Around 1974, I had a paperback book on letterpress printing. It was written by a printer, and outlined a simple way to print without an actual press. His idea was to set type, lock it up in a chase, ink up the type with a brayer, or hand roller, then press paper to the type, I think using a pastry roller or perhaps a wooden block and mallet.
I think his own press was called Liberty “something or other.”
Can anyone help with the title and author? Thinking of you, california job case…
Thanks
Any other details you can provide? What country were you in when you had the book, and do you have any notion where it was published? Did you buy in in a retail bookstore, or was it from a museum gift shop or specialist press? Any notion at all who the author may have been? The more info we have the more details (however trivial,) the mode odds we library folk can be of help!
Thanks! I’d thought it more likely a letterpress fan out there would be a good bet, but of course, librarians know everything, or at least how to find it.
I was in Canada, the book was a mainstream America paperback publisher. I read it in my high school library, then bought it when it was discarded, and had it for several years. It was a sort of “printing is fun and you can do it without much money!” book, and the author ran his own print shop. I think he was more of a dedicated hobbyist than a commercial printer. I have a dim and unreliable notion that he called his press, or perhaps the process I outlined above, the Liberty Cap. The book had some history, some basic printing instruction, and some pages on his simple chase and roller printing method.
So I’m not finding anything that seems a particularly good match, but here’s what I’ve found! Providing Amazon links because they have cover images. The first two seem most likely to me, but I’m not having any big eureka feelings.
Starting with relief printmaking (A Pocket how to do it) - Cyril Kent, 1970
Introduction to Printing: The Craft of Letterpress - Herbert Simon, 1968
Relief Printing - Michael Rothenstein, 1970
Printing Without a Press - Maggi Bennett, 1970
Relief Printmaking - Gerald Brommer, 1970
Relief Printing (Museum Press Craftbooks) - James Van Hear, 1968
Here is a link that should reproduce the WorldCat search I was running. The Library of Congress subject heading is just “letterpress printing,” so I was doing a subject-level search for that term, items published 1960-1974, print books, in English. Adding the keyword “liberty” didn’t get me anywhere.
Sadly, nothing on your list or the LofC pages has the book. Thanks for trying!