$225 standard
item # 19ST

$550 special
item # 19S

In 1997 I traveled to Yancy County, North Carolina, and spent three days with Ernest Morgan. He had been described to me as an old printer (ninety-two years of age) with plenty of good stories. On the first day, much to my surprise, he mentioned that he had been an apprentice in the shop of William Rudge in 1923. And yes, Bruce Rogers had been there.


I was amazed. In the course of my visit Ernest went into detail about his experiences in Rudge’s shop. He also talked extensively about his own enterprise, the Antioch Bookplate Company, where he had dealings with such bookish notables as Rockwell Kent and Lynd Ward.

Ernest was also a social activist. During the Depression he had been a union organizer, a regional barter organization manager (as well as the printer of its currency), and Chairman of the Socialist Party of Ohio (as well as its canditate for govenor).

The text of Ernest Morgan: Printer of Principle is a transcription of his stories. Will Powers, who contributed an introduction and afterword to the text, started his career as a printer in 1968 at Ernest Morgan’s Antioch Bookplate Company. He is currently Design and Production Manager at the Minnesota Historical Society Press. Interspersed with the text are archival ink-jet reproductions of artifacts from Morgan’s career, along with two pieces of printing produced by Ernest himself. I have added four impressions of my visit with him in the form of color wood engravings.

The book was printed on Mohawk Superfine paper. The 26 special copies include an extra copy of a portrait of Ernest Morgan and archival ink-jet reproductions of the working materials involved in the protrait’s development. The special copies also contain four bookplates produced by Ernest Morgan. The text was hand set in Poliphilus with Blado italic, and the book was hand bound at Midnight Paper Sales. The introduction and afterword were cast in Monotype by Michael and Winifred Bixler.

9 x 14 inches. 50 pages. 200 regular copies numbered and signed: quarter cloth with paper covered boards, slipcase with cloth edges, leather spine label. 26 special copies lettered and signed: quarter leather with cloth covered boards, cloth covered clamshell case, leather spine label.