I’m just back from the CODEX Book Fair, or what I usually refer to as my CODEX Book Crawl, meaning that I use CODEX as an excuse to go to the book heaven of the San Francisco Bay area. With my book-loving daughter, I spend a day at CODEX and a day or so going to all our favorite bookstores, then spending time in our favorite restaurants and coffee shops reading and checking out the books we buy. As CODEX has expanded while at the same time having less exhibitors catering to my desire for books to read, I really don’t need more than a day there. Most tables are filled with beautiful and creative book art objects and I’m content just to “window shop,” walking by with a lingering or quick glance depending on the object. I really only stop when I see a table with a book incorporating a readable text or to greet friends and acquaintances from my years of going to CODEX.
From a reader’s perspective, one of my goals was to get a look at Arion Press‘ Mrs. Dalloway. I did get a quick glimpse but the table was busy and the exhibitors were distracted, so I didn’t really get a chance to talk to them about it. My first impression was that it was nice but maybe not enough for me to spend that kind of money. I’m hoping to review it here, which obviously will make up my mind one way or another…but maybe not, as it looks like it may be sold out already. I did really enjoy reading this Virginia Woolf novel in an old trade edition but would like to reread it dressed up in the Arion Press way. I will say, at first glance, that the illustrations were beautiful. It’s nice that the Arion Press has got over there long absence from the fair.
One highlight was talking books (and tea!) with Stephanie Dolin of First Bite Press and hearing that my copy of Banned Books Written By Women on the Subject of Love & Desire is almost ready. I love the work that Stephanie is doing to center women writers and erotic writing in fine press. She had a deluxe copy of Victoria: A Bedside Table Tale prominently displayed that looked amazing, as well as some of her other available titles. I grabbed the prospectus for the upcoming book of poetry by Colleen S. Harris that I might not be able to pass up given the example of one of the illustrations and poems. So beautiful. We’ll see how my budget is after I pay the book I already ordered.
Another highlight was talking to the Petrarch Press about their upcoming Echoes of Sappho and totally nerding out on vellum. So much so that I totally have forgotten the name of the gentleman I was speaking with. I don’t presently own a book in vellum but with all the raving about it I’ve read on the LibraryThing Fine Press Forum, I’m hoping to add one to my library at some point. Maybe Sappho? To satisfy my vellum curiosity and because I’m in another of my Whitman crush phases, I couldn’t resist buying a page from their 1992 vellum edition of Song of Myself. That Peter Green edition was published before I really even knew about private press books but I did have a fresh 2nd-born I could have traded for it! For now, I’ll tuck that piece of ephemera into my Arion Press Leaves of Grass.
Coincidentally, when I got home, I happened to meet an amazing artist who was showing me some of her abstract pieces. Probably because of my sapphic conversation with Petrarch Press, when she asked me what I saw in one of her beautiful pieces, I told her I saw Sappho on a couch as her lover was arriving. She saw it too as we were discussing Sappho and the fragmented beauty of her poetry. I’m always thinking about the next Consensus Press proposals when I meet artists whose work might fit some of the myriad of proposals I’m pondering. (Don’t worry, I’ve given up on The Awakening. Two strikes and I’m out, sadly)
There were many amazing book art objects and things, as I said. I paused with Lauren Emeritz at Abstract Orange to admire her Leaves of Grass object. Tempting because of the aforementioned crush. I stopped at a few that caught my eye but mostly wanted to make sure I made it through all the aisles and said hello to all the people I’ve met and befriended over the years. I missed seeing Vladimir Zimakov, who didn’t make the show this year but is always great to talk with and to pick up a print of his beautiful work. And I always miss the Barbarians from Barbarian Press that stopped coming a good decade or so ago. I can’t wait to see my copy of Bordering on the Sublime!And no hang out with Griffin from No Reply Press either; I’ll have to wait until my next Portland visit for that. But I did get to talk to Jamie at Salvage Press, and Mark at Prototype Press, and Lisa at Littoral Press, and Clair Illouz, and at least get a wave in to the busy Foolscap crew, and others too numerous to mention. And got some contacts for a potential re-bind I’ve been wanting to do for my Limited Editions Club Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
So I’m happy we got to spend a day at CODEX, as always. Like I said, the book crawl through all our favorite bookstores is equally important for my daughter Kaelyn and I. I found some treasures I’ve been looking for and some I hadn’t among the used trade books out there, especially at Green Apple Books in the Richmond. Borderlands Books had some very nice fantasy first editions and some fine Tolkiens. And I spotted a half-cloth Thornwillow Octavia Butler and some very nice Folio Society Limited Editions, including The Pearl, Don Quixote, and the Decameron (I think?), at Russian Hill Books. Alas, the Rare Book room wasn’t open at Walden Pond Books in Oakland and we didn’t make it to Moe’s in Berkeley. But, hey, we also had coffee to drink and food to eat!