A Late Offering of Quince

[Laguna Beach, California: Laguna Verde Imprenta], 1990 One of fifty copies printed by Ward Ritchie on an Albion hand press. This is Ritchie's penultimate publication. It is a collection of his own poetry, published under his long-standing pseudonym, Peter Lum Quince. Black paper wrappers with printed paper label. . Octavo. Illustrated by Paul Landacre with woodcut headpieces and an array of small geometric woodcuts on title-page. Text printed in black by Ward Ritchie on an Albion handpress. Illustrations in red, orange, green, brown, and blue. Wrappers a bit scuffed. Still a fine copy, inscribed on the half-title by Ritchie to Jake Chernofsky, longtime editor of AB Bookman's Weekly. A foreword explains the origin of Ritchie's "Peter Lum Quince" pseudonym: "The author obviously assumed his pseudonym from the Peter Quince created by Shakespeare. However, the irreverent printer, more interested in creating a pleasing title page…inserted the random letters LUM to balance the length of the wood engraving Paul Landacre had made for the title page. With like irreverence the printer removed the letter r from hearth in the book's title, 'Fifteen Poems for the Heath Broom.' The judgement of the printer was vindicated when the book was selected as one of the Fifty Books of the Year by the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Again Quince, now 85, offers fifteen poems with some early engravings by the late Paul Landacre." Jake Chernofksy served as the editor and publisher of AB Bookman's Weekly between 1973 and his retirement (and subsequent suspension of the magazine's publication) in 1999. Chernofksy took over the management of the magazine from its founder, Sol Malkin, who had established the publication as Antiquarian Bookman in 1948. Chernofsky worked to regularize the magazine's publication (upping the circulation from forty weekly issues to fifty), expanded the staff, and provided a critical resource for booksellers for two decades. Along with Margaret Goggin, Lee Ash, and Frederich Praeger, Chernofsky was also involved with the establishment of the Colorado Seminar (now CABS-Minnesota), and taught one of the first CABS courses in 1979 – an extremely popular course on "how to pack books." Chernofsky took over the seminar from Goggin in 1995.