New Cornell University Project Will Create Digital Archive for Ithaca House Press

At Ithaca Voice, Madison Fernandez writes about the creation of a digital archive for Ithaca House Press, a new project being spearheaded by Marty Cain (a Ph.D candidate in English Language & Literature at Cornell University). Founded in 1969 by former Cornell professor Baxter Hathaway, Ithaca House Press was a small poetry press that published more than 100 titles over the course of 15 years, including works by Ron Silliman, Ray DiPalma, and Joe Bruchac. "Cain said he was surprised that the history and impact of Ithaca House seems to be relatively unknown in the Ithaca community," writes Fernandez. More: 

He is also hoping to compile a selection of poems from books that Ithaca House published. Cain said that he has done archival research before, but not with physical materials in this way.

“I'm interested in writing about it and thinking through it because of its importance to small press more broadly, which is something I’m interested in, but also what it might tell us about the institutional relationship in Cornell and Ithaca,” he said. “As somebody who works and studies at Cornell, there’s this kind of attitude among a lot of students and professors that Cornell is this sort of island that’s separate from Ithaca.”

Cain also hopes to look at the Ithaca House business files and multimedia materials, like photos from release parties. Cain himself has organized the Party Fawn reading series in Ithaca, which brings in both local writers and writers from outside of Ithaca. He also is a co-founder of Garden-Door Press, an Ithaca-based micro-press dedicated to publishing politically active and underrepresented voices, that he started with his wife, Kina Viola. The press does extremely limited runs, usually less than 50 copies, of handmade books, which are hand-sewn and letter-pressed on the Cornell campus. 

Continue at Ithaca Voice.