Grantville Gazette, Volume 59 by Paula Goodlett Read Free Book Online Page B

respect beyond the power of the mimeograph to give. The scholars and great patrons will not take these seriously, and they will not give us the respect you seek, if we fail to treat these ancient words as they deserve. On the contrary, they must be printed as well as we are able to print them. Grantville is already famed for what its printers can do, and it is by that standard we will be judged. To mimeograph this —" he shook his head "—it would be received as if we mounted a fine diamond in a bent and battered ring of tarnished brass, and set it in the nose of a pig."
    Green's eyes flared for a moment. "Brother Button, I've gotta say, you have an amazing way with words." He took a couple of steps back and forth, put one hand on his swivel chair, and pushed it aside so he could lean back against the edge of his desk with his arms folded. "Are you about to tell me what I think you're going to tell me?"
    William nodded slowly up and down. "With regret, I must. Believe me when I tell you I have looked for other ways. John and I visited every printing shop within the Ring as you asked, and those in Schwarza as well. They willingly showed us all that they can do. Things we never imagined, enough to make our heads spin. Lithography. Photogravure. Printing in multiple colors with near-perfect registration. Photolithography. Half-tone etchings. Page composition by paste-up. Camera-ready computer printouts of celestial navigation tables, untouched by anyone's hand. Wonder after wonder, and talk of more to come.
    "And Grantville University Press— there they print nearly perfect copies of enormous up-time books, and do it quickly, if the books themselves are well-printed and in good condition. And even so, they complain of 'bottlenecks' to be remedied." He paused. "They would like to know what books you have in the more popular languages, that might sell well." He looked around at the overflowing bookcases ranked the length and height of two walls, and shook his head. "But let us talk of that later. These papers—" he tapped one of the blurred photocopies "—are not well-printed."
    "No, they sure aren't. So what's the answer, Will? Type them up clean, so they can use them to make photo plates?"
    Again William shook his head. "Not with the Greek and Hebrew typewriters you showed me, and not with the best ribbons that can be made now, of inked cloth. I've been assured that nothing better will be possible for many years. As it is, they cannot meet the standard such a treasure demands." He sighed. "It comes down to printing in the ordinary way, and from new type at that. The best Grantville type, well composed. And since you forbid these papers to leave this room—" he raised one corner of his mouth in the ghost of a smile "—for reasons I would hardly dare to dispute—"
    Green winced. "You want to bring a press here. And all the other stuff that goes with it."
    William turned up his palm in agreement. "A small print shop in the new barn. I see no other way to fulfill your desires, for if we are to set type in this room, we could not hope to carry it into town without it all coming loose. And then we shall print copies you will not blush to send into the world, copies that will show forth the glory and grandeur of the legacy which Our Lord has caused to come into your hands."
    "Product packaging, of all things. A print shop of our own. Something else to cost us money. I don't know how the few donors we have would go for that right now, after they just helped us put up the new barn." Green snorted and looked out the window.
    William paused and looked at the colorful repeating floral decoration on the wall behind the rector. Even the wall was covered with printed paper from the middle of the twentieth century. "Well, then, would you like John and me to go talk with the town's printers once more, and ask if they can think of another way?"
    Green closed his eyes for a moment. "Yes, please do that. Just don't talk about exactly what we