Paget Press (1 Viewer)

mjp

Founding member
Paget Press - was this related to Black Sparrow somehow? I know BS put out books under imaginary publishing names (Burn Again Press, etc.), but not sure about Paget.

Paget did The Bukowski/Purdy Letters, Barfly, The Day it Snowed in LA - all these look like Black Sparrow books, and Bukowski never mentioned a deal with a Paget in any of his letters (that I know of)...
 
Paget Press is a Canadian company and I don't think affiliated with BS. Though you're right, they sure do look alike.
 
mjp,
you're right, I've read thousands of letters by B (pub. and unpub.) but don't recall any single mention of Paget. anyway, that's not a good indication because B did publish in many small presses more than once and he never mentions them, either.
 
Time to ressurrect an old thread.

Very interesting,. I had not read this one before. I know that Paget press would have had their books printed by Earl Grey, so that allows for the similar style. I have always wondered if they were a Martin project. That these books were never reprinted by Black Sparrow makes me think that they were not the same. I wold think that BSP would like to have the Purdy letters in their catalog. Also, does anyone know why titles were published under the Burn Again Press name or any other fictitious press name. I always found that confusing for a press with such a great name and recognition.

Going on the web to do a quick search brought up this site: http://isbndb.com/d/publisher/paget_press.html

Some of the titles listed are very specific to Canada and seem that they would have very little to John Martin. I would guess that it was a press that admired Bukowski and BSP and went to the same bookbinder (Earl Grey) when they published Bukowski. Of course, that makes it very confusing. I have seen others use the same exact binding. There is a well known bookseller that publishes their high end catalogs and they are DEAD ringers for BSP HB productions. I forget the name of the bookseller, though.

Best,
Bill
 
The first couple Paget books on that list have Santa Barbara as location:

Publisher: Santa Barbara, Calif. ; Paget Press, 1983.

To further connect with BS/Martin.

Though the rest of those titles are not BS-like at all, so who knows. Someone get Martin on the phone and clear this up!

He doesn't take my calls. ;)
 
Basically - Paget Press was BSP's Canadian distributor. That's why you see things like the 30 hardcover copies of Hot Water Music with the Paget name on the title page rather than BSP.

They had more of an interesting relationship than that in reality, but they are/were not one in the same.

One of those 30 copies of Hot Water Music is for sale right now here on the forum.
 

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