Photo By Kellsie Kennedy
I recently took a field trip to Larkspur Press for one of my English classes. Here is what it is like:
Larkspur Press is tucked into rural Kentucky just outside of Frankfort. You are greeted by two large and sweet dogs immediately after parking. They loop around you, ushering you into the small, two-story building to meet Gray Zeitz, who has been printing books for decades.
As soon as you walk through the door there is a large tool box with shelves of metal letters. Each lettered plate is stamped in mirror image. There are now enough letters collected to be able to typically set the book in its entirety. Each page must be calculated in a way which aligns the text.
The Larkspur Press hires woodcarving artists such as Joanne Price to illustrate each book. The carvings are typically done on the wood’s ingrain, the hardest part of the wood, to ensure a crisp image and a long-lasting craving.
Paper is ordered in large sheets which are hand cut to size. Depending on the thickness of the paper, it may have to be dampened gradually over a day for the ink to adhere correctly. A printing press, which is more than a hundred years old, is used to print each page. One page can sometimes require several rotations through the press depending if it contains multiple colors or illustrations.
The pages are taken upstairs to be folded and sewn together. Adhesive is used to bind the pages within the cover. The book is placed within a machine to press it while the adhesive dries. A cover is added to complete the book after about three hours, or six hundred hours per edition, of work.
Overall, the experience left me breathless. There is a beauty about seeing a book, an object which you have adorned since you first learned how to read, masterfully created. The pages are thick and have that beautiful smell all readers strive to experience. If you get the chance, visit the Larkspur Press because you will not be able to stop thinking about it. I was even able to meet the author, Frank X Walker, a professor at the University of Kentucky to sign my book.