Twenty-one years ago Dr. Raymond F. McLain, who was then academic vice-president at the University of Alabama, working with the first dean of the Library School, Dr. James Ramer, conceived of incorporating a book arts aspect into the library school curriculum. While he was Provost at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, Dr. McLain learned to print from Victor Hammer. When the library school in Alabama was founded they created a large typographical laboratory and Dr. McLain began teaching classes in printing. Dr. McLain taught the first printing courses and soon conscripted Glenn House, a talented artist working across campus, to take over the reins. Glenn learned to print from McLain and began what would be eighteen years of teaching printing and its allied arts. In 1982, when it had been decided to create a Master's program, Gabriel Rummonds of the Plain Wrapper Press in Verona, Italy, was hired to be the director of the Institute for the Book Arts and to teach handpress printing. He had taught book-related courses at the university for several summers prior to being hired full-time. He worked with our historian of the book, Dr. Gordon B. Neavill, and Dean Ramer, and a program plan began to emerge. In the summer of 1982, the Book Arts Program had its official kickoff with a five-week summer workshop. A fresh specialist arrived each week and taught a week-long class. I was asked to lead a workshop on printing with the Vandercook proof press. We produced a chapbook from the ground up that week, collaborating with a local poet, and I had my first, and very memorable, contact with Alabama: good and friendly people, a lively atmosphere, hard work, tropical smells, and everything under the sun in bloom. Paula Marie Gourley, a French-trained bookbinder from California, was hired in 1984 as a Visiting Artist to bind an early Parallel Editions production and ended up teaching bookbinding on a full-time basis. She is now the only bookbinder teaching full-time in an American university. In 1988, Gabriel Rummonds decided to moved on and I was selected to fill the position of printer. Since then, Paula Gourley and I have been working together to create a unique, comprehensive, unified program in the craft of making books by hand. Putting our heads together, we formulated a plan for the program, which is to develop professional artisans, including hand bookbinders and letterpress printers, who are technically proficient in the book arts as well as cognizant of the historical background in which these various crafts evolved and of the professional environment in which graduates will eventually work. In a field where there are a handful of programs which deal with but one aspect or another of book arts, the Alabama program is unique in its comprehensive nature. The program encompasses an interrelated curriculum linking bookbinding, history of the book, printing and typographic design, as well as papermaking and paper decoration. The comprehensive, literary, and craft-oriented nature of the program is what draws students from all areas of the United States. The program's unique location within the School of Library and Information Studies enhances the scope of the school's offerings and its commitment to the book and to information in all its forms. Solid craft is important to what we do and this is the message we give to our students. We work at the details, work at the details, and work at the details. We want to make sure our books are technically well-crafted. During a period in which the current fashion is with "artist's books," we are making a strong stand about the quality of production and craftsmanship. All too often, the artist's book is badly printed and badly bound using materials that begin to self-destruct immediately; it is doomed to an early grave. To the artists who come to the program we say, "fine, but let's first learn how to print a book under optimal circumstances, with a binding which will last, then think about letting loose on the contents." This is not to say we discourage creativity. I do not think there is anything we could do to keep down the creative enthusiasm that rises in our students. But we are saying to them: "Do it right!" In the type lab we have six Vandercook proof presses, two iron handpresses, and one clamshell press. We have hundreds of cases of type in various states, from new to beat-up; perhaps one of the greatest challenges for me is to keep the type collection refreshed. The bookbindery is next door and is simple and comfortable. We have nipping presses, a large standing press, a board shear, and the thousand and one items needed to operate a small hand bindery. After Glenn House's recent retirement, I inherited his paper mill and papermaking course. I am teaching that class for the first time, after some years of not having made paper. The mill is in the basement of New College, a building near the library on the quad. The space is not large, but it is adequate, with enough room for one of Howard Clark's first Hollander beaters plus assorted vats, table surfaces, and places to hang felts guaranteed to slap a tall person in the face. The beater works fine, although it is loud. The Clarks say that unless it is too loud it is not working right. By session two this spring semester, we were making large rag sheets outdoors in cold weather that turned everyone blue. Perhaps next year we will wait until later to work outside. Since then we have produced good and even sheets of 100% linen rag paper, and the students are now experimenting with watermarks-as-text for upcoming book projects. The students are encouraged to make high-quality papers suitable for letterpress printing, in addition to experimenting. Glenn is returning from retirement this spring to lead two papermaking sessions on his passion, Alabama Kozo. We encourage students to produce real-world publishing projects. In the printing classes the focus is both on the quality of the text and how to handle it typographically. I challenge students to work with first-rate authors on their printing projects. For some of them that means collaborating with creative writing students. For others, it is writing to favorite authors and getting new poems or stories to publish for the first time. Still others write the text for their books, as I did for my own first book. I urge them to take their work seriously, and to print only what they love. Making a book is too much work to spend on something you are not wild about. The whole program is infused with a literary bent. We incorporate artwork to support the text, building the books around the spine of the text. The content of the book is of paramount importance to the bookbinders too, and it is only after a careful consideration of the text that binding decisions are made. Even when books are bound as one-of-a-kind pieces, the content is critical. Paula Gourley constantly walks that tightrope between teaching fine design binding and edition bookbinding, between full artistic expression and the repetition and accuracy inherent in binding multiples. One of her courses offers the students an exciting, multi- faceted immersion into the world of paper decoration, including Turkish marbling, Japanese suminagashi, paste- resist linoleum block printing, pochoir, and stamped and printed papers. In addition to her teaching duties, Paula organizes all of the exhibitions in our gallery; she has mounted thirty such book-related shows. As part of the educational process we produce limited edition handmade volumes of contemporary literature under the Parallel Editions imprint. Students are involved in all phases of production in collaboration with the faculty, from typesetting and design to bookbinding, and all of the work is done by hand. Working on exciting first edition publishing projects is a unique and potent experience for everyone involved. Authors published recently through the program include Guy Davenport, Octavio Paz, Michael Peich, and Allan Peterson, as well as others at the leading edge of contemporary literature. Proceeds from sales of our books go directly into purchasing type, paper, ink, and leather for the program. The program takes two years to complete and includes a Master's Creative Project in the second year. All students take the same course work the first year, including the first and second semesters of bookbinding and letterpress printing, history of the book, decorated papers or boxmaking and protective containers, and papermaking. In the second year they specialize either in bookbinding or letterpress printing, and take the majority of their advanced classes in their specialization. The program is intense, and for most people the learning curve is steep in the first year. We accept up to eight new students a year. They come from all parts of the United States and many different backgrounds to attend the program. They leave with a working knowledge of hand-set type, letterpress printing, typography and book design, bookbinding (from the simplest of pamphlets all the way to full-blown leather bindings), decorated papers, and the manufacture of paper by hand. Our students have successfully entered the job market as book conservators, book designers, editors, edition and designer bookbinders, private press printers, and museum curators. Some are self-employed in related fields. Our vision is to provide a solid, high-quality education in the book arts, which will be a model for other programs and teachers; to graduate the most competent craft/artisans in the field; and to produce outstanding examples of the crafts of bookbinding and fine printing worthy of peer recognition.
