Scope and Content Note
Leslie Miller began her press in 1979 with the broadside Typefaces and the next year produced her first book with the same title. Over the next decade she has since collaborated with the authors Joyce Carol Oates, Guy Davenport, James Laughlin, Ann Lauterbach, John Hawkes, Gilbert Sorrentino, William S. Burroughs, William Gass, Harry Mathews, Bradford Morrow, and the artists Trevor Winkfield, Francesco Clemente, James Nares, Ellen Phelan, Joel Shapiro, and others. Initially the press produced fine press books, but in recent years it has moved successfully into the livre d'artiste category.
No aspect of bookmaking escapes Miller's intense interest, which is most unusual in a world where printmakers often care little about typography, typographers look upon binding as a distracting afterthought, and binders view all of it merely as a medium for their own form of expression. These fractured attitudes result in books that are interesting in particulars but defective as wholes. Miller has managed to transcend the limitations any one of these crafts might have imposed upon her vision, creating books that are thoroughly imaginative. The ideal of the press is to create a book that is a balanced and unified statement in which all of its integral parts illuminate one another.
- Larry Sullivan, Chief Rare Book and Special Collections Division
The Grenfell Press Archive, which chronicles the book production, publicity, and business transactions associated with the Grenfell Press, has been arranged broadly into three categories: correspondence and typescripts, material relating to the production of individual works published by the Grenfell Press, and material relating to miscellaneous publications designed (but not published) by the press. The section comprising correspondence and typescripts relates to general business matters of the press; correspondence relating specifically to the production of an individual work is grouped with the production materials for that work. These production materials have been arranged in chronological order by publication date of the item to which they relate and subarranged by type; for example, correspondence, followed by typescripts and paste-ups, material relating to illustration and binding, etc. The original 1993 purchase also includes several published items that were lacking from the Rare Book Collection's almost complete holdings of Grenfell Press titles; these items have been cataloged separately (a source note has been added to the cataloging record to identify them) and housed with the Grenfell Press Collection. Also, in order to connect the material in the archive generally to the resulting publications housed in the Grenfell Press Collection, the record number for each publication is noted in parentheses in this finding aid. An index of names (authors and artists) and titles of publications has also been provided, but it should be noted that the section comprising correspondence and typescripts has not been indexed.
Correspondence and Typescripts (1981-1989) General business correspondence (1980-1994), miscellaneous typescripts and material relating to small projects (e.g., stationery, bookplates, etc.)
The Grenfell Press Publications (1980-1994) Correspondence associated with the production of a particular publication; production materials, including typescripts, proofs, paste-ups, binder's dummies, etc.; prospectuses and material relating to publicity.
The Miscellaneous Publications (1981-1991) Publications designed by the Grenfell Press, including work for New Directions, Callaway Editions, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Targ Editions, Conjunctions Magazine, etc.
Pamphlets ( series contains Pamphlets, short monographs, off prints, and photocopies, primarily of published materials, in English and west European languages. Many published by anarchist organizations, many with inscriptions. Arranged alphabetically by author/title.
The Oversize (1983-1992) Oversize material organized and described according to the series, folders, and boxes from which the items were removed.