The Perishable Press, located in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, was founded in 1964 by Walter Hamady, who in 1966 joined the art faculty at the University of Wisconsin. The Perishable Press was one of the earliest fine presses to produce most of its work on a Vandercook proofing press (rather than a traditional cast-iron press). Many Perishable Press books are notable for their innovative use of paper – in addition to the Perishable Press, Hamady also operated the Shadwell Paper Mill – and for Hamady's rambling, light-hearted, but highly informative colophons. Hamady's role as a teacher made the Perishable Press highly influential, with many of his students founding presses working in a very similar tradition.

Special Collections has the following items printed at or published by the Perishable Press

• Blackburn, Paul. The Reardon Poems. Mount Horeb: 1967. PS3552.L342 R4
• Byrd, Bobby. Art in America. Mount Horeb: 1998. PS3552.Y66 A78 1998
• Eiseley, Loren. The Brown Wasps: A Collection of Three Essays in Autobiography. Mount Horeb: 1969. PS3555.I78 Z5
• Hamady, Walter. Paper-Making by Hand: A Book of Suspicions. Mount Horeb: 1982. TS1109 .H3
• Hamady, Walter. The Quartz Crystal History of Perry Township Since the Earliest Creation of Life: Being an Eye Witness Account of the First Druze Settler to Show up in Driftless Wisconsin, Town of Perry, County of Dane, etcetera. Mount Horeb: 1979. PS3558.A42 Q3
• Levertov, Denise. Three Poems. Mount Horeb: 1968. PR6023.E88 T6
• Oppen, George. Alpine: Poems. Mount Horeb: 1969. PS3529.P54 A7
• Wieners, John. Unhired: Poems. Mount Horeb: 1968. PS3573.I35 U8