Jim Lowell linocut for Bottle #5

I recently completed this linocut for the cover of Bottle #5, a collection of broadsides by 20 poets published by Bottle of Smoke Press. This image is another in a series of heroes of the small press that I have made for the Bottle broadsides. The subject is Jim Lowell, and that flowering plant is a reference to Asphodel, his bookshop. Jim Lowell was a bookseller in Cleveland, where he specialized in first-edition, small-press publications, especially those of the counterculture movement of the '60s.

I printed this 2.5" x 2.75" linocut in an edition of 40, all of which will be found on the covers of a special first edition of Bottle #5, signed by all of the living contributors. Bottle #5 includes 20 letterpressed broadsides by 20 different poets, with a healthy mix of styles and poems from both well established poets (including Charles Bukowski) and some younger writers. Bill Roberts has hand-set all of these broadsides with various type and has fed them with those very same hands into his 1914 Chandler & Price press, without losing a single finger. The broadsides are printed on various colors of high quality cardstock. Bill does beautiful work, and his letterpressed broadsides are as much a delight to hold and to look at as they are to read.

There will be a regular edition of 200 available as well, where the Lowell linocut will be reproduced on the cover.

The first edition of 200 will cost $25.00, the special edtion of 40 signed by all of the living contributors and including the original linocut will cost $150.00. If history is any guide, that special edition will probably sell out quickly, and orders should be placed in the next week to insure a copy. If you want to reserve a Bottle #5, you should visit Bottle of Smoke Press at http://www.bospress.net/index_current.htm for details.