A146. Song of the Open Road

A146. Walt Whitman. Song of the Open Road. Santa Cruz, California: Peter & Donna Thomas, 2011.

76 x 76 mm (3” x 3”), 16-page accordion, 150 copies.

Binding: Case-bound accordion, piano hinge binding; covers are marbled paper over boards. First and last panels of accordion are woven around red dowels to create piano hinge. Title and illustration on label on cover. Paper: Tan and white, handmade by Peter Thomas. Printing: Text is letterpress. Illustrations are digital. Typography: Hand set Goudy 30; printed in red. Illustration: Reproductions of eleven watercolor paintings by Donna Thomas. Notes: Illustrations are printed on white paper that is accordion-folded and attached to the text accordion. The piano hinge binding is Donna’s original variation, similar to that used in The View from Mt. Dana [A86].

“The text is the first stanza of Whitman's poem, which we have painted on one side of our tiny home caravan that we travel with as Wandering Book Artists. As with Cannery Row [A114], this book fuses modern and traditional printing technologies. We used digital printing to reproduce Donna’s watercolor paintings, but since type rarely looks good when digitally printed on textured handmade papers, we hand set the type and printed it letterpress.”