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Larkspur
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Larkspur Press: "What we try to do with our Craft and Art is to publish in a well designed, well made way. Our focus is on the writing. Artwork is used to complement the Poem or Story."
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| Larkspur Press on NPR: When Making Books Was As Much Of An Art As Writing Them Noah Adams All Things Considered November 23, 20177:56 PM | |
Collaborations with James Baker Hall |
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"James Baker Hall (1935-2009), significantly known for his work as a writer, was a former Poet Laureate of Kentucky and the author of many essential works of southern literature. He was an equally prolific art photographer, lecturing widely on the medium. He was a former contributing editor for Aperture, and his own work published in over half a dozen collections of photographs. He was a member of the famed Lexington Camera Club and the trusted colleague of such photographers as Minor White, Richard Benson, and Ralph Eugene Meatyard. His photographs are part of public and private art holdings, including the permanent collections of University of Kentucky Art Museum in Lexington, KY and 21C Museum in Louisville, KY." Ed McClanahan, ACE Weekly, 2 July 2009: "Jim Hall was a consummate artist. His aesthetic, both as a writer and as a photographer, was demanding and exacting; he was, in the bests and truest sense of the word, a perfectionist, yet his work was sometimes fearlessly experimental, sometimes downright, playful, but always adventurous, always testing the limits, pushing the line back. He could stand the language of poetry on its ear, and make his camera show you things you'd never even dreamed of." James Baker Hall and his friends Wendell Berry, Gurney Norman, and Ed McClanahan were students in the University of Kentucky English Department in the 1950s. From 1958 to 1962 the four had Wallace Stegner Fellowships in Creative Writing at Stanford University, and were part of the famous group that included Larry McMurtry and Ken Kesey. |
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Orphans & Elegies Broadsides: 14 x 11"; 4 single sheets. Photos: 20 x 16"; 8 single giclée prints. Type set by hand in Cloister Lightface. Printed with a hand fed C&P on Gampi Torinoko paper made in Japan. Giclée prints produced by James Baker Hall. Case (20.75 x 17 x 1.25") covered in Japanese bookbinding cloth and Gampi Torinoko paper by Gabrielle Fox. Designed with interior cloth covered board to sit on top of the prints. Interior board provides housing for the broadsides. White gloves attached to interior board for handling prints and images. The portfolio of four broadsides and eight photographs by Hall were published in honor of the exhibition "Photo/Synthesis: James Baker Hall" at 21C Museum, Louisville, Kentucky open from September 2008 - April 2009. Photo/Synthesis, 21C Museum, 2009: "21c Museum is proud to present Photo/Synthesis: James Baker Hall, the first survey of photographic work by James Baker Hall, whose photographs depict the varied landscapes and creative personalities of his native Kentucky, while foregrounding the sensory experience of the work itself. The seventy images drawn from the collection of the artist represent a body of work that examine Hall's fascination and experimentation of photography since his childhood. "It has been said that James Baker Hall is both a photographer who writes and a writer who takes pictures. This exhibition explores yet another notion, that James Baker Hall is also a painter who makes photographs. 21c has worked closely with the artist to realize an ambitious exhibition comprising nearly five decades of photographic pursuits. "While Hall is perhaps best known for his more traditional photographic books such as A Spring Fed Pond, 2000 or Tobacco Harvest: An Elegy, 2004, he has simultaneously been creating a body of work that continues to challenge the notion that photography is merely representational. Instead, Hall's photographs often take on a more painterly quality such as his Orphans in the Attic and Appear to Disappear series. Similar to painting, Hall is able to record the experience of observation and capture the impression of a landscape or his subject. "Accompanying this exhibition, Larkspur letterpress, a longtime Larkspur Press, Orphans & Elegies: "This book renders trauma and resolve through four broadsides of James Baker Hall's poems and eight of Hall's photographs. The poems are "Traveling" and "Organdy Curtains, Window, South Bank of the Ohio" from Stopping on the Edge to Wave (1988) and "It Felt So Good But Many Times I Cried" and "That First Kite" from The Mother on the Other Side of the World (1999). Photographs: Orphans & Elegies; Boy Face Halfed; Young Anne; Jimmy Red Dot; Bride; Egyptian Woman Elegy; Dancing Child, Matthew in Doorway." |
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Firesticks 11.5 x 14.5" black cloth-covered portfolio case with ribbon ties. Paper A portfolio honoring rural Kentucky, Firesticks includes four broadsides of James Baker Hall's poems, printed by Larkspur Press, and three of Hall’s photographs printed by himself. A native Kentuckian, in 2001 Hall was named the Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He was a graduate if the University of Kentucky with a B.A. in English and received a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Creative Writing at Stanford University. He began teaching at the University of Kentucky in 1973 and for the next thirty years acted as director of the creative writing program. In 2003, he retired as professor emeritus. The poems: "Dividing Ridge," "Pulse," and "The Relinquishments" from "Stopping on the Edge to Wave" (1988); "With Deer" from The Mother on the Other Side of the World (1999). The photographs: Cave Horse, Red Sky Cows, and Horse Head Torque. |
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| 2012 Kentucky Governor's Award in the Arts: "With each book or broadside printed, Mr. Zeitz's focus is always on showcasing the writer's work. Art work is sometimes used to complement poems or stories and incredible effort is made to ensure the finished product is affordable." | |
| Street Chatter Fading By Abigail Friedman wood engraving by Wesley Bates Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 2015. Special edition of 36. 6.875 x 4.5"; 74 pages. Letterpress printed on Zerkall Book paper. Handset in Garamond type. Printed on a hand-fed C & P. Frontispiece wood engraving by Wesley Bates. Handbound, illustrated paper over boards with cloth spine. In letterpressed dust wrapper. Design, composition, printing, and binding by Leslie Shane and Gray Zeitz at Larkspur Press. Signed by the poet and artist. Numbered. A book of haikus by Abigail Friedman with an engraving by Wesley Bates. Abigail Friedman: "A chance encounter with an amateur haiku poet led me to join a haiku group led by Momoko. At the time, I was living in Japan as an American diplomat and had only just become interested in haiku. I had never heard of a haiku group, never heard of Momoko Kuroda [created a nationwide haiku organization in Japan and a haiku magazine AOI], and until then I had never even composed haiku. But my curiosity led me not only to join the group which met near Mt. Fuji, but to ask Momoko if she might also meet with me privately and teach me more about haiku." Abigail Friedman is a U.S. diplomat and published haiku poet who lived and worked in Japan for a total of eight years between 1986 and 2003. She began composing and translating haiku in 2001 as the only non-Japanese member of a haiku group that met at the foot of Mt. Fuji. $175 (Last Copy) |
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| Almanac of the Invisible By Leatha Kendrick drawings by Arwen Donahue Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 2014. Special edition of 42. 4.5 x 7"; 68 pages. Printed on Somerset Book paper. Handset in Cloister Lightface type. Printed on a hand-fed C&P. Drawings by Arwen Donahue. Handbound by Carolyn Whitesel in her own decorated papers over boards with cloth spine. Design, composition, printing, and binding by Leslie Shane, Carolyn Whitesel, and Gray Zeitz. Numbered. Signed by the poet and artist. Oregon Ferry Review of Books: "This collection feeds that hunger for the unsweet, for the homely, substantial nutrients of the soul presented in an exquisitely crafted book of equally exquisite poems. "Balanced between grief for a dying father and joy for the birth of a first grandson, the Almanac is divided into three sections: 'Shadow' takes us from winter into spring, 'Against the Silver Rim,' spring into summer, and 'Sipping the Invisible,' summer into fall, a cycle from death to death. But though the book follows the seasons, it is not restricted to a single year. Rather we are given a survey of the poet’s life, her childhood on the farm, her years as a young mother, her own brush with death as a breast-cancer survivor, and her present as grandmother and caregiver. Larkspur Press: "Leatha Kendrick's essays, poems and fiction appear in journals and anthologies ... Recipient of awards including two Al Smith Fellowship and the Sallie Bingham Award, she writes, teaches, and mentors writers across Kentucky. "Arwen Donahue earned her BFA at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, California. ... This is the fourth book she has illustrated for Larkspur Press." $175 (Last Copy) |
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| Salt River Anthology By Charlie Hughes with a drawing by Richard Taylor Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 2014. Special edition of 36. 5 x 7.375"; 56 pages. Printed on Somerset Book Paper. Handset in Garamond type. Printed on a hand-fed C&P. Handbound by Carolyn Whitesel in her own decorated paste papers with cloth spine. Dust wrapper. Design, composition, printing, and binding by Leslie Shane, Carolyn Whitesel, and Gray Zeitz. Numbered. Signed by poet and artist. A series of poems in the style of a triolet - a single stanza poem of eight lines with a rhyme scheme of ABaAaBAB; the first, fourth, and seventh lines identical as are the second and eighth, making the initial and final couplets identical - featuring the people in the Salt River community. Larkspur Press: "Charlie Hughes grew up in Kentucky on a small tobacco farm - land transected by the Southern Railway and bordered by the Salt River. During the nights the rumbling echo of freight trains rattled the windows of the little farmhouse. As a youngster he did not embrace what he considered the drudgery of the farm; however, he often revisits that locale in his writing. "Richard Taylor, a Kentucky poet laureate, is a poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher, as well as a creator of fine art: line drawing, watercolor, oils, and wood engraving." $150 (Last Copy) |
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| Legacy of Beginning Poems in Bhutan By Kim Stafford wood engravings by Wesley Bates Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 2013. Special edition of 50. 6 x 8.75"; 62 pages. Printed on Biblio paper. Handset in Cloister Lightface type. Printed on a hand-fed C&P. Wood engravings by Wesley Bates. Handbound with paste paper over boards and cloth spine. Design, composition, printing, and binding by Leslie Shane, Carolyn Whitesel, and Gray Zeitz. Numbered. Signed by the poet and artist. Kim Stafford, preface: "In the winter of 2011, with the help of Tshetem Norbu and Wendy Erd of Sacred Himalayan Travel, I gathered a band of ten writers from America and one from Poland for a creative pilgrimage to the kingdom of Bhutan. "These poems were written as we sat together around the bukhari, the iron stove where pine crackled and winter kept us close. The poems are informed by the Buddhist notion of four dimensions for each encounter, from the visible to the increasingly mysterious and important." Larkspur Press: "Kim Stafford is the founding director of the Northwest Writing Institute in Oregon, and author of a dozen books of poetry and prose." Wesley Bates has been a wood engraver since 1980. He frequently collaborates with poets and authors for Larkspur Press. $175 (Last Copy) |
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Late August Blues 6.5 x 8.75"; 62 pages. Handset in Cloister Lightface type. Printed letterpress on a hand-fed C & P on Zerkal paper. Handbound by Carolyn Whitesel in her own decorated papers over board. Design, composition, printing, and binding by Leslie Shane, Carolyn Whitesel, and Gray Zeitz. Numbered. Signed by artist and poet. Late August Blues is Morehead's fifth collection of poetry, the third book with Larkspur Press. Erin Kean, News for Louisville www.wfpl.org : "Morehead's latest book is Late August Blues: The Daylily Poems, a gently melancholy collection of persona poems in the vein of Edgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology. "The collection is illustrated by Carolyn Whitesel and published by Kentucky's Larkspur Press, which is owned and operated by celebrated letterpress publisher Gray Zeitz. Zeitz is the recipient of a 2012 Governor's Award in the Arts. "Morehead named the characters in her poems after different types of daylilies growing in her husband’s garden. Daylily varieties carry human names, like James Marsh and Mary Todd, and Morehead took the inspiration for her human characters from the flowers’ shapes and names." Larkspur Press: "Maureen Morehead is a teacher and poet who lives in Louisville, Kentucky. Her poems have been published in several magazines, including America, The American Poetry Review, California Quarterly, The Greensboro Review, The Iowa Review, and Poetry. She is on the faculty of Spalding University's low-residency MFA Program in Creative Writing, and is Kentucky Poet Laureate for 2011-12. This is her third book for Larkspur Press. “Carolyn Whitesel works as a visual artist, writer, bookbinder, and gardening professional, doing business as Yellowbird Editions. Her artwork and artist's books have been widely exhibited. For more than three decades she has illustrated books and created special edition binding for Larkspur Press." |
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| Crossing the Sky Bridge By Pat Williams Owen Illustrated by Laura Lee Cundiff Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 2009. Special edition of 38. 9.5 x 6"; 50 pages. Letterpress printed on Somerset Book paper. Handset in Joanna type. Printed on a C & P. Handbound using papers marbled by Debbie Shanon. Drawings by Laura Lee Cundiff. Design, composition, printing, and binding by Leslie Shane and Gray Zeitz at Larkspur Press. Signed by author and illustrator. Numbered. Poetry by Kentuckian Pat Williams Owen with illustrations by Laura Lee Cundiff Larkspur Press: "Pat Williams Owen divides her time between Louisville, Kentucky, and Sarasota, Florida. She did graduate work in the MFA program of Spalding University and has published her work in the Louisville Review and the anthology This Wretched Vessel." Laura Lee Cundiff is an artist, illustrator, and designer based in Kentucky. $185 |
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A Primer for the Apprehension of Heaven 7.325 x 10.25"; 59 pages. Handset in American Uncial type. Printed with a hand-fed C & P on dampened Copperplate paper. Wood engraving by John Andrew Dixon. Handbound with cloth over boards. Paper title label on spine. Cream dust jacket. Signed by Manning and Dixon. Numbered. Poetry Foundation: "Maurice Manning was inspired by the lives of his grandmothers, great grandmothers, and a great-great-grandmother, and he grew up listening to stories of his father's childhood spent on a farm in Eastern Kentucky. Inventive and historical, his work reflects his heritage and a respect for the natural world.” John Andrew Dixon: "I am a Kentucky-based designer, illustrator, and artist. Together with my 'partner in all things,' I pursue an independent creative life, balancing an active role in my community and enduring ties to my nuclear family. Together with my Clan, we hold in trust a farm among the rural Knobs - as a shrine for the past, a retreat for the present, and a legacy for the future." Poems for this volume include “A Ringer Washer on the Porch”; “Old-time Preachin’ on a Scripture Taken from a Tree”; “a Bestiary; and. “A Primer for the Apprehension of Heaven.”
$130 |
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Dividing Ridge
Accents, WRFL, Lexington: "Mary Ann Taylor-Hall was born in Chicago, and grew up in Winter Haven, Florida. She attended Wesleyan College, in Macon, Georgia, received a BA degree from the University of Florida, and an MA in dramatic literature from Columbia University. She has taught at Auburn University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Puerto Rico, and Miami University of Ohio." |
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The Fallen World
$175 (Last Copy) |
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| The Literate Thief By Bernadette Rule Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 2006. Special Edition of 45. 6 x 9.5"; 72 pages. Handset in Garamond type. Printed on a hand-fed C & P, then handbound. Printed on Somerset paper. Wood engravings by Wesley Bates. Design, composition, and printing by Leslie Shane, Carolyn Whitesel, and Gray Zeitz. Handbound by Carolyn Whitesel in her own decorated binding over boards. In cream color dust jacket with cover illustration. Signed by the poet. Numbered. Poems by Bernadette Rule accompanied by woodcuts by Wesley Bates. The poems come from four previously published collections which are now out of print - Frames of mind, Full light falling, Gardening at the mouth of hell, and The weight of flames. Larkspur Press: "Bernadette Rule was born and raised in Mayfield, Kentucky, and currently lives in Canada. Her work has been published in a variety of journals, most recently The Malahat Review, Descant, and Hammered Out. She has an essay in CrossRoads: A Southern Culture Annual, 2006. Rule is also the editor of Remember Me to Everybody: Letters from India, 1944 to 1949 by Fred Turnbull." $175 (Last Copy) |
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The Life Horse 6.5 x 9.75"; 100 pages. Handset in Garamond type designed by Morris Benton for ATF after the work of Jean Jannon, a master printer in 17th-century Paris. Ratdolt type, designed by Victor Hammer, was used for display. Printed on a hand-fed C & P. Printed on Magnani Velata paper. Handbound by Carolyn Whitesel. Design, composition, and printing by Leslie Shane and Gray Zeitz. Signed by the artist and poet. Numbered. Poetry by Susan Starr Richards accompanied by Richard Wooten's drawings.
Prospectus: "The drawings, by Richard H. Wooten, are based on a Chinese jade horse's head from the Han Dynasty, and a cave painting for Lascaux, France, ca. 17,000 - 12,000 B.C. Richard Wooten is a native of Harrison County with an avid interest in ancient art. He now lives in Maine. "Susan Starr Richards's short stories have been anthologized in Prize Stories, The O. Henry Awards, and in New Stories from the South, the Year's Best, and have appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Sewanee Review, Shenandoah, The Southern Review, and in Thoroughbred Times, as winner of their first National Fiction Prize. Her essays have been published in Ms. Magazine, Essence, New Woman, and anthologized by Oxford University Press and The Odyssey Press. She has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Kentucky Arts Council Fellowship, and was the 2004 Lecturer in American Literature at Doane College, Nebraska. In 2006, Sarabande press published her story collection, The Hanging in the Foaling Barn, as the third volume in their Woodford Reserve Series in Kentucky Literature. She taught for ten years at the University of Kentucky, and with her husband raised racehorses for thirty years, first in Fayette County, and then on their farms in Harrison and Scott Counties." |
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| Gardencourt By Frederick Smock Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 1997. Special edition of 50. 4.5 x 8.25"; 54 pages. Printed on dampened Johannot. Handset in Eric Gill's Joanna type. Printed on a hand-fed C&P. Woodcuts by Laura Lee Cundiff. Handbound pastepaper over boards with cloth spine by Carolyn Whitesel. Design, composition, presswork, folding, & collating by Leslie Shane and Gray Zeitz. Numbered. Signed by the poet and artist. Bellarmine University: "Frederick Smock specializes in Modernism, 20th-Century American Poetry, and Creative Writing. He has also taught classes on Poetry of Witness, Peace Studies, and British World War One Poets, and in the realms of Aesthetics and Humanities. He is the author of five collections of poetry: Gardencourt (Larkspur Press, 1997), The Good Life (Larkspur Press, 2000), Guest House (Larkspur Press, 2003), The Blue Hour (Larkspur Press, 2010), and, most recently, The Bounteous World (Broadstone Books, 2013)." $150 |
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A Guide to the Four-Chambered Heart 6.125 x 9.25"; 54 pages. Handset in Eric Gill's Joanna type and printed on a hand-fed C & P. Printed on dampened Johannot. Illustrations by Joy Haines. Handbound by Carolyn Whitesel in her own decorated papers over boards. In cream dust jacket. Design, composition, and presswork by Laverne Zabielski and Gray Zeitz. Signed by Joy Haines and John Haines. John Haines (1924 – 2011), winner of a lifetime achievement award from the Library of Congress, was an American poet and educator who had served as the poet laureate of Alaska. He published nine collections of poetry. |
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| Larkspur Press: "Our focus is on the writing. Artwork is used to complement the Poem or Story. We try to publish an edition that is affordable. Most of the writers we've published are living. Many of our books have been the Author's First Book, and the work of many of them is now well known. We've also had the privilege to work with many established writers." | |
| Great Naps By Susan Starr Richards Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 2015. Special edition of 36. 6.5 x 4.75"; 36 pages. Handset in Garamond type. Printed on a hand-fed Chandler & Price press. Handbound. 300 copies printed on Mohawk Superfine paper and pamphlet bound. A special edition of 36 copies printed on dampened Biblio paper and bound in paper covered boards with cloth spine. Numbered. Design, composition, printing, and binding by Leslie Shane and Gray Zeitz. Signed by the author. Susan Starr Richards taught English for ten years at the University of Kentucky. She and her husband live in a 200-year-old log house on their ridge-country farm in the Outer Bluegrass of Kentucky. For thirty years they bred, raised, sold, and raced thoroughbreds. Now she helps care for their retired racehorses, keeps track of the birds and wildflowers on the farm, and writes in her workshed in the woods. Great Naps is made up of three short vignettes of napping moments on Richards farm – asleep with the horses, on a tractor, and in a truck. $175 (Last Copy) |
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| The Affrilachian Sonnets By Frank X. Walker wood engravings by Joanne Price Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 2009. Special edition of 46. 6.5 x 8.75"; 52 pages. Letterpress printed on Rives and Zerkall Book papers. Handset in Cloister Lightface type. Printed on a hand-fed C & P and a Vandercook. Handbound using Carolyn Whitesel's decorated papers over boards. Design, composition, printing, and binding by Joanne Price, Leslie Shane, Carolyn Whitesel and Gray Zeitz at Larkspur Press. Signed by the author and illustrator. Includes a separate engravings, printed and signed by the artist. Frank X. Walker is a Poet Laureate of Kentucky, and Professor in the department of English and the African American and Africana Studies Program at the University of Kentucky. ... He is the originator of the word, Affrilachia, and wholly committed to deconstructing and forging a new definition of a pluralistic Appalachia. Joanne Price, founder of Starpointe Studio, is an artist primarily focused on relief printmaking processes, and the book arts. www.theaffrilachianpoets.com: "The term 'Affrilachia' was originally coined by Frank X Walker. In reference to the region of Appalachia, a mountain range stretching over thirteen states along the East Coast of the U.S. from Mississippi to New York, Affrilachia is an ever-evolving cultural landscape poised to render the invisible visible. Affrilachia embraces a multicultural influence, a spectrum of people who consider Appalachia home and/or identify strongly with the trials and triumphs of being of this region. Since 1991, the Affrilachian Poets have been writing together, defying the persistent stereotype of a racially homogenized rural region. Through their writing and the very existence of their enclave, the Affrilachian Poets continue to reveal relationships that link identity to familial roots, socio-economic stratification and cultural influence, and an inherent connection to the land." Frank X. Walker: "As a co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets and the creator of the word Affrilachia, I believe it is my responsibility to say as loudly and often as possible that people and artists of color are part of the past and present of the multi-state Appalachian region extending from northern Mississippi to southern New York. As a writer/observer/truth teller, I choose to focus on social justice issues as well as multiple themes of family, identity and place." (SOLD) |
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Alluvial Luck 6 x 9.5"; 72 pages. Handset in Cloister Lightface type. Printed on a hand-fed C&P. Handbound using Carolyn Whitesel's decorated papers over boards. Signed by the author and illustrator. Numbered. Poems by Trina Peiffer with observations about every day activities and her life in rural Kentucky. Larkspur Press: "Trina Peiffer lives in northern Franklin County, Kentucky, with her husband, Tim, and their two sons, Phillip and Eric. Together they homeschool, raise a market garden, and work on their off-the-grid house. Educated in Kentucky and California, Trina holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of California at Davis. Her first book is 'Coyote at Large: Humor in American Nature Writing.' "Laurie Schimmoller was born on Long Island and transplanted to Kentucky where she lives in a log cabin in the woods with her husband, Charles. She has been drawing and painting all her life. For over fifty years she has taught art and drawn chalk-board stories for children." |
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Andy Catlett: Early Education 4.25 x 6.75"; 47 pages. Handset in Garamond type and printed on a hand-fed C & P. Handbound by Carolyn Whitesel in her own decorated papers over boards. Wood engravings by Wesley Bates. Includes a separate printing of the three engravings (6 x 9"), signed by the artist and numbered. Design, composition, printing, and binding by Deborah Kessler, Leslie Shane, Carolyn Whitesel, and Gray Zeitz. Kentucky writer Wendell Berry (1934 -) an author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays. He is an elected member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and a recipient of The National Humanities Medal. He has produced several books with Grey Zeitz at Larkspur Press. Andy Catlett: Early Education is another in a body of work Berry has created around the fictional Kentucky town of Port Royal and Port Royal resident Andy Catlett. Reese Okyong Kwon, "Stories We Recommend: 'Andy Catlett: Early Education'" in The Rumpus (May 4, 2009): "There is a story by Wendell Berry that stands as one of the finest and funniest short stories I have read in some time. Andy Catlett: Early Education begins in ill-fated idyll ('In grades one and two I was a sweet, tractable child who caused no trouble') and ends in remedy; every deadpanning word, meanwhile, delights." Edible Louisville, November - December Issue: "This little handmade book, a product of Grey Zeitz's letterpress genius at the Larkspur Press in Monterey, Kentucky, is a terrific piece of short fiction, finely illustrated with Wesley Bates's woodcuts, set in Berry's fictional small Kentucky town of Port Royal. It is in Wendell Berry's Port Royal fiction that we feel the spirit of, dare we say it, Mark Twain - the deadpan humor, the folksy but wise charm, the glitter of wisdom peeking through the storytelling - and this story is no exception. Andy Catlett: Early Education begins with a kind of pastoral quiet and ends with a satisfying resolution, but in between is a tumult of boyish mischief that would alarm even Huck Finn." |
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| Animals at Full Moon Poems by Erik Reece Wood engravings by John Lackey Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 2009. Special edition of 38. 6.25 x 8.5"; 48 pages. Letterpress printed on Biblio paper. Wood engravings by John Lackey. Handset in Garamond type. Printed on a hand-fed C&P. Handbound in Carolyn Whitesel's decorated paper over boards. Design, composition, printing, and binding by Leslie Shane, Carolyn Whitesel, and Gray Zeitz at Larkspur Press. Signed by author and artist. Numbered. Poems by Erik Reece with wood engravings by John Lackey. Erik Reece teaches writing and literature at the University of Kentucky. John Lackey writes poetry and songs and makes films. He is the owner of Homegrown Press Studio & Gallery in Lexington. (SOLD/Out of Print) |
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| August Blue By Guy Davenport Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 1992. Special Edition of 100. 6.75 x 10"; 44 pages. Handset in Joseph Blumenthal's Emerson type . Printed on a hand-fed C & P on Fabriana Ingres paper. Design, composition, and presswork by Dave Smith and Gray Zeitz. Binding, marbled paper over boards, by Carolyn Whitesel. In cream color dust jacket. Signed and numbered by Guy Davenport. This short story by Guy Davenport (1927 - 2005) first appeared in Antaeus. B. Renner, "A Review of Guy Davenport's 'August Blue,'" elimae: "What shall we make of 'August Blue' which has – in its four sections – four settings, four narrators, and four (or at least three) time periods? Ideas overlap, to be sure. Two sections involve formal education, and a third the contrast between being educated and being not. ... Two feature settings on the coast of England; two, the meaning of the Hebrew letter alef. The first and last sections revolve around characters who are, in one for or fashion, in disguise. But can these pieces, as lovely as they may be individually, form a whole? "In Davenport's hands, certainly." Guy Davenport (www.jrank.org): "American short-story writer, critic, poet, and translator, born in Anderson, South Carolina, educated at Duke University, Merton College, Oxford, and Harvard. He became Professor of English at the University of Kentucky in 1963. Among his earlier publications is Motive and Method in the Cantos of Ezra Pound (1954), the first of a series of works on that author. The scope of his criticism is demonstrated in the essays collected in Geography of the Imagination (1981) and Every Force Evolves a Form (1987), which range between remote classical antiquity and the culture of the present day. Davenport's eclectically authoritative erudition is also reflected in his short stories, which are noted for their mannered originality of style and audaciously inventive narratives..." (SOLD/Out of Print) |
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| The Cumberlands Excerpts from articles on the region by James Lane Allen with a commentary by Wendell Berry Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 2006. Special edition of 75. 5.25 x 8.25"; 56 pages. Printed on Somerset Book paper. Handset in Garamond type and printed on a hand-fed C & P. Printed on Somerset Book paper. Handbound by Carolyn Whitesel in her own decorated binding over boards. Design, composition, printing, and regular edition binding by Leslie Shane and Gray Zeitz. Cream dust wrapper. Prospectus: "The Cumberlands was first published by the King Library Press under the direction of Carolyn Hanmer and printed by the apprentices to the press. This reprint (there are a few slight changes) is released with respect and honor to Carolyn Hammer. With the continual destruction of our mountains, this book is as true today as it was in 1972." The Cumberlands is divided into two sections: Mountain Passes of the Cumberland [excerpts from Allen's articles] and Civilizing the Cumberlands [Berry's comments on Allen's observations and predictions]. James Lane Allen (1849 – 1925) was a writer whose work often depicted the culture and dialects of his native Kentucky. Wendell Berry (1934 - ) is also a native Kentuckian and a writer. James Lane Allen, Mountain Passes of the Cumberland: "Within a few years the commonwealth of Kentucky will be a hundred years old. All in all, it would seem that the close of its first century the old Kentucky passes away; and that the second century will bring in a new Kentucky – new in many ways, but most of all on account of the civilization of the Cumberland." Wendell Berry, Civilizing the Cumberlands: "The sad truth is that the Cumberlands were far nearer civilization in 1890 than they are today. The industrialization of the region has produced, not the promised land of opulent cities and fields and forests that Allen prophesied, but, in the valleys and on the slopes where industry has done its worst, a land that resembles the battlefield of Armageddon. And in the prophesy itself are to be found the seeds of its failure." (SOLD/Out of Print) |
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The Feast of Silence 6 x 9.5"; 48 pages. Handset in Garamond type. Printed on a hand-fed C&P and a Vandercook. Handbound using Carolyn Whitesel's decorated papers over boards. Signed by the author and illustrator. Numbered. A set of poems by Richard Taylor divided into three sections - Water, Fire, Earth. In each of these sections and poems the focus is on contemplation of silence in everyday activities, places, and people. Larkspur Press: "Richard Taylor, a Kentucky poet laureate, is a poet, novelist and essayist. He lives in Franklin County, Kentucky and teaches at Transylvania University. This is his sixth book of poetry from Larkspur Press." "Wesley Bates has been a wood engraver since 1980. He lives with his wife in Clifford, Ontario, where he works as a book illustrator, graphic novelist and fine artist." |
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| Fondelle Or: The Whore with A Heart Of Gold A Report from the Field By Ed McClanahan Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 2002. Special edition of 65. 6.5 x 8.75"; 92 pages. Printed on a hand-fed C & P. Handset in Joseph Blumenthal's Emerson type and Frederic Goudy's Goudy Oldstyle for display. Printed on dampened Biblio paper. Wood engravings by Wesley Bates. Handbound by Carolyn Whitesel in her own decorated papers over boards. In cream dust jacket with illustrated front cover. Design, composition, and printing by Deborah Kessler, Rhonda Seabolt, Leslie Shane, and Gray Zeitz. Signed by author and engraver. Ed McClanahan is a native of Brooksville, Kentucky, born in 1932. A graduate of Miami (Ohio) University (AB, 1955) and the University of Kentucky (MA, 1958), he has taught English and creative writing at Oregon State University, Stanford University, the University of Montana, the University of Kentucky, and Northern Kentucky University. Ed McClanahan www.edmcclanahan.com : "FONDELLE is a what-I-did-on-my-vacation memoir of my adventures in the summer of 1954— my last summer as a college undergraduate—, when I went out west for the first time, to work on a road crew in Yosemite National Park. The story mainly concerns an encounter I had with an extraordinary couple— a West Virginia-born 'showgirl' from New York City and a one-armed WWII vet from Oklahoma— while hitch-hiking between Beaumont, Texas, and New Orleans on my return trip to Kentucky." June Sawyers, San Francisco Chronicle: "Fondelle or, The Whore with a Heart of Gold is a shaggy-dog tale, which McClanahan seems to excel in. This time, it's 1954, the summer before his senior year in college, spent, he offers in an aside, at Miami University - 'the one in Ohio, alas.' In the meantime, he has a summer job at Yosemite National Park and is romantically linked to a young girl from Youngstown. When one of his friends offers a proposition – if he shares the driving chores and helps pay for the gas, the friend would take him as far east as Houston – McClanahan jumps at the chance. Even though geography is not his forte, he realizes that although Houston may not be in Ohio, it is near New Orleans, which, in his estimation, is reason enough to go. This sets in motion another one of McClanahan's rambling tales where he meets all sorts of odd and colorful characters, including a redheaded woman and a balding, one-armed man wearing a Hawaiian shirt; at one point, he is even asked to be the best man at a stranger's wedding." (SOLD/Out of print) |
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| The Good Life By Frederic Smock Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 2000. Special edition of 42. 5 x7.25"; 64 pages. Handset in Hermann Zapf's Palatino type and printed on a hand-fed C & P. Printed on dampened Schiller paper. Illustrations by Laura Lee Cundiff. Handbound by Carolyn Whitesel in her own decorated papers over boards. In cream dust jacket. Designed, set, and printed by Leslie Shane and Gray Zeitz. Signed by Smock and Cundiff. Frederick Smock (1954 - ) has published three books of poems with Larkspur Press. He holds degrees from Georgetown College and the University of Louisville. He has received an Al Smith fellowship in poetry, and won the 2002 Henry Leadingham Award for Poetry from the Frankfort Arts Foundation. He is currently poet-in-residence at Bellarmine University, in Louisville, where he teaches creative writing, literature, and art criticism. Frederick Smock: "My natural environment shaped me greatly as a poet, but I was not always alert to it, nor always welcoming. I lost some time wanting to write like Frank O’Hara, or like the French Symbolists. Eventually I settled down and began to accept the lines that came to me, that seemed to issue from my own rhythm. ('The rhythm is the person' – Marianne Moore) I attribute some of that early wavering to being a kind of hybrid myself – an urban poet in a rural state. As well, my first six years I lived in the city; then, we moved to the country. There was this split in my world, and it took some time to reconcile the two. Now I live in the city again. I am sometimes surprised by the number of my poems that describe the natural world, though often through the lens of a city boy, images framed by a window or a door...." (SOLD/Out of Print) |
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Larkspur Press: 5.5 x 9"; 320 pages. Printed offset. Letterpress insert. Color insert. Frontispiece engraving by Wesley Bates. Handbound in Carolyn Whitesel's decorated papers over boards by Leslie Shane and Gray Zeitz at Larkspur Press. Dust cover wood engraving of Larkspur Press by Wesley Bates. Numbered. Signed by Fox and Zeitz. Gaspereau Press: "This book celebrates one of the great twentieth-century American private presses, Gray Zeitz’s Larkspur Press. After discovering letterpress printing under the mentorship of Carolyn Hammer at the University of Kentucky, Zeitz established his own press in the rural village of Monterey, Kentucky. Using metal type and traditional tools, he has produced finely crafted and yet wholly approachable books and broadsides, largely by and for his Kentucky community - a community which includes such authors as Wendell Berry, Guy Davenport, James Baker Hall, Bobbie Ann Mason, Richard Taylor, and Maureen Morehead. Compiled by Gabrielle Fox, this book is comprised of an interview with Zeitz, tributes by friends of the press, an extensive bibliography of the press’s books and broadsides, over 80 photographs, and a sampler letterpress printed by Gray Zeitz at Larkspur Press." |
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Lent 6.25 x 6.75"; 60 pages. Handset in Cloister Lightface type. Printed on a hand-fed C&P and a Vandercook. Handbound using Carolyn Whitesel's decorated papers over boards. Signed by the author and illustrator. Numbered. Poems for the liturgical season of Lent, a poem for each of the 40 days. Larkspur Press: " Maurice Manning is the author of six full-length collections of poetry. He lives with his family on a small farm in Washington County, Kentucky and teaches at Transylvania University. "Wesley Bates has been a wood engraver since 1980. He lives with his wife in Clifford, Ontario, where he works as a book illustrator, graphic novelist and fine artist." |
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The Rain Begins Below 6.25 x 9.75 x 1"; 108 pages. Printed on Somerset book mould made paper. Handset in Eric Gill's Joanna type and printed on a hand-fed C & P. Drawings on title page and dust cover by Suzanne Oliver. Handbound by Carolyn Whitesel in her own decorated papers. Design, composition, printing, and regular edition binding by Leslie Shane and Gray Zeitz. Paper title on spine. In illustrated cream dust jacket. Prospectus: "Poet, storyteller, children's author, and folklorist, Steve Sanfield, has long been considered a master of the short poem. Now he has brought together a collection of slightly longer poems (four lines to four pages) selected from more than four decades of work and ranging from such diverse places as the Greek islands, the mountain valleys of Mexico, the high mesas of Arizona, the farmlands of Kentucky, and, of course, the foothills of California's Sierra Nevadas where he lives with his family and continues his ongoing study of clouds. This is his fourth volume for Larkspur Press. "Suzanne Olive spent much of her youth on family land in a remote section of the Adirondack Mountains. Her appreciation of nature and her training in botany began under the tutelage of her grandmother. She received a B.A. in Botany from U.C., Berkeley and worked as a botanist in northern California. Her botanical graphite pencil drawings have been widely exhibited. Her work is in private collections in the East and West. She lives on Banner Mountain in northern California with her husband and two sons." Included in this publication of Sanfield's poetry are some works that have not been previously published. There are also comments at the end by Leonard Cohen (Canadian poet and songwriter) and Wendell Berry (American poet and novelist). |
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| The Recruiters A Story by Silas House Illustrated by Arwen Donahue and including 'Brennen's Ballad' by Sue Massek Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 2011. Special Edition of 45. 5.75 x 8.25"; 68 pages. Handset in Garamond type. Printed on a hand-fed C & P. Printed on dampened Biblio paper. Drawings by Arwen Donahue. Handbound by Carolyn Whitesel in her own decorated papers over board. Design, composition, and printing by Deborah Kessler, Leslie Shane, and Gray Zeitz. In cream color dust jacket. Signed by Donahue, Massek, and House. Numbered. Author's Note: "This story was inspired by an incredible song by Sue Massek, a Kentucky singer-songwriter-musician who is best known as the banjo player for the Reel World String Bank. In her song 'Brennen's Ballad,' Massek manages to capture in about 300 words what took me thirty-one pages to articulate. ... "Living in a small rural town, I have witnessed too many recruiters talking poor teenagers into signing up for service. ... My father ... felt he didn't have very many options, so he signed up with the Army. That resulted in a trip to Vietnam that changed his life, and my entire family's life, forever. ... "We cannot stand by and condone these wars and the way our veterans are treated upon returning from those wars. And we can't just blame our government, or anyone else. The reason I titled this story 'Recruiters' is because it is about all of us. "We are the recruiters." Prospectus: "Silas House is the nationally bestselling author of six books including Clay's Quilt, Elie the Good, and Something's Rising (with Jason Howard). House serves as the NEH Chair in Appalachian Studies at Berea College. A native of Eastern Kentucky, he is the father of two daughters and lives in Berea. "Arwen Donahue earned her BFA at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, California. She co-authored the book This is Home Now: Kentucky's Holocaust Survivors (with Rebecca Gayle Howell). This is the third book she has illustrated for Larkspur Press. She lives and works her family farm in Nicholas County, Kentucky. "Sue Massek is a musician committed to using the music she writes and sings as a tool for social justice. As a member of the Reel World String Band since 1977, she has toured throughout the USA, Canada, and Italy. Her solo work has taken her the Guatemala and Nicaragua. She currently works for the Kentucky Foundation for Women and lives with her partner on a small farm in Willisburg, Kentucky." (SOLD/Out of Print) |
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Reminiscences of 'Aunt Betty' Hummons |
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| The Right Place 77 at 77 By Steve Sanfield wood engravings by Wesley Bates Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press, 2014. Special edition of 36. 4.5 x 7"; 54 pages. Printed on Magnani Velata paper. Handset in Cloister Lightface type. Printed on a hand-fed C&P. Wood engravings by Wesley Bates. Handsewn and bound in a deep crimson Japanese book cloth over boards. Design, composition, printing, and binding by Leslie Shane, Carolyn Whitesel, and Gray Zeitz. Numbered. Signed by the poet and illustrator. Larkspur Press: "Steve Sanfield, one of the pioneers of the American storytelling revival and the founder of the Sierra Storytelling Festival, is the author or more than thirty volumes of poetry, folklore, and children's literature. This is his fifth book from Larkspur Press." Wesley Bates has been a wood engraver since 1980. He frequently collaborates with poets and authors for Larkspur Press. Steve Sanfield (1937 - 2015) www.ssuchronicle.com: "In an interview with The Union in advance of his November 2014 performance at the North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center, Sanfield reflected on his life: 'The one thing I want to get across is simply to bring back an awareness that poetry can be vital, can be important, can be a necessary part of our lives. If we let it in, it can transform'. " (SOLD) |
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| Rumors of Light By Leslie Shane Monterey, Kentucky: Larkspur Press. Special edition of 38. 9.375 x 5.85"; 72 pages. Handset in Cloister Lightface type. Printed on a hand-fed Chandler & Price press. Printed on Somerset Book paper. Bound using papers marbled by Debbie Shannon over boards. Wood engravings by Wesley Bates. Design, composition, printing, and binding by Deborah Kessler, Leslie Shane, and Gray Zeitz. Numbered. Signed by poet and illustrator. A book of poetry by Leslie Shane, who not only wrote the poems but, as Gray Zeitz's assistant, is also one of the people responsible for printing and publishing Rumors of Light. Shane has an eye for detail: "This baby born today has eyes that move like lazy / tadpoles …" And who can resist a poem with the title "Sunbathing Topless, September: The 60-year-old Bacchante Confronts Awakened Passion in the Person of a Thirsty Butterfly"? (SOLD/Out of Print) |
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Sabbaths 2013
(SOLD/Out of Print) |
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Page last update: 02.15.2023
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