For many years, people in the Brattleboro area talked about the need to document Brattleboro’s ‘print town’ history in a book; The Brattleboro Words Project, buoyed by a National Endowment for the Humanities matching grant and enthusiastic local support, made it a reality.
A collaborative, super-dedicated book committee (Jen Austin, Arthur Burrows, Arlene Distler, Stephanie Greene, Mary Ide and Rolf Parker-Houghton with lots of help from John Hooper) was formed within the original Project Leadership Team. Authors were enlisted, photos were chosen, meetings were taken, concomitant exhibits were planned, hands were wrung, progress was made, problems ironed out…. The astonishing result? A richly illustrated, 278-page, 26-chapter book, written by 36 local writers and artists, that captures the whimsical flavor of this important center for papermaking, printing, writing and publishing and its historical role in the nation over time.
Longtime W.W. Norton editor and Brattleborian Michael Fleming edited the book. Author, storyteller and Dummerston native Tom Bodett wrote the foreword. James F. Brisson was book designer, Stephanie Greene was art editor.
“Print Town has been a labor of love for all who participated. It was well written, well edited, and offered a sumptuous assortment of pertinent and exciting images. Print Town was a book designer’s dream come true to work on,” Print Town Designer Brisson said.
The first edition was printed by Howard Printing, Inc in Brattleboro; All 450 copies signed and numbered by Brisson flew out the door. Since then two subsequent editions of 100 each have been published.