Helping an indie-bookshop owner step into the future by taking a step into the past...

Hello, my name is Alex Green.  I own a small, independent bookstore just outside of Boston.  For over five years, I've published authors the oldest way it can be done, using letterpress machines and lead letter type.  I've worked with Pulitzer Prize winners and even a Nobel Laureate, using this five hundred year old art to create beautiful prints of their works, but the catch is, I don't have my own equipment.  I could use your support to change that fact, purchase a press, and even open up to the public for classes!

Printing, circa 1500

To print my work, I ride buses with lead trays in my hands.  I carry cases of lead letters on trains.  It's romantic, but it's also a bit absurd.  For each piece, ink colors are mixed, paper is carefully selected, images are carved in blocks, and every letter (thousands of them ... even the spaces) cast in lead, is patiently set by hand.  It's a slow process.  Sometimes a single page takes 100 hours to design and print, but by slowing the world down, the result is an art that can't be done any other way.

A Weighty Dream ~ The Rewards

Letterpress equipment is heavy machinery and much of it isn’t made anymore.  To purchase a press, trays of type, and all of the things you need for tinkering with old machines will cost around $17,500, with much of the cost going toward purchasing and moving a press into a good location.  Fonts of type will be purchased, and sometimes cast by foundries in New York and California.  In return for supporting this project, I'm offering the works on which I'm currently working or completing, including:

Haiku Cards and Prints

Ellis Avery is the bestselling author of two major novels, and she writes a haiku a day.  These aren't your average run-of-the-mill hokey haiku.  They send a beautiful message.  For that reason, I've set five of them as greeting cards on heavy card stock, like this one:

And I'm at work setting one as a print on Japanese mulberry paper, to greet a guest who comes to your front door.  The haiku reads:

Old pier.  Late sun gilds the gray wood gold.  You are still not tired of beauty.

WAL-LEX Bowling Alley Poster

Where a printer lives makes an impression on all they do.  I often work with serious projects, but this 1950s poster from Waltham's famous Wal-Lex Bowling Alley is something special:

Pablo Neruda's "Ode to Walt Whitman"

167 lines.  Neruda's great ode to America's great poet, translated and signed by Ilan Stavans.  This massive print took three months to design and print.  The ink is a two-tone hand-mixed concoction with graphite dust and a blind embossed Spanish accent on the bottom left corner.

"To Paula in Late Spring" ~ Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin

A hyper-limited print of "To Paula in Late Spring" by former Poet Laureate and two-time Pulitzer Prize recipient W.S. Merwin.  Set in Walbaum type, printed on Thai paper.

Just for You

If you are able to support this project at a significant level, I'll print something just for you and our first published book will bear your name as benefactor.  Here's a little book I published last year:

"Triptych" ~ Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, Signed

A signed letterpress broadside of Seamus Heaney's last published poem.  One of only 26 printed and signed by the Nobel Laureate.  Only one remains, for the person able to contribute at the highest level.

Impact, Risks, and Goals

Your support helps an old-school dream become a reality.  Anything you can do to support this goal is something for which I'm profoundly grateful.  As I've learned by being a bookseller, just spreading the word alone is a huge support.  If you can do even more, I'm honored for your help.

If for any reason this project does not reach its goals, it's still a step closer to reality than before, and any promise made in the gifts section will be seen to conclusion.  You'll get my gift of gratitude come hell or high water.

There is always the potential for delay, whether in shipments of paper or supplies, but I'm nearly 100% certain that the goals set here are achievable.  If we exceed them, I'll look toward opening up my press for classes!