Suave Mechanicals: Essays on the History of Bookbinding

Vol. 9

Julia Miller, editor

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This volume is the last in the series and is expected to be published in late Spring 2025. The authors expected to be included in this book are: Whitney Baker, Guilherme Canhão, Ashley Cataldo, Kyle Clark, Tom Conroy, Amy Crist, Steffi Dippold, Anna Embree, Anne McLain, John Nove, Todd Pattison, Jeff Peachey, Olivia Primanis, Richard Saunders, and Jay Tanner.

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Charles Hart’s Lithography: Its Theory and Practice

Georgia B. Barnhill

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Barnhill, retired curator, American Antiquarian Society, and author/editor of numerous books on printmaking, has long been interested in Hart's unpublished manuscript, Lithography: Its Theory and Practice, held by the New York Public Library. Recently transcribed, the manuscript will be published in its entirely with an introduction by the author. Hart was a "proofer" in the Endicott Co., one of the few long-surviving lithographic firms in the United States during the 1800s. Hart details how lithographs were made, writes of his personal experiences in the trade, and presents biographies of many of the personalities that worked for this firm in New York City. Publication is expected in late Spring 2025.

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As Good as Our Tools:

Equipment and Tool Builders for Hand Papermakers

Aimee Lee

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Hand papermaking would not be possible without the tools needed to process fibers and form them into sheets or manipulate them into artwork. Over a number of years, Lee interviewed important people worldwide, most of them in person, who have devoted a good deal of their interesting lives to producing those essential tools. Alas, too many of these people have reached retirement age or, regrettably, have died, leaving a potential void in our ability to make paper by hand. Lee asks where the next generation of papermaking tool builders will come from as hand paper-making becomes even more popular, not only to sustain the traditional craft but also to ensure that the burgeoning paper-art movement thrives. The people that Lee writes about detailing their critical contributions to the craft are:

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Beater Builders: Helmut Becker (1931–2024), Howard Clark, Lee McDonald, David Reina, Peter Gentenaar, Mark Lander, and Robert Woodruff

 

Traditional Mouldmakers: Ron Macdonald (1933–2017), Serge Pirard (1974–2024), Claudine Latron, Timothy Moore

 

Contemporary Mould- and Toolmakers: John Gerard, Bob Walp, and

Alejandro Geiler, Brian Queen

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Lee is an artist who makes paper, writes, and advocates for Korean papermaking practices

as an Ohio Arts Council Heritage Fellow and Midwest Culture Bearer Awardee. Her Fulbright research led her to establish the first hanji studio in North America, to write an award-winning book, Hanji Unfurled (Ann Arbor, Mich.: The Legacy Press, 2012), and to establish an active studio practice that includes jiseung, joomchi, paper textile, botanical paper, and natural dyeing techniques. Her Fulbright Senior Scholar research focused on bamboo screens for hanji-making in Korea. She travels the world to teach, exhibit, and serves as a resident artist while also building and enhancing studios for Korean and East Asian papermaking.

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A Printer with My Hands: The Life and Work of Carl P. Rollins

Katherine M. Ruffin

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From the Introduction: "As a member of a network of printers, designers, and bibliophiles associated with the “Renaissance in American Printing,” Carl Purington Rollins (1880–1960) helped transform graphic design and bibliographic studies in the United States. By applying the ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement and design principles based on historical precedents to contemporary books and ephemera, this group of practitioners influenced the appearance of printed materials in twentieth-century America. This survey of the life and work of Rollins tells the story of the presses and collaborations with which he was involved."

 

Ruffin is Director of the Book Studies Program and a Lecturer in Art at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass. In addition to managing the college’s Book Arts Lab and the Paper-making Studio, she directs the activities of the Annis Press, the lab’s imprint. Katherine also teaches the history of the book at the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons University, and with John Kristensen of Firefly Press, she teaches a class on the History of 19th and 20th Century Typography and Printing at Rare Book School at the University of Virginia.

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In addition to the above titles, The Legacy Press will be publishing seven more titles in 2025. Keep watching this space! These new titles will be last new ones that will appear under my imprint. However, The Legacy Press will continue to issue reprints and new editions of previously published books, and Oak Knoll will continue to distribute The Legacy Press books. 

 

I thank everyone – authors, editors, customers, and donors – for supporting the work of The Legacy Press since it began publishing in 1997, and I hope you will keep in touch over the coming years. Once these new titles are at the printer, I will continue my research into the earliest

Western-made wove papers in order to write a book on the subject; this book will not be published by The Legacy Press, however.