Welcome to Hand Print Press

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We make and sell books for "learning by doing." Some we publish ourselves, but we also distribute directly related titles by friends and associates. Please see the booklist for more about individual titles.

Ten years (and 20,000 copies) after printing the first little pamphlet at Kinko's, we are delighted to announce the arrival of a brand new, completely revised and re-written edition of Build Your Own Earth Oven (purchase).

We are proud to welcome a new author, Ann Wiseman, whose best selling title (out of 13) is Making Things: The Handbook of Creative Discovery originally published by Little, Brown. (purchase.)

We are also proud to be selling Rocket Mass Heaters, by Ianto Evans and Leslie Jackson, (purchase) and The Hand-Sculpted House by Ianto Evans, Linda Smiley, and Michael G. Smith(purchase.)

We are not looking for new authors or titles, but we are interested in supporting the vitality of what we are calling "craft publishing" - essentially a refinement of self-publishing, or perhaps it's a traditional way to think about the new phenomenon of electronic publishing. If you're interested, there's a little essay here.

We do invite participation from anyone doing creative work that relates directly to our titles, whether in the form of links, or submission of photos and stories for inclusion in future editions (for more info, go to specific titles).

While books are important, John Wesley Powell once noted that, "the greater part of knowing is always preceded by generations of doing." Neither books, nor reading, "keyboarding," or any kind of electronic "communication," really adds up to much in the way of real "doing." How many Americans even cook their own meals, much less grow their own food? How can we learn (or teach) the fundamental principles by which to understand the earth, our shared life, and the basic freedoms that make life possible? How many people can really understand simple things like Christ's parables (the mustard seed? The wheat and the tares?) if they've never planted a seed in their life?

Books are a partial vehicle: they are a product of hand and heart that require new hearts and hands to do and make and re-learn the lessons for themselves. Perhaps in order to really understand it, we do have to re-create the wheel, each one for him/herself.

Thanks for visiting. Happy building, baking, making to you. Holler if you have questions.