YELLOW KID PRESS

David W. Serette published books under his Yellow Kid Press imprint in Portland and Sabbathday Lake, Maine…Miniature books were a key part of the Yellow Kid Press output. Serette used a Golding Jobber 10 x 15 as his first printing press. When he fell on hard times at the end of his printing career he used a small three by five inch Kelsey hand press. ‘Dave lived during the period when letterpress printing was giving way to offset, Xerox and other photographic processes,’ said A. Jakeman. ‘He travelled the countryside scavenging defunct printing shops for old presses, metal type, borders and ornaments, and printed many pieces with the items he acquired.’ Creative and artistic use of handset typefaces and ornaments was a characteristic of Serette’s printing including his miniature books… Much information about Serette and his private press can be found in The Yellow Kid Press Newsletter issued from mid-1969 until the first part of 1971, about 26 issues in total.

Serette left Portland in the early 1970s to become the resident printer for the Shaker community at Sabbathday Lake in Poland Springs, Maine. There he printed various items including herb labels and a book that he wrote about Shaker antiques. He also continued publishing miniature books. According to Serette, his book Shaker Peg Bored (1978) ‘is the first miniature book ever printed here at Sabbathday Lake and only the third in the history of Shaker printing. Elder Henry Blinn did the others over 100 years ago at Canterbury, New Hampshire. The only things in the production process that I didn’t do are make the paper and type, but I’m not Weigand (sic) and glue and stamp the cover. I did write, illustrate, print, color, gather, sew and glue the book into the covers. I also set the type for the gold stamping and printed and tipped on my own endpapers.’… Serette’s death prevented him from completing a miniature book on which he was working. The book consists of 270 rhymed couplets, one for each member of the Miniature Book Society. At least two sets of the galley proofs for this book survive... (Bradbury 328)