The Compositor as Artist, Craftsman, and Tradesman

Athens, GA:: Press of the Nightowl,, 1990. Hardcover. Like New. Joseph Sanders. Signed by Publisher. LIMITED EDITION of 333 copies, this is number 196 of the ordinary edition bound in cloth, printed with handset Bulmer type on a Vandercook 4 press on Rives paper. Small 4to. 10 x 6 5/8 inches. [iv], (36) pp. Half-title, woodcut frontispiece of a compositor at the case, title page printed in black and maroon within a ruled border, initials printed in maroon, 3 woodcut figures by Joseph Sanders, printer's device in maroon on the colophon; text clean, unmarked. Two-toned cloth over boards, spine and front cover titled in gilt; binding square and tight. Original prospectus included. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED by the publisher of the Night Owl Press, Dwight Agner, to Paul Duensing: "For Paul Duensing - Welcome to the private printing capital of Georgia! Dwight Agner, February 1994." Fine. The Oxford English Dictionary records the first use of the term "compositor" in 1569, as "the person 'whose business is to set up type to print from.'" This is an attempt by one who "labored in composing rooms assembling single leaden types" to reflect upon the experiences of an obsolete profession. INSCRIBED by the printer and publisher of The Press of the Nightowl, Dwight Agner, to Paul Hayden Duensing (1929-2006), founder of The Private Press and Typefoundry of Paul Hayden Duensing. Duensing was a private type founder and a founding member of the American Typecasting Fellowship and one of the foremost practitioners of modern type founding in Southern California who later moved to the Southern United States. Duensing was an important part of the preservation of type-founding and matrix-making in the late 20th century.