St. Cubbins Interviews the Proprietor

¶ The founding of a new letterpress imprint can hardly expect to command headlines in today’s effuse & addled screen-dominated culture, but in anticipation of inquiries from those few people whose bookshelves still shelve books, Andrew Steeves, literary publisher, editor, typographer and letterpress printer, will forthwith and forthrightly field a few questions regarding his newly minted venture. The inquisitor is his longtime associate Randolph St. Cubbins, bibliophile, propagandist, literary gadfly and persona incertae originis.

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St. Cubbins: Whatever made you wish to establish a new press and printshop at this point in the history of civilization?

Steeves: After three decades in trade publishing, I’m shifting my focus to letterpress printing because I want to work at a slower pace and a smaller scale. I want to make books with my own hands and not merely direct their making, and to be more intimately engaged with the readers of my books. I’ve always worked this way to some extent, but Press of the Varying Hare will allow me to immerse myself in the aspects of publishing I find most rewarding—writing, editing, typography, printing, binding.

St. Cubbins: Not to split hares, but should you not say ‘burrow’ rather than ‘immerse’?

Steeves: You are referring to the eponymous rabbit? Varying hare is the lesser-known common name of the Lepus americanus or snowshoe hare, a large-footed woodland lagomorph native to Nova Scotia. I selected this press name in part because these hares are plentiful in my woodlot. They are not burrowers as you suppose, but rather use the terrain and evergreen thickets for shelter. They’re ‘varying’ because of their ability to change the colour of their coat from brown to white and back again, depending on the season.

St. Cubbins: Well, neither a burrower nor a blender be, quoth Shakespeare. So will it be styled ‘Press of the Varying Hare’ or ‘Varying Hare Press’?

Steeves: Either way, I suppose. It will be, well, varying, depending on the season. But I prefer the construction ‘Press of the Varying Hare.’

St. Cubbins: Right. And what kind of work will the new press undertake?

Steeves: I plan to produce text-and-type-focused works on paper using traditional wood and metal type, letterpress printing and hand binding­—that is to say limited-edition ‘fine press’ books and more affordable chapbooks, pamphlets, posters and broadsides. I’ll both publish books under the Varying Hare imprint and offer design and printing to clients. Editorially, I expect to publish a mixture of my favorite canonical and contemporary authors, as well as short works on printing history, typography, book publishing, rural society and civics. I’ll also be taking on freelance jobs as a writer, editor and book designer. Above all, my aim is to work with paper, ink, type and ideas, and to produce works that will hopefully be of some interest and use to neighbours near and far.

St. Cubbins: Yes, quite. May your books multiply like rabbits.

Steeves: As the hare leaves her prints in the snow, I’ll leave mine in paper.

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Festina lente, magnus pede lepus!