DIFFICULT BOOK-PRINTING

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 210, 1 June 1929, Page 29

DIFFICULT BOOK-PRINTING

On a lonely plantation situated on the tropical islands of Fiji a mother and her two daughters felt the call of the romantic South Seas insufficient to fill their mental needs. More or less isolated from the centres of culture and learning, they felt the urge of create something that would give wings to their lonely hours and at the same time contribute something to the world.

The result is a beautiful little volume entitled “The Lone Sonnets of the Sonora Carilia das Flores,” selected and edited by Richenda Parham, printed and bound by her daughters, at Ruku Ruku Bay, Fiji. In offering this dainty little collection of verse to the great public beyond the wavecaressed island on which her plantation stands, the editress expresses her hesitation, believing that the deep sentiment which breathes through the sonnets appeals “rather to lovers than to critics.” Maybe that will be so, as she has worked in the belief that “translations should be made in the spirit, rather than in the letter.” Apart, however, from the literary merit of the production, the volume commends itself to. all lovers of books for its unique qualities. It has not been printed in the o Jinary acceptance of the term ; it has been created and multiplied per medium of a duplicating device, and the blurred effect < the type, caused by printing through a ribbon gives the little hook a very unusual appearance. In the absence of all the appliances which are called on in the production of the modern book, this little labour of love goes to show the possibilities of amateur bookproduction, a pursuit concerning which more will undoubtedly be heard in the near future.