The Stencil Duplicated Newspaper

Hood River, OR: F. S. Knight and Damon Knight, 1941. First printing. 8.25 x 11 inches, 126 pp. Stencil-duplicated text, side-stapled into card covers with cloth tape spine. Light soiling, wear, and creasing to covers and to page corners, and general age-toning; cloth tape torn but substantially intact. Withdrawn from the Oregon State Library, with two stamps and ink markings to front cover, and due date slip and card pocket (with card) at rear. Two-page undated ALS laid in, from an Oregon bookseller to Peter Howard at Serendipity Books in Berkeley.

The first book, if it can be so considered, by noted science-fiction writer Damon Knight, published at around the same time his stories and drawings began to appear in magazines, but fourteen years before his first book of fiction.

Knight’s parents were both teachers; later, his father was a high-school principal and also ran a printing press. With this volume, the elder Knight distilled his experience as a manual for setting up a school newspaper, and sold copies to teachers and schools. Damon was coauthor of the text, as well as contributing 39 original drawings.

Very scarce; in his letter to Peter Howard, the Oregon bookseller notes that at the time, Damon had only seen one copy in forty-seven years. (Given the publication date of the book, that would perhaps imply a 1988 date for the letter.)