A28. Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

(Top Left) A25. The Bible. Psalm 128. Santa Cruz, California: The Good Book Press, 1983.

63 x 44.5 mm (2 7/16” x 1 ¾”), 16 pages, 26 copies.

Binding: Full-bound in red sheepskin. Title in gold on spine. Paper: White, handmade by Peter Thomas. Printing: Letterpress. Typography: Hand set Bernhard Modern; paragraph marks in red. Illustration: Printer's ornaments. Notes: This was the second book made for Donna’s birthday. A second edition of 26 was printed for Mary Helen Dawson later that year. It was the same book in all respects except for changes to the colophon.

(Top Right) A26. Publius Ovid. Ovid in Latin & English. Santa Cruz, California: The Good Book Press, 1983.

48 x 35 mm (1 7/8”x 1 3/8”), 14 pages, 150 copies.

Binding: Quarter-bound in black Morocco leather and blue handmade paper. Title in gold on cover. End sheets blue. Paper: White, handmade by Peter Thomas. Printing: Letterpress. Typography: Hand set American Uncial and Centaur; Uncial in red. Illustration: Two linocuts by Donna Thomas. Opening initial rubricated by Donna Thomas.

“The text is only an excerpt… ‘add little to little…’ We decided to make a book to celebrate the first conclave of miniature book publishers. A fellow printer, Gene Holtan, suggested the text when we told him about the event.”

(Middle) A27. Mark Lewis. The Story of Word Pictures. Santa Cruz, California: The Good Book Press, 1984.

54 x 51 mm (2 1/8” x 2”), 14 pages, not a limited edition.

Binding: Copies 1-50 are full-bound in green sheepskin. Illustration by M. Lewis blind-stamped on cover. Title blind-stamped on spine. Copies 51-200 are bound in green commercial paper over boards. Illustration on cover. Title on spine. Paper: White, handmade by Peter Thomas. Printing: Letterpress. Text printed from photoengraving. Typography: Goudy Thirty and Hadriano. Illustration: Opening initial; in copies 1-50 initial is hand-colored and gold-leafed by Donna Thomas. Notes: Some copies have a green commercial or handmade paper dust jacket printed with title and illustration.

“This edition was a reduced photoengraving of book A20. The book was so popular that when it sold out, another edition was printed. That edition was the same except it had a different colophon (which does not state a limitation). Some later copies of the unlimited edition were printed on various sheets of colored handmade paper and some were bound using handmade paper.”

(Bottom) A28. Francis Pharcellus Church. Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus. Santa Cruz, California: The Good Book Press, 1984.

60.5 x 76 mm (2 3/8” x 3”), 20 pages, 125 copies.

Binding: Ivory paper with red and purple pulp embellishment, handmade by Peter Thomas, over boards. Title and linocut illustration by Donna Thomas on cover. Paper: White, handmade at Hayle Mill. Printing: Letterpress. Typography: Linotype Garamond. Illustration: Four linocuts by Donna Thomas.

“When we printed The Night Before Christmas [A19] we printed some of the illustrations in the wrong order. To salvage that mistake we printed this book using those illustrations. The paper I made for the cover seemed to have been universally disliked by everyone who saw it because of the purple blotches.”