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The Ordered Hand: An Anthology of Metric Realism
by John Spencer
COMING IN 2027 --The landscape of Central Illinois is forged in iron, weight, and measure.
In this collection of essays, the industrial history of the heartland emerges through the physical vocabulary of labor. Along the railroad, at the printing press, and on the foundry floor, the work reveals itself in the grease on a toggle, the fall of a gate, the tremor of a locomotive, and the precise instant when motion becomes stillness.
Written in a metered prose that moves between material fact and the surreal, The Ordered Hand explores the machinery, landscapes, and working lives that shaped an industrial region. Each piece finds its own rhythm in the processes it describes, joining the physical demands of labor to the strange, sometimes dreamlike experience of being inside the work.
These are essays about the things we make, the places where we make them, and the hands that set them in motion.
The Consolation of Philosophy
by Boethius
COMING IN 2027 -- Written in the sixth century, The Consolation of Philosophy is one of the great works of Western literature. Having lost his position, his fortune, and his freedom, and now facing execution, the Roman statesman Boethius turned to philosophy in search of answers to the oldest human questions: What is true happiness? Why does fortune change? How can justice prevail in a world that so often seems unjust?
In a remarkable dialogue between the imprisoned author and Lady Philosophy, Boethius examines the nature of fortune, free will, providence, and the highest good. Drawing upon the wisdom of Plato and the classical philosophical tradition, he explores the possibility of finding lasting peace amid the uncertainties of earthly life.
The author's reflections on adversity, virtue, and the proper ordering of the human soul influenced figures such as Dante and Chaucer and remain as compelling today as when they were first written.
**A timeless meditation on wisdom, happiness, and the freedom of the mind.**
The Electric Prairie: A Protopsychedelic Reader
Collected and Edited by John Spencer
COMING IN 2027 -- The selections brought together in The Electric Prairie span a sixty-year period (1850–1910) marked by rapid technological transformation, shifting literary conventions, and profound linguistic evolution. In this environment, American and European novelists, poets and artists explored not only physical frontiers but also the expanses of the mind and soul. Includes works by Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Ambrose Bierce, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Oscar Wilde, and others.
The Pilgrim's Progress
by John Bunyan
First published in 1678, John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress has traveled through generations as one of the most influential works of English literature. Its story follows Christian, a traveler who leaves the City of Destruction in search of the Celestial City, encountering along the way friends, deceivers, dangers, temptations, and trials that have become part of our shared literary imagination.
In the second part, Bunyan continues the journey through the experiences of Christiana, her children, and their companions, offering a companion story that completes the work’s larger vision.
Rich in memorable characters, vivid allegory, and enduring human questions, The Pilgrim’s Progress is at once a spiritual journey, a remarkable work of storytelling, and a landmark of the English literary tradition.
This Monroe St. Press edition will bring both parts together in one complete, unabridged volume.
Iron & Ashes: A Play in Two Acts
by John Spencer
Along the Old National Road outside Effingham, Illinois, an old scrapyard stands in the path of progress.
Silas Ezekiel Vance has spent a lifetime building, repairing, and preserving things that others have discarded. At eighty-three, the retired engineer has little patience for men who mistake speed for progress or paperwork for truth. When a county development authority sets its sights on his property, Silas finds himself defending more than a few acres of ground. At stake are an old survey boundary, a forgotten legal agreement, and the principles on which a community is built.
With the help of Rose Halvorsen, a retired attorney, and Tommy Rourke, a young man who works the yard, Silas takes his stand against a determined bureaucrat and the machinery of development. Watching over it all is Arthur, Silas's son, killed in the Second World War, a silent presence whose service is not yet finished.
Set amid the iron, brass, and weathered machinery of a rural Illinois scrapyard in 1978, Iron & Ashes is a play about memory, justice, craftsmanship, and the meaning of progress. It asks what we owe to the places that made us, what must be preserved, and what happens when the lines that define a community are moved for convenience.
