Green Lion Press is a small publishing company owned and operated by two independent scholars in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Our specialty is providing access to original source texts in history of science, history of mathematics, and history of ideas. We are committed to producing high quality books at reasonable prices. The Green Lion lives with its caregivers in its lair in the mountains above Santa
Fe, New Mexico. Its tawny mountain lion cousins can be seen on the next ridge. Coyotes sing nightly outside the window, undoubtedly wishing they could be as green, as feline, and as alchemically powerful as our handsome beast. Donahue and Dana Densmore, are independent scholars whose special interests are the primary texts in history of science, history of mathematics, and history of ideas. They have studied and taught these texts at St. John's College and elsewhere and since 1995 have been designing and producing the books they love. The Green Lion is also lovingly cared for by Associate Editor Howard J. The Green Lion's Mission
The Green Lion Press takes as its special focus providing access to sources in history of science and history of mathematics. The Green Lion publishes reprints of out-of-print original classic texts, first (or distinguished new) English translations of important source texts, and guidebooks to difficult texts. These are texts that will have a long-term market, and we intend to keep them in print. We are willing to work with low volume sales over many years. Most of the mainstream publishers prefer books that will sell briskly for two or three years and can then go out of print, replaced by the next piece of the conversation. For that reason, they tend not to be interested in publishing classic original texts. This gives the Green Lion its niche. But we have other claims on your interest. Green Lion Press is a book lover's press. We have studied these texts in detail in our own scholarly work and taught them and worked through them with students. We have suffered the frustrations of books that fall apart upon being seriously read and of books that are badly or thoughtlessly laid out. Now we have our chance to produce the kind of books we want to use. Green Lion Press books are produced with love for books and respect for their functionality. All books are printed on high quality acid-free paper. Both soft-bound and cloth-bound editions have sewn bindings designed to lie flat and allow heavy use by students and researchers. Pages of Green Lion books will not come unglued and fall out as soon as the spread is pressed fully open for study. Soft-bound books have extra heavy cover stock. Cloth-bound editions meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. In design and layout, as well, we bring our experience using these books and teaching with them to make sure that the needs of students and researchers are met. Pedagogical considerations, and considerations affecting ease of use, are primary in design and layout decisions. And finally, because we have used these texts with students, we are sensitive to the hardship expensive books impose on the student budget. For this reason we make it a priority to offer the student editions at prices students can afford. We are able to offer quality editions at prices typically charged for editions much more cheaply produced and printed. We can do this because we operate efficiently with low overhead costs, doing all the design and typesetting ourselves.
