Church Street Press

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Proprietor

Alan Stein was born in Toronto in 1951. He studied fine art at Humber College and the New School of Art in Toronto, and stained glass at the Burlieghfield School in Great Britain.

Press Profile

Alan and his wife Charlotte moved to Parry Sound from Toronto in 1987 to open Parry Sound Books. Alan's growing interest in printmaking and his prior introduction to private press printing by Bill Poole of Poole Hall Press made him realize that this was the right time to start the Church Street Press.

Chandler Price platen press, ca. 1890, in the Church Street Press workshop Copyright/Source

Alan acquired a 10 x 15 Chandler & Price press as part of a "complete" printing operation ("read: complete mess!"), found in Whitby, Ontario, where it was gathering dust in a garage. A Vandercook Proof Press #4 was also purchased from Don Black Linecasting in Toronto. In order to house the new bookstore and fledgling print shop, the Steins had to build an addition onto the house in Parry Sound. When the mover arrived with his truck and crane to unload the presses, he also picked up the turret roof for the new addition and lifted it into place. Needless to say, the Steins made the front page of the local newspaper.

"I approach bookmaking and printing from the point of view of a craftsman - as someone who is driven by a love of the process of making things. Something in the nature of letterpress printing is very attractive to me," says Alan. Through trial and error, asking a lot of questions and looking at the work of other printers he admired, Alan produced his first pamphlet in 1990. Since then, his work has progressed to include four books as well as numerous pamphlets and signatures.

Hand in hand with Alan's growth as a private press printer is his interest in wood engraving. Initially, in order to illustrate the texts he had selected for printing, Alan cut images out of linoleum blocks. He soon became dissatisfied with the lack of detail attainable in that medium and turned his attention to wood engraving.