Arion Press is an American book publishing company in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Founded in San Francisco in 1974, it publishes limited-edition books illustrated by notable artists using

letterpress Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing for producing many copies by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against individual sheets of paper or a continuous roll of paper. A worker composes and locks movable t ...

equipment dating to the 1910s.

History

Michael Kimmelman of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote in 2006 that Arion Press "carries on a grand legacy of San Francisco printers and bookmakers." It was founded by

Andrew Hoyem Andrew Lewison Hoyem (born 1 December 1935) is a typographer, letterpress printer, publisher, poet, and preservationist. He is the founder (in 1974) and was the director of Arion Press in San Francisco until his retirement in October 2018. Arion ...

, continuing the tradition of the Grabhorn Press of Edwin and Robert Grabhorn. Hoyem had been partners for seven years with the younger Grabhorn brother, and after his death started Arion Press, preserving the Grabhorns' historic collection of American metal type. In 1989 Arion acquired M&H Type, which like Graborn had been established in San Francisco in the 1910s, and constitutes the oldest and largest

hot metal ''Hot Metal'' is a British sitcom produced by London Weekend Television about the newspaper industry, that aired for two series on the ITV network in 1986 and 1988, along with a special episode for Comic Relief in 1989, that was broadcast on ...

type foundry A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces for hand typesetting, and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and ...

in the U.S. for letterpress printers. M&H's collection of antique type is the second largest in the United States, after that of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

, and is used by other small presses in addition to Arion. The press's nonprofit branch, the Grabhorn Institute, was designated in 2001 by the

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 ...

as part of "the nation's irreplaceable historical and cultural legacy" under its

Save America's Treasures Save America's Treasures is a United States federal government initiative to preserve and protect historic buildings, arts, and published works. It is a public–private partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and the National Tru ...

program. In 2001, Arion Press leased space in a former laundry in the

Presidio A presidio (''jail, fortification'') was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire mainly between the 16th and 18th centuries in areas under their control or influence. The term is derived from the Latin word ''praesidium'' meaning ''pr ...

. In 2024, it moved to the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture. The press has a gallery and offers tours. Hoyem retired in 2018. , Blake Riley is lead printer and creative director.

Publications

The press publishes up to four books each year, in limited editions of as few as 250. Most are reprints of literary works illustrated with original prints from prominent artists. The livre d'artiste series, launched in 1982, includes

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

's ''Ulysses'' illustrated with etchings by

Robert Motherwell Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was an American Abstract Expressionism, abstract expressionist Painting, painter, printmaker, and editor of ''The Dada Painters and Poets: an Anthology''. He was one of the youngest of th ...

, the poetry of

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

illustrated with etchings by

Richard Diebenkorn Richard Diebenkorn (April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he began ...

Jean Toomer Jean Toomer (born Nathan Pinchback Toomer; December 26, 1894 – March 30, 1967) was an American poet and novelist commonly associated with modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, though he actively resisted the latter association. His reputati ...

's ''Cane'' illustrated with woodblock prints by

Martin Puryear Martin L. Puryear (born May 23, 1941) is an American artist known for his devotion to traditional craft. Working in a variety of media, but primarily wood, his reductive technique and meditative approach challenge the physical and poetic boundar ...

, and the poetry of

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...

illustrated by

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, draftsman, and printmaker. Considered a central figure in the development of American postwar art, he has been variously associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and ...

. In 1979 it published a multi-volume edition of ''

Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 Epic (genre), epic novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is centered on the sailor Ishmael (Moby-Dick), Ishmael's narrative of the maniacal quest of Captain Ahab, Ahab, captain of the whaler ...

'' on hand-made paper, illustrated with wood engravings by

Barry Moser Barry Moser (born 1940) is an American visual artist and educator, known as a printmaker specializing in wood engravings, and an illustrator of numerous works of literature. He is also the owner and operator of the Pennyroyal Press, an engraving a ...

, which took 14 months to print; in 2006 in the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'' John King characterized this and Arion's publications pairing comtemporary poets and artists as "among the most exquisitely printed books in the world". In 2003, the ''

Minneapolis Star Tribune ''The Minnesota Star Tribune'', formerly the ''Minneapolis Star Tribune'', is an American daily newspaper based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As of 2023, it is Minnesota's largest newspaper and the seventh-largest in the United States by circula ...

'' described Arion as "the nation's leading publisher of fine-press books". In 2000, in celebration of the new millennium, Arion Press published a

lectern A lectern is a standing reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of ...

edition of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

in 400 exemplars, which took two years to print. For its fifty-year anniversary in 2024, it is issuing ''

Aesop's Fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a Slavery in ancient Greece, slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 Before the Common Era, BCE. Of varied and unclear origins, the stor ...

'' with updated morals by

Daniel Handler Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970) is an American author, musician, screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is best known for his children's book series ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' and '' All the Wrong Question ...

and illustrations by 15 artists. The presentation box by

Kiki Smith Kiki Smith (born January 18, 1954) is a German-born American artist whose work has addressed the themes of sex, birth and regeneration. Her figurative work of the late 1980s and early 1990s confronted subjects such as AIDS, feminism, and gender ...

illustrates "

Belling the Cat Belling the Cat is a fable also known under the titles The Bell and the Cat and The Mice in Council. In the story, a group of mice agree to attach a bell to a cat's neck to warn of its approach in the future, but they fail to find a volunteer to ...

", with a cast metal mouse sculpture and hidden bells. Arion Press books are in the collections of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, the

Huntington Library The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington and Arabella Huntington in San Marino, California, United State ...

, the

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. FAMSF's combined attendance was 1,1 ...

, and the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

, among others. Two of the Press's books were honored among the one hundred great books of the 20th Century in the 1994 Museum of Modern Art exhibition ''One Hundred Years of Artists Books''.

Jim Dine Jim Dine (born June 16, 1935) is an American artist. Dine's work includes painting, drawing, printmaking (in many forms including lithographs, etchings, gravure, intaglio, woodcuts, letterpress, and linocuts), sculpture, and photography. Educ ...

, ''The Apocalypse: The Revelation of Saint John the Divine'' (1982);

Mel Bochner Melvin Simon Bochner (August 23, 1940 – February 12, 2025) was an American conceptual artist. He is considered to be one of the founders of Conceptual Art,Haus der Kunst (March 7, 2013 - June 23, 2013) Mel Bochner: If the Color Changes./ref ...

, ''On Certainty/Uber Gewissheit and Counting Alternatives: The Wittgenstein Illustrations'' (1991).

References

External links

Official website

M & H Type
{{Authority control Book publishing companies based in San Francisco Publishing companies established in 1974 Private press movement

History

Publications

Further reading

References

External links