Al Lowman, in his thorough and beautifully produced book (by the Holmans), Printing Arts in Texas, describes the unique setting in which the pioneer Texas printer, Edwin B. Hill (1866-1949) worked his craft:
”The first Texas printer of the twentieth century to achieve typographical distinction lived amid the adobe-textured squalor and irrigated cotton fields at Ysleta, a few miles downstream from El Paso.”
Hill began printing at his childhood home in Michigan on a hand press he acquired and then quickly upgraded via trade. He continued his hobby through seventeen years as a newspaper man in Detroit, making many connections that would influence his later printing, such as meeting Frank Holme and Samuel Arthur Jones. So, by the time he came to Ysleta in 1918, working for the US Reclamation Office in El Paso, he had laid the groundwork for what was to be his most productive years, printing some 150+ items In the small village. It was also during this period he gained the distinction of owning the oldest continuously operating private press in the United States, for which he had developed his recognizable ten-gallon hat printer’s mark.
For this list, we have referenced the John Myers Myers and Gertrude Hill Muir checklist published in American Book Collector, October, 1967, and adopted the formatting language which Hill used himself:
”A. Brochures: These are pamphlets with a paper cover, usually of heavier stock than that used in the text. The title alone is stamped on the cover; in no single instance is the author’s name noted unless it is part of the title…
B. Leaflets: These are folded sheets of paper of two general styles. They may have a complete title page followed by one, two, or three pages of text; or they may have simply the name of he item on the outside.”
C. Broadsides: These usually take the form of either a block of type appearing on one side of an unfolded leaf, or of a double-spread on one side of a folded sheet.”
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1938. First edition, unspecified limitation. Brochure, [5]pp. Folded sheets laid in printed card wraps. Fine condition. Longer poem from Joseph P. Clossey, amateur editor of Our Free Lance, and first president of the Amateur Editors Lyceum in 1878. This poem was awarded laureateship by the N.A.P.A. in 1882.....
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1931. First edition, 110 copies. Brochure, [22]pp. Stapled sheets laid in printed card wraps. Small split to wrappers at base of spine else very good. Poetry collection from early amateur journalist, Frank Denmark Woollen, who edited Red Letter Days and The National Amateur magazines. Myers Myers 53.
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1938. First edition, limited to 95 copies. Brochure, [14]pp., errata slip laid in. Folded sheets laid in printed card wraps. Small split at base of spine, upper edge of first blank page bumped, else very good. Collection from the early amateur poet and critic, Charles Heywood.....
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1942. First edition thus, unspecified limitation. Brochure, [16]pp. Folded sheets laid in printed card wraps. Some edge wear and toning. Very good. Collects fifteen poems from various amateur press poets whom Hill often printed. Several are fantastical and/or supernatural and a bit in the Weird Tales.....
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1938. First edition thus, unspecified limitation. Brochure, [8]pp. Staple bound in printed card wraps. Wrappers bumped, light wrinkling to margin of title page, very good. Collects six poems from various forgotten figures of the amateur letters movement. The title poem by "Caxton Stanley," or John G......
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, [1940]. First edition, 50 copies. Leaflet, [2]pp. Light marginal smudging, near fine. Short prose work from amateur journalist, Frank Denmark Woollen, who edited Red Letter Days and The National Amateur magazines. Myers Myers 108.
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1942. First edition, 50 copies. Two variant copies, each 26x17cm, [2], 12, [1]pp. Folded sheets in printed wrappers, near fine. The final iteration of Hill's Detroit amateur periodical first issued in 1888. E.A. Edkins, the journal's original editor, and Weird Tales author, Fanny Kemble Johnson, both contribute.....
[Ysleta]: [Edwin B. Hill], [1940]. First edition thus, unspecified limitation. Leaflet, [1]pp. Fine. Short poem from Frank Denmark Woollen, who edited Red Letter Days and The National Amateur magazines. Myers Myers 112.
![Item #5607 Frank Holme Memorial Group [with] Confidential (broadside). Bandar Log Press, Edwin B....](https://perusethestacks.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/5607.png?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1679006350)
[Ysleta]: [Edwin B. Hill], [1936]. First edition, unspecified limitation. Leaflet, [2]pp. and broadside advertisement. Both fine condition. An announcement of the founding/invitation to join the Frank Holme Memorial Group in Tucson, 1936, Edwin B. Hill as president. Later, Hill would launch the Frank Holme Memorial Group Bulletin, which would serve as a......
Detroit, Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, Ca. 1901-1940. 13 items, various formats and paper, generally very good or better with occasional wear and bumped corners. Collection of 13 various items from the press of Edwin B. Hill, one from Detroit, and the remainder likely all from Ysleta. Several of these are.....
[Ysleta]: Edwin B. Hill, 1923. First edition, unknown limitation. Broadside, 19x13cm. Fine condition. A quite interesting broadside from a bibliographic standpoint, and we posit one of if not the first piece printed by Hill in Ysleta. This printing differs in size and paper from the Myers Myers entry for this.....
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1928-1945. Eight broadsides, various sizes and papers, the largest being 19.5x13cm. Generally very good or better with occasional corner bumping and light wear. A sampling of broadsides ranging in subject from the Ysleta years of Edwin B. Hill, with a couple bibliographical oddities. Dates are taken.....
[Ysleta]: Edwin B. Hill, [1941]. First edition thus, unspecified limitation. Leaflet, [2]pp. Near fine. Tribute to Harry A. Gregg originally printed in The Pontiac Daily Press, 1922. Hill and Gregg worked together in the papers in Detroit. Myers Myers 124.
[Ysleta]: [Edwin B. Hill], [1945]. First edition thus, unspecified limitation. Leaflet, [1]pp. Fine condition. Reprints a short poem on Charles Lamb originally printed by Hill in Mesa, 1915, here with the order of the initials reversed. It is also to be noted that this particular printing is on a thin.....
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1936. First edition thus, unspecified limitation. Brochure, [8]pp. Staple bound in printed card wraps. Light edge wear, near fine. Reprinted from The Denver Post, Sunday, July 31st, 1904. Myers Myers 79.
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1935. First edition thus, unspecified limitation. Brochure, [3]pp. Staple bound in printed card wraps. Light edge wear, near fine. Myers Myers 78.
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1944. First edition thus, unspecified limitation. Brochure, [3]pp. Folded sheets laid in printed card wraps. Light edge wear, near fine. Bibliographical analysis of the first Bandar-Log Press publication. Myers Myers 168.
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1940. First edition thus, 50 copies. Leaflet, [2]pp. Near fine. New Orleans essay from Hearn, originally appearing in the Historical sketch book and guide to New Orleans and environs... 1885.BAL 8044. Myers Myers 106.
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1944. First edition, unspecified limitation. Brochure, [10]pp. Folded sheets laid in printed card wraps. Light edge wear, nearly fine. Includes "Thoreau's Flute" by Alcott and others. Myers Myers 171.
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1937. First edition, limited to 95 copies. Brochure, [12]pp. Staple bound in printed card wraps. Light edge wear, near fine. Myers Myers 85.
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1939. First edition thus, limited to 200 copies. Brochure, [12]pp. Bibliography. Staple bound in printed card wraps. Light edge wear, near fine. Reprinted from The Kiva, Arizona Archaeological and History Society, Vol. 4, No. 3, December, 1938. An important study on the mineral in Navajo culture. Myers Myers 98.....
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1938. First edition thus, 50 copies. Brochure, [3]pp. Staple bound in printed card wraps. Chipping and toning to edges, very good. Short fable of Japan from Arthur Russell (1861-1945), columnist for the Minneapolis Journal and Minnetonka Record. Myers Myers 91.
Ysleta: [Edwin B. Hill], [1945]. First edition, unspecified limitation. Leaflet, [1]pp. Fine. Prints a 12 line letter from Lamb. No colophon - date taken from the Myers Myers bibliography.Myers Myers 174.
Ysleta: Edwin B. Hill, 1934. First edition thus, 100 copies. Brochure, [4]pp. Staple bound in printed card wraps. Light edge wear, near fine. Reprints a Lamb letter originally printed in book form by Hill in Mesa, 1914. Myers Myers 74.
[Tempe]: [Edwin B. Hill], 1948. First edition, unknown limitation. Broadside, 17.5x12.5cm, sepia stock. Fine condition. A very late Hill piece from his Tempe period, 1946-1948, likely done as the great printer was contemplating his own mortality and failing health. Myers Myers 199.
