Publications > Special Publications
Special Publications
In addition to its periodical publications, APHA also publishes books of interest to members. After publication through the Association, these items are available from Oak Knoll Books, and may be ordered directly from them. The following publications are currently in print.
Verse into Type: The APHA Poetry Portfolio
Fourteen of America's leading printers contributed broadsides to this project. The portfolio contains a wide variety of typographic arrangements of poetry, both contemporary and classic, using a variety of typefaces, colors, formats, and papers, all printed letterpress. The poems were selected by the printers themselves.
Contributors include: Mindy Beloff, Robin Price, Sandy Connors, Barbara Henry, Ed Colker, Ron Gordon, David Pankow, Jerry Kelly, Kay Michael Kramer, Michael Peich, Gaylord Shanilec, Jack Stauffacher, Michael Russem and Carolee Campbell.
225 copies.
The printed broadsides are housed in a handmade cloth traycase made by Judi Conant. 2006.
$200, plus shipping and handling. Order this book from Oak Knoll Books.
The Spiral Press, 1926–1971. A Bibliographical Checklist
Compiled by Philip N. Cronenwett
The Spiral Press was one of the most important presses in America in the 20th century. As a printer, Joseph Blumenthal set standards that are unequalled for dedication to the details of fine printing and design. His proprietary typeface, Spiral, was admired by the Monotype Corporation and adapted as "Emerson" for commercial book composition. The significance of The Spiral Press to American letters and cultural history is underscored by the items listed in the bibliography. Joseph Blumenthal designed and printed for Robert Frost, W. H. Auden, Pablo Neruda, William Carlos Williams, Robinson Jeffers and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Institutions counted among the press's clients were The Metropolitan Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, The Morgan Library, The Grolier Club and The American Academy of Arts and Letters.
500 regular edition copies. Printed by the Studley Press.
Cloth. 196 pages containing more than two dozen reproductions of Spiral Press pages. 2002.
$55.00, plus shipping and handling. Order this book from Oak Knoll Books.
D.B.U. and R.R.
Selected extract from from correspondence that passed between Daniel Berkeley Updike & Rudolph Ruzicka from 1908 to 1941.
Edited by Edward Connery Lathem and Elizabeth French Lathem
D.B.U. and R.R. prints for the first time extracts from the important correspondence between these major figures of American graphic arts, revealing a little-known closeness between the Merrymount Press fine printer Updike and the artist Ruzicka. The two men collaborated on a number of important books, including Newark and the Grolier Club's Irving, as well as the exquisite series of Merrymount annual keepsakes. Ruzicka also played a substantial advisory role in the writing of Updike's monumental Printing Types. This touching and candid thirty-three year correspondence is put in context by the Lathems' elucidating commentary.
450 regular edition copies. Printed by the Stinehour Press.
Cloth, printed dust-jacket. 181 pages including index and two tipped-in facsimiles. 1997.
$ 50.00, plus shipping and handling. Order this book from Oak Knoll Books.
American Proprietary Typefaces
Edited by David Pankow
With contributions by: Susan Otis Thompson, Martin Hutner, Herbert Johnson, Cathleen Baker, Mark Argetsinger, Jerry Kelly, Dwight Anger, W. Gay Reading, John Kristensen, and Paul Hayden Duensing.
600 regular edition copies, designed by Jerry Kelly and printed letterpress, with 38 plates by offset lithography, by the Stinehour Press.
Cloth, gilt and blind stamped. 176 pages plus 38 plates. 1998.
$50, plus shipping and handling. Order this book from Oak Knoll Books.
APHA’s 34th Annual Conference, “The Book Beautiful,” meets in Newport, Rhode Island, October 16th–18th, 2009, during our 35th anniversary year. The program has been published and registration is now open. William S. Peterson, emeritus professor of English at the University of Maryland and editor of APHA’s journal, Printing History, will deliver the keynote address.
The recent issue of the Newsletter contains an announcement of the upcoming annual conference in Newport, Rhode Island; various notices of interest; chapter news from across the country; articles by Paul Moxon on the Vandercook and by Frank Romano on the typographic point; and a trustee profile of Russell Maret. Download it in PDF form here.
You'll read in the summer newsletter that from the fall issue 2009 (number 172) onwards the Newsletter will only be available in electronic form on this website. It will no longer be printed and mailed to members, a significant cost savings that may have an unexpected benefit: going electronic will make it possible for us to produce more newsletters each year. For the time being the design of the newsletter will remain the same, so those who wish to print it out will have the recognizable and familiar object to hold. Soon though we will reformat it somewhat for easier reading on your i-Phone or Blackberry. Of course we will continue to archive the newsletter on the website, so that all back issues will be available. We are also investigating ways to feed the publication to interested subscribers.
The excellent Brian Frykenberg is stepping down from the editorship of the Newsletter after the next issue and we need are seeking an active and well-connected member to replace him. The new editor will come just as we are migrating from print to electronic, a great opportunity for a creative, web-savvy person to expand and enhance our beloved workhorse. Contact Martin Antonetti, the VP for Publications, at mantonet@smith.edu if you are interested or know of someone who might be.