The achievement of the deadline is sealed in 2013 Burg Wildeck Riesling Extra Trocken
Sam (aka Patrick Miles) and Sam (aka James Miles) are pleased to announce that they met their deadline of 7 April for completing the typesetting of George Calderon: Edwardian Genius including images and Index, and the first proof has been read.
As followers will know, we ordered two print trials of the images from our printers, Clays Ltd, St Ives plc. The second set were sent out to four readers, all of whose comments were positive. We are particularly grateful, however, to Andrew Tatham and John Pym for their professional attention and technical suggestions. We accepted most of those suggestions and believe they have greatly enhanced the result.
At the same time, the generously offered experience of John Dewey, John Pym, Andrew Tatham and Peter Gibson concerning the problems of modern digital typesetting of text has been invaluable. We thank them warmly. As Sam 1 has acknowledged, for someone whose last self-published book was printed in 1987 by offset litho, producing a hardback book in 2018 that looks as good as a commercially published one is a steep learning curve. We do not claim to have completely mastered it, but thanks to the above-named we have been saved from a lot of egg on our faces. Sam 2 has done a magnificent job with the typesetting and presentation of the images.
So we have now gone into installing first-proof corrections in the text and fine-tuning certain typographical aspects. The whole thing (533 pages!) will then be printed out again, on recycled paper, as the second and final proof. Next week I hope to feature the jacket design by Dan Mogford.
NB. The historical origins of Sam&Sam were explained in my post of 1 March. But sam in Russian means ‘himself’, so the name translates roughly as ‘Him&Him’ (cf. Barker et al., 1971-87, ‘It’s goodnight from me…and it’s goodnight from him’). Back in 1974 my friend and I thought this would be appropriately opaque for the ‘organs’ (KGB), as well as alluding to the word samizdat (self-publishing). However, such is this imprint’s impersonality that any two male persons working together on a publishing project could adopt it, as Jim and I have done. Of course, if one of the two publishers were female, in the name of gender equality it would have to become Sam&Sama, as the latter means ‘herself’. Rather temerariously, gender equality will be the subject of my next post.
Congratulations to Sam 1&2 on reaching this important milestone! Your hard work has paid off, and it should be ‘all systems go’ from now on.
Very pleased that you and James (that’s Sam & Sam) could hack it;
But Sam & Sam to me remains Sam Johnson & Sam Beckett.
Two of a name and (oddly) Beckett thought two of a kind,
Sam Johnson from the eighteenth century and Sam Beckett lagging behind.
Beckett was always planning to write a play about the sage,
Which never did unfortunately make it to the stage;
Not Boswell’s Johnson, charged with wit that takes the breath
Away, but Johnson’s: lonely, prayerful, and afraid of death.
Lucky’s tirade in Waiting for Godot, it has been shown,
Contains several references to Sam Johnson ‘for reasons unknown’.
Beckett (Sam) was haunted all his life by Johnson (Sam),
Doubling themself, as if Descartes’ celebrated ‘I am’
Were plural; and when Beckett stopped and looked inside
It was old, carbuncular, stumbling Johnson that he espied;
And in Sam’s tortuous relationship with Mrs Thrale
We can surmise Sam Beckett learnt the rules of how to fail;
‘Fail better’ was the best that Beckett could ever approve
From anyone; ‘Shall we go? Yes, let’s go. They do not move.’
A more optimistic quotation for George Calderon:
Last of The Unnamable — ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’
Inimitable, Damian, and thank you! Yes, many has been the time — wrestling with 47 publishers, our copyright law, Nielsen ISBN agency — that I have muttered the last words of your verse epistle… And you will find a reference to the other Sam in my next post (Tuesday).
This is FANTASTIC. When I saw a snippet of the comment in the sidebar I was intrigued and, on clicking to see the full thing, realise it is a poem. Amazing!
It was great to hear today that your book is so close to completion. Cheers to you!