Ernest Hilbert 'Pelagic'

Unframed

HILBERT, Ernest. “Pelagic.” Limited-edition letterpress broadside. Signed by the poet, six were originally bottled, forty-eight unbottled, and six copies have been retained hors de commerce. Printed in Essex County, Mass., by Tollund Press, September 2022.

The print measures 12 × 18 inches. The poem’s cresting wave was created by Paris-based Chilean painter and sculptor Franco Salas-Borquez. Born into a seafaring family on the island of Chiloé, Borquez is known for his dramatic large-scale seascapes that capture a primordial sense of elemental terror in the chaos of storms and fierce currents. The line-drawing was commissioned specifically for this broadside.

Three sealed “poems in a bottle” were stowed aboard the Charlotte, a J120, 40-foot sloop, and borne along the course of the 2022 June Newport-Bermuda Race across the Gulf Stream, where the bottles were set loose from the vessel. Our heartfelt gratitude to Vice Commodore Richard L. West of the Stamford Yacht Club for releasing the poem to an uncertain fate.

The bottled copies are printed on 118-gsm text stock and the unbottled broadsides are on 1-ply, 318-gsm cover stock, both 100% cotton. All sheets are printed in two colors on a 1964 Original Heidelberg GT. The poem and its title are set in Mathew Butterick’s font Equity. The colophon is set in Orpheus designed by Kevin King and Patrick Griffin. The numbering in felt-tip pen was performed by Ann Drourr.

The broadside features the official blue-ink Nemean Lion chop stamp on the reverse, dated in Hilbert’s hand. This is the second broadside issued by the press and includes this card. “Pelagic” first appeared in The Hopkins Review, Volume 13, Number 2, Spring 2020.