Monday, March 11, 2019

Rural Ky. press creates works of art with handcrafted books; school in Colorado teaches the next generation how

Gray Zeitz of Monterey, Ky., prints pages on a press from 1915; all the type is hand-set (CBS image)
If you're an author and want your book printed by Larkspur Press, you might have to wait a while. Say, a year and a half to two years. That's because Gray Zeitz, who lives in rural Monterey, Ky., does the whole thing by hand: setting type, printing pages through a 100-year-old press, sewing pages together and creating the covers, Barry Petersen and Sari Aviv report for CBS News.

The finished editions are highly sought after and go from $20 apiece to $150 for special editions. Ellen Glasgow, who sells Larkspur books at her Capital Gallery of Contemporary Art in nearby Frankfort, said the quality of the books is evident: "The paper is so sensual; that is something you really want to touch, and you really want to turn the pages. And then the type is so beautiful."

Zeitz believes hand-made books can mean something more to readers: "I think that if you read a book that's carefully made, and well-designed, you're able to get more out of it than reading a book that is just mass-produced," he told CBS.

"While Zeitz is one of the last people in America still earning a living from making books by hand, a new generation is learning the ancient craft, at the American Academy of Bookbinding in Telluride, Colorado, one of only two such schools in the U.S.," CBS reports.

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