Title | Desert Poems |
Subtitle | Ada Hastings Hedges |
Artist / Creator | Norman McKnight |
Artist's Nationality | United States |
Place of Publication | Berkeley, CA |
Publication Date | 2014 |
Process / Technique | Letterpress |
Structure / Binding | Marbled cloth over 1/4 cloth |
Medium / Materials | Marbled paper over boards |
Paper Stock | Rives BFK |
Number of Pages | 40 pages |
Dimensions (WxHxD) | 7.75 x 9.5 x 0.625 inches closed |
Edition Size | Edition of 40 |
Signed & Numbered | Signed and numbered edition |
Desert Poems by Norman McKnight - SOLD
Please note: The bound edition of Desert Poems is sold out. The book is available in unbound sheets here.
This selection is from a book originally published by Metropolitan Press, 1930. The author actually wrote these poems beginning ca. 1912, when her husband was the physician for the railroad survey of the Oregon & Eastern Railway. The poet wrote of the hardships and life of the 1912 homestead movement into the Great Basin Country of Malheur, Harney and Lake Counties in Oregon. These sonnets are particularly poignant for there reference to the point of view of the women pioneer homesteaders. Her understanding of the human environment as well as the natural environment are exceptional, and they are very reminiscent of another writer of the West, Mary Austin in her Land of Little Rain (1902). The printing types used for the poems is 22 point Arrighi from M&H Type; the preface is set in 16 point Centaur and the title is set in 42 point Augustea Filletata from the Nebiolo Foundry in Milan. The drawings by the printer are pen and ink and hand colored using oil based pencils.
Artist Bio
The proprietor of Philoxenia Press learned letterpress in Junior High School in 1949, and he has retained that interest by acquiring the former proofing press of Mackenzie & Harris as well as a post folio Albion hand press. His interest in type has led to the holding of a major collection of fine printing types. Most of the work has been broadsides and ephemera, but recently the Press has moved into producing a series of books, all hand-set from metal type and illustrated by the printer. Philoxenia is the Greek term for hospitality.