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The Tramp Printers: Forgotten Trails of the Traveling Typographers
The tramp printer was a typesetting troubadour with a story in lieu of a song, a scholarly hobo, and a master of the type case. Carrying a union journeyman’s card, a few basic tools, and little else, these “itinerant” or “tourist” typographers criss-crossed the continent for more than a century, train-hopping from newspaper to newspaper, following the railroad tracks like fish following a river, chasing the seasons like migrating birds.
They lived without belongings, without homes, and without romantic entanglements, traveling freely in spite of the hardships of the road. To the tramp printer, personal autonomy and adventure were far more valuable than material possessions. Many of them were brilliant, literate individuals who were nevertheless possessed by a predilection for bacchanalian debauchery. The tramps helped each other over the hard places and spread the craft of printing along the way. And by standing strong in solidarity, journeymen printers fought for the eight-hour day — and won.
They lived without belongings, without homes, and without romantic entanglements, traveling freely in spite of the hardships of the road. To the tramp printer, personal autonomy and adventure were far more valuable than material possessions. Many of them were brilliant, literate individuals who were nevertheless possessed by a predilection for bacchanalian debauchery. The tramps helped each other over the hard places and spread the craft of printing along the way. And by standing strong in solidarity, journeymen printers fought for the eight-hour day — and won.
- GenresHistory
197 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
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April 27, 2018Wow, don't know if I could say enough nice things about this book.
Overbeck researched, wrote, laid out, printed, and bound this history of tramp printers himself. There's many angles that I think this work has appeal from--history, labor, printing, tramping, gender--but what struck me most by the end, is The Tramp Printers as an emotional history of automation and displacement. Since tramp printers were incredible literate, Overbeck seems to have had a wealth of well-told and well-written memoirs to draw from, which he uses well.
Initially I was worried the tramps would be too romanticized, and while they are at times, it's undercut throughout the text with a healthy dose of their bleak realities.
Like all things Eberhardt Press makes, this book. is. gorgeous. If you're interested in small presses and radical history get yourself a copy of this book before they run out!
http://www.eberhardtpress.org/catalog...
Overbeck researched, wrote, laid out, printed, and bound this history of tramp printers himself. There's many angles that I think this work has appeal from--history, labor, printing, tramping, gender--but what struck me most by the end, is The Tramp Printers as an emotional history of automation and displacement. Since tramp printers were incredible literate, Overbeck seems to have had a wealth of well-told and well-written memoirs to draw from, which he uses well.
Initially I was worried the tramps would be too romanticized, and while they are at times, it's undercut throughout the text with a healthy dose of their bleak realities.
Like all things Eberhardt Press makes, this book. is. gorgeous. If you're interested in small presses and radical history get yourself a copy of this book before they run out!
http://www.eberhardtpress.org/catalog...
January 14, 2018
Disclaimer #1: I know the author.
Disclaimer #2: I am a letterpress printer.
This is a history of the tramp printers, itinerant workers who rode the rails from printshop to printshop during the heyday of letterpress. There have been a few books about this subject already, but this one comes from a radical viewpoint about the change of printing into the digital realm, and how it affected workers.
Disclaimer #2: I am a letterpress printer.
This is a history of the tramp printers, itinerant workers who rode the rails from printshop to printshop during the heyday of letterpress. There have been a few books about this subject already, but this one comes from a radical viewpoint about the change of printing into the digital realm, and how it affected workers.
October 29, 2024
The 2022 Eberhardt Press version is a masterpiece, and if you are going to read this, get that copy if you can. Drive to Portland if you must. Not only are the stories and vignettes about the rise and fall of tramp printers (and accompanying technological changes) fascinating, the book itself is a treasure. The choices of papers and typography emphasize the sense of loss, that some things that should be remembered risk being forgotten.
April 11, 2018
I love his book. Package and contents are as perfect as I could’ve expected from Eberhart Press.
May 18, 2024
Fantastic recount of a lost trade. Splendidly told with a clear understanding of the intersection of importance in the past and the present. Makes me want to learn how to print the old school way.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews