THREE & ONE - FOUR POEMS by TOBY OLSON & TWO DRAWINGS by MARY LAIRD.

MT. HOREB, WISCONSIN: Perishable Press, 1976. LIMITED FIRST EDITION, one of only 145 copies.

Original handmade paper covers, 4x5.25 inches (10x13.25 cm), 20 pages (10 with printing, most versos are blank).

SIGNED and INSCRIBED by MARY LAIRD HAMADY, the illustrator and co-proprietor of the Perishable Press, to the poet SUE DIRIDONI: "for Susan Diridoni / this April summer day, the 23, 1977 / for passing on the information that is currently consuming me / Mary Laird Hamady".

The little fine-printing book is in FINE CONDITION, bright, sharp and clean. The laid-in flyer for the Sue Diridoni / Clifford Burke Poetry Reading has been folded in half, otherwise Very Good.

Accompanying the book is a small flyer announcing: "POETRY / SUE DIRIDONI / CLIFFORD BURKE / INTERSECTION / Dec. 29 - 8 pm".

Susan Diridoni was a psychotherapist and poet. She was well known in the San Francisco Bay Area haiku poetry community. She died on July 30, 2022.

About MARY LAIRD HAMADY, WALTER HAMADY, and THE PERISHABLE PRESS (from the Stony Brook University Archives and Wikipedia websites):

******Mary Louise Laird (formerly Mary Laird Hamady), b.1948, is an artist, printer, teacher, author and poet. She earned her MFA from University of Wisconsin at Madison and was married to and a collaborator with Walter Samuel Haatoum Hamady. The couple were co-proprietors of The Perishable Press and Shadwell Papermill for many years beginning in the late 1960s. Laird was involved in every stage of the bookmaking process, from soliciting manuscripts to marbling the covers.

Walter Samuel Haatoum Hamady, b.1940 d.2019, was an American artist, book designer, papermaker, poet and teacher. He is especially known for his innovative efforts in letterpress printing, bookbinding, and papermaking. In the mid 1960s, he founded THE PERISHABLE PRESS LIMITED and the SHADWELL PAPERMILL. In 1966 he joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where for over thirty years he taught papermaking, letterpress printing, and bookbinding.

The Perishable Press's handmade books are in the collections of numerous libraries, museums and art centers in the United States and in other countries. These include, to name a few, the British Museum, Harvard University, Newberry Library, Oxford University, Yale University, Cleveland Institute of Art, Northern Illinois University, Getty Center, Grolier Club (New York), Lenin Library (Moscow), Library of Congress, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Royal Library (Stockholm, Sweden), Stony Brook University, Walker Art Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.******