Student's First Love Is Fine Art of Publishing

Luke I. Pontifell '90 was a publisher before he even finished high school.

But he doesn't simply pump out pulp paperbacks for mass consumption. His books are expensive works of art.

His latest effort, released last Wednesday, is a limited edition of the Commencement address German Chancellor Helmut Kohl delivered at Harvard last June. He will sell only 2000 of the 44-page books, at prices from $75 to $375. The books are also Kohl's official Christmas presents to other heads of state.

Pontifell founded Thornwillow Press in 1985 during the summer before his senior year in high school, publishing 100 copies of a children's book called Hello Sun.

Pontifell has since published books by Arthur Schlesinger Jr., William L. Shirer and Walter Cronkite, among others.

Books to Endure

It is not only his youth that sets Pontifell apart from most of the commercial printing world. His press has an unusual emphasis on printing quality. "My aim is to make books that are not only physically beautiful but also enduring," he says.

Pontifell uses only 100 percent rag paper, which he says feels something like linen. He binds many of his editions in Moroccan calfskin with gilt tooling, and this year acquired an old press from the Boston Museum of Printing.

"I grew up loving antiques and old books, and have always wanted to make books," says Pontifell. "In a world of increasingly intangible culture, when even books are almost as unenduring as television, newspapers and the radio, I want to create things that will last. It goes beyond the aesthetics."

The aesthetics are, however, a crucial part of Pontifell's vision. He describes his books as "excessively beautiful to the touch, to the eye and even to the nose." His mother, a sculptor and artist, illustrated the Cronkite book, and he himself designs the gilt tooling on the leather editions, although he sends them to upstate New York to be worked.

The high prices and low volume that come with hand printing and Moroccan leather do not discourage Pontifell. "My market might be small because of the prices, but it is not defined. I consider it crucial that Thornwillow does not limit itself to collectors," he says, pointing out that the Rizzoli Bookstore sells his books across the country.

Pontifell's achievements in publishing have won him recognition from beyond the bookstores. In 1989 he received Time magazine's College Acheivement Award, and he has recent appeared in the New York Times and on network television.

For the moment, Pontifell is more concerned with personal and artistic rewards than financial ones. "The financial aspect is encouraging, although the press is still in its early stages," he says. "I am not concentrating on the bottom line. My great hope is to create books that will matter to people, that will encourage respect for the written word and that will be around for a very long time."

Pontifell maintains that his efforts are more than a romantic harkening back to a rosier age in popular culture. "In one sense what I'm doing is revolutionary. These books mark a radical change from the mainstream of contemporary publishing," he says.

"My car is an immaculate 1961 Cadillac Coupe de Ville," says Pontifell. "Like the books, it might be considered old-fashioned, but both the car and the books combine the old and the new in a way that is aesthetically exciting and will be cherished forever."