Rose O'Neill Literary House
James Dissette '71 examines a page from "Beanball," on our Vandercook 4 proofing press. Dissette designed and printed the work as a guest printer, in consultation with the Master Printer of the Literary House Press, T. Michael Kaylor.
A plate from "Beanball" in the bed of the Vandercook.
Literary House Press
Based in Chestertown, Maryland, at the Rose O'Neill Literary House, the Literary House Press is devoted to producing literary works in limited editions, giving the writing the same care and attention in production that it receives in composition. Our most recent publication, forthcoming in January, 2008, is a hand-printed edition of "Beanball," by Ron Carlson. This project is a collaboration with One Story magazine, where Carlson's story appears in the 100th issue. Made with custom plates and printed on felt-finish, deckled-edge paper on a hand-cranked antique Vandercook Press, the book will feature original art and be case bound in full cloth with a foil stamped design and title. Each of the one hundred copies will be numbered and signed by the author. (To reserve a copy, send an email to 100@one-story.com.)
Additional letterpress works—all produced in our own printshop, a working museum of lead type and hand presses—include a limited, signed edition of Browsing, by John Barth, an original essay on the pleasures of a fine library. The Literary House Press broadsides series has featured the work of Mary Karr, Galway Kinnel, and Toni Morrison, among others.
The Literary House Press also produces literary work on the history and culture of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where we are based. Featured titles are below. For more information, please contact Kathryn Bursick, assistant editor, at 410-778-7899 or kbursick2@washcoll.edu.
Request a review copy
For the Media
To request a review copy, please fax a request on your publication's letterhead to:
College Relations Office / Fax 410-810-7150. Please include your complete street address, e-mail address, and phone numbers.
Sales Representation
Kathryn Bursick
Literary House Press
Washington College
300 Washington Ave.
Chestertown, MD 21620 USA
kbursick2@washcoll.edu
410-778-7899
Shipping: Books and Journals
Domestic
- Media Mail: $5 for first item plus $1 for each additional item
- Overnight: $15 for first item plus $2 for each additional item
- 2-Day Air: $12 for first item plus $1 for each additional item
Contact Us
Joshua Wolf Shenk, editor-in-chief and publisher, at 410-778-7845 or jw@shenk.net.
Kathryn Bursick, assistant editor, at 410-778-7899 or kbursick2@washcoll.edu.
The Literary House Press
Washington College
300 Washington Ave.
Chestertown, MD 21620
Books Available
Here On The Chester
ISBN: 0-937692-18-2
John Lang, editor
$14.95
Here On The Chester gets at the soul of Chestertown, Maryland, one of the oldest towns in America, home to the first college named for its founder, George Washington—and an eclectic, colorful citizenry. Today that includes not just watermen but also journalists, artists, poets, academics, and others whose writings are here gathered together to reflect the history and ways of one of the most sought-after destinations in the environs of the Chesapeake Bay.
Readers of Here On The Chester will find themselves jumping from descriptions of important landmarks and famous visitors like General Washington, to the reflections of ordinary men and women who safeguard the Town's secrets and traditions. This little gem of a book also includes accounts of a Chestertown club that was favored by African-American musicians when Jim Crow prevailed, a photograph and mention of where Tallulah Bankhead (1903-1968) is buried and a tribute to Eastern Shore baseball immortal, Bill Nicholson, which explains why he was nicknamed "Swish." Editor John Lang harmonizes these diverse voices and stories.
Talking Tidewater
ISBN: 0-937692-13-1
Richard Harwood, editor
$14.95
Talking Tidewater features such noted authors as John Barth, William Warner, Jonathan Yardley, Eugene McCarthy, and Tom Horton. "Our purpose in this anthology," writes editor Richard Harwood in the Foreward, "is to sort through the abundance of good and bad Chesapeake literature, choose some of the choicest fare and serve it up on a single plate for the pleasure, enlightenment and convenience of readers."
Autobiographical essays in the first section give us intimations of the influence of oceans, bays, beaches, islands and rivers on the imagination, dreams and self-identity of their authors. The middle section celebrates the human and cultural variety of the region, its customs, traditions and eccentricities. The final essays examine the malign and accidental forces that threaten the health and wealth of the bay and the survival of the distinctive character and lifestyles that have inspired and informed the work of generations of literary men and women.
Crab's Hole
ISBN: 0-937692-11-5
Anne Hughes Jander
$14.95
Crab's Hole, Anne Hughes Jander's delightful memoir, is a rare and discerning look into the society of one of America's oldest and most durable island communities—Tangier, Virginia, a village of nearly a thousand souls, where descendents of the Crocketts and Pruitts and Thomases who settled the place more than three centuries ago still pursue the traditional life of Chesapeake Bay watermen.
Browsing
ISBN: 0-937692-17-4
John Barth
$9.95
For any reader who has ever plunged joyously headlong into a book—or a roomful of them, or an entire library—this one will be a special treat. John Barth's Browsing takes us on a literary ramble through the history of libraries (both real and imagined) and of his own lifelong encounters with books. As we have come to expect from the author of The Sot-Weed Factor and Lost in the Funhouse, this extended essay combines humor, erudition, and an exuberant intellectual energy. En route to a deeper understanding of what he calls "the browserish aspect of human consciousness," Barth visits such topics as the joys of marginalia and the hazards of reading on the beach; the Library of Pergamum and the Library of Babel; Bakhtin, Borges, and Barthelme; hypertexts and the Pandemonium Model of Utterance. Browsing is a book for true book lovers, a delight to the mind as well as the eye.
Browsing was adapted from a speech given by Barth at Washington College's Clifton Miller Library on October 1992, at a celebration of its 200,000th volume. The book features linoleum cuts by Mary Rhinelander.
Browsing
Signed Limited Edition
John Barth
$175
300 Washington Avenue, Chestertown, Maryland 21620 | 410-778-2800 | 800-422-1782