Snail's Pace Press Ephemera Collection

Professor Francis H. Fobes (1881-1957) founded the Snail's Pace Press at Amherst College in 1922. Fobes, who attended Phillips Andover Academy, Harvard University (M.A. 1904, Ph.D 1912), and Oxford University, taught Greek and Latin, first at Harvard and then at Union College before joining the faculty at Amherst College in 1920. He became an emeritus professor of Classics in 1948. Fobes died in 1957. Fobes' avocations included clocks, kites, genealogy, and printing. In the basement of Morris Pratt Hall (a college dormitory where he also lived for most of his years at Amherst), he set up an antique hand press, which he used to produce pamphlets on handmade Italian paper. The snail device of the Press reflected the slow, casual pace of Fobes' work, which he conducted purely as a hobby rather than a commercial venture. The earliest pamphlets he printed were lectures given by his academic colleagues; he also printed Greek examinations for his Amherst College classes, as well as literary translations, poems (including light verse), certificates, and holiday greetings. One of the Press's earliest publications was Abu Ben Aladdin: A Just-So Night, a lecture by John N. Vedder of Union College. Fobes designed his own Greek font which he called "Benner Greek," named after his teacher at Andover, Allen Rogers Benner, which was intended to emulate the miniscule Greek script of the ninth and tenth centuries. Fobes printed several booklets using this font. In accordance with his wishes, the hand press used by Fobes was given to Dartmouth College upon his death.