Arion Press

Age of Innocence

The Arion Press edition of the 1920 novel The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton contains an introduction by Diane Johnson, 32 color photographs taken by Stephen Shore of the original settings described in the book, and a note on the photographs by Sandra S. Phillips.

The book’s typeface, Ronaldson Old Style, was chosen for its origin and use during the 1920s and features exaggerated serifs that resemble beaks or horns. The type was printed by letterpress on cotton mouldmade Velata paper from the Magnani Mill in Italy. The photographs were printed in color by offset-lithography on dull-coated Potlatch Vintage paper that was toned around the pictures to match the color of the other pages.

Artist: Stephen Shore, Photographer
Press: Arion Press
Date: 2004
Number and Edition: 122 of 300
Size: 9.875” x 6.875”

 

Arcadia

The play Arcadia, by British playwright Tom Stoppard, is presented in this publication which features an introduction by Diana Ketcham and four views of Sidley Park by William Matthews. The illustrations are presented in an unusual manner, allowing the book to be displayed with all four illustrations and dialogue pages viewable at once. This effect puts the reader “on stage” with the characters in the drama and allows the reader to follow the changes in the physical setting for the play over a 260-year span.

Arcadia begins in 1809 in the schoolroom of Sidley Park, where Lord and Lady Croom are entertaining a set of poets and intellectuals that includes the historical figure Lord Byron. The episodes follow the Croom descendants, and alternate between 1809 and the present.

Artist: William Matthews, Illustrator
Press: Arion Press
Date: 2001
Number and Edition: 213 of 350
Size: 11” x 14”

 

The Ballad of Lemon and Crow

This work of fiction by San Francisco writer Glenn Todd chronicles three generations of neighbors in rural Oklahoma. Old Lady Lemon and Granny Pearl Crow live on the outskirts of a small town along a red road that leads into the sunset. The matriarchs have many children, but by the end of their lives, only two (Mam Lemon and Randall Crow) remain at home to care for their widowed mothers.

Six photogravures and inkblot drawings by Bruce Conner and the group Anonymous Artists are featured throughout the piece. The book is in octavo format, in which the paper is folded three times, producing eight leaves and 16 pages. The English Old Style type is composed and cast in the Monotype font by Mackenzie & Harris. The Ballad of Lemon and Crow is bound in yellow cloth with a black inkblot pattern and housed in a black slipcase.

Artist: Bruce Conner, Photographer
Press: Arion Press
Date: 2002
Number and Edition: 43 of 300
Size: 10.25” x 7”

 

Birds of the Pacific Slope

Birds of the Pacific Slope, by Andrew Jackson Grayson, is presented in two volumes. The first contains a portfolio of 156 bird portraits painted by Grayson that measure 25” x 19” each. The companion volume contains a preface by S. Dillon Ripley, a biography of Grayson by Lois Chambers Stone, and bird biographies and field notes on the plates by Grayson.

Grayson, who came to San Francisco just before the Gold Rush, was inspired to paint by John J. Audubon’s monumental Birds of America. He vowed to extend Audubon’s visual record westward to include the Pacific Slope of California and Mexico. In 1879, the entire work was bequeathed to the University of California, where it became an important holding in the Bancroft Library.

Artist: Andrew Jackson Grayson, Illustrator
Press: Arion Press
Date: 1986
Number and Edition: 153 of 400
Size: 12” x 9” (Book); 25” x 19” (Plates)

 

Cane

Jean Toomer’s Cane is considered a masterpiece of Harlem Renaissance and a primary work of African-American literature. First published in 1923, Cane is an experimental novel made up of fiction, poetry and drama set in rural Georgia, urban Washington, D.C. and other locations. Toomer, who lived from 1897 to 1987, wrote several volumes of autobiographies, plays, essays and poetry, but published very little during his life. His influence can be seen in the works of other writers of the Harlem Renaissance.

The edition contains 10 full-page abstract woodblock prints by Martin Puryear, a leading American sculptor whose works are in many private and public collections, including the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

Artist: Collaborative Work
Press: Arion Press
Date: 2000
Number and Edition: 380 of 400
Size: 11.5” x 13.875”

 

A Christmas Carol

Arion Press celebrated the 150^th anniversary of the publication of Charles Dickens’ perennial classic, A Christmas Carol, with a special publication. The piece incorporates 50 original illustrations by artist Ida Applebroog that are reminiscent of images found in books and magazines of the 1840s.

Ida Applebroog was born in the Bronx, New York in 1929, where she still lives and works. She attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received an honorary doctorate from New School University/Parsons School of Design. In addition to paintings, Applebroog has also created sculptures, artists’ books, several films and animated shorts that appeared on the side of a moving truck and on a giant screen in Times Square.

Artist: Collaborative Work
Press: Arion Press
Date: 1993
Number and Edition: 177 of 200
Size: 10” x 13”

 

A Coney Island of the Mind

Originally published in 1958, Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind has remained one of the most popular books of poetry in the United States with over 1 million copies in print. This Arion Press edition includes portraiture by R. B. Kitaj. The text was printed by letterpress using the Goudy Light and Goudy Heavy typefaces. The prints were scanned from the original drawings and printed on an Epson 4000. The paper is mouldmade Hahnemühle Bugra, and its color and texture are similar to the handmade paper of Kitaj's drawings. On the cover, the author's name and image are rotated so that the book must be turned sideways to be seen as intended, imitating a roller coaster ride.

Artist: R. B. Kitaj, Illustrator
Press: Arion Press
Date: 2005
Number and Edition: 166 of 300
Size: 16” x 10”

 

The Holy Bible

The Bible plays an important part in the history of books and printing. It was the first volume published using the moveable type method of printing. Produced in 1455, the Gutenberg Bible is considered one of the most important and beautiful books ever published.

To mark the occasion of the millennium, Arion Press produced a folio-sized edition of the Bible. Each book begins with a large initial letter. Hand-illuminated abstract patterns, created by calligrapher Thomas Ingmire, embellish the large initials. The work was produced using modern technology (including Macintosh computers and linotype machines) and old-world craftsmanship, including a five-month binding process.

The two-volume Arion Folio Bible is on permanent display in the Old World area of the Library.

Artist: Collaborative Work
Press: Arion Press
Date: 2000
Number and Edition: 130 of 400
Size: 18” x 13”

 

Invisible Cities

Invisible Cities is a mixture of fantasy, reality and philosophy. In the piece, Nobel Laureate Italo Calvino retells the story of Marco Polo’s meeting with Kublai Khan when he described the many cities he had visited on his travels from Italy to Asia. Never having seen such cities himself, Kublai Khan was wary of Polo’s tales.

Artist Wayne Thiebaud created 12 images of cities and objects with the idea that they are invisible until the reader takes action. Invisible Cities was printed by Andrew Hoyem on clear plastic in inks that match the color of the following sheet. The images are revealed when the transparent sheet is turned back onto the white preceding page.

Artist: Wayne Thiebaud, Illustrator
Press: Arion Press
Date: 1999
Number and Edition: 342 of 400
Size: 14” x 12”

 

The Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin 

Commonly known as The Autobiography, this edition was published in celebration of the 300^th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth. Unpublished at the time of his death, it has since become the most widely read memoir of all time. The book art piece was created with letterpress printing, and marks the first use of a historic American typeface, Binny & Ronaldson's Roman No. 1 (c. 1800). The typeface was re-created in digital form by Arion Press and named Aitken for Robert Aitken, the famous printer during the Revolution, and his daughter Jane, printer of the first American translation of the Bible. Somerset Book and all-cotton fiber English mouldmade papers were used to create the piece. The portrait of Franklin and the text were printed from photopolymer plates by letterpress.

Artist: Collaborative Work
Press: Arion Press
Date: 2006
Number and Edition: 164 of 400
Size: 9” x 6.5”

 

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf’s novel tells the story of a young Englishman named Orlando. Born during the reign of Elizabeth I, Orlando decides not to grow old. He remains young until he wakes up one morning, centuries later, to find that he’s been transformed into a woman.

This edition by Arion Press includes 12 fold-out pages with photographs by Diana Michener, each displayed as three panels of differing widths. The outside of the illustration signatures is covered with the image of the Chinese vase, in and out of focus, and covered with mysterious cranes that invite the reader to open the gate-fold. Century Bold and Century Expanded in Monotype typefaces were used, and the hand composition features Mohawk Superfine paper. The text was printed by letterpress and the photographs were printed by offset lithography.

Artist: Diana Michener, Photographer
Press: Arion Press
Date: 2005
Number and Edition: 151 of 400
Size: 13” x 10”

 

Paradise Lost

This edition of Paradise Lost pays typographic tribute to two earlier editions of John Milton’s epic poem: the second edition of 1674 (the year of the poet’s death) when the text was divided into 12 books, and the second Baskerville edition of 1759.

In an homage to the 1674 printing, Arion Press employed a black-letter type in running heads using Goudy Text, designed by the most prolific American type designer, Frederic W. Goudy. The binding is traditional in style with full black linen over boards with a round back and headbands. Paradise Lost is enclosed in a slipcase covered with black linen cloth.

Artist: William Blake, Illustrator
Press: Arion Press
Date: 2002
Number and Edition: 137 of 400
Size: 12” x 6.875”

 

The Price

Written in 1967, Arthur Miller’s drama The Price centers around two middle-aged brothers who are reunited after a long absence to clear a Manhattan brownstone of family possessions. The two men revisit the past while negotiating with an elderly used furniture dealer.

Eight illustrations by Stan Washburn scan an attic filled with furniture and give the reader views, shifting from stage left to stage right, of various distinct pieces. The pieces hold different memories, meaning and value for each brother. The book is housed in a slipcase and decorated with rows of dollar signs that seem to be raining down.

Artist: Stan Washburn, Illustrator
Press: Arion Press
Date: 1999
Number and Edition: 242 of 300
Size: 10” x 7”

 

Squarings

To create Squarings, the poetry of Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney was handset in 24-point Deepdene type, created by Frederic W. Goudy, America’s greatest type designer. The piece also features Sol LeWitt’s drawings, which were scanned to make negatives for photopolymer plates, then printed along with the text by letterpress on a two-color cylinder press. The book’s Pescia paper is from the Magnani Mill in Italy, and the binding was hand-stitched in the Arion Press bindery. The text is laid out on the page with wide margins and spacing between each line of poetry, allowing the white space on the page to be an integral part of the reading experience.

Artist: Sol Le Witt, Illustrator
Press: Arion Press
Date: 2003
Number and Edition: 39 of 400
Size: 10.875” x 10”

 

Tartuffe

In 2004 William Hamilton illustrated Tartuffe, a five-act comedy by the French comic dramatist Molière, who lived from 1622 to 1673. Poet Richard Wilbur translated the play and provided the introduction for this edition. Tartuffe is folio size in format and letterpress printed in 16-point Van Dijck composed in Monotype for the text with larger sizes, which is handset for display. The ornamental typeface Fontanesi was used for the title, an initial letter and the act numbers. The Arches paper is a French mouldmade sheet, and the binding is full cloth over boards with burgundy moiré satin.

Artist: William Hamilton, Illustrator
Press: Arion Press
Date: 2004
Number and Edition: 115 of 300
Size: 14.875” x 11”

 

Theory of Relativity 

This centennial edition depicts Albert Einstein’s two key papers of 1905: Does the Inertia of a Body Depend on its Energy-Content? and On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies. The piece includes a foreword, annotations and an afterword by Professor Richard A. Muller of the University of California at Berkeley. The foreword gives a general overview of the problems Einstein addressed against the background of 19th century physics. The afterword carries the story from the year of 1905, when Einstein was only 26, through the affects of the theory on 20th century science.

Theory of Relativity is printed by letterpress from lead-alloy type cast in the Mackenzie & Harris typefoundry. The numerous formulas and display type were set by hand, while the prose was composed and cast in Monotype. The typefaces include Modern for the text, with special characters as needed for mathematical symbols; Egyptian for the interspersed annotations, printed in blue; and Lining Gothic for display.

Artist: Collaborative Work
Press: Arion Press
Date: 2005
Number and Edition: 120 of 300
Size: 10.5” x 8”

 

Trout Fishing in America

The Arion Press publication of Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America contains a preface by Ron Loewinsohn, a photographic portrait of the author by Edmund Shea and a color lithograph by California artist Wayne Thiebaud. The piece features the Bookman typeface and the text was letterpress printed on Mohawk Superfine paper.

Andrew Hoyem, publisher of Arion Press, said: “Trout Fishing in America is a landmark in American prose fiction. Some think it more poetry than prose. It is certainly a departure from mainstream fiction up to that time. It is the title of the book; but it is also persons, places, things, and a state of mind. On the endpapers of this edition we have printed in two colors the various uses of the phrase in the novel, where it can be a ballet, an autopsy, a terrorist, a character named Shorty, a hotel, armor, a fountain-pen nib, a peace parade, a friend.”

Artist: Wayne Thiebaud, Illustrator
Press: Arion Press
Date: 2002
Number and Edition: 40 of 200
Size: 9” x 12”

 

Voices of Marrakesh

Nobel Laureate Elias Canetti’s only piece of travel literature was originally published in 1968 in German, then translated into English ten years later. It recounts his visit to Morocco, where he met with ordinary people and royalty alike. This edition contains photographs by Karl Bissinger taken in 1949 and new etchings by William T. Wiley.

The Goudy Old Style type was printed by letterpress. The photographs appear on left-hand pages and the etchings are on the right-hand pages. Mohawk Superfine paper was used for the text, while the paper for the etchings is Rives Lightweight. Fabriano Ingres paper was used for the mounting of the etchings. The photographs were printed in duo-tone and four-color offset lithography.

Artists: Karl Bissinger, Photographer and William T. Wiley, Illustrator
Press: Arion Press
Date: 2001
Number and Edition: 124 of 300
Size: 8” x 11”