Roy A Squires

I picked up the copy of Lost Worlds from the library table where Mike had recently lain it.  I was hoping to get inspiration for a quote to pass on for the day.

Inside, I found this card, which got me thinking about Roy A. Squires, and how much his work has inspired the work of Pegana Press.

When I read the words on the card, I am taken back 25 years. In those days we were very young, newly married and Mike was working in a recording studio which no longer exists, but which at the time hosted it's share of well known musicians and producers like Steve Miller, Randy Meisner, Queensrÿche, and Terry Brown.

The card included with the sale of the book was a nice touch, which  is appreciated even more now, when I see it tucked away like a snapshot in time.  I like the line which reads, Cordial regards and Good hunting, Roy.  It reminds me of how it used to be for collectors without the resource of the internet.

In the 1980s and 90s, it was amazing to walk into a book store, and know that you were on the brink of pure potential.  Books you had been seeking for years, might suddenly pop out from the shelf.  And every town had at least one used book store. Everywhere we went, the first priority was to find the local bookstore.

 Soon after we were married in 1984, and while we were still in college, we began dreaming about our library.

Mike bought a used copy of Bookman's Weekly which had an article written by Roy A. Squires. After reading it, he wrote for a catalog.

Mike recalls that a lot of what Mr. Squires sold came from personal collections of authors and friends that he knew so even the catalog is filled with little gems, insights and background of the people associated with these books.

More from Mike:

We have a fair amount of his chapbooks--tidy clean work.











And this book...

Clark Ashton Smith - The Hill Of Dionysus - Pacific Grove 1962

While my personal design tendencies are more ornate than Squires, he inspired me with his dedication to publishing lost works resting forgotten in boxes and filing cabinets and his desire to keep the hand-craftsmanship of the book arts alive.  The absolute precision of his printing is something to aspire to but takes many years to realize; and which I am still far from achieving.

I am astounded years later remembering how cordial and willing he was to help build my young library even with (at the time) fairly inexpensive copies of books. I had no idea then of the world he lived in and the people he knew and had collaborated with over the years.  He was a living repository for us that will always be missed but never forgotten.