Shackman Press

2.1.2015  Fallow pastures.

4.1.2014  April again.

10.19.2013  Newness on every corner.

9.2.2013  I don't even know what month it is.

3.1.2013  It's March already.

2.1.2013  The "NEW" is increasingly inaccurate, but I can't bring myself to...

12.24.2012  Congratulations to New Directions on a new edition of Schwartz's In Dreams Begin Responsibilities. Preface by "rock musician" Lou Reed!

10.2.2012  We learned of the death of Michael Henry Heim, who translated the Anton Chekhov stories in Easter Week, over the weekend. Heim got us started on this whole experiment and he will be missed.

9.10.2012  We at Shackman Enterprises are never quite as good as we hope.

7.1.2012  Let the games commence!

6.2.2012  Book's are in! I'll throw them up once I figure the internet out.

6.1.2012  Heading to Oak Knoll in the fall.

5.27.2012  The Schwartz edition is just about done—I'll throw up some pre-orders shortly.

5.16.2012  I'm working with paper again. Feels good.

4.6.2012  It's still winter.

3.4.2012  Sarah Creighton's starting the binding. They're going to be gorgeous.

2.29.2012  Morris Dickstein put his signature down too! Onward.

2.18.2012  Met with Linn Meyers to get the colophons signed for the Delmore Schwartz book. Inching along.

1.7.2012  illusions of motions. Been all over the place. 2012.

12.22.2011  Los Angeles.

11.24.2011  Gobble, Gobble.

10.20.2011  We've got another world going on here:
Genuine suntank.

9.15.2011  Say hello at the MIT Media Lab.

9.1.2011  Schwartz book heading towards wrapped-up. Just some lagging details.

8.28.2011  Hurricane Irene. Wow. Lotta water.

8.23.2011  Not to make a big deal out of anything, but printing is underway.

8.4.2011  Thunderstorms over Georgia. Paradise in Kobernick.

7.20.2011  A good post office is hard to find.

7.14.2011  The manuscript for In Dreams Begin Responsibilities is off! It will return, transmuted, courtesy of MWBixler, into 200lbs of lead.

6.28.2011  Okay! Here is—available in a German & English edition for your perusing pleasure. Or both, if you're the gotta-have-a-complete-library type.

Delmore Schwartz
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities
Afterword by Morris Dickstein
Drawings by Linn Meyers

We're staggeringly delighted to announce the publication of In Dreams Begin Responsibilities by Delmore Schwartz, a classic short story first published in 1937. Hand-printed from metal types and hand-bound in custom pastepapers, this is our homage to this dark-star of American letters. Accompanied by an original afterword by Morris Dickstein and elaborate drawings by Linn Meyers. Sarah Creighton bound 60 books, 45 of which are offered for sale in standard and deluxe editions.

$210 via paypal, standard, edition of 30. USA postpaid.
$475, leather-spined deluxe in cloth chemise, edition of 15. USA postpaid.

In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, title spread.
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, title spread.

In 1937, a young writer lead the first issue of the newly-reborn Partisan Review, with a short, powerful story that was to become one of the classic pieces to appear in the magazine. “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities” was an immediate sensation, and Delmore Schwartz, then just 24, was crowned one of America's rising literary stars; critics crowed of the arrival of a major new talent, and Schwartz himself, charismatic and handsome, had the magnetic, breezy confidence of genius.

"In Dreams Begin Responsibilities"—and the subsequent story collection organized around it— was the high-point of his career. Though Schwartz wrote throughout his life, he struggled with alcohol and barbituates. As poet, teacher, and critic—ricocheting between universities and New York flophouses—Schwartz played an increasingly-troubled muse to a generation of writers and artists. His early fame and premature death are somber testament to the challenges brought by great talent and great ambition.

Detail of Linn Meyers drawing.
Detail from Linn Meyer's intricate ink drawings.

Hand-printed on Mohawk Superfine paper on a Vandercook Universal IV in Florence, Massachusetts. The body text is Monotype Bembo, set by Michael & Winifred Bixler of Skaneatles, New York—the titling is Monotype 20th Century cast by Swamp Press.

Detail from cover pastepapers.
Bound in pastepapers over boards.

Sarah Creighton bound 60 copies in original paste papers in her Easthampton, Massachusetts studio, of which 45 are made available for sale. Of that edition, 15 deluxe books are bound in distinctive pastepapers with stamped green-leather spines, and come in a cloth chemise with magnetic closure. All copies are hand-numbered, and signed by Morris Dickstein and Linn Meyers. 36 pp. 7¼ × 10".

$210 via paypal, standard, edition of 30. USA postpaid.
$475 via paypal, leather-spined deluxe in cloth chemise. 1 of 15. USA postpaid.

About the Contributors

Morris Dickstein
Morris Dickstein is Professor of English at the City University of New York. He has written extensively on modern literature, and was a contributing editor at Partisan Review for some thirty years. Among much else, he is the author of Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression, Norton, 2010.

Linn Meyers
Linn Meyers—presently a Washington, DC-based artist—holds a BFA from Cooper Union and an MFA from the California College of the Arts. Her work has been shown at the The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York City; Morgan Lehman, New York City; The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, Japan; The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; and Paris Concret, Paris, France, among others. She is well-known for her temporary site-specific large-scale drawings.

German Title of Weiss Book

A Few Faces of Emil Rudolf Weiß or
Augewählte Schriften von Emil Rudolf Weiß

A small specimen of typefaces designed by Weiß, bound by Sarah Creighton in dashing pastepapers. The typefaces used all come from the spectacular collection of the Druckladen of the Gutenberg Musuem in Mainz. Weiß's designs—Antiqua Kursiv, Antiqua Fett, Kapitale, Lapidar Halbfett and Kapitale Halbfett—are reproduced in two colors and printed on mould-made Zerkall paper.

German Title of Weiss Book

German Title of Weiss Book

Available in a limited bilingual edition: twenty-five copies in an English edition and 10 in a German. $10 off if you buy them both. Get em' while they're hot! 20 pp. 5½ × 3¾"

$60 via paypal for the English edition.
$60 via paypal for the German edition.
$110 via paypal for the English & German edition.


Anton Chekhov
Easter Week
Translated by Michael Henry Heim
Engravings by Barry Moser

We’re thrilled to announce the publication of Easter Week, a collection of new Anton Chekhov translations and engravings. Two stories, “The Student," Chekhov’s own favorite, and “On Easter Eve,” appear in a superb new translation by Michael Henry Heim. Both stories, as well as an accompanying letter, are illustrated with original engravings by Barry Moser.

Ieronim, from On Easter Eve and The Student from Easter Week. Engravings by Barry Moser

Easter Week was hand-printed on the “Edwina Ellis” make of Zerkall paper from Dante types cast by Michael & Winifred Bixler. Sarah Creighton is binding 50 books in cloth, of which 40* are offered for sale. An additional ten copies, lettered A-J, are bound in full leather and include three signed stand-alone prints. All copies are signed by the translator and artist.

A downloadable PDF prospectus is available here.

Regretfully, this book is out-of-print.


Paul Celan
A Reading for Group 47
Our first proper publication — that is, the first we really sweated over — came off of the press in the spring of 2009. A Reading for Group 47 reprints four of Celan's earliest poems in his original German, and John Felstiner's powerful English translations. An original portrait of Celan by Dirk Hagner appears as frontispiece. Fifty copies were letterpress printed from Monotype originals, and handsewn.


Title spread. Portrait by Dirk Hagner, adapted by the artist from a large-scale woodcut.

Celan read the four poems printed here — "In Egypt," "A Song in the Wilderness," "Deathfugue," and "Count up the Almonds — at a meeting of the German literary club, Group 47. After their publication later that year, Celan catapulted to prominence. Written when he was in his early twenties and grieving the death of his parents, "Deathfugue" is a transformative elegy to the horrors of the Holocaust. The curious can listen to Celan reading the poem on this technicolor website.

A Reading for Group 47 is hand-printed on mouldmade Zerkall paper. The type—Eric Gill's Joanna—was cast and set by Michael & Winifred Bixler. Take a look at the Kat Ran Press's classy video collection of the Bixlers' Monotype machine's in action, to get an idea how that works. An unusual typeface — especially in German — Joanna was a privately-distributed until Monotype's reissue in 1958.

Fifty numbered copies were signed by both the translator and the artist, and made available for sale. An additional 15 copies are withheld for the artist, translator, and publisher. This book was made possible by the generous support of the Katherine Russem Memorial Residency for Young Printers at Kat Ran Press.16 pp. 7 × 10½".

Regretfully, this book is out-of-print.

Mark Twain
The Awful German Language
The Press is blushingly-pleased to present a classy edition of Mark Twain's chuckle-inducing (and mildly-insulting) essay about his trials and trevails learning the German language. Snappily-designed, with handprinted & handbound covers, this is an unusual stand-alone version of Twain's famous essay. Available to anyone in the same predicament for $28.

The Awful German Language is handbound in Hahnemühle wrappers printed on a Korrex cylinder-press — the continental analogue of the American Vandercooks. The types used are foundry originals (see photo) from the spectacular collection of the Druckladen des Gutenberg-Museum in Mainz, Germany. Mainz, of course, is where printing all began. It's also not so far from where Samuel Clemens was wandering about in Heidelberg, complaining about seperable verbs and such. If that doesn't grab you, I don't know what will. This is history!

Lead-layout of Mark Twain cover
Tied-up form, Rudolf Koch's Wallau & Jessen, with authentic flash highlight.

The book's contents were laid-out digitally in Trump Mediaeval and printed with considerably more speed (but no less care) by the fine men & women of Acme Bookbinding. For those curious about what the essay is about, the book is available for your kostenlos persual here. The 1906 edition is available on Google Books too, but you'll have to find that yourself.

$28 via paypal

Forty numbered copies are available, and are offered for a jaw-dropping $28, for which purpose the handsome red button (paypal) at right may be used. 32 pp. 5 × 8¼".

a solid cover, utilitarian for useful words & grammar

Useful Words & Grammar
An Eccentric's Guide to the German Language
Composed with great pains by the staff of the Shackman Press, and printed in preparation of a certain young lady's arrival in the City of Mainz. The wrappers are handbound and letterpress-printed from Walbaum types. The contents were spewed out with gusto by a trusty Korean engineering marvel.

While we fully vouch for the usefulness of this small guide, we cannot guarantee its accuracy: verbs & conjugations have a wily way of escaping us. If you notice anything amiss, please drop us a note, so that subsequent editions can be corrected. One self-addressed errata sheet is included for this purpose. An edition of ten, 24 pp. 4 × 6". This vital resource, unfortunately, is out-of-print.

what letterspacing on sesquipedality

Sesquipedality
A Primer for the Aspiring Pedant
A small collection of difficult words culled from a variety of eccentric dictionaries: ioblepharous, violet-lidded, or perhaps totipalmate, web-toed. Letterpress printed on Zerkall paper and handbound in wrappers. Regrettably, this book is out-of-print.