Duncan, Harry

Scope and Contents The Abattoir Editions Collection comprises the correspondence, manuscripts, proofs, forms, and other papers relating to the books published by the small letterpress Abattoir Editions, in Omaha, Nebraska. Materials are arranged by the name of the author whose work was published in Abattoir Editions, with notes in the inventory list as to the types of material available for that particular author (correspondence, proofs, manuscript, etc.).New material added 2016-02-22:...

Scope and Contents Books at Iowa, issue number 2, April 1965, from the University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City. The article "Bookworms and Type Lice," by Harry Duncan, appears on pages 17-25 of this issue. "Duncan p.17" is handwritten in pencil on the cover and title page, and a checkmark is penciled next to the article in the table of contents. In the article, Duncan discusses a library display of "Private Printing in Iowa City 1957-1964" and the Typographic Library in the University of Iowa School of...

Scope and Contents Fine Print, volume IV, number 1, January 1978. This issue features the articles "Harry Duncan & The Cummington Press," by Mary L. Richmond (pages 1-4); "Harry Duncan, Maker of Books," by Kay Amert and Kim Merker (pages 4-6); "A Checklist of Books Printed by Harry Duncan," compiler not identified, listing works printed by the Cummington Press and Abattoir Editions in chronological order (pages 9-10); and two pages of illustrations from books at the Cummington Press and Abattoir Editions,...

Scope and Contents Photograph of Harry Duncan (left) Wightman Williams (right) taken at the Cummington Press, not earlier than 1943 and not later than 1956. They are leaning on opposite sides of the printing press. The image is 12 cm x 15 cm on a 12.5 x 18 cm sheet. The grainy quality of the image suggests it may be a photograph of a photograph. The picture is undated. Written in pencil on the back are the numbers "8-47" which might indicate the date. This photograph was used to illustrate a 1955 newspaper...

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Materials related to published book: An herb basket, by Richard Eberhart (Cummington, Mass.: Cummington Press, 1950). Signed by Wightman Williams and Harry Duncan.

Scope and Contents Materials related to published book: Blackberry winter : a story / Robert Penn Warren. Cummington, Mass.: Cummington Press, 1946. From colophon: "This copy is number vii of a first edition limited to three-hundred-thirty [corrected in hand of H.D.: 280 total copies] copies hand-printed from Poliphilus types set up by hand, those numbered 1 to 280 [corrected in hand of H.D.: 230] being on Arches paper from France, and those i to l, signed by the author and the illustrator, on Kelmscott Crown...

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Four rejected signatures from Robert Penn Warren's Blackberry Winter (1946). The groupings are pages 7-14, 15-22, 23-30, and 39-46. The page 7-14 group includes penciled notations by printer Harry Duncan, marking corrections. The page 39-46 group includes illustrations partially colored by Wightman Williams. The other three signatures include uncolored illustrations by Williams.

Scope and Contents Unpublished signatures for Mesa, series II, number I, Winter MCMXLIX, set and printed by Harry Duncan and Paul Wightman Williams in 1950. Only one signature was printed, in an unknown number of copies. According to the handwritten version of the Flamer inventory, this may have been the first use by the Cummington Press of Romanee type from the Netherlands. Printed on Rives woven paper, watermarked "RIVES" in open capitals. Mesa editor Herbert Steiner asked Duncan and Williams to come to New...

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Signature of "The Poets Go Along" by John Crowe Ransom, printed in Cloister Old Style type on Rives paper at The Cummington Press, West Branch, Iowa, circa 1965. The uncut signature is folded to 18 x 11.5 cm. The text is an essay about poets whose work had been published by Alfred A. Knopf, written on the occasion of Knopf's fiftieth anniversary as a publisher. The paper is speckled.

Scope and Contents Original abstract drawing and two proofs of Wightman Williams's illustration for the Cummington Press Christmas card for 1948, which featured the poem "A une raison" by Arthur Rimbaud in French with an English translation by Harry Duncan, who also set the type for the card. The original black ink line drawing measures approximately 8.5 x 6.5 cm on a sheet 29 x 9 cm. The engraver's proof of the illustration alone is printed in black ink on a sheet 9 x 7 cm. The printer's proof of the...

Scope and Contents One sheet, printed in red and brown ink on tan paper, single-sided, measuring approximately 17 x 20.5 cm, reading in full, "CHRISTMAS CARDS / RARE OLD POEMS / ORIGINAL DRAWINGS / MEDIEVAL WOODCUTS / LINOLEUM CUTS / Hand-set, printed by hand, mostly on hand-made paper / CARDS DESIGNED TO ORDER / Price, including envelopes -- twenty cents each, retail / Price, personal greetings -- two cents each additional / Orders are being taken now, & must be placed before November 1 / THE CUMMINGTON...

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Handwritten letter from Paul Standard to Harry Duncan, dated 12 June 1955, one page, single-sided. Standard wished to purchase two poetry pamphlets from Duncan. Standard also notified Duncan that he had nominated Duncan to participate in an international Bible project.

Scope and Contents Publisher's catalog titled, "A List of Publications: The Cummington Press," set by Harry Duncan and printed by the Kraushar Press in Northampton, Massachusetts, in Fall 1949. The booklet contains 12 unnumbered pages wrapped in a tan cover, 11 x 16 cm in size, bound with a single staple. The text describes the Cummington Press, then provides detailed descriptions of each of the ten books then in print, along with three forthcoming publications. Wightman Williams illustrations are included for...

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Announcement for Five prose pieces, by Rainer Maria Rilke (Cummington, Mass. : Cummington Press, 1947). This announcement is printed in black ink on a 21.5 x 28 cm sheet folded twice to an 11 x 14 cm card. The card includes a four-color abstract illustration by Wightman Williams.

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Announcement for Five prose pieces, by Rainer Maria Rilke (Cummington, Mass. : Cummington Press, 1947), printed for Gotham Book Mart in New York, N.Y. Black and white photocopy made from Werner's copy of the announcement.

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Materials related to published book: Four early stories, by James Agee (West Branch, Iowa: Cummington Press, 1964). Copy no. vii of 285.

Scope and Contents Announcement for the publication of Four Early Stories, by James Agee (West Branch, Iowa: Cummington Press, 1964), printed in black ink with blue initial capital, measuring 8 x 37 cm, folded to 8 x 18.5 cm. The announcement includes a brief essay on how Elena Harap discovered these early works by Agee, a description of the themes and literary sensibilities displayed in these works, a textual description of Keith Achepohl's illustrations, and a summary of the letterpress type and...

Scope and Contents Five specimen pages from Four Early Stories, by James Agee (West Branch, Iowa: Cummington Press, 1964), printed by Harry Duncan and illustrated by Keith Achepohl. Each sample page consists of two folded sheets (each with four pages from the book), approximately 30 x 40 cm folded to approximately 30 x 20 cm. Each sample includes one intaglio etching and is enclosed in a wrapper. The first sample includes the title page through page 8, with the illustration and first four pages of the story...

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Materials related to published book: Fragment of a meditation, MCMXXVIII, by Allen Tate (New York: Caroline & Allen Tate, 1947), printed at the Cummington Press.

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Hand-colored, uncut, unbound copy of Fragment of a meditation, MCMXXVIII, by Allen Tate, printed by the Cummington Press, 1947. The colophon reads, "The Cummington Press. H.D. & W.W. finx. & fec." The illustration on the title page of the poem is hand-colored by Wightman Williams with pastel green and pink accents. The illustration in the final published book was uncolored.

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Black and white photocopy of the 1940 annual volume of From This Hill, a collection of eleven poems and a short story, with contributions from Margaret Currier, Harry Duncan, Raphael Hayes, Harriet Anderson, Jane Gray Ward, and Samuel French Morse. Of the 217 copies of this book originally printed, 200 were destroyed by mutual agreement of the contributors. This is a reproduction from the Xerox copy of Jack Hagstrum, with descriptions of pages and a color photograph of cover.

Scope and Contents Black and white photocopy of the 1941 annual volume of From This Hill, a collection of poems by Jane Gray Ward, Harry Duncan, Milton Klonsky, Barbara Howes, Elaine Gottlieb, Angelo Bruno, and David Newton, with woodcuts by Zola Marcus and Frederick Marantz, cover by Ralph Pendleton. Also included are correspondence and receipts for certified mail, showing that Barbara Smith sent the original copy of the book to Mary L. Richmond on October 1, 1967, and Richmond sent the book back to Smith on...

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Materials related to the life and work of Harry Duncan.

Scope and Contents Excerpt from Ars Typographia, "The Editor's Workshop," believed by Mary L. Richmond to be the first item set by hand by Harry Duncan at the Cummington School of the Arts in the Summer of 1939. The piece is printed on a single sheet of laid paper, 16 x 12.5 cm, with all edges deckled. The font is Centaur, with a woodcut initial capital S. The text reads, "Simplicity is the last thing learned. It comes from simple thinking, not from a conscious attempt to be simple." According to the Flamer...

Content Description

The collection of material created by Harry Duncan is of undetermined origin and includes a partial transcription of an interview of Duncan, the partial text of a lecture given by Duncan, one folder of Duncan ephemera, news clippings, and other related material.

Scope and Contents Three letterpress printed notices set by Harry Duncan to announce events in his life circa 1962-1966, during the time he lived and worked in West Branch, Iowa.The first item, dated June 20, 1962, is a birth announcement for Barnaby Andrew Duncan, son of Harry and Nancy, printed on a sheet 15 x 10.5 cm folded to 7.5 x 10.5 cm. The baby's name is printed in red and the remainder of the text is in black. Inside the card is a handwritten note by Nancy. The recipient is not named....

Scope and Contents Materials related to published book: I rise in flame, cried the phoenix : a play about D.H. Lawrence, by Tennessee Williams (New York: New Directions, printed by Cummington Press, 1951). Paul Wightman Williams created a phoenix woodblock engraving for the book, but Tennessee Williams objected to the illustration, and it was not included in the final published volume. The copy from the Mary L. Richmond Collection is an unnumbered copy with the suppressed illustration intact. Under her...

Scope and Contents Materials related to published book: Incident on the bark Columbia, being letters received & sent by Captain McCorkle and the crew of his whaler, 1860-1862. Cummington, Mass.: Cummington Press, 1941. From colophon: ". . . set by hand in Polyphilus & Blado types, & three hundred copies printed by hand on Georgian paper made by The Worthy Paper Company, with ink by C. S. Goodman. The workers have been Harry Duncan, Katharine Frazier, & Jane Ward, Staff of The Cummington Press....

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First version of the announcement for the book Incident on the Bark Columbia: Letters Received & Sent by Captain McCorkle and the Crew of his Whaler, 1860-1862 (Cummington, Massachusetts: The Cummington Press, 1941). The announcement is printed double-sided on cream-colored Georgian paper, 16 x 18 cm, folded to 16 x 9 cm. Corrections are marked in the hand of Harry Duncan.

Scope and Contents Second version of the announcement for the book Incident on the Bark Columbia: Letters Received & Sent by Captain McCorkle and the Crew of his Whaler, 1860-1862 (Cummington, Massachusetts: The Cummington Press, 1941). The announcement is printed double-sided on brown paper, 14 x 18 cm, folded to 14 x 9 cm. The text has been altered to incorporate Harry Duncan's corrections. Issued for the Hampshire Bookshop, Inc., in Northampton, Massachusetts. An excerpt from the book has been added to...