Andrew Hoyem

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Andrew Hoyem (born 1935) is a typographer, letterpress printer, publisher, poet, and preservationist. He is the founder and director of Arion Press in San Francisco, which "produces some of the most beautiful limited-edition, handprinted books in the world," according to Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times; "It carries on a grand legacy of San Francisco printers and bookmakers."[1]

Hoyem's work links him to the Beat poets as well as the San Francisco fine press tradition of the Grabhorn Press. In 1974 he founded the Arion Press, now considered one of the world's foremost fine presses with its own typefoundry, letterpress printing facility, book bindery and gallery.

As a publisher, Hoyem has focused on creating limited edition books of notable literature illustrated with original prints from prominent artists. In the Press's livre d'artiste series, he has worked closely with distinguished artists, including Jim Dine, Robert Motherwell, Jasper Johns, John Baldessari, Richard Diebenkorn, Wayne Thiebaud, Alex Katz, Martin Puryear, and Kiki Smith. Hoyem has published such contemporary writers as Seamus Heaney, Robert Alter, Tom Stoppard, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, David Mamet, and Helen Vendler.

Andrew Hoyem summarized the arc of his career in an interview with Elizabeth Farnsworth of the PBS-TV NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: "I started out by having a combined interest in literature and visual arts, and enjoyed drawing as well as writing poetry, and those two interests really came to one in the making of books by hand."[2]

Born in 1935 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Hoyem graduated from Pomona College and served in the U. S. Navy.[3] In 1961 he became a partner with Dave Haselwood in The Auerhahn Press, a small literary press that published Beat Generation writers. He became associated with Robert Grabhorn in 1966, forming a partnership under the name Grabhorn-Hoyem. After Grabhorn's death in 1973, Hoyem reformed the company as the Arion Press, taking its name from the Greek poet of legend who was saved by a dolphin. Since 1975, he has published more than 75 deluxe limited-edition books under the Arion Press imprint, including Melville's Moby-Dick, Joyce's Ulysses, and a folio Bible.

At Arion Press, Hoyem has continued the San Francisco tradition of fine typography and high-quality bookmaking, as in his handset folio edition of Moby-Dick. In addition, he has gone beyond this tradition by experimenting with unusual forms and incorporating work by contemporary artists in his books. The scholar James D. Hart, writing in Fine Printing: The San Francisco Tradition,[1] has characterized Hoyem's books "as marked by an unusual inventiveness", praising Moby-Dick as a "majestic volume", among Arion's "virtuoso performances".

Biblio magazine commented, "The publication of the now famous Moby-Dick, illustrated by renowned artist Barry Moser, marked Arion's ascent to the celestial plane of the book arts. Many authorities rank this edition of Moby-Dick as one of the two or three greatest American fine-press books." [2]

Hoyem's most ambitious project is the Folio Bible, with production extending over several years. This is likely to be the last Bible to be printed from metal type,[4] following in the tradition of large-format Bibles printed from movable type that extends from Johannes Gutenberg through John Baskerville, the Doves Press, and the Oxford Lectern Bible designed by Bruce Rogers. "From melting the lead, to proofreading, to physically lifting 40-pound frames of type, the consensus of Andrew Hoyem, as publisher of the Arion Press, and his small crew of eight craftspeople, is that a hand-wrought Bible is intrinsically valuable," in the words of the Christian Science Monitor. "Dozens of steps could easily be eliminated by today's computerized printing technology, but the publishing result would be far different, they say, a loss of quality and meaning. 'The difference is that we are embedding the type into the paper,' Hoyem says, holding a freshly printed page and showing the difference. 'What you are seeing here is rather like a stone inscription, cut into stone with a three-dimensional effect. All along the way, we make it a little better because we are right here, working on it with our hands.' "[5]

Tim Johnson, curator of rare books at the University of Minnesota, commented on the Arion Press Bible: "How beautiful the typeset is. There's a clarity and crispness there that takes your breath away. The spacing, weight of the paper, it all starts to catch your eyes. It is a breath-taking book to look at." [3]

In 1989 Hoyem led Arion to acquire Mackenzie & Harris, the oldest and largest remaining type foundry in the United States, started with equipment displayed at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915. In 2000 the future of the type foundry and letterpress operations was threatened by eviction, requiring the logistical challenge and expense of moving over 140 tons of equipment and metal type to a suitable new facility. In response, Hoyem founded the nonprofit Grabhorn Institute to help preserve and continue the use of one of the last integrated typefoundry, letterpress printing, and bookbinding facilities, developing it as a living museum and educational and cultural center, open to the public with a gallery and tours as well as an apprenticeship program. The press and foundry relocated to The Presidio of San Francisco as a cultural tenant. In 2000 the hot-metal typecasting and letterpress printing operation was designated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as part of "the nation's irreplaceable historical and cultural legacy" under its Save America's Treasures program.[6]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Hart, J: Fine Printing: The San Francisco Tradition, Library of Congress, 1985.
  2. ^ Grossman, C: "Andrew Hoyem of Arion Press: Champion of Literary Artistry", Biblio, September 1997.
  3. ^ Her, L: Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 6, 2003.

[edit] External links