books published |
YOU CAN'T CHOOSE YOUR PROGENY
With a Vellum Leaf from the Doves Press 1914 Shelley
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You Can't Choose Your Progeny was printed last October, from hand-set 18-point Perpetua, on dampened HM Text paper. The project was conceived both as a means to make appropriate use of a lot of 23 original vellum leaves from the Doves Press's 1914 collection of poems by Shelley, and to try out some of the format and design ideas for Elements in Correlation: Printing With the Handpress at Heavenly Monkey, by HM publisher Rollin Milroy. The main essay in Progeny is the last chapter from that book, which scheduled for publication later in 2009. In addition to the essay, Progeny includes a three-page foreword discussing the provenance of the vellum leaves, and extracts from Cobden-Sanderson's own journals about the printing of vellum copies at Doves (including one extract specifically about the Shelley sheets).
Judged as a trial run for the much longer and more complex Elements in Correlation project, Progeny is a success: some of the design ideas clearly need revisiting, and more importantly, our font of Perpetua doesn't have another major project in it. Far from being a disappointment (capital cost implications aside), these results have been tremendously freeing, unfettering the Handpress book's design from considerations of using what's at hand versus what's best suited.
You Can't Choose Your Progeny (8 x 12.5 inches, 15 pp) was published in an edition of 23 press-numbered copies, plus five hors commerce copies (I - V) that include a Doves leaf printed on paper. The book was bound by Claudia Cohen: sewn on four vellum paper slips, and laced into a limp case made from Reg Lissel's opague white vellum paper, with gold lines tooled on the front and back, and the title stamped on the spine. Some, but not all, copies include her ticket at the back.
This book is out of print, but copies may be available from our usual booksellers (see Friends).
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