Roy A. Squires (1920-87) was by vocation a bookseller, and by avocation printer. A biography of his life and work can be found at the site of Argent Leaf Press). He entered the book trade as an apprentice of Jake Zeitlin (also a bookseller and private pressman) in the 1960s, and began issuing catalogues of his own in the latter half of that decade. His particular interest was science fiction and "weird" fiction, and both his bookselling and his private publishing benefited from associations he had with several key authors. Perhaps the most famous, and the one whose trove of manuscript materials provided Squires with the best material, was the poet Clark Ashton Smith.
This blog is intended to focus primarily on Squires' activities as a private pressman. Although California has a long tradition of private press publishing and fine printing, Squires never seemed to be part of the crowd, undoubtedly in part due to his down-market literary tastes. Nonetheless, it seems strange his work is almost completely unknown today among people who claim to be interested in the history of printing in California.
For the past decade I have toyed with the idea of writing some kind of article about Squires' printing. Unfortunately many of the people who collaborated with him were dead by then, and he didn't leave any kind of an archive. The few people I could contact who had known him either didn't have much specific information about his printing, or (in one case) didn't want to answer any questions at all. My "research" ended up consisting primarily of amassing a more-or-less complete collection of his publications (more if you count simply having a copy of each title; less if you insist on the more scarce and obscure variants). I also managed to gather a number of his letters to subscribers, which are full of wit and interesting details.
One particular reason I've been interested in Squires' work is because I am also a letterpress printer. The fact that Squires set his publications by hand with metal type, and printed letterpress, is one of the things that sets his work above other small press publsihers. Letterpress was how text printing was achieved from Gutenberg until the middle of the last century, when offset lithography took over. Offset is still how most commercial printing is done. Put simply, the difference between the two technologies is this: letterpress is printing, offset is a picture of printing. (I don't know if Robert Bringhurst actually coined that or I just heard him say it.) At some point I'll attempt to add a post about Squires' printing, and his influences, to this blog.
Having given up on the idea of writing an actual article, I'll use the collection as the basis for this blog, to post bibliographic details, images, and whatever technical comments I can offer about materials, types, etc. for each of his publications. Hopefully it will help provide some of the profile his work deserves, and provide a meeting place for admirers of his work. Squires was involved in amateur printing, specifically of science-fiction fanzines in the 1950s. This isn't going to be part of the blog's focus, but perhaps others will offer up relevant details about that work.
A post will be made for each of Squires' 39 publications, plus a few more for ephemeral or unusual items. The primary source of information, besides the colophons of each publication, will be Squires' own Descriptive Listing of Publications 1962-1979 (1987).
It will be possible to offer comments to posts, but please keep in mind the blog's primary focus (his printing). In an attempt to prevent toxic contamination, comments will have to be approved before appearing. Anyone who doesn't understand why that's necessary probably is part of the reason.
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