Guide to the Adrian Wilson Ephemera
Mark Knudsen
The Book Club of California
312 Sutter Street, Fifth Floor
San Francisco, CA 94108
Phone: (415) 781-7532
Fax: (415) 781-7537
Email: library@bccbooks.org
URL: http://www.bccbooks.org
© 2018
The Book Club of California. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Adrian Wilson Ephemera
Collection number: Wilson
The Book Club of California
San Francisco, California
- Processed by:
- Mark Knudsen
- Date Completed:
- August 2018
- Encoded by:
- Mark Knuden
© 2018 The Book Club of California. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Adrian Wilson ephemera
Dates: ca. 1947-1998
Collection number: Wilson
Creator:
Wilson, Adrian
Repository:
The Book Club of California
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
The Book Club of California has not been assigned copyright of the collection. Requests for permission to publish or quote
must be submitted in writing to the Club Librarian and pertains only to the use of the physical item. For materials still
under copyright, users are also responsible for obtaining permission from the rights holder.
Preferred Citation
Adrian Wilson ephemera, Wilson, The Book Club of California, San Francisco, CA.
Biography / Administrative History
Wilson, Adrian
Adrian Wilson (1923-1988) was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He attended Wesleyan University prior to WWII where he became a
conscientious objector and joining the war resistance movement. During the war, he was interned at Camp Angel, Waldport, Oregon,
where he met the poet William Everson and learned to print. After the war he and his new wife, Joyce Lancaster Wilson (1914-1996),
settled in San Francisco and helped to form the Interplayers Theater and Adrian began his graphic arts career by designing
extraordinary programs and posters. For a time, he worked with Jack Stauffacher at the Greenwood Press and he also worked
a few years as a book designer at the University of California Press and after leaving their employment, he accepted commissions
from them for many years. In 1959, Joyce and Adrian founded The Press in Tuscany Alley in San Francisco and soon Adrian was
designing and printing fine limited editions, followed by many commissions for books and catalogs for university presses and
art museums, including several volumes for the Book Club of California. Adrian and Joyce collaborated on several large projects,
writing and designing scholarly works such as The Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle and A Medieval Mirror. In 1983, Adrian
was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Prize. This allowed him to pursue his work as a craftsman, typographer, book designer,
and scholar. Joyce wrote, designed, and illustrated several children's books with her own wood blocks and linoleum cuts and
continued to operate the press after Adrian's untimely death in 1988.
Scope and Content of Collection
Four archives boxes containing 15 file folders
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Private presses--California
Printed ephemera
Letterpress printing
Press in Tuscany Alley
Wilson, Adrian
Wilson, Joyce Lancaster
Fine press--specimens
Box 1
, Folder 1
Biographical material on Adrian Wilson
