.... The reason old books
have deckle edges is because all paper not made by
machinery is made in a mold, not unlike a fly
screen ; that is, wire netting stretched over a
wooden frame, called the deckle. Of course, the
netting is very elaborate, but the principle is the
same. Now, when the pulp is put into the mold and
shaken, the water drains off through the netting
at the bottom, but the edges of the pulp, coming
against the wooden sides of the mold, do not drain
so fast, hence the peculiar, irregular edges are
formed.
The early printers had no cutting machines to
trim off these edges, in order to facilitate good
registration, but they did have such an endless
amount of care and patience, that, whenever we
pick up one of their books, we see the beautiful
feature....
from THE DECLINE OF THE BOOKWORM. by John Alden Lee, Vol. XVI—No. 6., The Inland Printer Chicago, March, 1896. (A TECHNICAL JOURNAL
DEVOTED TO THE ART OF PRINTING.)
Selected Delanty deckle-edged hardcover edition.
The poetry constantly surprises and makes new.
It does this not only through arresting individual phrases but through metaphorical transmutations that make larger connections. The collection The Hellbox, for instance, derives multiple associations from the trade of printing, his father’s trade (the ‘hellbox’ a box in which broken and worn type is discarded to be melted down and recast). Printing provides constant reminders of human fallibility:
And the umpteen ways things can foul up
are beyond telling.
‘The Composing Room’ p. 40
Which in turn causes the poet to reflect on his own acts of composition:
And even if I foul up and the stewards
are right to set Kill on my last page and my words
are distributed and thrown in the hellbox,
the real achievement will be that I tried to set
the words right; that I did it with much labor
and not without a font of love.
‘The Composing Room’ p. 40
from Archie Burnett's introduction, Selected Delanty.
This edition of Selected Delanty (Un-Gyve Press) is a 234 page cloth-covered sewn deckle edged hardbound book. ISBN: 978-0-9993632-0-1.