Press News: December 2010

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Once more we find ourselves covered with sackcloth and ashes, having left the website so out-of-date for so long. It seems that this sort of malfeasance is the 21st century equivalent of breaking wind in a concert hall during the andante movement of a sonata: people occasionally say that they have looked at our website and noticed that we haven’t updated it, and their hushed tones and guarded expression of calculated sympathy suggest that they expect us to reveal next that we beat small animals and eat junk food in bed. Computer punctiliousness seems to have become the ethical and moral yardstick of our society. We mention this only to say that we recognize the fact without endorsing the attitude. We have books to print; the website comes after that. But on to some news …

Now that Pericles is moving toward its final stages, we think it high time to tell you something of the adventures we have had in producing it. Many of you have written, enquiring kindly (and sometimes with concern) about the state of the project, and we have been as always moved and delighted by your friendship and interest in the work, and so very grateful for the patience and understanding you have shown through the process of its editing, design, and printing.

The Play of Pericles, as you must all be aware, has been the most demanding project we have ever taken on. It has been ten years since we first discussed the project with Simon Brett, and while we have produced several other books during that time – among them two Endgrain Editions, Founts & Circumstance, The Eve of St. Agnes, Venus & Adonis, Amours de Voyage, Under Strange Sail, and of course Hoi Barbaroi, our 25th anniversary bibliography – Pericles has always been simmering in the background. The editing and preparation of the text took a great deal of time: in the course of the work, I read the play dozens of times in various editions, and read and took notes from upwards of forty books on Elizabethan printing and publishing, Shakespearean textual criticism, 17th century acting companies, Jacobean grammar, metrics and prosody, and interpretive criticism, in addition to several biographies. As for the illustrations, the 45 or so engravings we originally discussed grew to over a hundred before the book was done, which meant that Simon had a prodigious amount of work to produce for Pericles in addition to illustrating several Folio Society volumes. All this took time. Moreover, in the course of this both Jan and I began to teach at a local independent school in exchange for school fees for our daughter Apollonia (Polly), which took even more.

Much more seriously, Simon became ill in the course of his work, and it was imperative that he slow down to a reasonable pace and not be pushed and harried, for apart from the matter of his health, such work as this should be enjoyed & revelled in. Fortunately his condition was caught very early, is well controlled, and we are relieved to report that he is able to continue engraving and is happily taking on new projects now that his work on Pericles is finished, for which we are all deeply grateful. He has been, and is, the most congenial, inspiring, supportive, and generous collaborator we could possibly have had. Without him, Pericles would have been only a shadow of what it has become.

To specifics: as I write, the first volume (the play itself) is at the binders. The second volume, which contains an essay on the illustrations by Simon, another on the history, printing, and editing of the play by Crispin, and textual notes, is in the press and proceeding at a good clip. The type for the essays was set in Monotype, and Crispin put it line by line through the composing stick to tighten up spacing, reduce hyphenations, and hang punctuation. (One of the advantages of setting one’s own prose is that one can rewrite to fit!) He is now hand-setting the notes. We plan to have that volume to the binders by the end of December, so that once the second volume is bound and the two books placed in their chemise and slipcase, it will be likely that The Play of Pericles, Prince of Tyre will arrive early in the new year to help those who have ordered copies through the dim days of late winter.

In the meantime, in response to an importunate wolf at the door, we have produced a small book of poems by the Canadian poet Tim Bowling, whose work we have long admired. Between Rainfalls is a selection of poems which range over three of Tim’s principal interests – his family, literature’s place in our lives and perceptions, and the interrelationships between humans and nature. Tim was raised in a family of fishers on the lower reaches of the Fraser River, very near us; his book The Lost Coast (Nightwood Editions, 2007) is a celebration of such a life, and a stunning lament for its loss. We recommend it highly.

The book is bound in what we call a cahier binding, something between a board and a paper-bound book, rather like the binding for Gallipoli, which most of you will have. It is hand-set in Van Dijck with Huxley Vertical for display, and the covers are made of St-Armand handmade Slate paper. The book was set and printed in the interstices of work of Pericles, at various times when for one reason or another we had been becalmed because of unforeseen delays, and most of the work on it was done under our supervision by apprentices and friends whose enthusiasm led them to ask for the opportunity to learn something of the crafts we practise here with our customary Barbarism. We are most thankful to Kristin Liu, Antonia Weberling, Ivo Marchand, and Alanna Simenson for their work on this book, and we think you will agree that Between Rainfalls is a credit to their delight and facility in the work. Crispin designed the book, and Jan supervised the printing. The binding design was a collaboration between Crispin and Alanna Simenson.

Finally, since this is a newsletter as much as a report, we feel we should mention that two of our faithful advisors for many years have left us. First, Tess, our lovely peaches and grey calico cat, who slept with us, purred to us, and generally smoothed the occasional rough edges of things, vanished one day in July, probably the victim of a coyote. She was 17 and looked no more than 10 – vital, alert, and affectionate. We miss her very much. And then Phoebe, our dear Boxer-Lab, succumbed on 9 August to a heart attack. Those of you who have visited the press will remember Phoebe, a sweet-tempered and loyal friend whose only fault may have been an unnatural attraction to rocks, which we are still finding stowed in and under various things in the pressroom. She was almost fifteen years old, and life was becoming something of a trial for her. Nevertheless she maintained her post at the bindery door with her new friend Peanut, Kristin Liu’s French bulldog, until the day before she died. We all miss her terribly.

Phoebe (in the background) and Peanut, Summer 2010

For those of you who may be planning to attend Codex III in February at Berkeley, we will look forward to seeing you there, where we will be giving a talk on the making of Pericles. And to all of you, our thanks and warmest best wishes, as ever. Without you, none of this would ever happen. We send you our fond best wishes for a blessed, peaceful, and happy Christmas, and a secure and joyous New Year in 2011.

Pax et bonum,

Crispin and Jan Elsted