The McCune Collection Presents the Fall 2008 Lecture Series

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21st, 2:00PM
PETER KOCH

Internationally renowned printer and award-winning publisher of fine arts editions, Peter Koch, of Peter Koch Printers premiers the Fall 2008 lecture series at the McCune. A native of Montana, Koch got his start in printing in Missoula when he founded Montana Gothic: A Journal of Poetry, Literature & Graphics, as well as founding the Black Stone Press in 1974, with artist Shelley Hoyt.

Mr. Koch describes his 2006 adventure in Italy, where he completed the printing of Joseph Brodsky's Watermark. The book is a series of meditations woven from the fabric of Venice in the late 20th century. Brodsky dedicated Watermark to his friend, the American painter Robert Morgan, whose photo-gravure images illustrate the book. One of the high points of this project was floating a printing press down Venice’s Grand Canal to the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica Venezia, where Peter was artist-in-residence that September.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19th, 2:00PM
PAUL TOTAH

Paul Totah is in his 24th year of teaching English and editing the Genesis alumni magazine at St. Ignatius College Preparatory, A 1975 graduate of the school, he received a Bachelor's degree from Santa Clara University and an M.A. in creative writing from San Francisco State University. He is the author of two books -- The San Francisco Fair: Treasure Island 1939-1940 and Spiritus Magis: 150 Years of St. Ignatius College Preparatory.

Mr. Totah will speak on the remarkable events that brought the Jesuits to the Bay Area where they built institutions that endure to this day, recounting stories of innovation and success as well as disasters that have marked the school's long history in San Francisco.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16th, 2:00PM
KATHLEEN BURCH

Kathleen Burch is co-founder of the San Francisco Center for the Book and Vice-President of the Book Club of California. After studies at Mills College in English Literature and graduate work in the Book Arts department, she collaborated with Burning Books, an independent publishing house, which published her work on game theory and the culture of card-playing, Indicia, a Romance (monograph) in 1990.

Ms. Burch shares her extensive knowledge of symbolic communication through typographic languages in this informal and informative discussion of the history of the design and illustration of the tarot; providing us as well with an introduction to card games and divinatory systems in the context of the printed medium.

Playing cards designed by Kathleen Burch