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COACH HOUSE PRESS BOOKS (1964-1975)Between 1965 and 1975, 107 trade titles were published at The Coach House Press. When "published" is used, the term typically refers to the entire process of book production, from the selection and preparation of the manuscript, through book design, typography, art work and printing, to the marketing and distribution of the finished book. With few exceptions, almost all of the production work was done onsite. Because the Press actively promoted and practiced a collective design and production philosophy, it is often difficult to establish who designed many individual Coach House books. From 1968 to 1975, book design credits are missing from the colophons. Each book was a process of discovery, experimentation and execution. When one examines the books designed during the first ten years of operation, they suggest the subversion of conformity and the celebration of individualism. This act of subversion reflects in large part the avant-garde literature that the Press was publishing during the 1960s. Content was liberated through form to create a sensual and tactile experience. Why Typography. Remarks by Carl Dair, FTDC, at the opening of Typography 62 in Toronto, January 8, 1963. Printed in an edition of 100 copies. [1964]. Cover and centre silkscreen prints designed by Stan Bevington. The first book printed on the Challenge Gordon press.
Roger Fry. Aubrey Beardsley's Drawings. [1965] From the colophon: "100 copies printed for Wrongfount 3 by Dennis Reid, January, 1965".
Das Narren Schyff,. Toronto: The Coach House Press, 1965. Printed and designed by Stan Bevington. Printed in an edition of 100 copies for Wrongfount 3, designed in February 1965. Original woodcuts reproduced by photoscreen. Type hand-set in Bembo; Roman 405e & Italic 406g.
Sir John Daubernoun: A Rubbing from His Brass at the Ancient Norman Church, Stoke D’Abernon. [March 1965] Photo-silkscreen reproduction from an original brass rubbing. Hand-printed at The Coach House Press. Printed in an edition of 200 copies.
Wayne Clifford. Man In a Window. The Coach House Press, March 1965. Illustrations by Dennis Reid. Designed and printed by Stan Bevington. Published in an edition of 300 copies. The first trade book issued by the Press.
Leonard Cohen. The Spice Box of Earth. [Toronto]: McClelland and Stewart, 1961.
Letter from Carl Dair to Stan Bevington. 29 January 1967. Stan Bevington had presented the Canadian typographer, Carl Dair with a copy New Wings for Icarus.
Designed and hand-printed by Stan Bevington. Printed in an edition of 300, 50 of which were signed. This copy is numbered 31/50 and signed by Henry Beissel and Norman Yates. Cover reproduced by permission of Henry Beissel.
Drawings by R. Daigneault. Designed and printed by Stan Bevington. Published in an edition of 500 in July 1966. Cover reproduced by permission of Joe Rosenblatt.
Letter reproduced by permission of Joe Rosenblatt.
Invitation to The LSD Leacock Book Launch. This party, held at illustrator Robert Daigneault's studio in west Toronto, was one of the first social occasions for many of the Coach House "stable" of writers.
Printed in an edition of 500 copies. David Aylward was a co-worker with bpNichol at the University of Toronto Library. This title, along with David Phillips’s The Dream Outside were brought to The Coach House Press by Nichol, a first manifestation of the collective editorial policy which emerged after 1974. Cover reproduced by permission of David Aylward.
bpNichol. Journeying & the Returns. [Toronto]: The Coach House Press, 1967. November 1966. A poem in 22 parts. From the colophon: “These poem objects conceived by bpNichol were designed and produced by Stan Bevington with the assistance of Wayne Clifford, Dennis Reid, Victor Coleman, Clarke Steabner and many other volunteers photo on case and Journeying by Andy Phillips.” Published in an edition of 500 copies, the copy shown here is no 203.
Journeying & the Returns. The Coach House Press, 1967. Inserted into book portion: "A letter from Margaret Avison".
Cover reproduced by permission of Eleanor Nichol.
Manuscript of Scraptures, 5th Sequence.
Cover reproduced by permission of Eleanor Nichol.
Cover reproduced by permission of Eleanor Nichol.
Promotional poster.
Photograph. bpNichol and Stan Bevington. Photograph by David Philips.
Colombo wrote to Bevington stating that he would review Journeying & the Returns for The Tamarack Review. The review appeared in issue 44 (Summer 1967). Letter reproduced by permission of John Robert Colombo.
Dedication: For Stanley Spencer. Drawings by the author. Typography and design by Bev Leach. Printed in an edition of 500 copies. This book was stalled at Bev Leach’s press in Montreal, where Kiyooka was teaching, along with George Bowering, at Sir George Williams University. Cover reproduced with the permission of Kiyoshi Kiyooka.
Letter reproduced by permission of Kiyoshi Kiyooka.
Book designed by Gar Smith. Printed in an edition of 500 copies. The green felt pennant cover design and subsequent triangular page design was impractical and virtually unmarketable at the time. Cover reproduced by permission of George Bowering.
Typescript reproduced by permission of George Bowering.
Book design by Stan Bevington. Cover image by Ena de Silva Fabrics. Printed in an edition of 500 copies. Ondaatje had first submitted the book to McClelland and Stewart for publication, but was rejected. This was Ondaatje’s first book. © permission M. Ondaatje.
Author's instructions to Victor Coleman.
Drawings by Bob Snider. Printed in a numbered edition of 500 copies. This is copy no 201. The first binding was botched by the bindery because of the unusual fold demanded by the oblong format. Instead of being bound on the spine it was bound on the fore-edge and had to be re-trimmed and re-bound. This was the first book to include the statement: Printed in Canada by mindless acid freaKs. Cover reproduced by permission of Victor Coleman.
Bookmark reproduced by permission of Victor Coleman.
Designed by Stan Bevington. Printed in an edition of 500 copies in May 1967. The cover photograph was by Andy Phillips and the still photographs used in the book were taken from a film by bpNichol. Cover reproduced by permission of David Phillips.
Photographs by the author. Printed in an edition of 500 copies. The author’s first major collection of poetry. Cover reproduced by permission of David McFadden.
Letter reproduced by permission of David McFadden.
The cover is a black and white reproduction of Man and Dog, a painting by Jack Chambers dated 1959. Designed by Stan Bevington. Typeset in 12 pt Garamond & 36 pt Garamond bold by Victor Coleman and printed by Nelson Adams. Printed in a numbered edition of 300 copies of which the first 50 were signed by the author. This is copy no 5. © permission M. Ondaatje.
David Rosenberg and [Kati Hewko]. Excellent Articles of Japan. [Toronto:Coach House Press], 1969. The Ant's Forefoot Chapbox. Printed in an edition of 200 copies in May 1969. Box contains 60 unbound leaves. Assembled [in one sitting] by David Rosenberg [and Kati Hewko].
Printed in an edition of 500 copies in February 1969. Cover reproduced by permission of Tamio Wakayama.
Printed in an edition of 300 numbered copies of which the first 50 copies were signed by the author in August 1969. This is copy no18 which includes drawing on colophon page. Book design by Victor Coleman. The first edition was printed, like Ondaatje’s Man with Seven Toes, on the unmotorized Vandercook proof press and designed by Victor Coleman to read back to front. The subsequent paperback offset reprint reverted to conventional alignment. Cover reproduced by permission of Eleanor Nichol.
Original drawings.
Cover design by Sarah Miller. Book designed and printed by Victor Coleman. Printed in an edition of 26 copies in June 1967. Cover reproduced by permission of Victor Coleman.
Cover photograph by Stan Bevington. Colour photographs by the author and printed by Stan Bevington. Printed in an edition of 1000 copies in November 1969. Cover reproduced by permission of Victor Coleman.
A good example of collaboration between Victor Coleman and Stan Bevington. Letter reproduced by permission of Victor Coleman.
Cover art by Barbara Caruso. Printed in an edition of 1000 copies in November 1970. 100 copies were signed by the author and included an original silkscreen print by Barbara Caruso. This is the limited edition copy no 4. Cover reproduced by permission of Barbara Caruso and Nelson Ball.
Judy Johnson. Trailer Report 1970. [CHP MS edition 1970]. Cover illustrations by Michael Sowdon. This is the first computer-generated title at the Press, eight years later the Press sold "on demand" computer-generated drafts of works-in-progress by Coach House authors.
Printed in an edition of 300 copies in August 1970. A good example of the Press’s "wallpaper" period. Cover reproduced by permission of Frank Davey.
Printed by Robert Fones in an edition of 300 copies in July 1970. Includes 22 leaves, boxed. Fones was introduced to the Press by Greg Curnoe, a frequent visitor. Cover reproduced by permission of Robert Fones.
Vol. 1 published in an edition of 818 copies. Cover reproduced by permission of David McFadden.
This publication, involving close to 200 original drawings by Curnoe, would have been prohibitively expensive for any conventional press to attempt. Cover reproduced by permission of David McFadden.
Cover design by Jim Lang. Printed in an edition of 1000. Cover reproduced by permission of David W. McFadden.
Paste-up of alternative cover design for Poems Worth Knowing. Cover design by Jim Lang.
Printed in an edition of 750 copies. Type hand-set by Nelson Adams. Cover reproduced by permission of Robert Hogg.
Geneve was based on the daily reading of tarot cards. For 38 days a new card was pulled from the deck. The cards were photographed and the image was printed on the verso of the dust wrapper, thus serving as a guide to the sequence of cards in the form of a poster. Cover reproduced by permission of George Bowering.
Produced in a signed limited edition of 15. [Victor Coleman's copy.] Bowering's Geneve, along with Frank Davey’s Arcanum and Victor Coleman’s America were concerned with visceral and cosmic interpretations of the Tarot. The three were working on these projects contemporaneously without being aware of the others’ interests. Cover reproduced by permission of George Bowering.
Martin Vaughn-James. The Projector. [Toronto]: Coach House Press, 1971. Printed in an edition of 1000 copies in October 1971. Vaughn-James was a British immigrant whose first visual novel had been produced by New Press. At Coach House Press he devoted himself to the intricate work of drawing these remarkable books.
This was another in the self-produced first volume series allowing an artist/writer to exercise some control over the end product of his/her labours. Cover reproduced by permission of Christopher Dewdney.
Once again Robert Fones, whose reputation as a visual artist had grown considerably since he had produced Kollages the previous year, did most of the hands-on work. Cover reproduced by permission of Robert Fones.
Cover reproduced by permission of Robert Fones.
Book designed and illustrated by Jerry Ofo. Printed in an edition of 1000 copies in the early spring of 1972. bpNichol’s Martyrology, a difficult text, was an editorial risk. Over time, the Martyrology series attained critical attention. Cover reproduced by permission of Eleanor Nichol.
Cover design by David Hlynsky. Printed in an edition of 1000 copies. Another example from the "wallpaper" period. Cover reproduced by permission of Fred Wah.
Cover design and illustrations by Michael Sowdon. Printed in an edition of 1000 copies in July 1972. Coach House Press’s commitment to publishing writers from west of Thunder Bay was strong throughout the first decade. © Coach House Press, 1972. Cover reproduced by permission of Daphne Marlatt.
Letter reproduced by permission of Victor Coleman.
Original drawings for cover reproduced by permission of Michael Sowdon.
Martin Vaughn-James. The Park. [Toronto]: Coach House Press, 1972. Vaughn-James wanted to publish a short text after the major production of The Projector, knowing full well that his next major project, The Cage [1975] would be years in the creation.
The Park. Rare samples of variant formats of The Park, both lacking covers.
Illustrations by author. Printed at night by Michael Sowdon. T. Kenneth Gist (later Ken Gist) was the nom de plume of Kenneth McRitchie, a Coach House Press employee who, like Robert Fones and Christopher Dewdney, was completely “hands-on”, producing type, film, plates and actually running the press. In all he produced four books for Coach House Press between 1970 and 1978. Cover reproduced by permission of Ken McRitchie (a.k.a. K. Gist)
Art work reproduced by permission of Ken McRitchie (a.k.a. K. Gist)
Allen Ginsberg. Iron Horse. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1972. Cover design by Jerry Ofo and Stan Bevington. Printed in an edition of 1000 copies. Allen Ginsberg donated this manuscript to The Coach House Press as he had his manuscript for Airplane Dreams to the House of Anansi Press in 1968.
Ferlinghetti eventually reprinted Iron Horse in facsimile using The Coach House Press film. Letter reproduced by permission of Lawrence Ferlingghetti.
Letter from Victor Coleman to Lawrence Ferlinghetti. 27 March 1973.
Printed in an edition of 2000 copies of which 200 copies were issued in cloth. © permission M. Ondaatje.
Rat Jelly. Original typescript with holograph table of contents page.
Cover designed and printed by Michael Sowdon. Titles set in Hadriano by Nelson Adams. Edition of 900 copies, spring 1973. Cover reproduced by permission of Frank Davey.
Jiri Valoch with bpNichol, eds. The Pipe: Recent Czech Concrete Poetry. 1973. Issued as grOnk, Ser. 6, nos. 6 & 7. Printed in an edition of 750. Contains 26 leaves, boxed. The cover of The Pipe was derived from the Coach House Press signature matchbox cover, easily obtainable in Toronto at the time.
Steve McCaffery. Carnival the First Panel: 1967-70. [Toronto]: Coach House Press, 1973. Printed in an edition of 750 copies. Issued with post card containing instructions for assembly. McCaffery’s first publication with The Coach House Press and his first significant publication anywhere.
Cover reproduced by permission of dh porter (pseud. David Hlynsky).
A.S.A. Harrison. Orgasms. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1974. Book design by A.A. Bronson (a.k.a. Michael Tims). Printed in an edition of 2500 copies in the spring of 1974.
Steve McCaffery. Ow's Waif. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1975. Design and instant lettering collages by Robert MacDonald. Printed in an edition of 500 copies, winter 1975. Robert MacDonald’s Dreadnaught Press was located at the South end of what is now bpNichol Lane, less than a block away from 401 Huron (rear) Street. |
