It’s Fine Press Friday!
This week we present Dead Color, poems by Charles Wright, printed in 1980 in an edition of 285 copies by Leigh McLellan at the Meadow Press in San Francisco for Charles Seluzicki, Fine Books in Salem, Oregon. It features four woodcut illustrations by McLellan. All copies signed by the author and artist. The text type is Centaur with Arrighi titling. The paper is French-folded Mulberry in yellow, orange, olive, solver, blue, brown and black. The cover and end sheets are Fabriano paper, hand sewn and bound by the printer.
“Leigh McLellan began her graphic design career as a student at the University of Iowa. There she designed books for the university press while learning letterpress printing and bookbinding, as well as designing posters for poetry and prose readings. In 1977, she moved to San Francisco and shortly began designing textbook front and back matter and learning dummying and layout of complex textbooks. Over the years, she has worked for many of the major publishers in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as a number of self-publishers. Currently she works for small to medium-sized trade book publishers and many individuals. She has taught design, typography, and letterpress printing at the San Francisco Center for the Book, the Bookbuilders West Crash Course in Book Production, Mills College, and the University of California at Berkeley, among others.”
From 1974 to 1990, Leigh McLellan operated Meadow Press. Her letterpress work can be seen here.
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–Sarah, Special Collections Graduate Intern
