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Category: 20th Century

Black and white illustration of aurora australis. There is a mountain in the background with water in the foreground. There is a small ship in the water.

Polar Plunge: An Exploration of Antarctic Publishing

Posted by: Callie Beattie

In 1901, on a journey to reach the South Pole, the Discovery Expedition joined together to establish the first Antarctic journal. With illustrations, poetry, and field reports written by sailors and officers alike, the journal provided the crew with a creative outlet over the long polar winter. Six years later, members of that same crew embarked on a new expedition and set out to establish a floating print shop to create the first book ever published in Antarctica known as the Aurora Australis.

Posted in: 20th Century, Fine Press, History of the Book, Publishing, Seasonal

Photograph shows James Baldwin, an African American, male, LGBTQIA writer and activist, seated.

An Honest Man and a Good Writer: 100 Years of James Baldwin

Posted by: Callie Beattie

Born in Harlem on August 2nd, 1924, novelist and essayist James Baldwin (1924 – 1987) is regarded as one of America’s greatest writers. At the time of his death on December 1st, 1987, Baldwin was working with sculptor and printmaker Leonard Baskin (1922–2000) of the Gehenna Press to publish a fine press edition of an unpublished work. Gypsy and Other Poems features six of Baldwin's poems that reveal an intimate, introspective side of the writer.

Posted in: 20th Century, Fine Prints, Literature