Audio Interview with John Randle on the Whittington Press
Born in the mind of John Randle at the age of 14 when he first entered his school’s press room, the Whittington Press started life in a disused gardener’s cottage in 1971.
Its first book, Richard Kennedy’s A Boy at the Hogarth Press, was printed on weekends during 1971-1972 on an 1848 Columbian.
Matrix - John and Rose Randle’s revered annual publication on fine press printing, started out as a planned slim volume of some thirty two pages, saddle stitched into stiff covers; the objective was for it to serve as “ a means of seeing in print a few short pieces which would not in themselves justify the production of individual titles, but which together might make a worthwhile publication.” Matrix 1 grew to seventy two pages, and had to be square backed.
With it the Randle’s created an environment in which "author, artist and printer, punchcutter and typecaster" can work separately and together to both nurture and explore each others’skills. The revered annual provides an important platform for typographical dialog among and between fine press aficionados on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
I met John Randle recently in his formerly disused gardener’s cottage to talk about his Press, his calling, his love of Caslon type and his thoughts about the practice of fine press printing. Please listen to our conversation here:
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January 20th, 2011 at 12:17 PM
I think it may be Seth Godin who suggested that the book industry may be heading toward a split between e-books (sigh) and physical hold-in-your-hand books that are treasured because of the quality of their production.
February 14th, 2011 at 7:36 AM
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tracy Turner and Simon Goode, Fred Birdsall Studio. Fred Birdsall Studio said: Nice interview with John Randle of the Whittington Press: http://t.co/b3L5czM [...]