Running the press.

Three plates for the bookmark and the black plate for the dust jacket.

Side view of the Miehle Vertical. The plates are visible just above the ink rollers.

The black plates locked in the chase.

The final replica dust jacket.

PRINTING THE JACKET

To find the paper, I wrote to 11 paper manufacturers asking for samples of a greenish-gray stock. Only one mill, Cascades Fine Papers Group, in Canada, was able to supply me with anything close. When I got the sample of Rolland Motif, Warm Green I compared it to the Court Grey color swatch in Maerz and Paul's DICTIONARY OF COLOR (1930). It was a perfect match. The original jacket is printed on a heavy cover stock, and the Rolland Warm Green is available in 80lb cover. So this reproduction has the same stiff feel as the original. Though the paper is lightly imprinted with a screen pattern on one side, the other side is smooth and makes a splendid printing surface.

Plates were ordered from Owasso Graphic Arts, Inc., America's largest copper and magnesium photoengraver. In business for over 50 years, Owasso is the major supplier of dies and metal plates for hot stamping, foil stamping, debossing, printing and rubber stamp masters. Working with the advice of their tech support, I ordered the 16-gauge, wood mounted dies for the jacket and the bookmark. I was able to send the art files electronically and got the plates delivered to the printer within a week.

My printer was The Pressworks of Denver, Colorado. Though primarily an offset printer, their equipment included both a Heidelberg flatbed and a Miehle vertical rotary cylinder press used mainly for stamping and die cutting. As a member of the Amalgamated Printer's Association, the owner, Lonnie Smith is an avid afficianado of letterpress printing and a collecter of antique presses. He was interested in the project though his shop had never tried doing a multicolor letterpress job before. We first thought we would need to do it on the Heildelberg, but one of the pressmen, John Swatzai, had been trained on the Miehle 54 years earlier and was sure he could handle it on that.

Inks were mixed to match both the notes taken from the Louisville source jacket and the FEL dust jacket. The green and black were relatively easy to match, but the yellow tended to go much darker when laid on the gray-green stock. Eventually the yellow-gold of the original was successfully matched and proofs were approved.

Printing was accomplished over three days, allowing a full day for drying on each color. The bookmarks and jackets were printed together and trimmed out later. As it turned out, the press run was made in June, 2004, 90 years after the release of the McClurg first edition in June, 1914. Consequently, I have dubbed this the 90th Anniversary Replica Dust Jacket.

Danton Burroughs is very happy with the reproduction, and George McWhorter calls it "Perfect!"

Phil Normand
7/30/04