HARRY DUNCAN was a Master Printer, from whom
many younger workers learned enough that legions of poets can be forever
grateful to have had their work presented so appropriately that the material
particulars, text and all, will melt away, vanish into thin air, leaving
the work—the POEM—imprinted in the reader’s brain, as
if an electronic chip had been implanted: as some crafty publisher might attempt
some day, hoping to equal the impact of a Harry Duncan book.
Harry Duncan was also a distinctive though not prolific poet and translator; a
stylist as eloquent and elegant in prose as in speech and bearing; a fine
italic penman; and husband of Nancy, whose genius, separate but equal, was of
the theater, though still imprinted in the memories of fellow actors and
audiences, especially children.
The Inner Tympan brings together every published piece
of Duncan’s writing that could be found, and constitutes thus a self-portrait; not one
consciously planned, certainly not one he helped to gather, but neither is it
one he would have rejected. —John Ridland, from the back cover
The 6” x 9” 300 page hardcover book was set in Enrico
and features a striking 1976 portait of Harry Duncan by Stuart Allen Scott. As a
print on demand publication it is, theoretically at least, an unlimited edition, but it seems appropriate, necessary perhaps, to incorporate
something of the hand to accompany this commercial production.
To that end, the first 100 copies include a four-page insert hand set in Dante type and printed on Duncan’s Ostrander-Seymour handpress at the Taller Martín Pescador. Its text is a previously unpublished recollection of the early days of the Cummington Press by Gloria Goldsmith Gowdy, with a drawing by Paul Wightman Williams printed from the original line-cut used at the press for The Winter Sea, and Duncan’s pressmark, also printed from his original block. Perusing the Index of Titles will give an idea of the range of Duncans’s writings: his poetry, translations, essays, and reviews.
To that end, the first 100 copies include a four-page insert hand set in Dante type and printed on Duncan’s Ostrander-Seymour handpress at the Taller Martín Pescador. Its text is a previously unpublished recollection of the early days of the Cummington Press by Gloria Goldsmith Gowdy, with a drawing by Paul Wightman Williams printed from the original line-cut used at the press for The Winter Sea, and Duncan’s pressmark, also printed from his original block. Perusing the Index of Titles will give an idea of the range of Duncans’s writings: his poetry, translations, essays, and reviews.
Distributed in the United States by
$75.00 plus postage.
