Harry Alvin Duncan (19 April 1916

Keokuk, Iowa Keokuk is a city in and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States, along with Fort Madison. It is Iowa's southernmost city. The population was 9,900 at the time of the 2020 census. The city is named after the Sauk chief Keokuk, who is ...

– 18 April 1997

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

) was a hand-press printer, author, librettist, translator, and publisher under his imprint the Cummington Press. He was known for publishing early works by Robert Lowell,

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thr ...

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...

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, William Logan, Stephen Berg, and

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. A 1982 ''Newsweek'' article about the rebirth of the hand press movement said that Duncan was "considered the father of the post-World War II private-press movement."

Career

Harry Duncan was born in

and earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1938 from

Grinnell College Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College. Grinnell has the fifth highest endowment-to-stu ...

intending to become a poet. He enrolled in the English graduate program at Duke University, but never completed his master's degree. During graduate school he spent summers at the independent Cummington School of the Arts. While in Massachusetts he began publishing books of contemporary poetry using a hand press. He eventually chose to focus on

letterpress printing Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing. Using a printing press, the process allows many copies to be produced by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against sheets or a continuous roll of paper. A worker com ...

instead of a graduate degree. The first Cummington Press book was published in 1939. Duncan became director of the typographical laboratory at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

's School of Journalism and moved the Cummington Press to Iowa City in 1956. In 1972, he moved to the

University of Nebraska at Omaha The University of Nebraska Omaha (Omaha or UNO) is a public research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary as a private non-sectarian college, the university was originally kno ...

(UNO) and began the university's fine arts press, Abattoir Editions, and taught. He retired from teaching in 1985 and returned to printing books full-time under the Cummington Press imprint. Duncan died on April 18, 1997, in

. Marking the centenary of his birth, the Fall 2016 issue of ''Parenthesis'' included a portrait of Harry Duncan on its cover along with three articles by or about Duncan: the text of his talk "New England Novitiate," "An Apprentice's Story" by Juan Nicanor Pascoe, and "A Checklist of Printed Work, 1939-1997" by Michael Peich and Denise Brady.

References

External links

The Cummington Press and Abattoir Editions : a descriptive bibliography of the presswork of Harry Duncan, 1939–1985
Mel Bohn, 1986. Dissertation: Ph. D. University of Nebraska—Lincoln 1986.

From ''Books at Iowa'' 7 (November 1967).
"Reflections in Time: Harry Duncan
interview, University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Cummington Press Papers
The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa.
Cummington Press records and Harry Duncan papers
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.
Mary L. Richmond Cummington Press Collection
Archives & Special Collections, Criss Library, University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Abattoir Editions Collection
Archives & Special Collections, Criss Library, University of Nebraska at Omaha. *The Cummington Press 1939–1997

Harry Duncan Flickr photo collection
University of Nebraska at Omaha Criss Library.
A Conversation With Guy Duncan
University of Nebraska at Omaha Criss Library.
Letterpress Exhibits to Open Art Gallery’s 2016 Calendar
University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Letterpress Mentor
Carol Dennison, ''The Reader'', January 19, 2016. {{DEFAULTSORT:Duncan, Harry 1916 births 1997 deaths Grinnell College alumni American printers American publishers (people) American artists Artists from Nebraska University of Iowa faculty University of Nebraska Omaha faculty People from Keokuk, Iowa Private press movement people