Arion Press

{{Short description|California book publisher}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024 }} {{Infobox company | name = Arion Press | logo = | type = | industry = Fine book publishing | fate = | predecessors = [[Grabhorn Press]]<br/>M&H Type | successor =  | founded = {{Start date and age|1974}} | founder = [[Andrew Hoyem]] | defunct =  | hq_location_city = [[San Francisco]], California | hq_location_country = [[United States]] | area_served =  | key_people = | products = | owner =  | num_employees = | num_employees_year =  | parent = | website = {{URL|arionpress.com}} }} '''Arion Press''' is an American book publishing company in [[San Francisco]]. Founded in San Francisco in 1974, it publishes [[limited-edition book]]s illustrated by notable artists using [[letterpress]] equipment dating to the 1910s.<ref name=Chron>{{cite news |first=Jessica |last=Zack |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/article/sf-arion-press-fort-mason-19833566.php |title=50-year-old S.F. fine books publisher gets new lease on life |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |date=October 18, 2024 |access-date=October 19, 2024 }}</ref> Everything needed to make the books including the custom fonts are hand made on-site, making the press more vertically integrated than most.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Zigoris |first=Julie |date=2024-05-18 |title=Living out its last days in the Presidio, a printing press from another time |url=https://sfstandard.com/2024/05/18/san-francisco-arion-press/ |access-date=2025-08-15 |website=[[The San Francisco Standard]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hod |first=Itay |date=2024-07-05 |title=San Francisco printer elevates tradition of hand-crafted book publishing - CBS San Francisco |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/san-francisco-printer-preserves-hand-crafted-book-publishing-tradition/ |access-date=2025-08-15 |website=www.cbsnews.com |language=en-US}}</ref> The books are custom creations tailored to each work being republished.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |title=Arion Press stretches one's notion of a book |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1983/0505/050549.html |access-date=2025-08-21 |work=Christian Science Monitor |issn=0882-7729}}</ref>

== History == Arion Press is named for a mythical Greek poet, [[Arion]].<ref name=":0" /> Kimmelman of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote in 2006 that Arion Press "carries on a grand legacy of San Francisco printers and bookmakers."<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/arts/the-week-ahead-nov-5-11-artarchitecture.html?exprod=permalink&partner=permalink |title = The Week Ahead: Nov. 5–11; Art/Architecture|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 2006-11-05|last1 = Kimmelman|first1 = Michael}}</ref> It was founded by [[Andrew Hoyem]], continuing the tradition of the [[Grabhorn Press]] of Edwin and Robert Grabhorn. Hoyem had been partners for seven years with the younger Grabhorn brother, and after his death started Arion Press, preserving the Grabhorns' historic collection of American metal type.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/specialcollections/privatepressefg.htm#grabhorn |title=Private Press Information in University of Missouri Special Collections |accessdate=2007-12-28 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071007070636/http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/specialcollections/privatepressefg.htm |archivedate=2007-10-07 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation|url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-5NhxYRqUI|accessdate = 2016-01-05| title=Raw Craft with Anthony Bourdain - Episode Five: Arion Press }}</ref> In 1989 Arion acquired M&H Type, which like Graborn had been established in San Francisco in the 1910s,<ref name=Chron/> and constitutes the oldest and largest [[hot metal typesetting|hot metal]] [[type foundry]] in the U.S. for letterpress printers.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.briarpress.org/1528 | title=M & H Type |publisher=Briar Press; A letterpress community}}</ref> M&H's collection of antique type is the second largest in the United States, after that of the [[Smithsonian Institution]],<ref name=Chron/> and is used by other small presses in addition to Arion.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Karen |last=Silver |url=https://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2002-02-27/culture/books.html |title=Machine Love: Casting type in the Presidio |magazine=SF Weekly |date=February 27, 2002 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041112025035/https://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2002-02-27/culture/books.html |archive-date=2004-11-12 }}</ref> The press's nonprofit branch, the [[Grabhorn Institute]], was designated in 2001 by the [[National Trust for Historic Preservation]] as part of "the nation's irreplaceable historical and cultural legacy" under its [[Save America's Treasures]] program.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.saveamericastreasures.org/projall.htm#California |title=Save America's Treasures: Official Projects |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20020814152742/http://www.saveamericastreasures.org/projall.htm#California |date=January 2001 |archivedate=2002-08-14 }}</ref>

In 2001, Arion Press leased space in a former laundry in the [[Presidio of San Francisco|Presidio]].<ref name=King>{{Cite news |first=John |last=King | url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/place/article/Presidio-s-future-less-cash-more-culture-2532939.php |title = Presidio's future -- less cash, more culture / Market-driven development needs a dose of soul-searching |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |date = June 18, 2006 |access-date=October 19, 2024 }}</ref> In 2024, it moved to the [[Fort Mason|Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture]]. The press has a gallery and offers tours.<ref name=Chron/> Hoyem retired in 2018. {{As of|2024}}, Blake Riley is lead printer and creative director.<ref name=Chron/>

==Publications== The press publishes up to four books each year, in limited editions of as few as 250.<ref name=Chron/> Most are reprints of literary works illustrated with original prints from prominent artists. The livre d'artiste series, launched in 1982, includes [[James Joyce]]'s [[Ulysses (novel)|''Ulysses'']] illustrated with etchings by [[Robert Motherwell]], the poetry of [[W. B. Yeats]] illustrated with etchings by [[Richard Diebenkorn]], [[Jean Toomer]]'s [[Cane (novel)|''Cane'']] illustrated with woodblock prints by [[Martin Puryear]], and the poetry of [[Wallace Stevens]] illustrated by [[Jasper Johns]]. In 1979 it published a multi-volume edition of ''[[Moby-Dick]]'' on hand-made paper, illustrated with wood engravings by [[Barry Moser]], which took 14 months to print;<ref name=Chron/> in 2006 in the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' John King characterized this and Arion's publications pairing comtemporary poets and artists as "among the most exquisitely printed books in the world".<ref name=King/> In 2003, the ''[[Star Tribune|Minneapolis Star Tribune]]'' described Arion as "the nation's leading publisher of [[Fine press|fine-press]] books".<ref name=Star>{{cite news |title=Special Bible Comes Together a Book at a Time: The Arion Press lectern-scale Bible is 'a labor of love' |first=Lucy Y. |last=Her |newspaper=Minneapolis Star Tribune |date=June 6, 2003 }}</ref>

In 2000, in celebration of the new millennium, Arion Press published a [[Lectern#Christianity|lectern]] edition of the [[Bible]] in 400 exemplars, which took two years to print.<ref name=Star/><ref>{{Cite magazine |first=Jack |last=Yan | url=http://www.jyanet.com/cap/2000/0704fe0.shtml |title=Biblical saga |magazine=CAP Online |date=July 2000 |access-date=October 19, 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/july-dec00/bible_12-29.html |title=New Bible |website=Online NewsHour |publisher=PBS |date=December 28, 2000 |type=interview transcript |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131024044950/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/july-dec00/bible_12-29.html |archive-date=2013-10-24 }}</ref> For its fifty-year anniversary in 2024, it is issuing ''[[Aesop's Fables]]'' with updated morals by [[Daniel Handler]] and illustrations by 15 artists. The presentation box by [[Kiki Smith]] illustrates "[[Belling the Cat]]", with a cast metal mouse sculpture and hidden bells.<ref name=Chron/>

Arion Press books are in the collections of the [[Museum of Modern Art]], the [[Huntington Library]], the [[Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco]], [[Mechanics' Institute, San Francisco|Mechanics’ Institute]]<ref name=":0" /> and the [[British Library]], among others. Two of the Press's books were honored among the one hundred great books of the 20th Century in the 1994 Museum of Modern Art exhibition ''One Hundred Years of Artists Books''.<ref>[[Jim Dine]], ''The Apocalypse: The Revelation of Saint John the Divine'' (1982); [[Mel Bochner]], ''On Certainty/Uber Gewissheit and Counting Alternatives: The Wittgenstein Illustrations'' (1991). {{cite web |url=https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_master-checklist_517160.pdf |title=Master Checklist: A Century of Artists Books: Rene d'Harnoncourt Gallery, October 19, 1994 – January 24, 1995 |publisher=The Museum of Modern Art |access-date=October 19, 2024 }}</ref> Some of the purchasers of its works have included libraries, museums, collectors and subscribers.<ref name=":1" />

==Further reading== * {{cite journal|first=Andrew |last=Hoyem |title=Collaboration in the Book Arts |journal=Visible Language |volume=25 |issue=2/3 |date=Spring 1991 |pages=97–215 }} * {{cite journal |first=Andrew |last=Hoyem |title=Selling the goods - Arion Press |journal=Parenthesis |volume=20 |date=Spring 2011 |pages=26–27 }}

== References == <references />

== External links == * [https://www.arionpress.com Official website] * [https://www.arionpress.com/mandh M & H Type] * [[PBS]] [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/printing-whitmans-masterpiece-by-hand interview of Andrew Hoyem and photos of the press] (2014)

[[Category:Book publishing companies based in San Francisco]] [[Category:Publishing companies established in 1974]] [[Category:Private press movement]]