Publications

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The Death Of

Amelia Gray

April, 2012

43 copies

This poem by Amelia Gray was printed by Steve Kostell and Marten Stromberg in collaboration with the author and Laura Adamczyk. It was produced as part of the Carr Reader Series.

Perhaps the World Ends Here

Joy Harjo

April, 2012

42 copies

This poem by Joy Harjo was printed by Steve Kostell and Marten Stromberg in collaboration with the author. It was produced as part of the Carr Reader Series.

Lighting the Tulips

Toi Derricote

April, 2012

37 copies

This poem by Toi Derricote was printed by Steve Kostell and Marten Stromberg in collaboration with the author. It was produced as part of the Carr Reader Series

Above All The Waste

Rolando Hinojosa-Smith

September, 2011

32 copies

This poem by Rolando Hinojosa-Smith was printed by Steve Kostell and Marten Stromberg in collaboration with the author. It is the inaugural broadside of the partnership of the Soybean Press with the Carr Reader Series at the University of Illinois. The poem deals with combat suicide and is printed on paper made from combat-ready uniforms by the Combat Paper Project.

Ocean Beach at Twilight: 14

Dean Rader

September, 2011

48 copies

This poem by Dean Rader from Works & Days was printed by Steve Kostell and Marten Stromberg in collaboration with the author. It was produced as part of the Carr Reader Series.

The Book of Of

Andy Frazee

October, 2011

40 copies

This poem by Andy Frazee from his book The Body, The Rooms was printed by Steve Kostell and Marten Stromberg in collaboration with the author. It was produced as part of the Carr Reader series.

The Funny Man: Inspiration

John Warner

October, 2011

37 copies

This excerpt from John Warner's The Funny Man was printed by Steve Kostell and Marten Stromberg in collaboration with the author. It was produced as part of the Carr Reader series.

An Excerpt from Extraordinary Renditions

Andrew Ervin

October, 2011

44 copies

This broadside was printed by Steve Kostell and Marten Stromberg in collaboration with the author. It was produced as part of the Carr Reader series.

Chord

William S. Merwin

October, 2008

Signed/Unsigned: $35/15

100 copies (see below)

This broadside of Merwin's poem Chord was printed to celebrate the visit of W.S. Merwin to the University of Illinois and the Rare Book & Manuscript Library on the 27th and 28th of October 2008. Set in Palatino Linotype, thirty-three copies were printed on paper made by Steve Kostell and Charles Wisseman from Miscanthus grass fibers grown on campus. Sixty-seven copies were printed on Arches paper. Thirty-three of the Miscanthus paper copies and seventeen of the Arches paper copies were signed by Merwin.

Multiple Merwins: Poet, Translator, Environmental Activist

William S. Merwin

October, 2008

$10

This exhibition catalog contains three essays written to accompany an exhibition celebrating different aspects of William S. Merwin's career. Drawn from the Merwin Archive in The Rare Book & Manuscript Library, the exhibition featured manuscript and printed materials illustrating the remarkable and multivariate career of one of America's finest writers.

The essays, by Rare Book & Manuscript Library personnel Christopher D. Cook, Chatham Ewing, and Dennis Sears, each cover a thematic aspect of Merwin's work and include illustrations from the manuscript material in the Merwin Archive at Illinois. The 40 page booklet also contains Merwin's poem Chord, and a foreword by Rare Book & Manuscript Library Head, Valerie Hotchkiss.

The Baby's Foot Becomes a Doorknob

Audrey Niffenegger

February, 2008

$50 (postage paid)

75 signed copies

This whimsical creation of noted book artist and novelist Audrey Niffenegger was hand-printed by the author herself in a very limited press run. The halftone and text are mounted in a green portfolio that includes a colophon and a slot and groove clasp accented with a laser-cut outline of a baby's foot.

Milton on Shakespeare

John Milton

May, 2007

$10 (postage paid)

250 copies on 160gsm Fabriano Ingres paper

The very first publication of the Soybean Press, this broadside reprints the poet John Milton's first published work, a tribute to Shakespeare from the Second Folio. Drawn from The Rare Book & Manuscript Library's collection, this handsome piece celebrates the founding of both the Soybean Press and the Midwest Book & Manuscript Studies Program at the University of Illinois

Soybean: Harvesting Traditions

Printed by the inaugural Letterpress class of the Midwest Book & Manuscript Studies program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

2007

What the Tau-Fu is Made of

Christopher D. Cook

May, 2007

$15 (postage paid)

Limited to 100 signed and numbered copies, the booklet is available in both gray and green paper wrappers.

This ten–page booklet revisits the lore surrounding Benjamin Franklin's role in the importation of the soybean into America, affectionately punctures the myth, and serves up a brief and tasteful recounting of the true history of "Chinese Garavances" in this country. Cook also appends the tale of the bean's journey to Illinois, where it has since come to flourish as the State's second most valuable agricultural commodity.


If you are interested in purchasing any of our limited edition fine press imprints, please contact us by email at mstrombe(at)illinois.edu or by mail at:


The Rare Book & Manuscript Library
University of Illinois Library, Room 346
1408 West Gregory Drive
Urbana, Illinois 61801


The Soybean Press is the core institution of the Illinois Book Arts Collaborative. See our About.

Check out the University of Illinois sustainable paper makers at the Fresh Press.

The Soybean Press has partnered with the undergraduate students arts journal Montage to award one student annually with a fine press edition of their work.

Spineless Books will be working on projects with the Soybean Press as of Spring 2012.

Robert Chapman is a local papermaker and letterpress artist.

Illini Union Bookstore

The publications of the Soybean Press will soon be available through the website of the Illini Union Bookstore.

The Soybean Press is a collaborative endeavor of the School of Art & Design, the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, and the Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

For more information please email mstrombe@illinois.edu