TANKA BY C. MIKAL ONESS⠀•⠀DRAWINGS BY GARY YOUNG

Chad Oness, one of the great private pressmen of the past half century, astounds with this new collection of eighty-eight tanka.

Great literature should be a portal. Read, and find yourself in another place, another milieu, with other concerns and aspirations. This collection transports us to the hermitage, Chad’s home, in a time of flux and timelessness, a time of new ambitions and aging, with chores to do and great art to make. What a joy it is to have read this “private literature” and to share it now with just a small circle. This is the rare collection with the capacity to imbue the “ho hum” of life with poignancy, hilarity, frustration – in short – with meaning.

The tanka, or “short poem,” is a Japanese form which follows a simple 5-7-5-7-7 syllable scheme. It is tricky and inviting in equal measure, often coming to a point which demands that the reader return to the beginning. Like flash fiction, it is defined as much by the space around the work as by the work itself. This constellation of eighty-eight tanka pulls off a marvelous feat in giving the reader such a full understanding of a time and place in so few words.

The poems are manually printed on handmade Japanese papers, in the very setting they describe, and have been bound in the most famous of Japanese styles. Our twist to this timeless form is a stiff chemise (with a hidden compartment!) perfect for shelving and protecting its precious cargo from the elements. Chad, after all, keeps his own fine press collection on his sailboat…

Early Reservations for “A Private Matter”

In a few months, No Reply will be announcing another edition with Chad Oness – A Private Matter. This remarkable collection of ten essays on hand-bookmaking has been highly anticipated in private press circles. The book is shaping up wonderfully. It is an impressive large quarto of around seventy pages, interleaved with black-and-white photographs from Chad’s workshop and milieu. The paper is Hahnemühle biblio.

Standard copies (limited to 60) feature six photographs and are bound in stiff paste paper wrappers.

De luxe copies (limited to 40) feature ten photographs, are Bradel-bound in paste paper over vellum, and are housed in a slipcase.

To facilitate collectors’ ability to acquire both editions, we are offering early reservations for A Private Matter.