As of July 13, the 1st edition is fully spoken for. We have disabled the links in the text below so that no additional requests for a 1st edition print can be submitted. If you are interested in being contacted if we are able to produce a 2nd edition, please fill out the brief form here.
Skeuomorph Press is proud to be producing an edition of letterpress-printed, custom-illustrated, hand-bound, numbered copies of Ursula K. Le Guin’s “A Rant About ‘Technology.’”
The book was typeset and printed by Skeuomorph’s Director, Ryan Cordell, following the text at Le Guin’s website, which is to our knowledge the only existing analog edition of the text.† The font is Goudy Lanston 18- and 24-point type. The poster fold-out in the center of the book uses a variety of fonts from our wood type collection. The book’s illustrations depict some of the technologies Le Guin discusses in the text, and were conceived & drawn by MSLIS student Delia Kerr-Dennhardt during her practicum at Skeuomorph in fall 2024. We then then carved them in linoleum for printing using the CU Community FabLab‘s laser cutters. The books are bound with printed card stock covers, pamphlet stitched, and the stitching is masked with black card stock.
Please see the video below showing an artist’s proof of the book. Please note that the final paper, ink, and thread colors may differ slightly from the proofs, though this is very close to our intended final product.
We will produce a numbered first edition of 100 books, which will be shipped as gifts to people who donate at least $60 toward Skeuomorph press’ summer/fall 2025 fundraising drive. We understand that $60 is a lot to ask for a 10-page book, but this is a limited edition, and a labor intensive project (12 impressions per book, which are then hand stitched) using high quality paper and including custom artwork.
If demand continues, we will consider producing a second edition at a later time. For the most part, we anticipate limiting orders to the United States; if you would like to donate and receive a print outside the United States, please contact us at skeuomorph-press@illinois.edu before making your donation.
Even at just 100 books, this is a large and complex project for us, which is why we are taking donations ahead of producing the edition. We are not a commercial print shop, but instead a teaching lab on a university campus staffed by student workers and volunteers. We have no full-time employees and so work on projects as our research assistants’ and volunteers’ time allows, in between teaching classes, running workshops, and helping community members during our public hours. We aim to produce the first edition in time to ship in mid fall, but would ask for patience.
We are grateful to Le Guin’s literary executors and agents at Ginger Clark Literary for giving us permission to produce these books as a fundraiser for the press. Your donations will contribute to Skeuomorph Press’ mission as a “experiential studio for teaching and researching the history and art of the book” for the University of Illinois and the Champaign-Urbana community. Your gift to the Skeuomorph Press provides the necessary funding to maintain our equipment, provide academic and public programming opportunities, enhance our workshop offerings with the acquisition of new materials, and continue our flexible community hours to accommodate a wide array of Press users.
Below are some pictures of the type and printing process, to give you a sense of the labor that has gone into this project. We are honored to be able to create this edition and hope the community will appreciate it. To make your donation and secure your gift copy of “A Rant About ‘Technology,’” follow the instructions on this form (form now disabled; see above).
† Note: we chose to omit the first paragraph of the website edition in our printed edition, as it links to and comments directly on an outside text, which we thought would be less legible to readers of the physical text. Other editors might disagree!
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