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  • Writer's pictureJoanne Paulson

You stand on sacred ground.


One day, while still working with Karen Briere, she sent around this incredible quote from Beatrice Warde, American typographical scholar, born Sept. 1900. It rings in my memory; it stands for the passion we feel, we authors and journalists, for newspapers and books and anything else worth printing, and it can still choke me up. For those of us who really give a damn about print, about words, about worlds created, about worlds covered in truth.

This is a printing office

Crossroads of civilization Refuge of all the arts Against the ravages of time Armoury of fearless truth

Against whispering rumour Incessant trumpet of trade

From this place words may fly abroad

Not to perish on waves of sound

Not to vary with the writer's hand

But fixed in time having been verified in proof

Friend you stand on sacred ground.

This is a printing office.

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