I keep a notebook of quotes and poetry that I scour for titles for my broadsides. Juliet, over on the muddy island, sent me a link to a lovely site with quotes about printing: the cavendish gallery of print and typography. It pairs the quotes with printing-related images.
The gallery doesn’t include one of my favorite quotes, so on the right is my own addition, paired with my favorite printer.
And below is the text from the gallery entry with a phrase that inspired the title for one of my recent wood type collage broadsides, Safe Ground.
This is a printing office.
Cross-roads of Civilization,
Refuge of all the Arts against the Ravages of Time.
From this place Words may fly abroad
Not to perish as Waves of Sound
But fix’d in Time,
Not corrupted by the hurrying Hand
But verified in Proof.
Friend, you stand on Safe Ground:
This is a printing office.
Hi Susan – Really glad you liked the Cavendish site.
I first came across the Beatrice Ward ‘Printing Office’ piece at the beginning of J L Carr’s brilliant, quirky novel about a chaotic private publishing house, Harpole & Foxberrow General Publishers. Do you know it? (see http://www.quincetreepress.co.uk/ ). Well worth getting your hands on a copy if you haven’t seen it – it’s wonderfully ‘inky’ and explores the whole concept of what books are and what they’re for and how they’re made – and manages to be both comic and profound.
I love the Neruda quote, too – with the printer pic it would make a wonderful greetings card (well, I’d buy lots, anyway!!)
Hi Green Chair, you and Juliet reminded me of a wonderful Terry Pratchett novel called “The Truth.” It’s hard to explain, but it’s a hilarious fantasy novel about what happens when movable type comes to a large city and a young man who was a scribe starts a newspaper. I recommend it to anyone that has ever handset type. I wonder if the author knew he was writing about he crossroads of civilization?