Poltroon Press

Poltroon Press was founded April 1, 1975 by Frances Butler and Alastair Johnston in Berkeley, California. It is involved in publishing, letterpress printing, design, and artist books.

Poltroon Press was founded April 1, 1975 by Frances Butler and Alastair Johnston in Berkeley, California. Johnston's background was in writing and typography; he had apprenticed in commercial as well as fine press printshops. Butler was an artist working in academia whose star was rising in the world of textile design, engineered clothing and running yardage which she manufactured at Goodstuffs in Emeryville, California. They collaborated on several explorations of text and image which were forerunners of what became known in the following decades as 'Artists' Books.' Butler's CONFRACTI MUNDI RUDERA confused the art world but quickly went out of print as dealers snapped up the copies. Johnston experimented with text and format in two modest works of concrete poetry: CAFE CHARIVARI CHARLATAN CHROM and A PARTIAL PRIMER FOR PEDESTRIANS. They began a publishing program with three books by English poet Tom Raworth, LOGBOOK, illustrated by Frances Butler (featured in the Grolier Club's 'Seventy for the Seventies' show), THE MASK (Poltroon Modern Poets, volume 1) and NICHT WAHR, ROSIE? with cover calligraphy by Arne Wolf, which won the Award of Excellence in the AIGA 'Just Type' Show. Other works soon followed by poets such as Darrell Gray, Tom Clark, Larry Fagin, Robert Gregory and Philip Whalen. With an unerring eye for great writing, Poltroon published a short story by Lucia Berlin, 'Legacy,' in 1983. They followed this with her collection SAFE & SOUND and, like they say, the rest is history. As of this writing, Berlin's short stories have been translated into 7 or 8 languages and won every literary prize going, not to mention half a dozen rave reviews in the New York Times in 2016. In 1999 Poltroon published the debut of Private Eye August Riordan in Mark Coggins...

1. 1Poltroon Press – Publishing, Letterpress Printing, Design, Artist Bookspoltroonpress.com
2. 2About Us – Poltroon Presspoltroonpress.com
3. 3Poltroon Presswikidata.org