“PRINTING, ILLUSTRATION, TYPE DESIGN, typefounding, type engraving, bookbinding, graphic design, stone cutting and digital type design are things that have occupied me for over seventy years, and do to this day.  Excepting the bit of letter cutting in stone, these occupations have all put dinner on the table; but it has been my good fortune to have loved the work.”

This is how Jim Rimmer (1934-2010) starts off his Pie Tree Press, Memories from the Composing Room Floor (Gaspereau Press, 2008)

Rimmer was a mainstay of the letterpress/private press community in Vancouver for much of the past 50 years. Trained as a commercial compositor in the 1950s, his aesthetic taste,  artistic talent and mechanical know-how combined to produce a long, significant career as a graphic artist, printer, type designer and caster.  Despite the many fonts he designed, engraved and cast, despite his beautiful linocuts, and despite the fact that in 2004 he completed the first engraving and casting of Carl Dair’s Cartier face in metal, Jim is remembered most of all for love.

The love of a business that he was passionate about; and the love that he instilled in so many, for books, the printed word, and the letterpress printing process.

An archive containing much of Jim’s work is held by the Special Collections Library at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., where I met recently with Eric Swanick, Head of the Library, to talk about Jim Rimmer. Please listen to our conversation here:

The Alcuin Society’s Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada have been recognizing achievement in this field since 1981.

As Marlene Chan put it in the preface to the 2009 winners’catalogue,

“The hallmark of the judging process in all of the Alcuin competitions is, and has always been, that each book is considered as a total entity. The discerning judges examine every aspect of each book, including the dust jacket, binding, endpapers, half-title page, copyright page, title page, page layout, typography, integration of illustrations, chapter openings, running heads, reproduction of illustrations, clarity of printing, choice of paper, footnotes and bibliographical references. The judges select books in eight categories to encourage the very best in Canadian design, only where they see exceptional merit.”

I met recently with Leah Gordon, Chair of the Book Design Committee, at her home in Vancouver to talk about the history and goals of the society – and, in particular, its Awards program; about some of the books the society has published over the years, and about how in addition to the judging criteria cited above, appropriateness and usefulness also factor into the judges’ decision making process.

A thoughtful piece in the University of Connecticut’s UConn Today by Law school dean Jeremy Paul entitled Who Killed the Bookstore: After All, It Was You and Me echoes my concern about the dissappearance of bookstores. These centres of culture and contemplation clearly represent a significant public good – one that bald marketplace economics does not recognize. If consumers and governments don’t understand and do something about the threat posed by virtual,  impersonal, online shopping, then towns and cities will suffer, strip malls and chain stores will dominate, and community life will be impoverished, to the detriment of all. What to do? Search for bookstores near you on this site, go visit them, and buy a book.

 Here’s the Dean:

Cheaper prices drive individual consumers to take actions that end up depriving everyone of the public resource the bookstore has always provided. And the consumer may regret this only after it’s too late.

Market skeptics offer few viable solutions. They wonder why we would ever expect the invisible hand to produce socially desirable outcomes. They cheer public institutions, such as our local libraries, as places to bring people together around books in settings that don’t depend on consumer payments other than the occasional fine for late returns. Libraries are to be treasured, and I predict they will become more rather than less important in coming years. But there will never be enough tax dollars or philanthropic contributions to permit libraries to replace the many books now available for browsing and purchase through the national network of bookstores.

What we need is a better understanding that markets are something that we build together, and so we can search for rules that produce the life we want not simply the cheaper prices we crave. In this case, we should be striving for an approach that blurs the public/private distinction that now sharply divides the library from the bookstore. This means creating a way to get people to pay a bit more for their books than they now do online, knowing that their shopping is part consumption and part philanthropy.

From a Q & A with Gaspereau Press co-founder Andrew Steeves:

"We only do a few chapbooks each year, and mostly for a lark; most of our focus is on our trade books. But chapbooks are little different than poetry books when it comes to finding an audience. The best way to move them is to put readers in direct contact with the work or with the author, through readings, or through radio, or samplers. Trade publishers have adopted this mistaken notion that there is something to learn about marketing literary books from the world of potato chips and soap flakes—from the marketing of consumable items. Literature is not a consumer good, nor is it strictly speaking entertainment (though the hype around prizes in the fiction scene might suggest otherwise). To talk about literature in terms of consumer goods and entertainment is to talk about rivers and forests in terms of raw materials and natural resources—little good comes from it. Literature and culture are about human relationships, and so it follows that finding ways to foster direct and authentic encounters between a writer and an audience is the best way to promote a book."

For more Steeves, listen to our Biblio File conversation here.

Monsieur Wikipedia informs us that bill bissett was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, attended Dalhousie University (1956) and the University of British Columbia (1963–1965), and dropped out of both because of a desire ‘to live as a free agent, writer and painter unencumbered by any academic constraints.’ He moved to Vancouver in 1958 and five years later set up blew ointment magazine. He later launched blewointment press, which has published volumes by Cathy Ford, Maxine Gadd, bpNichol, Ken West, Lionel Kearns and D. A. Levy, and many others.  bissett is currently based in Vancouver and Toronto.

Known for his ‘unique orthography’ , 4 incorporating visual elements into his printed poetry, and 4 performing "concrete sound" poetry using sound effects, chanting, and barefoot dancing, he is often associated with the Shamanistic in literature. He also paints, and produces audio recordings. His work ‘often involves humour, a sense of wonder and sentimentality, and political commentary.’

In 2006, Harbour Publishing put out  radiant danse uv being, a tribute to bissett with contributions from more than 80 writers, including Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, Patrick Lane, Steve McCaffery, and P. K. Page; and Carl Peters has just published a book called textual vishyuns: image and text in the work of bill bissett that analyses the poet’s work.

I met with bill recently in Ottawa to talk about all of the above, starting with the blurring of borders. Please listen here:

Stephen J. Gertz tells us here: "If you love to read, and appreciate art, craft, and the test of time as a measure of what’s true from what’s false, have an aversion to the artificial, a preference for content in the form that has yet to be improved upon, from the sacred to the profane and in the big middle, rare books are truly the coolest collectible."

This summer’s Rare Book School course schedule has just been released. Check it out here.

The Scotsman newspaper reports that famous quotations from Enlightenment figures will be beamed on to buildings throughout Edinburgh’s New Town as part of a campaign to lure literary tourists.  Rose Street, George Street, Charlotte Square and St Andrew Square will all feature in the £100,000 Enlighten project, which will see specially-commissioned pieces of animation inspired by the quotes brighten up the city’s streets.

The projections – which will feature the words of David Hume, James Hutton, Allan Ramsay, Robert Fergusson, Adam Smith and Lady Cockburn – will illuminate entire buildings.  They coincide with the launch of a new campaign aimed at persuading tourism businesses to make more of the city’s literary legacy.

Ali Bowden, director of the city of literature trust, said: “Enlighten will match the architectural brilliance of this historic city with our world renowned literature, and provide an arresting experience for passers-by, both locals and visitors – as well as a focal point for those planning a trip to Edinburgh.”

The separate campaign to encourage hotels, bars and restaurants to generate more business by using the city’s literary legacy will include the publication of a new guide for businesses.

Ms Bowden said: “The guide provides ideas and tips on how to innovate around literary based tourism, helps businesses discover how they can gain competitive advantage by using Edinburgh’s city of literature status, and how they can work with us to enhance the quality of the visitor experience and grow their business.”