Better Places than This to Learn about Letterpress Printing

Books:

Maravelas, Paul. Letterpress Printing: A Manual for Modern Fine Press Printers. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2005 and London: The British Library, 2005.

This book is excellent. It's also up-to-date and, importantly, in print. You could buy it from any bookseller, but why not buy it from one of the suppliers who sustain the letterpress community, such as NA Graphics?

Polk, Ralph W. The Practice of Printing. Peoria, IL: The Manual Arts Press, 1926, 1937, 1945.

Of the many printers' manuals which appeared in the early Twentieth century, this seems to be one of the most frequently recommended. It is no longer being reprinted (as I write this in late 2008), but can still be found secondhand.

Henry, Frank S. Printing for School and Shop. NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1917

This is another good early Twentieth century manual. I haven't heard it recommended as often as Polk, but it has the advantage of being out of copyright and available freely online via Google Books

Community:

• The Briar Press (the website that seems to be the central clearinghouse for the letterpress community)
• The LETPRESS mailing list and its archives

Introductions and General Resources:

• The Five Roses Press (a good introduction)
• Out of Sorts Press (Prof. Jeff Pulaski's nice animated introduction (requires Flash))
• Letterpress FAQ / Green Dolphin Press
• Basic Letterpress Tools (Dave Bosshard)
• AAPA Resources for Letterpress Printers
• Hand Printing: A Basic Manual (Birmingham)

A few commercial suppliers:

• John Barrett's Letterpress Things (he also has a very good list of basic things.)
• NA Graphics
• Boxcar Press
• Skyline Type Foundry
• M&H Type Foundry
• Dale Guild Type Foundry

The list above is for general letterpress, not hot metal (Linotype, etc.) resources. For those, please see my Linotype and Intertype Linecaster Resources Notebook. (I don't really have much in the way of Monotype, Ludlow, or Elrod resources yet; some of the Linotype/Intertype resources overlap them, though.)

Also (for both letterpress and to some extent hot metal), if you can, attend the Midwest and Great Northern Printers' Fair, held annually in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. They're not very good about announcing/advertising it, so keep an eye on the Briar Press or on the site of their host location, the Midwest Old Threshers.

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