Saturday: Jerry Kelly on Fine Printing in the Digital Age
Jerry Kelly will speak, at the request of Bob Fleck, on the future of fine printing in the digital age. With ever-larger segments of traditional publishing moving towards digital media, where does that leave finely printed books? Kelly will investigate this vexing question, in the light of other fields where technology left fine craftsmanship behind long ago, and considering the specific attributes of the book as a physical object, and indeed as a work of art.
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Jerry Kelly is a book designer, calligrapher, and typographer who has designed hundreds of books for numerous clients, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Grolier Club, The American Printing History Association, and others too numerous to mention. His work has received numerous awards, including 29 selections in the prestigious “Fifty Books of the Year” awards for book design of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, 3 selections of the Type Director’s Club, awards from the Society of Typographers, the American Library Association, and more. Since 1978 he has been a partner at the Kelly-Winterton Press, a small shop printing fine editions by letterpress (and occasionally other means where appropriate). He has also taught and lectured widely. Kelly is an honorary member of the Double Crown Club, a corresponding member of the Bund Deutsche Buchkunstler, and an active member of the American Printing History Association, The Grolier Club, The Typophiles, and the Society of Scribes. |
Saturday: Daniel De Simone on color printing in the collections of the Library of Congress
From the earliest years after the invention of the "black art," printers struggled to create a method for printing in color, that was both esthetically pleasing and commercially viable. From the initial letters decorating the Book of Psalms printed in Mainz in 1457 by Fust and Schoeffer to the portraits of historical figures printed in Florence 1800 by Carlo Lasinio at the turn of the nineteenth century, improvements in the color process advanced slowly and by only a few practitioners. The presentation by Daniel De Simone, Curator of the Rosenwald Collection, will discuss some of the printers who advance the process using examples from the collections of the Rare Book Division of the Library of Congress.
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Daniel De Simone has been Curator, Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection of The Library of Congress, since January 2000. Previously, he ran his own rare book company in NYC, and during that time developed expertise in antiquarian bibliography and illustrated books. As the Rosenwald Curator he has had the opportunity to develop an expertise in early printing and early illustrated books. |
Sunday: Carol Grossman on the Limited Editions Club
George Macy's Limited Editions Club produced some of the finest American fine press books of the twentieth century and was one of the most significant American employers of book designers and printers from 1929 to his death in 1956.
Macy maintained very high standards for his books and emphasized originality in his work. He had a finely developed idea of what he wanted in his books and how it should be done. He greatly admired and enjoyed working with people who shared his dedication and love of fine books. Almost every fine book designer or printer worked for The Limited Editions Club, including such notables as Bruce Rogers, John Henry Nash, Edwin Grabhorn, W.A. Dwiggins, Eric Gill, Hans Mardersteig, and his best friend, Sir Francis Meynell.
This talk will survey the work of Macy's printers and designers.
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Carol Grossman has been an admirer and collector of Limited Editions Club books, and other fine press books, since she was a college student. The books captivated, and eventually led to a study of fine printing. One corollary of this study is a decades-long interest in the Club itself, resulting in a book to be published by Oak Knoll Press in 2013. After years studying mathematics and working for IBM, she became a rare book dealer specializing in fine press books and the LEC. She is a member of many book-related organizations, including the Grolier Club, the Caxton Club, the Fine Press Book Association (which she helped found). She is also a member of the ABAA, ILAB, and the Rocky Mountain Antiquarian Booksellers Association. She has lectured on books at a number of libraries and association meetings, and has published articles on various aspects of fine printing in several magazines and journals on books and collecting. |
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