The Shagganappi by Tekahionwake E. Pauline Johnson

This week, a small run of The Shagganappi, a by Tekahionwake E. Pauline Johnson. This is one of two collections of stories published posthumously in 1913, the year that she died of cancer and was buried near Third Beach in Stanley Park, where a cairn still stands. If you would like to pick up a copy locally in Vancouver, let me know that you have donated a minimum of $10 to @gidimten_checkpoint and I’ll set one aside for you. You can email us at psvancouver@publicationstudio.biz.

Softcover, 4.5×6.75″, 268 pages.

Vindication of the Rights of Woman – Pandemic Books

“Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify prejudices, which they have imbibed, they cannot trace how, rather than to root them out. The mind must be strong that resolutely forms its own principles; for a kind of intellectual cowardice prevails which makes many men shrink from the task, or only do it by halves.”

This week’s Pandemic Book is Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman. This is almost certainly the last book we will make with this gorgeous cover stock, bought from Ho Sun printers before they closed up shop. If you can tell me you have made a $10 donation to BWSS – Battered Women’s Support Services I’ll set one of the limited number of copies aside for you for local pick-up in Vancouver. Send us a note at psvancouver@publicationstudio.biz.

Softcover, 4.5×7″, 224 pages.

Three Zines about Direct Action

This week: three zines about direct action. These are all open-copyright publications that discuss movements or strategies that function outside of electoral, regulatory, and legal systems to seek justice. Standing on the Land to Stand Up Against Pipelines was published in 2013 by the Unist’ot’ten Camp; Fuck Abuse in 2018; and What Will it Take to Stop the Police from Killing? was published this year. All three can be downloaded freely from the crimethinc.com website, but the first eight people who can tell us (email to psvancouver@publicationstudio.biz is good) they have made a minimum $10 donation to the Unist’ot’ten Camp will get a custom-made hard copy set of them, with surprise extras thrown in. The camp’s website is at unistoten.camp. Even if you don’t want the zines, donate anyway!

Saddle-stitched booklets, 5.5×8.5″, 28 pages, 16 pages, 16 pages.

Neo-Nazis and the War Against Women’s Freedom (1995)

This week’s Pandemic Book is a pamphlet from 1995, Neo-Nazis and the War Against Women’s Reproductive Freedom. Reading this account of the links between fascism and anti-choice harassment and violence, it occurs to us that the names may have changed, but the methods remain the same in our current moment. Fascist organizers latch on to not only misogyny, but racism, homophobia, transphobia, and poor-bashing in right-wing movements, and are now often given support by politicians within “conventional” conservative parties.

I have made eight copies. Write to me at psvancouver@publicationstudio.biz to let me know you have made a minimum $10 donation to BWSS (Battered Women’s Support Services) and I’ll set one aside for you to pick up locally in Vancouver.

Softcover, 8.25×10.5″, 54 pages.

The Interesting Narrative of Gustavus Vassa or Olaudah Equiano, the African

Olaudah Equiano, known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa, was born in the Kingdom of Benin, and was enslaved as a child, eventually purchasing his freedom and becoming a leading advocate for the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. This book has extremely small print by contemporary standards; it is an early-19th-century edition of his memoir, first published in the 18th century.

If you’re interested in picking up a copy of this book, please let us know (via email to psvancouver@publicationstudio.biz) that you have made a minimum $10 donation to Carnegie Community Action Project, and we’ll put a copy aside for you, and then we both can arrange a time and place for you to pick it up.

Softcover, 3.5×7″, 288 pages. vibrant purple cover.

Carrie Williams Clifford, Sowing for Others to Reap

Here is the ninth publication in our series of Pandemic Books: Sowing for Others to Reap by Carrie Williams Clifford. This started as a something that I could do in the studio for a few hours every week, namely to make a very short run of a public domain, open copyright, or publicly owned work that we haven’t made before and probably won’t make again. It has also been an adventure in reading and research, using available troves of digitized books to find lesser-known works and writers that are somehow relevant to the present moment.

Sowing for Others to Reap was edited by activist and poet Carrie Williams Clifford, in her role as the state president of the Ohio Federation of Coloured Women’s Clubs in 1900. The essays in this small collection show a sort of optimism that organizing and persistence will reap rewards for Black Americans. It also contains hints of arguments within 19th century feminism that seem odd to a contemporary reader. The title itself implies that organizing (and writing about it) benefits others, even if somehow the organizers don’t immediately see the benefits themselves.

Last week we stopped doing direct sales and shipping of these books. Instead, we are making them available for local pick-up in Vancouver, and will not accept payment for them. Instead of payment, we ask that you let us know that you have made a minimum $10 donation to the Hogan’s Alley Society. Email us at psvancouver@publicationstudio.biz to arrange to get your copy. There are ten of them this week, and once they are gone, that’s it.

Softcover, 5×7.75″, 50 pages.

Sojourner Truth: Narrative and Book of Life

After skipping a week, Pandemic Books is back with a very short run of the life story of Sojourner Truth. She is probably best known to many people for her speech on feminism, usually titled “Ain’t I a Woman?” However, she was a lifelong activist for freedom and equality, with many accomplishments. Born into slavery around 1797 in New York, she escaped from bondage in 1826, later saying “I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right.” Her lawsuit to recover her son from a slaver in Alabama was the first of many battles following her self-emancipation.

This week, we’re going to start doing things differently with these books. Instead of collecting money and shipping out books and then making a donation to a local organization, we would like people who are interested in a copy of this book to donate a minimum of $10 directly to the Hogan’s Alley Society. The first six people who can write to us at psvancouver@publicationstudio.biz showing that they have made a donation can pick up a copy of this book. Sadly, this means no more out-of-town shipping for now.

 

Softcover, 5.5×7.5″, 320 pages.

The Life of Albert R. Parsons with Brief History of the Labor Movement in America, by Lucy E. Parsons

For the seventh week of Pandemic Books, we’re making copies of Black American anarchist Lucy Parsons’s book The Life of Albert R. Parsons, with Brief History of the Labor Movement in America. Albert Parsons, her husband, was a newspaper editor, and was arrested following the Haymarket riot in Chicago, and sentenced to death along with five others for the bombing of a police station, even though witnesses said that none of the “conspirators” were responsible for the bombing. Lucy Parsons was one of the founders of the IWW in 1905, and continued to edit, publish, and write for radical journals throughout her life.

If this is your first encounter with our Pandemic Books project, here’s the run-down: for reasons I won’t go in to, we can only use our studio for short stretches right now, so we’re making a very short run each week of a public domain, open-copyright, or orphaned work that we haven’t made before and probably won’t again. The books are always sold for $10 plus shipping, and once the run is sold out, that’s it. Any money left over after we have paid materials costs and shipping goes to a local Vancouver ;organization that is doing useful work for vulnerable people; this allows us to convert our artistic labour into something that hopefully makes a small difference.

Some of the books from previous weeks may still be available. Scroll through our posts here, if it isn’t marked “sold out”, it’s still available to order.

Softcover, 5.125×8″, 322 pages, grey cover with red page edge, $10 + shipping.

Order online:

Magnolia Leaves by Mary Weston Fordham

It has been a difficult week all around: eruptions of racist violence everywhere, and now a racist President of the US saying “start shooting” at Black protesters. Doesn’t he know that the shooting, the killing, started a long, long, time ago now, and never seems to stop? Or that Black lives are more valuable than a Target store? (Those are obviously rhetorical questions.)

This week, we’re making copies of Mary Weston Fordham’s Magnolia Leaves, a collection of her poems first published in 1897, with an introduction by Booker T.  Washington. We’re making a change in our donation strategy for this book: instead of donating the profit to an organization like Carnegie Community Action Project, Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre, PACE or any of the others we’re giving to with this project, we’re going to take any money left over after production costs (ink, toner. paper) and shipping and donate it to Black Lives Matter Vancouver, in solidarity with Black people who have not only lived with the police killing of George Floyd, but also with the weight of centuries of violence, abuse, and erasure.

Very little knowledge of the life of Mary Weston Fordham survives. We know she was born about 1862 in South Carolina, and was a poet and a teacher. Black American women writers were sparsely published during the 19th century, and reviews of their work seem to be nearly nonexistent.

Softcover, 4.5×6.5″, lavender covers, 118 pages, $10 plus shipping.

Order online:

 

Pandemic books week 5: AIDS Conspiracy Theories (update: Sold out!)

We’re now in the fifth week of our pandemic book project. To recap, what we’re doing is producing a public domain, open-copyright, or bootleg edition we haven’t done before and don’t plan to do again in a short run each week, selling it for $10 +shipping, and after paying our costs sending whatever money is left over to an organization that serves vulnerable people in our city.

This week we are examining the social and political role of misinformation during a pandemic, and the terrible consequences, by reprinting a 2000s pamphlet, AIDS Conspiracy Theories by David Gilbert, with commentary by Albert “Nuh” Washington. The book investigates the nature and probable origin of conspiracy theories about HIV and AIDS, and the consequences of those theories namely poorer health outcomes and a higher death rate in Africa and among incarcerated Black people in the United States, and among vulnerable populations in general. Although by this time HIV had been conclusively established as the cause of AIDS, conspiracy theories persisted, often promoted by well-funded “fringe” groups like the Lyndon Larouche organization, with real consequences for public health.

We’re looking forward to an analysis of shadowy actors behind the current COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and the consequences of those theories, when one is published. Until then, there’s this.

We still have a few copies of books from some of the previous weeks of this project. We’re also experiencing the same mail delays as everyone else, but we’re doing our best to fill these orders and get them shipped as quickly as possible. Any small profit left over after shipping costs and supplies will be donated: so far we have made small donations to Carnegie Community Action Project, Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, Downtown Eastside Womens Centre, and PACE Society. These aren’t big amounts, but this is a way for us to use artistic labour to help meet urgent needs in the community.

Softcover, 4.5×7″, 68 pages, manila cover, black page edge, $10 plus shipping.

Sold out.