Special Collects: Brindabella Press prospecti

A few years ago I went to the launch of Michael Richards’ ‘biblio-biography’ of Alec Bolton at the National Library of Australia (NLA). I love the idea of a ‘biblio-biography’, which is just what it sounds like: a history of someone via the books they made. It could also apply to the books someone owned, if they were just a collector, but Alec was a book maker. He was a professional book designer and a letterpress printer. He was the first Publications Manager of the NLA and before that he worked for publishers Angus & Robertson and Ure Smith. He established a private press, the Brindabella Press, and last but absolutely not least, he was the husband of poet Rosemary Dobson, whom he met at Angus & Robertson and married in 1951.

I mentioned in the last post that I worked for Rosemary Dobson Bolton. Here’s where it intersects: I met Alec when I worked as the Publications Officer for the Australian Academy of the Humanities, which launched a major bibliographic project called the Academy Editions of Australian Literature project. He was asked to create the book design for the series, which he did completely analogue, beautiful clear diagrams and instructions as to fonts and sizes. I then translated his design into what was then Adobe Pagemaker.

Our conversations during this process led an agreement: I would teach him how to use a computer in return for conversations, tips and advice about letterpress printing… and we did this. On my first day I turned up at his home very nervous about teaching this lovely knowledgeable man anything, until he showed me his brand new Macintosh computer, still in its box. The first day consisted of me setting up the computer and installing the software, with him watching intently. He loved machines, and he was determined to make the most of this one. We had a good number of wonderful sessions together, setting up templates, discussing fonts and layouts and plans... and then one weekend, he died, from a quick, sudden heart attack.

It was absolutely tragic, and he left a big hole, not least for Rosemary, who grieved deeply for the rest of her life. He had four new Brindabella books in progress, and while he'd beautifully designed the poetry and fiction formats for the AEAL series, there were other genres to be considered (drama, autobiography, etc), so the General Editor, Paul Eggert and I took up the baton, following his clear design path.

When he died I was newly, accidentally, pregnant. I'd been learning to ride a motorbike, which he was super excited about because, as I said, he loved machines. He had winkled out that I was pregnant when I arrived in my car rather than the motorbike and I 'fessed up. He was so beautifully supportive of my choices, for which I was very grateful. Anyhoo, it meant that I had to go to ground for a while, and I missed out on the initial dispersal of his letterpress studio (which mostly went to the Finlay Press in Goulburn).

A couple of years later, Rosemary called and asked if I'd help her prepare his archives for the NLA, so I started coming for one morning a week, and we got along so well that we continued meeting weekly for 15 years. First we did his archives, and then hers, and then just generally hung out together, with me taking her to places & events, doing small jobs and reading to her when her eyesight really deteriorated. I learned so much from them both.

I got to know Michael Richards over those years too. He'd been an NLA Librarian and had worked with Alec. He also has a private press, the Vagantes Press. He's a real trooper, has helped me move my letterpress equipment a couple of times, and gave me lots of good advice and research tips when I did a Fellowship at the NLA in 2024. We have great conversations, and some of them resulted in my being cited in his book.

So, in early 2022, the Assistant Director of Publishing at the NLA, Lauren Smith, got in touch with me while designing Michael's biblio-biography. She asked if I’d print something to tip into the special edition, because the Bolton family had donated a bunch of prospecti (that I’d bundled up, years ago!) to be included somehow. The text they wanted was from one of R’s last poems, written when grieving for Alec. This text means a lot to me too.

Dear reader, I cried when I typeset the poem for my own private press edition of Rosemary's poems (

Poems to Hold or Let Go, 2008); I cried when I typeset these lines in the Wayzgoose Press studio in 2022 when I was living in Katoomba and dealing with the Wayzgoose estate; and I cried (along with everyone else) when a professional actor read the poem at Michael's book launch. So many beautiful memories, neatly layered into those few lines. The tip-in I printed is accompanied by a swatch of leftover endpaper, produced by Canberra designer Adrian Young from a wood engraving by Rosalind Atkins (who also made image blocks for my book).

Another intersection— the image reproduced on the cover shown at the start of this post (the limited special edition) and its title page is a wood engraving by Mike Hudson of The Wayzgoose Press. He and Alec did a number of print projects together: books and broadsides.

The prospecti themselves were included in the cover in such a lovely way, nestled under the plastic of the dust jacket. They are able to be removed by opening the dustjacket. I have a full collection of the Brindabella Press prospecti, but it's lovely to see a selection of them featured in this gorgeous book. 

After recounting Alec's early publishing jobs, each chapter of the book covers a Brindabella Press publication, from his very first Christmas card to his last days of planning those four unfinished books. He was at the epicentre of Australian literature, and made the most of it, working with Rosemary herself, A.D. Hope, John Shaw Neilson, Christina Stead, Les Murray, Judith Wright, and many, many others. He worked closely with a posse of illustrators such as Ros Atkins, Mike Hudson,

Helen Ogilvie, and Victoria Clutterbuck, and excellent local bookbinders such as Brian Hawke, Robin Tait and Helen Waddlington. He also, to my delight and fascination, worked with Barbara Hanrahan as a writer and as an artist. He published the first edition of Hanrahan's Iris and her Garden, which was then picked up by UQP and printed commercially using Alec's design. Michael's September 2022 book launch was wonderful, full of people I hadn’t seen for ages, like historian Elizabeth Morrison, who worked closely with me on the AEAL project, and bookbinder Robin Tait, who now operates from Toowoomba, QLD. 

The limited edition of this book is sold out, I'm pretty sure, but the regular edition is still available at the NLA and elsewhere. Congrats to Lauren Smith and her team for a job done well. And of course, massive congrats to Michael for finishing the book! It only took 9 years… If you'd like to get a feel for it and see some more of the Brindabella Press prospecti, here's a nice presentation given during the writing process: Michael Richards on Brindabella Press.

* According to Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage, "the plural is prospectuses (notwithstanding the Latin plural prospectūs). The plural prospecti is mistaken pedantry, since the Latin word is fourth rather than second declension." Well, that just looks too much like platypuses, and is not as elegant as platypi.