Fireflies
By Rabindranath Tagore
Orinda, California: Shoestring Press, 2007. Edition of 58.

3 x 2.75"; 38 pages. Printed by offset lithography with color tints applied by hand. Royal Marble paper by Wausau. Design and printing by Philip Morrison. Bound in black cloth flecked with tiny squares of many colors.

Introduction: "Fireflies had their origin in China and Japan where thoughts were very often claimed from me in my handwriting on pieces of silk." [Rabindranath Tagore (1861- 1941)]

This miniature book contains thirty-six of these fireflies — aphoristic sparks of wit and wisdom.
$65

Alphabet Cube
By Philip & Anna Morrison
Orinda, California: Shoestring Press. Open Edition.

2.25 x 2.25 x 2.25" cube.

A Rubik's cube of type designers with a rotating assemblage of 26 small cubes serving as the pages of the book. It features 26 type designers beginning with Arrighi and ending with Hermann Zapf. Type styles illustrated date from the early days of moveable type to the present time.
$45

Notes
By Czeslaw Miloscz
Orinda, California: Shoestring Press, 2006. Edition of 48.

2.25 x 3" with case. Pages printed letterpress from polymer plates on a Washington handpress with sepia illustrations by Phillip Morrison printed by offset lithography. Paper: Rives in buff. Signatures sewn on tapes, bound in boards with Japanese black silk spine. Endpapers hand marbled in France. Title is stamped in gold on book spine.

Phillip Morrison, from the Preface: "Czeslaw Miloscz is widely recognized as one of the great poets of our time. Recipient of many awards and honors, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980. Working over seven decades, his books and writings are extensive, yet in this small book I chose to include only one short poem, "Notes," from Hymn of the Pearl, 1981.

"I could picture the poet jotting down random ideas and thoughts in a small notebook while the observations were fresh to mind. Later, perhaps, to be developed into poems.

"I have further intruded my own thoughts by preparing the accompanying illustrations."
$75

Classic Haiku
By Basho, Buson, Issa
Translated by Robert Haas
Orinda, California: Shoestring Press, 2001. Edition of 75.

2 x 3"; 74 pages. Oblong format. Printed letterpress on a Washington Handpress in black and red inks. Paper: handmade Japanese Mulberry with grey and blue Suminagashi Marbling. Tradition Oriental binding with folded fore-edges and stab binding on spine. Sewn with black silk. Red and grey brocade covers in slipcase.
Title label on front board and slipcase front.

Haiku by three Haiku Masters from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Translations by Robert Hass, former US Poet Laureate.

As for the hibiscus
on the roadside -
my horse ate it.
                                          ~Basho

This volume was selected by the Miniature Book Society as a winner of their Distinguished Book Award 2002.
$95

To Everything There Is A Season
Text from Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8
Orinda, California: Shoestring Press, 2000. Edition of 80.

2.4 x 2.75" book; 2.9 x 2.25" with slipcase. Fifteen illustrations from second graders made into zinc engravings then combined with handset type (10 pt Goudy Catalog). Printed on a Handpress. Paper: a textured Gutenberg Laid in tan. Title page illustration (of sun) printed in yellow; all other illustrations hand colored. End papers a Swedish marble pattern. Title gold-stamped on spine. Sections sewn on tapes. Covers printed paper over boards. Brown bookcloth spine.

To every there is a Season
and a time to every purpose
under the heaven

The familiar text takes on new associations when seen through the eyes of second-grade students. As a class project, each child was asked to select one verse and interpret it by drawing a crayon picture to be completed in a single 45-minute class session with no help from the teacher. Phil & Anna Morrison selected fifteen of the drawings and made engravings.
$135

Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes
By Philip & Anna Morrison
Orinda, California: Shoestring Press, 1998. Edition of 50.

2.875 x 2.06"; 64 pages. At the bottom of each of the first 28 pages is a rhyming alphabet with initial letters in red, rhymes in black text, set on a blue background. Printed on a Washington handpress with color tints by offset lithography. Paper: Rives ivory. Hand-colored illustration on front cover. Three-color printing throughout. Marbled endpapers. Edges of the pages deckled in blue. Handbound in quarter cloth and marbled boards.

The first miniature book from Philip and Anna Morrison. It includes an Abcdariam as well as forty illustrations. Many familiar nursery rhymes are included.
$87

Click image for more