

Leon Alberti was born in 1401 in Florence. His art was influenced by the work of Brunelleschi, Donatello, and Masaccio. He wrote On Painting in order to “set forth principles to be followed by the painter.” Alberti then turned his attention to architecture, for which he is better remembered today. He wrote De Re Aedificatoria and received several commissions for building projects. He had a deep understanding of the classical past, but an eye for contemporary change. He wrote on sculpture, poetry, prose, mathematics, engineering and other topics. His work was studied by generations of artists.

ND1130-A4813-1999-Power

This translation of On Painting is by Susan Allix, based on the Italian text published in L. B. Alberti, Opere Volgari, Volume Terzo. Allix writes, “This translation…is a painter’s translation and includes those parts that seem to hold, for the present, the most important of Alberti’s ideas…it has been extensively abridged to prevent it from becoming several volumes.”

In a letter to Michael R. Thompson Rare Books, Allix wrote, “One day I started to read Alberti’s book and was astounded at his idea that everything begins with a dot. I spent a long time struggling away with fifteenth century Tuscan (helped with a more modern translation), but present Italian hasn’t altered so much and I did find it readable. I wanted my own translation. Slightly unprofessionally some of this was done in the afternoon quiet of an Italian camping site. One interesting page is where I followed Alberti’s instructions on how to achieve a squared pavement. So complicated, I never believed it would work, but lo and behold the perspective of the squared pavement appeared!”

ND1130-A4813-1999-TheFirst

This edition contains twenty-eight intaglio prints, the result of four years of sketchbook observation and drawing, plate-making and reworking the plates. The prints were made from copper, zinc, and Perspex plates, and contain a wide variety of techniques. There is etching, drypoint, and mezzotint, often in combination, and also open bite, aquatint, sand grain, and carborundum. The plates have been printed black and white and color in intaglio, relief and blind. All the inks are made from pure pigments ground in copperplate oil, so interleaving sheets is necessary to stop the plates from offsetting. As each plate is hand-inked and printed separately, complete uniformity is not possible. Twenty of the prints are in color, seven in black and white, one in blind, and many have extra hand-coloring on the prints or the type. The first ten copies, of which this is number three, have watercolor and pencil paintings on Japanese paper between each of the three of Alberti’s books.

Bound in full cream goatskin, upper cover tinted with a border of darker purple dye, extending to the spine, and an abstract design of other lighter tints and various colored goatskin onlays with textured endpapers.

ND1130-A4813-1999-Cover

Rare Books copy has holographic letter written in ink on both sides of the press’s stationary from Allix to book collector Denis Collins, prospectus, and biographical article about the author, entitled “God is in the datail,” laid in. Signed in ink on the verso of the front flyleaf: “For Denis/with warmest regards/Susan/11 April 2000.” Collins’ stamp on recto of terminal endpaper. One of twenty-two copies, numbered and signed by the artist.

ND1130-A4813-1999-Reclining
ND1130-A4813-1999-WomanSea

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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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