The Literary Radicals Included in Ishill's publications were several pamphlets written by and about the famous American literary figures Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman, both of whom exerted a profound influence on Ishill's philosophy.
Thoreau's Flute, by Louisa M. Alcott. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Oriole Press, 1950.
Cloister Oldstyle type; printed in black and green; 200 copies on W & A book paper and some on Tuscany; wrappers; 3.5 x 6 inches; 8 p.
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), the
well-known author of Little Women, is not someone
whose name is generally associated with radicalism.
Alcott first met Thoreau when she was just eight
years old and living in Concord, where he was her
teacher. His was a strong influence on her future
writing. This poem was written in the year after
Thoreau's death, while Alcott worked in the Union
Hotel Hospital, sitting by the bed-side of a dying
Union soldier. Reading Thoreau was, to Ishill, the
beginning of a lifelong devotion to free thought.
At the age of fourteen, while still in his native
Rumania, Ishill read Civil Disobedience, which set
him on a path of discovery to libertarianism.
Originally published in the Atlantic Monthly, the
poem is reprinted here in an "edition limited to
friends and followers of Thoreau's trends of life."
Thoreau: The Cosmic Yankee, by Joseph Ishill. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Oriole Press, 1954.
Cromwell & Cloister Oldstyle types; printed in black and green; 65 copies on W & A All Rag and Hamilton Text papers; decorated boards with linen spine and printed labels; 4.25 x 7.75 inches; 35 p.
Henry David Thoreau always had a special meaning to Ishill. This essay was originally published in the Thoreau Centennial in 1946. In these opening paragraphs Ishill acknowledges the intellectual debt which he owes to Thoreau from his reading of Civil Disobedience.
Thoreau: The Cosmic Yankee, by Joseph Ishill. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Oriole Press, 1962.
Cromwell & Cloister Oldstyle types; printed in black and green on Warren Olde Style & Rag papers; wrappers; 4.5 x 7.75 inches; 34 p.
Upon close inspection of the verso of the title page [the second image], one can see that Ishill originally used the portrait of Thoreau which he had previously used in the 1954 Oriole Press edition of the Cosmic Yankee. The present portrait was tipped-in by Ishill over the top of the original portrait.
An Extract From The Thoreau Society Bulletin.
Printed by Ishill with Cromwell types.
The Centenary Of Walt Whitman's Leaves Of Grass, compiled by Joseph Ishill. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Oriole Press, 1955. Copy no. 33.
Kennerley Oldstyle type; printed in three colors; 70 copies on Superfine Text paper; mottled gray boards with blue spine; printed labels; 5 x 8.25 inches; x, 88 p.
"I know of no other book," Ishill says in his introduction, "which fascinated me more than Walt Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass.' . . . Above all, I feel that Walt Whitman is the revolutionary bard of tomorrow."
To A Foil'd European Revolutionnaire, by Walt Whitman. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Oriole Press, 1955.
Kennerley type; printed in four colors; 52 copies; patterned wrappers with printed label; 5.125 x 7.5 inches; 7 p.
