Our next story takes a look at the rhythmic ink-stained world of Kentucky letterpress printing.

Now, from its academic home at the King Library Press to influential modern studios like Larkspur and October Press, local craftsmen are using antique machinery to keep a centuries-old art form alive and transforming Kentucky literature into stunning tactile works of art.

[music playing] What we're doing is really, I think, necessary.

We are carrying on very good writing in Kentucky by both known writers and unknown writers.

And we're also carrying on a tradition that is more and more going away.

[music playing] Letterpress printing is when you take a piece of type or an engraving and actually print it directly into the page.

You have individual pieces of metal that have a letter on each piece.

This allows you to arrange a text, print it, and then redistribute it.

Some people think it's tedious.

But if you love to set type, it's very soothing.

It's totally a handcrafted product.

When folks get to the King Library Press, they first are like visually inundated with so much stuff.

A lot of printing presses, prints everywhere, books everywhere, very active.

You get the smells of ink and solvents.

I don't really notice a smell anymore, but people come in and go, “Boy, this really smells good because of the ink.” And ink is one of those resources that a little ink goes a long way.

[squeaking] [clanking] The Chandler & Price I've heard have this nice, soft clanking sound.

It's a clamshell-type press.

And when it's in the printing mode, there'll be a click in there.

And it's all mechanical, and it's just a dance that you have with the press.

[clanking] The process of typesetting, or what we call composition or composing the text, has been primarily taking an individual piece of type, or what's called a sort, and laying it in a composing stick.

It clicks into the composing stick, and you can hear that sound as it drops in.

[clicking] [clicking] Setting the type from this end of the composing stick to the other end, and so it appears that you're setting it backwards and upside down because the bottom of the letter is facing away from you.

So, when you take the type from the composing stick and put it on the bed, it actually is going from top to bottom.

You put it in the press and ink the press, and there's that kind of, some printers talk about, you know you've got enough ink on the disk.

When you hear that hiss of the rollers going over the ink, it's a special sound.

It's just very zen for me.

[clanking] Bite is a sort of impression that's left down into the paper, and you can feel it.

It has a texture to it.

And so, what you're doing is you're making a sculpture.

You're not printing.

You're making a sculpture.

I like the feel of that impression, and I think a lot of people like that feel.

In the old printing, though, they don't want an impression, especially if you're going to read on the verso of the page.

They wanted that perfect kiss of the ink.

They wanted it to be invisible.

This centuries-old craft began in the 1450s with Gutenberg's Bible.

300 years later, in 1787, letterpress printing arrived on the rugged Kentucky frontier.

In Lexington, John Bradford established the Kentucky Gazette, ink staining the very first pages of the Commonwealth's history.

Generations passed, and modern commercial printing pushed the old ways toward obsolescence.

But in 1956, a new chapter opened at the University of Kentucky.

There, Carolyn Reading Hammer established the King Library Press, transforming a rugged pioneer tool into a living academic tradition.

Carolyn Hammer was just an amazing lady.

She taught me how to set type.

And the press we used was one that's still at the King Library Press.

Carolyn would often set the type, and I would help with the printing and then distribute the type.

And Carolyn's goal was to have a space where students could come and learn this tradition in order to help them better understand the text that they are working with.

So, a lot of us are learning through books and through finding practitioners and craftspeople and saying, “Hey, can I work with you?

I really want to learn this craft.” And Carolyn understood that pretty deeply.

And that's part of how the tradition gets handed down.

We all found each other at King Library Press.

Even to this day, her work and her teaching is still in my head.

She was very important.

[music playing] We have such a rich literary scene in Kentucky.

I've been blessed to be able to publish some of Kentucky's finest writers, as well as new writers, some who have gone on to be Kentucky Poet Laureates.

Authors really love to see and feel their work in letterpress.

With fine press, I think that there is a sort of experience of feeling more connected to the artists who have made it.

by the time I have finished that piece and setting each letter backwards and upside down, letter by letter, I pretty much have sort of ingested the piece in some way.

It's just such a part of my life.

It's my happy place.

[clanking] Often with letterpress printing, especially using movable type, you get a sense of the artist's hand in it.

And that sort of trace gives the object a kind of liveliness and soul to it.

It's the human part of making things by hand.

The focus and the time and the expertise and the love that has been put into the object.

And I like to think transferred to the person who is the recipient.

I know that my work has a soul in it, as well as any craftsman in this state and puts all their energy into it.

They're putting part of their soul in their work.

[clanking] [squeaking] [music playing]