Just a small entry into our journey of cataloguing our favorite fine and limited edition presses. I completed Centipede Press yesterday which has 400+ database entries. You can now find a front cover picture and a picture of the signature page of each CP title, including deluxe states. Like some of the books themselves, some of these pictures are pretty difficult to find and we are very grateful for the owners of these rare books to have shared their books with us. We will continue to update of course with more or better pictures, binding details and details of different states. But now that the databases are complete (Subterranean Press will be added as we come along the books individually) there is more time for finetuning. It's quite daunting to create a full catalogue with pictures for SP, but who knows we might get there as well. I won't be able to do weekly/monthly pricing updates for SP, but I do add pricing data dumps for popular SP books once in a while. So don't hesitate to check if your book can be found, and if you like to see a particular SP book added, just send us a message and we'll see what we can do for you. For now, with our main databases complete, it allows for more work on other features as well. I will redesign the website to put more focus on the blog and the wonderful work Zach has been putting into bringing you these stories. We are looking into expanding our blog feature with other artisans that are involved in making special books and maybe even authors themselves... I am personally looking into setting up information pages and databases for popular 1st edition 1 printing of several highly collectible books. I will share when I have more on this. I hope you still enjoy CBV, we sure enjoy making it. Keep reading, stay healthy Maurice

Suntup Editions - Numbered Edition This numbered production by Suntup Editions was one of my personal favorites of 2022 and a perfect example of their ability to capture the essence of a story in the design. This edition is in Suntup's mid-tier (artist/ numbered /lettered) range, but it felt even higher in quality than their average numbered edition. For those who haven't read the story (or seen the show), it is set in an oppressive dystopian future that feels equal parts foreign and ominously familiar in different aspects. We spoke with Paul Suntup of Suntup Editions about the development of this particular edition and the thought process that went into this piece. In regards to the overarching design, he mentioned that it was inspired loosely by an older limited editions concept that he wanted to try and recapture. He said, " On the binding design, it took us almost a year where we went through a number of different concepts, and we mocked up and rejected multiple designs until we were satisfied that it was at level the author and title deserved. The design, as well as the art, captured the bleak situation that the protagonist is in and the dark future depicted in the book. In regards to the color scheme and materials, Paul said, " Of course we felt red should be the dominant color in the binding to symbolize the main character, Offred, and very fine materials were a must – a mix of Japanese cloth, goatskin and the hand-painted paste paper. The textures, both from a visual and tactile standpoint, are meant to evoke the clothing Offred and the other handmaids are forced to wear. The goatskin was hand selected for quality and how well it foil stamped. We settled on Harmatan fine leather, and the stamping was particularly complex because of the registration, and lining up the three colors just right." The three color hit of foil on the cover was one of the elements that really elevated this production for me personally and makes this version instantly recognizable for those who know the story. The beautiful hand-painted papers on the clamshell were created by Marie Kelzer, loosely reminiscent of Suntup's 1984 numbered edition, which she also contributed her designs to, but completely original to match the red theme that was the connecting thread throughout the many design elements. Paul said, " The paste papers, which were custom made for this edition, were originally going to be on the book itself, but we moved it to the enclosure for a more eye catching and unique presentation. The endsheets were custom designed by the book designer to evoke the wall in the story, and were printed letterpress on Hahnemühle Bugra." I wasn't completely convinced that I would like the endpapers until I received the book in hand and felt the tactile nature of the paper and realized how well it tied in thematically. The illustrator, Ken Cunningham, was chosen specifically by Margaret Atwood from a curated list of artists provided by Paul. He said, " The author wanted the characters in the illustrations to be nuanced to show particular personae and subtle characteristics such as hidden strength. We normally have the artist read the story and pick the scenes that resonate with them. Ken used color coding taken from the book, particularly the use of red and blue. He also used line as a way of speaking to Offred's memories and inner world. Ken was very open and easy to work with. We suggested a few tweaks and agreed on what would end up in the book. Then, once we finally settled on a binding design, we went back to Ken to create the handmaid art that we made into the 3 color stamping as we wanted his art reflected on the cover as well as in the interiors for cohesiveness." To match the high quality of binding materials, Paul chose to print this edition letterpress on Mohawk Superfine, "with the text composed in William Text designed by Maria Doreuli, and based on the types of William Caslon. We chose Kak for the display type, which is heavy and oppressive, to tie into the themes of the story." One secret that was not known to the public until the books started shipping was that there was a hidden tape embedded in the case for the numbered and lettered editions. Paul mentioned, " The concept of the tape cassette was considered as a binding design element at one point, and we originally wanted to put the book in an army footlocker, but we changed direction and incorporated a real cassette with licensed content into the enclosure instead." This tape connects in an important way to the story, but to say more would be to spoil it for those who haven't read the book. For those of you who have purchased the edition, (and still have a way to play a cassette tape), you will be treated to an afterword narrated by Margaret Atwood and an essay about the book by author Valerie Martin. Overall, Suntup Editions did a phenomenal job pulling all the different elements together into a cohesive whole with this production. The quality of Hamartan leather always introduces a certain weight and seriousness to a small press book and it just feels good in hand. I'll hold my final judgment until I get Slaughterhouse Five in hand soon, but I think this one just might be my favorite numbered edition of 2022 from Suntup, exquisite in every way! Publisher: Suntup Editions Illustrator: Ken Cunningham Paste Paper Artist: Marie Kelzer Interior Design: Michael Russem Letterpress Printer: Bradley Hutchinson Art Direction: Rebecca Dornsife

Subterranean Press - Lettered Edition When this book went up for sale over a year ago, it sold out...very fast. This only built a greater sense of curiosity around what the production would actually look like. The only details that were given at the time were that it was bradel bound, which is almost always a plus for me personally. The use of three distinct parts of the binding allows the front and back boards to function as a kind of standalone canvas for whatever the artist/binder decides to create. I spoke with the talented Geralyn Lance (who is the production manager at Subterranean Press and also happens to be a skilled binder in her own right) about some of the inspiration going into this particular project. She said, " One of the design considerations with The Poppy War was to make sure that it didn't look too delicate. A bold titling design and intense colors helps to create balance over the traycase and book as a whole. I wanted the focus to be on the marbled paper for the boards, and for the pattern to create a flow through the endpaper art to the first of the text." The traycase, as well as the black Italian leather spine of the book, are clean and minimal. They function to highlight, while not taking away anything from, the focal point of the production, which are the impressive boards. For this lettered version of The Poppy War the marbled papers were created by Renato Crepaldi and the overall pattern and colors could not have represented the work any better. This is the first time Subterranean Press has used his work and it sounds like it will not be the last thankfully! On this production he used a waving non-pareil pattern with a color palette that fits wonderfully with the other art found within this book. It is difficult to capture in pictures, but Renato is able to weave in an extremely tight pattern with a multitude of vibrant colors without it becoming muddled, which is not an easy task. Geralyn said that using his work "on a bradel bound edition was essential to allow the reader to experience as much of the pattern as possible." In person, there is also an intense sparkle that pictures only hint at. The paper is a solid 70# bright white and the chapter headings, as well as other internal elements, are two-tone, using black and red to set the mood. It feels very appropriate for the dark and brutal tones that permeate the story and highlight the horrors of war. The artist that contributed internal illustrations to this edition was AWANQI (Angela Wang), an artist I was not familiar with before this release, but someone I will certainly be following now. The first illustration (on left) may be one of my favorites in any Subterranean Press edition I own. My only complaint is that there are not more pieces throughout, as there are so many scenes that deserve to be represented by AWANQI. Major credit is due to Subterranean Press as they managed to keep the entire production consistent throughout and the coordination of the different artists involved was impeccable. The dust jacket illustration (top) of the numbered edition was included in the lettered as a gatefold as well as an added illustration (bottom) printed on Rainbow's Kraft with felt embossing that served as the endsheets. Overall, this was one of Subterranean's best productions to date and it seems like they plan to keep raising the bar with their lettered productions. It will be exciting to see how they tie in the other two books to the trilogy and how the design progresses with the story. Follow for more reviews, interviews and everything book related - CBV Instagram Publisher: Subterranean Press Marbler: Renato Crepaldi Artist: AWANQI

Happy new 2023 everyone! I was skiing in Austria this past week so this post is a bit belated. 2022 was an amazing year for the Collectible Book Vault. Full preliminary bibliographies were added for Suntup Editions , Folio Society limited editions , Lyra's Books , Amaranthine Books and Curious King . Work on Centipede Press is 2/3rds done. I added basic info about author, artist and focus on getting a picture of the front board / traycase and signature page at a minimum. I have plans for adding info about productions details (paper stock, binding type and material) but will probably not be able to do this for all presses. Slated for entry on CBV in 2023 are Arete Editions, Conversation Tree Press and Zagava. But I made a deal with myself to finish work on the existing ones before I do so. So probably in Q2 I will start work on the new presses. I have Grim Oak in my sights as well... Sales data are maintained for all presses currently live on the website. The latest addition for sales data includes Subterranean Press . I handle SP a bit differently because of the huge backlog. Once I come across a SP title, I add it to the database and add all known sales for that title going back 1-2 years. I hope to gather the most relevant titles this way within a few months. So bear with me ;) Highlight of 2022 for me was the start of our wonderful blog series Minds of the Press by Zach . He manages to ask the questions I always want, but never know how to properly put into words myself: Minds of the Press vol 1 with Anthony Kaye of Curious King Minds of the Press vol 2 with Marcelo Anciano of Areté Editions Minds of the Press vol 3 with Tony Geer of Conversation Tree Press Minds of the Press vol 4 with Mike and Rita Tortorello of Pegana Press Minds of the Press vol 5 with Rich Tong of Lyra's Books And we have many more coming! Thank you Zach! Also my eternal gratitude to Anthony , Marcelo , Tony , Mike & Rita , and Rich for allowing a look behind the scenes, inside your creative minds, and letting us share it through CBV! The website costs currently almost run break even due to all the patron plan support. So thank you everyone for supporting our efforts! You know who are. Special thanks to Timothy, Dave and Hal for always helping out with pictures of rare books on extreme short notice! Yegor and Warwick deserve mentions as well for allowing me to share their years worth of pictures of rare books and lots of early folio society limited editions. Thank you! New years messages aren't complete without musings on future thoughts and ideas. I want to complete my work on aforementioned presses first, but I am letting my mind play around with special collector pages for individual authors and 1st/1st editions. This is obviously a huge undertaking and something I would have to collaborate on with other collectors / authorities on specific authors. So in short, I'm excited for the work that will go into CBV in 2023. It still feels as fun and not as work. Once that changes I will have to come up with a new strategy. Stay healthy and keep reading! Endpapers of The World doesn't End by Charles Simic, lettered state published by Suntup Editions

Jonas Plöger of Zagava Jonas Plöger has been running Zagava for almost a decade now and brings many years of experience publishing supernatural fiction and horror, particularly focusing on works that have not been widely released. His publications span a wide breadth from cosmic horror novels to sketchbooks of mesmerizing artists like Nick Blinko. He also just happens to be one of the most humble and kind humans out there doing this kind of work, bringing original and beautiful pieces into the hands of even the most modest collectors. If you get the privilege of having even one conversation with him it will become abundantly clear that this is a deep passion for him and Zagava as a for-profit business is a very peripheral concern. We are so excited at the Collectible Book Vault to be able to have this dialogue with Jonas and to share it with our community. Q: Do you remember a particular moment when you started developing the idea of Zagava? Was it a long and drawn-out evolution or a sudden spark of inspiration? How long after inception were you able to release your first book? I have been extremely lucky to grow up in a house with many thousands of books. When I inherited this library, I started Zagava initially as an antiquarian online bookstore in 2002 to find new homes for many of my parents' books. Later on, I created "enhanced" singular limited editions of other US and UK publishers' books, for which I often commissioned the original illustrators to add drawings/remarques or for which I commissioned special bindings in editions of 5-10 exemplars. In 2013, a small-press publisher invited me to co-publish a novel by the wonderful Reggie Oliver: Virtue in Danger and this was the beginning of my work as a publisher. Since then, more than 80 Zagava titles have been published. I have also launched the Infra-Noir podcast and a YouTube channel. Q: What an interesting environment to have around you in your formative years. Did you have an early interest in reading and literature in general or did this evolve over time? How has interest in different genres and authors evolved over time? My parents came up with quite an ingenious plan and never gave me much of an allowance. Instead, they opened an account with the local bookshop which enabled me to purchase as many paperbacks as I wanted (within limits of course). My first “serious” book was not a paperback at all though, but The Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann, which I read at least three times when I was twelve or thirteen years old. Later, I dove into Hermann Hesse’s works and was especially fascinated by The Glass Bead and Siddhartha . Q: I might have to try that with my son when he gets a little older, that is such a great idea. The name of your press Zagava is borrowed from a story by an American author/artist Edward Gorey. His work was often macabre and characterized by absurdism and dark yet whimsical imagery, which resonates closely with the general flavor of your bibliography. What does the name Zagava mean to you and how does it connect with your overall vision for the press? I absolutely adore Edward Gorey’s work and have a rather substantial collection of his books and ephemera. This summer Pomegranate Communications in Portland published my book on the pin buttons Gorey created Always One Button Short . Several times I have traveled to the US to photograph Gorey collections and I am planning another book on the “stuffed creatures” Gorey sewed by hand. Gorey created delicate books in his own small imprint Fantod Press, of which I proudly own some and which are a great inspiration for me. His passion to publish so many brilliant books is an encouragement to try to let some (hopefully) beautiful Zagava books see printer‘s ink. Q: You seem to really love what you do! After nine years and many beautiful productions, does the craft still hold the same level of excitement for you or does it ever feel like a job? It is so wonderful to be able to work with such brilliant authors and artists! I regard it, for instance, as a privilege to introduce artists to authors who then congenially illustrate their works. Each and every day I learn more and immensely enjoy helping to create these fine books. I love discovering new manufacturers of fine materials, too! Q: Speaking of jobs...you not only run Zagava but have a “day job” (or often night job) working behind the camera for satirical television shows. Do you have a different kind of appreciation for the medium of film than the written word or do you see them as extensions of the same art? I love both fields of my work. Of course, television has changed immensely since I started some decades ago. I enjoy experiencing new challenges; two years ago, I started working for Netflix for the first time and learned some new tricks. We’re always learning. Of course, there are many strong connections between these two forms of media, but there are also some glaring contrasts one can make between the often-superficial quality of much of what goes into televised entertainment and the intellectual quality and subtlety of Zagava’s books. All in all, I enjoy working with both. Q: You have described your catalog as sophisticated supernatural and horror fiction. What are the qualities you are looking for in a work as you think about producing it at Zagava and has this evolved at all over the years? A manuscript should grip me of course. A book that positively disturbs me, and catapults me out of my comfort zone, has certainly the best chance to influence my publication decision. Over the years my reading experience has changed, of course. Needless to say, it involves quite a different kind of reading when considering a text for publication than what one gives when reading purely for one’s own pleasure. Q: I would assume with your extensive knowledge and exposure to supernatural and horror fiction that it is hard to surprise or shock you at this point. Have you read anything recently that created a deep level of dissonance or gripped you long after reading? To be honest, reading the manuscripts of Zagava’s authors is quite enough of a thrill in itself. There is one artist though, about whom am I trying to find out as much about as possible, because his works simply mesmerize me: Albin Grau! Two years ago, my friend (and Zagava author) Stephen J. Clark suggested I publish a book about this long-forgotten artist, who created the visuals of many films by Friedrich W. Murnau, the director of the incredible Nosferatu (1922), which he produced as well. Through a dear friend I got access to the Grau archive and since then I have been hooked! Q: In addition to supernatural and horror fiction, you also produce more esoteric and unique art books. Even your “non-art” books have a beautiful and haunting artistic quality to them. How do you see art as a complement to literature and what made you want to produce both of these types of works under the same imprint? When I started publishing, I kind of returned to the time when I dropped out of university (I was studying philosophy and the history of art at Cologne). My first art book was a facsimile of a fascinating sketchbook by Stanislav Szukalski (1893-1987). When I was offered an opportunity to publish a book about Hanns Heinz Ewers' wife Ilna Ewers-Wunderwald (1875-1957), both of whom were born in my hometown Düsseldorf, I couldn’t possibly foresee how immense the public interest in this long-forgotten artist would be. Since then, four major exhibitions of her art have taken place. In 2019, I was introduced to the mesmerizing art of Nick Blinko by my friends David Tibet and Claus Laufenburg and Zagava’s first Nick Blinko book sold out immediately. Since then, the creative collaboration with this outstanding artist and kind human continued and a new publication is in the works. Q: Your designs are very eclectic and always stunning, but one of the elements that has shown up fairly consistently through your work has been the use of cutouts that allow a small glimpse inside. Has this been an intentional choice with a specific meaning or purely an aesthetic preference? There are several reasons: I certainly love beautiful dust jackets and they are probably the best way to attract attention. At the same time, they are extremely vulnerable and the worth of a collectible book is too often reduced because the dust jacket is not “Fine+”. Dust jackets with blemishes indirectly create a market for the one perfect copy, a collector is looking for. A book bound in beautiful silk or some other fine fabric with a die-cut cover can deliver both: show some brilliant art on the endpapers and endure the years in a perfect, if not near perfect condition without much aging. Furthermore, it is an attempt to create a kind of trademark. Apart from format, choice of paper and fonts, fine and unusual binding materials add a tactile sensation a dust jacket simply cannot offer. Q: That’s wonderful, I have always been impressed by the quality and feel of the books you produce, especially considering the affordability. You have released some stunning editions since you started Zagava. They are obviously all labors of love, but what editions are you especially proud of? A: I love them all of course, but the lettered edition of The Feathered Bough (by Stephen J. Clark) certainly is one of my favorites. The box for Dungeness Blues (by Jeremy Reed) made from wood which resembles driftwood, is special to me as well, as is the binding of The House of Silence (by the late Avalon Brantley) in mulberry bark. Q: In the past, you have said that you try to use local manufacturers and partners as much as you can in your work. How have you found that using local artisans has influenced your work and helped with the collaborative nature of running a small press? I take pride in all books being manufactured by a small printer and binder in Bavaria, with whom I often discuss details on the phone several times per day. The incredible paper by the famous Hahnemühle is produced not too far away, as are those by the Amalfi family. The binding material often comes from rather distant places though. Silk from Japan or Taiwan, hand-marbled paper from Brazil, leather from Northern Africa…. The wonderful collaboration with the graphic designer Jan Marco Schmitz is certainly very creative and we only live 20km apart from one another and so we can meet up easily. Q: It’s clear to me there is a high level of care that goes into the selection of material and a consistency that weaves through your catalog. Interestingly, you have mentioned that a large percentage of your books are ordered from American customers. Has this surprised you at all and do you see the market for your books growing at home in Germany and the rest of Europe? Indeed 40% of my patrons are in the US. My experience is that this collector's market differs from that of, for instance, continental Europe. My impression is that US collectors often build collections to generously donate these one day to their alma mater. The UK is an important market as well of course. Q: That’s interesting, I hadn’t thought about where a collection is going after someone dies as being an influence on how they build their collection, but it makes sense. As a collector, I've noticed that Zagava has a fierce and dedicated fan base and one of the most common praises is that the quality is so high in relation to the cost. What steps have you taken to bring these unique creations to your followers at reasonable prices? I am trying to keep the prices at a reasonable level to ensure that collectors with moderately deep pockets are able to build up a fine collection as well. Although you sometimes see recently published books reach high 4-figure sums in the secondary market, I have doubts that some of these prices will be as high in 5 or 10 years. I regularly receive catalogues from some larger auction houses and it is surprising to see how relatively affordable first editions of books illustrated by Matisse or Picasso can be relative to these modern first editions. So, my approach is to give the collector a chance to acquire a more moderately priced book which may in turn, with time, yield a little something more on top of what they had initially paid for. There are some new books that are so expensive that only a happy few can afford these. Beautifully made books should not be so out of reach. My attitude on quality is high though. An example: a few weeks ago, I received 199 exemplars of the numbered edition of a new Zagava title. The bookbinder had probably just had a bad day, but whatever the case the author‘s name, when imprinted, was tilted slightly to one side by 1mm. I am sure very few, if any, of Zagava‘s patrons would have complained, but I couldn‘t tolerate even this minor fault. It pained me to return the complete print-run which in turn caused considerable problems at the small bindery, but I saw no other option. Q: I’m sure it is a fine balance between pleasing patrons and preserving relationships with the binders in situations like that! It’s very clear we have entered a renaissance for small presses and those of us who partake in it have no shortage of options. What do you hope people will value Zagava press for the most and what makes it stand apart? First of all, the quality of authors and artists! I can attempt only to find the right frame for these works. The more the content and form correspond, the better. If a reader enjoys the text or the art, the binding and the paper should make this experience a pleasure. I am not interested in publishing a title which has been published many, many times before, but prefer to offer new reading experiences in very fine bindings. Q: If there was one word or phrase that came to people’s minds when they think of Zagava, what would you hope that it would be? “Expect the unexpected!” Q: Would it be foolish to then ask what we can expect next from Zagava? Is there anything you can share about what may be coming down the pipe in 2023? In November 2022 a new sub-site became part of the Zagava web presence: Wunderkammer . This is Zagava´s showcase for bibliophiles, where exclusive custom-made books and book-related objects may be found. Wunderkammer items are made to order from only the finest and highest quality materials. Each Wunderkammer creation is produced by the most experienced and capable craftsmen using both new and long-forgotten techniques. Most Zagava titles will soon become available in unique bespoke bindings in addition to the numbered and lettered editions. With the artist Michael Hutter (who lives close by), Zagava will issue a set of finely printed Tarot cards and there are many other fascinating projects planned. I have another dream: In 1697 my ancestor Johann Bernd Plöger was granted the rights to make paper by Count Kasimir zur Lippe-Brake. For 300 years my family made paper in a picturesque mill, which is now a paper museum. I would like to continue this family tradition and collaborate with a paper maker to create mould made paper with the watermark of my ancestors in 2023. I love handwritten texts, which is reflected in my publication of Red Carpet and The Gutter , a beautiful facsimile of 300 hand-written pages about Oscar Wilde and Eric, Count Stenbock. It will be a wonderful challenge to offer more such manuscripts printed on the finest (hand-made) paper. This coming spring, I will publish my first letterpress-printed title: Vestige by Mark Valentine, which will open a new chapter for Zagava Books. Expect the unexpected! This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth and we want to thank Jonas for his generosity of time. If you are not currently a follower and want to see more from Zagava you can check them out at their website and sign up for the newsletter to get periodic updates. You can also follow them on Facebook or Instagram for more info. Interview by: Zach Harney a contributor to the Collectible Book Vault

November is approaching fast and I promised an update for all of you fantastic collectors who have signed up for a membership of the Collectible Book Vault and many even have subscribed to the Patron Membership Plans! Thank you! I am humbled by your support. The website started as a passion project to catalogue books and value, but is increasingly becoming more. Zach's amazing blogs are only the beginning of a series that will continue. The content is already running well into 2023! I originally envisioned Bronze Silver and Gold patron subscription models. With Bronze being the free tier, Silver a small yearly fee and Gold the extra support tier. This has changed into Silver Platinum and Gold. The homepage with access to blogs will not require membership and will be free. In my testing I already setup the free Silver patron subscription and many signed up to access the new pages. So I don't want to change anything for people who signed up for this plan and expecting it to remain free. So Bronze is gone and will be the Silver Patron plan which will remain the free subscription tier that gives access to the Bibliography pages with photographs of the books, description of the books, different states and variants of the books and basic collector's info. Silver Patron The next tier is called Platinum Patron. In addition to Silver access, this will give access to the market value overview pages and will show basic info and in addition to median market value and recorded sales, it will also show last recorded sale date and last recorded sale price. Basicly how it was before I updated the site with the new pages. Platinum will be €2,49 / year (or €0,2075 / month if you prefer that metric;)) Electrum Patron In addition to all the info that is accessible with silver and platinum subscription, the new Detailed Value Data with 5 last recorded sales dates and prices and inflation corrected value will be accessible only with the Gold Patron subscription for € 1.45 / month. This is reduced to € 1.20 / month if you choose the yearly payment option of € 14,50 with Gold Patron All-year. If you want to access the Detailed Market Value Pages for only a short period, then CBV Patron on-demand will be available for €5 with 3 month access. Gold Patron / Gold Patron All-Year / CBV Patron on-demand I hope this keeps the bulk of the collectors info for free and creates options to support the website with with rewards of access to exclusive content. UPDATE Monday October 24th: : I was kindly informed Platinum is more valuable than Gold while Electrum sits nicely in between Silver and Gold. So that name was updated. I might also do away with the monthly payment plan since the flat fees of the Wix platform and PayPal add up to 30-40% of the payment (because the amount is so small, the flat fee makes up a huge portion). I don't mind to pay for tech but that's a bit overdoing it ;) I am looking into 3-6-12 month Gold Plans now. Need to read the small print better;) I'll keep you updated. Thanks again to everyone who signed up already. Feel free to cancel the monthly Gold Plan and sign up for the Gold-All-Year plan with 2 month discount and another week of free trial time. This plan will stay regardless, I will only be looking into whether or not adding a 6 month plan. Stay healthy and keep reading

Mike and Rita Tortorello of Pegana Press In 2009, after a decade of dreaming and contemplating, Mike Tortorello launched Pegana Press with a beautiful broadside of Lord Dunsany's Rhymes From a Suburb. This would set the tone for works to come as he focused on some of the earliest weird fiction writers like H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and of course, Lord Dunsany. In 2012, Mike's wife Rita joined the team to become the binder for Pegana Press, bringing a refined sensibility to the design of their projects. If you are even a casual fan of weird fiction, Pegana is absolutely a press to follow. We are so excited to be able to share our conversation with Mike and Rita. It is an honor to have this veteran duo be a part of our series here at the Collectible Book Vault. Q: This will be our first interview with a husband-and-wife duo, which is really exciting! What did the first conversation about Pegana Press look like between the two of you? Was it collaborative and slowly evolving or something one of you came up with suddenly? Rita : It took a long time between the inception of the idea and the day Mike unpacked the press. We were having a random conversation one night and Mike was telling me that he had worked for the local newspaper when he was in high school. He was telling me about all the steps involved in printing a newspaper, which was his actual job there. Mike had been an enthusiastic collector of books since he was a kid which gave him an appreciation for the way books used to be made. We grew up in the era when the town libraries were filled with old books. There is just no comparison between a book made 100 years ago and what you will find today. It is a completely different experience for the reader. As I listened to him talk about the printing process, I realized that it might be possible to put that experience to work making the kind of books Mike loved. It was a pretty naïve idea, but we were young, and the world was a different place. We began talking about the idea that night, but it was another 10 years or more before Mike bought the press. In 2009, Mike and I were both starting businesses at the same time. It was not in the original plan that I would be the binder for Pegana Press. Paris was bound at Ars Obscura in Seattle, and Lost Tales Volume I was a chapbook. I sewed the chapbook for Mike based on the chapbooks produced by Roy A. Squires. What happened next was that Mike began getting feedback from the people buying the books. They wanted hardbound books. The next book was The Age of Malygris . It was the first casebound book we produced. Mike was still working a day job, and printing books at night (which he continued to do for the first five years of Pegana Press). It wasn’t cost effective at that point to send the books out to be bound, so we talked about it, and I ended up teaching myself how to bind books. I wasn’t trained or apprenticed, but I put a lot of care and a lot of love into those books, and Mike put a lot of care and love into typesetting and printing each book, and the content is superb. I think our customers really wanted us to succeed. They were very encouraging and supportive, and Pegana Press grew, which gave me a lot of practice binding books. Q: The name of your imprint draws its name from a series of stories by Lord Dunsany, including The Gods of Pegana , published in 1905. How intentional was this name chosen and did it guide the future direction of author and title selections? Did you originally intend to focus on the genre of books you have published up to this point? Mike : I was always curious that the First Lord Dunsany book was published by Elkin Matthews in the U.K. under the imprint “Pegana Press” but his subsequent books from them didn’t use that imprint. Apparently, Dunsany paid to get his first book published and I assume that was the reason. I was intrigued to carry that banner if you will and release more Dunsany editions under that name. My intent was to print books I’d like to have in my own library, being primarily composed of Weird Fiction. Many of these classic, imaginative and evocative works had never been produced in nice editions but cried out for them. After printing Paris, I had the idea of doing a version of Dunsany’s Charwoman’s Shadow in a letterpress edition and contacted the Dunsany Estate. I heard back from Lady Dunsany who was mourning the death of her husband Eddie, a fabulous artist. She was very gracious and supported any project I cared to do. I subsequently realized that Charwoman would take possibly 4 years to set the type and print but, in the meantime, I ran into a list that a Dunsany fan had put together of stories of Dunsany that had appeared in magazines but never were published in book form. I began to track scans down of them through world library loan systems, and that’s when I decided to do a series of these stories that really were Lost Tales . Beginning with Volume 3, Lady Dunsany and the Dunsany Castle archivist Joe Doyle began sharing these incredibly rare Sidney Sime oil paintings as well as unpublished stories waiting in the Castle archives for their time. So, Lord Dunsany, and to some degree his philosophy, are at the heart of Pegana Press. The design of our Lost Tales books are based on a hybrid of two of Dunsany’s original publishers. The dimensions of the books are the same as the Elkin Mathew’s editions so they can line up neatly in a Dunsany collection. The inset pastedown on the front board is based on the William Heinemann editions. Q: That's wonderful, I think it is a very common theme among small/fine press owners to be collectors first and then find a niche they are passionate about that hasn't been filled. Your first published work was a poem by Hope Mirrlees (author of Lud-In-The-Mist ) that hadn’t been printed since 1919 and was almost forgotten by history. The release drew accolades from a number of sources including Neil Gaiman. What was the genesis of choosing this piece and how did it feel to get confirmation from respected sources with your first release? Mike : I printed a broadside of Dunsany’s first published poem and was casting around for something to work on next. I had always loved Lud-In-The-Mist by Hope Mirrlees and started delving into her life and works. That’s when I ran into Paris . As I learned more about the poem’s construction and meaning I became fascinated with it. The work itself is like a multi-layered construction, comprised of word/language puzzles, double meanings and sometimes ruthless observations of well-known people woven into a 24-hour sunrise-to-sunrise guided tour of 1919 Paris by Mirrlees. In addition to its linguistic complexity, Mirrlees, living in Paris, had become interested in French Modernism and their nontraditional use of typesetting and forms on the page. She incorporated the physical layouts of famous Parisian gardens, signs and verses of music on a staff when she had Virginia Woolf typeset and print the book at Hogarth Press. This was really the first time something of this nature had been published in the realm of Western Modernism and it certainly influenced T.S. Eliot and others in her circle. At any rate, I decided to try and replicate the exact spacing and printing of the original work, so I procured a scan of a first edition and laboriously measured each word’s spacing and very slowly began printing it. It was very gratifying to have some of the finest living writers compliment me on the work. Upon learning Michael Swanwick was a champion of Mirrlees, I reached out to him, and he was very supportive. Michael also suggested I tell his friend Neil Gaiman about the book as he was also a huge fan of the poem. Neil was gracious in his praise. Of course, it encouraged me to continue this insane pathway I had chosen, haha. Swanwick also wrote an introduction to our first Lost Tales Dunsany edition. Both of them were fine gentlemen and extremely gracious with their time and enthusiasm. Everyone really along the way has been so supportive it has been amazing. When I wanted to do an edition of The Golden Key by George MacDonald, I immediately thought of Charles van Sandwyck as one of the only living illustrators to work on it. Rita was like you’re really going to just have the cajones to contact him and it was like sure, all he can do is say no. I eventually tracked down Charles on a boat headed to his home on Fiji and he was delighted to be asked to work on it. When it comes to trying to integrate my own artistic heroes into my work that is extremely satisfying to have happen. Q: I could imagine that getting such high praise was a great kick start for morale so early on in the life of the press. It's clear there is a bent towards weird and fantastical fiction of the early 20th century in your overall catalog with authors like H.P. Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, and Clark Ashton Smith heavily featured. You started by producing lesser-known and sometimes unpublished works by authors in this overall movement. Knowing that there may not necessarily have been a large dedicated market to these particular selections at the onset, what drove you to want to bring these titles to print? I tend to choose works to print from various criteria. First, it has to be something I really love to read. I also will choose something that has evocative imagery to take advantage of letterpress design and innovative artists. Most of the work certainly has been in the realm of my personal core collection. Many of these authors like Lovecraft and CAS have never really had interesting, illustrated editions ever produced of their work. The Arkham House editions other than the cachet of age and exclusivity had pedestrian printing and bindings. The dust jackets themselves were usually cool but that’s about it. Of course, gaining access to and printing unpublished Lord Dunsany material has been a stupendous thrill for me. Some of his best work was never included in his published books for reasons as diverse as paper shortages in WWI. His later work really carries timely words of caution and messages to the race of Man that I think are worth sharing. Paris , I felt strongly because of the potency of the work should get some attention. I certainly didn’t intend to start with obscure works, but it worked out. I knew that I would be almost creating my own niche micro market but hoped there were enough people on the planet I could reach who would like what we do and help keep us going. That has proved the case, although it took quite a while to get there. I can’t tell you how many pancakes Rita and I ate the first couple of years ha-ha. It’s also important to stress that not only did I decide to end up in a micro niche, but we also chose the hardest, old-world way to produce our books. I am probably the only specialty press using movable hand-set type to print with. Everyone else uses photopolymer plates or casting machines that compose the type for you. What I do is pre-1900’s technology and hearkens back to the Arts and Crafts Movement of William Morris and Roycrofters for book production. This method is extremely slow and laborious in nature, but well-forged hard metal type really does create the finest letterpress impression of any method. All the paper is cut down by hand, all the sewing is by hand, and all the paper folding by hand. Everyone else is using some or all of these tools/machines to do their work. We don't. No computer programs to spell check, edit, arrange type, choose a font. Probably the only modern part of my printing would be the motor distributing the ink on the press rollers. Q: You split the duties of running a small press between the two of you with Mike focusing on the letterpress printing and research of titles and Rita operating as binder. How do you see this partnership as being additive to the process of producing your books and has it presented any unique challenges? Rita : I think having both of us really caring so much about infusing magic and life into our work together makes our books a bit special. Mike and I read the possible Lord Dunsany unpublished stories together discussing them and we both weigh in on what will go in the edition. Mike will also give me an idea of the design for the printing and overall feel he wants the book to have, and we’ll talk about the binding methods that we think will achieve that. Sometimes it is a challenge because I run my own business as well and coordinating our work together for Pegana Press can be difficult at times. Mike : It’s great being able to collaborate together on our books. Rita has a different way of viewing things than I do, and the sum is usually greater than the parts. Of course, we do disagree on things and that’s when it can get challenging because you don’t want it affecting your personal relationship. I am a very demanding person of myself and others and sometimes have to reign it in and realize other people have other priorities. Overall, the partnership works out quite well. Q: If you can work together for as long as you have and still enjoy it, I think you are doing something right! The bindings done by Rita are always so elegantly understated and timeless. Where do you begin with the design process of a new Pegana selection? Mike : Rita and I talk about what color paper might be appropriate for the spirit of the book and its dimensions. From there we’ll decide on what kind of cloth and endpapers we will use. In the case of the Poseidonis books by Clark Ashton Smith we based its dimensions on sacred geometry and the Golden Rectangle. Rita had showed me a book of photos she used in her energy work that was meant to stimulate certain reactions because of those particular dimension ratios. I found it fascinating and in keeping with the ancient and beyond-time feeling of the Poseidonis stories we wanted to capture. We also incorporated papyrus endpapers to add to the archaic feel of the book. Q: With your partnership and multi-talent skill sets, a lot of the functions that many presses collaborate on with third parties are done internally. Obviously, you bring in artists to contribute to your publications, but are there any other ways you collaborate with other artisans to keep the process fresh? Mike : In a way, many of our customers become involved in the design process and feel of the books by providing feedback. They are so tuned into new illustrators that they tell me about, some are also hobby bookbinders and printers and share their perspectives. I do like to work with outside artisans, but it does also complicate matters sometimes. I spend a fair amount of my “leisure time” looking at other people’s bindings and those making their own papers and such to keep things fresh. We are working now with a fabulous binder Ethan, of Scrub Oak Bindery, who I met with recently to help out with some of our books. He does terrific work and I hope to collaborate with him on a very special lettered edition of Annals of the Jinns and offer more elaborate binding and clamshell cases moving forward. Q: Different to any press owners that I know, you have also ventured into the area of recording some Lord Dunsany audiobooks, bringing some of your recording and musical background into the process. How does this medium offer a new perspective and has there been anything you learned that has helped you with Pegana’s printed works? Mike : I’m fortunate to have a terrific musician and voiceover talent named Daven Tillinghast to collaborate with. He works on our Audiobooks for Dreamers Tales and in return I produce and engineer his music catalog for him. I do find that a well-written story, especially in imaginative fiction, can have a different impact when it is read out loud. They can also lend themselves to tonal and music enhancement to bring the story to life in a different way than description. The audiobook work sometimes does affect my direction with Pegana Press. It was after hearing Annals of the Jinns by R.H. Barlow that I decided to print a Limited edition of the Annals . The grotesque and dark whimsical nature of these tales really came out when I heard them read and embellished with music. It definitely gave me a different viewpoint than when reading the stories to myself. So far Daven and I have produced and released 4 audiobooks, ranging from Lovecraft through Dunsany and more obscure authors. People can find them on our Dreamers Tales Patreon and Bandcamp pages. Q: What does the process look like as you begin to look for the next Pegana Press title, where does the search begin? How do you balance seeking out unpublished selections and printing established works? I have a sort of mental checklist of works I’d like to print in the future. As I near the end of printing a current book I open that mental file in my head and see what rabbit holes they might take me down. The amount of unpublished material available from the “classic” periods of Weird Fiction is quite sparse. I just got lucky being loaned the key to the large unpublished Dunsany archives. There are unpublished works I come across that I would love to print but they would have such a potentially small market that I do weigh that aspect. In the case of the Lovecraft Dreamlands editions, there weren’t any lavish editions out there and they were books I would want in my library, so I printed deluxe versions with some incredibly surreal artwork from German artist Michael Hutter. I also try and stay in touch with our collectors as to what kind of books they would like to see us do. There are times when I may choose a particular story to print that I think suits a particular artist I would like to work with. So, there are quite a few paths that may lead to the next publication for Pegana Press. Q: At this point, you have produced around twenty different unique projects across many different authors. Obviously, they are all treasured, but were there any that were particularly rewarding or ones that you are especially proud of? Where would you recommend a newcomer to Pegana start? That is a hard question to answer, we’re proud of the legendary artists that have worked on our books like Hutter, Jim Pitts, Robert H. Knox and van Sandwyck. I guess the legacy Pegana Press leaves of the buried trove of Lord Dunsany unpublished work and Sidney Sime paintings would be the high point. Being able to have phone and Skype conversations with Lady Dunsany was incredible. I suppose a good place to start with our books would be the Dark Dreamlands Lovecraft editions. It really does depend on the person’s reading preferences to some degree. If someone is looking to read prose that is an entirely unique voice it would have to be Lord Dunsany. If they want to experience what letterpress is like, the chapbooks and broadsides can be a good place to start. Q: If you had no limitations relating to right acquisition and you could choose any illustrator to pair with a specific work, what project would you want to create? There are a couple of Lord Dunsany stories I would love to get Roger Dean, the album art wizard to illustrate. He’s still painting and doing fabulous work. It would have to be an unusual shaped book, taking advantage of Roger’s “landscape view” perspective. I would also dearly love to print something special or rare from Le Guin, I love her work! Q: If there was one word or idea that came to people’s minds when they think of Pegana Press, what would you hope that it would be? Hopefully long after we are gone, people in places all over the world will be sitting in their libraries and some of our books can be seen within the glow of their fires or lamps dancing off their spines, waiting to be read and touched. Perhaps they’ll remember us fondly or not even know who we are, it really doesn’t matter, a part of us will be there. Q: That's a beautiful perspective, I think you can be assured that people will be reading these for years to come. What should we expect next from Pegana Press? Are there any future projects you can share that may be coming further down the line in 2023? Well of course we’re really excited about R.H. Barlow’s Annals of the Jinns edition. I’ve seen some of the preliminary artwork and it is superbly surreal! From there I’m not sure, wherever the whim takes me I suppose. Feedback from people about what they would like to see us release is always welcome. Mike and Rita were absolutely wonderful to work with and I wanted to close the interview with a short message from Pegana's page. "It's a wonderful season to hide away with a book. We wish you happy reading, from your friends Mike and Rita at Pegana Press." This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth and we want to thank Mike and Rita for their willingness and generosity of time. If you want to see more from Pegana Press you can check them out at https://peganapress.com/ and can also follow them on Facebook or Twitter for more info on their wonderful press! Interview by: Zach Harney a contributor to the Collectible Book Vault

Tony Geer of Conversation Tree Press Tony Geer is well known as a collector and friend to many in the small press community, but has more recently set out to start his own imprint called Conversation Tree Press. His passion and commitment to quality of materials, design, and running his business are clear to anyone who has read anything he has produced regarding the press so far. The focus of CTP will be on science fiction, fantasy, weird fiction, and contemporary fiction. His first title, Peter Pan, will be released to preorder on October 26th and his next two titles are already lined up and in progress currently. We are very excited to get to hear more about the direction of Conversation Tree Press and Tony's vision for the future. Q: This press is a brand-new venture for you, but the inception of what we now know as Conversation Tree Press began years ago. Can you tell us a little more about how it transitioned from a dream to now having prototypes of your first book in hand? Was there a distinct moment you realized that Conversation Tree Press could actually be a reality? I had my first experience printing letterpress about seven years ago when my now-wife bought me a printing lesson at a little studio as a present. Having enjoyed the workshop a great deal, we ended up printing our wedding invitations ourselves there a few weeks later. Hoping to do more printing, I looked into acquiring a tabletop press but even something as relatively small as that would not work in the condo we were living in at the time. Fast forward to a few years later, and a few big things happened all within the space of less than twelve months: a newborn baby, a move to a new city, a job left behind, and the start of the pandemic. With more space at our new home, I started thinking more seriously about printing again, and then found out that Don Black, the only letterpress equipment dealer in Ontario, was about to close his business. I needed to ensure I picked up everything I would need to print while building my workshop quickly, or as quickly as one could during a pandemic. Luckily, I had the help of a good friend, Michael Torosian at Lumiere Press in Toronto, to help guide me, and together we selected everything needed to put together a letterpress workshop well-equipped for hand printing before Don closed up shop. As I started learning to print, I realized how much I enjoyed it and how little fulfillment I found in my previous career as a project manager. Adding a second child to the mix also had a funny way of reminding me of how valuable time is and how quickly it goes by. With my wife’s blessing, I decided to pursue printing and publishing full time, and from that point on it was very real. One of my presses – the cylinder proofing press – is perfect for applying even pressure across a wide area, as you need when printing a book, but it’s hand cranked so only suitable for shorter runs. Realizing that some of the books I hoped to make would require larger runs than I could do on my own, I started exploring the best way to make that happen. Having been a collector for much longer than I’ve been a printer (see The Book Blog [ http://thebookblog.com ]), I already knew of many private presses, printers and binders. Knowing that Pat Randle at Nomad Letterpress, Phil Abel at Hand & Eye, and Paul Kidson’s team at Ludlow Bookbinders all did impeccable work, they were my first choice. I was happy to find out they were also very fine people who were willing to answer any questions and share their knowledge. Putting together spreadsheets, reviewing sample materials and papers, and signing contracts are all reminders that this is real, but the most fulfilling moment so far was when I received the first prototype – the Standard state of Peter Pan . Q: That must have been an amazing feeling! Peter Peter has already been announced for pre-order in the not-so-distant future. How are you feeling right now and how has being a small press owner been different than what you imagined so far? We're confident everything’s on track for a successful release, and really proud of how the prototypes for the books have turned out. The bar has certainly been raised over the past few years and I think they hold their own well. One of the most unexpected things for me is simply how fulfilling it is. The Press is my full-time job, so it’s obviously a huge commitment and a lot of work, but I get to do what I love every day – read books and play a part in making them – and it’s immensely satisfying. I’m very fortunate to be in this position and thankful to everyone who helped make it happen. Q: When describing the name of your press, Conversation Tree Press, you paint a beautiful picture of your hometown in Belair, Guyana, and the complicated history of a central “conversation tree” in your town. This was a place where former slaves and indentured laborers gathered, shared stories and built communal bonds. How do you see your vision of Conversation Tree Press uniquely bringing people together in the small press community? We decided very early on what was important to us, and that guides us as we grow and build a community that not only shares our passion around the work we publish, but also for the design and craft of making books. One of the primary ways we do this is by celebrating the craftsmen and craftswomen we collaborate with. We’ve talked before about the wonderful printing we’ve seen from Pat Randle at Nomad Letterpress and Phil Abel from Hand & Eye Editions, and the talented bindings and papers that Paul Kidson and his team at Ludlow Bookbinders make. We’re excited to talk more about the handmade paper that will be used in our Lettered Edition, and we always identify the makers of the materials we use, like the Cialux and Canapetta book cloths and decorative papers from Rossi. We’ll also continue to share more about what goes into making a book, like the interior design and the post we made showing our use of the Van de Graaf canon when designing the layouts for Peter Pan. We give a great deal of thought to the typefaces we choose for each book, and we’re happy to share our thinking and details about it with our collectors, like we did when talking about Austin (typeface) and why we selected it for Peter Pan . Beyond our relationship with our collectors and our partners, we’re also proud of the friendships we’ve built with other publishers. Marcelo at Areté Editions, the Crispins at Barbarian Press, Michael Torosian at Lumiere Press, Anthony Kaye at Curious King, Rich Tong at Lyra’s, Bill at Subterranean Press, and Griffin Gonsalves at No Reply Press, have all provided help and advice along the way and we’d be remiss not to thank them for their generosity of spirit. And finally, but by no means the least important, an important part of building our community closer to home is through our Land Acknowledgement on our website, which will also be included in our books. It’s a small part of the reconciliation process that we’ve embarked upon to build a balanced relationship between Indigenous communities and new settlers like ourselves. Q: It is inspiring how clear of a vision you had before even creating the prototypes of your first release. How did you decide what your first book would be? Did you always plan for it to be Peter Pan or did the title present itself to you in an unexpected way? I’ve always had in my mind a long list of books I enjoyed a great deal and wanted to have nicer editions of. When it came to selecting the first book, I knew that as a new publisher it was best to start in the public domain (PD) before trying to acquire rights for contemporary books. There were a few ideas to begin with, but I’ve always enjoyed Peter Pan , and as a tale for both children and adults, it was a good candidate. While there is no shortage of editions in print, it rose to the top of our list because there were many opportunities to make it special. Including Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens , lesser known but equally as charming, would capture the entire Peter Pan oeuvre in one volume, something not easily found. The other things, like the introduction by Harvard Professor Dr. Maria Tatar providing unique scholarly insight, and Charles Vess’ singular talent unleashing the books’ rich potential for illustration, came as time went by. Q: That makes a lot of sense, but it does sound like you have aspirations to do limited editions of contemporary works in the future. How do you see the rhythm of future releases playing out in terms of classic and contemporary titles? Publications definitely skew towards being in the public domain (PD) here at the start of our journey, for the reason mentioned above. It brings me great joy to give the fine press treatment to books that I grew up reading as a boy, collaborate with artists to see the pages come to life, and know that my children will read them as well. The PD titles we will be publishing have been carefully chosen because there was an opportunity to do something new or different with them. A good example is including Peter Pan in Kensington Garden in our Peter Pan collection, a tale that relatively few people are aware of. But our intention has always been to acquire rights to contemporary titles, a process which we’ve already started, perhaps with fewer PD titles in the mix as time goes by. Q: There are many reasons why you would choose not to do a particular book (i.e., unobtainable rights, size, too many treatments already, costs, etc.) but what would be your absolute dream book/series to produce if there were no limitations? I would love to do an edition of Lord of the Rings , and was very tempted to after learning that the books were set to come out of copyright in Canada at the start of next year (2023). Unfortunately, Canada is in the midst of extending its copyright laws by another 20 years to match the rest of the world, so that won’t be happening (at least not in the next 20 years!). Q: Announcing a potential series twenty years in advance might not be a bad marketing strategy for collector loyalty actually! I know you have a high level of respect for illustrators and you have included Charles Vess’ name on the spine of Peter Pan, making it clear with your first release that quality and quantity of illustrations will be a key part of Conversation Tree Press. How important is the role of the artist and illustrations to your current and future projects? We love reading well-illustrated books ourselves as illustrations elevate the reading experience. This can be done by granting us the opportunity to immerse ourselves in a world, in a way that mere words can’t, or by evoking a feeling that’s in harmony with the words on the page. We know this is just as important to collectors, so careful consideration is given to the artist we collaborate with on each book, and we include as many illustrations as time and budget allow. That collaboration sometimes extends to the bindings as well, if the artist would like. We will soon be starting prototypes on a book where we’ve been working very closely with the artist on a particular piece that will play an integral role in the bindings. Without their input, it would not have been possible to pull it off. The illustrations themselves also influence which materials we will use and what type of binding will be executed to ensure that everything works together in harmony - the words, the art, and the bindings. Q: In our previous conversations, you have mentioned that doing Conversation Tree Press publications via letterpress is very important to you, even so much so that it might govern what works you may or may not release. What role does the quality of materials and process play in your vision for the individual works as well as the press as a whole? Our mission is to utilize the traditions of fine press bookmaking—letterpress printing, hand binding, fine materials, and a harmonious design—in the making of books. As you mentioned, there are some books we’d enjoy creating fine press editions of, but could potentially be too expensive to produce. For example, having to split a book with a high page count into two volumes would double the cost and time to hand bind, compared to a single-volume edition. A harmonious design, including the thoughtful use of materials, also plays an important role when we’re thinking of the binding for an edition. For example, if we decide to do a binding in wood instead of leather, it should be a carefully considered decision. Beyond ensuring the wood is cut in a way to ensure minimal/no warping (quarter sawn), the type of wood selected should also fit within the context of the work. Given the choice between an exotic type of wood and one more readily available that aligns with the time and place of the novel, we’d always choose the latter. We often say that our role is to honour the work of the author, and the materials we use are an important part of that. Q: That is really important, because when experimenting with new materials or unorthodox design, there is always the danger of crossing the line from inspired to feeling like something is a gimmick. Obviously, this line is subjective, but as you think about pushing yourself to be more creative, where do you think that line is for you personally? How do you know if you’ve crossed it? The design of every book that we've worked on has come out of a great deal of reflection and respect for the work and the broader context that it's set in. If something doesn't feel right about it, then we simply haven't arrived at the best solution. Paul Rand, the famous American graphic designer, was asked to come up with a few logo options and famously responded: “No, I will solve your problem for you, and you will pay me. And you don’t have to use the solution — if you want options, go talk to other people. But I’ll solve your problem for you the best way I know how, and you use it or not, that’s up to you.” Every aspect of our work and every decision that led to it answers the question - what’s the best manifestation of the book, given the constraints we have? If we feel satisfied that we solved this problem well, that’s what we go with. Q: You have mentioned you have your own workshop on your property and may produce some smaller projects under the imprint Conversation Tree Press Editions. How do you see these releases being different from the larger releases for Conversation Tree Press other than the size of production? Everything about an edition from Conversation Tree Press Editions will be smaller – the trim size, the page count and the run. With a smaller print run I’ll be able to experiment a bit more with what I choose to print. It’s still very early, so there’s not a lot more to add right now. Q: Well, I am definitely excited about this. It really opens up the opportunity to do some smaller runs of titles that might not usually get that treatment. It seems we have entered the golden age of small presses and those of us who partake have no shortage of options. What do you hope people will value in Conversation Tree Press the most and what makes it stand apart from other small presses? It certainly is an embarrassment of riches. When it comes to the books themselves, two things that set us apart from many small presses is that all of our editions will be letterpress printed and lavishly illustrated. The craft of fine press bookmaking is an important feature of our production, as illustrations are an important part of the reading experience for us, so we invest heavily into these two aspects for every edition we make. As we aim to publish only three to four editions per year, we have the luxury of both waiting for the right artist to become available and giving them the time they need to complete the work. We’ve waited for a year for an artist, and we have a book in development where the artist will take two years to complete all of his work. And as mentioned before, our collection of weird fiction, Weird., represents an unmatched commitment to seeing the genre’s greatest works published as fine press editions. Over time, we hope our collectors will be able to value not just the work that we do, but the level of service we provide. Q: That’s a fitting title for the series! Let’s talk a little bit more about Weird. Esteemed weird fiction scholar S.T. Joshi will be at the helm curating, editing and introducing the 20 volumes of this series. How did you meet S.T. Joshi and how has the conversation evolved over time as you planned out this project? Yes, we spent a great deal of time coming up with the name of the collection, and the full stop at the end really pulls everything together. S.T. Joshi’s name is likely familiar to anyone who reads weird fiction, but I first heard of him from one of the books he edited for Centipede Press and his contact info is easy enough to find. We exchanged a handful of emails and then had a very productive video chat where I shared my vision for the Press and the weird fiction collection. He was very excited and we were able to move ahead pretty quickly, with the contents for the majority of volumes already decided upon. Writing introductions and editing the texts will continue for some time. Q: As a collector, you would be familiar with different works by some of these authors by imprints like Centipede and Pegana Press. Obviously, there is plenty of space for new releases as many of these were produced in small runs and are now not available to newer collectors. Other than presenting opportunities to collectors who have missed out, is there anything specific that you are hoping to bring to the small press community with this series? Centipede Press, Hippocampus Press, and Night Shade Books have all done a great job putting together definitive editions of the bodies of work for multiple weird fiction authors over the years. Mike at Pegana also does a stellar job producing his hand-set chapbooks and novels. How our collection differs from what’s been published before is that S.T. Joshi is now using the experience he’s built up over his entire 50+ year career to select the very best stories from a wide range of authors. Some volumes collect work from a single author, simply because their body of work yields many stories that shouldn’t be missed. Others, anthologies based around a theme, will see work from many contributors, some perhaps not often heard from. For our part, we’re commissioning new illustrations from some of the most gifted illustrators today, printing the text via letterpress, using premium materials across all three states, and having them hand bound – a truly fine press treatment of work that is highly deserving of it, but rarely seen at this scale when considering word count and print run. Many of the stories are also taken from S.T.’s personal files, compiled over decades and continually updated to present the most accurate text, and not simply taken from the first edition available in the public domain, so these are essentially the definitive versions. Q: When speaking of writing weird fiction, Lovecraft suggested that the most important component was "the mood" and that everything revolved around capturing this in each aspect of the story. Weird fiction often carries with it a pervasive mood of uncertainty, a speculative and existential unease rarely approached in other genres. What is it specifically about the genre that drew you in initially? The mood is certainly one of the big factors. Many of the earliest weird fiction stories I read were set in the Victorian age, or just after, and the contrast between the mildly mannered, polite Victorian society and the eldritch terror that lurks beneath the surface has always been appealing. I also enjoy the writing style, which requires focused reading sessions without distractions, more so than some other contemporary books. Q: I am personally very excited to see how that series evolves. If there was one word or phrase that came to people’s minds when they think of Conversation Tree Press, what would you hope that it would be? Quality. Q: Is there anything you can tell us about what is coming next for Conversation Tree Press? I am actually in the middle of preparing a longer update that will reveal some details on future projects that should be posted before the pre-order of Peter Pan goes live, so keep an eye out for that. Peter Pan opens for preorder on Oct 26th at 12pm EST This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth and we want to thank Tony for his commitment to excellence and time. If you want to see more from Conversation Tree Press you can check them out at https://conversationtreepress.com/ and sign up for their mailing list to get periodic updates. You can also follow Conversation Tree Press on Facebook for more info. 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.

Marcelo Anciano of Areté Editions Though Areté Editions is a relatively new fine press, the collective expertise that comprises this endeavor is staggering. It began in 2020 with an idea for a project that brought together veterans from every part of the industry and resulted in the first Areté Editions release, The Case of Death and Honey by Neil Gaiman. Not satisfied to let a wonderful collaboration go to waste, Marcelo will continue working with this group and already has a long list of projects in progress. We are elated to share some of the conversation we had with him and hear about what led to the development of Areté Editions, as well as what is in store for the future of the imprint. Q: You started Areté Editions in 2020 after a conversation with Phil Abel (Hand & Eye Editions) and a desire to collaborate on a short story by Neil Gaiman. You had also been conversing with Gary Gianni about illustrating a book together and eventually pulled in Rich Tong (Ludlow Bookbinders) to put it all together. What drew you to each of these artists and how did you share the artistic vision between members of the team? Areté started with The Case of Death and Honey , however, Death and Honey started a year before Areté. I had been making books for decades, many were with Gary illustrating. In fact, the first limited-edition book I made in 1998 was with Gary, The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane (this was before the internet age took off and selling a book like that was a constant stream of fairs and conventions, and we sold many through comic shops because of the lavish illustrations throughout the book). Gary and I have made books together ever since. We had spent many years working with George RR Martin on his stories set in the Game of Thrones world, and an art book as well. We had also recently done a book of a richly illustrated version of Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu , two versions of that actually, (a sketchbook version before the completed one) which was finally published by Flesk. The book was the outcome of the concept to meld cinema and books together, something we had been constructing for decades. During the start of the worldwide COVID lockdown, my project with HBO was stopped due to the loss of our executive producers to Amazon’s Lord of the Rings project ( Rings of Power) . Gary was working on designing some of Martin’s HBO House of Dragons environments and style, taking a break from illustrating books. Then he lost his beloved brother, Tom Gianni, who succumbed to cancer a few weeks into lockdown. We both knew it would happen but the loss to Gary was huge. He felt he needed to re-evaluate his work. He had lost the drive to do fantasy. I suggested that we do a book, not with any idea of publishing it, just a way to create something for us while lockdown closed the world. Creating a book is an organic thing. We start from doodles, find the vision of the story and then work on the reading experience, we’ll perhaps get more into that later, and then finish with the more constructed text and pictures, but we start with hundreds of Gary’s doodles. I suggested that he look at some of Neil’s short stories. The Call of Cthulhu was only about twenty pages long and we had made it into a ninety-page book, that had meant that we could really play with the reader’s cinematic experience. I thought we could do the same with another story. Gary remembered Neil Gaiman’s The Case of Death and Honey , a story that resonated even more for him after his brother’s passing. I actually said to him, “But what’s there to illustrate?” He replied, and I’m paraphrasing; “that the story enables me to find the moments of quietness and open up what is implied by the characters interactions. And it was Sherlock Holmes.” We started, and Gary found his creative mojo and we found a book, although a very sketched-out one, it had a voice. I then asked Neil if we could publish it and, when he saw what we had done, was very enthusiastic. It did help that I had known him for decades and he was a big fan of Gary’s work. We had planned to go to a mainstream publisher to print it, but I also wanted to make a high-end letterpress book too, originally, I had planned on making, oh, fifty books or so. Then I struck lucky. I had no idea where to start looking, so I found the closest letterpress printer to me, in London’s east end, and called him up. It was Phil Abel, and it was the best thing that could have happened. When I showed Phil the book it turned out he was about to print Stardust for Lyra's and wanted to make more books, he suggested that we print the whole edition letterpress, including the illustrations. Relief printing was something both Gary and I wanted to explore, this meant that the ink line images would become the print. Like a photographic wood block or lino, by that I mean, it would not be a facsimile reproduction that offset litho offers, but where the image becomes something again, as a print, after Gary had drawn it in ink. But it should have no greys, which for us was a challenge. Thank Christ for meeting Phil. Phil Abel, it turned out, was a decades-experienced master printer and it was luck or fate that we came together. His contributions were incredibly valuable as we made the book. We wanted it to be printed hot metal, and he was a master typesetter. We wanted it to be relief prints, he knew exactly what was needed. I felt that the book would be like the old artist books I had seen and admired when I was at art school, books with Picasso etchings bound in. Once the interiors were planned, the plates tested, with multiple examples of what would happen when Gary’s images were put to a letterpress plate, (Gary would then change the image to become more like a template for relief prints each time) and the type was at the foundry, Phil and I began to think about the bindings, which is where Rich Tong came in. Phil had gone on holiday a few miles from Ludlow, and had just printed Stardust, so he dropped the machine proofs of the book to Rich and was shown around Ludlow Bookbinders. Again, as luck or fate would have it, if he hadn’t been on holiday near there, he would never have seen the bindery and met Paul Kidson and Rich and realised that this was exactly the sort of binders we had been looking for. I saw Rich’s design for Stardust . I remember the first meeting over zoom that we had, Phil had said to me that Ludlow’s were binders, not designers, but I knew Rich was much more than that, I could see it. I thought he could create something elaborate but not gimmicky, I said to Rich, “Don’t you want to work with an artist like Gary Gianni and be able to hold up the book and say; I made this.” That is how we all came together. It was around this time that Phil suggested that we form a new publishing company together. And then, after working together on Death and Honey , and around the time of Stardust , Rich asked me to work with him on his Lyra’s Books projects as well. Q: It seems it was meant to be, a truly organic and collaborative effort. You are the conductor at the center of Areté, bringing expertise as a multi-disciplined artist with years of experience in film, publishing (Wandering Star) and writing. Do you feel that this endeavor is the culmination of what you have learned from different artistic disciplines or simply a new outlet for creativity? Why did you feel that this moment specifically was the time for Areté Editions to be born? Good questions. I went to art school and did my M.A. at Chelsea School of Art (it was a time when punk and new romantics were blossoming), and I had decided that I needed to use a different language than sculpture, which is what I was practising, the awareness of space. I needed to learn how to make films. Michael Craig Martin, a fine artist, told me that I was a storyteller, not a sculptor, and in retrospect he was right. Long story short, I started to make music videos, because I used to hang out with the guys that became Spandau Ballet, when they signed their deal, they asked me to get involved with something called “music videos” (this was before MTV). For ten years I directed some of the most influential bands of the eighties and nineties. MTV became hugely popular and so did the music films I made, and I learned how to make films. When I began, there was only a handful of people making music videos and most of us knew each other and shared our tricks. Music videos pioneered something most people are not even aware of now, the fast edit. We consciously made films with fast cuts. I had a conversation with George Miller ( Mad Max ), where we were talking about fast edits in car crashes and chases, he said that he used 16 frame edits in action scenes, which is really short, there are 24 frames of film in a second, he said, “people see it!” People register that feeling subconsciously. I use the same knowledge with illustrated books. I had a deal with Disney/Miramax to make a series of films of Modesty Blaise with Quentin Tarantino, (that’s a book in itself), but they gave us money to develop other properties. I decided that I wanted to make films of stories from my childhood, however, they were fading away from public awareness. Robert E. Howard was becoming a niche pulp author, whereas I thought he should be an American classic author, like Dashiell Hammett. I used the money from the development funds to make books of Howard’s neglected works, to raise the value and awareness of the film properties, although there were already cheap paperbacks available of his stories, they were selling a small amount each year. I decided to make lavishly illustrated limited-edition books of them. I figured that we could place Howard as a classic author by bringing scholars to contextualise Howard, the books would have so many pictures inside that the executives in studios could just flick through the book, and get what the properties were about. As I said earlier, this was a time when selling these kinds of books was very hard, unlike now. I sold the license to the books to Random House; they told me that they would sell 4,000 copies max and they also told me that illustrations would never sell a book. The first paperback they released sold over 100,000 in the first year! Because of the pictures. That was Wandering Star Books. Visuals are important, they tell a story to the reader almost instantly. To get back to the question. As I made the Wandering Star books, I learned what was important for an enhanced reading experience. It was the same as a film edit. Making books is like directing a film. This is something I bring to bear in the design and creation of a book. I’m interested in the way a reader’s experience can be enhanced by, not only the illustrations and the images, but by every tactile experience of the object, the book itself. When we pick up a book, how is that going to set up the story contained? How is the box, slipcase, reveal of the cover and the materials that it is made from, the paper, the type, going to give you a sense of what is about to come? In a book when you turn the page and there is an image, you subconsciously, subliminally, register the picture. That image will affect what you have just read, and then, almost instantly, you continue reading and it will affect how you feel about what you are reading going forward. What can that image be, to be the right one (and often, I feel, it is not the most obvious scene that needs to enhance the reading, but also something that will set the tone of what is on the page or show what is unwritten)? That image has not only affected what you read, it has implanted itself into your experience of the story, and when you come to the relevant point on the page that the image reflects, for a second that image becomes conscious. Like a 16 frame edit, that image tells you something intangible. Images set up or dramatically satisfy the page turn. I could go on about this for hours… Areté, and Lyra's, allow me to use all my visual experience from art school to film, to script writing and direction, to my experience of visual responses to story, to cinematic storytelling; it is a culmination of my experience. And I’m still learning. Q: That’s interesting, because it seems there are a lot of ways to view illustrations, possibly as adding to the experience through a secondary expression or some may even pejoratively say it forces a perspective unintended by the author. However, you view illustrations as an even deeper element that subconsciously informs and shapes the entire experience of the story. When you converse with artists about illustrations, what specifically are you hoping to convey in order to add that tone and feeling in your illustrated books? I do see illustrations in a book as affecting the story, yes, ideally enhancing. Sometimes though, for me, with some books, if I don’t like the illustrations, it affects the way I feel about the story, it’s down to taste ultimately. They always have an effect. Well placed-images also mean a well-placed text flow. By that I mean, the typographer is as much a part of the illustration’s power as the actual image is. You are right, I think that images can subconsciously inform and shape the reading experience. There is a painting by N.C. Wyeth that he did for Treasure Island , a wonderfully illustrated book, where he depicts Jim Hawkins, the young protagonist, leaving his mother. Stevenson says something like: ‘I said goodbye to mother and the cove’ … ’and (goodbye to) dear old…’ and so on and so on … it’s almost a throwaway in the text, but what N.C. painted is the image of Jim’s mother in tears, her head buried in a handkerchief, as he walks away, that added emotional resonance beyond what was written. The image had as much power as the text, it added. It is these kinds of examples I talk about with artists; each book has its own subtle themes and through lines that require finding the images that will add resonance to that story’s through line. Every book is different, but I always look for the added reader experience. Some images are actually there to stop the reader in their tracks! And then continue reading… Importantly, when images start to come through from an artist, I like to see what emphasis they have found, or feel for, what voice they have, and enhance that vision rather than place my vision of the story on them, so each time a new project is started it is in flux, and it is my job to enhance, find and clarify, always being aware of what is going on as the book is being read. Q: Let’s talk about the name of the imprint. The Greek word Areté comes from the idea of “excellence,” specifically that there is an emphasis on the quality of what an individual does and experiences. This can extend not only to moral action but artistic quality and creativity as well. How have you tried to live up to such a lofty goal and do you feel as if you’ve achieved what you set out to do with your first release? Wow, ok. Phil came up with Areté, it is a good word. It is a word that reflects what we want to achieve. The books I want to create with Phil and Rich I want to be the best of what we can do in each of our respective fields of creation. Death and Honey was a good start. I’m not sure whether we’re aiming for anything “lofty”, we’re just trying to make good books, and enable an environment for creative people to do what they do best. I hope. And make the best book possible for that story. Q: Well, you certainly hit the mark with your first release and it was executed flawlessly. Rich Tong said it was one of the hardest designs to execute that he has ever created and the complexity and beauty of the final product make that clear. How did the final product resonate with your earliest visions of the piece? Thank you. When Gary and I were first working on the book, we originally thought we’d do it like a book from Conan Doyle’s era. It was only when Rich came on board, after Phil’s input as a printer and bookmaker, that it changed. Rich came up with a very modern idea for a visual theme of the whole object, the bees. I worked with him and Gary to create what his theme triggered, and it changed dramatically from what Gary and I first envisioned. It opened up, certainly, my mind, as to what is achievable. We always wanted to do an edition where the originals were embedded into each book, so each book would become a unique art object, which didn’t change, Rich worked on making it so. However, his ideas, when he was actually making the books, became a huge endeavour for him. It took him much longer to physically make the books than he had ever imagined. Both Rich and Phil are perfectionists in their fields, both couldn’t let their work go to the public without being the best they could do. This has set back all our books by several months. But it has also set out what Arete is about. Q: You have stated that you and Rich Tong (Lyra’s Books) will be collaborating a lot moving forward and that the lines between your two imprints are slightly blurred. In your mind, what would differentiate an Arete Editions release or one from Lyra’s Books, or do you see them both as collective extensions of your collaborative vision? The books we decide to do is the difference. Rich chooses his books, Phil and myself choose Areté’s, otherwise we are the same now. Rich and I have long discussions about what books to do in the future and I have discussions with Phil about Areté’s selections. Otherwise, yes, creatively they blur, however, Rich likes Lyra to have a slightly more classic design, whereas with Areté I like to push Rich’s design to see what he can come up with in terms of sculpting the materials he uses. I don’t see it as extensions of my vision, but certainly directed collaborations of a shared one, with slightly different visual bookbinding. We are the same team, and each book has its own voice that we all try to make manifest. I think that, for the most part, the difference in the bookbinding between Death and Honey and Coraline shows the difference and the similarities. Essentially, Lyra's and Areté are the same creatively; myself, Rich and Phil. But the choices of books are, with collaboration, the responsibility of each press. Q: How do you decide what the next Areté Editions project is going to be and what does the collaborative evolution of bringing it to life (overall aesthetic, binding material, colour, artist, typeface, etc.) look like? Also, what are the defining characteristics of an Areté Editions piece? Deciding what will be our next project will be, is like asking, “how long is a piece of string?” We have a number of projects on the go, but some books like Frozen Hell will take longer to come to fruition than, say, Benjamin Button. So whatever is ready to go will become our next book. As I said before, each book grows organically from the story and from the artist, myself and Phil. Phil has opinions about typefaces (working with metal is a very analogue way of working), and it has no interface with InDesign whatsoever, so my designs are constantly adapting to the old ways. It is hard to make a metal monotype adhere to the expectations of a modern reader, widows and orphans and the like, that kind of thing. But I try and make a compromise between the process and the reader. The book then changes again when Rich becomes involved, sometimes quite early, like with Frozen Hell, and that will inform the interiors. I start with a sense of what I feel the book is about, we choose an artist that I hope can work with this kind of process. Some don’t, in which case the way I work changes. Rich’s role is very, very, time-consuming for him. Just making the edition, whether it be Lyra or Arete, takes him months, if not a year to actually make the books. His design participation is always tempered by his job of binding as well. He makes his book design by actually playing around with materials, different leathers, cloth, paper and colours, as much as with the art he has from the artists. He really is a fine artist in that respect. That means he can make dozens and dozens of mock-ups before he’s happy. That takes ages and ages and is never quantifiable in time. As for what is the defining characteristic of Arete, honestly, I don’t know. It is made up of the tastes of Phil, myself and Rich and that changes from book to book. Perhaps in a few years, we’d be in a place where that can be defined. I love what people like Subterranean Press, Centipede, Suntup are doing with imaginative bindings, however, I’d like us to sit between them and presses like Arion and Thornwillow, which is more about the craft of the interiors (Thornwillow) and Fine Art (Arion). I’d like us to combine the artifice of Arion with the sort of stories that are more mainstream. Q: I think the success of Lyra’s, Areté and the buzz around The Conversation Tree, prove there is certainly a demand for something in between. Speaking for the entire team working on The Case of Death and Honey, artist Gary Gianni said “We built it out of love for the art form. It has little to do with recognition or money. We just wanted to create a beautiful book…” Clearly, you have achieved your goal, and in doing so you have had to bring the project to market. What do you attribute the initial success to? I think that Areté had the debut it had because Rich and Phil were well respected and known in their fields, and I have been making books for years and was also known, so all of us coming together had a certain recognition. Also, the book came out nice. Q: It certainly did! Obviously, creating a work like this doesn’t just require artistic ability, but also a level of business savvy. Does the practical side of running a small press, including the logistics and expectations from fans, excite you or is it simply a necessary by product of creating art for anyone other than yourself? I personally am always aware of the reader; you cannot create something that exists only for oneself. It has to be a readable object for readers. It is the act of creation that is personal for each artist/craftsperson and it has been very exciting to see collectors respond to our vision. The business is part of the process of bringing these books to market and enabling the artists as well as the marketing. Coming out of a very commercially driven audience-led art form I am acutely aware of the buyer base, the audience. And getting the books out there. But that is different from creation. The art is what drives the book. The internet is great for reaching out and over the next couple of years, I would like us to reach a broader base that may not care for social media. When I was producing offset litho books, it was much, much, easier, businesswise. You can print these books within a week, not months or even years that our, and by that, I mean Lyra's and Areté, books can take. The very nature of these books mean that they are very expensive, about 85% of the cost of the books is production (and offset can be about 10% of the cost of letterpress). That affects cash flow, rights are negotiated years in advance and are very expensive, artists need to be paid for a year before publication, and very expensive paper has to be ordered many months before publication. These all are the business, however, the kind of books we are attempting to make don’t work by the timelines of an offset printing and mechanical binding, which allows one to schedule a business plan. But the rights, contracts and the business, the cash flow and the organisation, do not work by craft’s timelines. That is a constant stress. Phil is great, he’s done a few limited-edition books and continues his imprint, and he’s very good at keeping business organised. As for expectations, all we can do is produce the books we like to see and hold, and hope others are also willing to pay for the experience, so we can continue to produce. Q: Unlike most newer small presses you have decided not to offer rights attached to your releases. How does your specific catalogue differ from the traditional imprint and why has this led you to forgo creating a system of rights? Rights are a contentious issue. With Areté, we’d like to have the flexibility to make books without the restrictions that rights put on you. Perhaps a book should be made with only 200 copies in the edition, not having lettered, numbered or trade versions. Perhaps we will want to make a book with an artist that commands thousands of pounds for each print bound into the volume, could we then turn around to a particular rights holder and say, sorry, this is going to cost you ten times more than the last Areté book? Rights though, do have the security of sales, but it also means that the same people are buying your books. I’d like to be in a place where collectors will buy the books they want, and different buyers mean that we can make different types of books. I’m not sure whether rights are a “traditional imprint”, rights are a new thing. Sure, they had clubs, like Limited Edition Club or subscriptions, like Thornwillow, but rights, as known today, is new. Also, clubs like LEC made 1,500 copies of a book to cater to their members. We couldn’t hope to make that many with the kind of books we make. But, in essence, they had 1,500 “rights” holders, not 26, or 200, and a waiting audience that can’t have a look in. Time will tell whether it was the right decision. If Areté makes a trilogy, then, obviously, rights will be part of that. And if people want a particular number we’ll endeavour to give them that number. Now, rights would have been a great thing to have with Wandering Star back in the day! I wish that kind of thing existed then. But “rights” are not right with our aspirations for Areté. Q: You are probably better for it in the long run as it can become very contentious. Speaking of changing conventions in the small press world, how have you seen the limited press scene change over your time? If there was one piece of advice you could give to some of the younger press owners that are just publishing their first or second book, what would it be? It has hugely changed. When I did the Wandering Star books, I think Subterranean Press was just starting and there was Donald Grant, but there wasn’t the proliferation of limited-edition mainstream books being made like now, at least that I knew of. There was no way of knowing what was out there of course, without word of mouth, there was no internet. Wandering Star was one of the first really, and as I said earlier, they were really hard sells. There were the old-style Fine Press publishers but they did pretty obscure titles, no one really was doing science fiction and fantasy books, or even classics. I mean, books like Moby Dick were being done, but no Brave New World . At that time, I had no knowledge of publishers like LEC (Limited Editions Club). As for advice, hmmm, that’s pretty hard. Find your voice, find a vision that you want to do and it will always be different. If you just follow what everyone else does, it will be hard to stand out. Work with good designers, if you are not one yourself, try and not just get a few plates from an artist, tip them in and call it an “illustrated book”, well, I mean you can, and it is, but it will look like something that everyone else has done and the market is overwhelmed by those, I think. However, if you have the right title and author and make well-made books by master craftspeople, then you will find an audience regardless. I’m not sure that’s advice actually! Just common sense. If publishers are walking this limited-edition path, they generally know or want to make something unique. I have had conversations with other publishers and they all have a vision, James at St. James Park Press, Tony at Conversation Tree Press, they all have a sense of what they want to do with their imprint and certainly don’t need advice from me about their vision, perhaps the practical side of things, but not their voice. Q: Well, they certainly have their own vision, but I’m sure they appreciate the sage wisdom you offer! Looking forward, new titles are always exciting and you have already discussed a few future projects in the works, but who are some dream authors and artists that you would like to collaborate with in the future? Bloody Nora! Where do I start?! There are a few stories I’d like to do and I know that Phil has a few too, however, I’d like to work with artists who ordinarily don’t do books. I think that could be thrilling. I’d like to see contemporary pop illustrators doing classics like, say, The Odyssey . When it comes down to it, it is about whether an artist likes collaboration. There are more books than we can ever hope to make. Q: The Odyssey with a contemporary pop illustrator, that is something I would love to see, I hope you do it. Often times the approach to illustration is to look at the content and try to find an illustrator who can capture the time and place of the material, but what specifically excites you about bringing a different perspective? I do like both. A book with illustrations that feel part of the story’s time and place is, and can be, great and perfect. But there is also a place for a different context for art and story. Imagine someone like J.A.W. Cooper, who is amazing, doing something like The Odyssey , or even Bruce Timm or Frank Miller?! And conversely, imagine an artist like Antony Gormley (he has done some astonishing etchings of people in the form of energy emanating from the figure) doing 2001 ?! They would bring a perspective that allows for a very different feeling as much as a traditional way of illustration. That can be thrilling. However, personally, I’d never veer away from the feeling of the story or what the author has written, the point is to always enhance the reading experience, not throw in a disconnect. Q: If there was one word or phrase that came to people’s minds when they think of Areté Editions, what would you hope that it would be? "Oh wow. That’s interesting." Q: What exciting projects are next for Areté Editions? You have announced that the next production will be a collection of poems by Neil Gaiman named Words of Fire followed by Frozen Hell and Brave New World , but is there anything further out on the horizon that you would like to share? We’re doing The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald with Dave McKean, which is just around the corner, we’re going to do that on polymer plates, so will be much, much, faster than hot metal. We shall see what Dave brings to the table, we’ve talked about doing his images as relief prints, possibly with a couple of colours, which would be something not seen by Dave before and could be so cool! I really can’t wait to see what Rich and McKean will do too. Yes, Frozen Hell is a bit late as Rich is caught up right now, but he’s done most of his experimenting with the ideas, working with Greg Manchess, and Greg has also finished the amazing paintings for the book. It is going to have a multitude of black and white chapter head prints. We are doing some stitch binding in that book, which if we pull off, and I’m confident Ludlow’s can, would be really amazing. It will be ready in a couple more months. As soon as Rich is free and we have the interior book blocks done we can show you our editions which we are all very excited about, it’s going to be more complex than even The Case of Death and Honey was! Brave New World is being soft-proofed for casting and we are working with the Pop artist Allen Jones. He was part of an art movement that included David Hockney, Warhol and James Rosenquist, and this will have his prints bound into the book. Very excited about that project, I’d like to show the prints and the book in museums and galleries if we can. Neil’s Words of Fire has a portfolio of broadsheets with each of Neil’s poems metal letterpress printed on single sheets of handmade paper and a Fine Art silk screen print in five colours by Bill Sienkiewicz printed by Jealous. Very chuffed about that, although the metal type was really, really, expensive to do! Lud-in-the-Mist is on its way, the artist is Scott McKowen. Neil Gaiman recommended him and Neil has always been a great ambassador for the story, he absolutely loves it and we had several chats about who could be a great artist for a unique edition. Scott is doing over forty-five full-page images. We are nearly finished signing, so I guess it’s ok as we are quite far down the line with contracts, The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham and The Color Purple by Alice Walker, and I really, really, want to do Orlando by Virginia Woolf. Words of Fire opens for preorder on Oct 1st at https://www.arete-editions.com/ If you want something extra special to watch then use this link to see an unboxing video of the Artist's Edition done by none other than Neil Gaiman himself! This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth and we want to thank Marcelo for his time and encouragement. If you want to see more from Areté you can check them out at https://www.arete-editions.com/ and sign up for their mailing list to get periodic updates. You can also follow Areté on Facebook and Twitter . 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.

Anthony Kaye of Curious King In 2020, Anthony Kaye, a relative unknown in the small press community, posted a personal project he had been working on for months, a striking minimalist rebind of Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon. He continued on with a small batch rebind of Ready Player One, complete with a custom Atari case that truly captured the spirit of Ernest Cline's masterpiece and started to garner serious attention. Armed with these two rebinds, he set out to gain the rights to some of his favorite series. As of this date he has announced that the first three original projects under the name of Curious King will be The First Law by Joe Abercrombie, The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin and Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. We are excited to share some of the conversation we had with him as he allowed us to pick his brain about how all of this got started and his journey in creating Curious King. You have mentioned that the name Curious King was inspired by the idea that “curiosity is king." What does that concept mean to you personally and how does it connect to the spirit and mission of the imprint? I mean curiosity is what led me down the route of publishing my own books. I suppose I’m a curious person, I like to know how things work and why, and I’m not afraid to continue down a new path due to curiosity. But also, I mean, alliteration, right?! It does have a nice ring to it! I’m sure your journey with Curious King has been a whirlwind, because in two short years you went from a collector of books to releasing one of the most anticipated releases in the small press world in 2022. What has surprised you the most in this journey and when did you first start to believe that Curious King was going to be a reality? The lack of information on the internet on publishing and how to publish books surprised me the most. There’s barely anything out there, so I ended up posting some questions on Reddit and somebody from the industry gave me a steer. I was probably towards the end of my Gardens of the Moon project when I thought “I could do this.” It felt very real when I received the bound book back from Ludlow’s – I was excited to see how it turned out, but I was gobsmacked by the quality of their work. That was the first view that anyone got of your design and your take on Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson turned out absolutely stunning. I know a few people (myself included) that would sell a kidney for a Curious Kin g set of Malazan Book of the Fallen . What drove you to choose this as your first project and how were you able to make such an elegant and professional production on your first attempt? Well, it’s no secret that the Malazan Book of the Fallen is my favourite series of all time. It may well be the best thing ever written (in my opinion). The other reason is that when I first started collecting books, it was Malazan hardcovers, and trawling the internet to find them I stumbled across Subterranean Press’ version and it blew my mind. So, my plan was to buy the Sub Press versions, but unfortunately, I couldn’t afford the second-hand price of the first few books. Then some guy on Reddit said that he would probably just rebind first editions and commission his own art rather than pay second-hand prices… And that’s pretty much how I ended up here. Gardens was always going to be my first choice, I think. Well, you won’t hear me making any strong arguments against your take on Malazan . Would securing rights to producing all of Malazan Book of the Fallen be your holy grail as a press owner? What other series would you love to see under the Curious King imprint in the future? Yeah absolutely. I think I spooked Steven Erikson a little bit when I produced the two copies of Gardens of the Moon (one for him, one for me), and then started a press shortly after doing that. I think he may have been worried I was going to start bootlegging his books. He’s one of the best authors of all time, nobody has done anything of the scale and quality as Malazan Book of the Fallen , and I’d be honoured to publish it. The only issue though is the books are large, which causes problems in the fine press world. Regarding other series, there’s loads (and I’m working away at securing some of them). I’ve always wanted to do A Song of Ice and Fire , but sadly it isn’t finished, and I know how frustrating for collectors it is to publish an unfinished series. Though I have no idea how I’d top the Sub Press version. Of course, Lord of the Rings is right up there. I’d sell your kidney to secure that one, that’s for sure (maybe even both). Well, that would be exciting, even if I wasn't around to see it! Your second project was a small-scale rebind of Ready Player One that most people in the small press community have probably seen at this point. The production was exciting and particularly unique and to me it never felt gimmicky. As you were envisioning this project, how did you seek to balance these concepts in the final presentation? I’m sure some people will say it’s a gimmicky production and that’s fine. Balance came from the quality of binding and trying to keep the Atari case as stock as possible. I nearly went further with RPO and had different colour suede boards inside the case that matched the cover, as well as changing the text on the buttons to include title and author etc., but by keeping the colours dark and sleek it helped balance the production somewhat. Well, however people felt about it, there was no denying that it certainly made a huge impression on the small press community. So, after finishing RPO , how did you decide what your first large-scale project would be? Was The First Law Trilogy at the top of your list or one of many that turned out to have the most potential? The First Law was in my top three projects from the outset, and I’m still in disbelief I managed to convince Joe to let me do it. I had made some approaches about a couple of books and series before I did RPO but didn’t get very far. After the success of the RPO reveal I doubled down on my attempts to secure The First Law , as it’s one of my favourite series, and I was able to get it over the line. You went so quickly from a rebind of 26 copies of Ready Player One to a full-fledged small press announcing you had rights to The First Law Trilogy , The Broken Earth Trilogy and Hyperion most recently, all secured before your first full production was released. Those are some heavy hitters! How did you manage to secure such large and influential works with only two rebinds under your belt? What did those meetings look like with these authors and what was your strategy going in? A good presentation helps. I’ve found that the publishing industry is a little antiquated in how things are done, and I discovered that things like a good slide deck and visuals go a long way in grabbing people’s attention and getting those meetings booked. There was also an element of fake it until you make it. I didn’t make it explicitly clear that Gardens of the Moon was just a one-off production (but I didn’t say it was a published book either). Again, some really good visuals of both projects helped get my foot in the door, and then it was up to me convince them I was the right person to do it. The meetings were fairly straightforward. I suppose what I wanted to get across was how passionate I was for the story and the work I wanted to do on it. I genuinely believe if you can convince somebody you’re passionate and also capable of carrying out the work, then it’s hard for them to say no. I’d also like to mention the help I’ve had from other publishers like Rich (Lyra’s) and Bill (Sub Press). Rich gave me some very good early insight to how the industry largely worked (and is amazing to chat design with) and Bill has been just as generous with his knowledge and contacts and has supported CK every step. That’s really amazing, the small press community seems to be much more collaborative than adversarial, even among presses that are sometimes competing for the same customers. What were some of the most important insights that Rich and Bill shared with you? Largely about the mechanisms of licences and how they work and where they’ve had success securing titles. They were incredibly open about it, which is why I try and be so free with my process for others. Absolute legends both of them! You have managed to produce an incredible Standard Edition of The Blade Itself including commissioned artwork from Tommy Arnold, Joe Abercrombie's signature, and around 500 pages printed letterpress, all at a very reasonable price considering. Though you get to really flex on the lettered editions, it seems like you put a lot of energy into all the editions down to the Standard. What does the Standard Edition mean to you as a press owner and as a former collector? The Standard Edition is really important to me, as I struggled to pay for numbered and lettered editions as a collector. So, when I started the press, I wanted to make sure that there was an “affordable” letterpress edition for the collectors who struggled to pay numbered/lettered prices. The issue comes with a cost. Whilst a large run helps things, the price of paper, labour, book board, ink, cloth, etc. pushes the price up considerably. Apart from Sub Press, I haven’t sold any copies to other sellers purely because they cost more to make than they are happy to pay – my margins are razor thin (even at £200 a book!). So, whilst I will try and do Standards as often as possible, some productions will not have a Standard Edition due to popularity and cost. It would be a shame for a Standard to hit £300 as it would start to feel out of reach again. Well, the art and design on the Standard came out really incredibly. Artist selection also seems to be a very high priority for you and you have already secured some high-caliber artists (Tommy Arnold, John Anthony di Giovanni) very early on in the life of the press. What do you enjoy most about collaborating with artists and what level of input do you like to have on a given project? One of the things that drew me to the limited-run book scene is the art. There is such a lack of high-quality art for most fantasy and science fiction novels that it’s one of the most important parts of production for me. Searching for (and finding) artists is one of my favourite jobs, and I take great pleasure in trying to pair the right artist with book. The issue with artists tends to be workload. It’s no surprise that the best artists around are usually booked up, sometimes years in advance, so early engagement is a must. I’ve also realised I’d rather wait for the right artist than plow ahead with another, just because it doesn’t fit into production times. CK isn’t a publishing machine with books needing to go out every quarter, and as such I can be more flexible with artists. Regarding input, I try and have some basic input, but then leave the rest to the experts. There are usually several scenes I’d like to see, and I’ll put my two cents in regarding composition, but I’m careful not to stifle an artist’s creativity. Ultimately, they are the creative and the expert, and the point of using them is you want their ideas. There is more input once sketches for a scene/cover have been done. Because once it’s started to take shape it’s easier to make suggestions. For example, Logan had a bowl cut on the cover of The Blade Itself originally – me and Joe were quite certain that had to go… Now I really want to see Logan with a bowl cut...maybe a limited release print? You just announced that you will be pairing the Hyperion release with the art of Jaime Jones. What are you most excited for in this release and how did you discover Jaime? The art, as always. I discovered him through Tommy Arnold when he referenced him on his patreon as someone he looked up to. I found him and was blow away. You have mentioned that you don’t do creative work for a living and sought inspiration in a lot of different places when first contemplating how to design a book up to your standards. What is your background and how has this helped prepare you for starting your own imprint? I’ve actually done a few careers already. I started in finance and did that for five years. I then moved into headhunting/recruitment for seven years with four of those running my own consultancy. Currently, I buy land for my day job. I work for a housebuilder, and my job is to buy the land we build them on. Setting up two previous businesses certainly helped me when starting CK. My finance background allows me to stay on top of the P&L, cost models, and cash flow. But I’d say my experience in recruitment and running my own consultancy taught me a lot on how to present, pitch and develop business relationships – a key part of publishing. You have mentioned that the margins are fairly thin and we all know it is a ton of work to run a small press, including the twin nightmares of ordering and shipping. What drives you to take on such a task when you already have a full-time day job? It’s largely down to my own experiences as a collector. As mentioned, I won’t always be able to do a Standard Edition, but I will always try to, even if it struggles to stack up. I also want to make sure they’re somewhat affordable too, but that also proves to be a struggle. My press isn’t supposed to be a money spinner, it’s a passion project as well and I want to protect that as best as I can. It seems that the overwhelming majority of collectors are really excited about the prospect of next-level editions of some of the most popular series in science fiction and fantasy. However, there are some who have expressed hope that Curious King might venture into areas not covered by other small presses before. As you think about future series you hope to secure, what are the overriding factors that will influence the direction you are going? I would love to do some series that have yet to have the small press treatment, and there are a couple I have been pursuing. I think to begin with I want to work on some of the most loved and popular books as this will help with sales, then hopefully after I’ve delivered several editions, I’ll be ready to venture out into the lesser-known titles with smaller fanbases. The issue is there are other publishers out there who are already established who are probably also securing these rights ferociously, so there may not be many left in a few years. If there was one word or phrase that came to people’s minds when they think of Curious King , what would you hope that it would be? Pound shop Bill Schafer. (Or Dollar Tree Bill Schafer for the Americans) Hah, I would give yourself more credit than that! So what should we expect next from Curious King ? Obviously, you have a lot of work ahead of you just to produce the books that have already been announced, but is there anything coming further down the road that you can share or are excited about? Books mostly. A bookmark too? In all seriousness, I will continue to hunt down the rights to my favourite book’s licenses and try and produce beautiful editions. I also have some other ideas that fit in quite nicely to my current offering, but they’re just ideas and research at the moment so I shan’t say anymore on that subject! This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth and we want to thank Anthony for his time and patience putting this together. If you want to see more from Curious King you can check them out at https://www.curiousking.co.uk/ and sign up for the newsletter to get periodic updates. You can also follow Curious King on Facebook and Twitter. 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.