|
Dry
Fly Entomology by Frederic M. Halford, published in London
in 1897, was the inspiration for Mayflies of the Driftless Region.
Halford, the Victorian innovator and popularizer of modern fly-fishing,
scientifically described and surveyed the principal British mayflies
of his time, but he did not claim his work as a comprehensive entomological
treatise. Instead, Dry Fly Entomology was aimed at providing
anglers with a basic, working understanding of the nature of aquatic
insects. Mayflies of the Driftless Region can make no such
claim; it is not a field guide. Instead, it is a study of mayflies
by an artist.
I began this project with little practical knowledge of mayfly entomology.
It was not the information in Halford’s Dry Fly Entomology
that caught my attention, but rather the detailed wood engravings
that illustrated it. While Mayflies of the Driftless Region
may provide useful information for fishermen and women of similar
naïveté, the essence of the book is art. I have created
13 depictions of mayflies, color wood engravings with each hue printed
from a separate block of end-grain maple. These images are the result
of careful microscopic study of specimens collected from streams
near my home in rural Wisconsin.
Entomologist Clarke Garry, professor of biology at the University
of Wisconsin-River Falls, has written text to accompany each of
the images. Professor Garry documents the series of taxonomic steps
involved in the formal scientific identification of each of the
specimens. Also included are some of his notes that help to demonstrate
his working method. In the context of a scientific journal, these
identifications would likely be dry and difficult reading for most
of us. However, in the pages of a finely printed book, the poetic
nature of the language can be appreciated. The text for Mayflies
of the Driftless Region was hand-set in Bembo Monotype and
printed on Zerkall mould-made paper imported from Germany.
A limited edition of 300 copies was bound in quarter leather by
Gregor Campbell with paper made by hand for the edition by Mary
Hark. The limited edition is issued in a slipcase. A special edition
of 50 copies was bound in full calf skin by Jill Jevne, and contained
in a custom enclosure, designed by her, and incorporating a selection
of flies hand-tied for the edition by David Lucca. The images in
this edition were printed on Gampi Torinoko, a delicate hand-made
paper produced in Japan. The special edition also includes a separate
leather-hinged portfolio containing an extra set of prints and progressive
proofs of one image. 50 copies of the book remain in sheets for
custom binding.
| TRADE
EDITION
A
less expensive trade edition is now avaliable. It is
printed on a commercial Monadnock paper, in an edition of
1,000 copies. All of the type is printed from the original
hand set metal. Whereas in the limited edition the type
is printed in a variety of colors, here it is all black, with
the exception of the title page. The images are printed
from the original blocks. The format of the book
is smaller than the limited edition, measuring approximately
6 inches by 9 inches. It is bound in full cloth and
comes with a dust jacket. |
 |
|
