Over at the Globe's book blog Shelf Life, Jan Gardner writes, “Forty years ago David Godine moved a printing press into an old cow barn in Brookline to publish, as he and his pals put it, ‘books that matter for people who care.’ Godine had degrees from Dartmouth College and Harvard University and had apprenticed with printmaker Leonard Baskin and master printer Harold McGrath, but knew nothing about publishing. He learned.
His company, David R. Godine Inc., has published Nobel laureate J.M.G. Le Clézio, former US poet laureate Donald Hall, and Booker prize winner John Banville. Godine’s eclectic list includes elegant editions of children’s classics, beautiful photography books, and classics of foreign literature that other American publishers won’t touch.
Books are no longer printed on the premises, and the office is now in downtown Boston, but Godine keeps a much-used letterpress machine and typesetting equipment in the barn at his home in Milton.
On Thursday, he will give an illustrated lecture about the books he has published that have made a difference. It begins at 6 p.m. at the Boston Public Library. His book, ‘A Retrospective of Four Decades in the Life of an Independent Publisher,’ is due out in November.”
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