After Chesapeake Voyages was released we suddenly found ourselves recognized as "Fine Press Publishers." As fledgling as we were, people contacted us to discuss publishing opportunities, or to seek advice on their writing projects, or to ask what our next book project would be. Our next book was in fact decided by a gentleman who is a regular client of the bookshop and had admired and purchased a copy of Chesapeake Voyages. We were asked to design and print a collection of fifty poems written by his son, who was recently deceased. He had found his son's poems, never realizing his son wrote poetry at all. He and his wife wished to have a special remembrance of their son for family and close friends, and they asked if we would produce a letterpress limited edition they could be proud of.
Jim Dissette set out on the book design, and I began editing the sheaf of fifty poems, consulting closely with the poet's family. Working with Chad Pastotnik at Deep Wood Press we printed a very fine book, bound by Campbell-Logan Bindery. The result was Chester River Press' second publication, The Path to the Beach, Selected Poems by Nicholas William Kirk, completed in March 2008. It is a moving tribute with very fine poetry, and a volume the family is very proud of, as are we.
Through this experience we entered the world of publishing for clients, rather than conceiving and developing our own ideas for publishing projects. I must say, it was a most rewarding circumstance, and I quickly realized the satisfaction of working with a third party who was so intimately concerned with the final product. As we were to discover, word travels quickly, and this was not to be the only such project for us. In fact we are working on a memoir for a client as I write this.
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