Sunday, March 03, 2013

NEW HOLLOWAY PRESS BOOK BY MARTIN EDMOND

 Since the publication of Autobiography of My Father (1992), Martin Edmond has become established as one of Australasia’s best prose writers, working mostly in the genre of creative non-fiction. 
Among his many publications are The Resurrection of Philip Clairmont (1999), Chronicle of the Unsung (2004), Waimarino County & other excursions (2007), Luca Antara: Passages in Search of Australia (2008), Zone of the Marvellous: In Search of the Antipodes (2009), The Supply Party: Ludwig Becker on the Burke and Wills Expedition (2009), and Dark Night: Walking with McCahon (2011), most published by Auckland University Press. Edmond has also generously supported smaller publishers, bringing out books with Bumper Books, Soap Box Press, Four Winds Press, Kilmog Press, Otoliths, and, now, The Holloway Press.

The Place of Stones includes five new and previously unpublished essays, namely, ‘The Pink & White Terraces’, ‘On Stones’, ‘Luogo di Pietra’, ‘Waterfall’ and ‘Beyond Tnorala’. New Zealand-born and resident in Sydney, Australia, Edmond ranges across both countries in these powerfully evocative essays, and sometimes, too, into realms of dream and the imagination. The book has an epigraph from Charles Olson: ‘I hunt among stones’.

Martin writes: 'Since a young age I have randomly picked up stones & some of these I have kept about me for a shorter or longer time. There is something planetary about stones & familiarity with individuals seems only to increase their mystery; and yet what could be plainer? These pieces attempt to survey some small aspects of that vast field that lies between the stones & the stars; inevitably, perhaps, they tend to resolve into essays on landscape, past, present or future.'

The essays are accompanied by nine colour photographs by Maggie Hall who came to the medium via digital technologies; she is currently studying the older, analogue forms, especially developing and printing, at Newcastle TAFE. This is her second book length collaboration with Martin Edmond.

The Place of Stones is letterpress printed by Tara McLeod on a Littlejohn cylinder press. Typeset in 12/14 pt Linotype Janson by Longley Printing Co. Ltd. Title page & chapter headings handset in Albertus. Photos are digitally printed by GTO Printers. Paper is 104gsm Sundance Felt natural white. Binding is by Design Bind Ltd. 62 pages; 240 x 160mm. The edition is 70 copies. Price until end of March $220; thereafter, $275.

For an order form please see the website: www.hollowaypress.auckland.ac.nz

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