Claire Van Vliet


Claire Van Vliet is an artist, illustrator, and typographer who founded Janus Press in San Diego, California in 1955.

Education and career

Van Vliet received the Bachelor of Arts in 1952 from San Diego State College, and the Master of Fine Arts from Claremont Graduate School in 1954. In 1955 she moved to Europe, shortly after her first publications, then returned to the United States in 1957. She worked for John Anderson of Lanston Monotype Company in Philadelphia before moving to Madison, Wisconsin. She made several trips back to Europe and continued her education in hand typesetting and compositing. She taught drawing and printmaking classes at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art and Philadelphia Museum College of Art from 1965–1966. In 1967 she established a typographic workshop in Madison, Wisconsin. The Janus Press has been based in Newark, Vermont since Van Vliet settled there in 1966.

Janus Press

The Janus Press was named by Van Vliet for the Roman god Janus. The press publishes collaborative works by contemporary writers, papermakers, printmakers and artists, including Raymond Carver, Tess Gallagher, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, W. R. Johnson, Galway Kinnell, John le Carré, Denise Levertov, Sandra McPherson, W. D. Snodgrass, Ruth Fine, Lois K. Johnson, Susan Johanknecht, Jerome Kaplan, Ray Metzker, Peter Schumann, Helen Siegl, Kathryn Clark, Amanda Degener, Mary Lyn Nutting, Katie MacGregor, and Bernie Vinzani.

Honors