A Little History of Ithys Press

Ithys Press is a fine-press publisher of limited first editions. It was founded in Dublin in 2011 by Anastasia Herbert and Danis Rose with the purpose of bringing together gifted international book-artists, printers, illustrators, and editors to produce unique editions of previously unknown works by groundbreaking modern authors.

Two ideas motivated the Ithys Press project. Firstly, we were inspired by the early 20^th Century renaissance in the printing arts, a trans-Atlantic movement that brought printers and artists into synergetic contact with experimental writers and with collectors of a new sort who were looking for something modern. Secondly, we sought to expand the canon of influential writers by bringing out unknown or unpublished writings, texts which had languished in relative obscurity in archives and private collections but which, in the first decades of the 21^st Century, were passing out of copyright and into the public domain.

Our first collection presents two fine press first editions of works by James Joyce: The Cats of Copenhagen (2012) and Finn’s Hotel (2013). Each is the result of international creative collaboration.

The Cats of Copenhagen is the slightly younger twin sister to The Cat and the Devil, the only other known example of James Joyce writing a story for young children, and our first edition is set from the text of the original manuscript letter to his grandson dated 5 September 1936. Joyce’s internationalist spirit, eccentric humour, and the tale’s anarchic subtext inspire the design. Michael Caine printed this large-format letterpress edition at his atelier in Paris, setting the text in an expressive array of rare and antique hand-cut Italian and French founts. American cartoonist Casey Sorrow brought the story to life with playful pen-and-ink drawings printed by typographique cliché. Christopher Rowlatt created the unique marbled wrappers and handbound the copies at his Presteigne Bindery in Wales. The edition is limited to 200 copies in two issues.

Finn’s Hotel is a pithy, serio-comic collection of ‘little epics’ that James Joyce wrote in 1923, six months after completing Ulysses and well before Finnegans Wake had taken shape in his mind. Centring on epoch-making moments in Irish history and mythology these prose portraits present unvarnished sketches of some of the heroes and heroines that would eventually, in various guises, people Finnegans Wake. The Editor’s Preface and Joyce’s text was letterpress printed by Michael Caine in Van Dijk, Kis-Janson and various early 20th Century typefaces and Seamus Deane’s Introduction was set by Phil Abel in Monotype Univers. This first edition features eleven illustrations by Casey Sorrow and was handbound in Dublin by Tom Duffy with hand-marbled paper created by Antonio Vélez Celemín of Madrid and handprinted paper by Elisabeth Hyder of Massachusetts. The edition is limited to 180 copies in three issues.

You will find more information on our website: https://ithys-houyhnhnm.square.site/

We are looking forward to the West Cork Rare Book Fair and thank Holger Smyth for his warm invitation to take part!