BRATTLEBORO — Print Town: Brattleboro's Legacy of Words, published by the Vermont Historical Society with an introduction by Tom Bodett, will launch Wednesday, Dec. 9, with a Zoom event from 7 to 8 p.m.
The first half of the launch will be moderated by Print Town Art Editor Stephanie Greene, a local writer whose parents founded and ran Brattleboro's famed Stephen Greene Press, along with Editor Michael Fleming, a freelance writer and longtime editor of Norton literary anthologies, and designer James F. Brisson, an internationally acclaimed book and graphic designer.
The second half, hosted by Write Action board member Andy Burrows, will celebrate the work of the 32 writers who contributed 26 chapters and multiple, colorful sidebars to the 285-page book.
“In its publishing heyday, Brattleboro had a reputation for producing a larger volume of printing per capita than any other town in the world,” says Fleming, of Brattleboro. “Throughout much of the 20th century, printing was far and away Brattleboro's most important industry and largest employer. There are Brattleboro-printed books in every literate household in America. And Brattleboro's literary legacy lives on today as our little town continues to draw an amazing number of publishers, editors, and writers.”
Each of the 450 first-run copies will be hand-numbered and signed by Brisson. Attendees who purchase a copy at brattleborowords.org before Dec. 10 will be entered in a drawing to have their book be one of the “low numbered” copies: #10.
Jen Austin, executive and creative director of the Brattleboro Words Project, has overseen the development and production of Print Town. Contributors include Robert R. Anderson, Judy Ashkenaz, Austin, Benson Bobrick, Tom Bodett, 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, Steve Minkin, Nancy A. Olson, Rolf Parker-Houghton, Joe Rivers, Bill Soucy, Lissa Weinmann, and Richard M. Wizansky. Local artists Stu Copans, Ezra Distler, John Dimick, and Elizabeth Ungerleider also created original illustrations.
Members of the committee that oversaw the book's development are Austin, Burrows, Distler, Greene, Ide, and Parker-Houghton. Ide and Greene also curated two exhibits at Brooks Memorial Library on Brattleboro's print and publishing history as part of the Words Project.
Limited first-edition copies of the book, printed locally by Howard Printing, Inc., may be ordered in advance for a $40 donation via the project website, where participants of the book launch can also register for the event.
Proceeds from the sale will help fund ongoing work related to the book, including a collection of oral histories from printers and publishers to be added to the Brattleboro Words Trail.
That project of community-created, audio-based tours aggregating the unique cultural heritage of the area in an unprecedented way, goes live on Tuesday, Dec. 15, with a Zoom event from 7 to 8:30 p.m.