Banyan Press
The Banyan Press was founded in 1946 in New York by Claude Fredericks and Milton Saul. It moved to Pawlet, Vermont in 1948. After 1950 Fredericks ran the press alone, with assistance from David Beeken from 1975 to 1978. Claude Fredericks also issued private press works under his own name. Active from 1946 to 1986, the Banyan Press and Fredericks published works by John Berryman, Robert Duncan, Richard Eberhart, William Everson, André Gide, Barbara Howes, Bernard Malamud, James Merrill, Thomas Merton, Charles Simic, Osbert Sitwell, William Jay Smith, Stephen Spender, Wallace Stevens, and Gertrude Stein as well as new editions of works by William Blake, Tristan Corbière, John Donne, Meister Eckhart, Francis of Assisi, and Thomas Traherne. Claude Fredericks once said, "What makes good printing is a simplicity in design, consistency in execution, and a relentless solicitude for each and every detail." Archival collections documenting the Banyan Press and the career of Claude Frederick are housed at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, California.
These materials can be found by searching the UM Libraries online catalog.
- Smith, William Jay. Poems. (1947) New York.
Limited edition of 500 copies printed.
KA Porter Stacks PS3537 .M8693 P6 - Sitwell, Osbert. Four Songs of the Italian Earth. (1948) Pawlet, VT.
Limited edition of 260 copies printed on Italian papers. UMCP has copy numbered 107 and signed.
Special Collections Stacks PR6037 .I83 F6 - Stevens, Wallace. A Primitive like an Orb. (1948) A Prospero Pamphlet. Illustrations by Kurt Seligmann.
Limited edition of 500 copies published by The Gotham Book Mart, and designed and printed by The Banyan Press. The type was handset in Garamond, and printed on Etruria paper; the drawings printed on Zebu paper. The Prospero Pamphlets are edited by Frank A. Hale, John Myers & Dmitri Petrov. UMCP's copy is unnumbered & unsigned.
Special Collections Stacks PS3537 .T4753 P7 - Stettheimer, Florine. Crystal Flowers. (1949) Pawlet, VT.
Limited edition of 250 copies printed from hand-set type on Rivers paper. Printing supervised by Ettie Stettheimer. Handbound by Arno Werner.
Rare Stacks PS 3537 .T45 C7 - Simic, Charles. School for Dark Thoughts. (1978) Pawlet, VT: Printed for Charles Seluzicki at the Banyan Press.
Limited edition of 235 copies printed on Weimar paper and sewn into Roma paper covers. UMCP has copy numbered 133, and signed by the printer.
Special Collections Stacks PS3569 .I4725 S3
