The Gravesend Press: A Bibliographical Confession
Lexington, KY: Privately Printed for the Friends of the Gravesend Press at Pickering Press (Maple Shade, NJ), 1960. Original Wrappers. Very Good+ binding. Item #9408
Octavo. 19, [1] pp., illus. Limited edition, one of 500 copies. As issued, sewn in printed wrappers with printed paper label on the front wrapper. Light toning to the extremities; contents clean.
A wonderful narrative bibliography from the short-lived Gravesend Press of Lexington. Graves operated the press as a sideline from about 1949 through to the end of his life in 1960 issuing scarcely more than half a dozen books. While less known that some of his contemporaries he took his place amidst a vibrant mid-century printing and illustrating scene—friends with Victor Hammer, Carolyn Reading, Fritz Kredel, John DePol, John Fass, and others. H. Richard Archer in a history of the Graves and his press published in The Kentucky Review (Spring 1987) summarizes Graves's work thus: "All of the books, whether pamphlets or bound books, reflect the taste and high standards of a true amateur craftsman, and, as such, they certainly qualify as choice examples from one of this generation's most distinguished private presses." Despite the fairly large limitation, this is not a terribly common book in commerce.
Price: $150.00