33-I. Zauberberg Press

The Zauberberg Press of Coffeyville, Kansas, was operated by the poet, Donald von R. (von Ruysdael) Drenner. DePol illustrated three books for the Zauberberg Press (named after the poet/printer’s favorite book, Der Zauberberg, or The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann) early in his career, and four later. The first three contained poetry by von R. Drenner, The Usage of the Past: a Memoir (1954), Anna, Anna! (1955), and The Graphics of Love: xxxviii Sonnets (1961). The colophon for Anna, Anna! includes this droll commentary: “Some of the poems which, over the years, he [the poet/printer] considers worthy of recording for perusal and exagmination [sic] by divers printers & poets and others so disposed toward irascibility, and which are here gathered under the title, Anna, Anna! as is appropriately indicated by the prefatory poem to the poet’s wife.” In 1986, DePol again provided illustrations for von R. Drenner’s poetry in The Final Anna (1986), and thereafter for other poets and authors: George Meredith, Modern Love (1991), Susan Perry, Early Poems (1992), and A.E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad (1992). DePol recalls: “I knew and corresponded with old friend Don for over forty years and illustrated several of his books. He died on April 7, 1995.” (See boxes Twenty-one—Twenty-four).