News Release

San Francisco - "Remembering James Robertson," a celebration of the life and work of the late James Wishard Robertson, a noted book designer and publisher who was one of California's best-known fine printers, will be held in the Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Main Library in the Civic Center on Sunday, March 17, 2002, beginning at 1:00 pm.

The program will consist of verbal tributes to Jim Robertson by friends and colleagues representing the full spectrum of his career. Speakers include Carolyn Robertson, who will introduce the program; architecture teacher Jim Bagnall; Joe White, a client of Jim Robertson's since the 1960s and a longtime friend; free lance writer Bill Broder; mathematics teacher and writer Marilyn Burns; Jon Beckmann, former editor of Sierra Club Books; Alix Christie, who was the Press's first apprentice; Aaron Johnson, printer at The Yolla Bolly Press since 1982; and Becky Fischbach, exhibits designer for the Stanford University Libraries.

Jim Robertson began his career as a designer in San Francisco, where in 1960 he co-founded the San Francisco design firm of Robertson/Montgomery. In 1974, he and his wife and partner, Carolyn, founded The Yolla Bolly Press in the Mendocino County town of Covelo, where they developed and designed a wide range of books, including children's book series and large-format pictorial books produced in collaboration with Sierra Club Books.

In 1983, The Yolla Bolly Press turned toward limited editions printed letterpress from metal type, following in the long tradition of San Francisco fine printing. The Robertsons chose authors and texts they cared passionately about, paired them with appropriate artists, commissioned introductions by well-known authors and critics, and printed and published beautifully and sensitively designed books at the rate of one or two a year. The Yolla Bolly Press gained international stature, its imprints sought by collectors, libraries, and museums such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney.

Friends described Jim Robertson as a man with an "artist's temperament" who approached his work with a deep sense of integrity. Robertson also established an apprenticeship program to transmit the arts of typography and printing, and trained more than 30 young people in three-month solo intensives at the Press in Covelo over a period of 16 years. He died in Santa Rosa on November 23, 2001.

A string quartet will open the program. A reception will follow in the Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room across the hall from the Koret Auditorium.

This program is sponsored by the Marjorie G. and Carl W. Stern Book Arts and Special Collections Center, San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin Street, Civic Center. The rare book room is located in the Center on the 6th floor of the Library.

All programs and exhibits at the Library are free of charge and open to the public.

For more information, please contact the Center at (415) 557-4560. Becky Fischback at (650) 725-1020