Stagecoach Press

Started as a publishing venture in Sierra Madre, California, the owner, Jack D. Rittenhouse (1912-1991) soon embraced letterpress printing, acquiring a Gally Universal press and Victorian types in 1949, with which to print small edition books. A move for his business of advertising to Houston, Texas kept him otherwise occupied until the late 1950s, when his interest in southwestern history, and book collecting, renewed his interest in book printing, and over the next ten years Rittenhouse, aided by a Vandercook Universal 1 press (acquired in 1960), one employee, with his wife as the Linotype operator, published a total of 50 catalogued items, first in Houston, and after a few years he made a move to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the bulk of his publishing was done. The press was retired in 1968 due to his acquiring a job as editor with the University of New Mexico Press, and his burgeoning business in dealing rare books; thereafter the press became a hobby, producing ephemera, but no more books.