Rebecca Chamlee

Simi Valley, California, USA

The Young Manhood of Dave Chamlee

handmade Khadi paper, thread, bison leather, deer horn

6 ½ x 9 x 1 ½ (closed

$ 625

© 2012

edition size: 33

Letterpress printed with hand set Centaur and Arrighi, Massey Initials and ornaments. The map background is a suicide linoleum block; the map details and photographs are printed from polymer plates .

The coming-of-age story of David Samuel Chamlee, born in 1857, told by his grandson in a Humanities term paper written while attending Claremont Men’s College in the 1950s.

The story begins with Dave Chamlee’s boyhood on a homestead in Tennessee, his travels as a young man to work on the docks of the Mississippi River and on to his years as a working cowboy in Texas. It concludes with his arrival in California where he spent the remainder of his days.

The text is accompanied by research notes supported by public records and census data, a map and photographs from the family archive.

Rebecca Chamlee is a book artist, graphic designer, printer and binder and has published innovatively designed, letterpress printed, hand-bound limited-edition fine press and artist’s books under the imprint of Pie In The Sky Press since 1986. Her work is in prominent special and private collections throughout the U.S. and has been exhibited widely. Chamlee is an associate professor teaching book arts at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.