Cultural Record Keepers: Legacy of a One-Man Book Maker

Late in 1983, Gregory Thompson, newly appointed head of Special Collections at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library, received a call from a local gentleman interested in selling some books. While the books in question were nice (copies of Limited Edition Club publications that paired prints by contemporary fine artists like Matisse and Picasso with important authors such as Joyce and Aristophanes), they were not very useful for building the Special Collections. However, after wandering into a back room and searching through the books, Margaret Landesman, head of collection development, came out holding three fine press books by Dard Hunter, causing quite a stir among the browsers. Thompson had not yet encountered Hunter’s work, but it was plain from the quality of the handmade materials that these were works of distinction.