Cathleen Baker, 2000. Published by Oak Knoll Press. 

Dard Hunter (1883-1966) began his career in the book arts as a craftsman and designer in the American Arts & Crafts Movement. In the first decades of the 20th century, Hunter's avant-garde designs were seen in the popular books and decorative arts produced by Elbert Hubbard's Roycrofters. Despite the success of his modern designs, Hunter became intrigued by the ancient handcrafts of papermaking, typefounding, and letterpress printing. An anachronism among colleagues, Hunter remained true to his philosophy to make books by hand, striving for the highest craft standards. 

Dard Hunter was a unique blend of craftsman and scholar - a dichotomy he regarded as essential to the understanding and appreciation of the book arts. Hunter's legacy is manifest in the revival of hand papermaking in this country, and he remains an inspiration to all who are involved in the creation of handmade objects. 

360 pages. Hardcover book measures 7.75x11x1 inches.  

Cathleen A. Baker is a retired paper and book conservator with more than 50 years of experience. She is the author of numerous articles and books, including By His Own Labor: The Biography of Dard Hunter (2000) and From the Hand to the Machine. Nineteenth-Century American Paper and Mediums: Technologies, Materials, and Conservation (2010). She has an M.A. in Art History from Syracuse University; and from the University of Alabama, an M.F.A. in Books Arts and a Ph.D. in Communication Studies. She is also proprietor of the award-winning Legacy Press, established in 1997, which specializes in publishing books about the printing, paper, and bookbinding arts. Her ongoing project to investigate the first wove paper manufactured in the West, which appeared in John Baskerville’s Virgil (1757), was awarded the Katharine Pantzer Senior Fellowship from the Bibliographical Society of America in 2018. After the pandemic, the project was revived in 2023 with a trip to Japan and a 15-day road research trip. The total number of Virgil first editions she has now seen is 208.