See Historic Letterpress Hand Printing August 1 at Tampa Book Arts Studio's OPEN STUDIO

The Tampa Book Arts Studio will open its doors to visitors from 2-4 pm Saturday, August 1, 2009. Those who stop by can see guest hand press printer Steve Heaver of Baltimore at work with TBAS staff and volunteers to print the studio’s first limited-edition miniature book.

Heaver (shown in this Terry Chouinard photo doing late-night printing on his Reliance Press) is widely respected as a “printer’s printer” whose meticulous presswork is legendary and whose knowledge of the traditional iron hand press is both broad and deep. His fine press editions from his own Hill Press are sought-after collector's items, and he is a past Chairman of the Fine Press Book Association (North America). In consultation with the Hostmann Steinberg ink company he developed “Hostmann Steinberg Special Oil Based Letterpress Ink,” considered by many to be the finest ink available for letterpress work.

The ambitious project underway at TBAS is LANKES: His Woodcut Miniatures. This miniature edition will be the first-time gathering of twelve miniature woodcuts by the American artist J. J. Lankes (1884-1960), best known for his woodcut illustrations for books by Robert Frost and Sherwood Anderson, and it is being printed on Lankes’s own 1848 Hoe Washington Press that he used in his studio to print his famous blocks.

The book includes an essay on the Lankes miniatures by Welford D. Taylor and short commentary on each cut by Parker C. Agelasto, both of them noted Lankes collectors and scholars.

Not only will the book be printed on a Lankes press, but also will be bound with Japanese papers originally purchased by J. J. Lankes for his own projected use in presenting his miniature cuts, though the project remained uncompleted at his death. This printing will be limited to 200 numbered copies for sale in boards covered with the Lankes Japanese paper in a hand binding by David Barry of Griffin Bindery. An additional 75 copies will be available in a deluxe edition leather binding, with Lankes Japanese endsheets, each copy signed by the editors. All proceeds will support the nonprofit Tampa Book Arts Studio at the University of Tampa.

Printer Steve Heaver will explain the traditional process of hand printing and answer printing questions from visitors during the session on August 1. He will be joined by Lankes expert Parker Agelasto, a historian of American printmaking who has served as Curatorial Assistant of prints and photographs at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and co-editor of the Washington Print Club Quarterly. Agelasto is currently compiling the catalogue raisonné of prints by J. J. Lankes and will answer any Lankes-related questions.

Space is limited. Please RSVP at your earliest convenience to allow us to save a place for you:

To RSVP:
Email: utpress@ut.edu
Phone: 813-257-3099

Be sure to give us your contact information. We’ll reply to confirm your spot and to send directions to the studio.

Paul Moxon Leads a Tampa Celebration of the Vandercook Press Centennial

Paul Moxon conducted a day-long workshop for eight participants, and a half-dozen friends of TBAS, on Saturday, February 28. The attendees were Denise Bookwalter, Lee Harrer, Sara Mantle, Megan Mitchell, Anne Stagg, Hal Sterne, Cat Thompson, and Jonathan Vaughan, along with Don Black, Sean Donnelly, Richard Mathews, Carl Nudi, Bob Turner, and Henry Wehle. The morning began with an introductory session at the studio, followed by Paul's presentation on the history of the Vandercook at the Macdonald-Kelce Library, and then an afternoon of printing back at the studio.

A Visit with Hal Sterne

Several friends of the TBAS made a pilgrimage earlier this year to visit Harold "Hal" Sterne. Hal has a long history in the printing industry, starting with a high school course in letterpress printing. The 1978 first edition of his Catalogue of Nineteenth Century Printing Presses was a valuable and pioneering resource; it was reissued in an expanded edition in 2001 from Oak Knoll Press and The British Library. 

Another influential contribution to letterpress printing occurred when Hal and a partner bought and preserved the name and assets of the famed Vandercook Press/Vandersons Company, and later the Kelsey Company, eventually passing the torch to Fritz Klinke and his NA Graphics. Though retired now, Hal maintains a comfortably crowded letterpress studio in a Bohemian setting near downtown Sarasota. He met Richard Mathews, Sean Donnelly, Carl Nudi, and Leland Hawes there on January 22, 2009, to give a tour and talk shop. One of the highlights, in the second photo below, is Hal's own Vandercook SP15 Press, which he once sold, only to find that it made its way safely home to his shop eventually, like "the cat that came back"!

Celebrate the Vandercook Press Centennial with an Introductory Paul Moxon Workshop in Tampa

This year (2009) marks the Centennial of the Vandercook Press.  The Tampa Book Arts Studio will celebrate it with a visit and workshop with one of the country's best-known masters of the press, Paul Moxon, shown above presenting his Vandercook Maintenance Workshop at the School of Visual Concepts in Seattle.

A full-day introductory workshop will be held on Saturday, February 28, at the Tampa Book Arts Studio. Registration is $125, including materials. Enrollment will be limited to ten. 

Information is available by email from utpress@ut.edu.

The Studio also hopes to schedule a short, illustrated talk by Moxon on the history of the Vandercook Press.  Please check back for updates on that event. And to learn more about the Vandercook Press and Paul Moxon, browse

http://vandercookpress.info/

"Shakespeare Appears in a Florida Scriptorium": An Illustrated Talk by Calligrapher Ruth Pettis

The word “calligraphy” contains echoes of the Greek words for beauty (kallos) and for writing (graphe). For thousands of years before the invention of printing, calligraphy was the way of making books. In the centuries since Gutenberg, calligraphic letterforms and page arrangements have inspired type design and book design—and have continued to inspire the public with compelling fusions of the art of beautiful writing with beautiful and significant expressions in language.

St. Petersburg calligrapher Ruth Pettis has earned a national reputation as one of the distinguished calligraphers of our day. Her passion for calligraphy and penchant for experiential research have led her to travels in the Orient, Middle East, and Europe, and her knowledge and mastery of ancient writing as well as creative modern lettering are evident in her sensitive treatment of word as image.



Over the past few decades, Pettis has engaged in the regular practice of writing spontaneously in a studio setting together with other dedicated practitioners, bringing to a well-lit Florida sunroom the traditions and practice of the medieval scriptorium.

Pettis will share her insights and artistry at the University of Tampa’s Macdonald-Kelce Library in a free presentation on October 8, 2008, at 4 p.m. when she presents a talk entitled "Shakespeare Appears in a Florida Scriptorium." Pettis will discuss the scriptorium experience and illustrate her talk with samples from the sonnets of Shakespeare that she has completed during scriptorium work over the last few years.



The event, sponsored by the University of Tampa Book Arts Studio and its Friends, and the Friends of the Library at the University of Tampa, is free and open to the public.



For questions or to reserve a seat, contact the University of Tampa Press at 813-253-6266 or email utpress@ut.edu

AAPA Convention 2008: A Review

By Sean Donnelly

This year's convention of the American Amateur Press Association was a great success. President Leland Hawes reports that 49 people attended one or more of the events — 25 members of the AAPA and 24 visitors. This turn-out gratifies everyone who worked for several months to make the annual convention a memorable weekend here in Tampa. The co-hosts of the convention — Leland Hawes along with Richard Mathews and Sean Donnelly of the TBAS — couldn't have done it without the help of many friends, especially (in random order) Victoria Alt, Carl Mario Nudi, Henry Wehle, J. B. Dobkin, Marlyn Pethe, Bill Moss, Gene Hancock, Cynthia Gandee, Gianna Russo, Bob Turner, Jeanette Weiss, Frank Lidiak, Chang Ashby, Curtis White, and Luis Barragan.

The convention's success can be credited to the wide variety of engaging presentations, panel discussions, and hands-on experiences it offered. The conventioneers who arrived Thursday gathered for a traditional Chinese dinner at Hao Wah in South Tampa. Early the next morning the convention officially convened at the Macdonald-Kelce Library at the University of Tampa. The lobby greeted visitors with several displays: an array of vintage printing artifacts loaned by Gene Hancock; a sampling of century-old amateur journals; another display of early AAPA papers; a tribute to long-time member Fred Liddle; and large displays devoted to the work by special guests Mike Anderson and Richard Hopkins. Brief "welcomes" by Richard Mathews (Director of the TBAS), Marlyn Pethe, (Director of the Library), and J. B. Dobkin (Chief of the TBAS collections) were followed by Mike Anderson's talk on his re-creation of Johann Gutenberg's original "D-K" type, created about 1440. A slide show chronicled the painstaking care Mike took in studying the type, cutting his own mats, and casting a font from those mats. Gutenberg's type posed an interesting challenge — some letters occur in multiple forms, notably the letter "i." Mike explained that Gutenberg made these variations in imitation of handwriting because his printed books competed with the work of scribes. Lunch at the Valencia Gardens followed Mike's talk. [This writer sat between Gene Hancock and George Hamilton and enjoyed listening to them "talk shop" about presses and printing equipment.] We returned to the library after lunch for a talk by Rich Hopkins, of the Hill & Dale Private Press and Typefoundry, about making type for handsetting and re-creating a historic newspaper page in metal type with his Monotype casters. Rich starred in and directed a video tour of his plant, located in the basement of his West Virginia home. We saw the machines in operation and marveled at Rich's fusion of old and new technologies — one of his Monotype composition casters is run by a Mac computer!

By mid-afternoon, having nourished our bodies and minds, we were ready to get our hands dirty at the Book Arts Studio. Located in the Library Annex on the west side of the university's campus, TBAS is home to a variety of letterpress equipment. The gem of the collection, on loan from the University of Richmond Museums, is the 1848 Washington Hoe press once owned by woodcut artist J. J. Lankes. Conventioneers also found a Vandercook 4, an Intertype, an 1856 Washington Hoe, a Ludlow caster, and hundreds of cases of type for handsetting. Veteran printer and typesetter Henry Wehle was ready and waiting to demonstrate the Intertype: a machine beyond the dreams of Rube Goldberg. Henry's knowledge is encyclopedic, and his enthusiasm is infectious. He is a marvel to behold as he climbs around the Intertype . . . pulling levers, loading magazines full of mats . . . oiling this, tuning that.

While Henry demonstrated the Intertype, everyone had a chance to print their own keepsake on the Lankes press and the Vandercook. Mike Anderson provided a form that recreated Gutenberg's Calixtus Bull of 1456, as well as the hand-made paper on which to print it. Each visitor had a chance to experience the art of printing as Gutenberg conceived it — inking the form, placing the paper to be printed between the tympan and frisket of the Lankes press, rolling the bed under the platen, pulling the handle to make the impression, and then appreciating the result. To finish the keepsake, it was walked over to the Vandercook for the printing of the initial letter "C" in red. Registration proved to be a challenge, but Mike Anderson quickly solved the problem and everyone had a beautiful letterpress keepsake to take home.

Dinner on Friday night was "on your own." Stumps at Channelside hosted Richard Mathews, Mike Anderson, Sean Donnelly, Rich Hopkins, George Hamilton, and Michael Delgado. Discussion was lively — in fact too lively to give any details on this family-friendly blog — and we all had a great time together. It's hoped that everyone else had a fine time wherever they met to break bread.

The convention served up a traditional program of talks and panels on Saturday at the Howard Johnson in downtown Tampa. Joe Diachenko opened the morning with practical advice on typography and the design of an appealing amateur journal. Long-time newspapermen Al Hutchison and Charlie Robins discussed the fate of print media and the future of newspapers. Sean Donnelly gave a presentation on Walter John Coates (1880-1941), a Vermont poet, amateur journalist, proprietor of the Driftwind Press, and publisher of Driftwind magazine. George Hamilton, a long-time resident of Vienna, Austria, gave a lively talk on his experiences as a travel writer. Bob Tauber and Dale Starr, of Ohio State Libraries' Logan Elm Press, revealed what went on behind the scenes during the planning and printing of their book, Cat & Mouse. Local authors Jack Fernandez and Andy Huse talked about their experiences in getting their books published. The convention officially ended that evening with a group photograph and a banquet dinner. Steve Otto, a columnist for the Tampa Tribune, gave an entertaining talk that touched on his travels with Leland Hawes, his search for the elusive Skunk Ape, and the future of print media.

Many conventioneers adjourned to the hospitality suite on the 14th floor. Leland had it stocked with beer, soda, and snacks, but thanks to a donation from Dale Starr and Joe Diachenko we added four more exotic beers to the fridge. We talked and drank until nearly midnight, and bid one another goodbye, until next year, with great reluctance.

For more points of view and photos of the convention, please visit these links:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AmericanAPA/AAPA2008Convention

http://americanapa.blogspot.com

The convention photo: seated on floor, Max Feland, Dale Starr, Bob Tauber, Rich Hopkins, and Jack Scott; seated in chairs, Helen Doolittle, Jim Doolittle, Jiyani Lawson, Linda Donaldson, George Hamilton, Susan Petrone; first standing row, Sylvia Fernandez, Carol Robins, Betty Liddle, Fred Liddle, Joe Diachenko, Maurine Scott, Sue Tihansky, Mike Anderson; back row standing, Ray Jerland, Jack Fernandez, Charlie Robins, Sean Donnelly, Michael Delgado, Richard Mathews, Steve Otto, Leland Hawes, Jack Walsh, and Dianne Otto.

American Amateur Press Association in Tampa June 12-14, 2008

The Tampa Book Arts Studio at the University of Tampa joins AAPA in inviting you to the 2008 convention of the American Amateur Press Association in Tampa, Florida, June 12-14.

Presentations, panels and demonstrations should satisfy the tastes of anyone interested in writing, printing or publishing. Programs and activities are open to AAPA members and Friends of TBAS. Membership information and arrangements for non-member registrations can be obtained by email from utpress@ut.edu.

Members planning to attend the convention must make reservations at the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel BY MAY 13 in order to receive the special low rate ($85 a night, for either a single or double room). To do so, you must call Maureen McGuire at (813) 223-1351 or FAX at (813) 229-2358. The mail address is 111 West Fortune Street, Tampa FL 33602.

Some of the sessions will include:

• A Mike Anderson talk with PowerPoint visuals on the steps he took from computer to typecaster to reproduce the typeface used by Gutenberg in printing his first Bible.
• A panel discussion by several members on the subject, “How I Got My Book Published.”
• Damien Diachenko on creative computer designs in amateur journals.
• Rich Hopkins on re-creating in metal type the first page of the first newspaper published in Salem, N.C., for display on a period press at Old Salem Museums and Gardens.
• Sean Donnelly on rediscovering the work of amateur printer Walter J. Coates (1880-1941).
• Printing and typesetting demonstrations and hands-on activities in the Tampa Book Arts Studio.