Creating rare, handcrafted letterpress books at Pegana Press since 2009.
About Pegana Press
Our Story
Here at Pegana Press we strive to create the kind of books which add to the enjoyment of reading a good story. We are Mike and Rita Tortorello and we love beautiful books.
We met in 1982 at EWU where we were both enrolled in the Audio Engineering program at that school's prestigious RTV dept., and we became life long partners when me married in 1984. Mike began collecting books of the Fantasy/Science Fiction genre nearly 40 years ago and the idea for Pegana Press evolved out of our desire to create the kind of books we had been collecting. In 2009 Pegana Press began operation using a Vandercook SP 15 press. The first project to roll off the press was a broadside edition of Rhymes From A Suburb by Lord Dunsany. Pegana Press took its inspiration and its name from the work of Lord Dunsany.
While looking for material to create our first book, Mike discovered Paris, A Poem written by Hope Mirrlees, who is best known for her work Lud-In-The-Mist. The poem had a fascinating history, and was so rare that no copies were available when he began searching it out. Working from scans, he recreated the layout of the text of the original, which is an important part of the poem. The project took over a year to complete, laboriously type setting each letter while recreating the layout of the original work.
The next project was to collect the short stories of Lord Dunsany which had appeared in early magazines, and which had never again appeared in print. These previously uncollected stories were gathered from libraries, and were released as Lost Tales volume 1 with the authorization of the Dunsany Estate. It was followed up by volumes 2 and 3, both containing previously unpublished works, provided by the Estate, as well as manuscripts provided by collectors.
While Mike hand sets each letter and space of type which appears on the page, he is also responsible for choosing the content, which always requires much research and time. A lot of thought goes into the design of each book, as well. Materials are chosen carefully to enhance the book.
Rita became the binder for Pegana Press in 2012. All of our books are hand made with loving care from start to finish. And we hope to continue to operate that way for many years to come.
It's a wonderful season to hide away with a book. We wish you Happy Reading, from your friends Mike & Rita at Pegana Press.
Welcome To The Press
The photo above shows a drawer of Goudy Franciscan type. Also shown is the composing stick and metal spacing on the table in front of the drawer.
Setting 4 lines of type at a time in the composing stick. The lines of type are set a letter at a time, upside down and backwards to get the right perspective for the press.
The words get separated by various thicknesses of metal to create the spacing between words until the type is snug within the margins of the stick. If a word doesn't fit at the end of a line and can't be hyphenated then I take out the spaces, and put in smaller spaces until the word fits. Here I'm typesetting page 6 of Lord Dunsany - Lost Tales Volume 3 in May of 2014. Once I have enough lines, they are transferred onto the bed of the press to be printed. Each page takes about 5 hours to set.
Vandercook sp15
Here is our page of type locked up in the press bed using wooden furniture and quoins to exert pressure.
This photo shows Mike cutting paper. These sheets will become pages for the next book.
This photo shows a page ready to be printed. Mike cranks the handle to move the carriage across the type block, which both distributes the ink and rolls the paper across the freshly inked type in a fluid motion.
Printing the Title Page from Dark Dreamlands
Welcome To The Bindery
Click on the first photo below to take a virtual tour of the bindery as Rita binds The Golden Key.
