Better by design: an introduction to planning, designing and developing library buildings

Wright, James McAuley, Barbara Hanrahan, David Campbell, Alec Hope, Philip Hodgins and Philip Mead, their books incorporating wood engravings by notable Australian printmakers, such as Rosalind Atkins, Mike Hudson, Victoria Clutterbuck, and Helen Ogilvie. Outstanding designers included Arthur Stokes and Adrian Young, while binders for the hand-bound books included Brian Hawke, Robin Tait and many by Helen Wadlington. Bolton, the ‘gentleman printer’, skilfully brought together the talents of many artists in creative collaborations. Alec Bolton and Rosemary Dobson knew just about everyone in Australian literary circles. Rosemary’s poems featured in several Brindabella Press publications, whose signed print runs rarely exceeded 300 copies. They are now extremely collectible, as indeed are the other works that he produced, such as those for the Friends of the ANU Library, which included the 1987 Brindabella publication, Rainforest by Judith Wright. Richards’ book is not a traditional biography. The primary focus is on Bolton’s work with the Brindabella Press, but, nonetheless, there is much more to be gleaned on institutional and cultural settings and Bolton’s relationships with his colleagues in the creative process. There are numerous Canberra insights. This reviewer, for example, was unaware of how Bolton, with Anthony Ketley, then Head of the Canberra Public Library Service, helped establish the Canberra Lifeline Book Fair, building on the concept that Russell Oldmeadow, the Director of Canberra Lifeline, had proposed to the then National Librarian, Allan Fleming. Bolton, inter alia, persuaded many of Australia’s leading poets to donate manuscripts for auction at the first Book Fair in June 1973. Michael Richards, himself a notable amateur letterpress printer, concludes that