Heavenly Monkey Press ~ Canada
(Rollin Milroy)

Works concerning people and processes of book production
Works with Shinsuke Minegishi illustrations
Works with illustrations by Kara Sievewright
Miniature Books by Heavenly Monkey Press

EXPRESSed
Ten Philatelic Fictions
By Barbara Hodgson
Vancouver: Heavenly Monkey Press, 2006. Edition of 35.

3.5 x 5.625"; 28 pages. The text was set in Gill Sans and Bembo, and printed with the handpress on Rives Lightweight. Due to the limited number of her earliest stamps still available, the edition consists of just 35 copies, signed by Hodgson. This is the standard copy stitched up at Heavenly Monkey: sewn on tapes and put into a limp case made from Reg Lissel's transparent vellum paper, lined with a printed sheet, and issued in a slipcase.

Heavenly Monkey: "Over the past decade, Barbara Hodgson has established a reputation as an author of both fiction and non-fiction books whose narratives are embroidered by her own inventive typography, collages and original art. But known only to her personal correspondents are the postage stamps she has produced as well, often in conjunction with the publication of a new book. With just enough of the earliest stamps still available to make up 35 complete sets, HM was pleased to be publishing a book collecting all 10 of Hodgson's stamps issued to date."

From the author's introduction to EXPRESSed: "Getting mail delivered for free may have been the original purpose of faking stamps, but stamp artists are not out to deprive the post office of revenue. Their purpose is to carry the deceit far enough to earn a cancellation while dispatching their images around the world."

The book features the stamps tipped to verso pages, with each facing recto presenting a brief commentary by Hodgson. In addition, Hodgson has created ten appropriate (and equally bogus) postmarks with which the stamps will be (roughly) cancelled.
$450 (Last Copy)

The Shadow Over Innsmouth
By H.P. Lovecraft
Wood engravings by Shinsuke Minegishi
2005. Edition of 175 copies.

5 x 7.5" with 150 pages. Includes a fold-out map of Innsmouth, drawn from Lovecraft's detailed descriptions of the town. Text set in Centaur and Arrighi, with Gill Shadow for display. Letterpress printed in two colors, from polymer plates at David Clifford's Black Stone Press in Vancouver, B.C.

This is a new edition of the only book Lovecraft saw published during his lifetime, similar in size and format to the original, but with the attention to typographic and production details that the story deserves. Work on this project began in 2002, with a trial edition of 10 copies for which Shinesuke Minegishi created six wood engravings based on original sketches by H. Bosch (1453-1516)—one for each chapter and the title page. These engravings, plus one new one, were republished in 2003 with extracts from the novella, in an edition of 50 copies titled The "Innsmouth Look". This edition is a letterpress edition of this 60,000-word story.

From the preface: "This story was written by Howard Phillips Lovecraft in 1931 and first published in Weird Tales. Its publication in book form five years later gives it a special place in Lovecraft's career (and a
collector's cabinet) as the first and only work of fiction published during his lifetime. The book itself, however, was a disappointment in several respects.

In 1934 William Crawford started publishing pulp magazines, and soon grew ambitious to undertake books as well. Since he was already in contact with Lovecraft for his magazines, he asked if the author had any manuscripts suitable for the new imprint. In an account of the project published in The Shuttered Room (Arkham House, 1959), Crawford wrote that they "had quite a bit of correspondence about various titles, and in the end it was Lovecraft himself who chose The Shadow Over Innsmouth for his first appearance between covers."

The book was set in Linotype at a nearby newspaper, and printed by Crawford on a Colts Armory press. The edition of about 400 copies suffered from many errors; a few early copies bear corrections in Lovecraft's hand, and an errata sheet was subsequently inserted. Discouraged by sales of his magazines, Crawford decided to bind only about half the edition. His publishing ventures were abandoned shortly after, with about 150 of the bound copies sold, and he reported that to "the best of my knowledge, the unbound copies of Lovecraft's first book were subsequently destroyed."

The Heavenly Monkey edition has been issued in three states: the Ichthyic (25 copies) featuring some additional material and more extensive handwork in the binding; the Batrachian (125 copies), a well designed, hand-bound copy of this classic story; and Abyssal (25 copies) which was reserved for private distribution to collaborators and friends.

ICHTHYIC: Comprises copies I - XXV and are printed on Nideggen. Hand-bound and sewn on black vellum slips and laced into a traditional limp case made from a handmade abaca-based paper with the texture and look of vellum. The case is lined with a sheet of handmade cotton paper that has had a large linocut printed on the front, the title on the spine, and the Heavenly Monkey press device on the back. Includes proofs of the engravings printed from the original blocks on handmade gampi paper, interleaved through the text. Signed by Shinsuke Minegishi on the colophon.
$600 (Out of print)

ICHTHYIC, hand-colored: Seven of the Ichthyic copies (two hors commerce) were hand colored by the artist. These were sewn on purple vellum slips. Includes a black paper slipcase on which the title and linocut have been printed in black.
$1,330 (Out of Print)

BATRACHIAN: Copies numbered 1 – 125 which are printed on Mohawk Superfine. Sewn & cased by hand in full black cloth with an image gold-stamped on the front board. This issue features specially printed endpapers not used in the Ichthyic copies.
$200

Title page

Frontispiece engraving

Minegishi Engraving

Batrachian cover

The Girl With The Mask Of A Crow & Other Stories
Text & illustrations by Kara Sievewright
2004. Edition of 35.

6.75 x 6.75”, 28 pages.

Set within a full-page linocut by the artist. All text hand set in 8-point Gill Sans. Text, linocuts and line engravings printed in a variety of colors on Rives BFK paper. Cased in full black cloth, with a dust jacket featuring an original screen print by the artist

A collection of three illustrated short stories originally published as zines by this young Vancouver author and artist. A Small Shimmer of Things is a one-page story that incorporates small, hand-colored illustrations within the lines of text, almost like hieroglyphics. The Girl With the Mask of a Crow comprises eight full-page panels printed from line engravings, with a gray wash applied to simulate the etchings reproduced in the original zine.
Standard edition $250 (Last Copy)

The Simple Line
By Charles van Sandwyk
Vancouver: Heavenly Monkey Press / CVS Fine Arts, 2006. Edition of 50.

9 x 13"; 10 pages. Sewn folios issued in a cloth case binding with printed spine label. The title page features a new drawing pochoir colored by the artist. The text was set in 18-point Centaur and printed in two colors on Arches paper. Handset in Centaur and Duensing Titling types. Printed with a Washington handpress on Somerset paper. The 'lost' plates were recreated as photo etchings from existing proofs.

Rollin Milroy: "Our collaboration with artist Charles van Sandwyk ... consists of a four-page essay about etching, originally written as the introduction to a retrospective of etchings Charles created over the past two decades. That book, titled Twenty-One Years, Twenty-One Prints, is being issued in an edition of just 13 copies....Impressed by the essay's insight to his work and art, Heavenly Monkey proposed over-printing it and issuing it as a companion volume. The essay features five tipped-in prints of van Sandwyk's earliest etchings, plus a new etching created just for The Simple Line."
$750 (Last Copy)

A Young Printer in San Francisco 1949
By Robert R. Reid
Vancouver: Heavenly Monkey Press, 2005. Edition of 50.

6 x 8.75"; 12 pages. Frontis linocut portrait by Andrea Taylor. Set in 18 pt Perpetua and printed on dampened handmade paper. Copies 1-15 feature a frontis printed in chine collé' and editioned by the artist, and a photo etching from a snapshot of Robert taken en route in 1949. These copies sewn in signatures and cased in limp vellum paper. Copies 16-50 sewn in paste paper wrap.

Brief memoir of visiting some of San Francisco's printing luminaries, by one of Canada's greatest designers & private press publishers.

Heavenly Monkey Press: "In 1949 Robert Reid celebrated inclusion of his first limited-edition book (The Fraser Mines Vindicated) in that year's Rounce & Coffin Club annual book show, by driving down the West Coast to see the exhibition. Along the way he stopped in San Francisco, and during just a few days there, managed to meet a number of the city's printing luminaries: the Grabhorn brothers, Col. Carroll Harris, and perhaps most memorable of all, William Everson, then at work on A Privacy of Speech.

"This brief account of the trip is written in Reid's customary style effusive for all things printed."

$395 deluxe (copy #15) (Last Copy)

Heavenly Monkey Press Out of Print Titles:
• A Letter for T.E. Shaw
• A LETTER FROM CARL DAIR ABOUT THE PAPER MILLS OF AMALFI, ITALY
• A Small Shimmer of Things
• A Young Printer in San Francisco 1949 (Standard)
• Ars Anatomica
• The Fairies' Christmas
• Francesco Griffo da Bologna: Fragments & Glimpses
• The Girl With The Mask Of A Crow & Other  Stories: Deluxe edition
• Heavenly Monkey 1998-2003
• The 'Innsmouth Look'
• ISKANDARIYA (Standard and Deluxe edition)
• Kuthan's Menagerie Completed
• The Shadow Over Innsmouth, ICHTHYIC
• The Simple Line
• The Tale of Three Black Boxes
• TOPOS