BRATTLEBORO — Print Town: Brattleboro's Legacy of Words, a vivid retelling of Brattleboro's storied printing, publishing, and literary life from its earliest days to the present, will be published in November, with more than 30 writers, many of whom were directly involved in the area's printing history, contributing to its pages.
Produced over three years, through research, interviews, and personal memoir, a rich, at times amusing, story emerges.
Two stories unearthed in Print Town include a local newspaper man channeling the ending of Charles Dickens' last novel and a Brattleboro book design company's working on All The President's Men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's 1974 title about the Watergate scandal, while under the gaze of Secret Service personnel.
Generously illustrated in full color throughout with photographs and drawings, Print Town is edited by Michael Fleming and designed by award-winning graphic designer Jim Brisson.
All writers contributed their respective voices and perspectives, so that the book is also a collection of writing by some of the foremost journalists and authors working in southern Vermont today.
Writers for Print Town include Robert R. Anderson, Judy Ashkenaz, Jen Austin, Benson Bobrick, Tom Bodett, Jim Brisson, Arthur A. Burrows, Marshall Brooks, Dede Cummings, Arlene Distler, Julia Ferrari, Charles Fish, Michael Fleming, Castle Freeman, Shanta Lee Gander, Christina Gibbons, Stephanie Greene, Chris Grotke, Rich Holschuh, Jacqueline Patterson Hooper, John Rice Hooper, Mary Ide, Lise LePage, Joyce Marcel, Don McLean, Stephen Minkin, Nancy A. Olson, Rolf Parker-Houghton, Joe Rivers, Bill Soucy, Lissa Weinmann, and Richard M. Wizansky.
Artists who created photographs, drawings, cartoons, and art for Print Town include Stu Copans, Ezra Distler, John Dimick, and Elizabeth Ungerleider. Many collectors and history buffs donated vintage photographs and other ephemera for the book.
Print Town is a product of the Brattleboro Words Project (BWP), a multimedia undertaking that over the course of three years has been working to chronicle the people, places, and events important to the town and the region's history of words.
BWP has involved multiple town organizations and institutions, including the Brattleboro Historical Society, Brooks Memorial Library, Brattleboro Literary Festival, Write Action, and the now-defunct Marlboro College. An exhibit at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center and a Words Trail self-guided audio tour of the region will conclude the project.
Print Town is published by the Vermont Historical Society. The book, which will sell for $40, will be printed in Brattleboro by Howard Printing, a local fine printing company in operation since 1991.
Online purchase of Print Town will be available by Nov. 1 through a link at brattleborowords.org.
By mid-November, the book will be available for purchase at local bookstores and at designated times at 118 Elliot, the home base of the Words Project.
Visit the Brattleboro Words Project Facebook page for up-to-date information.