Author of The Broken Empire , Book of the Ancestor and The Library Trilogies We are so excited to be talking to Mark Lawrence, the author of numerous best-selling fantasy series including the captivating Library Trilogy. While his first series that instantly cemented his place in the fantasy landscape (The Broken Empire) was firmly grimdark, his range is extremely wide and every trilogy he has written has brought something original and compelling to the genre. His most recent endeavor, The Library Trilogy, is a richly developed story set in a vast library and explores the power of knowledge, themes of history and memory, and the isolation and connection found in the human experience. He is also the founder of the SPFBO competition that has helped bring light to so many talented indie authors that might not otherwise get the platform to show their work. We are delighted to share this conversation with all of you! Q: Let me start off by saying how much of an honor it is to be having this conversation and we are grateful you are willing to give of your valuable time! Many know that you have not always been an author, and you actually have a PhD in Mathematics, working on things like the ‘Star Wars’ missile program and decision/reasoning theory. Can you share with us your early influences in the area of writing and talk about how your career evolved from this prior discipline to a full-time writer?   I think almost nobody has “author” as their first job – at least not a job that pays the bills. It’s one of those undertakings that you get better at, up to a point, simply by growing older. We accumulate experience and understanding of the sort that’s useful in telling stories.   I wanted to be a scientist from an early age (like my father was). I got a degree in physics, a Ph.D in an area of mathematics, and my first pay-the-bills job was as a research scientist. Something I kept doing up to 2015 when my 5th book was published and the large research centre where I worked suddenly closed down due to the internal politics of a global corporation.   Being an author was never an ambition of mine – it really didn’t enter my thinking. I read a lot of SFF, I played a lot of D&D (creating scenarios and running them), and I ran a fantasy Play-By-Mail game in the days before email. So, I was doing many writing-adjacent things. In my early 30s, I went on a creative writing course and later started writing short stories in online writing groups, but it was always just something I enjoyed rather than plotting a path to publication. It’s similar to the way that I am going climbing later today but don’t expect to make a living competing on the professional climbing circuit, or indeed to be in the top 95% of the climbers at the gym. I think that’s the healthiest approach to writing, especially since it takes a ton of luck in addition to being really good at writing in order for it to become a career.   Early fantasy favourites for me were Tolkien, Le Guin, Katherine Kurtz, Donaldson, Anne McCaffrey, Michael Moorcock…   Q: Your transition from non-author to published author was an unusually quick transition and is very unique in the industry. Can you walk us through how this happened and talk about your reaction to the reception of your first book, Prince of Thorns ?   I have fairly little insight into how other authors get/got into print, so I really don’t know to what degree my experience was unusual. I mean, it’s a fairly binary transition from non-published to published. I guess these days a number of people will self-publish and then move into traditional publishing. I just sent off a query letter to four agencies and was lucky enough that my book happened to be the sort that was popular at the time. One agent wrote back to say he’d take me on. He warned that getting a deal would be a slow business. The unusual part of my journey was that a whole bunch of publishers jumped at the book rather quickly, and a bidding war got me a very nice advance. And of course, the more a publisher spends up front on a book, the more they push it, which will guarantee you some initial success. After that, it’s down to whether individual readers recommend the book to their friends.   Prince of Thorns was labelled ‘grimdark’, a term I’d never heard of, but which helped sell it, partly through wrapping it into a heated online debate about grimdark as a subgenre, one that still rumbles on today well over a decade later.   It sold very well early on and is still the book of mine I’m most likely to see in bookshops. In the UK the paperback is in its 31st printing.   Q: Your first trilogy is the well-known Broken Empire Trilogy  with a protagonist you hate to love, Jorg Ancrath. This first trilogy put you on the map as an author and from my personal reading, I found there to be quite a progression and growth in the character and the writing, even within that first trilogy. Can you tell us about the writing of that trilogy and what you learned as a writer from the start to the   finish?   Prince of Thorns was written to an online writing group, chapter by chapter, over the course of several years and was finished about 4 years before I got around to sending it to agents. King of Thorns  and Emperor of Thorns  took about 6 months each to write in the gap between Prince of Thorns  getting a book deal (for a trilogy) and it actually being published. I was working as a scientist through all of this and being the main caretaker for my profoundly disabled youngest child. I’m not a planner. I make stories up as I go. People, especially young people, are shaped by their experiences. Thus, a teenaged main character is bound to grow and change over the course of three books covering more than five years. If they didn’t it would be bad writing.   My writing is always changing from trilogy to trilogy. I get bored and try different styles and different vibes. But I guess The Broken Empire  is the trilogy that contains writing from the widest time period and also at a time when I had written far fewer words of fiction.   I can’t point to any writing lessons I’ve learned. It’s not about epiphanies for me – it’s more incremental and stored in muscle memory. Plus, some readers will say that my best writing is in Prince of Thorns/The Broken Empire (though really because that book/trilogy appeals to their tastes most), so I can’t really claim to have learned anything.   I guess a thing I learned for me is to keep trying new stuff – that maintains my interest and gives me energy. But commercially, a writer is probably best off writing more and more of whatever it was that was most successful. If I was currently on book 18 of the Broken Empire  I would very likely have much more cash in my bank account.   Q: The Broken Empire Trilogy is considered a staple and early entry into the modern “Grimdark Fantasy” sub-genre that is now a much more crowded space than when you originally wrote Prince of Thorns . At the time of writing, were you consciously writing a story with the intention of subverting tropes within the fantasy genre (particularly the depiction of Prince Oren vs Jorg Ancrath), or was the moral ambiguity of the protagonist just a byproduct of the type of main character that you wanted to build the story around? My influence for Jorg – and Prince of Thorns  is all about this one character – was much earlier than anything going on in fantasy at the time. I was inspired by the character Alex DeLarge from Anthony Burgess’s classic work A Clockwork Orange  (published in 1962). I had also read George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire  which had coloured my imagination, reawaking my flagging interest in fantasy with the realization that it could be presented in terms that felt far more real to me and less idealized than some of the stuff I’d been reading that had a more mythic or fairytale feel to it.   At the time the word ‘trope’ wasn’t in my vocabulary, and I wasn’t trying to subvert anything. My main influence was harking back to a book written half a century previously.   Q: The majority of your works have been firmly anchored in the fantasy genre with a little science fiction sprinkled in. Has fantasy always been a favorite of yours and would you ever consider writing hard science fiction (you have called The   Impossible Times Trilogy science-lite) with your background? Is there any other genre you could see yourself being interested in at some point in the future?   Well, there’s definitely a science fiction element in all my works. The explanation for magic in The Broken Empire  appeals to quantum mechanics, and the next trilogy ( The Red Queen’s War ) ends up at a particle accelerator. So, in many senses, I’ve been writing sci-fi all along.   I did recently complete a comedy sci-fi featuring spaceships and robots. I wouldn’t call it hard science fiction though. I find hard sci-fi a bit dry for my tastes. I don’t think I want to have to scientifically justify everything that happens any more than I want to write historical fantasy and have arguments with history buffs about the state of sewer technology in 12th-century Burgundy.   But you never know – I do like to switch things up.   Q: One of your most-loved trilogies, The Book of the Ancestor Trilogy , focuses on a young girl, Nona, and has a much different tone than the world of The Broken Empire . It features a very unique setting and magic system that I hadn’t encountered in my reading before. Was your process for creating these aspects of the trilogy a quick development or did it evolve over time and what inspirations did you draw from, if any? I would say that each of my trilogies has a much different tone than the others. I don’t feel you can say any one of them was like the other. That’s not a great commercial strategy, but it keeps me happy as a writer. The essential elements of the world building for Red Sister  popped into my head whilst walking the dog and I started the book when I got back home. The ice-bound planet and slowly closing equatorial ice-free channel were a physical realization of the simple mechanic that Peter V Brett discussed with me when talking about his own books. The demons that emerge from the ground every night in his Demon Cycle  books exist as a mechanism to apply stress to humanity, and thus to his characters. The real story is the characters and how they react to the stress, and with each other under stress. I imagined it like the classic shrinking room in films, where the walls close in (as seen in Star War s or Indiana Jones   and the Temple of Doom ). The behaviour of the trapped individuals is compelling.  In Red Sister,  the “shrinking room” effect is provided by giant ice walls slowly grinding inwards with countries and cities and nations trapped between them. It’s a vise that is tightening all the time on our characters.    All the rest was elaboration that appeared as I wrote.   Q: Naturally it takes a host of well-developed elements to create a good story like general prose, characterization, world-building, narrative, plot-pacing and many other elements. Is there an area that you feel like comes most naturally to you as an author and are there any areas that you need to consciously work harder to develop as you approach the development of a story?   I’ve been to two climbing walls recently. It’s a very difficult sport at which I am really bad. Potentially you can train for climbing, but many people just climb. One of the best ways to train for climbing is climbing. I feel it’s the same with writing. I am aware that I am better at writing some kinds of things than others, but I’ve never “worked on” any aspect of writing. I just do it. I also never feel that I’m getting better or worse at writing. That’s for others to judge – though generally those judgements are really just answers to the question “is this writer’s output becoming closer to the type I like or more distant?”.   Q: Since many of our readers are also book collectors, they will be familiar with the special treatment your books are getting from Grim Oak Press and The Broken Binding among other box subscriptions. Can you tell us how you first got involved with Shawn at Grim Oak and what it means to have your books get the small press treatment? Are you a book collector in any respect?   That question made me think. I’ve known Shawn – in a semi-distant internet sense – for a very long time. I joined the now-defunct Terry Brooks forum well over a decade ago. Probably in 2010. And Shawn was the head moderator there. And so when he first got cancer and was faced with these huge medical bills I was quick to sign up to the anthology he was putting together to help pay them off. I believe that Grim Oak Press was formed in order to publish that anthology. Shawn had great contacts in the writing world and the anthology had a stellar roll call. I was included among the “and others” on the cover.   I guess the special editions came about through chats that Shawn and I had on Facebook or email about the possibilities. I was interested in the “old book” look, and really wanted to have my own copy of The Broken Empire in a leather-bound edition with the ridges on the spine like books in the libraries of stately homes have. And Shawn made that happen.   I have lots of books – the house is filled with bookshelves. The idea of “nice” editions does appeal to me but to be honest I’ve never gone out and spent the money on them. So really the only high-quality books I have (in terms of binding and production) are my own ones from Grim Oak Press and Broken Binding, and a handful of anthologies and a few that I’ve been sent. I did buy high quality editions (a boxed set) of the complete Calvin and Hobbes. And also, the Sandman graphic novels by Gaiman.   Q: You are close to finishing your newest series called The Library Trilogy , in which only two of three books have been released. The final book, The Book That Held Her Heart,  is scheduled to release next year. As a bunch of bibliophiles, I think our readers will easily connect with the setting and themes. This trilogy wrestles with so many complex concepts like the fragmentation and consequences of knowledge, the role of stories in our lives and societies, censorship and control, as well as the search for truth and what drives our subjective journeys. Can you talk about how long you have been working on creating this unique world and was it a fully fleshed-out idea from the start or has it been evolving as you have continued on with the series?   Heh.   I always feel I should lie and portray a more flattering image of the process that adds a sense of depth…   First off, book 3 will be out in April (2025) but I’d finished all three books before the first one was published. I’ve written four more books since finishing The Book That Held Her Heart . So, in some senses all this is quite far back in the rear-view mirror for me.   Anyway, the truth is that almost nothing was worked out in advance at any point. I invent the story as I go. But of course, writing a book takes some time. For me that’s normally less than a year, but also normally most of a year. And in a year of life where your job is “writing a book”, you will naturally do a lot of thinking about that story and the ideas that orbit around it. A whole bunch of that thinking is subconscious. I might spend an hour doing something different or dull, then have a coffee and an idea/concept pops into the foreground and I think, “I’ll put that in the book.”   The whole business of living in the modern world and watching it change over decades is basically research for these books. It’s another example of why it’s easier to be an author once you’ve lived some life, suffered tragedy, raised children, been sick, got older, observed changes in yourself and others. All of those things are raw material that can be projected through various lenses onto a blank page. And they’re things that resonate with others and make the adventures your characters are going through seem more real and more vital.   Q: Your stories always seem to pull out deeper themes than the typical fantasy novel, but The Library Trilogy  has felt particularly poignant and even didactic at times, though never at the expense of the narrative. Was there something more urgent and pointed you were trying to communicate at this exact point in time or are the themes just so universal that it feels timely and relevant?   The books certainly aren’t intended to be instructional. At the heart of the story are two camps who have very different goals regarding the Library and, from my point of view, both have strong arguments in their favour. For the vast majority of the trilogy, I had no idea how to resolve that conflict, and I certainly didn’t intend for readers to feel driven to one or the other of those positions. The best books – in my view – centre on the difficulty of a question rather than trying to convince the reader of any particular answer to it.   The urgency – if it can be called that – is to highlight the consequences of having a strong opinion and the information bubbles that can be created around them. It’s not to convince anyone that their opinion is wrong – simply to encourage all of us to look at the way we arrive at our position and the unconscious ways we protect ourselves from information that might weaken what we feel are purely logical conclusions. Q: Each trilogy you have written has a very unique protagonist and they have been all over the map in terms of motivation, drive, empathy, personality, etc. What has been your favorite character to write and are there any characters that you resonate with personally and their own position and struggle within their world?  I enjoy writing all my characters and they all resonate with me – I wouldn’t bother with them otherwise. Having said that, Jalan Kendeth ( The Red Queen’s War / Prince of Fools ) has been the most fun to write. He’s funny, often unintentionally, unapologetic, and cowardly. It’s a refreshing change to write a character whose reaction to danger is close to my own. Running away is the natural reaction to violence and threat. Many of us lose a lot of our moral objections to various courses of action when the alternative is being stabbed in the face. So, Jalan was definitely the most fun to write. That’s not the same as rewarding though. Each of my main characters has different things to offer emotionally. And exploring that has kept me satisfied.   Q: You created the SPFBO (Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off) almost 10 years ago, which highlights self-published authors and gives them a chance to have a larger platform and wider audience than they might normally be able to reach. Many of the winning authors are now well-known within the fantasy landscape like M.L. Wang, Rob J. Hayes and Justin Lee Anderson. What was your inspiration for starting this annual event and what are you most proud of reflecting back now that you are on the 10th annual event?   I learned to write by engaging and sharing in online writing groups. Prince of Thorns was shared to a group chapter by chapter, and the people who critiqued me, I critiqued in turn. So, when I lucked out and was given a sizeable book deal, I was aware of how many great writers there were out there who could so easily be standing in my shoes. I never expected the traditional publishing process to be fair – which is a part of why it took me several years between writing Prince of Thorns  and half-heartedly sending it off to agents. But understanding how large a role luck played made me want to at least give some fellow authors another roll of the dice.   Additionally, as self-publishing became more popular, I could see the struggles of other writers to get any eyes at all on their work. At the time, self-pub got a lot of bad press regarding quality, and many readers wouldn’t try it after hearing about badly written or poorly edited books. I thought that the contest could provide a means by which more readers gained the confidence to invest time and money into some self-published titles. We were saying, ‘don’t worry – you don’t have to read through these 300 books to find the ones that most appeal to you, have these trusted bloggers do the work and offer up some favourites’. And what am I most proud of? I guess that the best answer is the way the contestants come together to support each other. It could have been a bitter conflict but instead it turned out to be a rising tide.   Q: You have been clear that the selection process isn’t perfect and that there are great books that may not end up being selected. Many of us know the story of Josiah Bancroft’s Book of Babel  series not making it through, but gaining popularity nonetheless because of your support. Were there any other books that didn’t end up winning or even making it into the finals that have gone on to commercial success? What were some of your favorites that didn’t win the year they were entered?   Absolutely, there have been many already successful authors whose books did not do well in the SPFBO, and other authors who met with limited success in the SPFBO who have gone on to great things. It’s hard to keep track of ~300 titles a year, but I know that Ryan Cahill, who is enjoying great popularity at the moment, had his entry fall at the first hurdle. Also, James Islington’s book The Shadow of What Was Lost  didn’t make the finals (it was a semi-finalist) and yet went on to sell large numbers. As a slow reader I can only try out a very small number of the entries each year. I think my favourite non-winner after Senlin Ascends was Paternus  by Dyrk Ashton – but that did come in 3rd. Q: What should we be looking forward to coming from you after the third book of The Library Trilogy  is complete?   I’m contracted to write a new trilogy for 2026/7/8 – the working title of book 1 is Hag , and it features an older female protagonist, 60+ years of age, in a more grimdark setting than I’ve written since The Broken Empire .   I’ve also recently completed a standalone companion to The Library Trilogy , a space comedy with robots, and a book about an AI gaining consciousness. Whether any of those will be published by my existing publishers (who like to stick to one book per year for me) or self-published, I don’t know. ________________________________ For those who are completely new to Mark’s work, he has created a very helpful guide to navigate where you might want to start with a brief description of each trilogy:   https://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-guide-to-lawrence.html This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth and I want to give a special thanks to Mark who was so gracious to take the time to do this interview. If you want to get more information on his books and latest news, check out his blog . You can also follow him on Instagram or join his Patreon for even more unique and tailored content. Interview by: Zach Harney a co-founder of the Collectible Book Vault

Author of The Books of Babel and The Hexologists Josiah Bancroft has been publishing books for over a decade now, but it initially took a few years for his first series, The Books of Babel, to garner the attention it now has. The Books of Babel was one of the few series I have read in recent years that felt largely original and his worldbuilding and prose are some of the best in the fantasy genre. His new series, The Hexologists, is underway with the first book out and the second in the works. Not only is he an accomplished author, but one of the most generous and genuinely humble people I have met. We hope you enjoy our conversation with Josiah and his thoughtful answers about his start in writing and his body of work. Beware of spoilers for The Books of Babel in the spoiler section of the interview! Q: First of all, let me say that we are so grateful for your willingness to join us in this discussion and know you are busy right now with the recent release of your new book. You have talked about your experience writing in your younger years, but ultimately you decided to pursue different interests and only looked to full-time writing later in life. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey and writing early on and how you slowly made your way toward becoming an author by profession? Did you feel the pull of this desire throughout your life or was it a more sudden realization?   I was always writing. In high school, I co-founded a literary society that published zines. During my undergraduate education—which dragged on for seven years and spanned four institutions in as many states—I studied English, wrote daily, and formed or contributed to several writing groups, which varied in focus and longevity. My Masters is in Literature, but I took as many creative writing classes as the MFA program would allow, and contributed, whenever possible, to readings and events.   Writing has always been my vocation, though I have also been passionate about some of my hobbies, including music and art. I received my first rejection letter at 16 after submitting a teleplay I co-authored to the BBC. But my second rejection, garnered shortly thereafter, was from Marvel Comics for a comic book that I would describe as unfocused, unpolished, and ill-advised. Mercifully, the comic was destroyed in a flood, though I still have the rejection letter. During my post-grad years, I would go on to accrue hundreds of rejections from publishers, agents, and journals—mostly of the "literary" variety. My post-graduate career was as an educator teaching others to write, work that helped pay the bills while I continued to scribble my doggerel, occasionally publish, and expand my ever-fattening file of refusals.   I've always written, and always wanted to be a writer, but it took me more than 35 years to settle into my voice and to begin to identify an audience. It wasn't for lack of trying, just lack of genius and good luck, the latter of which proved more essential than the former.   Q. So you decide to start writing Senlin Ascends  (the first book in the The Books of Babel  tetralogy) and there wasn’t a lot of initial traction, being a new author. Can you share with us the process of releasing your first book as an aspiring writer? Did it feel high stakes since this was a part of you that you were putting out there to the public or because you didn’t have an established audience did you feel less pressure? What led you to continue on with the series throughout that process?   I intended to self-publish Senlin Ascends  from the outset. I had spent the previous eight or nine years amassing hundreds of rejections for shorter works, and I couldn't bear to repeat that cycle of nervous anticipation and withering disappointment with a novel. Self-publishing was my way of hopping over the gate and its keepers to access readers directly.   I also didn't want to compromise my vision for the books. I didn't want editorial notes suggesting that Thomas Senlin be more likable, or the Tower less baroque, or the language less florid. I wanted to tell this weird story in my own weird way. For me, the stakes were always simple: I wanted to publish a book I could be proud of before I died. My uncle, who had an immense influence on my development as a writer and thinker and who I dedicated The Hod King to, was a prolific but unpublished writer who died young. I self-published Senlin Ascends  because I didn't want my life's work to be an ode to a desk drawer. And yet, I was horribly naive with my expectations of how my self-published magnum opus would be received. I had a goal of selling 500 copies over the course of that first year, a modest number that concealed an immodest fantasy of appearing on best sellers lists and lording the endcaps of airport bookstores. In the end, I sold closer to 200 copies, and that was only accomplished with an immense amount of effort. I frittered an embarrassing amount of money on online ads. I submitted the book to nearly a hundred independent book reviewers. I took physical copies of my books to comic conventions and sold them in person. To my enduring chagrin, I printed and distributed full-color press releases to every independent bookstore across four states, none of whom responded to my missives or my groveling follow-ups. I did everything but put on a chicken suit and stand on a street corner bearing a sign that read, Bock, Bock, Buy My Book!   All the while, I was working on the sequel, Arm of the Sphinx . The novel reflects a lot of the self-doubt and disillusionment and stubbornness that defined that period of my life. The third part of the book, The Bottomless Library , was written during a moment of utter defeat and depression, and it shows, I think. Thomas Senlin's decent into the Sphinx's atheneum reflects my own dawning realization that I was writing for no one, that my effort to evade my uncle's fate of obscurity had failed. I had simply shifted the source of my rejection from the inboxes of literary agents and publishers to the broader public, who had glanced at the dust jacket of my raison d'être, and pronounced the uncontestable verdict, "Nah."   I stopped writing the series shortly after publishing Arm of the Sphinx . I didn't see the point of embellishing that resounding defeat with further failure. I started writing songs. I focused on my music. I reunited with my high school rock band and started recording. I moved on.   Q: I know that Mark Lawrence was a huge catalyst in terms of the popularity of the The Books of Babel  series. Can you tell us the story behind Mark finding and then sharing about your book? Do you have a relationship with him now and has there been anyone else in particular that was supportive and instrumental in spreading the word about your first series?   The very last thing I did before shelving the series was to submit Senlin Ascends  to Mark Lawrence's Self-Published Blog Off. I had never heard of Mark or his work, but in my scouring the web for promotional opportunities, I came across his competition that invited self-publishers to submit their novels for review by a collection of bloggers who would then put forward their favorite book as a finalist, creating a pool from which a winner would eventually be selected. Frankly, I forgot that I had entered the contest when, months later, I read the review of Senlin Ascends on the now defunct blog, Pornokitsch . The reviewer, Jared, had some nice things to say about the book, but ultimately decided to put forward another book, The Path of Flames  by Phil Tucker, as a finalist. I congratulated Phil on his victory and went back to writing songs about giant robots. As the contest's sponsor, Mark saw the review. He felt sorry for me and my almost good-enough book, which he decided to read. For whatever reason, the novel resonated with him. He contacted me to share his very favorable impression of the book, and he offered to put me in touch with his literary agency. Naturally, I agreed.   Meanwhile, he took every opportunity to share his enthusiasm for the book on his blog, twitter, and reddit. People began to read the book. I scheduled a meeting with Ian Drury, Mark's agent, and took the train up to New York City to discuss representation and my books. It was all perfectly surreal. In the span of a few months, I went from utter defeat to signing a four-book contract with Orbit—all of which would never have happened without Mark's determined help.   Mark and I still occasionally correspond, and he continues to be supportive of my efforts to entertain. We've never met in person, but I hope to make it over to his side of the pond someday. I owe the man a pint.   Q: The Books of Babel  is such a unique series and I’ve heard you describe it as a synthesis of some of the late 1800’s literature greats like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells mixed with Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities . It does really feel like an apt description considering the overall setting and adventure narrative mixed with your wonderful prose and some of the unique absurdities in the tower. When you have influences like this, how do you make sure that your own narrative voice and unique vision for the series shine through and it doesn’t become parody? I think you did a phenomenal job making it feel like nothing I’ve ever read before. I’m curious how you think you made something that felt familiar in regards to the influences you mentioned, but was also wholly unique in the execution?   I would describe much of the writing that preceded The Books of Babel  as vigorously incoherent. I studied the Romantics and the Beats and fancied myself an absurdist, though really, I was just a bit of a self-important git. For a time, I thought that perhaps I would mature into magical realism, but I discovered that my affection for the genre and its many iterations from around the globe did not translate into a facility with the form. Everything I wrote felt false to me, which was very frustrating because I was trying so hard to be sincere. Senlin Ascends was written from a place of profound frustration. Having grown disillusioned with contemporary poetry and my own work, I returned to the adventure books that I had read as a boy in the hopes of reinvigorating my love of writing, which had begun to falter. I rediscovered amid that survey of Verne, Wells, Kipling, and Stevenson that old sense of awe mixed with terror that first drove me to read and write. But, I was also absolutely repulsed by the breezy racism, casual misogyny, and flagrant jingoism of many of those stories. The themes that had passed over my head as a youth suddenly struck me as egregious and gross. Senlin Ascends  was my way of subverting some of those tropes, while still reveling in the intermittent wonder and ever-looming peril that defines a good adventure. Q: There are so many aspects that contribute to a good story, including prose, characterization, world-building, plot, message and so much more. The first two aspects in The Books of Babel  that stood out to me were prose and world-building, because right out of the gate these two aspects just hook you and never let go. How do you seek to balance the aspects of what it means to be a good storyteller and where do you think your strengths lie in this regard?   I grew up in a family of storytellers. Whenever my family gathered, stories abounded. Those tales overlapped; they competed; they blended together, unspooling late into the evening. Each story typically had three things in common. First, the tale centered upon an unlikely, almost unbelievable event—a one-in-a-million chance or an act of hubris blessed by luck. Second, the storyteller took pains to communicate the skepticism and awe of all who witnessed the incredible occurrence. Third, the story concluded with some raucous or comical twist that made everything feel simultaneously absurd and yet absolutely inevitable. For me, a good story does not only beg the audience's patience, asking them to temporarily suspend their disbelief; a good story interrogates incredulity and proselytizes wonder in devoted service of a single goal: the elicitation of joy.   My prose is a product of my obsessive personality and my fraught history with poetry. I had to abandon poetry, a form I dedicated nearly a decade of my life to, partly because I could not find an audience and partly because I could not stop rewriting my poems. The nature of poetry—which gives priority to the musicality of language, the nuance of image, and the intricacies of metaphor—gave me license to engage in a process of endless (and ultimately destructive) tinkering. Even now, when I occasionally go back to read my old poems, I feel a powerful urge to revise, to reword, to adjust the lineation, to reseat the caesura, to tear the poem down to its stanza breaks and build it up again. This desire springs from the absolutely insane assumption that the perfect verse exists in potentia  and can be teased into existence with just the right alignment of commas.   Shortly before I began writing Senlin Ascends,  I read Camus' The Plague . (My John Tarrou is an obvious homage to that novel's Jean Tarrou.) In the novel, there's a character, Joseph Grand, whose literary aspirations are thwarted by his obsessiveness with the language, which is epitomized by his pursuit of a perfect opening line. Over the course of the novel, he writes and rewrites the opening to his unfinished but presumptive masterpiece again and again, but never to his lasting satisfaction. It was the fear of turning into Mr. Grand, the fear of having my life's work be perfect erasure rather than imperfect creation that compelled me to write (and finish) a novel. Confronting the fact that my perfectionism was a convoluted sort of cowardice was revelatory. Whatever my strengths as a writer may be, I am most proud of the fact that I have had sufficient courage to risk exposing my creative weaknesses and compositional shortcomings to the world as I endeavor to spread a little wonder and engender a little joy.   Q: When considering Italo Calvino and his Invisible Cities , one of the things that I saw as a huge parallel between his work and The Books of Babel is that the settings (tower/cities) seem to play a bigger role than simply a location for a story. There is a high level of description and energy imbued in the tower itself. In your series, I would argue that the tower is not only an extremely interesting setting, but in some sense a main character and catalyst for change that is just as important as any other aspect of the story. What made the tower important and how do you think it governed the story in ways greater than a simple setting?   As I've often shared before, Invisible Cities was a primary source of inspiration for my vision of the Tower. And I think it's fair to say the Tower is a central character of the books. Indeed, the Tower occurred to me first. I spent several weeks writing around the Tower without the benefit of characters or the obligations of a plot. I described its facades, its human tides, and the airships that swarmed to it like flies. I toured the Market and the train stations and the desolate and dangerous Skirts. I was having a grand time, but I was also having trouble moving my explication of the Tower to its interiors. I felt as if I was, myself, being rebuffed by the Tower.   The function of the cast of characters that I then assembled was primarily (at least initially) as lenses for exploring and elucidating the inner-workings of that impenetrable monolith. I needed Thomas Senlin to pull me into the Tower, to show me its secrets, to illuminate its mazes. It was only after I finished the first draft of The Basement  that I had a sense of what I wanted to do with the book and how the Tower functioned. It was at that point that I wrote my two-page plan for the series—a document that I would refer to often over the next nine years.   Q: Our readers will be very familiar with your Subterranean Press set of The Books of Babel  and the collaboration with artist Tom Kidd on what is one of the most beautiful and thoughtful sets that they have released. Were you aware of the small press market when you were approached by Sub Press and what was that experience like seeing your books be brought to life by such an incredible artist and publisher? How involved have you been with the upcoming limited release of your next book?   I was perfectly unaware of the small press landscape that Sub Press inhabits, but I feel very privileged to have been introduced to this world. I was approached by a few small presses when Orbit picked up the rights to The Books of Babel , but I selected Subterranean Press largely because I was so impressed with Bill Schafer. I've met many engaged and thoughtful people in the industry, but Bill distinguished himself as someone who really loves books, loves stories, and values the authors and artists he works with. As just one example of his thoughtfulness, when I and my family had Covid, Bill sent us a box of consumable delights. I was really touched by that. I dedicated An Empyreal Retinue  to Bill and Tom Kidd because they were so instrumental in bringing my vision to fruition. And Bill introduced me to Tom Kidd, who is such a wonderful, generous, talented, funny, approachable person. I was, quite honestly, flabbergasted when I learned Tom would be creating the covers for the Sub Press editions. The man is a legend! And the work he produced for the editions is simply astonishing—beautiful, inventive, and full of little nods to the details of the story. I still correspond regularly with Tom and feel lucky to know him and to get glimpses into his creative process, both as an artist and a writer. With Sub Press's forthcoming edition of The Hexologists , Bill has graciously continued to ask for my input on the book's design. I'm particularly excited about this edition because Bill tapped Ian Leino to produce the internal illustrations. Ian is the artist of the incredible original covers for The Books of Babel . Ian and I have been best friends since forever. We camped out in a tent in his backyard. We built tree forts together. And he drew the illustrations for my first fantasy novel, The Quest for Mortoangus , while we were still in grade school. Having the opportunity to work with Ian again, in this capacity, and at this level—it truly is the culmination of a life-long dream. My career has been marked by exceptional privileges, but none will ever be greater than having my best friend illustrate one of my books.   Q: You have recently released the first book in your newest series called The Hexologists , a married detective duo that is exploring a London-inspired post-industrial world full of magic and villains that kicks off with a King being asked to be baked into a cake. What were your first inspirations for this story and was it difficult finding a new story that moved you enough to start writing it?   I grew up loving mysteries, but I was always more of a Thin Man fan than a devotee of Philip Marlowe and the like. I do appreciate and enjoy aspects of Noir, but my sensibilities trend toward the madcap, the glib, and the verbose.   I read a lot of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie growing up, and I watched enumerable episodes of the long-running Mystery!  series on PBS. I've always wanted to try my hand at writing a mystery, even knowing just how tricky the form is to engage, improve, and subvert. I wanted the challenge of writing something new, and I was not afraid of failing in that effort.   Q: One of the biggest things that struck me when reading The Hexologists was how novel it felt to be reading about a relatively functional couple that is in love and truly understands each other. Then it made me contemplate why this seemed so unusual in more recent literature. Was this something you consciously set out to do when creating this duo or was it just a natural outflowing of the characters you created? Why do you think this would be considered unusual?   After The Books of Babel, I was determined to write about a healthy, loving, and devoted couple whose relationship was defined by open communication and unabashed affection. That seemed the most radical, novel, and refreshing option.   It's no secret that dysfunction and miscommunication are easy sources of dramatic tension. It's easy to write shallow, deceitful, peevish jerks, and it's easy to justify this creative choice as resulting from the pursuit of realism. But I think that is a rather cynical view of the world, and the result is often flat, predictable, homogenous characters. I don't find selfishness particularly interesting or nuanced, and I do not enjoy reading about callow, young characters, whose greatest difficulties could be readily resolved with a frank conversation or a modicum of self-reflection. I don't think a lack of self-awareness equates to depth, nor that miserable characters are somehow more faceted than happy ones. Joy, sympathy, and love can be just as complex as wrath, depression, or a desire for revenge. The Wilbies are odd balls who are trying to live considered, moral lives, while taking every opportunity to enjoy themselves and celebrate one another. That is an objective that I personally find more alluring and interesting at this point in my life.   Which is not to suggest that the Wilbies are perfect, either individually or as a couple. They have their foibles and flaws, but they are devoted to one another and motivated by a desire to assist the powerless in an inequitable world.   Q: What should we be looking forward to coming from you in the future from inside and outside the world of The Hexologists ?   The Hexologists series will be comprised of three novels, each of which is a distinct mystery/adventure that stands on its own. I'm finishing the draft of the second volume now and I have about half of the final entry jotted out in longhand. The first book is (broadly) a missing-person mystery. The second book is a murder mystery. And the final book will be a supernatural "creature-feature." My goal with these books is to have fun—fun with the language, the humor, the set pieces, and the characters. These aren't frivolous books, but they are not suffused with philosophical aphorism in the way that The Books of Babel were. I could see myself writing more novellas and short stories about the Wilbies in the years to come. I certainly have a number of ideas.   Spoiler Section for The Books of Babel - This Section will contain very serious spoilers relating to The Books of Babel series   Q: Character evolution seems to be of crucial importance in this story as all of the main characters evolve to become very different people than when their journey started in the tower. One of my favorite quotes is, “ We are, each of us, a multitude. I am not the man I was this morning, nor the man of yesterday. I am a throng of myself queued through time. We are, gentle reader, each a crowd within a crowd .” Did you start with a beginning point and end point for each character or did this evolve as you wrote the story? What character arcs were the most pivotal to the story in your mind? If Senlin and Marya had not been separated and gone through what they had, could they have been happy and do you see a future for them further down the road?   By the time I finished drafting Senlin Ascends , I had a clear idea of how I wanted each of the main characters to struggle, evolve, and ultimately resolve. I knew Edith Winters would take on the mantle of the Sphinx, accepting grave responsibilities for an ungrateful population with intractable problems, and that Iren would find love and a community of peers who respected her and treated her as a source of wisdom, and that Adam would find purpose with the hods, who would be more receptive to his protectiveness than Voleta ever was. I knew that Voleta would unlock the Tower's greatest secrets and learn along the way that fearlessness is not the same thing as courage, and I knew that Thomas Senlin would foil Marat's avaricious ambitions through humility, self-sacrifice, and cunning: three things he did not come to the Tower with in great supply. And I knew he would end the story in a position of romantic ambiguity.   After I published Arm of the Sphinx,  a friend, who was one of the very few people to have read the book at that point, asked me for reassurance that Tom and Marya were going to have a glad reunion at the end of the series. They told me plainly that they did not want to read on if I was just going to disappoint them by withholding a happy ending. I promised them that the ending, while not perfectly happy, would at least be hopeful. That's how I think of Tom and Marya's future and the possibility of reconciliation. And there is reason to be optimistic. Tom has proven himself to be patient and attentive, and Marya has demonstrated that she is taking ownership of both her past and her recovery. These are two people who have a lot to work through, both individually and together, but they share the incentive of a tangled history, lingering affection, and an infant to encourage them in that process of healing.   I realize that some readers wanted a more uncomplicated storybook ending—including that friend I alluded to earlier, who was none too pleased with how I left things—but I think that such a conclusion would've felt contrived and out of character for books that frequently grapple with questions of self-discovery, disappointment, and growth.   Q: There is a fine line between moralizing or being overly didactic and allowing a story to communicate a message or theme naturally to the reader. Your series struck me as having a very nice balance, allowing the story to deliver important thematical elements naturally, but also having some memorable lines related to different larger socioeconomic and cultural issues. Was there anything you actually set out to impart to the readers in this sense or was it simply a natural outpouring of the setting and the characters interacting with the world they resided in?   Generally, I hope that the series encourages people to read more critically and thoughtfully. The series is full of supposed authorities and a variety of pompous authors, all claiming to have something profound or insightful to impart. But it should become apparent very quickly that some of the information and philosophy conveyed by those luminaries is inaccurate, problematic, or limited in its applicability. Complicating matters further is the fact that unintelligent or degenerate persons occasionally make reasonable observations or raise valid points—if generally for the wrong reasons.   Both the main characters and the reader have to weigh and analyze a wide variety of perspectives and opinions as they move towards the ultimate goal of understanding—understanding the motives of others, the machinations of a complex society, and one's own self. Thomas Senlin comes to the Tower believing that his narrow band of literacy applies to the whole world. The Tower reveals the deep and convoluted subtexts of the texts he believes he has mastered. He is a didact who is humbled by experience, which is something that happened to me in the years leading up to the drafting of these novels.   Q: We only got to see a small portion of the tower, were there any floors that you had originally planned on including the story that ended up getting cut? What other areas would you love to explore more if you were to go back into that world?   I had wanted to spend more time exploring Pelphia's rival—Algez. I envisioned the Algezians being a staid and stoic antipode to their more frivolous cousins. In my notes, their culture was described as a mashup of brutalist architecture and Rodgers and Hammerstein-esque wit. And I wanted to spend more time in the Shipyards where the fleets of airships were commissioned, built, and retired, and I wanted to explore the Tower's bizarre agriculture, something I briefly touch on in "Into the Misanthropolis." And I had ideas for the aquafers beneath the Tower, a system that is obliquely alluded to, but which cries out for a more concerted spelunking.   Q: Who was your favorite character to write and who do you see as the hero of the story, if there even is one?   I don't think the story has a hero, though I think several of the characters have their heroic moments. Byron was probably my favorite character to write, particularly because he arrived in the story at a moment when many of the characters were pent up and struggling to communicate. His lack of tact and acerbic wit were particularly helpful during a section that is full of sensitivity and vulnerability: Thomas is suffering from withdrawn and gnawing guilt; Edith is confronted with the loss of her engine arm and her own tangled desires; Iren is experiencing the onset of menopause; and Adam is determined to make his own way, if only to escape his overbearing presence in his sister's life. Amid all of this introspection and uncertainty, Byron offers quick verdicts and brutal honesty.   Though for all of his prickliness, Byron is probably the story's most sensitive soul. Exploring his character, particularly through his tutelage of Voleta and his friendship with Edith, was one of my favorite aspects of the later books.   Q: The fourth book and particularly the ending of the story has been a somewhat polarizing part of the series and while I thoroughly enjoyed it, there were some people who felt like they were left unsatisfied with too many questions unanswered. The book ends with an abrupt departure, important relationships still on the rocks, and some unanswered questions about the Bricklayer and his intentions. When you wrote the ending, did you sense that there would be some division among readers at how it was received? Why did you feel like it was the proper ending and how intently did you have it planned out from the inception of the series?   There is little in the world more tedious, unwelcome, or needless than an author explaining or justifying their published book—particularly to those who have read it and disliked it. The Fall of Babel  is something that I poured all of my talent, energy, and ambition into. It was considered. It was deliberate. It was frequently joyful. Some readers did not appreciate the result, which is perfectly reasonable. Any attempt on my part to reframe the work or reform its reception would only insult the book's critics and humiliate myself.   Q: As always, a wonderfully eloquent response, I love that stance and perspective. Would you ever see yourself returning to the world of The Books of Babel in any format or do you feel like that chapter has been closed and the story is finished for those characters? Where would you expect the story to go if you were to continue on?   Since publishing The Fall of Babel , I've continued to occasionally revisit the Tower. I've shared some of those epistles and vignettes on my Patreon. Other snippets, I've kept to myself. I'm not sure if I'll ever return to the world of Babel in a formal sense, but it remains a place that my idle thoughts often return to. _________________________________ This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth and I want to give a special thanks to Josiah who was so gracious to give us so much of his valuable time. If you want to get more information on his books and latest news, check out his website . If you would like original stories and special content from Josiah, you can also sign up for his Patreon and support him as an author in a more concrete way. Interview by: Zach Harney a co-founder of the Collectible Book Vault *The pictures of the lettered editions of The Books of Babel were contributed with permission by our favorite book photographer Yegor Malinovskii who goes by @artofcollectiblebooks on Instagram. He is the major inspiration for me getting into book photography and has always been a huge support!

An Interview with The Folio Society and Charles Vess Before this announcement, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was one of the most decorated and beloved fantasy novels to have never receive a high-quality special edition treatment. Fortunately, Folio Society has remedied that problem. After years of planning and designing what will surely be considered the definitive collectible version of this brilliant masterpiece from Susanna Clarke, it is finally here. Coming on board to illustrate this production is Charles Vess, an absolute titan within the fantasy landscape. Bringing his whimsical style, reminiscent of the best parts of the Golden Age of Illustration, he perfectly captured the tone of the novel, elevating this production even further. Anyone who has the privilege of being able to add this to their collection will surely cherish it for many years to come! Q: I can hardly express how excited I am for this release, as Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is a masterpiece and deserves the kind of treatment that you are giving it! This novel was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Hugo Award in 2005. I would imagine that this project has been in progress for a long time. Can you walk us through the evolution of this production from the moment of inception until this moment on the brink of the release? Sinéad O’Callaghan – Fiction Editor   From when I joined Folio three years ago to now, there have always been whisperings of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell . The book speaks for itself, traversing genres, and worlds, and is an absolute pillar of the modern fantasy canon. It was something we always wanted to do and was more of a question of when rather than if. It was fifth overall in our 2021 Reader’s Choice survey, and after seeing the appetite for an edition from our readers, it gave us the green light to go ahead. It has been a favourite of the editorial team for years and revisiting it as a Folio edition was beyond a dream. Editorially, I was very keen for the book to be divided into its three volumes, so readers had the most immersive experience possible. With Sheri and Charles on board, the vision felt so clear from the get-go and having Neil’s original introduction (which he revisited and updated for our edition) felt like the perfect mixture of nostalgia and reflection that would entice old and new readers alike. It is a joy to hold in your hand – a completely different experience from reading the paperback – and each volume feels like a whole new adventure. Q: As is clear from his introduction you mentioned, Neil Gaiman is famously a huge fan of the work of Susanna Clarke. He has called Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell “ the finest work of English fantasy written in the past 70 years.” It is no surprise that you chose him for the new introduction, and I know many are looking forward to reading it. Though he loved the book, he confesses that he thought it would be a novel for the few, but somehow found the masses. How did Neil Gaiman get involved with this project and what do you think it is about this story that connected with so many people and became an instant modern fantasy classic, while having so many hurdles to get past (length, extensive footnotes, esoteric vocabulary and writing style, etc.)? Sinéad O’Callaghan – Fiction Editor Neil’s involvement goes back to when the whisperings of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell were just beginning…He got in touch with us saying that his friend Charles Vess would love to illustrate our edition (whenever we got around to doing one). It made perfect sense to us – almost the perfect trifecta of Fantasy geniuses collaborating at the one spot. So then, of course, we had to ask him to write an introduction! He was keen, but also wary. There was an intro he had written way back when for one of the first editions came out and it felt odd for him to abandon that. So rather than write something completely new, he revisited his old enthusiasm, and added a paragraph reflecting on the novel’s success, on his and Susanna’s friendship and the love he has to this day for her writing. It is the perfect companion to Susanna’s text and shows the power of friendship and collaboration in the best way possible. I understand Neil’s initial love – and slight trepidation – for the novel. At first glance, it can seem daunting – the footnotes, the length etc. But once a reader gets beyond the text’s appearance on the page, they find themselves completely immersed in the magic. All these ‘hurdles’ are precisely why the book has connected with so many people; it is unlike anything else anyone has ever read. Susanna has provided a masterclass in world-building and alternative histories whilst also providing a narrative that is both ironic and romantic in tone and content. It is everything a novel should be, and not only in a fantastical context.   Q: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a novel that I have asked multiple press owners about in the past and the main point of pushback came from the sheer size and complexity of the novel. What was your thought process when considering producing this book? Were there any challenges that had to be overcome just due to the sheer size of the novel?   Julie Farquhar – Production Manager When the hefty 1024-page paperback arrived in the office, we firstly considered using a larger format and thinner paper than usual, to ensure the maximum number of words per page and to prevent a book that might be extremely heavy and potentially detract from an enjoyable reading experience. We then considered a two-book set to overcome these issues, but a novel that is composed of three volumes doesn’t lend itself very well to splitting in half and each book, if the text was split equally, would still be over 500 pages in length.  The final decision was to take a much more sympathetic approach to the text and create a three-volume set. We felt that this fantastic novel was worthy of becoming a three-volume deluxe set, the first time the novel has been published in this way. With multi-book sets, for aesthetic reasons, we try to keep the appearance of the book spines consistent in size and so for Volume One, the shortest book, we chose a slightly bulkier paper. Q: One of the most unique aspects of this novel is the pervasive number and length of footnotes, which presents unique formatting and typeface decisions not found in the average Folio Society production of fiction. Her created history within the world is one of the things that makes this story so rich. When it came to layout and typography, what was your approach to incorporating this unusual component for a fantasy novel?  Charlotte Tate - Designer   The footnotes certainly added an extra challenge to the design of this book, but fortunately we have lots of experience of them from working on our non-fiction titles. It was important to retain Folio’s typographic and design standards to ensure the readability of the text was respected even when broken up by these long footnotes. The point size was carefully considered, not too large that the footnotes were longer than they needed to be, but also not too small that they were uncomfortable to read. Our aim was to avoid splitting as many footnotes as possible, but on the occasions they needed to be split, we spent time trying to give the reader the best outcome and create the least distraction. Q: This is a beautiful production with a handmade slipcase and the binding done in collaboration with Legatoria Editoriale Giovanni Olivotto (L.E.G.O.). The fold-out endpapers are a really nice touch as well. Can you tell us a little bit more about the design process of the slipcase and the book design? Sheri Gee – Art Director I always aim to get the illustrator’s inspiration into the book design, without being too prescriptive, stepping in to talk about colours, materials or technical issues. The design for the books, slipcase and endpapers for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell were no exception. Charles had ideas of referencing a golden age style of binding, showing me drawings that could represent the three volumes and also sent me a charming drawing of the raven king for the slipcase. We discussed different ways of placing and printing it, but all in all, this remains Charles’s vision. He was an absolute pleasure to work with from the book designs through all of the illustrations, meeting several times over Zoom to make sure everything was going according to plan. Working with illustrators from all over the world, it’s not always that I get to meet them in person, but during the life of this book Charles was invited to speak at the British Library, so it was a bonus that we got to meet and discuss the book in person too. Q: It is so exciting that Folio Society has chosen to pair one of the best fantasy novels of the last few decades with one of the most talented fantasy artists of our time, it feels like this was meant to be! Can you tell us a little bit about the evolution of this project and what your initial thoughts were when it was offered? Charles Vess - Illustrator   Perhaps two years ago I heard from a friend that the Folio Society might be interested in producing an illustrated edition of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell . Immediately I leaped on that chance since I've loved the book since it was first published and even had the chance to illustrate Ms. Clarke's second book, a collection of short stories, The Ladies of Grace Adieu for Bloomsbury which mostly takes place in the same literary world. A world that I am very happy to submerge my aesthetic in.  So, first I asked my friend, Neil Gaiman, who I should contact at Folio (knowing that he had already worked with them on several occasions) and then took several days composing a letter begging to work on the book. Several long months later I heard from Sheri Gee (their Art Director) that they were still securing the rights to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, but that I was in position to illustrate it if they did. More months slowly crept by, very nervously on my part, and then 'suddenly' the book was mine. At 72 years of age you begin to realize that you might only have so many books left in you so its best to choose wisely and only work on the books that you truly love, ones that inspire you. Q: What was your relationship with Susanna Clarke and her wonderful story Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell before being offered to do the illustrations by Folio Society? Charles Vess - Illustrator   Many years ago my wife was in a car accident, suffering a spinal cord injury. We had no medical insurance then and many, many efforts were begun to raise the necessary funds to pay for her treatment (please remember that we live in the US where there is no NHS). One such effort was generated from a book, 'Stardust', that I'd done previously with Neil Gaiman. This particular relief effort developed into an art portfolio, 'A Fall of Stardust' which also included two small chapbooks. One being written by Neil and the other by, wait for it... Susanna Clarke. Her story was titled 'The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse'. Neil explained to me then that I wouldn't have heard of Ms. Clarke before but that I would soon. Yes, I most certainly would! I eventually met Susanna when she was touring in support of the publication of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell . Subsequently, she asked me to illustrate her book of short stories and further, she graciously agreed to write the introduction for my 2009 art book, Drawing Down the Moon . Since that time I've read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell several times just for the pure pleasure of it. Q: Whenever I see your distinctive style, it always makes me think of the Golden Age of Illustration and artists like Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway, and most obviously Arthur Rackham. The story takes place in a time period that perfectly fits this style of art. Can you tell us a little bit more about how your own unique approach to illustrating evolved and why you think it lends to this particular text? Charles Vess - Illustrator   Well, as a young artist you are always on the lookout for other artists whose work inspires you, that sends you to your drawing board eager to put pencil to paper. Many of those artists from that time have faded into the background, but not Arthur Rackham. There is always something more to learn from his work. So Rackham, and others such as John Bauer, Hermann Vogel, Maragaret and Frances Macdonald, Alphonse Mucha, Howard Pyle, Beatrix Potter, etc. continue to excite my imagination and push me every day to try to draw a bit better. Not only is their art lovely but the sumptuous, illustrated books that their art graced is the stuff of my dreams. It was a rare pleasure to collaborate on a book quite like those with The Folio Society.   Q: You contributed 18 stunning color plates across the three volumes, three multiple page spreads, a wraparound dust jacket illustration, as well as many black and white motifs. This is a lot of original art for a single production and I’m curious how you went about tackling it. How did you decide what particular scenes were illustrated and was it a collaborative effort with Folio Society? Charles Vess - Illustrator   Before any actual planning or sketches were done, I purchased a cheap paperback edition and read through the story, circling passages that suggested visual images as well as underlining descriptions of the various characters. It is quite a lengthy book, so I also had to make notes on where those descriptions were. Once that process was over, I read through the book slowly trying to pace the appearance of each 6 plates in the three volumes thinking that it would be awkward to have a tight cluster of drawings surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of pages of type. Because of this I had to let go of more than several images that would have been a delight to draw. I think one of the most satisfying elements of the finished book are the 3 fold-out endpapers that are included (one in each volume). These, I think, were initiated because I made a mistake translating the book's proportions from millimeters to inches and drew my original concept sketches much longer than was needed.   Q: Well, I'm sure glad that you made that mistake, because the foldouts are breathtaking! I’m sure that each one of the illustrations from this project are dear to you, but is there one in particular that you will look back on as particularly inspiring and that you are really excited for readers to experience? Charles Vess - Illustrator Other than the three endpaper designs that would be page 585 wherein Stephen Black, after spending an uncomfortable night on a bleak bog, wakes to find The Man With the Thistledown Hair singing to the clouds, the earth, the wind and the stars who are all listening. Q: I know you probably can’t answer this, but I would be remiss if I didn’t ask it. Does this mean that we may see Piranesi in the near future? It is one of my favorite novels of the past couple years and desperately needs the limited treatment. I’m hoping you can give us a little glimmer of hope! Sinéad O’Callaghan – Fiction Editor All I can say is never say never. I know all of us here at Folio would love to lose ourselves in the halls and vestibules of Piranesi’s House… _______________________________ If you want to stay up to date on the details of this upcoming release, sign up here . This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth and we want to thank the entire team at Folio Society and Charles Vess for their generosity of time and thoughtful answers. If you want to keep up with the latest from Folio then you can check them out on their website  to see some of their past and current productions. You can also follow them on Facebook  or Instagram  to stay up with all the incredible seasonal releases and limited editions. If you want to see some of Charles past work and keep up with what he is currently working on, check him out on his website . Interview by: Zach Harney a co-founder of the Collectible Book Vault *Since there are often different spellings in American English and British English of the same words, we have chosen to adhere to the spelling of the person who is speaking rather than conform to one convention for the whole interview.

Eli John - Press Owner and Illustrator Eli John is no stranger to the small press world, as his illustrations have been featured in numerous works from different presses over the past few years. With Nepenthe Press, he is putting on a new hat and not only illustrating, but also heading up production and running the entire operation. His first two works will be an anthology of folk horror short stories called Unquiet Slumbers (available for preorder currently) and POE: The Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe, generously illustrated by Eli. His passion is evident to anyone who has the pleasure of discussing the book arts with him and he is becoming a go-to illustrator in the world of weird fiction and horror. Most recently, he has worked with PS Publishing, Centipede Press, and Zagava to name a few. We are grateful to consider him a friend and that he made time in his busy schedule to talk about his new venture with us. Q: First let me say it is an honor to get to talk to you more specifically about your prior work and especially the launch of your new press. I believe we originally connected through our love of Zagava, the work of Mark Samuels and the wonderful press owner Jonas Ploeger of Zagava, who you have illustrated for and I have interviewed and become friends with. You are first and foremost an illustrator. Can you tell us about your journey from young artist to rare bookseller and eventually to full-time illustrator?     I was twelve years old and I went on work experience for a company that made merchandise for heavy metal bands. It was 1990, early stages of photoshop but mainly there was amazing artwork up on drawing boards, and art books everywhere. I picked up a copy of Giger ARH+ published by Taschen and was never the same again, that was the moment I knew what I wanted to do. I did fine art at university which I hated as it was all about conceptual art. My dad was a book dealer so I ended up dropping out and following him into that business, eventually specialising in horror and supernatural rarities. One day I thought, "I have to follow my dream and illustrate books myself." I posted some images of M R James prints I’d made on Instagram, someone brought them to the attention of Jerad at Centipede, and he give me my first gig, that was four years ago. I was very lucky.  Q: You have mentioned Dave McKean as a huge influence on your life and work and he is one of my favorite illustrators of all time, so I can see why. I can see small influences of his work in yours, but your work is extremely unique and recognizable to those of us who have followed your small press work over the last couple years. What was it about Dave and his work that inspired you and how did you seek to find your own distinctive style amidst a myriad of influences?      Thank you for your kind words! I first came to Dave McKean’s work when my dad bought me a copy of Arkham Asylum , early 90s again. It absolutely blew me away, it was the most beautiful artwork I’d ever seen in a comic, I didn’t know they could look like that. I then obsessively sought out everything Dave had done, and I’m still in awe of what he puts out there.  I actually appreciate you saying I have my own distinctive style, as the notion of this has always driven me crazy. An obsession with getting my own style down. I blame Instagram for this, as many people now kind of create a brand for themselves and stick to it forever, it looks great on Instagram but there is no real progression or journey? It’s safe, and would bore me. Dave has produced a vast array of work in many styles, but each is recognisably him, so if I’m doing something similar then that’s good. Each project suggests a different approach and medium, I’d hate to just do digital or just do watercolour. I am hugely influenced by German expressionism and the symbolists, Munch, Kubin, Rops, Klinger, etc.   Q: As an artist, there are so many options on the medium you can use to create your work and I know that you have used a combination of hand-drawn elements and digital aspects throughout your work. The illustrations from your work in the M.R. James entry with Centipede Press and your more recent work with PS Publishing on Different Seasons both feel like something that came from you, yet also do feel distinct in certain ways. What drives the medium you use for a particular project and how you approach it artistically?    Usually, a publisher is approaching you from something they have seen of your work. Some prefer slick digital pieces, others more traditional, so it’s guided often by that alone. If you are given freedom, I read the text and respond emotionally to that. It is this that suggests a medium, although I always start the same way, with quick thumbnail sketches. There is always a lot in those early sketches, it’s instinctual. I go through a process every time of making loads of notes about how I want them to look and this that and the other, and it’s wholly pointless. When I eventually stop procrastinating and get the ‘new project fear’ out of the way, and pick up a pencil, or pen, it starts. Those drawings lead you on in terms of style, medium etc. I often think they are the best thing I do, those early sketches.     Q: There is a dark and macabre feel to much of your body of work, not only the general color palette, but the subject matter as well. You seem to tend to favor works in horror and weird fiction primarily. What drew you to these particular genres and when did you realize that you wanted your illustrations to be featured alongside these kinds of works?    This happened very early on, Giger, Arkham Asylum , I’ve already mentioned. From a young age I was into all that goth, dark stuff, I identified as the outsider, weirdo, loner type. The Crow came out in the 90s as did IT with Tim Currey. I loved The Cure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and Tim Burton’s early films.     My parents introduced me to loads of old movies, especially the Hammer films and the M R James Ghost Stories for Christmas on UK TV. This developed when I then started reading M R James, and discovered Machen, Blackwood, Benson and all the ghost story writers of the Victorian and Edwardian period.     Q: What are some of your favorite small press works you have contributed to and why were the particularly exciting or interesting to you? What about some of your favorites you didn’t work on? Is there a particular piece of literature or press that you would love to illustrate/collaborate with?     I’m proud of the M R James work for Centipede as it was my first big job (and is yet to be published, Jerad works years ahead I think!) Hopefully later this year. His stories resonate so deeply with me, I respond to them on a different level. I wanted to capture that earthy, mouldy, textural feel of old linen and slime I’ve not seen in previous James illustrations. I’ve just finished a project I’m very proud of but I can’t talk about unfortunately, but it will be out this year.  I am a mad collector of illustrated books, so small press titles I love would be anything illustrated by Santiago Caruso, particularly love his Lovecraft work and the Centipede edition of Robert W Chambers. Seed  and Brother  by Ania Ahlborn from Suntup, are beautifully illustrated and beautifully bound. I love the Sub Press Full Throttle  from Joe Hill, illustrated by McKean, the lettered edition is sublime. Zagava’s Stephen J Clark titles are gorgeous, there is also a Ron Weighell volume in the works which looks incredible, bound in copper. There are so many.    Q: I have followed your work for a couple years now and I’m really excited about the prospect of you starting your own press and having full control over productions from start to finish. It seems your career has been a progression toward having more creative control over your own work, so I can imagine this must have been a dream of yours for some time. When was the first time you thought of starting Nepenthe Press and what were some of the pivotal moments that brought it closer to reality?    Well, I basically wanted to make the books I’ve always dreamed of. As an illustrator, my main focus is the art. In my previous life as a book dealer and as a collector now, I know what I love, in terms of the look and feel of a book, and I’m lucky to have handled many of the best horror titles from the small presses. I’m very happy to be in full control of the layouts and design of the book, and to obsess in my own time about the details, as it takes up a lot of time! Nepenthe was born out of a very strong desire to create sublime, illustrated editions of classic and contemporary works of horror and weird fiction.   Q: In the past, we have discussed our love for the poem “The Raven” and clearly you are a Poe fan judging by your first major production. Is the name of your press “Nepenthe” a specific nod to the reference in that poem or related to the more general idea, or maybe something even completely different?    It is a very specific reference to the poem, and I love the idea of a book being like a drug, or tonic, or draught you can take, to escape into, to slow down and to alleviate for a moment the rush and madness of the modern world, and forget all personal woes and suffering for even just a moment.     Q: There have been many new fine and small presses that have started up in the last five years and I’m curious what drove you to start this at this moment in time? What unique aspect do you think that Nepenthe will offer to greater small press world and do you see this becoming your main pursuit or simply another facet of your artistic expression among many?     I need to constantly be creating. It was when the Stephen King job ended after a year solid of work that I decided now was the time to start my own press. Nepenthe’s books will focus on illustration, we want to produce beautiful books which are also affordable to most people. I am continuing to illustrate full time, so Nepenthe is simply another creative expression.    Q: Your first two productions at the press will be an anthology of folk horror tales named  Unquiet Slumber and your second production will be POE, a part of your monograph series. Can you tell us a little bit about the evolution of these projects and what you are most excited about with these first two releases? Folk Horror has a strong tradition in the UK particularly, and the US, which seems to just keep growing, and it is probably the sub-genre of horror I love the most. I love The Wicker Man , Satan’s Claw , M R James and Arthur Machen as much as everyone else, but I thought, there are so many great horror writers working today, I’d love to curate a collection of stories by contemporary writers I really admire, so I started approaching them and was amazed by the response. We now have a very strong collection of stories, at least ten of which will be published for the first time. We also put out an open call which we were overwhelmed by, with almost 500 submissions in the end for a couple of spaces in the anthology, which goes to show the interest in this particular vein of horror! We are now in the midst of preorders and we are so excited!    The POE book is another beast. I’ve always wanted to illustrate Poe, and his stories have been part of my life since I was pretty young. The greatest illustrated editions of Poe are all around a hundred years old, Clarke, Dore, Rackham, etc, so I wanted to create something akin to what was produced during the golden age of book illustration. It is quite a challenge, but I am working with some wonderful people on this book to produce something special. We are in the early stages, but will be sharing more soon via the newsletter and blog.     Q: In the past, you have collaborated with many different small presses on the art side, but obviously being a press owner puts a whole new list of responsibilities in front of you. Have you enjoyed the other aspects of production as you have begun working on these first two projects and has there been anything that has really surprised you about being in this new role?   Yes, it’s a huge challenge, and an enormous amount of work, but I am enjoying the creative control I have, especially when it comes to the book design and interior layouts. What is wonderful too is if you have a pretty strong idea of how you want the book to look and you show a mock-up to a printer or binder they understand your language completely, and start to suggest the papers and materials to make the project come alive, it starts to feel very real and exciting. I’ve also received really generous help and guidance from people I know in the small press world, they’ve been so incredibly helpful and transparent in a realm I imagined would be very guarded, and offered invaluable advice and encouragement, which you need! Number crunching and the business side of things is all new to me, but I have someone help with that.     Q: If there was one word or phrase that you hope comes to people’s minds when they think of Nepenthe Press, what would you hope that it would be?     Such beautiful books for the money.   Q: We know what to expect for 2024 from your press and it is all really exciting. If you are sitting in your flat at the end of this year and reflecting back on the launch of Nepenthe, what would need to happen this year for you to consider it a success in your eyes? Is there anything coming in 2025 and beyond that you can tell us about for you as an artist or as a press owner?   An enormous amount of passion and love goes into the production of these books, on every level.  I would like people to be sat in a comfy armchair this coming Christmas with a warm drink and a copy of one of our books, tweeting about losing themselves in them, and taking some time out. I have numerous illustration commissions on the go but unfortunately can’t say much about those right now, also I’ve always wanted to do my own graphic novel, German expressionist style, but when!     For Nepenthe, we will be considering a second anthology, and who to follow Poe up with in the monograph series. One thing is for sure, we want to journey further into letterpress and printmaking in 2025, little chapbooks perhaps, penny dreadfuls maybe, ahhh so much to do, so little time!  This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth with Eli. If you want to order a copy of Unquiet Slumbers or see what else is upcoming you can see what Nepenthe Press has to offer at https://www.nepenthepress.co.uk/ . For updates on current projects check him out on Facebook  or Instagram  to stay up to date on what's coming up in the future for Nepenthe Press! Interview by: Zach Harney of the Collectible Book Vault   *Since there are often different spellings in American English and British English of the same words, we have chosen to adhere to the spelling of the person who is speaking rather than conform to one convention for the whole interview.

Tom Kidd We are so excited to be kicking off this new interview series with renowned fantasy and science fiction artist Tom Kidd, whose vivid imagination has brought countless fantastical worlds to life on the page. With a career spanning decades, Tom has captivated audiences with his unique blend of realism and fantastical elements, creating iconic illustrations that are featured in some of our favorite books. More recently he has put his mark on a host of particularly wonderful small press productions including The Last Unicorn from Suntup Editions, Books of Babel from Subterranean Press, Elric and Fafhrd books from Centipede, and is currently working on an unannounced title from Conversation Tree Press. We appreciate his graciousness and generosity to fit us into his busy schedule and think you will enjoy this conversation as we delve into Tom's path to becoming a fulltime illustrator, his creative process, and wonderful humor! Q: One of your first jobs as an artist was coloring comics for hourly pay for Gold Key Comics. After a short time doing this, you then ventured into the realm of illustrating covers. Tell us about the progression of your early career and a few moments that were pivotal to your growth as an artist, how did it evolve over time?   I’d come to NYC to look for work. At first, it seemed to be going well with a lot of encouragement from art directors but little work. I’d done one book cover for Berkley Books, some work for Starlog Magazine , some Christian romance covers—and to balance that out—a few pen & inks for Screw Magazine. You want chaste young women depicted? You’d like scenes of Lilliputian sex? I can work at both ends of the moral spectrum. At one point, I became desperate to pay my rent and eat, I asked for anything from my most hopeful contacts. Frank Taggart at Gold Key gave me a job coloring comics. It was a good deal, but I was a foolish youngster. Three weeks into the job, I was offered a book cover from DAW Books, so I quit. Frank, being the kind soul he was, didn’t take offense and assigned me comic covers from time to time. I’m eternally grateful to him. This doesn’t say much about my process or evolution, but I’d learned I didn’t like being a starving artist. Yet, I was fully dedicated to being an illustrator. Freelancing is tough. I don’t recommend it if you have nothing to fall back on. Luck was my only cushion. And boy was I lucky!   Q: It was an industry standard, in the early days of illustrating, for studios to require retention of the original artwork for themselves, not allowing artists to maintain possession or sell their own work, something that is less common today. What are some of the biggest changes you have seen in the industry over your four decades of work and in what ways do you think it has become more or less amendable to the success of the individual artist?   Actually, it was illustrator rights pioneers like Vincent DiFate who paved the way for artists to retain their originals. I got to keep my work, and I took it to sell at conventions. By the time I was doing book covers there were only a small number of companies that kept the art.   Things seemed wilder in the old days, more a time of experimentation. Crowdfunding fills that gap to some degree, but a great deal of creative people need the shepherding only a forbearing publisher can provide. I’d like to see them take more chances.   Q: Most people who are familiar with science fiction and fantasy illustrations will recognize your artwork immediately due to your distinctive style. How did you develop your personal style and how would you describe it to someone who has never seen your artwork?   I have a style?—I’m not even sure I have a personality. Okay, that’s a bit of a joke, but I don’t think in terms of style. My approach is to tell a story well, to invite the viewer in, and to have some fun with the paint that I hope others will appreciate. There’s a special beauty to what each medium can do. As I work, I’d be a fool not to let the paint show off its loveliest qualities. You could, if you liked hackneyed phrases, say, my style is to go with the flow.   Q: You have been commissioned for projects ranging from large runs by major publishers like War of the Worlds  and The Three Musketeers  by HarperCollins, down to small/fine press releases like Books of Babel  by Subterranean Press. Does your approach change at all depending on the size of the publisher or do you feel like your process is consistent across your work? What do you find enjoyable about your forays into the small/fine press world?   They are basically the same to me. My favorite thing about small presses is they are a little more open to different ideas. Subterranean, Centipede, Suntup, Conversation Tree, and Curious King are all quality publishers working to make beautiful books. I’ve just started a project with Dave Stevenson over at Random House, but because I know the people involved, it feels like a small press, like home.   Q: Many our readers will be familiar with your work on Books of Babel  by Josiah Bancroft and personally it is one of my favorite sets of covers that Subterranean Press has ever released. How did the concept of those covers evolve and how did you come to decide to make them one continuous vertical design from book to book? Did you complete all these at once or separately?   This is exactly what’s great about small publishers. I can’t say that all my ideas are accepted, but Bill Schafer, the publisher at Subterranean, is kind enough to listen. It’s scary when people go with my crazy suggestions, though. Then I have to make them work. It was impossible to do all the Babel covers at once because all the books hadn’t been written. I bought four exactly sized 24X36” cradled panels for this project. As I painted, I stacked the second painting atop the first and painted about three or four inches up the second panel. I repeated this process through all four panels. In effect, I was “Tom Kidd Ascends” as I painted my way up. The paintings now reside together in a collector’s house in Texas.  I’d like to add that working with Bill and Josiah was great. They are both true gentlemen. And Josiah’s writing is exquisite. I still read passages from his books and marvel at his mastery.   Q: Those books are some of my favorites and the Subterranean Press version is something truly special with your artwork included. What is your favorite project you have ever worked on? What was particularly enjoyable about that project and do you look for these aspects in your future commissions?   Am I allowed to include failed projects? If I am, it’s my own novel: Gnemo: Airships, Adventure, Exploration.  The main reason it’s my favorite is that my author side forced my artist side to stretch his imagination. I wrote scenes that I had no idea how to paint. Often, I painted ahead of writing and had to come up with reasoning to fit my art. Each side of my brain challenged the other to outdo itself. Sadly, Tundra, the publisher of Gnemo , went out of business. I admit to being spoiled by them. Their contract was very fair—it even had a big budget for advertising—and no one has offered me as nice a deal for the book since. I still continue to work on it, and it’s near completion. Had Suntup Editions not offered me The Last Unicorn  to illustrate (what fantasy illustrator would turn that plumb job down?), and the book I’m working on for Conversation Tree, I’d have Gnemo fully done, even the design work. I’d now be perfecting the details, and doing the final editing and polishing of my prose.   Other than that, my favorites are a toss-up between The War of the Worlds , The Dying Earth , the Books of Babel , and The Last Unicorn .   Doing it all is most enjoyable for me, so I have to include my book Kiddography: The Art and Life of Tom Kidd because I designed and wrote it. The thing I enjoy most is hearing people laugh when they read it. What other monograph of an artist’s paintings makes a person chuckle?   Q: How do you go about approaching a new project you are commissioned for? What mediums are you using and what are you thinking about as you begin to try and extract the ideas from your mind and onto the page?   Extract? So, you know about the giant vice I use to squeeze out my creative juices? Almost all my finished work is oil paintings. I love watercolors and pen & ink but do them less. Lately, I’ve employed my iPad for preliminary sketches, and I use an app called Procreate.   The trick to coming up with interesting ideas is to scribble anything that comes to mind. There’s immense power to pencil and paper. The potential is literally limitless. You can make anything with those humble tools. What you draw when coming up with ideas doesn’t have to be important to the story, and often it’s best to start with something insignificant. Then you expand outward until you find your main thrust.   Most of what I do is book covers. Here’s something I wrote when I was in the thick of that:   Book covers, book covers, book covers, I’ve done hundreds of them. The most common question I get about doing book covers is, "Do you read the books first?"  I do. Although there are a few exceptions, such as when the book isn't written yet.   After reading a manuscript (which I've marked passages in and taken notes from) I like to run the images through my mind while asking myself a few questions: What is the mood of the book; what's the most important aspect of the book; what appealed to me most? I then take the answers to these questions and incorporate them into one still picture, that with one glance, is the book.  Expressing some 200 to 500 pages into one small picture should be approached like a form of poetry. Keep it simple but speak volumes. That doesn't mean you can't be subtle or include a few things that the reader wouldn't understand till the book is read.  I love hearing from people who notice the little things in my work.   Illustrating books is a little different. Covers represent the whole, illustrations are scenes either in the book or things that had to happen in the story. For short stories, it’s often fun to do a more metaphorical piece, something to augment the idea behind the tale. For example: if someone is being fleeced, I might represent him as sheep-like. Q: You do not only illustrate for publications but are also a prolific designer. Your work has been seen in theme parks, games, galleries, and museums over the years. How did you start getting involved in this work and what have been some of your most interesting projects in this space?   I haven’t done much of that lately. All of that work came in when people first saw my Gnemo paintings. They liked the feel of them and wanted that in their projects. I’ll have to create something else no one has imagined before to get that level of attention again.   Working for Disney on Treasure Planet  was fantastic because my job was to come up with innovative ideas. Everyone working on the movie was phenomenally creative. I was a very small cog in a planet-sized wheel, but they made me feel important. Some of my art for the movie is in the making-of book Treasure Planet: Voyage of Discovery.  A lot of people tell me they loved the movie, but it wasn’t a box office success.   Q: Being a freelance illustrator is a unique job and I think it is hard for non-artists to imagine what that lifestyle would entail. Images of isolated cabins in the woods or high-rise studios overlooking the city come to mind as one imagines the idyllic creative space. What does your day-to-day rhythm look like? Do looming deadlines tend to give you more creative pressure or does it tend to stifle the space needed for your artistic expression? It’s good to plan each day the day before and stick to it. But it’s often a case of keeping a dozen plates spinning, as one begins to wobble, you run to give it attention. Also, money comes in unevenly for a freelancer, but bills come in regularly. It’s good to stay on top of your finances.   I’d likely have done only a dozen paintings in my life if I didn’t have deadlines. There’s always room for improvement in a painting so it makes it hard to stop working on them. I do a lot of writing. On my computer are three completed but not perfected novels, a few incomplete novels, and several dozen short stories, maybe more than a hundred. One story I have, Cruel Cash , relates here. It's an urban fantasy about a young illustrator trying to make his way against terrifying odds. He can stay afloat only by accepting an awful solution. The story speaks to the freelancer life and its horrors. Anyway, I’d planned to submit the story to a magazine weeks ago, but I keep putting it off, trying to make it better. Writing is hard work.   Q: Well, I truly do hope we get to see that published someday! You already mentioned Kiddography , a book of your life’s work up to that point, released in 2005. Also, in 2010, OtherWorlds  informed artists of your methods and inspiration, as it let people look a little bit more into your creative process. Can you tell us a little more about these projects? Were these surreal moments for you and would you have ever imagined that you would be involved with publishing projects that memorialized your work like this when you first started out?   Here’s the thing about Kiddography : I want to do another one and do it the same way which is to be the author, artist, and designer. Only it would be better written and funnier than the previous book. It might even have new art people like.   OtherWorlds differs because it was a team effort. The editors had their own way of making their books, and it was hard to fit me into that mold. Still, overall, I’m pleased with it. The design is fantastic. I liked doing the step-by-steps, but that’s a difficult way to learn to paint. To me, they serve a purpose, but it’s better to understand larger concepts. I was told to leave that out of the book, but I snuck some in anyway. Another how-to book that has my words and pictures is Fantastic Dragons and How to Draw Them.  It’s not my title, but I like it.     Q: With more than four decades of experience under your belt, you have seen countless illustrators build their careers. What would be a few pieces of advice you would give to someone who was just starting out as an illustrator? What do you think gives an artist staying power over their entire career?   Know that true success as an illustrator is looking back on your art and feeling some pride in it, so always work on your craft. Get your work seen as much as you can where it’s free to exhibit, and show it in all the other places you can afford. Know that very hard work won’t necessarily be paid off with great financial success. Luck is a big component in any endeavor where you’re the only driving force behind it. That isn’t so much a discouragement but knowing that probability can’t be ignored will work to your favor. Here’s one of my favorite quotes on the subject from a famous mathematician: ". . . successful people in every field are almost universally members of a certain set — the set of people who don't give up.” — Leonard Mlodinow   An opposing view might be:  If at first you don’t succeed—do not take up skydiving.   Q: If you could pick any piece of literature to illustrate that you think would fit well with your style, what would that be? Why?   Even though I can think of several, I’m afraid to ask for something specific. It seems unfair to ask anything of the universe right now—maybe just a few more years of viability please. Oh, something humorous to illustrate would be nice.   Q: We know you are working on a few projects like the Wolfe Anthology  for Subterranean Press and a yet to be announced title for Conversation Tree Press, but are there any other projects you can tell us about that are coming soon? Are there any personal or commissioned projects you can talk about in their earlier stages?   I’m working on several things. Mums the word. It’s contractual. Sorry.   Thanks for the questions and the opportunity to talk about my art. I look forward to showing people my new work when the gods of publishing allow it. This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth and we want to thank Tom for his willingness to be a part of this series. If you want to see a selection of Tom's past art, you can check out his portfolio at https://tomkidd.myportfolio.com/ . For updates on current projects check him out on Facebook to stay up to date with what he is working on. Interview by: Zach Harney of the Collectible Book Vault

Alex Berman of Phantasia Press We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to speak with one of the legends of small press publishing, Alex Berman of Phantasia Press. A pioneer of the modern small press movement, he also was one of the first to start producing editions that were both limited and first editions for top-tier science fiction authors of his time. Though the press closed their doors in the late 80s after a run of forty-nine wonderful productions, they recently opened back up again with their fiftieth release, Mickey7 and Alex has resumed his position at the helm of the press he started more than forty years ago. We are thrilled at the prospect of more Phantasia Press books for years to come and honored that Alex is willing to give us some of his valuable time to reflect on the history of the press and insight into where they may be headed in the future. Q: It seems that for many of us who truly love science fiction, we can trace back this love to a certain person or original work that opened our eyes to the genre and all it entails. For me, it was my grandfather and his love for Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein and others. Was there anyone in your life that inspired and pointed you toward the expansive and unlimited potential of science fiction literature? Any specific works that you remember inspiring you?   When I was young, we didn’t have a lot of books in my household, but I would go to the library almost every day beginning in junior high. It was then that I became hooked on science fiction.    I had a book report due in the 7th grade and chose This Island Earth  by Raymond F. Jones. My teacher was also a science fiction fan and was supportive even though science fiction was not considered “literature” at that time. As a young teen, I would go to a particular mall, the first indoor mall in the country actually, and there was a store with an all-glass front there. I remember seeing all of these bright and colorful paperbacks that turned out to be Ace Doubles, costing only 35 cents at that time. I convinced my mom to let me buy one, I can’t remember the title exactly, but it was by John Brunner. I thought wow, this is fantastic, and continued to buy them when I could scrape together 35 cents (this was the late 1950s, remember.) This continued, reading science fiction voraciously for a couple of years, but stopped abruptly when I went to college and then further on to law school, because I really didn’t have time to read for pleasure. Right after I took the bar exam, finally having some leisure time, I read Lord of the Rings  for the first time. I had never read any fantasy before, but obviously it was amazing, and this eventually led me to become interested in more than just reading, but also collecting.   In my early twenties, I got married and at about that same time started seriously collecting. What fascinated me the most was the smaller press publishers: Gnome Press, Shasta and Fantasy Press, but I mostly ignored the big publishers like Doubleday, Putnam and others even though they published Asimov, Heinlein and many other greats (which was a big mistake, as those turned out to be quite valuable). Then I started going to science fiction conventions and discovered the Donald Grant books as well and branched out into reading authors outside of science fiction like Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft, which was totally different than what I grew up on. The whole world of collecting was fascinating to me.   Q: It is so interesting to hear your back story and let me say that it is an honor to get to pick the brain of someone so important to the history of the modern small press movement. You started Phantasia Press in the 70s with your partner, the late Sidney Altus. Can you give us a little history lesson on how the press developed and how you chose your first publication with him?   There was one book we were always looking for at conventions, it was a hardcover edition of L. Sprague de Camp’s Wall of Serpents . It was just hard to find whatever the reason. So, we saw de Camp at one of these conventions and asked him why this book had never been reprinted in paperback or hardcover. He told us that he had just gotten the rights back from Thomas Bouregy of Avalon Books, after a lengthy back and forth and just so happened to be looking for a publisher. So, I looked at my friend Sid and said, “maybe we should publish this” and we asked him if he would allow us to do that. He said he would like to sell the paperback rights, but we were more than welcome to do a hardcover publication. I had known Sid Altus for a long time at that point. My parents were Holocaust survivors from Poland and his were as well. Our parents knew each other before the war in Poland and stayed friends through the years. I would run into him at a book convention in Ann Arbor, MI every year beginning in the early 70s and struck up a friendship. He was fairly established at that point and owned a successful business and had the money to be able to publish on the side.   At first, we planned to do this one book, but it was successful, so we looked for more titles worthy of publishing.  We did all our own research to make sure it was done well since we were doing this from scratch. I talked to Donald Grant and Tim Underwood asking who did their printing and how they did what they did. It seemed like so many of the book printers were in Ann Arbor, which worked out for us being fairly close. Sid was an art collector, so he was in charge of finding and dealing with the artists. I was involved in more of the technical aspects, dealing with the authors and major publishers writing up the contracts. I am an attorney by trade and around the same time, I met Jack Williamson who I had read and admired for a long time. We started up a friendship and at the time, he was the president of a fairly new organization, Science Fiction Writers of America. He asked me to help them become established as a 501(c)3 and officially become their attorney, which also opened up a lot of new doors. George R.R. Martin was the treasurer at the time, I believe, and a lot of great authors were active in the organization. The publishers had all the power at that time and basically, if they wanted to break contract, they would just do it and the authors didn’t really have the power to do anything in response. They didn’t have the wherewithal to sue a publisher, because they didn’t know how and feared they would get blackballed by publishers in the future. I started changing this which encouraged authors to enforce their contracts and fight for the money they were owed. All the while I got to meet with a lot of interesting science fiction writers.   Q: I know it was very common for you to actually predate the release of a major title, making the Phantasia Press production the true first edition of some brilliant stories. Was this an initial goal of the press or did that idea evolve over time?   At the beginning, we were doing mostly older science fiction and basically turning pulps into hardcover limited editions. We would do a signed limited edition and a trade hardcover edition of many of these books and would use a different cloth and a slipcase for the signed-limited edition. This was generally in line with what others like Underwood and Miller were doing at the time. But then I had a new idea that started changing our approach.   I first came up with this idea with Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven because I was a huge fan of Ringworld and heard there was a sequel coming out. So, I contacted the publisher and told them we had the idea to do a limited signed and numbered edition of their book.   We would only do a few thousand copies of a hardcover, or if they were doing a trade hardcover, then we would only do a small run of a signed limited edition. We told them that it would be really important and special for collectors if ours was the actual first edition and they said they didn’t really care if a small batch of ours came out first. They agreed to get us the manuscript in time for us to be able to publish before the major publisher. This was really the first time that a small press like ours was able to do a true first edition, signed and limited-edition new books by major authors. Q: I also noticed from looking through your publications that you would often produce later books in an established series such as Ringworld Engineers , Robots of Dawn , and 2010: Odyssey Two . What was the thought process behind this decision, and did you ever think of going back and trying to publish the original books that kicked off those series?   You know, it really wasn’t of interest to me at that time, but it probably should have been. After we did the first few books, I thought it was such a benefit for collectors and we would usually only do limited editions of 400-750 copies, but I didn’t see the potential at that time for doing previous published books in a series. We figured that we found our niche and we wanted to continue doing that. In fact, when I did Neuromancer  by William Gibson, there were many people that told me not to do it because they said collectors wouldn’t be interested since there was already a hardcover (printed in the UK) and it wouldn’t be the true first edition, or first hardcover printing. One author, who was one of my favorites of all time was Robert Heinlein and I was just dying to do one of his books. Judy-Lynn Del Rey was running Del Rey books at the time and had the rights to Heinlein’s books. She was a total firecracker and a great businessperson. She made the deal with George Lucas to publish the first Star Wars novel, even before the movie came out and that put Del Rey on the map. Alan Dean Foster (who we have published) actually wrote the first book under George Lucas’ name and wasn’t able to disclose it for five years. I knew, but I had to keep it quiet! I reached out to her about doing our normal deal of publishing a first edition of the next Heinlein book and she agreed. We had already published 2010: Odyssey Two, working with her. This was 1988 and I was so excited to do this book.   I always took advantage of this as an opportunity to meet the authors. I spent time with Isaac Asimov and visited him at his apartment in New York. I met with Arthur C. Clarke when he was in the country and got to spend a weekend hanging out with Harlan Ellison and became friends with him. Truthfully, we never made much of a profit and were happy to break even. But meeting and working with these authors was a wonderful side benefit of running Phantasia Press.  It also helped Sid acquire a great art collection. I would work all day at my law practice and then go home and turn into a publisher.   I was so excited to do this Heinlein book, I hadn’t even read the book, but really didn’t care.   So, I prepared our standard contract and sent it to Judy.  After several weeks, I reached out to Judy and asked what was going on.  At first, she said she had been busy but would sign it soon. A few weeks later, I received a Western Union telegram stating the Del Rey would publish their own signed-limited edition and she didn’t see any reason why they should give up the additional profit. This was one of the first blows that actually brought me closer to ending Phantasia Press.   Q: One of the biggest and most well-known projects you published was a version of Firestarter  by Stephen King that now goes for extremely high prices in the secondary market, particularly the lettered “Asbestos” version. Can you tell us about how you got involved with Stephen King and collaborated with him on this project? What made you feel like this was a good project for Phantasia Press at the time? I really enjoyed Stephen King ever since I read his first book, Carrie.  His early books contained elements of both science fiction and horror.  I had read his first three novels and was interested in doing a limited edition of one of his books. This was when he was transitioning from Doubleday to Viking.  I contacted his editor who had the sub-rights and asked her to contact me.  She sent a letter about Firestarter which was due to be published the following year.  Of course, I was interested.  Although he was already a best-selling author, I wasn’t sure he was a “collectable” author.  They had to get King’s approval, however.  He thought a limited-signed edition was a great idea so approved the deal.   We were also fortunate to bring Michael Whelan on board, who ended up winning the Hugo Award for Best Artist practically every year in the 1980s. Sid also bought the original cover art. I also had a deal with him that if he ever sold them then he would give me first right of refusal.   But this didn’t quite work out.   Q: After producing forty-nine published projects with Phantasia Press over eleven years you decided to stop working on new productions. What were the different factors that convinced you to call it a day? Was it a slow burn or did the realization that you were done come on suddenly?   As I mentioned before, the Heinlein deal was definitely something that made me question whether I was still enjoying being a publisher. Other publishers I had dealt with began doing their own limited editions. Then, the last book I was looking at was by William Shatner, it was my 49th book. I knew he didn’t write it, in fact I knew who the ghostwriter was, but I really wanted to meet William Shatner since I was a Trekkie from day one.   My wife and I went to Hollywood for the signing of the books.  We met Shatner at this riding club in Burbank and the boxes were all there with the books to be signed. He was a little aloof at first and seemed to be sick of talking about Star Trek, but he calmed down after a little while and it was all good from there. We got to go out to lunch and dinner with him and it was a great day. At the same time, we were staying at this small hotel on Rodeo Drive. It was close to Ray Bradbury’s office, and I called him up and he came over to sign some of my personal books, so it ended up being a really amazing trip. I say this all to illustrate the biggest benefit of running Phantasia Press for me. However, this started to change over time.  After the Shatner book, I reached out to Putnam about doing something for Frank Herbert and they said they were doing their own limited editions. All of these were done by the big publisher. They were ugly and not well made, so it really just killed the excitement for me as I realized they were going to start doing these themselves. There was also one more reason for ending Phantasia. When I was already discouraged about what to do next, I got a call from Marty Greenberg. He had this idea for an anthology called “October’s Friends” and he was bringing in a bunch of authors writing stories in honor of Ray Bradbury. I talked to him about getting the hardcover rights to it, since the paperback rights were already secured by someone else. I paid an advance and already began the artwork, and it seemed to be shaping up to be a really nice book. Several months later, Marty called me and said that the publisher who bought the rights to the paperback now wants to do a hardcover. He offered to pay me more than the advance I had given him.   I didn’t feel I really had a choice.   In addition to that, I was working more hours at my law practice and doing Phantasia work most nights until 2am. At that time, I really had to make a decision between continuing in my law practice or work full-time publishing.   Having three young boys and a mortgage I decided to end Phantasia Press.   Q: So over 30 years go by and a few years ago there started to be rumblings that you were going to reopen the press and start producing books again. What were the primary factors that caused you to relaunch Phantasia Press and why this particular moment in history?   During this entire hiatus of over 30 years, I was out of the science fiction field completely. It was the dark age for me in terms of my involvement in the science fiction and publishing community. I really didn’t even think about it too much.   Then in 2020, COVID hit. I’m running my own firm, and we were pretty much shut down which meant I was working from home and surrounded by all the books I once collected from the floor to the ceiling. Being in that environment day after day, I began to formulate this idea when reflecting on Phantasia Press and appreciating the 80s and that time period. At the same time, my wife started showing early signs of dementia and chronic pain issues and instead of going to dinner or getting out of the house, we were staying home more and more. I started going a little crazy being home so much. I started thinking, what if I started Phantasia Press again? In my online searching, I came across the Small Press Limited Book Collectors group on Facebook and I really didn’t realize there were so many small presses. I knew Subterranean Press because I knew Bill from long before, and they were publishing popular works in beautiful editions. I saw that they weren’t even publishing first editions. They were doing reprints of older titles as well as newer books, and I thought, “Is there a market for these editions?”   I posted a comment on one of the collectors’ groups, “Does anybody remember Phantasia Press?” Then comments came flooding in like, “My father used to collect your books,” or “You’re a legend” or “Oh, you’re still alive?” Even some of my older customers were still around and engaged and I found out that many Phantasia books were still collectible, I really had no idea, especially about how collectible Stephen King had become. I guess I just assumed younger people would not be interested in small presses but I discovered that wasn’t the case!   There were a lot of positive responses from collectors; I was really surprised. It’s now a digital world and a lot easier for marketing, whereas we used to mail flyers and people would mail in checks and we sold books at conventions. At that point I thought it might be possible to start publishing again. Some people I knew in publishing tried to discourage me from starting again and said that the competition was too stiff now. But I had so many positive responses I decided to move forward.   Q: From everything I have been following about the re-opening of Phantasia Press, it seems that you are still involved in many high-level ways, but probably not engaged with the day-to-day as heavily as you were in the first iteration. In what ways are you still engaged with Phantasia Press? Tell us about how you found your new team and what their individual roles are in the organization. Shortly after I committed to getting Phantasia Press up and running, I realized that I needed some help. I ran into a couple people early on, one of them was local Steve Showfer. I saw that he was involved with many of the online groups, and he was one of my customers back in the early day. He even bought a copy of Firestarter at a convention from me.  I gave him a call and he was interested. He was very helpful in getting Phantasia Press going again. He then introduced me to Diana Petroff.  She was also interested in working with us. Diana has many managerial and marketing skills. Her expertise in those areas would allow me to get set up in the new digital world. She was also an avid collector and knew many individuals in the field. Steve and Diana helped select our first title for the relaunch which was Mickey7 . I gave it a read and thought it was a really fast-paced, fun story and decided to go forward with it. Although it would not be a “First Edition”, we were confident it would be an excellent choice for our first (actually 50th) book.   Diana’s involvement has only grown. She has created our website and has a ton of connections within the small press collector world. She is my number one associate. Without her, it would have been very difficult for me to get everything started back up.   I am still very actively involved, originally starting it back by myself, and am frequently posting on the Fans of Phantasia Press group on Facebook, often with memories and pictures with famous authors from our first run as a press. Meeting authors and working with them was an amazing dividend.   Q: So you now have got things back up and running with a new Robots of Dawn edition using the original text blocks and then the recent release of the 50th production of Phantasia Press. Obviously, Mickey7  is a very modern science fiction book that you paired with a classic artist from the early days of Phantasia, do you plan on continuing to issue limited editions of contemporary authors or do you think you might revisit some of the classics? How will you go about artist selection?   For Mickey7 , we decided to use an artist from the first stage of Phantasia Press. I called up Barclay Shaw, who did several of our earlier editions. I asked him if he was still painting, and he said that he really wasn’t very active anymore. He had developed carpal tunnel syndrome, and it was limiting his painting activities. He told me he was mainly doing some digital art. He read the book and then started sending me some sketches. I was really excited with what he was coming up with. I was mildly disappointed that there was no original painting as that was an important part of what I used to do with Phantasia Press, but I loved how colorful his work was. It hit me that using him was actually kind of retro at this point and I didn’t want it to deviate too far from the Phantasia Press “look”.   Overall, I do want artists that will do something traditional, so although we will use different artists, I do want the painting to have that more classic feel.   Q: During your hiatus, there have been some small press players that have come in and somewhat filled the vacuum that you left throughout the 90s and early 2000s. Small presses like Subterranean Press, Centipede Press, Tachyon, and PS Publishing all helped fill this space, but none of them as specifically devoted to science fiction as Phantasia Press was. Does it excite you with this revamp that science fiction continues to attract new readers and that now you are releasing books as a contemporary of many presses that found inspiration in what you were doing in the 70s and 80s?   To be honest, I really wasn’t aware of a lot of what small presses were doing. Being in Michigan, I did know Bill Schafer (of Subterranean Press) and he was really helpful when I was starting things up looking for new printers, etc. Initially, I attempted to contact the printers I had used decades ago.   They had been in Ann Arbor and were either out of business or had been bought out.  As a result, we had to had really start fresh. Bill Schafer went out of his way to be helpful and gave me several book printers which were good and those to stay away from. Bill was the most helpful, which was pretty amazing, knowing that I would probably be a more direct competitor with him than other presses. It was really exciting for me when I realized that a new generation was still into small press collecting. To be honest, I thought that all collectors from my day were either gone or no longer collecting. The most shocking thing for me was when I started researching pricing. You have to understand that I sold the signed/numbered Firestarter  for $35 back in 1980.   But taking inflation into account, that would equal about $110 if it was sold today. When I started researching prices, I realized we would have to charge more than that for the press to be solvent. I had a lot of trouble just finding someone to produce slipcases at the quantity that we wanted and there were so many other aspects I had to rethink. I really didn’t want to take pre-orders too soon before the book was coming out either. I had heard there were some presses that took several years to deliver a book which had already paid for, and I did not wish to take pre-orders until we were very close to being done with a book. Even the idea of “rights” was foreign to me. Maybe it’s my old-fashioned way of thinking, but I thought the whole idea was strange. Also, no one really cared, in my time, about what number they got, so I had to re-evaluate a lot of what I had known.   Q: You released some incredible productions during the first iteration of Phantasia Press. What was one of the most memorable books that you worked on?   One of the most interesting productions, particularly seeing what the edition is selling for now, is the “Asbestos” Firestarter  edition. Truthfully, the last one I saw sold went for $35,000 and wish I would have kept more! I have my own copy which is Copy A.   I do have a typed letter from Stephen King complimenting the “Asbestos” and that’s stored someplace really safe. The fact that Firestarter was his first limited edition (even though the story wasn’t one of his best) makes it really special and we know the King collectors are nuts, haha! Selling some extra numbered copies of Firestarter that I had saved, actually helped with the cost to start Phantasia Press back up.   Q: If there was one word or phrase that came to people’s minds when they think of Phantasia Press, what would you hope that it would be?   I just want my books to make collectors happy.   Q: We know you have acquired rights to Sundiver by David Brin, but what else should we be looking forward to next from Phantasia? Is there anything you can share about what you may be most excited about in 2024? As you know, I don’t announce books until we are much closer to a release date, but we have announced Sundiver  by David Brin and it is currently in line for publication at the printer. We have a couple books under contract, but art is taking longer than I expected. I actually do have a contract to do an Asimov book and it’s going to be a small, signed project. Generally, in the past, we would send pages to the author to be signed and tipped in later when the book was being put together. One of the two Asimov books we did, I think it was Robots of Dawn , the printer sent him a hundred or so extra signature pages. Isaac Asimov hadn’t realized this until he had signed all the pages.  He sent me a postcard and was pretty angry because he was very protective of his time (he had to be with his two-finger typing method) and he felt like he had wasted time signing more than he needed to. I reached out to him, and he was actually fine, but we ended up with quite a few extra signed pages. I’m thinking of using those in the next book. We are doing something unique with this standalone novel that hasn’t had a signed limited edition before. It was previously released as a novella and then built on and changed into a full novel. Our publication will include BOTH of them and show the evolution of the story. I’m working with the publisher and Robin Asimov from the estate, who is very busy working on the show right now, but it is finally under contract now. We will likely have a signed and an unsigned version. I have someone special in mind as the artist, but I need to figure out if they are available for this project before I announce it. Going forward I’m going to try and do some newer works with living authors, but then I will be competing with presses like Subterranean Press, Suntup Editions, and others who do the same sort of thing now. It’s difficult to find popular books that haven’t already had the limited treatment at this point, and I’ve historically never done a book that isn’t signed, so I am definitely still evaluating exactly what we will focus on moving forward. Originally, Stephen King had said that he wanted to do another book with us, after we did Firestarter .  But his next book was horror so he went with another publisher for that, but still indicated he would want to do something in the future with Phantasia Press. I’ve gone back and forth with him in those early years, and we haven't been able to do another one since, but we will never give up. At the end of the day, publishing isn’t my “career”.  I just want to share this experience with collectors and make books that they can enjoy. There is a sense of immortality in creating a product that will still be around after you are gone. I’m not a young guy anymore, believe it or not, and we will likely only do 2 or 3 books a year. This is about the gratification of making the books at this point. My motto is, “Those who can, write, but those who can’t, publish.” Since I never had the talent or time to write, I decided to make beautiful books with great authors. That’s what it’s all about for me and I hope collectors are excited about what we publish moving forward. This interview was done over the phone and we want to thank Alex for his generosity to be a part of this series and his willingness to share his story. If you want to keep up with what is coming from the press in the future then you can check them out at https://phantasiapress.com/ . You can also follow him in the Phantasia fan group on Facebook  to stay up with all of the incredible things coming from this press and join the community. Interview by: Zach Harney of the Collectible Book Vault

In late 2020, James embarked on his most ambitious project yet, seeking to create the definitive letterpress production of Nineteen Eighty-Four. This edition has twenty-four original letterpress illustrations, each one as intentional and unique as the last, and James incorporated over twenty different types of paper, so it should be no surprise that this project was a long time in the making. We are delighted that James was willing to discuss this production at length, as this was our most anticipated project of this past year, and we believe there will not remain a shred of doubt that it was worth the wait for those who get to experience it. Q: We are so excited to get to talk more in-depth about what was quite possibly our most anticipated book for 2023 for us at Collectible Book Vault. You first announced that you were going to be working on a definitive letterpress version of Nineteen Eighty-Four in October of 2020, but I’m sure the process began well before that in your mind. You have said that you won’t commit to a work unless you can offer something new and elevated with your particular vision. What was the moment when you knew this was the right title for you and what did you believe your version would offer that had not been done before with this work? Nineteen Eighty-Four has always been a part of my literary memory bank. I can’t remember when I first read it, but whenever that was, many years ago, I connected with it and it has stayed with me ever since. There are a number of classics one could list like this and I am drawn to those before others when deciding what works I would wish to print. The most immediate thought, beyond this, was the addition of letterpress illustrated posters, especially posters that could exist within the imaginary world of the novel, to bring about a realism to the setting that can’t actually be achieved by any other method. When you look at an illustration made digitally, from a painting or drawing, there is an invisible wall between the reader and the setting. You are looking at an event in the novel through a screen. It is a photocopy of an event. When you, for example, hold a handprinted poster of Big Brother Watching You, on antique paper, that wall is no longer there. The reader is literally in the novel. As I say in the colophon to the edition, it is an original artefact from the archives of Big Brother. It goes to the very heart of my vision for the ‘art and feel of the book’. When I started planning the edition, though, I included illustrations as well, also letterpress printed of course, because I felt having just imagined posters wasn’t enough to give a full view of the story. Q: You read fairly extensively in preparation for this production from books like On Nineteen Eighty-Four by D.J. Taylor, The Ministry of Truth by Dorian Lynskey and of course the text itself. Why was it important for you to not only read the text, but commentary on the writing and purpose behind the novel itself and how did this research shape the end product from a thematic perspective? The illustrations in the edition all have layers beyond merely the aesthetics. For a novel in which the themes are as layered, it felt important that the illustrations reflected this. Although I had initially thought there may be elements relating to Orwell himself or the background to the writing of the novel that could be sufficiently interesting to include as part of those layers, which led to the part of the research I undertook, ultimately, I concentrated on the themes themselves. There are enough references and meta-references within the illustrations without the need to include further ones about Orwell. I suppose the real question is why to create illustrations that are not solely included for the aesthetics. The reason is simple: in my mind the novel calls for it. Q: As is common for your publications, you printed all of the illustrations letterpress with a variety of hand presses. You essentially created twenty-four unique broadsides for the standard edition that feel both cohesive in theme, but diverse in execution and style. Why was it important to have the level of control you did over the illustrations when often a fine press will hand off this task to a singular artist, letting their style guide the process? How collaborative was the process and who wrote and determined the text found within the illustrations? Were there any larger artistic or historical influences that shaped the overall portfolio? It never entered my mind to commission an artist to undertake the illustrations as a whole. When I plan to publish an edition, the overall approach is generally fixed in my mind via a moment of inspiration, for right or wrong. The illustrations are a mix of spontaneity and well-thought-out thematic and textual elements within. The obvious reason not to use a single artist, though, is that it would have appeared contrived, however “real” the posters felt. The posters that would have been created by the Ministry of Truth would not have been made or designed by a single artist all at the same time, so it was actually important that all the posters have their own personality separate from one another. At the same time, because they are part of a single edition, there was also a consideration they needed to maintain a level of continuity. It was a difficult balance to maintain. In one part of the edition, though, it was important that the illustrations did appear disconnected. The tryptic for Learning , Understanding and Acceptance were purposefully given their own personality; more abstract than any of the others. The torture of Winston marked an abrupt shift in the novel’s own approach, which is why it was depicted so differently. The fact they are so different tells a story of its own. The portfolio was initially and primarily shaped by two focuses: posters specifically mentioned in the novel, which seemed an obvious requirement, and illustrations which covered the complete range of characters, locations, events and themes in the novel. For the latter, all the main characters are shown: Winston, Julia, Big Brother, O’Brien, Goldstein. So too are the main locations: Victory Mansions and the four Ministries. Then, specific events: children spying, public hangings, the flicks, economy drives, hate week, train travel, dreaming of the Golden Country, the Book, the Newspeak Dictionary, Victory products, Winston’s torture in Room 101 and so on. The novel’s larger themes are intertwined within all of these and those are where a lot of references to real-life events can be deciphered. Once I had that list and overview in mind, as well as the themes I wanted to explore, I sketched out the portfolio in the crudest manner. Text and layout were planned, as well as the general style. I had in mind the sort of images that would be needed for each. It was then that I sought the artists most fitting for the purpose. I had essentially decided on each of the posters before commissioning the artist. Thirteen of the posters have original and commissioned art on them, which means eleven do not (although arguably there are original graphics in a couple of those). This means that almost half of the illustrations actually didn’t involve any additional artist’s voice beyond my own. Of course, I did use stock illustrations needed for those, but the point is that no third party’s thoughts were involved. In addition, all of the text and layout of each of the posters were created before the artist was commissioned. Sometimes not precisely, but enough to brief an artist on the overall poster in advance. The general approach can be best observed via a single poster; for example, Be a Child Hero , with an illustration by Ian Beck. Although I have known Ian for some time and always loved his work, a chance comment on one of my social media posts relating to the edition suddenly made me wonder if he would be interested in a commission for it, specifically for this poster. As I explained in February 2021 to Ian in an e-mail, it is ‘ a sort of “kids, tell on your parents” propaganda poster. I pictured an old-fashioned scene of wartime children patriotically snitching on their parents, with some captions… saying, “Boys and Girls, are your parents thought-criminals? See it, say it, sorted” type of thing. Children in Nineteen Eighty-Four were basically enthusiastic Hitler youth types, taught to love Big Brother. So really it’s an old-fashioned colourful kids poster, with a darker message behind it. If that may be of interest… maybe two or three colours… ’. Ian was happy to do it and so, shortly after, I hand-set all the text as it appears in the final poster, proofed and corrected, save for the tagline spoken by the boy in the final image. I emailed a scan of this proof to Ian, noting, ‘ there is at least one more line to add, which is the comic strip text, so to speak, along the lines of “Mother, who is Father talking to?” or something equally suspicious. As I said before, it is a propaganda poster for children to tell the authorities (Big Brother) on their parents doing wrong. We may add the above sort of text as part of the drawing, or later with type, depending on what fits best. So do feel free to come up with a line as part of the drawing. I would envisage you doing up to three colours… style wise I was thinking something sort of approaching realistic, futuristic-1940s, if such an oxymoron makes sense(!), with an English wartime feel to it. But frankly, do as you’d like’ . In March, Ian had sketched what he called his ‘ rough and hasty thoughts ’ of two head and shoulder profiles of a boy talking in the ear of a soldier. My response included, ‘ isn’t it interesting what’s in one's mind versus what’s in another… I like it a lot. I wonder if there’s a way to make it more sinister? Either with a younger child, or in a specific setting, or with a greater height difference where the policeman is a lot taller than the child? In its current form it takes it away from the mummy/ daddy approach I was thinking of, and makes it more of a recruiting poster ’. Ian thought, ‘ the height is interesting, it almost needs a crouching adult listening to a young child? ’, to which I added, ‘ or maybe the space to the right of the top text can be a standing man, neck bent to look down, and a tiny child (far below the text) looking up, or pulling on the man’s jacket…, or pointing in the direction of her father who’s in an open window talking on the phone to someone. Literally top of my head that. Come up with anything you fancy ’. Ian prepared a sketch of what would be the basis for the final image. I was very pleased with the sketch, believing, ‘ if we are going for something like that, then maybe I’ll add a typesetting that also says, “Has Father been acting differently lately…? below it; or something like that. I prefer this one to the last as an image ’. Ian prepared a further sketch, with a change of colours to red and ochre that gave a more ‘period feel’. I relayed my concerns over ‘ an intellectual battle with myself over colours and clothing [as]… in the year 1984, the clothing of the young Spies was blue shorts, grey shirts and a red neckerchief, and the clothing of the police was black. What I’m thinking to fit in with the style and colour palette you’ve used is to make this a poster that could have been made in, say 1970, and survived… hence being before the “current” uniforms of the year 1984 were decided upon. I quite like the idea of this being an “old” poster that survived… ’. I also decided against a hand-drawn banner in favour of the text I had already printed. As well, I suggested the addition of ‘ a small element such as a red neckerchief to show what the transition is going to be in the “future”. ’ Following on, the final design was prepared and its placement perfected. This series of exchanges, which formed a good proportion of the correspondence between us, is a representation for how the thirteen commissioned artworks were undertaken. A lot of specific direction, but wholly dependent on the artistic ability of the artist to see it through and the occasional element that influenced my own decisions (such as dating the poster to an earlier time). This poster in fact went on to influence my edition of Animal Farm , as I used the same Ashley Script type that I used in this poster for the title page of Animal Farm . Q: I’m sure there is an intricate story behind every single illustration, but one that stands out in particular is Golden Country. Can you give us the background of this piece and also walk through some of the intricacies of multiple color relief printing and using progressive plates by hand? What is one other illustration you are particularly fond of and why? The background to the commissioning of the Golden Country is similar to that of Be a Child Hero , with Robin Mackenzie approached for ‘ a large coloured illustration engraving… a countryside scene, based on the setting in the novel ’, which would likely have ‘ to be lino as it’s a large image needed ’. Two paragraphs from the novel were sent to Robin, starting, ‘ Suddenly he was standing on short springy turf… he called it the Golden Country ’, and ending ‘ Winston woke up… ’. It describes in great detail the scene of the Golden Country and his dream of a woman tearing off her clothes on the way to him. As I said to Robin, ‘ this is the page I want to illustrate. Your coloured illustrations look like the perfect style to do this. I like the illustrations without a defined border (which gives a more dreamlike quality to the image, which is what this is – a dream). I would like a signpost somewhere or some sign in the distance that says “Golden Country”. ’ Robin suggested a three colour, multiple block, vinylcut for the illustration and sent over a sketch. As Robin said when he did, ‘ before I go further with colour detail sketches, I wanted to send you this rough compositional sketch. I wanted to capture the moment of the girl just about to fling aside her clothes. I want to then abstract slightly with areas and shapes blurring into each other in a dreamlike way ’. As I replied to Robin, ‘ I had something quite different in mind… ’. I sent over a rough sketch of the composition I was interested in (which I will not share as it was prepared in the style of a 4-year-old child drawing), which was accompanied by an explanation that, ‘ I was thinking of a more “landscape” image, as stated in the text page, featuring all the elements mentioned in that paragraph. Rabbit bitten pasture, elm trees, duck etc. Sun shining. Lake. So more of a dreamy rolling hills composition ’. The sketch showed the girl in the distance with the focus on the landscape itself and all the elements, rather than a close-up on a single person. I explained, ‘ the reason why is also because I have a wood engraving of the female character so wouldn’t want to repeat it so close up’ . The next sketch was exactly as I had in mind, which Robin then prepared in colour. These were immediately approved without further discussion. Although this shows a more direct brief on the intended composition, again it required a skilled and talented artist to actually produce the final illustration, which in turn went on to be chosen for the annual exhibition of the Society of Wood Engravers, which was extremely gratifying both for Robin but also for the edition. When it came to printing the three blocks, the process is relatively straightforward. For each, it involved the preparation of the paper to be used, the mixing of the inks as desired, setting up the hand-press as needed, the proper placement and registration of the blocks, and thorough and careful hand-inking. It is quite an involved series of processes, but not unusual. Although the Golden Country illustration has proved extremely popular, which is not hard to see why when compared to the bleaker illustrations included in the edition, the one illustration I am particularly fond of, which will seem the least obvious, is Artsem . Simplicity is at the heart of this imagined poster. It also holds one of the most direct messages, and a powerful one at that, but in the most subtle way. I particularly enjoyed devising the text, and it contains my most favourite tagline, ‘ practice goodsex, avoid sexcrime ’. In the Appendix to the novel, The Principles of Newspeak , the word goodsex means chastity, and sexcrime means sexual immorality. Although on its face, the advice implies a positive, the practice of good sex; the reality is that the sentence means the public should practice no sex and avoid sexual intercourse. The only hint to this reality is the small text at the bottom of the poster, stating that the advertisement is sponsored by the Anti-Sex League of Oceania, an organisation which advocates for complete celibacy. The large text, ART SEM, which features boldly on the poster, equally gives little insight into its real meaning. ARTSEM is Newspeak for Artificial Insemination, the Party considering that all children should be begotten by these means. On its face, the word looks pleasant enough, split so that the word ART, which etymologically means skill as a result of learning or practice, appears first. I also enjoyed the subtlety of printing the illustration so that the lifeline of the baby gently turns from black to red. Q: The unique nature of many of the relief printed illustrations introduces the complication of combining individual type blocks and custom plates for any given illustration. The variety of typefaces and the size of many of these mean that it is unlikely that you had all of these sitting around in your workshop. What portion of the type blocks and plates used in these illustrations had to be custom made for this project? What were some of the most complicated techniques used to create the illustrations and what proved to be more difficult in implementation than you thought? In fact, almost all the typefaces used within the illustrations are fonts of metal or wood type in my print room. To some extent therefore, the illustrations are designed around those limitations, which is both a pleasure and hindrance with letterpress printing. I absolutely prefer metal or wood type for printing over platework, and frankly as I have no ability on the computer, the idea of trying to formulate designs digitally would prove impossible for me. There really is a relief in only having a set number of typefaces to work from and in only one size for each or maybe more, but usually not. It pushes the requirements for creativity beyond where you can have an endless choice of faces in any size, as found on a computer. The greatest problem I actually faced with this, however, was in one instance where I felt only one type I had would work aesthetically, but it was such old type and so worn down (type doesn’t last forever) that I had to underlay each letter to different heights with small slips of glued paper to bring all the letters to the same height. This isn’t unheard of, but it is certainly a fiddly and time-consuming process. If one doesn’t do this, the type won’t all be inked evenly, being at different heights, and also won’t print evenly, as the paper will hit the letters that are taller before those that are shorter. Of course, I can’t say I wouldn’t have liked to have more type in different sizes, which would have helped, but the illustrations do not suffer from these restrictions. As I say, the limitations of what you have on hand in letterpress dictate the design as much as your own vision does. I always try to limit the use of plates to a minimum, for no better reason than I simply prefer the feel of printing with type and hand-engraved blocks over a polymer or metal plate. I also prefer knowing that there has been a creative hand in the block being printed, and that no computer has had to be involved. I don’t take the view that the end printing is adversely affected, so ultimately I have no qualms using plates where necessary, which ultimately means where it isn’t possible to do it in any other way. There were a good number of plates used for some of the illustrations that were hand-drawn by artists, or graphically designed, but all of the ornaments and borders printed were from original metal or wood blocks, and some of the illustrations were by linocut or wood-engraving. The most difficult type of block or plate to print from wasn’t in fact a block or a plate, but rather the rubber sole for a real boot. Plates and types are actually designed in a way that allows ink to be repelled onto the paper; whereas gritty rubber-made soles are made to adhere to the surface. Pulling printed sheets from an inked sole was therefore very difficult and caused me a lot of problems. The end result was worth it though. Q: Throughout the edition you used twenty-four different antique and contemporary handmade papers from mills in England, France, Germany and Italy. What was your initial thought in using such a breadth of paper and what practical and creative influence governed your choices? My initial thought should have been, as it would be now: it isn’t possible to find that many handmade papers. I had committed myself to twenty-four illustrations on handmade papers, which is the number of chapters in the novel, plus a frontispiece (incidentally, my edition of Animal Farm also follows this approach with ten illustrations for ten chapters; although there are in fact a further ten chapter heading illustrations and a wraparound cover illustration). The number of illustrations and the size of each was already a large enough undertaking, and naively in one sense, I had not given thought to the practicalities of sourcing that many different papers. For some reason, I simply considered it a sensible proposition. I was very lucky indeed. If I was asked to repeat the exercise now, I believe it would be impossible. Those from whom I sourced the antique papers would not be able to do so again, as I obtained their remaining offerings. Certainly, I could commission handmade papers to be made, as I did with a small number of those in the edition, but would probably struggle to find more than half a dozen decent papers. The reason for using such an extensive range of papers was the same reason for using different artists and creating such different illustrations. The paper is another character and it was vital that the illustrations were seen on papers that reflected their nature. A good example is Public Execution , where I used a Richard de Bas antique French paper, heavy and rough, in a toned off-white colour. Its characteristics reflected the nature of the poster exactly. It had a mixture of feeling like a Wanted poster hung in the Old West, or printed during the time when guillotines were used in France. This was exactly what the poster needed. Without it, the notion of the poster existing at the time of the events in the novel would have been completely lost. Q: There are so many unique touches in this piece like the embossed eyes sitting subtly behind the text and the notice board in one of the illustrations that contains the names of the patrons who purchased this work. Was your process progressive and cumulative or did you have most of these ideas from the onset? What sort of barometer do you use to know when an element is additive or may be distracting to the overall experience? I am envious of those publishers who prepare their whole edition on a computer in advance and so can see the entire book as a finished edition before they’ve even started printing. I don’t (and can’t) do that and prepare everything in a very general way with pen and paper, with the odd proof or paste-up for a few of the elements. So, my process is very progressive and cumulative. What I have in my mind at the start will be an overview, with most of the main and specific elements decided upon, but smaller elements still to be finalized, depending on what else has happened during the production. Bear in mind that I had already started printing before I had even found all of the artists I commissioned, and it wasn’t until close to the end that I hit upon exactly how I wanted the binding to look, or had commissioned the papermaker in India for the handmade paper used on the covers because of it. I enjoy that progressive process as you aren’t committed to any strict design at the start. It allowed, for example, the inclusion of a reference to the invasion of Ukraine (the poster for Triumph of Command), which started in February 2022. When I was working on An Albion in the Antarctic , I was actually re-writing the text as I hand-set the type, because it meant I could set the text to fit around the page design. Each page was printed one at a time, hand-set one page at a time. It is a good comparison, as although the text was all written in advance, it was actually written afresh while the book was being done. That is a similar sort of manner as to how a book like Nineteen Eighty-Four is done. Not in so far as the text is concerned, but as regards the design elements. Also, I work on the premise that the idea has to hit you, rather than be forced because of a specific timescale. It has to be progressive because you are sometimes waiting for that moment. A good example of this was how I portrayed the hand showing four or five fingers in one poster (for the torture of Winston, who is forced to say whether his torturer is holding up four fingers or five). I couldn’t decide upon the style of that image for a long time, but then it hit me to use my own hand – the printer’s hand. So, I inked my own hand and impressed various designs of it, printing my index finger twice on the page. This was then made into a plate from which I printed the final image. So the edition features my handprint within the illustration. This was far better than trying to commission an artist to create some random illustration of a hand. The short answer is that although it is progressive and cumulative, I did have most of the ideas at the start. A combination of both. I enjoy the small touches in the edition. Of course, I was very happy to have hit upon the idea to include the name of the subscriber within one of the illustrations, which I cannot see has ever been done by anyone before. I do have a few favourites of this ilk beyond this. One is the inclusion of the words Eastasia and Eurasia on Goldstein’s illustration, to produce the effect that the former word appears on the front, while the reverse of the latter appears on the back. Another would be that for Room 101, where you have to “open” the printed flapped paper up to reveal the room inside, to hide the shock of the inside image. I also enjoyed using handstamps for some of the posters, especially for the connotation I had in my mind of that overly bureaucratic sense of being in that world. I had fun splitting a clock face amongst three related posters, so that when lined up together they show the clock, especially because being bound into the edition the reader is unable to actually do that. A final satisfying touch was finding a way for the border text to seem as though it was meant to be there, rather than just an additional jarring insert. I did this by having an opening and a closing to the book, where you start with a full redacted page, which covers the area where all the text later appears. As you turn the pages, that block starts to split into redacted lines across the pages, and turning the pages again, certain Newspeak words start to appear dotted around. At the same time, the lines start to pull back gradually, as if like a curtain being pulled apart, and eventually the shape of the border text emerges, all words present. The closing does similarly but in reverse, as if like a stage play where the curtains finally draw. Two small touches in this were especially pleasing, namely in the opening where the first word that appears from these lines, on its own on the page, is “1984”, acting a bit like an additional half-title. At the end of the book, where the book itself mentions the date “2050”, the last word now reads “2023”, being the date of release of the book. The barometer for these sorts of touches is, as I say, if they don’t aid in the theme of the poster or are too distracting to the overall aesthetic. A tagline in Triumph of Command was one thing removed from the final, a quote on the Ministry of Peace another. There were things proofed but never used. The only one I really wanted to include was a small diamond shape with the word “hate” inside; but this was more because it’s just a wonderful little printer’s metal ornament which I would like to have printed from, rather than because it was necessary for the book. The ornament now sits on my shelves and I doubt I will take it apart, as it seems a sweet memento now. Q: The image of the eye is paramount in this project for obvious reasons considering the themes of the book. Orwell wrote this in 1949 as a warning against totalitarianism and suppression of individual freedom. Since the time this was written, the accessibility and technology for those in power to have an Orwellian level of surveillance and control has only grown and actually surpassed many of the ideas depicted in this work. Why do you think these ideas transcend the time period it was written and remain so relevant today? Was Orwell’s work particularly prescient or just a commentary on an immutable part of societal and human condition? That is certainly a question for someone more knowledgeable than a mere printer such as myself. I find it hard to believe it prescient though, as Orwell was really just harvesting, to some degree, things taking place during his own lifetime, which he witnessed, rather than creating an imaginary future from scratch. He created various terms which have been added to our lexicon, so that when used today they feel like Orwell created them for our own purpose, which is why it can feel prescient. However, it’s no different to phrases devised by Shakespeare in the 17th Century appearing so apposite today, for example, or various and numerous instances in novels, or films or television shows, which have in a sense predicted the future and this seems to me not dissimilar. The sad truth about all of it is that it evidences the slow progression of humanity in all ways that really matter, which is how a novel written in the 1940’s can still remain so relevant today. From my perspective, Orwell was really just, as you say, providing a commentary on an immutable part of the human condition. It is important, though, not to dismiss or underplay the effect a novel like this can have, even if its themes weren’t original. Although the term ‘Thought Police’, for instance, may not have been new to Orwell, his popularization of that expression means we now associate examples of its use with something negative, which in turn prompts us to reject any proponent of it. So, although it may be merely a commentary, it can in turn help to recondition. Q: As we are doing this interview you now have the finished production in your hands. When you originally set out to do this project, I’m sure you had an idea of how you expected this process to go. Were your expectations of the time and complexity of this project exceeded or were you aware of the gravity and scope of this project from the beginning? While I’m sure there are things you might have done differently in hindsight, are you generally pleased with the final result? Although I make books to my own vision, as is the joy of a private press, I am acutely aware that it is the subscribers to those editions that provide for it to exist in the way it does. I am sincerely and extremely appreciative of not only their support but more so, their unwavering patience. It is for this reason, more than any other, that I am relieved to see the edition done and in their hands. I think the problem with predicting any timescale for completing an edition is that you don’t necessarily fully factor in the time it takes to do the less obvious things that go into making a book. One example of this may be the handling of paper, from finding and collecting it, to folding, cutting, dampening, counting, sorting, and so on. It can eat up a huge amount of time, especially where there is the volume and size of paper and variation of handmade papers used in Nineteen Eighty-Four . Another example may be the commissioning of artists, especially when you haven’t fully decided on the exact artwork to be used. So, whilst you generally have an idea on how long the printing may take in advance, and the binding, you can’t predict how long everything else will take and you usually predict far too optimistically. There is generally an arc of feelings when making a book. It starts with a feeling of excitement and optimism during the planning and early stages; half way through the process you will be at your lowest ebb, wondering if everything you have done and are on course to do is wrong; which is finally relieved when the book is bound. I suppose it is hard to be anything but pleased with the final result when you’ve been through that. Q: What are you most excited about working on next and why? Aside from The Beauty of Byrne , which I’ve spoken about previously, I am particularly excited about Milton’s Paradise Lost . Like Nineteen Eighty-Four , it has been a text that has been with me for a long period of time; since I was in my late teens. It was also my gateway into rare and antiquarian books, as collecting editions of Paradise Lost was my entry into the world of collecting. That then introduced me to private press editions and in turn to becoming a private press myself. So, it could be said that the St James Park Press would never have existed without my love for Milton’s poem. I haven’t said anything to date about how I envisage the edition, but if one imagines the Cranach Press Hamlet , but published by the Ashendene Press, that is the general vision I have for this; particularly in so far as the engravings are presented. Whilst that edition of Hamlet was theatrical in nature, Paradise Lost is more akin to an opera which adds a whole new dimension. Of course, this won’t be a pastiche, as it is a St James Park Press title, so it will have its own character, but that description shows the inspiration behind it. A large edition, on specially made handmade paper, with a plethora of letterpress printed engravings. Of course, it’s another edition where I have bitten off more than I can chew. I can’t wait! This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth and we want to thank James for his generosity to be a part of this series and his thoughtful answers. If you want to keep up with the latest from St James Park Press then you can see what James is working on at https://www.stjamesparkpress.com/ . You can also follow him on Facebook or Instagram to stay up with all of the incredible things coming from this press. Interview by: Zach Harney of the Collectible Book Vault *Since there are often different spellings in American English and British English of the same words, we have chosen to adhere to the spelling of the person who is speaking rather than conform to one convention for the whole interview.

Freya Scott of Paperwilds - Marbler We are delighted to have the wonderfully talented Freya Scott as part of our series as she has been an important part of some of our favorite small/fine press productions in recent years. From her consistent presence with Lyra's Books and Arete Editions, to other more sporadic partnerships with imprints like Amaranthine, Conversation Tree Press, and Curious King, her work is always inspired and enhances every production she is a part of. The trajectory of her career has been an interesting one, filled with unexpected obstacles and times requiring perseverance, but eventually leading to the incredible work that so many of us appreciate in our limited press books. We learned so much from our time with her and hope that you enjoy this conversation with one of the most talented marblers in the fine press world. Q: We appreciate you making the time for this interview and are huge fans of your work over here at Collectible Book Vault. Tell us about the evolution of your career and what led you to focus on marbling. Was this a specific interest early on or did it grow from your overall interest in creating books in general? How did your time at university and the unique challenges you faced during this period shape your career?   Thanks for taking an interest in me and my work!   “Evolution” of my career is an appropriate term - it’s been very organic. Challenging, yes; chaotic, at times; but it’s not been boring. Books seem to have been there my whole life. My mum maintains that ‘book’ was my first word (I had one of those waterproof storybooks that you can play with in the bath, which I clearly adored) and the written word was definitely my first love. I was the typical creative child, growing up doing all sorts of art-based things, but I eventually went on to study photography and English, and then an MA in Writing and Publishing. It was my dream to write books, to edit books, fill my house with books…but life is never a predictable straight line, is it? An illness during my university years eventually brought me to a complete standstill. What started as a virus became post-viral syndrome, and eventually M.E. or CFS. No one really knew what to call it, or what to do about it, and it changed my life. It affected me physically, cognitively, and emotionally. From reading constantly I was suddenly struggling to read and understand a sentence. I’d mess up words when I spoke, as if the connection between brain and mouth had been damaged. Comprehending other people could be difficult, as if I knew they were speaking English but I just couldn’t make it make sense. I didn’t know it then, but I had ADHD traits too and that contrived to make all my symptoms so much worse, including problems with short-term memory. Then there was the physical side - some days I could barely move. I spent most of my days housebound, and on the occasions, I managed to get out and about, I’d pay for it for days or even weeks afterwards. This was long before COVID so no one really had much of a frame of reference like they do now with long COVID. A lot of people didn’t believe it was a thing, even doctors. It felt like my life was falling apart. I sometimes joke that art saved my life, but there’s a kernel of truth to it. Two things had to happen - a physical recovery, and an emotional recovery. My own research and help from a local clinic (which closed within a year of my being referred) helped with the first, though it took me about four years to go from walking two minutes a day to being able to run for ten minutes a day. Art took care of the second. There’s something oddly healing about the act of creation, whatever the creative approach or technique. It was certainly true for me. Making, painting, creating; these things used a part of my brain that for some reason seemed less affected than the part that was needed for reading or conversation. Over the years I found myself doing short courses in writing, sewing, photography, and bookbinding, and I’ve made a very patchwork career out of all of them. All of them touch on the things that I love most in life - words, form, colour and pattern. And all these things feed back into each other. I think that’s what I love about working in the arts; it’s not actually a job. It’s just a way of doing life. You asked me about marbling though right?! Here’s where it finally makes an appearance…   So, bookbinding eventually overtook everything else, and I ended up working for various binderies and conservation departments over the years. I learned my binding skills on the job, from books, trial and error, and through the generosity of other binders. I ended up teaching for Bound by Veterans, a charity that used bookbinding and art techniques as a sort of craft therapy/rehabilitation for sick and injured veterans. It’s them I have to blame for making me into a marbler. We invited Jemma Lewis to come and run a workshop for us, and it was fantastic. Something I had always admired but never wanted to do was suddenly the most addictive thing I’d ever done. When we realised that this was something that the veterans wanted to learn and do more of, I realised I’d better get good quickly. I grabbed the materials and a book by Charles Woolnough from 1854 and figured I’d give myself a few weeks to nail the basics. Cut to two years (of obsessive trial and error and ADHD hyperfocus) later and I finally felt like I really had a handle on this craft. I could imagine something, and then create it. I could make my own paint. I could troubleshoot. Everything else had taken a backseat by this point. What could be better than making patterns and playing with colour and paint and paper and books? I’d accidentally splattered my way into building a small business, and there was no going back.   Q: You were formerly running your studio in south London, but have more recently moved out to a more bucolic setting and are collaborating more closely with the folks at Ludlow Bookbinders, working with Paul, Rich, and the rest of the talented team over there. Why did it feel like the right time to make this move and what led up to this decision? Do you feel like working with a dedicated team has brought more consistency and inspiration and is there anything you miss about working on your own?   Moving out of London was always on the cards at some point. I’m a country girl at heart; I grew up in the countryside and always knew I’d return there. Never imagined it would be Ludlow though! I can’t say I’m in any way disappointed, it’s a stunning part of the world. I do miss London sometimes though. It was a great place to start my business. I met some of my best friends and collaborators while I was there, and it’s a time I’ll never forget. But COVID hit hard, as it did everywhere. My retail clients declined, and I couldn’t teach anymore. I had to move out of my big shared studio and had to find somewhere new. Luckily, I did and had a great little space all to myself for a while and began to expand into new areas. But space in London is expensive, and I couldn’t grow in the way I needed to. I’d been working with Paul and Rich at Ludlow for a few years at a distance, and it was a bit laughable at first when Paul told me I ought to move to Ludlow. I didn’t even entertain it. I can’t even remember what happened now, but in the space of six months I went from dismissing the idea out of hand to saying, “Actually, yeah, ok!” I have my own studio which is next to but separate from the bindery, and have been able to expand in a way that wouldn’t have been possible if I’d stayed in London. It’s been a big learning curve too. There’s definitely a level of consistency that I didn’t have before - so much of my work now is creating papers and patterns for fine press publishers, whereas before my projects would be jumping around lots of different industries: interiors, fashion, bookbinding, film props, retail, and product designs. I love the briefs I get for fine press books. Some of them are quite bizarre, but I love hearing about their concepts and getting to play with new techniques or paint types or additives. I’m an artistic alchemist really. It’s really great to be working alongside such talented people as those at Ludlow. Not only do I get to see where my work ends up, but I get to be included in the design process. Also, I get to be around people who respect and appreciate my skills! Only other artists will know how much that means! It’s so easy to doubt yourself and feel like you aren’t producing work that is good enough when you are on your own. My thoughts get confined by my little paint-splattered four walls every day, and I look at everything with an overly critical eye. However, when someone pops their head around the door and looks at what is hanging up on the racks and opines of the little practice scraps I’ve been playing with, “Wow, I love what you’ve done here,” suddenly I register that I have more than an iota of skill and it’s worth carrying on.      The only thing I miss about working on my own is being on my own! My studio is now blessed with two other sets of hands besides mine, and don’t get me wrong, it’s a joy heading up a little team. But every creative needs a room of their own if they are to keep evolving, to paraphrase Virginia Woolf.   Q: Maybe I’m giving myself more credit than is due, but I often feel like I can recognize your designs and that there is a uniqueness to your marbling, though I wouldn’t pretend to be able to articulate it well. How would you describe your own style of marbling and are there certain aspects that you would consider hallmarks of your personal aesthetic? How did you begin to develop this style and how have you refined it over time to get it where it is today?   I don’t think I could tell you exactly what my style is, nor could I say exactly what would distinguish my work. I do know what you mean though about being able to tell who has marbled something - I feel like marbling is a bit like handwriting. We could all write the same words, but they would look different. We have an inherent way of moving and creating that seeps into whatever we do instinctively whether we like it or not. The fact that I choose to make some of my own paints probably sets some of my work apart. I also pay really close attention to colour. Balance really matters to me, so there needs to be some sort of interactivity between the colours that goes beyond just the fact they are different hues. There needs to be the right balance in saturation, or vibrancy for example. There has to be the balance of temperature - cool or warm. Size, shape and placement of colours can be important. There has to be a sense of coherence across the sheet if it is a consistent pattern, or a reason for inconsistency if it is more abstract. Does that make any sense at all?   I think I have developed my style by just refusing to settle. I have to be trying something new, or playing with a new colourway or additive or paint recipe. I like to experiment. I have so many more ideas than I can physically do. And that’s before you add in any other art form I turn my hand to.   Let me try and sum up… I think my style is a paradox of meticulous colour choice/testing/practising, and some sort of je ne sais quoi , a kind of flair that has taken up residence in my body that I couldn't control if I tried.     Q: Well, whatever it is, I can say that we are a big fans of it! Do you go to particular sources to search for inspiration for different patterns and color   schemes or do you allow those to confront you in everyday life? When you find something that does inspire you, how do you translate it from the source to recreating it on the page?   I think this goes back to something I said before about art being a way of life, and I say that in a non-sappy, non-Instagram-philosophy sort of way. I think if you are naturally creative, you can’t help but let everyday life inform the choices you make in your art, and the more you do that, the less you realise you are. And conversely, the more you consciously do it too. Let me explain - I might deliberately go hunting for colourways when I am out walking around town or art galleries or wherever, but I’ll also find that if I am working on a particular scheme in a project or I’m having a brief love affair with a certain colour, I’ll find myself accidentally gravitating towards those colours elsewhere too. I’ll pick up something with those colours on the label at the supermarket, or I’ll buy a few new bits of stationery/clothes/homewares and suddenly realise I have become one-tone minded. Confession time - I used to really hate the colour orange. And the colour brown. I’d avoid them wherever I could until I realised that so much in life is about acclimatisation. It’s like taste buds. When you’re a kid, coffee tastes like poison. Fast forward twenty years and not only do you now enjoy (/need?) coffee, but somehow you’ve developed the ability to appreciate the subtle differences in roasts. Perhaps you’ve also developed a preference for, I don’t know, Costa over Starbucks*. But before all this, you had to try a lot of coffee, and probably drink some grot you didn’t really like. I realised I ought to do the same with colour. I was literally cutting off whole sections of the spectrum, and therefore countless new colourways that I could be enjoying. So, I went on a mission to acclimatise myself to (and even fall in love with) orange and brown.     Translating colour inspiration onto the page happens in several ways. Often, I’ll take pictures or collect material samples, and mix colours from them to build a colour palette. Doing this rarely results in excellent palettes straight off - you can mix the colours exactly as you see them, and for some reason they just don’t sit right together once they’ve been made into a marbled sheet. They need adjusting, made lighter or darker, or changing in hue. Other times I’ll just start mixing a colour I have in mind, and then once I’ve got that right, I’ll use it as a base to make a few other tints or shades. Sometimes I’ll even mix it with its complement to make brown, or with black and white to make a shade of grey, so even those colours have a relationship to the rest of the palette. It is often experimental - I’ll take a few colours I’ve been playing with already and paint some swatches (sometimes on paper, often on my hand), and then just grab a random jar of paint and see how that colour fits, if at all, with the swatches, and then adjusting it until it does somehow. I’ll often do lots of little tests of smaller marbled sheets before committing to larger ones. It’s best to let the paint dry on the test sheets first too, as colour can look very different from pot, to tray, to wet sheet, to finished dry sheet.   In terms of patterns, again inspiration comes from everywhere, but I love looking at other marblers’ work, in books, on the internet. It’s great to look at how others have taken some of the standardised patterns and made them look different somehow. Sometimes you see an entirely “new” combed pattern and there’s fun in trying to work out how it was done, how the comb was reinvented to make a particular effect. Otherwise, I think my favourite thing to do is to just look at stuff - nature, other art, different materials - and think how I would try and do that in marbling, or at least get the feel of it into a marbled pattern.   And also, let's face it - some of the best inspiration comes from the doing . The unconscious things you do or choose when at play in your art. The questions you allow yourself to act on - I wonder what would happen if I did this or added that? I really like what happened there when I accidentally dropped my brush like that, how can I recreate that effect on purpose?     *Not an endorsement. I drink my coffee wherever I can find it and allow myself to be pleasantly surprised if it tastes any good.   Q: It seems you are working with almost every fine press out there in some capacity and many of these we have interviewed in the past including, Lyra’s Books, Arete Editions, Amaranthine Books, Curious King, Conversation Tree Press and others. Do you find that working with different presses and their owners differ significantly or is your approach as a marbler consistent regardless of the project? What is unique about working within the small/fine press world of publishing and how does it differ from larger-scale commercial projects?   Small press publishers are a category all of their own (in the best possible way)! I absolutely love working with small presses. It really is different to larger-scale commercial projects because it has so much more… heart. It’s so fulfilling to be involved in something that is so detailed and high quality, where thought has been put into every single part of it. As such I do the same. I love to get a feel of the project, what the designer is trying to convey with the book. I think the only consistency in my approach is the way I will say “Yep, I’ll have a go!” to whatever madcap/brilliant (the line is so thin, isn’t it?) idea someone throws at me. Every press owner/designer is different, so my approach will be different too. Some really have a vision for how they want the whole thing to look, and so my job there is to facilitate that vision. Others have a vaguer concept but want to give me a bit more freedom to really come up with something of my own. It also depends what stage the project is at when I am approached to work on it. Sometimes the artwork has been done so it is a case of complementing illustrations, other times I am the first port of call. The flexibility and fluidity of it all really suits the way I work.     Small presses tend to care more about quality materials, so I love being sent samples. I love when people want to try something a bit different - leather marbling, different paper bases, fabric. It’s as much about the feel as the look!      Q: One of the reasons we love small/fine press publications is this exact reason, a high level of intentionality in every aspect of the production! When you decide to accept a particular commission for a small/fine press project, what are your first steps as you try to wrap your head around a piece of work and capture it? Do you try and isolate yourself with the written work or is it a more collaborative project with other individuals involved in the project and accomplishing a combined vision?   Each project is so different really. My first steps tend to differ depending on who I am working with, whether I have read the book or not (sometimes time does not allow!). Some people come with a ready idea, others maybe with a colour palette, so my starting point there is fairly clear. My absolute favourite commissions are where I’m sent a passage from the book. I am synesthetic, so reading words can bring to mind very distinct colour palettes, sometimes shapes as well. An illustration or artwork from the book helps me to make sure the whole thing will end up looking cohesive.   I’ll start by “collecting” some colours. I have a whole range of different methods for collecting colour - sketchbooks, files, boxes of stuff, digital catalogues - so very often I will sift through those with colours in mind to see what else jumps out. Anyone who has visited my studio has also seen the frankly enormous hard copy collection of marbled patterns I have. I think I have an offcut or sample of every single marbled paper I’ve ever made. And even if I’m exaggerating, it's not by much! It’s become an amazing resource for me, and for customers who manage to visit as well. Oftentimes it is a collaborative approach, but luckily most small press owners are also artists/designers in their own right, so they have a real appreciation for the work of other artists like me. This is one reason it’s so much easier to work with small presses - there is a sort of mutual appreciation for the effort and skills of both parties. It’s also easier to discuss things like colour in more (nerdy?) detail, and often it turns into a way of bouncing ideas off each other. I like being that fresh pair of eyes who can (hopefully) add something new or helpful into the equation.   Really, I just love the open-ended creativity of it all. I am genuinely happiest and most productive just being let off leash. Just give me a direction, and I’ll run with it… then   charge off on as many tangents as I’m allowed.   Q: You recently took on a few projects that introduced a process I was not familiar with until I heard about you doing it for two specific books. These were the Coraline Lettered Edition   with Lyra’s Books and the Frankenstein  Monster Edition with Amaranthine. In both of these productions you marbled leather for the covering of the bindings and I am particularly fond of what you did with the whimsical, yet ominous design on Coraline . How does marbling leather differ from paper and what challenges did you need to overcome as you approached these particular projects?   I am so indecently proud of these two projects. Leather is such a beautiful material, but it is especially unforgiving when being marbled and then used for books. Most of the time leather used for books is split (or thinned) at specific points to allow for turn-ins, corners, hinges, headcaps, etc. This is usually done very shortly before being used on the book. When applying the leather to the book, some methods require the leather to be moistened and slightly stretched. Both of these things are especially hard to do with marbled leather, as it can stretch the inks too and cause lightening of the pattern, distortion, or even breaks in the inks. As such the leather needs to be pre-split and handled very carefully once marbled. In terms of the marbling itself, the process is not too dissimilar from paper, but the leather has to be of a particular type and quality to allow for the best marbling. Veg tanned leather is what I have found to be the best for marbling. I also find unpolished can give a better result than polished. More care has to be taken in the coating of the leather in the first stages with the mordant. It can be incredibly absorbent, so ensuring an even coating without soaking the leather and causing discolouration is tricky.     The other thing I have had to develop is the way I make up my paints. I’ve found certain additives to the binder help the paints maintain their colour and adhesion to the leather. I’ve also worked through countless coatings that can be added afterwards for different finishes.   Honestly, the most challenging thing is laying the leather once the pattern is made on the bath. The larger the piece, the more difficult it is to lay. Less flexible than both fabric and paper, laying it down without capturing an air bubble or distorting the pattern is a real skill!   Coraline especially was a really beautiful thing to work on. Because it was an abstract pattern, this sort of ethereal mist, every single one was different. It was like making separate artworks, and much more like painting. I loved drawing the paint into tendrils, encouraging wisps into one direction, then another, with a few whorls here and there, and then choosing to let the paint fade in places or gather more brightly in others…truly one of my favourite projects to date!   Q: Most people who have engaged in the buying and appreciation of fine press books know the beauty of a hand-marbled paper, but few of us know the specifics of what goes into the process. Our readers are very interested in the details about the books they love, so don’t hesitate to nerd out a little bit on this. What goes into the preparation of the base mixture, how do you determine the right mix of different types of paints (watercolors, acrylics, gouache, etc.) and what is involved with the transfer and process of getting the paper ready to be used within the books?   Well, I feel the need to go full science lesson with this one, but I’ll keep it as clear as possible! The marbling process is a balancing act, where materials must be adjusted in relation to environmental factors to achieve the “sweet spot” of paint control and pattern consistency across numerous sheets. I just want to add a caveat here - the sort of marbling I am talking about is the kind where the aim is to produce something that began as an idea, where there is a direction and a design in mind before beginning. I am also referring to the kind of marbling where the skill is not just in design, but in repetition across large numbers of sheets. All this as opposed to the kind of marbling (which also has its place) where it is more experimental and organic and requires little skill in paint control or pattern repetition.   It sounds simple enough, but marbling is one of those processes that is actually tricky to get right. It starts with the base mixture - you can use a few different types but they all essentially act in the same way. This is by creating a substance (or ‘size’) that is a hydrocolloid (‘gum’), which allows heavier mixtures of paint to float on the surface (with the addition of a hydrophobic additive to break the surface tension of the size).   I use a few different hydrocolloid mixtures, but primarily I use carrageenan mixed with water. Carrageenan is an extract from a red seaweed whose common name is Irish moss, also known as ‘carragheen’ which is Irish for “rock moss”.   Carragheen’s scientific name is chrondus crispus (someone must use this as a character name in a fantasy novel at some point, right?), and comes in powder form. It is a hydrophilic (water-loving) polysaccharide, and it produces a sort of smooth, gelatinous goo when mixed properly. It’s made a day in advance because it needs a proper mixing with a drill and cement mixer attachment - this makes a lot of bubbles that need to disperse over time! The mixing also encourages the hydration of the particles so the molecules that make up the polysaccharide can create hydrogen bonds with the water molecules. The bonds are what create the gooey consistency that is needed for marbling. The size has to be the right consistency, temperature and pH if the marbling is to go smoothly. If the size is wrong, nothing else will follow. Once you are convinced it is correct, it’s all about the mixing of the paint! Generally speaking, what you are trying to achieve are paints that float and don’t sink, are concentrated enough to impart saturated colour, and that behave “well” or correctly with the other colours for the pattern you have in mind. The elements that control how a paint behaves/looks are the pigment, binder, thinner and dispersant. Understand these and how they work, and you can control your paints using recipes that adjust these elements. Of course, all paint types mix differently and behave differently. Within water-based paints, acrylics need different recipes to watercolour or gouache. Within one paint type, eg. gouache, different colours need a different recipe; for example, greens will need more dispersant than reds. And yet, two greens from different gouache producers will also behave entirely differently. Then when you throw the colours on top of one another, they can behave quite differently again with each other. It’s quite maddening. In the end it is all about balance, and knowing how you want the paints to behave, and how to make them do it. There is a lot of tweaking and testing involved.   It can be very helpful to know what a paint is made of before beginning. Acrylics for example have their own built-in dispersant, or “wetting agent” that allows them to flow and be smooth at any consistency once mixed with water. This means that they are already likely to break the surface tension of the size without you having to add any extra dispersant. The amount in the binder of each colour, however, is likely to vary.   Then there are the paint producers who can also out of nowhere adjust their paint recipes, so every now and then a recipe you used for years becomes useless. That’s why I like to make a lot of my own paints and my own binders so I know exactly what is in them. It is a time-consuming process of trial and error again, to make sure that there is enough binder to ensure adhesion to the paper, but not so much that the paint becomes too heavy. Heavy paint requires a lot of dispersant, and the thinner the paint, often the paler the outcome.   Over time, you get a feel for particular types of paint, and particular brands, and what colours within those brands work best for your purposes. I have gotten to a point where I can mix most things to a rough base recipe, and then test them on the size both individually and with the other colours I’m using, tweaking various elements as needed to achieve the effects I want. The order in which you throw the paints of course has an effect on how they behave on the size. Often the last colour thrown needs more dispersant than the first, and vice versa.   Another caveat - none of the above are absolute rules. For no reason at all that I can fathom, on any given day, the weather/ temperature/stage of organic entropy/who is in public office/your chosen mode of transport/how many tea breaks you’ve taken/whether you believe in the moon landing, will render all of the above information and any tried-and-tested methods totally useless. On these days it’s best to down tools and do something else.      Q: I love that philosophy, I think it applies to so many different disciplines, there are some days where you just can't find a flow and you just need to take a break. I have observed quite a few different marblers and to my non-trained eye it seems like one of the most obvious differences between an amateur marbler and one that has mastered their craft is in the crispness of the design and the ability to create tight patterns without the colours and design elements bleeding together and becoming muddled, especially when doing something like a gelgit or nonpareil pattern. Tools, technique, materials and many other aspects affect the end result, but what do you think are some of the most important things that elevate a piece?   These are such great questions - this one really made me think. Of course, everything art related is subjective, and one person may like a particular marble over another for entirely personal reasons. However,   I am aware that I can get quite frustrated when someone shows me a piece of marbling that they find “delightful”, that I look at and can see that it's just not “up there” with the best examples of the craft. As works of design, I’d say that marbling is the same as anything else in that a masterful piece displays evidence of good colour choice, coherent design, and suitability in its application. In marbling terms, I'd say the things that elevate a piece are evidence of paint control and a real understanding of colour. Paint control is shown not only in the ‘crispness’ you describe but also in the way that it appears the same across the design. It’s hard to explain… it has to look as though it hasn’t just happened by accident. Whether it is a complex design or an abstract one, there has to be a sort of confidence that comes through; it has to look as though it were meant  to look that way. Even if it is organic and formless. And of course, as you mention, a light touch is required to ensure that the piece doesn’t become muddy. I’ve found that my new students are always so keen to just keep swirling, or to add just one more colour to an already overloaded palette.   I also think people equate complexity in marbling with success and skill. Don’t get me wrong, being able to produce very fine and technically skilled patterns is a sign of mastery, but I feel as though the simplest marbled patterns will really reveal someone’s skill. There are fewer places to hide; you aren’t just stunning people with intricacy. Personally, I think someone creating fine patterns is a skilled marbler, but someone who can also stop you in your tracks with simplicity is a master. (I’m looking at you, Tirza Garwood).     Q: You came out with a beautiful book called Marbling: Practical Modern Techniques in 2020 that briefly goes into your personal story, a general history of marbling and then a variety of techniques and lessons on the art of your craft. Was this initially your idea to create this resource or were there other sources that pushed you along toward this project? Did the final product meet the vision you had initially pictured?  I was actually asked if I would write this book by the publisher. I’d been teaching for many years at that point and so had a good deal of written instruction already, and I think they saw that marbling was having a bit of a revival. I was asked to write it just before COVID hit, and so I spent those first few bizarre months of the UK lockdown writing it from my garden. It was such a beautiful year weather-wise; I have such lovely memories of sitting on a blanket with my housemate and my dog in the sun, writing away and wondering when I’d actually be allowed to get back to my studio! All the images were taken much later by me and a photographer friend, in a peculiar socially-distanced photo shoot. I was really pleased with how it came out. I think the layout designer did a good job, and I had some fabulous editors who were super in understanding that I wanted to write more conversationally than instructionally. As a project,   it was hard work but very rewarding. I knew that at some point I wouldn’t teach as much anymore, so more than anything it felt like a great way to put my classes into a written form and make the lessons accessible still.   It really never occurred to me to write a book, so I didn’t have much of an idea of what it would look like. I’d definitely do it again. Next time I’ll print and bind and publish it myself!     Q: What are some of your past projects that you are most proud of and why do they stand out to you as you reflect on all you have done? I have loved so many projects, but the work I did for Stardust (Lyra’s Books) will always have a special place in my heart. I am so grateful that Rich trusted me with that. I often like the papers and patterns I make, but I think that was the first time I really fell in love with something I’d designed. If that sounds a little big-headed, I’m afraid I don’t care. I remember sheets and sheets of the Stardust pattern hanging in my London studio, and just wanting to eat them all. There are a couple of things I’ve worked on that I am immensely proud of, but I’m not allowed to talk about them. How annoying is that? When I reflect on everything though, the thing I am most proud of is just the fact that so many presses, binders, designers and artists have trusted me to be part of their projects.   Q: What would be the most important pieces of advice you would give someone who is interested in marbling either at an amateur or master level and what do you wish you had known before starting this whole journey?   I wish I’d known how addictive it is! And how long it takes to really get to grips with all the different variables.   The best advice I can give to someone starting out is to get to a class, get a kit, or get a really good book (or three!), and take your time! Be patient. Make a mess. Make mistakes. Start simple and nail the basics. Stick to one type of paint, and maybe a limited number of colours to start with. Really get to know what you are working with. Start with a small tray and work up. Practice trying to repeat a pattern you’ve made already. Be delighted at everything. Enjoy the process.  To someone already marbling at a high level, my best advice is to experiment! Develop new styles and patterns. The traditional stuff is beautiful and amazing and there will always be a place for it - but let’s make some modern masterpieces too.   Q: We know you are working on a few projects for some of our favorite presses currently, but is there anything else you can tell us about that is on the horizon? Are there any personal or commissioned projects you can talk about in their earlier stages or new ventures for you in the near future?    I now have two apprentices, so expect some gear shifting in the next year!   There are some great projects on the horizon. I’m especially looking forward to Hyperion  from Curious King (marbled leather onlays, they are so beautiful!), and keep your eyes peeled for Flowers for Algernon  from Conversation Tree Press - the marble for that is a new favourite of mine! There’s a beautiful new edition of Erin Morgenstern’s Starless Sea  coming out as well through Books Illustrated - I’ve just finished the marbling prototypes for these and they are going to be gorgeous. I’m also working on a version of tree calf marbling for Corvedale Press, which puts a spin on the original process that required the boards be rolled and then sprinkled with an acid solution. I’m recreating the process but without the acid! It should allow for more consistency across the pattern. There are a few other projects that haven’t been launched yet that I can’t talk about, but one of them is going to be pretty epic in size! In terms of personal work, we are launching a catalogue of marbled papers in the new year, as well   as an entirely new catalogue of paste papers, which we have been working on for the last year. It will be a small selection at first but we have some gorgeous patterns still in the prototype stages that we will add as well. We’re hoping to launch our own small range of bound books in the near future too. Not sure what that will look like yet, but I am so excited to start. Half the joy is in the process, and I plan to make the most of it. Check out this video of Freya marbling for The Blade Itself from Curious King - Here This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth and we want to thank Freya for her time and being a part of this series and her thoughtful answers. If you want to keep up with the latest from Freya and Paperwilds then you can check them out at https://www.paperwilds.co.uk/ . You can also follow her on Facebook or Instagram to stay up with all of her incredible work. Interview by: Zach Harney a cofounder of the Collectible Book Vault *Since there are often different spellings in American English and British English of the same words, we have chosen to adhere to the spelling of the person who is speaking rather than conform to one convention for the whole interview.

Brian James Freeman of Lividian Publications While Lividian Publications is a relative newcomer to the small press world, the man at the helm, Brian James Freeman is no stranger to the industry. After many years working at Cemetery Dance Publications, Brian decided to take his accrued knowledge and expertise there and build his own press from the ground up. A few years in, Lividian Publications has already released limited editions from some of the biggest names in horror including Stephen King, Joe Hill, Catriona Ward, and Robert McCammon. Brian is well known as being one of the most generous and likeable press owners in the business and our time interacting with him only confirmed this. We are not only followers of the imprint, but also have a high level of respect for Brian as a press owner, and we hope you enjoy this conversation with the talented mind behind Lividian Publications. Q: We initially began talking about doing this interview quite a long time ago, so I’m excited that it is finally happening! You were at Cemetery Dance Publications for almost two decades and contributed to the many famous works produced by that press, including numerous King releases. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and role with Cemetery Dance Publications? What prompted you to consider running your own press? While in high school in the mid '90s, I started building websites for authors and doing some freelance marketing work. I liked the website stuff, writing up HTML in my notepad program and trying to make everything play nice together, but I hated the marketing side of things and quickly stopped offering to do it. (Everyone expected you to magically get them a starred Publishers Weekly review, an interview in The New York Times, and a guest spot on Oprah.) During this time, I got to know Douglas Clegg, who was one of the earliest innovators of how authors used the web to reach readers and sell their work. I did a little work for him, but mostly we just chatted about the publishing business and life. In the summer of 2000, Rich Chizmar was looking for someone to help with the online marketing for Cemetery Dance Publications, and Doug recommended me. Rich and I never met in person that year, but I developed a bunch of ideas for him and sent them over. I believe the final folder had 40 or 50 possible plans. Fast forward to April 2002. My college graduation was approximately four weeks away, and I realized I should probably start thinking about a job or a career or something. I'd be getting married in July, and then we'd be moving to Baltimore where my wife's career was taking her, so I remembered that indie publishing company in Abingdon, Maryland, that I had done a little freelancing for a few summers back. Now, there are a lot of ways you could approach a company looking for work, or to at least touch base and see if they might be hiring, but I decided to go big or go home by preparing a 17 page document outlining all the ways I thought I could help Cemetery Dance Publications. I mailed that off to Rich, and waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually, I called a few times to follow-up, and Mindy gave the same answer each time: "Richard's in a meeting, but he'll get back to you." Then, finally, I emailed one last time, assuming that my proposal had been laughed off but wanting to be sure. The funny thing is, I don't remember much about this part, other than that email must have gotten things moving along because a few days later I had a job waiting for me in Maryland. Once officially an employee of Cemetery Dance, I started with the usual grunt work: packing orders and reading the slush pile for the magazine. I learned so much from reading the slush pile. When you have to narrow down thousands of submissions to maybe a few dozen finalists for the boss, it really hones your thinking of what works and what doesn’t work in a story. (Also, your brain gets very tired of seeing the same tropes done the same way. It makes you focus on how an author can bring their unique voice to a story.) My other job was to revitalize the email newsletter and start the process of redesigning the website. Within a few months, I also started to learn about book production: how a book goes from a manuscript to the finished, printed product. There are many steps involved, and like anything else in life, once you do it a few hundred times, you get a lot better at it. Within a couple of years, I was running the book and magazine production. My job was to get the books from the manuscript stage to being ready for the printer. This meant working with agents, authors, artists, designers, and material suppliers on a daily basis. Once a project was ready for the printer, Rich would take it from there, getting the book scheduled with them, although eventually I would handle the logistics again after that point: coordinating with the printers and case makers, etc. Once I was familiar with the process and had a good grasp on the process, I also started to acquire titles for publication. In the end, after nearly 20 years of working at Cemetery Dance, I was wearing about a dozen different hats, which was great preparation for what I’m doing now. Q: I would imagine it was not an easy decision to commit to venturing out on your own. When was the first time the idea of Lividian came into your mind? Who were some of the most important people in this journey that encouraged and supported you? Were there any pivotal moments when you remember the press moving from an idea to a tangible reality? Like a lot of people, my interest in the publishing business started with my own writing. I sold my first short story when I was fourteen years old and had written at least one terrible novel by the time I was in high school. I continued with my fiction through college, and then started working at Cemetery Dance after that. When I had time, I pecked away at some short stories and a novella or two, plus a couple of still unpublished novels, but not anywhere close to the rate I had been writing in high school and college. In early 2017, my longtime friend Vicki Liebowitz contacted me and said: “Is there anything I can do that would help you write more?” It was obvious to her that I wasn’t writing much at that point because all my creative energy was going into Cemetery Dance. I’d work 60+ hours each week, but it wasn’t just the time “at the desk.” If you know anything about working in a creative business, your brain doesn’t just stop thinking about the work when you’re “off the clock.” Driving to and from the office, you’ll be thinking about the work. Watching your kids, you’ll be thinking about the work. Plus, since we’re connected to everyone else constantly via our cell phones now, there would always be another email or text arriving at all hours of the day and night, snagging your attention for a bit. I’ve always done most of my writing after everyone has gone to bed, but by 11 o’clock at night, there was no creative energy left. Plus, there was often something to prep for the next workday, and I’d try to get that done first, so I wouldn’t have to rush to get the announcement or newsletter or whatever ready in the morning. When discussing all this with Vicki, somehow the topic of Patreon came up, and I decided I’d give it a try. At the very least, having a public Patreon account would give me some goals each year since I’d need to write new stories for the chapbooks. My Patreon launched on July 19, 2017, and I thought maybe 20 or 25 people would sign up if things went really well. Instead, hundreds of readers made the leap to be supporters, and we were off to the races. Eventually, enough readers signed up that I could write full-time, and throw myself at Lividian full-time as well. Besides Vicki, who literally changed my life with her question, my biggest supporter in the launch of my Patreon and eventually Lividian Publications was Rich Chizmar. He’s been endlessly supportive of all my endeavors, even the dumb ones! And you couldn’t ask for a better sounding board when it comes to writing and the publishing business. He’s done it all, and he’s seen what’s worked and what hasn’t worked firsthand. Q: It really is incredible how much a single moment can change the trajectory of our lives. Now in the early days of announcing the press you were going under the name of LetterPress Publications. What transpired to make the shift and what is the origin of the name Lividian? Were there any other names in the running during the early days of dreaming about the press? I’m terrible at naming things, so LetterPress Publications was meant to be a placeholder when I started my Patreon. My plan was to actually print some letterpress chapbooks for my supporters each year, using an actual manual press I had spotted for sale. I needed a publisher name to go on these chapbooks, and I spent six months brainstorming names with absolutely no luck. None of the options sounded good. So, I finally said, “This is a small thing that’s probably going to be seen by 20 or 25 people if I’m lucky, so the name doesn’t matter all that much.” And I kind of just accepted that my fallback name of LetterPress Publications was good enough for that purpose. What I didn’t know was that hundreds of people were going to sign up for my Patreon. After talking to the seller of the press I’d been looking at, I realized I didn’t have the time to hand produce that many chapbooks. Not with three kids at home and my work at Cemetery Dance. Plus, the goal of the Patreon was to give me a reason to get some writing done, which I wouldn’t have time for if I was always in the garage printing and collating chapbooks. I still hadn’t thought of a name I loved, but I figured: “Well, this is just for my Patreon supporters, the name doesn’t really matter.” What I didn’t expect was for Stephen King to accept my proposal to publish a special edition of Revival. Yes, obviously I was hopeful when I prepared the proposal, but I had worked on dozens of possible project ideas to be pitched to him over the years, some of which would make collectors lose their minds if they knew what could have been, and the usual answers to those pitches were “no thanks” or “the timing is bad, sorry.” Instead, I got an enthusiastic yes for Revival, which was incredible and obviously a defining moment for the press. I scrambled to come up with a better name for the company, but I still wasn’t having much luck. There are a couple of key things to keep in mind when naming a publishing company. For example, has someone already used it for any kind of business? Even more importantly, has it been used specifically for a publishing company or an imprint? Are the domain names available? How about the social media accounts? That sort of thing. Then King’s agent issued an agreement using the LetterPress Publications name. At that point, I didn’t want to rock the boat (and I still couldn’t think of anything better), so we just rolled with it. By the time I was talking to Joe Hill about publishing a big matching library of his work, I knew I had to come up with a better name for the press, even though I feared that task would be even more difficult now that Revival was out in the world. I wanted to keep the logo on the spine the same, you see, which meant the new and final name had to start with the letter L. In a way, though, that actually made things easier in the end. Knowing the first word had to start with the letter L focused my thinking. There are some fun words that start with L. One of my favorites is Leviathan, but it didn’t fit the criteria: someone had already used it for a publishing company or imprint years ago, and there were no good domain names available, etc. While looking over my list of twenty or thirty L words I liked the sound of, I started circling back to Livid. Livid Press or Livid Publications didn’t quite have the right ring to it, but at some point it popped into my head to add the -ian and Lividian Publications was born. The made up word had barely been used for anything anywhere in the world, and the Lividian.com domain name was available. It's not a deep or meaningful story of how the name came to be, but it is the story! Q: From the onset of the press, it seems you have had at least one foot in the horror genre, although not every release has firmly fallen in this category. What do you find particularly compelling about the horror genre and how has your relationship with horror literature evolved over the years? What would you tell someone to start with if they weren’t historically interested in this genre? Horror fiction has always been a part of my life. There was a paperback original for teens that I read when I was ten years old called The Girl in the Box by Ouida Sebestyen. Up until then, I had been reading the Hardy Boys and books of that nature, so I was absolutely gut punched by the ending. I had never known books without a neat, clean happy ending. The first anthology I ever stumbled across in a bookstore was the paperback of Dark Forces. I can still tell you which store (Encore Books & Music) and even where in the store the book was (over on the left side, three or four aisles back from the front windows.) I remember standing at the front of my local Waldenbooks, absolutely mesmerized by the hardcover artwork for Nightmares and Dreamscapes. A few years later when I was in high school, I worked at that same Waldenbooks and my manager, an incredibly knowledgeable gentleman named Jim Munchel, let me take over his horror section. I was stocking those fifteen shelves with both classics and new releases (which were not exactly plentiful in 1996) and handselling to anyone who would listen. My favorite thing was taking “Stephen King only” readers and pointing them toward other authors. I liked to joke that I sold more copies of Carrion Comfort, The Ceremonies, and Boy’s Life than any other Waldenbooks employee in history. Q: Well, since I have you here, can you please do a new limited edition of Carrion Comfort ? We know that you have had some very important collaborators from the beginning including your longtime friend, illustrator Francois Vaillancourt. He truly seems like one of the hardest working and most generous artists in the small press world. How did you first meet him and what does he mean to you and the press? What is it you appreciate about his illustrations that have caused you to go back to him on such a consistent basis? François Vaillancourt is easily one of my favorite people in this business. I believe he first caught Rich’s eye when he posted some Stephen King inspired artwork in a Facebook group. Our first project working together was the Limited Edition of Widow’s Point for Cemetery Dance. Since then, François and I have worked together on dozens of projects – with more in the works! He’s extremely hardworking and extremely easy to work with. He’s never missed a deadline, and he’s always handled weird/stupid publisher and author feedback with grace. He’s everything you’d want in a collaborator. Q: At the limited-edition level, a few of the releases such as Revival by Stephen King and your two Joe Hill releases have been in synthetic leather with some beautiful blind embossing and hot foil stamping, while other releases have been cloth bound with illustrated dust jackets. What factors determine the treatment of each release and do you ever envision there being different levels beyond limited and lettered in future releases? For now, the faux leather bindings with the spine hubs have been reserved for the Stephen King and Joe Hill editions. Our goal for the Joe Hill books is to create a big, beautiful library of matching editions. With our regular Limited Editions, we use a variety of binding materials, and each slipcase has a die cut window in the front to reveal part of the cover artwork. Like with Joe’s books, we’re trying to create one big library of books that fit together on the shelves like a set. You don’t have to collect them all to get the full effect, of course. But when someone posts a photo of all the Limited Editions or Lettered Editions so far, you can really see a library in progress. On the production front, we’re playing around with different page edge staining options right now for an upcoming Lettered Edition, and there might be some other changes for that line in 2024. Q: Walk us through a day in the life of Brian James Freeman. How do you make sure there is progress being made on the various projects you have in the queue and do you have a particular process to keep you on track? What are some of the most important things you have learned about balancing your love of limited books with making sure you maintain a viable business and have time for your own writing as well? The actual daily tasks will vary depending on what part of the publication process I need to tackle. It’s just my wife and me running the business, so we wear a lot of hats and do a little bit of everything. Book announcement days are very different than order shipping days, which are very different than general production days. (Often all three days are happening at the same time!) The kids get up around 7 AM and are off to school by 9. What happens during the day depends on what we’re working on, but I make sure to have a good stopping point before the kids get off the bus at 4 PM. The evening is family time, and then after the kids are in bed around 9 PM, I’m back on the computer or packing orders until midnight or so. Right now, I’m shipping three new Limited Edition and Lettered Edition releases (plus a trade hardcover) in a seven week window while handling the final production work on Horns by Joe Hill before it goes to the printer, which is mostly the copyediting and proofreading of the recently delivered bonus materials. The signature sheets are all done on that one, for those who are curious. Q: If you put aside the difficulty of rights acquisition and cost, what titles would you love to see under your imprint if there were no barriers to what books you could create? Why do you think these specific works would be fitting for your press? I’ve always wanted to publish a big, beautiful Limited Edition of Duma Key by Stephen King, but neither of my proposals panned out, unfortunately. There are others, but I won’t mention them because there’s still a chance they could happen! Q: As you look back over the last six years since you started Lividian, what are some of the things you are most proud of? What does it mean to you that people have embraced what you are doing and supported this dream of yours? I’m proud of the response we’ve gotten from collectors. Way more collectors than I ever expected have really embraced what we’re trying to do, and the feedback has been very gratifying. Q: If there was one word or phrase that came to people’s minds when they think of Lividian, what would you hope that it would be? Quality books for a fair price. Q: Well I certainly think you have achieved that. What should we be anticipating next from Lividian? We know that you have recently released The Dog Stars for preorder and have new Robert McCammon releases coming down the pike, but is there anything else you are comfortable sharing for 2024 and beyond? We just announced Where They Wait by Scott Carson, and depending on when this goes live, our first ever (and still unannounced as of now) Dean Koontz Limited Edition will probably be within a few weeks of publication. We have a book at the printer right now that is written by one of the hottest authors to hit the horror scene in the last few years, and we’re sending Horns to the printer in December if all goes well. We have a big white board on the wall of our office, and at the moment I see twenty books under contract. Some are by authors we’ve published before, but there are also some brand-new names I’m excited about working with for the first time. This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth between Zach and Brian and we want to say a huge thanks to Brian for being a part of this interview and being so generous with his time. If you want to see more from Lividian Publications and stay up on all of their new releases, you can check them out at their website and sign up for their mailing list to get periodic updates. You can also follow Lividian Publications on Facebook and Instagram . Interview by: Zach Harney - Co-founder of the Collectible Book Vault

A closer look at the production and inspiration behind Folio Society's newest limited edition, William Shakespeare: The Complete Plays, with Production Director Kate Grimwade. Q : First of all, I just wanted to say thank you Kate for taking the time to talk with us about this wonderful upcoming production in the midst of your busy schedule and prep for the imminent release. In the last few decades, the Folio Society has come out with a few different standard sets of Shakespeare’s work, as well as the absolutely gorgeous letterpress Shakespeare collection. What does this new set of The Complete Plays bring that other versions may have not and what makes you excited about this particular production? It's such a pleasure to be asked to contribute to the Collectible Book Vault, thank you for asking me! In terms of what excites me about this production, it's a combination of different things. The contemporary yet classic design, the stunning illustrations, the bespoke silk bindings and the fact that we have crafted this edition entirely in the UK. Q: Commemorating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s first folio is certainly a reason to celebrate. Published seven years after his death, it included eighteen plays that had never previously appeared in print. I think this obviously shows how important that folio was, as this solidified many new works into the Shakespeare canon that we know today. Are there any specific aspects from that original production that you have tried to incorporate or pay homage to in this edition? The most obvious is the separation of the plays into Comedies, Histories and Tragedies – this led us to create our three volumes using those titles. However, some of the plays have, since 1623, been allocated differently and we have placed them according to the Arden canon, as that is the text we have employed. For example, Troilus and Cressida: once considered a tragedy it is now amongst the comedies. Furthermore, our edition adds two plays originally omitted from the First Folio – Pericles and The Two Noble Kinsmen . While paying homage to the First Folio, we really wanted ours to be a new edition and to represent the full canon of his plays. Q: I would imagine this set has been in the development process for a very long time. When did the project first get thrown around as an idea and what were some of the moments where you really started to see it come together? It had long been in our sights to celebrate the 400th anniversary in a very special way but the project began to take shape a couple of years ago, during a brainstorming meeting of Folio’s publisher Tom Walker, art director Raquel Leis Allion and the artist, Neil Packer. Chatting over dim sum in London’s Chinatown, the idea of using a blackwork embroidery design for the binding emerged. Raquel knew that blackwork embroidery had been brought from Spain by Catherine of Aragon and was used on the shirt cuffs, shirts and ruffles worn by Henry VIII, so the idea was a perfect match for the period. Q: I was delighted to see that the foreword is being done by none other than Dame Judi Dench. She not only has a personal historical and family connection to Shakespeare performers, but obviously has performed in many productions herself. How was the decision to ask her, as well as Gregory Doran, made? What do you think each of these people brings that elevates this project even more? Shakespeare can be read in so many ways and we wanted to represent that in our choice of introducers. The most obvious is the direct performance of the plays and who better to write about the way Shakespeare moves an actor than Dame Judi Dench – a performer steeped in the works of the Bard and who has so many key performances under her belt. Likewise, Greg Doran, Artistic Director Emeritus of the RSC, looks at Shakespeare in a different light. He is able to talk about the creation and influence not only of the plays but of the First Folio itself. They each bring to light a different facet of the texts and their undeniable legacy. Q: You brought on Stephen Walters & Sons, one of the oldest silk-weaving companies in Britain, to create the design for the covering of the binding. The sewn covers of jacquard silk look stunning and tactile, with the design a beautiful fusion that seems elegantly classic and modern at the same time. How did the idea to use this blackwork embroidery technique arise and how has it met your expectations as you are actually starting to see the finished binding design? Once the idea of using blackwork embroidery was decided on, I knew immediately where to achieve it. I worked with Stephen Walters in 2009, when they wove the cloth for the binding of Folio’s Fitzwilliam Book of Hours . I knew that they would be perfect as their values and Folio’s are so closely aligned, all of us committed to creating wonderful products of the highest quality for people passionate about beautiful things. It has been a totally delightful collaboration as Stephen Walters were completely invested in the project from the beginning. It has been fascinating to see them take a file of Neil’s artwork and digitally translate it into colourways and ultimately into woven cloth. A lot of time was spent researching the weave, as while our priority was the beauty and quality of the cloth, it was also essential that it was strong and long-lasting and of course suitable for book-making. We settled upon a ‘honey weave’ of cream linen and black silk. It was an enormous pleasure to see the cloth being produced on the jacquard loom, to have seen the design taken from artwork through an industrial process to create 600 metres of gorgeous cloth. Q: The previews of Neil Packer’s art that have been released are wonderful, paying homage and showing reverence to some of the classic elements of Shakespeare while also feeling distinctly modern. Is there a concerted effort with Folio Society productions to pair more modern techniques and illustrators to classic texts? I love the look of everything I have seen, but how did the decision to keep the art contained to a black-and-white style (with red accents) evolve when Neil’s work can often be quite vibrant and colorful? Folio’s art directors are always searching for the perfect artist to illustrate a narrative and we are always excited when an artist has a modern and original take on a classic text, in the way Clive Hicks-Jenkins did for Beowulf . You are correct, Neil’s pallet is often colorful but for Shakespeare, Neil took inspiration from the playbills of the time, the woodblock-printed pamphlets and posters that were handed out to advertise plays. It was around the time of Shakespeare that red ink first came into production, and playbills started to use black and red. So that is the reason Neil used two colours for his extraordinarily intricate illustrations. Q: As you are thinking about the interior for a new limited production for Folio Society, how do you think about the typeface being chosen? I’m sure that readability is at the forefront, but are there other aspects like the period the text was written in or other factors that contribute to this choice on a project with the historical significance of Shakespeare? The choice of typeface for our edition of Shakespeare was greatly inspired by the typography of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Although designed after Shakespeare’s First Folio, Caslon is one of the most distinctive British typefaces. It has seen many revivals over the years, some more faithful than others, and our edition uses a modern digitisation which combines readability with familiarity. This goes hand-in-hand with Neil Packer’s distressed display lettering, which was meticulously set to mimic the uneven typesetting and letterpress printing of the time, without being too distracting for the reader. Q: Now that you have held the book in your hands and production is coming to a close, what do you think people will be most pleasantly surprised by with this edition? Firstly, that through the choice of format and careful text design, we have created a beautiful but supremely readable edition, which has been bound with enormous skill and care by the dedicated team at Smith Settle. Each volume feels truly wonderful in the hand. The presentation box is also a thing of beauty and quality, equally carefully crafted by Ludlow Bookbinders. For me, Folio has created a contemporary classic, an heirloom to pass down the generations and I am confident that the lucky owners of this set will feel that we have honoured the legacy of the First Folio. Q: Folio Society is based in London, with Shakespeare’s birthplace only a day trip outside the city and there are echoes of his legacy all around. However, Shakespeare remains relevant all around the world, even as we celebrate the 400th anniversary of that First Folio in 1623. He has been translated into every major language and even while the form and context grow more historically distant, there is a universal nature to his themes and stories. What is it about Shakespeare that allows his work to uniquely pierce through the veil of history so effectively, and continue to be read, as so many others fall prey to the relentless marching of time? His lasting legacy is, as you say, down to his universal themes. Romance and tragedy, kingship and comedy haven’t really changed, and the difficulties and joys of each are the same now as they were then. Essentially, it all boils down to feelings and these are universal: the themes of love and jealousy, death and birth, ambition and power are as relevant now as ever. He is also incredibly approachable for readers, performers and audience – his characters can be cruel and pitiable, joyful and desperate at the same moment – and this resonates with us all. Q: If you could sum up this production in one word or phrase, what would that be? 'Curious-good' - a Shakespearean term (albeit not from the plays) meaning ‘finely elaborate’ and ‘excellently wrought’. We think Shakespeare would approve of our ambition, the skill employed by all the artisans involved in its creation, and the respect we have shown to his work. The Folio Society Limited Edition of William Shakespeare Complete Plays goes on sale on September 26th. Check out these videos and learn more about this milestone production here Folio Shakespeare : Artist Neil Packer being interviewed: Video Silk-Weaving: Video This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth and we want to thank Kate Grimwade and the rest of the team at Folio Society for their generosity of time and thoughtful answers. If you want to keep up with the latest from Folio then you can check them out on their website to see some of their past and current productions. You can also follow them on Facebook or Instagram to stay up with all the incredible seasonal releases and limited editions. Interview by: Zach Harney a contributor to the Collectible Book Vault *Since there are often different spellings in American English and British English of the same words, we have chosen to adhere to the spelling of the person who is speaking rather than conform to one convention for the whole interview.