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Preliminary Guide to the James J. Guthrie - Pear Tree Press Collection
Printers Mss 11
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Table of contents
Title: James J. Guthrie - Pear Tree Press Collection,
Date (inclusive): ca. 1901-1952, 1971
Collection Number: Printers Mss 11
Extent:
.8 linear feet
(2 document boxes)
Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Department of Special Collections
Santa Barbara, California 93106-9010
Physical Location: Del Sur
Language:
English.
None.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
James J. Guthrie - Pear Tree Press Collection. Printers Mss 11. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University
of California, Santa Barbara.
Bulk of collection purchased in 1968, with subsequent purchases to ca. 1988.
James J. Guthrie (1874-1952), a Scotsman who moved to London as a child, was the founder of Pear Tree Press, which began in
1899, at a time when Guthrie was living at Pear Tree Cottage in Ingrave, Essex, England. Guthrie moved the press to Shorne
in Kent, then Harting in Sussex, before settling at Flansham, near Bognor Regis, Sussex in 1907. An artist, typographer, and
printer, Guthrie throughout his life was particularly interested in intaglio printing. Two of his favorite pursuits were wood
engraving and book plate design. The first book issued by his Pear Tree Press was
Some Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, with drawing by Guthrie, 1901 and the last, 50 years later, seems to have been his work
From a Sussex Village, printed at the Mermaid Press in Flansham in 1951 as a contribution to the Festival of Britain.
Further information on Guthrie and the Pear Tree Press may be found in:
Dugan, Frances l. S. "The Press of an Artist,"
Sonderabdruck aus dem Gutenberg-Harbuch, 1953.
Eckert, Robert P., Jr. "James Guthrie and the Pear Tree Press,"
The American Book Collector, 13 (1963): 13-33.
Ransom, Will.
Private Presses and Their Books (New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1929), pp.88-91.
Scope and Content of Collection
The James J. Guthrie - Pear Tree Press Collection was purchased in conjunction with the UCSB Libraries 500,000th volume celebration
in 1968. It contains the collection of manuscripts, as well as a number of printed items that have been cataloged individually
and may be searched in Pegasus, the UCSB Libraries online catalog. The cataloged items primarily are monographs, but also
include a few issues of serials printed by Pear Tree, some prospectuses, announcements, publication lists, and proof sheets.
The manuscripts are arranged in the following series: General, Correspondence, Publications of the Pear Tree Press and James
J. Guthrie, and Miscellany.