From Estonia, with Love: a Letterpress Edition of The Little Prince
It’s the time of year when organizations start asking for donations, and here’s one that ought to pique the interest of you bibliophiles out there: the nonprofit TYPA studio of Estonia is looking for boosters for its letterpress edition of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince.
Formerly known as the Estonian Print and Paper Museum, TYPA is a private museum and studio focused primarily on preserving historic printing and papermaking techniques, and regularly hosts workshops such as hand-crafting paper, linocuts, and creating notebooks using its 150-year old letterpress. Now, TYPA is asking for donations to fund its ambitious limited edition of The Little Prince.
The book’s type will be cast line by line via a Linotype typecasting machine, and illustrations will be etched into metal plates using the 19th-century technique known as photozincography. Ultimately, TYPA plans to release three variations of the book, each of which are available at increasing price points to donors; a letterpress edition ($111), each individually numbered and bound in cloth, while the collector’s edition ($223) will boast marbled endpapers and a binders mark; and the exclusive gift edition ($334) will include an extra title page with the option of including a dedication that will be entirely typeset by hand. And finally, for $556, donors are invited to TYPA’s Estonia headquarters where they will help create their own copy of The Little Prince. All books are expected to ship in February 2020.
The fundraising campaign has, to date, raised nearly $3,000 of its approximately $34,000 goal, and has 23 days left in its campaign. Learn all about it here.
