Most studies of private presses and their work can be categorized as broad overviews, bibliographic records, or histories of individual presses. However, Dr. Zachert has instead chosen a  middle ground. Although her research identified more than forty Georgia imprints which may have been private presses, she selected six presses operating in the latter half of the twentieth century which have been recognized with design awards.

As a result, she was able to develop an extensive profile of each press and its publications. The culmination of this work is a collection of warmly personal insights into the working methods, motivations, and philosophies of these six devotees of the “black art.” Through interviews, correspondence, and extensive library research Dr. Zachert has prepared lively esays about the presses and their proprietors, each accompanied by a bibliographic checklist of the press’s publications and a showing of the pressmarks used by the publisher.

Fine Printing in Georgia, 1950s–1990: Six Prize-winning Private Presses, by Martha Jane K. Zachert. 6 1/8 x 9, xiv + 145 pages, 1994. Set in PostScript Monotype Dante, and printed by offset lithography on Mohawk Superfine paper. Three hundred copies bound in cloth over boards are available at $45 plus $2 shipping. Forty additional copies, bound in quarter leather and numbered and signed by the author and printer, are priced at $100 plus $2 shipping.