Heavy rains and snow batter the west coast. President Biden has blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the death of opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Sen. Lindsey Graham called a new House foreign aid and border security bill a "winning combination." Lawsuit takes aim at dating apps it claims are designed to keep users glued to the platforms. Officers removed one young cougar after an attack on five cyclists in Washington. They said they believe there may be a second one, but it has not yet been located.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Las Vegas police have made an arrest in the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur. This is a huge break in a case that has stumped investigators for almost 27 years. The Navy will start testing its seals teams and special ops for steroid use.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Former President Trump found guilty. President Biden hits the picket line. Government shutdown inches closer. CBS News Correspondent Jennifer Keiper with tonight's World News Roundup.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Americans freed in Iran. Concerns over military aviation unit. Suspect caught in shooting death of Los Angeles deputy. CBS News Correspondent Jennifer Keiper with tonight's World News Roundup.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Stock Market continues to slide as debt ceiling concerns have not budged at all this week. AI is the newest talk on The Street DeSantis Twitter fail.

I've long been interested in rhetoric, the techniques of persuasive argument, propaganda; the use of passionate language. It's why I collect publishers' sales and bookseller catalogues, I'm sure!    Ever since first laying hands on the bookseller catalogues that Jerry Kelly has, over the years, designed for the likes of Jonathan A. Hill and Glenn Horowitz, I've held the conviction that he is one of America's truly great book designers. It's hard to describe this conviction. His work just looks and feels right to me. "Read me." it says. "I'm worth looking at." It's worth looking at of course because it's a product of years of dedicated study, and passionate practice. These kind of deeply precious objects don't just appear out of nowhere.   Take the type for example. Its selection, how it augments the arguments and value propositions put forward in these catalogues; how it adds to their credibility, their conviction, makes the words seem more important. Or the aptness of the paper choices, their relevant colours, the statements made by their weights and textures. The way the choice of ink pigments clarify and emphasize. It all burnishes the larger persuasive effect.    But enough waxing. I recently decided that when I finally do come up with a manuscript, I want Jerry to turn it into a book.   That "when" in fact, is now, while I'm here in Prague. I plan to write eight or nine profiles of a select set of people I've interviewed over the years. With this in mind I recently Zoomed Jerry, prior of course to having written a word.    Our conversation focuses solely on how beautiful the end product might look if Jerry deigns to design it. We start with what he needs in order to get going: words and pictures, and specs. Then we look at the three publishing options that exist.   

Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram ban is being lifted. Superintendent fired in VA district where a first grade teacher was shot. Conjoined twins separated. CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has today's World News Roundup.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

NASA hopes to shake off delays and put a rocket in orbit around the moon for the first time in a half century. Deadly Oregon supermarket shooting. Mississippi flooding. CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has today's World News Roundup.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jerry Kelly is a​ ​book designer, calligrapher​ ​and type designer. Before starting his own design business in 1998 ​he was Vice President of The Stinehour Press​. Prior to this he worked as a designer at A. Colish. ​Jerry's work has been honored ​frequently; for example, his book designs have been selected more than thirty times for the AIGA “Fifty Books of the Year”​ Award.​ In 2015 he was presented with the 28th Goudy Award from RIT. ​He has served as Chairman of the American Printing History Association​ and President of The Typophiles, and​ has worked ​o​n ​numerous committees at The Grolier Club. He has written​ several books on calligraphy and typography, including The Noblest Roman: The Centaur Types (co-authored with Misha Beletsky; winner of the 2016 Bibliographical Society of America Prize) and​Type Revivals.​ His best known book is probably A Century for the Century, a catalogue of the 100 most beautiful, finely printed books produced during the twentieth century, which we refer to in our conversation, along with referencing some of the most beautiful catalogue work Jerry ​has done for clients including booksellers Jonathan A. Hill and Glenn Horowitz, and The Grolier Club. 

The old saying goes “never judge a book by its cover,” but of course, we all know in the book industry that is exactly what happens. An eye-catching cover is key to attracting a reader and making sure your book is taken seriously. Today, I'll speak with Greenleaf’s Art Director, Neil Gonzalez, about book design elements and why a well-designed cover and interior are vital to your book’s success. 

Tonight on the CBS Evening News Podcast: Tens of millions of Americans are under winter storm warnings. Also -- The demand for COVID testing is surpassing the supply as the Biden administration looks to address the nationwide shortages. Plus -- U.S. officials are sounding the alarm about a Russian ploy designed to give Vladimir Putin an excuse to invade Ukraine. We'll bring you all this and more on tonight's CBS Evening News Podcast with Norah O'DonnellSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For years Paul Delaney was professor of English at the University of Moncton; prior to this he taught at various institutions in London, England. During his lifetime he has had an ongoing interest in Acadian genealogy, a topic upon which he continues to publish and conduct research.     His biography of  Charles de Sousy Ricketts (1866-1931), published in 1990, was the first major study of a man whose "spirited career encompassed many aspects of late Victorian and Edwardian culture," including fine press book design and production, stage design, typography, painting, sculpture, art criticism, and art collecting. Friends included W.B. Yeats, Thomas Moore, ​A. E. ​Housman, ​Oscar Wilde and many other luminaries of the period.    Drawing upon a wide range of material​, much of it unpublished​ and/​or newly discovered​ at the time​, ​​Delaney ​"​reveals a man of strong opinions and artistic convictions"​ ​who despite a ​fierce opposition to Post Impressionism and ​​Modernism​, was noted for his love and deep ​knowledge of art, as well as his ​wit, ​conviviality, generosity and ​artistic ​versatility.​​​ ​​Delaney's biography illuminates cultural and artistic​ life in England​ during the 1890s and early decades of the​ 20th​ century​, and provides a detailed portrait of one of the period's great personalities.    ​Ricketts, during his lifetime, established a reputation as a​ great​​​ art connoisseur​. In 1915 ​he ​turned down ​an offer ​to become director​ of the National Gallery​, a decision he later regretted​. He did however ​serve​ "disastrously" as adviser to the National Gallery of Canada from 1924 until his death in 1931. ​He also wrote three books of art criticism, two volumes of short stories and a memoir of ​Oscar ​Wilde. Selections from his letters and diaries were​ ​published​ posthumously​.   I met with Paul Delaney at his home in Moncton, New Brunswick, where we talked about, among other things, his nom de plume  (J. G. P. Delaney), about Ricketts of course, and his adventurous mother; about Ricketts' long time companion artist Charles Shannon; about publisher and editor Rupert Hart Davis, and about Paul's experience writing the biography of artist Glyn Philpot. 

Canada has an impressive tradition of producing great printer- publishers. Three of our best are Stan Bevington, Tim Inkster, and Andrew Steeves. Ancient interviews with all three can be found here on The Biblio File website.   The one with Andrew took place a dozen years ago so I figured it was time to clock another. I drove down to Kentville, Nova Scotia last month, where Andrew lives and works, and sat down with him again right next to the place where the wall cordoning off his office used to sit (it came down about a decade ago), inches away from where our previous talk too place.   Andrew bills himself as a writer, editor, typographer, letterpress printer and literary publisher. Over the past two decades he's won more than 50 citations for excellence in book design from Canada's Alcuin Society. His essay collection Smoke Proofs: Essays on Literary Publishing, Printing and Typography appeared in 2014.   We talk here mostly about the specifics of book design and how Andrew makes books that very beautifully and aptly express their contents;  we also discuss the challenge of selecting titles; the use pilcrows, the importance in life of paying attention, and much more.  

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Stu and Jamie talked about huffing beefers, updated the standup comedy bracket, new A Holes of the Day, dummy wears a dumb mask in a grocery store, a brawl happened on a plane, and more. Please like the Facebook and Twitter page Please let us know if you would like an 'I Am Not Homeless Jason' sticker. They are 5 bucks each and all the money goes to Degage Ministries.

Jerry Kelly is a calligrapher, book and type designer. His work has been honored many times - his designs have been selected more than thirty times for the AIGA “Fifty Books of the Year.” In 2015 he was presented with the Goudy Award from The Rochester Institute of Technology. Kelly has served as Chairman of the American Printing History Association, and President of The Typophiles. He is an active member of several committees at The Grolier Club. He has written many articles and several books on calligraphy and typography, including The Noblest Roman: The Centaur Types (co-authored with Misha Beletsky; winner of the 2016 Bibliographical Society of America Prize). Kelly has taught typography at Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design, and has lectured on the subject for The Cooper Union and numerous other organizations. Before starting his own design business in 1998, Kelly was Vice President of The Stinehour Press, preceded by a decade as designer at A. Colish. We met at The Grolier Club in New York to discuss some of the great type and book designers Jerry writes about in A Century for a Century. The two other books of special interest to collectors mentioned during our conversation are The Best of Both Worlds: Finely Printed Livres d Artistes, 1910 2010, and The Art of the Book in the Twentieth Century

Chip Kidd is an American graphic designer best known for his book covers. Based in New York City, Kidd is arguably the most famous dust jacket designers in the world. He has been credited by many as having spawned "a revolution in the art of America book packaging,” despite having no recognizable style. In fact, he says that “A signature look is crippling… [because] the simplest and most effective solutions aren’t dictated by style.” It has been said by many that the history of book design can be split into two eras: before Kidd and after.  He went to work at Knopf in 1986. Today he is associate art director and freelances widely, designing in total, some 75 dust jackets a year.  We met in his offices at Knopf in New York to discuss his book Chip Kidd: Book 2. In so doing we talk about Meryl Streep, Haruki Murakami Martin Amis, the Eisner Awards, French kissing Neil Gaiman and connecting with authors, Alfred and Blanche Knopf, Sonny Mehta, D.A. Dwiggins, Paul Bacon, Geek Love, die cuts, Glamorama, the Yale Review, Chip's late husband poet and Yale Review editor J. D. McClatchy, Chris Ware, the Factory record label, Peter Seville, New Order album covers, the importance of dust jackets and identities, ebooks, death, being paid for your ideas and much more.  * This interview was recorded in October, 2019. Sonny Mehta died in December, 2019. 

This past summer Meghan O’Rourke was appointed editor of The Yale Review. In an award citation the Whiting Foundation praised her “far-reaching and ambitious” work, and noted that her “voice stands out for its power and originality.” She is the author of the memoir The Long Goodbye (2011) and the poetry collections Once (2011), Halflife (2007), and Sun In Days (2017), which The New York Times named one of the 10 Best Poetry Books of the year. Her essays and poems have appeared in magazines such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and Poetry. She has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Radcliffe Fellowship, a Whiting Award, a Lannan fellowship, two Pushcart Prizes, the May Sarton Poetry Prize, the Union League Prize from the Poetry Foundation, and a Front Page Award for her cultural criticism. She has taught at New York University, Princeton, and The New School, and is currently completing a book about chronic illness. I met with Meghan in her new, bare-walled office in New Haven. It was her very first day on the job, working in the office that is. Among other things we talked about the history of The Yale Review, bridging disciplines, current events, criticism, the Paris Review in its heyday, magazines as spawning grounds for books, re-designs; private experiences with print and the pleasures of being immersed in reading; book designer Chip Kidd; Pentagram; book collecting, broadsides, and much more. 

Tania Craan’s career as an art director and designer spans more than three decades. For the past 25 years, she has run her freelance graphic design studio. She started her career working as a designer at Penguin Books Canada and then went on to McClelland & Stewart where she became art director. In addition to books, she has designed stamps for Canada Post, three Ontario Provincial Government inquiry reports, and annual reports for a variety of corporate clients. She "blends the disciplines of publication design with an appreciation of how readers actually navigate pages and their content — into visually pleasing, highly readable communication pieces." I met with Tania at her home near Kingston, Ontario. We talk in this interview about her career - notably her time with McClelland and Stewart - her transition from employee to freelancer, and a selection of the books she is most proud of having designed.

Tami Dever, co-owner and founder of TLC Book Design, discusses key elements of book design that signal professionalism, readability, excellence, and permanence What are the elements a book designer needs to consider when designing an interior? A cover? Tami Dever discusses how she works with clients and notes the factors that make a book look good against the competition. Topics include things to keep in mind when designing a book: audience, competition, tone, readability the importance of interior design in sealing the deal and drawing customers to the cash register favoring longevity over trendiness using Word to prepare text for a designer (hint: avoid overformatting!) key elements of cover design that must work together (and it’s not easy!): size of elements typography color images use of space and margins avoiding Photoshop gimmickry Typefaces mentioned in this podcast: Esprit Berkeley To reach TLC Book Design, go to http://www.tlcbookdesign.com/. Notes to the Q&A segment The article in the IBPA Independent on Authors.me can be found at http://articles.ibpa-online.org/article/finding-real-creativity-with-artificial-intelligence/. Participants Tami Dever is the co-owner and founder of TLC Book Design in Austin, Texas. The business has grown from a design studio to a complete publishing development firm, with a wonderful reputation for providing outstanding design and caring customer service. Peter Goodman (host) is publisher of Stone Bridge Press in Berkeley, California. He began his publishing career in Tokyo, Japan, in 1976. A longtime member of IBPA, he has served on the IBPA board and as IBPA board chair.

Series: Biblio File in France Kickshaws is a private press founded in Paris in 1979 by John Crombie, and Sheila Bourne who often produces artwork for the books. Together they have hand-printed more than 150 small books. The design, typography and materials used to create Kickshaws publications are unusual. As a result it's difficult to define exactly what they are. Among other things, they display a wide range of type-faces and designs, letterpress printing in multiple colours, and unusual formats and bindings, including  plastic comb-bindings that enable the pages of a book to be turned in different sequences.  As for content, most of the books contain Crombie's poetry or fiction or his translations of French humorist/absurdist writers. These including Samuel Beckett, Alphonse Allais and Pierre Henri Cami. The artwork includes drawings, linocuts and images printed from a variety of different materials including string and wallpaper. Kickshaws publishes books in both French and English. I met with John at his atelier in Charité-sur-Loire, south of Paris. Subjects covered include children's books, UNESCO, Edward Gorey, origins of the word 'Kickshaws', French humorists, Raymond Queneau, One Hundred Thousand Billion Poems, Bertram Rota, Charlene Garry and the Basilisk Press, enthusiasm, multi-choice stories, combining inks, using wallpaper, life intersecting with work, Montparnasse and the Marché de la Poésie in Paris

Andrew Hoyem is the creative spirit of the Arion Press. He's a published poet and exhibited artist who occasionally includes his own writings and drawings in Arion books. The concepts for all Arion publications originate with Hoyem, who chooses literary texts, commissions new work from writers and artists he admires, and designs the books, including their bindings and typography. In the Press's livre d'artiste series, he has worked closely with distinguished artists, many of whom come to the Press in San Francisco to work with him on projects. We met at his offices in The Pracidio in San Francisco to talk about, among other things, Dave Hazelwood's Auerhahn Press, the Grabhorn Press, the importance of text pages, Bruce Rogers, Random House's Leaves of Grass (1931), Charles Olson, skunks, The Legion of Honor Museum, Livres d'artistes, artist Fred Martin, solving problems, Moby Dick (1979), ghost stories, perseverance, weekly tours, M&H Type, connecting with interesting people, Hart Crane's The Bridge (2017) and getting the basics right. 

David Esslemont is an artist, designer, printmaker and bookbinder. He makes books from scratch, most recently about food, and publishes under his Solmentes Press imprint. He was Artistic Director of the University of Wales Gregynog Press from 1985–97 and has won many book design awards including the Felice Feliciano International Award in 1991. Esslemont’s work can be found in both private and public collections worldwide. (His archive to 2005 is held at the University of Iowa.) I braved the harsh winter weather to visit David at his farm in Decorah, Iowa. We met in his slightly coolish workshop to talk about the history of the Gregynog Press and highlights of its impressive output, his time there as 'controller,' and the establishment of his Solmentes Press and the prize-winning work he has produced since setting it up. 

From 1959-1964,  McClelland and Stewart published a run of poetry books written by Irving Layton, designed by Frank Newfeld, edited by Claire Pratt, and often illustrated with photographs by Sam Tata. They turned out to be among Layton’s most famous and influential titles ( A Red Carpet for the Sun [1959], The Swinging Flesh [1961], Balls for a One-Armed Juggler [1963], and The Laughing Rooster [1964]).   Cameron Anstee, proprietor of Apt 9 Press and a PhD student in the English Department at the University of Ottawa recently delivered a paper at a Canadian Literature Symposium. It examined the relationship between Layton,  Newfeld, and Jack McClelland  and positioned it as central to the formation both of a visible canon of Canadian Literature in the 1950s and 1960s, and of Layton’s particular public image. The paper  looked at  Layton’s complicated relationship  with the Canadian reading public and emerging Canadian literary establishments through a close reading of the book objects. It also considered how Layton was ‘branded’, the role that Frank Newfeld played in this, and the poet's conflicted responses to Newfeld’s designs.    

Shanty Bay Press was established in Shanty Bay, Ontario, in 1996 as a private press devoted to publishing livres d’artistes in which the texts and the illustrations accompanying them would have equal weight in the design of the books. The press is a partnership: the type-setting, presswork and binding are the work of Janis Butler, the illustrations are by Walter Bachinski, and the editorial, design and publishing decisions are shared. The press’s equipment includes a Vandercook SP20, Vandercook Universal 1, double crown Washington hand press (1836),an etching press, and a growing collection of type. I visited the Press to talk with its proprietors, starting with Walter Bachinski.  We cover a lot of ground, including personal history, the history of the press, fine press book illustration, design and composition, love of books and book collecting.  

Laurie Lewis began her publishing career in New York City with Doubleday in the early 60s, acting as liaison between the book design  and printing departments. In 1963 she moved to Toronto and joined the University of Toronto Press. When Allan Fleming came on board as Chief Designer in 1968 the new Design Unit was formed and Lewis became Fleming’s assistant. The department produced many important books, winning numerous awards both nationally and internationally. For her outstanding service over they years to the design community, Lewis was made a Fellow of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada in 1975, proposed by Allan Fleming and Leslie Smart. She was vice-president of the Ontario Chapter from 1975 to 1977 and continued to support and contribute to the organization for many subsequent years and encouraged graphic design internationally through workshops in publication design in the third world, particularly in South East Asia and in South America, through volunteer assignments with the Canadian International Development Agency Lewis  introduced computers to the design office at University of Toronto in 1984, with the original Macintosh 512K. In 1991 she took early retirement in order to pursue interests in writing and small publishing. She is the founder and director of The Artful Codger Press, established to encourage the publication of memoirs and life writings. After retirement from her international volunteer work Laurie began what she calls "another life." She became editor of Vista, the publication of the Seniors Association in Kingston, and began a new career as a writer. In 2011, at the age of 80, her first memoir, Little Comrades, was published by Porcupine’s Quill, and was selected by The Globe and Mail as one of the Top 100 Books of the Year 2011. As of this writing, her next book, Love, and all that jazz is scheduled for publication in 2013. I caught up with Laurie Lewis at her home in Kingston, Ontario where we talked about her impressive career, her colleagues, and some of the more collectible books that she has had a hand in designing. Please listen here.

What William Toye apparently wanted most in the world after graduating from the University of Toronto in 1948,  was a job in Canadian book publishing. This, Robert Fulford tells us in a recent National Post profile, was an outlandish career move since Canadian publishing barely existed. We had few publishers and they produced few books. They did little more than import American and British books, selling Bibles, dictionaries and schoolbooks to keep themselves afloat. But Toye was insistent. Says Fulford:  "When he applied for a job at the Canadian branch of Oxford University Press, he was told they had nothing for him but a place in the warehouse. He said that would be fine. Over the next six decades Canadian publishing steadily expanded and Toye found many ways to deploy the talents he developed. At age 84, still editing, he recently produced yet another in the long list of valuable books he’s given us, The Concise Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature, Second Edition." Quite apart from the outstanding work he has produced as editor, the multi-talented Toye has also written and designed some beautiful, memorable books of his own, and it is these we met to talk about last month.  Please listen here:

Allan Fleming was born in Toronto in 1929. At 16 he left studies at the Western Technical School to apprentice at various design firms in Toronto. He then went to England, where he soaked up lessons from some of the great British book designers. Back in Canada in 1957 he joined the typographic firm Cooper and Beatty Ltd., and was working there when the opportunity to redesign Canadian National's logo came up in 1959.  In 1962 he became art director at Maclean’s magazine. He was vice-president and director of creative services at MacLaren Advertising from 1963 to 1968, and chief designer at the University of Toronto Press until 1976, when he joined Burns and Cooper. Suave, handsome, well-read, eloquent and confident, Fleming epitomized 'cool.' His design work won many awards in Canada, the United States and around the world. Though best remembered as the creator of CN’s corporate logo, Fleming was also a superb book designer, and this is what I talk about with Canadian literary journalist Robert Fulford who knew and was influenced by him.  Books referenced include: Canada: A Year of the Land The National Film Board of Canada, Lorraine Monk, Bruce Hutchinson, Allan Fleming Published by Roger Duhamel Queen's Printer, Ottawa, 1967 Collected Works of Erasmus, University of Toronto Press 

Peter Cocking is a Vancouver-based graphic designer and design teacher. His wide ranging portfolio includes annual reports, airline tickets, snack-food boxes, CD packages, corporate identity programs, newspapers, and magazines. Since 2002 his focus has been on book and typographic design as art director at Douglas & McIntyre Publishing. Peter is the recipient of more than 40 awards for his design work. Peter has lectured at the national conferences of the AIGA and the AAUP, and to the Type Directors Club in New York. In 2009 he became the first Canadian juror at the 'Best Books in the World' competition, held annually in Leipzig, Germany. We met recently at his offices in Vancouver to talk about D&M and some of the notable books that it has published, and that he has designed.

Born in Alberta in 1927, Robert R. Reid moved to Vancouver with his family at an early age.  During his second year at the University of British Columbia he spotted a beautiful rubricated book on display in the library which inspired him to make something similar. Two years later, in 1949, he issued his first limited edition, a reprint of Alfred Waddington's The Fraser Mines Vindicated. This book was well received, and encouraged him to set up his own commercial print shop in downtown Vancouver. Through the 1950s he designed and printed  a lot of beautiful material,  including the B.C. Library Quarterly magazine. During this time he also was typographic advisor to the editorial committee at the University of British Columbia. During the sixties he printed three limited editions - The Journal of Norman Lee (1959), Kuthan's Menagerie of Interesting Zoo Animals (1960), and poet John Newlove's first collection, Grave Sirs (1962) - before moving to Montreal for a job as director of production and design at McGill University Press. Here he published his magnum opus, The Lande Bibliography of Canadiana. It remains one of Canada's most beautifully crafted books. In the mid seventies Robert left for New York, where he spent the next 25 years packaging books for major publishers. He returned to Vancouver in 1998 where he continues to participate in the making of beautiful books with, among others, Heavenly Monkey Press, and the Alcuin Society. We met in Vancouver to talk about his impressive, life-long achievements. Photo: Robert Reid (Left) with friend and fellow book designer Tak Tanabe

Will Rueter is a private printer, hand binder, instructor and printmaker living in Dundas, Ontario. He founded The Aliquando Press late in 1962. It has, to date, produced more than 100 books, and plenty of broadsides too. Rueter's work has been shown throughout North America and Japan and is held in public and private collections in North America and Europe. I met him recently at his home in Dundas to talk about, among other things, the origins of his Press, his love of printing, his Dutch printer ancestors, and his 30 years at the University of Toronto Press designing books. During the latter part of our conversation we talk about those volumes he is most proud of having produced, including Majesty, Order and Beauty an edition of the edited journals of renowned British bookbinder and private printer, Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson, a close friend of William Morris and a man who has had a profound impact on Rueter's life and work.  

The Cary Collection is one of America’s premier libraries on graphic communication, its history and practices. Located in Rochester on the campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology, the original collection of 2,300 volumes was assembled by New York City businessman Melbert B. Cary, Jr. during the 1920s and 1930s. Cary was director of the Continental Type Founders Association (a type-importing agency), a former president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), and proprietor of the private Press of the Woolly Whale. His professional and personal interests in printing led him to collect printer's manuals and type specimens, as well as great books on the printer's art. In 1969 his collection, together with funds to support its use and growth, was presented to RIT.  Today the library houses some 40,000 volumes and a growing number of manuscript and correspondence collections. While its original strengths continue to be an important focus, other aspects of graphic arts history have also been developed. For example, the Cary is committed to building comprehensive primary and secondary resources on the development of the alphabet and writing systems, early book formats and manuscripts, calligraphy, the development of typefaces and their manufacturing technologies, the history and practice of papermaking, typography and book design, printing and illustration processes, bookbinding, posters, and artists’ books. Though many of the volumes in the library are rare, the Cary has maintained, from the beginning, a policy of liberal access for students , especially those enrolled in the RIT’s College of Imaging Arts and Sciences, and interested literary tourists. The Cary Collection also manages some 36 Graphic Design archives documenting the work of important 20th-century Modernist graphic designers, and has been aggressively acquiring examples of avant-garde book typography. This great library is a must visit destination for all those who love books and the processes involved in making them.

Last summer I met with Stan Bevington in Toronto to talk about the history of the Coach House Press and some of the more collectible books that it has published over the years. In this, Part ll of our conversation, we discuss, among many other things, the influence of the Stinehour Press; the adoption, adaptation, and in some cases invention of new printing; photographic and computer technologies, and the book designs of Glenn Goluska and Gordon Robertson.

In 1965, Stan Bevington, moved to Toronto from Edmonton, rented an old coach house, installed an antique Challenge Gordon platen press and set up Coach House Press. Over the years his small publishing house introduced the world to the early works of bpNichol, Michael Ondaatje, Margaret Atwood, George Bowering, Frank Davey, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Anne Michaels and many other important Canadian writers. Known for its experimental production techniques and innovative designs, Coach House has published more than 500 titles of its own since 1965, and printed thousands more for other presses, libraries and art galleries. In addition to employing some of Canada's greatest type and book designers, Bevington also kept Coach House at the forefront of  new printing and computer technology advancements, collaborating with artists, programmers and e–book designers. He has lectured at York University and the Rochester Visual Studies Workshop, at the Banff Publishing workshop and Radcliffe at Harvard, and has received numerous grants, prizes, honourary degrees and life time achievement awards for his work in publishing and the Arts. We met in Toronto, outside the Coach House premises, to talk about the history of the Press, and, more specifically, about those books, among the many it has published, that might be of greatest interest to the collector.   

Elke and Tim Inkster have made an important and enduring contribution to Canadian literature. In 1974 they founded The Porcupine’s Quill (PQL), a publishing house based in Erin, Ontario. Renowned for excellence in design and production, and for taking risks with new, unpublished authors, the firm has helped kick-start the careers of many of Canada’s best known writers . PQL publications have won numerous awards and serve as an example to the world of Canadian publishing excellence. Its first title came off the press in 1975: Brian Johnson’s only book of poems, Marzipan Lies. Brian Johnson is currently the film critic for Maclean’s and "claims to have met Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, twice!" (almost certainly an in-joke here that I’m not privy to).  Many of the early titles were slim volumes written by poets Tim Inkster had met as a student at the University of Toronto — amongst them Ed Carson who until recently was President of Penguin Canada, and Brian Henderson who is currently the publisher at Wilfred Laurier University Press. I met the Inksters recently in the garden behind their Press House. It butts up against the West Credit River, where this little critter spent most of the morning chopping and hauling lumber from one bank to the other. While he was doing this Tim and I made our way back into the press room to talk about the history of The Porcupine’s Quill and how to go about collecting its books. During this discussion we hit on how market forces often influence appearance: namely glossy versus matte finished covers. It was here that Tim got into describing the difficulties he’s encountered dealing with Chapters, Canada’s one and only big box bookstore.   

Oak Knoll Books – specialists in books on books – was founded in 1976 by Bob Fleck, a chemical engineer by training, who let his hobby get the best of him. Oak Knoll Press, the publishing arm of the business was established two years later. Today, the thriving company maintains an inventory of about 23,000 titles. Specialties include books about bibliography, book collecting, book design, book illustration, book selling, bookbinding, bookplates, children’s books, Delaware books, fine press books, forgery, graphic arts, libraries, literary criticism, marbling, paper making, printing, publishing, typography & type specimens, and writing & calligraphy – plus books about the histories of all of these fields. I met with Bob to talk about the story of his company, about his love of books, of A. Edward Newton, of traveling the globe to meet fellow bibliophiles, and of visiting used bookstores.  

Roderick ‘Rocky’ Stinehour is a very pleasant, accomplished gentleman from Vermont. He’s also recognized internationally as a printer of high repute and a designer of beautiful, scholarly books. His career spans over much change in printing technology and the way in which books are produced and distributed. In 1950, after graduating from Dartmouth College, he, along with his wife and brother, established The Stinehour Press in the village of Lunenburg, Vermont. From modest beginnings the Press flourished thanks to persistence, vision, and the ability to attract skilled passionate co-workers; due to the quality of its books, the company will long be remembered as one of America’s finest scholarly publishers.  I visited Rocky in the ‘Northeast Kingdom’. 

Claire Van Vliet is the owner of the Janus Press founded in 1955 located, since 1966, in Newark, Vermont. Janus Press has to date produced approximately 100 publications — books, pamphlets, and broadsides- , many of them designed, illustrated, type-set, printed (sometimes on paper made by the artist), and bound by Van Vliet herself  in a well-equipped studio, printshop, bindery of her own design. Born in Ottawa, Canada, she has lived in the United States since 1947. After graduating with an MFA degree from Claremont Graduate School (1954), Van Vliet traveled in Europe, apprenticing herself for a time as a hand typesetter. During these travels she taught herself etching while working as a craft instructor at the United States European Headquarters in Germany.  For the remainder of the ’50s and early 1960s she taught printmaking, typography and drawing at the Philadelphia Museum School (now The University of the Arts) and worked as a type compositor for John Anderson, first at The Lanston Monotype Company in Philadelphia, and then at his own Pickering Press in New Jersey. In 1965 to ‘66 she was hired by the Art Department of the University of Wisconsin, Madison as a Visiting Lecturer in Printmaking. Primarily a publisher of first edition poetry (including the work of Seamus Heaney), Van Vliet pioneered the use of colored paper pulps for book illustration, and more recently has developed a variety of distinctive non-adhesive book structures. Museums that collect Van Vliet’s  work include The National Gallery in Washington, DC; the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institute. In addition to her many honors, in 1993 the University of the Arts in Philadelphia named Van Vliet an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts. We met in her studio to talk about artist books and a long, outstanding career. 

Born in Los Angeles in 1946, Robert Bringhurst is an award winning Canadian poet, typographer and author. Perhaps best known for The Elements of Typographic Style – a reference book of typefaces, glyphs and the visual and geometric arrangement of type, he is also a respected translator of poetic works from Haida into English.  He lives on Quadra Island, near Campbell River, B.C. We met in Ottawa to talk about his definitions of both the book, as articulated in The Surface of Meaning, and typography which should Invite the reader into the text Reveal the tenor and meaning of the text Clarify the structure and the order of the text Link the text with other existing elements Induce a state of energetic repose, which is the ideal condition for reading

Joe Dunthorne is a graduate of the Creative Writing Masters program at UEA, where he was awarded the Curtis Brown Prize. His poetry has been published in Reactions 5, Magma, Smiths Knoll, and Tears in the Fence. His work has been featured on Channel 4, BBC Radio 3, 4 and in The Guardian and Vice magazine. We met at the IFOA in Toronto to discuss his debut novel, Submarine, why the behavior of teenage boys is often seen as abominable, the importance of getting laid, ambiguous characters, depression, the brilliance of novelist W.G. Sebald, East Anglia University, how humour works, and dust jackets which both attract attention and complement content.