Trying to find the source for this text

I found an old file folder filled with articles about printers and excerpts from books about printing. Some of them are photocopied pages which read “Chapter Three: The Practice of Typography” with some very good instructions about setting type by hand, handling type and distributing it. The chapter begins…

“I like the process of building a book from its innocent and private existence as the solitary manuscript of the author up throughout the alchemical birthing into metal type….”

Can anyone help me identify the book in which this appears? I don’t seem to have the book on my shelves and haven’t had any luck trying to trace it on the internet.

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This is from the classic “Printing Poetry: A Workbook in Typographic Reification” by Clifford Burke, Scarab Press, San Francisco, 1980. Out of print. Only $170 on Amazon. Good luck.

A real classic. Although I have no interest whatsoever in actually printing poetry, I bought Clifford’s book when it was new, simply for the general wealth of knowledge and instruction about letterpress printing.

I don’t know if my copy is an anomaly or not, but it is far and away one of the most poorly printed books in my library!!!!!!! There are a few signatures that are absolutely pathetically printed!!!!!!!!!! Hardly enough ink to read the text.

Having spent my professional career in commercial print production, I have pretty much “seen it all” so sometimes things do slip by. I just find it funny that I have a book lauding the proper and classic way to do things, that is pretty much a disaster of quality control.

In today’s world anyone would do well to obtain a copy of this book if it is not already in your library. A fantastic teaching tool for the newer generation of letterpress printers.

Rick