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.

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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.

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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.

This week’s book is “Saving the World from Democracy”, documents from the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike

A book with bright read covers laying on a surface of vibrant green grass. The cover reads in part "'Saving the World from Democracy', The Winnipeg General Sympathetic Strike"This week’s short-run book is a facsimile of Saving the World from Democracy, a publication made by the joint Defense Committee of several labour organizations just one year after the brutal suppression of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike. The book contains eyewitness accounts, court transcripts, speeches, and newspaper articles that retell the formation of a coalition of activists, rank and file workers, unemployed soldiers returning from the First World War, and others. Among their demands are many that resonate today.

This is the fourth week of this project, and we’re really happy with the response. We’re making short runs of books that are public domain, open copyright, public property, or possibly just bootlegs. These are books we haven’t made before and don’t plan to make again — once the run sells out, that’s it. Any money left over after paying our costs is going to one of several organizations serving vulnerable people on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. We have been pleased to send small amounts so far to Carnegie Community Action Project, Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, and the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre.

Two notes this week: Canada Post is dealing with abnormally high volumes right now, so shipments are taking longer than normal. Don’t worry, books are on the way (some of last week’s have not been delivered yet). The second note is a content warning: a few of the speeches and newspaper articles quoted in the text of Saving the World from Democracy contain racist language or ideas. While it would perhaps be easy to excuse this by saying “those were different times”, it is important to remember that these words and ideas were part of, or an expression of, an explicitly racist set of social relations whose legacy is still evident today. Thankfully these instances in the book are few; in more than equal incidence the book critiques the xenophobic rhetoric employed against labour organizers and grassroots workers as “aliens”, although this critique is not extended to represent BIPOC workers.

Softcover, 5×8″, 280 pages, red cover, $10 plus shipping.

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The Moccasin Maker by Tekahionwake E. Pauline Johnson (updated: sadly, sold out)

A book with burgundy-coloured cover, titled "The Moccasin Maker" by author E. Pauline Johnson, laying on a mottled stone surfaceThis week’s book is a collection of short prose by Tekahionwake, better known by her English name, E. Pauline Johnson. She is best known for her poetry, and for retelling and publishing a collection of Skwxwu7mesh stories as the book Tales of Vancouver. We have made copies of a 1913 edition of The Moccasin Maker, in burgundy covers, and with black edging.

Tekahionwake was born on the Six Nations reserve in Ontario to an English immigrant mother and Mohawk hereditary chief father. During her lifetime, in spite of frequent publications in Canadian and American magazines, she was arguably better known as a stage performer. Her performances often took place in two act that referenced the duality of her cultural heritage: a first act introducing herself as Tekhionwake (the name of her great-grandfather, who later took the English name Jacob Johnson), and a second act in the persona of a Victorian English woman. She died in Vancouver in 1913, and was buried in Stanley Park.

This week we will donate whatever money is left over after expenses to the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre. These aren’t huge amounts we’re sending these organizations, but hopefully it all helps. Last week we were able to send a donation to the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House to help their delivery of nutritious meals in the neighbourhood; the week before that we sent a small donation to the Carnegie Community Action Project. There are still a few copies available of last week’s book too! All of these books are very limited runs — once they’re gone, we don’t plan to make them again.

Softcover, 5×7.25″, 248 pages,burgundy cover with coloured page edges, $10 + shipping.

Fairy Tales by Sophie, Comtesse de Ségur (update: sold out!)

Last week we said we would be making a short run every week of a title we haven’t made before, and possibly won’t again. We have taken some ends of materials left over from other work to make this week’s selection, Fairy Tales from the French by the Comtesse de Ségur, a copy of an 1859 edition translated by Mrs. Coleman Chapman “and her Daughters”. The Comtesse de Ségur was the daughter of a Russian exile family, and part of the resurgent French aristocracy during France’s Restoration. This volume is a long cycle of episodic stories featuring the same characters, in particular the unfortunate Princess Blondine, who is deceived and manipulated by magicians and evil fairies, but helped and supported by other fairies and enchanted creatures.

This is a very short run with lovely slate-coloured covers. Any small profits from sales of this run of books will go to one of the organizations providing urgently-needed services to vulnerable people in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Last week, we donated $30 to the Carnegie Community Action Project from the sales of Frescoes, etc.: Dramatic Sketches by Ouida.

Softcover, 300 pages, 4.5×6.5″, slate grey 80# covers.

Sold out

This week: Frescoes by Ouida (update: sold out!)

books with covers made of rough chipboard paper, showing cover title "FRESCOES etc. Dramatic Sketched by OUIDA" with the work "pseud." written in cursive next to the name "OUDIA". On one of the books can be seen a glimpse of a vibrant pink paper inside the front cover before the book's actual pages.We’re beginning book production again, at reduced speed like everything else these days. We will be in the studio once a week to make a short run of a book from a public domain work, government document, or bootleg file. All of these will be books we haven’t made before and are probably not likely to make again — once they’re gone (at a very reasonable price plus shipping), they’re gone. Whatever small amount of money is left over after production and shipping will go to frontline groups serving vulnerable people in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.

Frescoes, Etc.: Dramatic Sketches is a collection of short plays by Ouida (Marie Louise de la Ramé), a prolific English novelist of the late 19th century. She was immensely popular in her time, and perhaps as well known for her lavish lifestyle and cultivation of celebrity as for her writing, both of which were considered scandalous and even dangerous by guardians of public morality. Her best-known novels, A Dog of Flanders and Under Two Flags, have each had multiple film adaptations.

Frescoes includes the play Afternoon, in which an aristocrat discovers that the woman he loves and plans to marry is in fact someone he had treated cruelly many years before, and is confronted for his behaviour. Softcover, 318 pages, 5×7″, 16pt chipboard covers. We made six copies, $10 each plus shipping.

Sold out.

#MMIWG report available soon

We produced a few copies of the Executive Summary of the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls this past weekend. We’ll be working out a different way to distribute them than we did with the Truth and Reconciliation report, as we had some problems responding to all of the requests for that one. Watch our instagram and facebook accounts, or this site, for updates.