Harry Duncan; Hand-Press Printer

Harry Duncan, 80, a widely respected hand-press printer who published early works of poet Robert Lowell and writer Tennessee Williams. Duncan dedicated his life to making books with a hand press similar to Johann Gutenberg’s original invention. A 1982 Newsweek article dubbed him the “father of the post-World War II private press movement.” He co-founded his Cummington Press in Cummington, Mass., in 1939. The operation was moved to Iowa City in 1956 when Duncan became director of the typographical laboratory at the University of Iowa’s School of Journalism. In 1972, he founded the fine arts press, called Abattoir Editions, for the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Throughout his long career in fine printing, Duncan continued to publish early works of successful poets and fiction writers. Among them were Wallace Stevens, Allen Tate, Marianne Moore, William Logan, Stephen Berg and Dana Gioia. On Friday in Omaha of pneumonia.