{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2016}} {{Infobox writer | name = Harry Duncan | image = | imagesize = | caption = | birth_name = Harry Alvin Duncan | birth_date = {{birth date|1916|4|19}} | birth_place = [[Keokuk, Iowa]], [[United States]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|1997|4|18|1916|4|19}} | death_place = [[Omaha, Nebraska]], United States | occupation = Poet, Printer, Publisher, Librettist, Translator | period = | genre = [[American poetry]]<br>[[Letterpress printing]] | notableworks = | movement = | spouse = Nancy Duncan | partner = | children = Guy Duncan <br>Barnaby Duncan<br>Lucy Elizabeth Duncan | relatives = | signature = | website = }}
'''Harry Alvin Duncan''' (April 19, 1916 – April 18, 1997) was a hand-press printer, author, librettist, translator, and publisher under his imprint the Cummington Press. He was known for publishing early works by [[Robert Lowell]], [[Tennessee Williams]], [[Wallace Stevens]], [[Allen Tate]], [[Marianne Moore]], [[William Logan (poet)|William Logan]], Stephen Berg, and [[Dana Gioia]].<ref name="LATimes">{{cite news|title=Harry Duncan; Hand-Press Printer|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-04-25-mn-52281-story.html|access-date=May 8, 2016|work=Los Angeles Times|date=April 25, 1997}}</ref> A 1982 ''Newsweek'' article about the rebirth of the hand press movement said that Duncan was "considered the father of the post-World War II private-press movement."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Anello|first1=Ray|title=Reading the Fine Print|work=Newsweek|date=16 August 1982|page=64|language=English}}</ref>
== Career == Harry Duncan was born in [[Keokuk, Iowa]] and earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1938 from [[Grinnell College]] intending to become a poet. He enrolled in the English graduate program at Duke University, but never completed his master's degree. During graduate school he spent summers at [[Katherine Frazier]]'s Cummington School of the Arts. While in Massachusetts he began publishing books of contemporary poetry using a hand press. He eventually chose to focus on [[letterpress printing]] instead of a graduate degree.<ref name="NYTimes">{{cite news|title=Harry Duncan, 80, Hand Printer of Literary Works, Dies|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/23/arts/harry-duncan-80-hand-printer-of-literary-works-dies.html|accessdate=May 8, 2016|work=New York Times|date=April 23, 1997}}</ref><ref name="GibraltarHD">{{cite web|title=Harry Duncan|url=http://www.gibraltareditions.co/harry-duncan.html|website=Gibraltar Editions|accessdate=9 May 2016}}</ref> The first Cummington Press book was published in 1939.
Duncan became director of the typographical laboratory at the [[University of Iowa]]'s School of Journalism and moved the Cummington Press to Iowa City in 1956. In 1972, he moved to the [[University of Nebraska at Omaha]] (UNO) and began the university's fine arts press, Abattoir Editions, and taught. He retired from teaching in 1985 and returned to printing books full-time under the Cummington Press imprint. Duncan died on April 18, 1997, in [[Omaha, Nebraska]].<ref name="LATimes" />
Marking the centenary of his birth, the Fall 2016 issue of ''Parenthesis'' included a portrait of Harry Duncan on its cover along with three articles by or about Duncan: the text of his talk "New England Novitiate," "An Apprentice's Story" by Juan Nicanor Pascoe, and "A Checklist of Printed Work, 1939-1997" by Michael Peich and Denise Brady.<ref name="Parenthesis">{{cite news|title=Harry Duncan: The Man and the Work|url=http://www.fpba.com/parenthesis/p31.html|accessdate=January 15, 2017|work=Parenthesis|date=Fall 2016}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8614443/ The Cummington Press and Abattoir Editions : a descriptive bibliography of the presswork of Harry Duncan, 1939–1985], Mel Bohn, 1986. Dissertation: Ph. D. University of Nebraska—Lincoln 1986. *[http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/scua/bai/richmond.htm The Cummington Press, Mary L. Richmond], From ''Books at Iowa'' 7 (November 1967). *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYrFabotd7c "Reflections in Time: Harry Duncan], interview, University of Nebraska at Omaha. *[http://collguides.lib.uiowa.edu/?MSC0843 Cummington Press Papers], The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa. *[http://findingaids.library.emory.edu/documents/cummington936/ Cummington Press records and Harry Duncan papers], Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University. *[https://archives.nebraska.edu/repositories/4/resources/362 Mary L. Richmond Cummington Press Collection], Archives & Special Collections, Criss Library, University of Nebraska at Omaha. *[https://archives.nebraska.edu/repositories/4/resources/393 Abattoir Editions Collection], Archives & Special Collections, Criss Library, University of Nebraska at Omaha. *The Cummington Press 1939–1997, [https://web.archive.org/web/20141222172354/http://www.unomaha.edu/nbac/cmgt.html Harry Duncan (1916–1997)]. *[https://www.flickr.com/photos/unocrisslibrary/collections/72157629911338465/ Harry Duncan Flickr photo collection], University of Nebraska at Omaha Criss Library. *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a739o31BLw A Conversation With Guy Duncan], University of Nebraska at Omaha Criss Library. *[http://www.unomaha.edu/news/2015/12/letterpress-exhibits-to-open-art-gallery-2016-calendar.php Letterpress Exhibits to Open Art Gallery’s 2016 Calendar], University of Nebraska at Omaha. *[http://www.thereader.com/story/letterpress_mentor Letterpress Mentor] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202064729/http://www.thereader.com/story/letterpress_mentor |date=February 2, 2016 }}, Carol Dennison, ''The Reader'', January 19, 2016.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Duncan, Harry}} [[Category:1916 births]] [[Category:1997 deaths]] [[Category:Grinnell College alumni]] [[Category:American printers]] [[Category:20th-century American publishers (people)]] [[Category:Artists from Nebraska]] [[Category:University of Iowa faculty]] [[Category:University of Nebraska Omaha faculty]] [[Category:People from Keokuk, Iowa]] [[Category:Private press movement people]] [[Category:20th-century American artists]]