Tuesday, February 8, 2011

A TIME TO CAST AWAY STONES by Tim Powers

A Time To Cast Away Stones by Tim Powers, published by Charnel House.

 
All copies are hand signed by the author and handbound using handmade Cave Paper specially designed to recreate Percy Bysshe Shelley's water-logged journal.



 Exquisitely printed in black ink on Mohawk Strathmore Pastelle.


Illustrated Endleaves, 5 x 8 inches, 108 pages. 250 numbered copies.
Ochre dyed Cave paper spine. Persimmon dyed Cave paper boards.





Tuesday, January 25, 2011

THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH By HP Lovecraft

First up is The Shadow over Innsmouth by HP Lovecraft, published by Heavenly Monkey.


The book was issued in three states: the Ichthyic (25 copies) featuring some additional material and more extensive handwork in the binding, for established HM collectors and those interested in contemporary book arts; the Batrachian (125 copies), for those who simply want a well designed, hand-bound copy of this classic story; and Abyssal (25 copies) which basically is the same as Batrachian but reserved for private distribution to collaborators and friends. This is the Batrachian edition.


The book features a fold-out map of Innsmouth, drawn from Lovecraft's detailed descriptions of the town. The text is set in Centaur and Arrighi, with Gill Shadow for display. The pages were printed letterpress, in two colors, from polymer plates at David Clifford's Black Stone Press in Vancouver, B.C.

The Batrachian issue comprises 125 numbered (1 - 125) copies printed on Mohawk Superfine (an archival, acid-free paper), sewn & cased by hand in full black cloth with an image gold-stamped on the front board. This issue also features specially printed endpapers not used in the Ichthyic copies. The imprint on these copies is Heavenly Monkey Editions.


Copies sent to early subscribers had the frontis initialed by the artist Shinsuke Minegishi.


Saturday, January 22, 2011

Welcome

Welcome to Hemispheres. This blog is about books. In this digital age of electronic ebooks and worrying news of chains of bookstores closing down, it's good to know that there are a large number of small independent publishers still making and publishing books with high quality paper and binding materials. So now and again I'm going to post some photos of books from my collection.