Of Woodland Pools, Spring-Holes & Ditches

A friend told me about what appears to be a gorgeous hand-printed and illustrated collection of Thoreau’s writings on springtime fauna. (The regular edition costs $1600. For the deluxe edition you have to pay a bit more.) Abigail Rorer, the artist, has also illustrated Thoreau’s posthumous books Faith in a Seed and Wild Fruits, and has printed a number of broadsides based on his work, including quotations from the Journal about a fox chase and a toad, as well as a description of moose from The Maine Woods and a description of Walden Pond from Walden.

I was tickled to see that she uses a Vandercook proof press to do her work. I used a Vandercook proof press myself, long ago, when I printed my own broadside of the passage in Walden where Thoreau charms the perch with his flute.