21 Carlisle [Book of Poems Published by Noted Printer and Artist Wilder Bentley II]

San Francisco, CA: The Bread & Wine Press, 1960. Reed, Blake. 21 Carlisle. San Francisco, California: The Bread & Wine Press, 1960. Printed by Wilder Mayo Bentley.

Book of Poems Published by Noted Printer and Artist Wilder Bentley II

8.75" x 5.5"
Penciled annotation to printer's colophon (inserting a "Jr." after Bentley), else near fine.

A near pristine copy of a book of poems issued by noted printmaker, painter and craftsman Wilder Mayo Bentley, more commonly known as Wilder Bentley the Younger or Wilder Bentley, II. Bentley was born in 1928 in Oklahoma City and grew up in Berkeley, California, the son of Harvey Wilder Bentley (Wilder Bentley the Elder), a poet, printer, painter, graphic artist and professor of English at San Francisco State College. Bentley the Elder (1900-1982) is perhaps best known as the proprietor of the Archetype Press, known for publishing (among much else) Ansel Adams' first book of photographs in 1938.

Learning from his father, at ten years of age the Younger Bentley was illustrating broadsides for the Elder's distribution. He was a gifted painter, taught by Chiura Obata, as well as a craftsman of glass arts, book-maker and historian. In 1959 he founded San Francisco's Bread & Wine Press, which published several works by local poets such as Dick McBride, as well as the present volume. He has exhibited his work throughout the west in a variety of media, including watercolors and engravings in wood and copper.

This small collection was authored by Blake Reed. Born in 1933, Reed enlisted in the Marine Corps at the age of 17, served three years (including one in Korea) and graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1955 with its Shakespearean Award and Stratford scholarship. A poet and actor, Reed worked odd jobs in New York, Mexico and Colorado before settling in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, home of City Lights Bookstore and Poets' Corner. He also appeared in the successful Broadway production of "No Time for Sergeants," in which Don Knotts made his Broadway debut and Andy Griffith was nominated for a Tony.

OCLC shows 16 institutions with holdings of this volume. Some of Wilder's works are held at the University of California, Berkeley, the Rosicrucian Museum, the Autry Museum of the American West, UCLA and the New York Public Library.