Last year, Cambridge University Library received a donation intended to complete its existing collection of books produced by the Kickshaws publishing company. John Crombie and his partner, the artist Sheila Bourne, founded the private press in Paris in 1979 by before moving to La Charité sur Loire.
The donation to Cambridge UL was made by the family of the late John Crombie as part of his legacy. He had studied French and German at the University of Cambridge (St John’s College, 1957). The library’s holdings went from about 90 to 140 items (mostly numbered copies of limited editions), in English and in French. All quotations provided below are from the “Kickshaws Tentative provisional checklist of all titles published by letterpress” (2023).
Biobibliographie: biobibliographie biobibliographie biobibliographie biobibliographie / John Crombie. [Paris]: Kickshaws, 1986 (865.c.244 )
Cette galère / John Crombie. Paris: Kickshaws, 1991, 865.b.65
“the book charts the course of the court action taken by Raymond Queneau’s heir and assign to exact punitive damages from Kickshaws for undertaking a trial typographical treatment of an unpublished one-page-long Exercice de style by his father, for which permission had been sought but refused. The images are printed from cut-outs made from low-relief expanded vinyl wall coverings, patterned leather and snakeskin, string, rubber washers, pencil rubbers, elastic bands — and much other hardware store material besides. The text (in French) is printed in black in Champs-Elysées type. Unbound, in printed cover and slipcase. 115 numbered copies on Rives”
Si! si! je t’aime! / John Crombie. La Charité-sur-Loire: Kickshaws, 2007. (864.a.287(88))
“A declaration of love is qualified by a string of provisos, stipulations, caveats, reservations and shades of meaning, only to achieve ultimate unconditional affirmation in a declaration of adoration. Cloverleaf format designed to permit any-which-way readings. Printed in black in Française Légère type on Balkis paper. ”
Mais non, je ne t’aime pas! / John Crombie. La Charité-sur-Loire: Kickshaws, 2007. (864.a.287(84))
The Kickshaws books are interesting as artefacts for their experimental design and typography: they include colour illustrated works and letterpress printing, and a playful use of spiral binding which leads to different openings and trajectories into the books.
Mais où vont les chiens du Havre? / John Crombie; [dessins de Sheila Bourne]. Paris: Kickshaws, 1992. (865.d.48)
“Tentative d’inventaire des multiples parcours des chiens d’une ville soucieuse de la propreté de ses rues : qui en suivant les flèches vers le caniveau et l’Espace Chiens, qui en les fuyant. Reliure à anneaux pour permettre une lecture à géométrie variable. Texte en Nicolas Cochin, illustré en couleurs. 145 exemplaires sur Arches, et 133 sur carte couchée”
Ça cause, ça cause… / [designed and printed by John Crombie]. Paris: Kickshaws, 1998. (865.e.54)
“The title of this recombinant flipover — ‘How they do gab on!’ — echoes the parrot’s refrain in Raymond Queneau’s Zazie dans le Métro. A battery of floating conjunctions serve to allow a gathering of classic quotations on love culled from twenty-three quotable authors to be combined and recombined ad lib to suit the reader’s (and putative lover’s) evolving mood and/or changing circumstances. Cloverleaf format, ring-bound on all four sides. Printed in violet in Française Légère type. 141 exemplaires sur Pop’Set gris tourterelle, et 9 sur Hahnemühle”
Vous cherchez?: Souvenir conçu et imprimé pour marquer l’ouverture imminente de la Maison des Mots / John Crombie. [Paris]: [Kickshaws], [2011] (865.d.49 )
“Souvenir conçu et imprimé pour marquer l’ouverture en mars 2011 de la Maison des Mots à La Charité-sur-Loire. Format bifolié, reliure à anneaux sur les deux côtés. Imprimé en rouge et bleu en Banjo corps 48. Une vingtaine d’exemplaires non numérotés, sur Balkis ivoire”
Kickshaws 1980-2004 : a (first) quarter century of innovative bookmaking = un (premier) quart de siècle de bibliofacture novatrice. Paris; La Charité-sur-Loire: Kickshaws, 2004. (864.a.287(42))
“A quarter century’s worth of Kickshaws’ titles, printed in multiple typefaces in black, with authors’ names in purple, together with a built-in two-way metagram of Kickshaws’ name printed in Antique display type in blue and red. Loose sheets printed on BFK Rives, printed cover on Hahnemühle, in slipcase.”
The texts, often humorous and self-reflexive, are mainly by Crombie himself, but also (inspired) by English or French writers and poets leaning towards Graphic poetry, Absurdism, Modernism, Lettrism, sometimes in translations. Here are some examples:
- Edward Lear
A shaggy bear story: the further adventures of the Young lady of Clare now at last revealed with graphic extrapolations from Lear’s drawing by Sheila Bourne & & & [sic] with yet further apologies to Edward Lear / John Crombie. [Paris]: Kickshaws, 2011. (865.d.46)
“With further apologies to Edward Lear, author of the Lady of Clare’s first adventure. With graphic extrapolations from Lear’s original drawing by Sheila Bourne. Letterpress printed in Naudin type of various sizes, text on Flora speckled paper, cover on Conquereor 300 gms.”
- Alphonse Allais
Like mother… and other tales / Alphones Allais; translated by John Crombie. Paris: Kickshaws, 1980. (864.a.287(21))
“Translated from the French, illustrated with line drawings. Frontispiece in violet. 490 numbered copies printed in Bodoni on Centaure ivory paper, perfect bound in stiff violet Ingrid wrappers.”
Ouf! / Alphonse Allais; versions anglaise et allemande par John Crombie avec mise en scène typographique et casting interjectoire par le même. La Charité-sur-Loire: Kickshaws, 2010. (865.b.111)
“The text-cum-pretext for this typographical extravaganza is extrapolated from an interjection in a letter by Alphonse Allais. English and German versions of Allais’ interjection are supplemented by a miscellany of standard French interjections. Printed letterpress in multiple typefaces in black and four colours on Hahnemühle paper.”
- Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire. [Design by John Crombie], Paris: Kickshaws Press, 1989. [Selections from Calligrammes by Apollinaire] (864.a.287(22))
“Il Pleut”: “Un traitement original de ce calligramme pluvieux au moyen de mélanges aléatoires d’encres de couleur. Texte en noir en Française légère, reliure à anneaux sur les deux bords. 57 exemplaires numérotés, dont 50 sur Arches et sept, signés, sur papier Hahnemühle.”
- Pierre Henri Cami
The junior muckraker, or: A family hits the headlines / Cami; translated by John Crombie; drawings by Sheila Bourne. [Paris]: Kickshaws, 2002. (864.a.287(37))
Quelques cartes postales de la maison des mots / John Crombie. [with quotes by Cami]. [Paris?]: Kickshaws, 2011. (865.b.112-113)
“Concocted from some twenty postcards originally designed and printed to inaugurate the setting up of Kickshaws print shop in the Maison des Mots at La Charité-sur-Loire, the book is composed of a choice of greetings cards to book lovers generally.”
- T. S. Eliot
In the room the women come and go: variorum edition; with renewed apologies to T.S. Eliot / John Crombie. Paris: Kickshaws, 2009. [After The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot] (865.d.51)
“Forty variations on the second line of T.S. Eliot’s perhaps most quoted couplet, supplemented by a selection of rejected wordings. Hand set and printed in roman and italic Naudin of various sizes, in black and three colours, on speckled Flora paper. Cover in black and two colours on Esprit de Nature paper.”
- Benjamin Péret
Three cherries and a sardine / Benjamin Peret; translated by John Crombie. Wigtown: Kickshaws, 2002. (864.a.287(56))
“First separate English version of Surrealist Benjamin Péret’s iconic 1936 poem. Text in blue, printed in an assortment of point sizes picked from the best of twenty cases of battered Verona, on JPP Archival Kraft blue-grey paper. Rather less than a hundred copies were wrung from Kickshaws’ dysfunctional Arab treadle press, newly acquired and installed in our short-lived Wigtown outpost.”
Allô / Benjamin Péret. Paris: Kickshaws, 2003. (864.a.287(58))
“Typographical adaptation of a poem by Benjamin Péret taken from the collection JE SUBLIME (1936). Printed on Arches and Moulin du Gué papers, ring bound on two sides to permit alternate-sheet back-and-forth reading. Text printed in black in Naudin italic (48 point), with decorations in two colours.”
More do’s than don’ts / Benjamin Péret; English version and typography by John Crombie. Paris: Kickshaws, 2003. (864.a.287(67))
“Typographically designed adaptation of this first English translation of Benjamin Péret’s 1946 poem Impératif. Printed in black (title in purple) on Chagall paper in multiple typefaces (principally Chambord and Vendôme) set into a compact block of decorative vignettes. Printed cover on Countryside Mistral.”
Premiers résultats / Benjamin Péret; illustrations de Sheila Bourne. Paris: Kickshaws, [2004?] (865.b.64)
First results / Benjamin Péret; illustrations by Sheila Bourne. Paris: Kickshaws, [2005?] (864.a.287(51))
“First illustrated English version of Péret’s Surrealist tale in verse, published in 1942. Linocut illustrations by Sheila Bourne in multiple colours, text in black printed in typeface from photopolymer plate letters.”
- Raymond Queneau
Yours for the telling / Raymond Queneau; graphics by Sheila Bourne; designed by John Crombie. Paris: Kickshaws, 1982. (864.a.287(1))
“Queneau’s seminal one-and-a-half-page printed miniprotohypertext, adapted to produce Kickshaws’ first tell-it-yourself interactive book. Coloured illustrations and decorations by Sheila Bourne throughout. Printed in Garamont type of various point sizes.”
One hundred million million poems / Raymond Queneau; English version by John Crombie. [Paris]: Kickshaws, 1983. (864.a.287(5))
“English version of Cent mille millards de poèmes by, and with a foreword by, John Crombie. Ten sonnets having the same rhyme scheme are cut into strips to allow 100,000,000,000,000 permutations. Printed in Bodoni on Arches rag paper, titling in violet. Japanese bound into stiff Arches wrappers and parchment dust jacket.”
- Samuel Beckett
MAC: being passages from Mercier et Camier by Samuel Beckett excluded from the English edition, now gleaned, translated and printed, for private circulation only, by John Crombie, in a trial run of forty copies, in advance of any edition as may eventually be published as and when copyright laws or copyright owners so permit. Paris: Kickshaws, 1987. (864.a.287(95))”
“Passages from Samuel Beckett’s Mercier et Camier that were omitted by the author from his own English version, now gleaned, translated and printed by John Crombie. The typographical setting is designed to permit multiple-choice yet random reading cycles. Printed on Arches in Egizio condensed type, with a wraparound of stiff Arches or grey Ingrid paper”.
Crazy bodies / [designed, written and printed by John Crombie]. Paris : Kickshaws, 1992. (864.a.287(33))
“Quadrifoliate colour-coded miniature puzzle-book, composed of fragmented and scattered variations on Beckett’s “We are all born mad” dictum, to be reassembled in the mind’s eye. Ring-bound on all four sides; printed in grey and multiple colours.”
Lessness / Samuel Beckett. Paris: Kickshaws, 2002. (864.a.287(34))
“An original adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s unique “shuffled” text (1970). Cloverleaf format, ring-bound on all four sides to permit multiple permuted readings. Printed in black on Countryside Mistral, in Chambord type, with graphic background of ruins adumbrated in grey”.
The Image: an alternative English version of L’Image / by Samuel Beckett. [Paris]: [Kickshaws Press], [2003] (865.c.251 and Library Storage Facility)
“This English translation of Samuel Beckett’s L’Image, first proposed in full in the Journal of Beckett Studies, is intended by Kickshaws to provide a reliable alternative to the two officially published versions. Printed on Arches in a mix of Chambord and Helvetica extrabroad type.”
Samuel Beckett’s ninth mirlitonnade ‘First’ / [done into English and printed by John Crombie]. [Paris]: Kickshaws, [2000] (864.a.287(39))
“First English version of one of Samuel Beckett’s more accessible mirlitonnades [‘d’abord’], printed in an original typographic setting, each next line building on the building-blocks of the preceding line. Printed on Hahnemühle paper, in Chambord type, in two contrasting shades of grey”.
Imagine / [Samuel Beckett]. Paris: Kickshaws, 2004-2005. (864.a.287(40))
“A typeface-coded conflation of multiple English versions of, variations on, approximations to, ruminations over, confrontations with and digressions from Samuel Beckett’s eighth mirlitonnade [‘imagine si ceci’]. Printed in black in Chambord type of various sizes and weights, on ‘Chagall Fantaisie’ paper, with cover on ‘Countryside Mistral’, with a further verbal intervention printed in Antique display type in pale blue and red running across the pages.”
Quote unquote / by John Crombie. [Paris?]: Kickshaws, 2012. (865.e.47)
“An original layout of Samuel Beckett’s twelve-word rallying-cry to try again, fail again, fail better (quoted from Worstward Ho!), together with incidental extrapolations. Printed in black in Banjo type of various point sizes on heavy Balkis paper; ring-bound on two sides, with tipped-in printed bookmark.”
All the Kickshaws books can be ordered online and consulted in the Rare books reading room, please get in touch if you would like to know more.
Irene Fabry-Tehranchi
Languages across Borders 