Littoral Press ~ California
(Lisa Rappoport)

Poetry books
Quirky and fun books
Song book series
Miniature book by Lisa Rappoport

The Short Goodbye
By Raymond Chandler
with Lisa Rappoport
{being an excerpted, expunged & expurgated rendition of Mr. Chandler's novel THE LONG GOODBYE}
Oakland, California: Littoral Press, 2011. Edition of 53.

12.25 x 8.5"; 20 pages. Printed letterpress on dampened Rives de Lin Bound. Bound in Metallic Black & Silver covers with Hahnemühle Bugra Bütten endpapers.

A printer and typographer's noirish dream of a book.

Lisa Rappoport: "In a dark alley, Philip Marlowe runs into concrete poetry. The Short Goodbye is a short found book. Each sentence in it was borrowed from Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye; quotes about coffee, whiskey, guns, lips, eyes, sex, and gimlets have been formatted into thematic typographic shapes."

Lisa Rappoport, Colophon: "The Long Goodbye is a long novel by Raymond Chandler. The Short Goodbye is a short book by Lisa Rappoport, more or less a found book: Each sentence in it was found and borrowed from The Long(er) Goodbye. Chronological sequence has been preserved within each page. The type is handset Glamour Light, with noirish moments of Shadow, plus Centaur & Arrighihere. ... The photographs were shot by myself with the generous collaboration of the models, Will Shumway and Gene Tierney. Speaking of shooting, Mark Schacht used a 9mm pistol to fill the covers full of daylight."
$350

Le Rayon Vert
The Green Flash
Text by Jules Verne and Eric Rohmer
Oakland, California: Littoral Press, 2007. Edition of 99.

4 x 4"; 20 pages. Text paper: Johannot lightweight. Printed in Edenic green and chocolate brown. Cover: celadon Magnani Arturo. Fonts: Centaur and Arrighi. Fly leaves of vintage Japanese persimmon-dyed paper. Conceived and printed by Bushra Azzouz and Lisa Rappoport. Cover image by Andrew Larkin. Heart drawn by Bobbe Besold. Text in French and English.

Lisa Rappoport: "Le Rayon Green Flash (December 2007) excerpts dialogue from the eponymous book (by Jules Verne) and film (by Eric Rohmer), and is liberally illustrated with vintage dingbats."

"Tu sais ce que c'est le rayon vert? demande Delphine. non, répondit le jeune homme. Et pourquoi veut-elle voir ce rayon? Parce que c'est une historie d'amour...."

"Have you heard of the green flash? asked Delphine. non, answered the young man. And why does she want to see this flash? Because it's a love story...."
$135

Miscreant
An (ant)hology
By Gary Adams, Ramona Ausubel, Deborah S. Friedman, Kimberly Meyer, Lisa Rappoport, Nora Ryerson, Joseph Stroud, Donna Stubak
Oakland, California: Littoral Press, 2009. Edition of 77.

4 x 6"; 22 unnumbered pages. Printed letterpress. Fonts: digital Optima and handset Greeting Monotone.Text paper: Hahnemühle Bugra Butten Archive. Cover: Moulin de Pombie Mouchete Granite. Flyleaves of vintage Japanese persimmon-dyed paper. Pamphlet binding. Ant illustrations by Nora Ryerson. Edited, designed, and printed by Lisa Rappoport.

Littoral Press: "Poems about ants, by eight poets."

Colophon: "No ants were harmed, in the making of this book."

Ants 5 by Gary Adams

... then I saw
the words I wrote on a page
become ants
and walk away
and walk away
this made me believe
that in the long run
the ants would win ...

$115

A Flame in the Heart
By Robert Hass, Marie Howe, Frida Kahlo, Sharon Olds, Gary Young
Oakland, California: Littoral Press, 2002. Edition of 125.

7 x 11" Letterpress from handset Garamond in black and blood-red ink on Johannot paper. With reversible Thai Unryu covers and pastepaper liners. Conceived, edited, printed and bound by Lisa Rappoport.

Poetry and prose exploring the territory where love and hate commingle. Seventeen pieces from the pens of writers, including Robert Hass, Marie Howe, Frida Kahlo, Sharon Olds, and Gary Young.
$275

Heart Assortment
By Lisa Rappoport
Oakland, California: Littoral Press, 2002. Edition of 14.

7 x 4.5" text pages. Housed in an altered and/or altered found red velvet Valentine candy box. Hearts vary in size.

Consists of nine poems by Lisa Rappoport. Each poem is printed letterpress in a different font, in nine shades of red and purple, on Somerset Velvet radiant white paper.

The poems explore the flavors of regret, lost loves, longings, the bittersweet aftertaste of loving. Rappoport collected leftover heart boxes on February 15th, the day after Valentines.
$140

Nautilus
By Lisa Rappoport
Oakland, California: Littoral Press, 2001. Edition of 21.

Variable sized boxes to accommodate the shells, ranges from 3.5 x 5 x 7" to 5 x 6 x 9".

Artist's book written, designed, letterpress printed and assembled by Lisa Rappoport. An actual nautilus shell is housed, unexpectedly, on a bed of moss in the confines of a painted wooden box. A poem unfurls from the mouth of the shell where it is printed in curving lines on paper secured to the inner lip of the Nautilus. The book is all spirals at heart, and the Fibonacci sequence at the foot of the page suggests the mathematical basis of this chambered creature. The narrow scroll of Fabriano Roma (light green) paper measures 3 x 25 inches and is rolled around a wooden dowel at the far end for storage in the box. Text is handset Centaur and Arrighi printed in dark sea green. The oceanic paintings on the boxes are done by one of four artists. In the edition of 21 books, each is unique because of its never-to-be duplicated shell and the original painting on its box.

A delight to behold and a wonder to open!
$225 (Five Copies Remaining)

Mrs. Yesbut Goes to Town
By Lisa Rappoport and Yvonne Tsang
Berkeley, California: Littoral Press / Epistolary Press, 2007.
Edition of 100.

3.375 x 3.375"; ten panel accordion book. Page pocket on nine panels. Printed in Park Avenue and Bernhard Gothic on Johannot Light.

Colophon: "Compiled from memories of past injustices by Lisa Rappoport and Yvonne Tsang with assistance from David Guzman, all of whom are old enough to know better."

Canned responses passed from one generation to the next:

"This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you'';
“You'll understand when you're older."

Truths or clichés?
$70

A Bouquet of Pheasants
By Lisa Rappoport
Berkeley, California: 2006. Edition of 99.

Scroll, five-foot-long, four inches wide with images of 30 animals and their corresponding collective nouns (like herd, school, exaltation) in 30 different fonts. Split fountain so they gradually change color.

Rappoport: "The split fountain inking behaved quite well, but it was a LOT of printing (on dampened paper) and a lot of pasting together the five pieces of the scroll, plus the dowels, and because I had the bright idea to set each animal's collective noun in a different font, distributing the type meant scurrying all over the shop to 30 different typecases. Of course, I initially meant to do say 12 or 15 animals, but when I realized how many of the collective nouns I could illustrate from my ever-burgeoning collection, I just couldn't resist."
$35

Catalog Shopping:
Precepts for Enhanced Living
By Lisa Rappoport
Oakland, California: Littoral Press, 2004. Edition of 80.

5.5 x 4" Printed in handset Glamour Lite and Brush on Hahnemuhle Ingres Antique paper in coral and turquoise. Covers of soft teal or celery Canson Mi Teintes. Flyleaf paper incorporates bits of newspaper.

Joins various images, largely printers' cuts from the fifties, to verbatim quotes from "a certain cheesy yet alluring circular perused all too frequently by the publisher Lisa "not a slave to fashion Rappoport"
$40

Dear John or, The Importance of Punctuation
By Lisa Rappoport
Oakland, California: Littoral Press, 2004. Edition of 75.

4.5 x 6.25" Handset in Cheltenham and Light Clearface. Printed on Hahnemuhle Ingres paper with Fabriano Tiziano covers.

"Dear John" was found circulating hither and yon about the Web. Any clues as to the identity of the author would be most welcome. Printed in the waning days of 2004 by Lisa Rappoport. Two copies of a "Dear John" letter in two drafts. Content is the same but by the placement of punctuation the meaning changes.
$25

Let the Gin Fizz!
... and other Cocktails for Health
concocted & blended by Lisa Rappoport & Claribel Cone
Berkeley, California: Littoral Press, 2003. Edition of 150.

3 x 4.5"; 6 pages. One-page pamphlet-style folded book. Letterpress printed in Barnhard Gothic Light "with foamy heads of Brush" on Norman's Ingres paper.

Recipes for Mystery Drink, Tequila Sunset [you won't see the sunrise], Tennessee's Florida Flurry, Importance of Ernest's Fizz, Eustacia's Fine Press Brandy, and Prunella's Brew.

Colophon: "Consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate a printing press and may cause health problems, which may be remedied by the foregoing salubrious recipes. Or not."
$25 (Last three copies)

Lush Life
By Billy Strayhorn
Oakland, California: Littoral Press, 2010. Edition of 78.

4.75 x 4.75"; 8 pages. One sheet book. Letterpress printed in Bernhard Gothic, jazzed up with Keynote. Paper: dampened Hahnemühle Ingres.

This is the first in a series of song books by Littoral Press.

Music and lyrics of Lush Life were written by Billy Strayhorn (1915 - 1967) when he was 16. Strayhorn was a longtime arranger and pianist for Duke Ellington.

I used to visit all the very gay places
Those come what may places
Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life
To get the feel of life...
From jazz and cocktails. ...

I'll live a lush life in some small dive.
And there I'll be
While I rot with the rest of those
Whose lives are lonely too.

$25