Letterpress Printer

Scott Vile

Scott Vile has been printing since the age of 15 when he discovered the Graphic Arts Department at his high school in Glen Ridge, NJ. Upon graduation, Scott entered the Rochester Institute of Technology in the four-year program in Printing. One of the classes was the History of the Book, in which he was exposed to the intricacies of book design, typography, and the “book beautiful.” 

Scott began acquiring letterpress equipment, as it was then plentiful and inexpensive. The first Vandercook was brought into his mother’s living room in 1984. Then the accumulation of hot metal type started, and Scott established his own printing business, Ascensius Press in 1989. As he worked, Scott was absorbing the legacies of Fred Anthoensen, Bruce Rogers, W.A. Dwiggins, and Daniel Berkeley Updike. It was Updike who accomplished “common work uncommonly well,” which became one of the tenets of Ascensius Press. 

In 2017 Scott merged with Firefly Press of Boston, and moved all the equipment into a 4,000-square foot building in Bar Mills, Maine. Soon the Press also brought in the monotype casting equipment and presses from Sun Hill Press, owned by retiring Darrell Hyder, probably bringing the total tonnage of equipment to approximately 20!

Scott is a 28-year member of the Society of Printers, a 15-year member of the Club of Odd Volumes, and a 30-year member of Portland’s Baxter Society (president for five years). He is currently Printer to the Club of Odd Volumes, a position held in its 132-year history by only five previous members.