Thornwillow Press: Beauty is the Beginning of Terror

Another promising project by the Thornwillow Press is now live on kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1421716661/beauty-is-the-beginning-of-terro....

From the website:
“To commemorate this international centenary event (the end of WWI), Thornwillow Press, in association with cadets and faculty from the United States Military Academy at West Point, is deeply honored to publish a letterpress, hand-bound, limited edition anthology of poems and excerpts by writers who experienced the war from all sides of the conflict”.

This time again, like with Pride and Prejudice, I think the cloth-bound edition is far more attractive in terms of binding design than the half-leather.

In any case, a welcomed publication to add to my WWI literature.

Whew! Sorta happy this one doesn't tempt me more since I have purchases from other presses that are happening this month. I'm reading and reviewing their Inferno right now for thewholebookexperience.com and did subscribe to the Pride and Prejudice as well, both in paper wrappers. But I think I'm going to pass on this one for now...We'll see what happens on the last day of the Kickstarter.

>1 SebRinelli: I would agree the cloth bound is really impressive. The half leather paste paper boards are very interesting but from the pictures available the best conceived seems to be the half cloth. The barbed wire design on the boards is really impressive. I've purchased all half leather in every edition I've purchased from Thornwillow but in this I might actually consider both. This subject is an area I particularly collect and find how they've gone about putting this together exciting.

I love it. Unfortunately I'm not in position to add to my library at the moment, but my loss is someone else's gain.

>3 Sorion:

Agree entirely and I felt similarly with regard to the Thornwillow Press 'Pride and Prejudice'. I, too, have consistently purchased the half leather & paste paper binding edition, in large part due to its quality and permanence. However, in both instances the cloth & paper over boards editions are very imaginative and an argument can be made for obtaining a copy in both bindings, especially at the very friendly price of $185 - certainly not a dealbreaker for a letterpress book with these unique design features.

This is a pass for me. I have subscribed for most of their recent offerings, but this one does not tempt me.

I ordered the cloth version but I wonder about the quality of the writing. I hope that it is not a disappointment. I plan to order the Folio Society Wilfred Owen Limited Edition to match the other two War Poets books that I have. I have no doubts about the writing in the Owen book.

This is a powerful and wonderful book! At $85 the paper wrapper is certainly doable for hopefully nearly everyone. At $185 the beautiful cloth is reasonable too (this IS letterpress)!! The FS WWI Poets are about $350 each (total of three), so again this is not unreasonably priced by any stretch of the imagination. I find this far more appealing than P&P personally, which has been published SO many times in SO many ways.

Wow, this book is just wow...
I'll add a short review and pics later. Needless to say, exceeded my expectations. Already one of my favorite letterpress books of all time!

Hi All, long overdue are some pics! I think this is truly something special.







The half-leather edition was expensive, no doubt about it. However, it was magnificent. It is also signed by
Martin Dempsey - retired United States Army general and the 18th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Colonel Harper - professor at West Point
https://westpoint.edu/english-and-philosophy/profile/dave_harper

and

Luke Pontifell - founder of Thornwillow Press.

The volume has never-before-seen (or printed) photographs from the West Point Collection. Anything not originally in English is presented in both English and the original language. A short biography of everyone featured is at the end. All in all, truly spectacular.

>10 astropi:
A beautiful production -- thank you for posting the photos and congratulations on purchasing this book! I hope that you enjoy it for many years to come!
For me personally your photos and post just confirmed that in spite of all the signatures and the beauty, I have absolutely no interest in this book, and I am glad that I did not order it.

11: Certainly to each their own. This book is one-of-a-kind, there are no others like it. Never before seen photographs, a collection of unique thoughts about WWI many of which are difficult/impossible to find elsewhere - absolutely gorgeous production value - and signatures! To me, this is the epitome of what "fine press" should be.

I MUCH MUCH MUCH prefer works like this than another fine press edition of Shakespeare or some other luminary which has had his/her work published numerous times and is easily available everywhere. Not that I don't love Shakespeare, and in fact I would bet something as common as a fine press Shakespeare sells far better than something original like this Thornwillow book.

>12 astropi: "absolutely gorgeous production value - and signatures!"

I would argue the signature by a retired US general is a double-edged sword. The reverence and prestige given to the armed forces in the american culture is a bit unsettling for me. The Westpoint aspect of this project was a negative in my consideration to buy or not this book.

However, it's indeed a beautiful book.

13: I fail to see why the fact that it's associated with a military academy, especially one as prestigious as West Point is detrimental. The book made use of their special collection, and it's about WWI, a European conflict which dragged the United States. In fact many Americans at first didn't want to have anything to do with that other large European conflict called WWII due to what happened during WWI.
But I bet you're glad we did. I know most French certainly are grateful for the sacrifices Americans made. And where do you think people like General Eisenhower studied and learned? West Point.

>14 astropi:
I'm not commenting on the valour or the US military or the happenings of WWII. Your reaction is misplaced.

My comment is it is unusual for a fine press book to be associated with such an institution and have a general in the signatures. I find it quite typical of American current culture.
Obviously it's a positive for you and the American market at large but it was not such the case for me. You were praising the appeal of the signatures and was offering a counterview on that subject.

15: I certainly agree it's unusual to have a book associated with an institution like West Point, but you don't often get such books about World War I... in fact, you just don't get many books about WWI period.

I would disagree with you about "American current culture" being especially highly praising of the military (which I believe is what you're implying). In fact, research shows that countries like France and the UK trust the military even more than the USA, which certainly does also hold the military in high regards (80% approval)



And to be fair, while Martin Dempsey will never be Eisenhower, he is certainly a world expert on diplomacy and the military. I honestly don't think his signature will add much if anything to the value of the book, but I personally value it.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/04/trust-in-the-military-exceeds-t...

>12 astropi: I agree completely. While I did not purchase the half leather this time around and purchased the cloth instead I am extremely pleased to have an original cohesive production in my hands as opposed to the usual same authors or another collection of 12 poems by someone I have never heard of and is likely only being published because the printer needed someone to fill copy on the cheap.

>10 astropi: Caught on to this a bit late and ordered the half cloth edition today. Looks fantastic and, as you note, very unique.