Stone House Press Archive

Librarian and proprietor of the private Stone House Press, Morris A. Gelfand, was born in 1908 in Bayonne, New Jersey. With a B.S. From New York University in 1933, a B.S. in Library Science from Columbia University the following year and a Masters degree from New York University in 1939, Mr. Gelfand began a career centered on libraries and books. Following service in the U.S. Air Force in Europe, he remained with the military as a Library Officer at the Pacific Headquarters from 1945 to 1946. He returned to take a position as Librarian and Associate Professor, later Professor, at Queens College. In 1960, he received a PhD from New York University. In 1970, he became a Professor of Library Science at New York University.

In the course of his career, he developed expertise in libraries in developing countries, both teaching and consulting with the University of Rangoon in Burma (Myanmar), with the Ministry of Education in Thailand as a UNESCO library expert, with the Ford Foundation in Brazil focusing on university libraries, and with the American Library Association on a Rockefeller Foundation grant at the University of Delhi, India. His wrote extensively on libraries in developing countries, as well as on academic libraries in general. In addition to his academic activities, he involved himself in organizations related to books and printing. A founding member of the American Printing History Association, he served as its president from 1982 to 1984. He was a member and President of the Typophiles, a member of the Grolier Club, Archons of Colophon and the Printing History Society (England).

After retiring from the world of librarianship and academics, Mr. Gelfand wrote, in The Stone House Press: Books in Print and Forthcoming, that “he wanted to fulfill a long-deferred ambition—to design, print and publish books of his own choosing.” This led to the founding of The Stone House Press, begun in 1978 in the basement of his house with a Chandler & Price platen press. Over time, he added equipment, types and ornaments. The press focused on contemporary writers and poets, producing books, broadsides, and chapbooks, as well as ephemera, such as printed keepsakes for meetings of The Typophiles. In his broadside, A Type Miscellany, he described The Stone House Press as a private press “dedicated to good design and fine letterpress printing of literary texts by living authors. Despite the manifest attraction of the computer, the Press will persist in printing by letterpress. The fascination of designing and printing real books on fine papers remains irresistible.” The “designing and printing of books” extended to illustration of the printed works. He worked closely with wood engraver John DePol, and with other artists to produce illustrated and embellished text. The relationship with John DePol, in particular, produced 15 books and a number of broadsides, as well as flyers and keepsakes.

Morris Gelfand continued as proprietor of the Stone House Press until 1996, when he sold the type and equipment to William Miller of The Printery. He continued to work on projects at the Press one day a week until shortly before his death in 1998.

Output of the Stone House Press won awards at the Annual Book Show of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and are represented in a number of college and public libraries. The press also participated in group and solo fine press exhibitions. His bilingual edition of Songs of Childhood by Federico García Lorca was in the “Fifty Books of 1994” show.