It’s Fine Press Friday!
Before Squarings became the beautifully illustrated collection of poetry we hold at Special Collections Library, it was first published 1991 as Seeing Things (which we also hold) by celebrated Irish poet Seamus Heaney four years prior to his winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. Our 2003 edition of Squarings was printed by Andrew Hoyem in San Francisco at his Arion Press in Deepdene type designed by Frederic Goudy, alongside 48 drawings by the American conceptual artist Sol Lewitt reproduced in photopolymer plates and printed letterpress on a Miller cylinder press on Pescia, a mould-made paper from the Magnani mill in Italy. There are 400 numbered copies for sale and 26 lettered copies for complimentary distribution, each signed by the poet and artist (our copy is signed, it’s just hard to see here).
Squarings can be tied to Heaney’s changing viewpoint of the material world in the wake of losing both of his parents between 1984 and 1986, described by literary critic Helen Vendler in Squarings introduction as “Life is; Death is.” Many of the poems recall long-forgotten childhood perspectives as the then 45-year-old poet grieves and struggles with reconciling a new beginning with immense loss. With each of the poems composed as four equal tercets, Heaney imbued a level of meaning usually associated with much longer works. Lewitt’s drawings speak to the layers of humanity contained within the poems and appear as large scribbled square images throughout the collection accompanied by a caption that details the constraints of creating the image. The images become increasingly complex as Heaney wades deeper into his grief.
-- Emily Birz, Special Collections Writing Intern
