University of California Berkeley of California Regional Oral History Office University The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Sandra Kirshenbaum A LIFE WITH BOOKS AND WITH FINE PRINT: THE REVIEW FOR THE ARTS OF THE BOOK With an Introduction by Robert D. Harlan Interviews Conducted by Robert D. Harlan in 1999 Copyright 2001 by The Regents of the University of California Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well- informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is indexed, bound with photographs and illustrative materials, and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ************************************ All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Sandra Kirshenbaum dated January 23, 2001. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Bancroft Library, Mail Code 6000, University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. The legal agreement with Sandra Kirshenbaum requires that she be notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which to respond. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Sandra Kirshenbaum, "A Life with Books and with Fine Print: The Review for the Arts of the Book," an oral history conducted in 1999 by Robert D. Harlan, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2001. Copy no. Sandra Kirshenbaum Photo by Carole DeNola Cataloguing information Kirshenbaum, Sandra (b. 1938) Editor and publisher A Life with Books and with Fine Print: The Review for the Arts of the Book, 2001, vi, 151 pp. Italian family background and San Francisco childhood; UC Berkeley B.A., 1959; Carnegie Institute of Technology, MLS, 1960; work as public librarian, cataloguer, antiquarian bookseller; evolution of Fine Print, 1973-1990, to international status; reflections on fine printers Andrew Hoyem, Steve Corey, Herb Kaplan, George Ritchie, Linnea Gentry; thoughts on cover designers and artists, Adrian Wilson, Frances Butler, Sumner Stone, Hermann Zepf; thoughts on fine printing and computer design. Introduction by Robert D. Harlan, interviewer. Interviewed 1999 by Robert D. Harlan. The Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Regional Oral History Office, on behalf of future researchers, wishes to thank Robert D. Harlan, who interviewed Sandra Kirshenbaum and edited the transcript, as well as The Bancroft Library s Norman H. Strouse Fund. These contributions made possible this oral history of Sandra Kirshenbaum. TABLE OF CONTENTS --Sandra Kirshenbaum INTRODUCTION- -by Robert Harlan i INTERVIEW HISTORY--by Robert Harlan v BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION vi I A BOOKWOMAN S BEGINNINGS A Printing Family in Italy; Escaping During World War II 1 Father s Business Ventures in San Francisco 5 Early Interest in Books and Libraries; Public School in San Francisco and San Mateo 7 Undergraduate at UC Berkeley, 1956-1959; Library School at Carnegie University, 1959-1960 9 Parents Background and Influence 12 Librarian in New Jersey and Argentina; Husband s Career as a Metallurgist 15 Settling in the Bay Area; Two Years on the East Coast 19 Cataloging Auction Books for Maurice Powers 22 II THE GENESIS OF FINE PRINT 27 The People of Fine Print, Circa 1973 27 Introductions to Steve Corey, Herb Kaplan, and the Grabhorn- Hoyem Press 32 Meeting George Ritchie and Linnea Gentry; Starting With $800 35 Process and Content for Early Issues of Fine Print 39 Expanding the Size and Scope of Fine Print 45 All Volunteers: Regular Staff and Outside Reviewers 48 III SPECIAL ISSUES AND THE HEYDAY OF FINE PRINT 52 Surveys of Foreign Fine Printing 52 The Czech Issue, January 1987 53 The German Issue, April 1986; Visiting Renata Raecke and Other Book People in Germany, 1986 59 A Letterpress Conference Leads to Contacts in London, 1985 65 The Italian Fine Printing Scene 68 Other Foreign Coverage 71 "Broadside Roundup" Column, From 1984 74 Other Columns; Coverage of Bookbinding and Calligraphy 77 Editorial Planning; Indexing 80 The Influence of Lloyd Reynolds; Profiles and Obituaries of Book Artists 84 The Dutch Issue; Reader Responses 87 Tenth Anniversary Issue, January 1985 92 IV COVER ART AND A BOOK ON TYPE 96 Designers and Artists of fine Print Covers; Adrian Wilson, Frances Butler, Sumner Stone, Hermann Zapf, and Others 96 Publishing a Book: Fine Print on Type, 1989 112 V THE LAST OF THE FINE PRINT YEARS 118 Subscribers, Advertising, and Circulation; Steven Harvard and Stinehour Press 118 Grant Funding 124 Forming an Umbrella Organization, Pro Arte Libri, 1989 126 Financial Desperation and a Benefit Auction 130 Seeking a University Press Publisher; No Solution 137 The Complete Index to Fine Print 139 Thoughts on Computer Design and the Fine Print Legacy 142 TAPE GUIDE 145 INDEX 146 INTRODUCTION by Robert D. Harlan When my offer to conduct oral histories for the Regional Oral History Office (ROHO) was accepted in 1999 by The Bancroft Library, one of the top priorities was an interview of Sandra Kirshenbaum. Herein is the interview. For this Introduction I have chosen to reprint, with some omissions and modifications, the following article originally published in Number 4, the April 2000 issue of Parenthesis: The Newsletter of The Fine Press Book Association, pages 19-20. For their kind permission to reprint this article I thank the editors of Parenthesis. Since the publication of this article Sandy has been honored with distinguished awards from the American Printing History Association and the Book Club of California. THE EXAMPLE OF FINE PRINT by Robert D. Harlan Many readers of Parenthesis will recall with pleasure its illustrious predecessor Fine Print (1975-1990) which was originally created by its editor /publisher Sandra Kirshenbaum to remedy the absence of effective bibliographical control of recently issued fine press books, a condition she had observed as a cataloguer for a rare book auction house and as a bookseller. Ignoring the warnings of a distinguished doyen of the San Francisco book scene that such a project could never succeed, she persisted with the help of three volunteers (the late D. Steven Corey, a rare book librarian, and Linnea Gentry and George Ritchie, two junior members of Andrew Hoyem s press), with a budget dependent upon her personal bank account and a generous donation from her mother. The Fine Print office consisted of a card table around which her colleagues and she would gather to discuss the material they had assembled, including fine press books submitted for review. Few in number at first, these were preponderantly issued by California presses where Sandy was known and where her pledge to return the books in the same condition in which they had been received was readily accepted. The inaugural issue of Fine Print, published in January 1975, comprised a modest eight pages of text without illustrations and a banner instead of a separate cover. Sub- titled "A Newsletter for the Arts of the Book," it contained no substantive articles of the quality for which Fine Print would eventually become known and limited news, but it did establish the framework for future issues in its departments, including "Shoulder Notes," a collection of newsworthy events, and most important, "Works in Progress" and "Recent Press Books." Printed by Andrew Hoyem, it set high typographical standards which were consistently adhered to as other printers and designers became involved. Hoyem s support was generoushis contribution to the causeand here too he contributed to the model because Sandy could sometimes offer only modest honoraria to ii contributors, perhaps a copy of a book or complementary subscription to Fine Print, or just her thanks and the opportunity to participate in the making of an increasingly noteworthy journal. Fine Print never wanted for contributors. Basing her mailing list upon the lists of The Book Club of California and The Typophiles of New York, the latter by courtesy of Dr. Robert Leslie who added a personal donation of $50, Sandy ordered the printing of 2,000 copies of Volume I, Number 1 of Fine Print. The response was encouraging, and Fine Print seemed well launched. Sandy s first serious challenge, to free the journal of a provincial "California" stigma, diminished as the roster of authors, reviewers, and fine presses became international in scope. The first of several milestones on that path was reached when conservative eastern printer Joseph Blumenthal agreed to review William Everson s controversial masterpiece, Robinson Jeffers 1 Granite & Cypress.