THE OLD SCHOOL PRESSAn occasional newsletter about forthcoming books and events | ||
August 2014 |
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a reprint of our first publication | |
Autumn 2014 |
Our very first book, published in 1992 (though the title page says 1991!), was a text taken from John Ruskin's The Stones of Venice. Amongst about 120 cases of type that I bought early on from a letterpress shop that was closing down was a full case of 24pt Bembo italic - fresh, unused - and I used that for a large landscape book in a small edition. I've always wanted to reprint it, hoping to make a better job of it, and that moment has come. | |
Ruskin had a wonderful Victorian style: long, complex sentences, weaving in and out of subordinates clauses. For the compositor the result has its upside and its downside. Unusually, the first thing I would run out of was commas! On the upside his enormously long paragraphs meant solid blocks of text on the page, something I find rather attractive: none of those irritating indentations at the start of new paragraphs (I find unindented paragraphs equally annoying as the last sentence of the preceding paragraph simply finishes in mid-air - an annoying feature of many Golden Cockerell books.) On the other hand, that meant even greater care when hand-setting as correcting an error early in such a paragraph could mean having to rejustify the entire paragraph. At 4,500 words it's the longest text I've hand-set, and although I have a substantial quantity of the 14pt Hunt Roman there is only enough for four or five large pages which has made it an interesting exercise to organise setting, printing, and dissing. Thus, I set pages 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7; proofed and corrected them together (lines can move back and forth across pages); printed then dissed 3, 5, and 7; set 8, 9, 10; proofed and corrected them together ; backed up 3, 5, and 7 with 4, 6, and 8; and so on. Thirteen pages of text in all. It makes a nice 16pp section which I am sewing into a simple case. I've printed the text on a pale blue Hodgkinson hand-made paper. For the cases I've decided to use up a number of oddments from my plan chest: four patterned sheets hand-blocked by Alberto Valese in Venice will cover eight cases (they were left over from the original 1991 edition), and twenty-five overs of marbled papers that Ann Muir made for me over the years for various projects make another fifty. So, just fifty-eight copies. The eight copies in Valese papers are not for sale, but the others will be £60 (euro90, US$120) each. I'll post photos of them when I have them ready. Let us know if you would like to reserve a copy. Which Ann Muir sheet you get will be a matter of pot luck! |
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change of address | |
18 August onwards |
It has for some years been our ambition to build our own home. Two important criteria were that it should have a sea view and space for The Old School Press within the building (rather than in a cold draughty garage). We spent five years looking for a site and found what we wanted on the Jurassic Coast last year. We hope to move in around this time next year, but meanwhile we are moving to a temporary home. Our new address can be found at the bottom of this newsletter. | |
A side-effect of this is that the press-shop has just this last week gone into hibernation in two shipping containers, so printing has had to be halted in the meantime. On the positive side, when we are not managing the new build I shall be working on future books, in particular John Sutcliffe's (see above) and my series on printing at Oxford University Press (see below). We shall of course still be happy to take and fulfil orders for our books in print. |
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we have had another batch bound | |
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I have been promising for some time (too long . . .) to get more copies of this delightful Victorian travel diary bound and I'm pleased to say that finally I have had another batch prepared, by Ludlow Bookbinders. | |
Copies are £80 each plus p&p and can be ordered through our website or by replying to this email. NB: if you have asked for a copy in the past I should by now have contacted you to check if you would still like it. |
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for binders at a large discount | |
in print |
We have just had the remainder of the edition bound but I have kept back ten sets of sheets for binders. The book comes in eight sections making 120pp with two tip-ins. The trimmed page size is 230mm by 175 mm. Prices can be found at our website. | |
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three books for binders at a large discount | |
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Three of our past titles on or around Oxford University Press are now sold out in the bound form, but we still have some sets of sheets available for binders. | |
We are offering the package of all three - Harry Carter, Typographer, Stanley Morison & 'John Fell', and The Fell Revival - for the knock-down price of £100 - a discount of more than 25%. They make a great set, all books with original research. Just seven sets available. Read more here.
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we are clearing the decks before moving | |
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Our planned move has naturally meant a clean sweep of everything in the house and that includes Old School Press materials scattered here and there. As a result, I have a number of ex-display and/or out-of-series books for sale at very reasonable prices. You can find the list here and order by email here. First come first served. | |