Banyan Press archive, 1946-1986

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Summary

Creators:
Berryman, John, 1914-1972, Cahoon, Herbert, 1918-2000, Duncan, Robert, 1919-1988, Duncan, Harry, Everson, William, 1912-1994, Eberhart, Richard, 1904-2005, Gallup, Donald, 1913-2000, Fredericks, Claude, Steloff, Frances, 1887-1989, Stein, Gertrude, 1874-1946, Stevens, Wallace, 1879-1955, Fredericks, Claude, Sitwell, Osbert, 1892-1969, Spender, Stephen, 1909-1995, Simic, Charles, 1938-, Sitwell, Edith, 1887-1964, Werner, Arno, 1899-1995, Graham, Ethel, Howes, Barbara, Malamud, Bernard, Moore, Marianne, 1887-1972, Saul, Milton, Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964, Toklas, Alice B., Banyan Press, and Merrill, James, 1926-1995
Abstract:
Small press founded in 1946 by Claude Fredericks. Archive comprises a complete set of the publications, primarily poetry, and other printed matter from The Banyan Press and Claude Fredericks (1946-1986). Also includes related correspondence, manuscripts, account books, and reviews.
Extent:
6 Linear Feet (13 boxes)
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

Banyan Press archive, 1946-1986, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 900230A.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa900230a

Background

Scope and content:

The archive holds the complete set of 151 imprints from The Banyan Press and Claude Fredericks. Sixty-three imprints were produced under Fredericks's name. Publications are primarily poetry and other items include broadsides, Christmas cards, stationery, press announcements, and pamphlets.

Among the poets and other authors printed by the Press are John Berryman, Robert Duncan, Richard Eberhart, William Everson, André Gide, Barbara Howes, Bernard Malamud, James Merrill, Thomas Merton, Charles Simic, Stephen Spender, and Gertrude Stein. Reprints and translations include works by William Blake, Tristan Corbière, John Donne, Meister Eckhart, Francis of Assisi, and Thomas Traherne. The Press occasionally printed books on commission from others, including from The Gotham Book Mart and Jargon Books.

Private printing, especially for Christmas, stationery, announcements, invitations, and programs (for example for The Betty Parsons Gallery and The Living Theatre) were common jobs under both imprints.

Included is related correspondence between Fredericks and writers (Eberhart, Howes, Marianne Moore, Edith and Osbert Sitwell, Spender, Alice B. Toklas, Carl Van Vechten, among others), booksellers (Frances Steloff), librarians, bookbinders (Arno Werner), stationers, and book reviewers. Overall, the correspondence offers a picture of the New York literary scene in the late 1940s.

The life of the Press is documented in limited business records (an account book, contracts, cancelled checks) as well as reviews and articles about the Press, a long history of the Press by William Coakley and one by Barbara Cash as well as bibliographies by J. D. Edelstein and others. Copies of other items designed but not printed by Fredericks are also present as well as 27 printer's typescripts and a limited number of galley proofs.

Biographical / historical:

The Banyan Press was a small press founded in 1946 by Claude Fredericks and Milton Saul. In 1948 they moved their operation, a single 10 inch by 14 inch Golding press, to Pawlet, Vermont. Most of the book design and press work was done by Fredericks. Three or four items were designed by Saul, and one by Harry Prickett. Saul did most of the typesetting. All type was set by hand except for one item, the introduction to The Poetry Center Presents (1947), which was printed from Linotype. After 1950 Fredericks ran the press alone under his own name, except for the period 1975-1978, when he was assisted by David Beeken.

Acquisition information:
Acquired 1990.
Processing information:

Neil Hathaway processed the collection in 1994. It was further processed by Emmabeth Nanol in 2010.

Arrangement:

Arranged in six series: Series I. Complete run of the press, 1946-1986; Series II. Samples of publications designed by Fredericks, ca. 1962-1965; Series III. Business records, 1946-1978; Series IV. Material about the Press, ca. 1961-1985; Series V. Printer's manuscripts, 1947-1950; Series VI. Banyan ress correspondence,

Physical location:
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Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers.

Terms of access:

Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions.

Preferred citation:

Banyan Press archive, 1946-1986, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 900230A.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa900230a

Location of this collection:
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688, US
Contact:
(310) 440-7390
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