David L. Kent Letterpress and Calligraphy Collection

Collection

Identifier: MS Group 194

Scope and Content

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This collection will be of particular interest to researchers and scholars exploring letterpress printing and graphic arts. The collection primarily is comprised of correspondence, printed ephemera, and publications created by letterpress printers, bookbinders, calligraphers, booksellers, book designers, typefounders, and collectors. Several prominent individuals in the profession are represented in the collection, including Wilbur L. Doctor, Guy Raymond Botterill, Jr., Richard L. Hopkins, David Churchman, Polly Boettger Johnson, Duane Scott, Egdon H. Margo, J. Ed Newman, and Harry Ward Ritchie. The bulk of the materials in the collection are dated between 1967 and 2005.

The collection also includes business correspondence (1985-1988), articles and news clippings, photographs, and memorabilia such as keepsakes from Wayzgoose, the annual meeting of the Amalgamated Printers' Association. Kent also created six binders containing approximately 700 proprietor cards for printers and others in the printing and graphic arts profession.

Dates

Creation: 1944-2005
Creation: Majority of material found within 1967-2005

Creator

Kent, David L. (Person)

Access

The collection is open for research.

Usage Restrictions

Biographical/Historical Note

David L. Kent is author of Barbados and America and other genealogical sourcebooks. He is publisher of genealogical and typographical periodicals The Lincoln Log: Studies from the Medieval Records of Norfolk, England, and Titivillitia: Studies of Illiteracy in the Private Press. Since 1977 he has been employed as a U.S. research agent for Debrett's and Burke's peerages. He also has served as archivist for the Amalgamated Printers Association.

Carol Kent, his wife, founded Erespin Press in Austin, Texas in 1980. Carol also worked as printer for the Press at the Humanities Research Center (University of Texas at Austin).

Extent

10.5 Linear feet (18 boxes, 7 binders)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Correspondence, printed ephemera, and publications created by letterpress printers and other individuals in the graphic arts.

Physical Location

University of Florida Smathers Library Building

Acquisition Information

Donated in 2005 by David L. Kent.

Separated Material

Several books and publications created by Erespin Press and other presses were removed from the collection and cataloged separately in the Rare Books collection at UF. A list of these materials is available below. These titles may be searched using the library's https://www.uflib.ufl.edu/catalog.

Erespin Press titles:

Foreign Origins

John

Not with a Wimp But a Banker by Robert "Jerry" Lambert (aka Nosmo King)

The Medical Say What

Back O'Beyond: Three Stories from Early Australia (by William Hughston, Ernest Favenc, Henry Lawson)

To Cairo Come a Certain Man by Shirbini

Milk Like Wine by Don D. Wilson

A Genealogical Quartet: Descended from Kings; A Comment on Genealogy; Not Without Mustard; Twines the Rose

A Printer's Dozen (Golden Horus #1)

House of the Rising Sun (Golden Horus #2) by Kent and Stanley A. Kroeger

Time Out of Mind: Two Philatelic Tales (Golden Horus #3)

Joyeulz Advenement: A Portfolio (Golden Horus #4)

Song of the Harper (Golden Horus #5)

Egdon

Marion, Horry and Weems

Punch and His Numerous Adventures by Octave Feuillet

Four Bastards by Frederic Ogen Nash

Press at the Humanities Research Center:

A Superannuated Printer's Anecdotage by Harry Ward Ritchie

A Bookbinder's Florilegium

Emery Walker: The Master of the Art of the Book

Susannah Kent's Tarantula Press:

The Boy Named Bud by Susannah Mary Kent

The Devil's Printer by David L. Kent

Books listed by Press:

1. The Southworth-Anthoensen Press: Edward F. Stevens, Three Letters from BR:EW (1941)

2. Fred Anthoensen: H. Richard Archer and Reuben Pearson, The Private Press of Thomas Perry Stricker (1947)

3. Archdiocese of Baltimore: Calendar for 1961-1962 [calligraphy by Egdon H. Margo]

4. The Atlantic Monthly Press [design by Albert Bruce Rogers, printing by William Edwin Rudge]: [attributed to:] Clement Clarke Moore, A Visit from St. Nicholas (1921)

5. Bird and Bull Press: Henry Morris, Bird and Bull Paste Papers for Bookbinders (1973)

6. The Blackwood Press: J. Oglethorpe MacNooder [pseud. of Edmund E. Simpson], Another Common Place Book (1983) [inscribed]

7. Hyman Bradofsky: John E. Baur, Early Pomona's Youngest Editor: Edward E. Stowell (1977)

8. Hyman Bradofsky et alia: Edith Miniter, The Coast of Bohemia and Other Writings (2000)

9. The Ceres Press [Robert E. Chapdu]: Mona van Duyn, Bedtime Stories (1972)

10. The Ceres Press: Sally Andersen, Skin and Bones (1972)

11. Centre Coup Press [Timothy T. Hawley]: Beryl Rowland, Goats and Monkeys (1982)

12. Crabgrass Press [Philip L. Metzger]: Egdon H. Margo, Regarding Calligraphy (1972) [with calligraphy of Rick Cusick]

13. Sjoerd Hendrik DeRoos: Aldert Witte, et alia. In Memoriam Charles Nypels, 1893-1952

14. Doubleday, Doran and Co.: Sallie B. Tannahill, P's and Q's (1929)

15. The Doves Press [facsimile]: Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson, The Ideal Book (1900)

16. The Foolscap Press [Robert E. Chapdu]: Robert Browning, The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1966)

17. The Fossils [Ralph Winslow Babcock, Jr]: William Anthony Downes, Curtain Up (1986 reprint)

18. The Fossils: Ralph Winslow Babcock, Jr, editor and compiler: Your Thoughts (1983[1984])

19. Friends of the Detroit Public Library: Egdon H. Margo, et alia, Calligraphy [Calligraphy '80 Invitational Portfolio and Exhibit]

20. George Grady Press: AIGA, The American Insitute of Graphic Arts (1935)

21. Richard J. Hoffman, The Rounce and Coffin Club of Los Angeles, The 48th Exhibition: Western Books (1989)

22. The Kelsey Co.: The Kelsey Co., The Printer's Guide Book, 6th ed.

23. The Kelsey Co.: The Kelsey Co., The Printer's Guide Book, 9th ed.

24. Lanston Monotype Machine Co.: Albert Bruce Rogers, An Account of the Making of the Oxford Lectern Bible (1935)

25. The Marchbanks Press [Emily E. Connor]: Emily E. Connor, Cooking Our Goose (1947)

26. The Moneytree Press [Robert E. Chapdu]: Douglas Nichols, The Narrative of Johnny Appleseed (1970)

27. Jonn Henry Nash, Henry Rushton Fairclough, Some Aspects of Horace (1935)

28. North Point Press: Guy Davenport, The Jules Verne steam Balloon (1987)

29. Packsaddle Press [Les Beitz]: Sam C. Dunham, Riley Grannan's Last Adventure (1969) [copy 270]

30. The Plantin Press [Saul and Lillian Marks]: Elmer Adler, An Informal Talk (1953)

31. Pinion Prison Press [Alvin S. Fick]. Thomas Bacon Whitbread, August and other moods (1960[1987]) [copy 87]

32. Potter Press [Cathy Beard]: Joseph Jacobs, The Three Sillies (1986) [signed by printer]

33. Press of the Woolly Whale [Melbert B. Cary, Jr]: Melbert B. Cary, Jr, The Missing Gutenberg Wood Blocks (1940)

34. The Private Press of Frank M[yrle]. Cushing: Lucile Rasmussen, My Coloring Book [Catherine Greenaway's mignonettes] (1968)

35. The Private Press of the Haywoods, Guy Raymond Botterill, Jr, et alia, National Amateur Presses Assembled (1976)

36. The Private Press of Harold Segal: Harold Segal, editor, The First Hundred Years (1975) [signed]

37. The Rasmussen Press: William E.H. Rasmussen, The Gold Beaters (1974) [no. 10, signed by author/illustrator/printer]

38. Shooting Star Press [John Clinton Horn]: John C. Horn, Test Drive (1988)

39. Sign of the Rolling Stone [Robert E. Chapdu]: John L. Nuttall, III, From Beginning to End (1970) [copy 19/31]

40. Sign of the Rolling Stone: The Hymn of Svetasvatara (1970) [19/29]

41. Sign of the Rolling Stone: Laura Mall, Maximes Choisies de la Rochefoucauld (1970) [19/31]

42. Smith and Sale: Herbert Percy Horne, Diversi Colores [vol. XIV no. 12 of Thomas Bird Mosher's The Bibelot (1908)]

43. The Stinehour Press: Herbert Faulkner West, editor, Mr Emerson Writes a Letter about Walden (1954) [mailer signed by West]

44. Sumac Press: Emerson Gissel Wulling, The Bibliography of William James Hyde (1993)

45. Susannah Kent's Tarantula Press [Susannah Mary (Kent) Bassett]: Susannah Kent, The Boy Named Bud (1985)

46. Susannah Kent's Tarantula Press: David L. Kent, The Devil's Printer

47. Swamp Press: Rita Dibert, et alia, Tightrope 9 (1979)

48. Walter Thomas Taylor and David Kent Holman: Harry Duncan, Doors of Perception (2d printing 1987)

49. Walter Thomas Taylor: Decherd Henry Turner, Jr, An Affair with Art Books and Art Libraries (1988)

50. The Toothpaste Press [Allan Kornblum]: Robert Bly, translator, Antonio Machado y Ruiz, Canciones (1980) [copy 133, signed by translator]

51. The Vagabond Press [Lloyd Whydotski]: Beatrice Warde, Stanley Arthur Morison: an appreciation (1969) [copy 6, signed by printer]

52. Ward Printing Co.: Eric Arthur Rowton Gill, Work and Culture (1944) [with 1) The Mystical Body of Christ, 2) Why a Land Movement, 3) Catholic Worker for Oct 1944 laid in]

53. The Wayside Press [Wilbur Louis Doctor]: Eugene Field, Dibden's Ghost (1995)

54. The Wayside Press: Wilbur Louis Doctor, On the Printers' Chapel (rev ed 1990)

55. The Whittington Press: Dorothy A. Harrop, Sir Emery Walker, 1851-1933 (1986)

56. The Willow Press [Gerard "Gary" John Hantke]: Wayne C. Temple, Lincoln the Railsplitter (1961)

57. Robert H. Woodward: Robert H. Woodward, Jack London and the Amateur Press (1983) [with facsimile repr of London poem 'The Worker and the Tramp' (1901) in envelope on inside back cover]

Additionally, several journals and serials were removed from the Ephemera and Printed Materials series and cataloged separately in the Rare Books collection. These publications include: Type and Press, The Microbibliophile, The Printer, American Typecasting Fellowship Newsletter (Richard L. Hopkins), Limited Edition (Phillip J. Cade), The Fossil, People Watcher (Lauren R. Geringer), Scarlet Cockerel and Weaker Moments (Ralph W. Babcock), National Amateur, Titivillitia (Kent), Reader's Buffet (Henry J. Jolly), Bent Bodkin (Joseph A. Diachenko), Printer's Devil (Joe M. Singer), Silver and Gold (Gale Sheldon), Flexible Voice (Robert L. Orbach), Albion, Abracadabra, and multiple Harold Segal titles (Campane, Shampane, Sham-Coffin, Shambler). All of these titles may be searched using the library's catalog.

Processing Notes

The collection was arranged and described by David L. Kent prior to acquisition in 2005. In 2005-2006, department staff conducted further processing of the collection (e.g., transferring materials to archival folders and boxes). No materials were discarded, but some materials were separated from original folders and described separately (in particular, printed publications). Thus, the description of the collection's arrangement provided by Kent in the introductory material binder differs from the current arrangement of the collection.