About Us

The Waverly Press is a publisher of limited-edition books and prints, bringing together a wide range of subjects found in pop culture, counterculture and the avant-garde from the mid-twentieth century to the present. The Waverly Press’ mission is built on the research, preservation and publication of under-recognized cultural and artistic archives.

Founder and Publisher, Dagon James, has been engaged in the arts all his life and comes from a creative family. His grandfather, Ronald Killette (aka Buck Trail) wrote the 1960s hit song “Girl Watcher.” His father, Crickett, was a fixture in mid-1960s Greenwich Village clubs and coffee houses where he played his guitar and sang songs, often alongside his friend Richie Havens, taking turns performing and passing the hat. James’ father passed away in Los Angeles 7 months before he was born and his mother, Bonnie, relocated to San Francisco where she lived in a communal house on Castro Street with members of the performance art group, The Cockettes. She performed with the group, recently renamed “The Angels of Light,” while pregnant during their legendary Midnight Mass performance at Grace Cathedral on December 24, 1970. Shortly after James’ birth in March, 1971, they relocated to London, living in Lancaster Gate, where she worked at the Biba store and wrote music and recorded with her band. They eventually returned to the U.S. and getting into his teenage years, James studied painting and music, ran his own silkscreen shirt business, designed newspaper ads for local businesses, and had his paintings exhibited in at least a half dozen group and solo exhibitions before settling in New York City as a young man. Through the 1990s, James worked as an artist assistant by day, and session musician by night, playing guitar and bass in the studio and in live performances at venues all over North America including numerous performances at the legendary CBGB. During this period James attended The Art Students League on 57th Street, honing his skills in the discipline of fine-art print making under artist and master printer Michael Pellettieri. In 2003, James founded and published the black and white art and culture magazine, Lid, which ran for 17 issues (2004-2014). Often described as “A museum exhibition in magazine form,” Lid placed emphasis on the research and publication of rarely seen and previously unpublished archives by some of the most prominent names in the fields of visual art, fashion, and music. In 2012, James founded The Waverly Press which continues to this day.

In 2013, James embarked on a run of collaborations with London-based publisher, Tony Nourmand, and his imprint Reel Art Press. As editor and art director, James created Unseen McQueen by Barry Feinstein and Dave Brolan (2013), Woodstock with Baron Wolman, Michael Lang and Carlos Santana, (2014), Billy Name: The Silver Age with Glenn O’Brien, Anastasia James, John Cale, Bibbe Hansen, and Danny Fields (2014), Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, 1975 with Barbara Pyle and Max Weinberg (2015), Brigid Berlin: Polaroids with Anastasia James, Vincent Fremont, Bob Colacello and John Waters (2015), and Total Excess with Michael Zagaris, Peter Frampton and David Talbot (2016). Some of James’s other titles include Joe Eula: Master of Twentieth-Century Fashion Illustration with Melisa Gosnell and Cathy Horyn (2014), Cary Leibowitz: Museum Show with Anastasia James, Fran Drescher, Glen Helfand, Hilton Als, and Simon Lince (2017), Rags Magazine 50th Anniversary Archive with Baron Wolman and Laura McLaws Helms (2020), Scars with Brigid Berlin, Vincent Fremont and Victor Bockris (2022), Low Fidelity with Bobby Grossman, Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Fab 5 Freddy, Robert Fripp, Duncan Hannah and Shepard Fairey (2023), and Gerard Malanga’s Secret Cinema with Gerard Malanga and Anastasia James (2025).

In addition to publishing, James has worked in the fashion industry as creative consultant and designer for Marc Jacobs including helping develop the popular “Blondie” tee shirt and overseeing branding and marketing for other designers, institutions, and publishers in San Francisco, London, Pittsburgh and New York. James has also curated numerous photography exhibitions including exhibitions for Billy Name (2014) and Michael Zagaris (2016) in New York City, which remain the largest exhibitions for both artists to date. In addition, James oversaw the creative, exhibition and marketing design for Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition (2016), and Cary Leibowitz: Museum Show (2017) in San Francisco.

In addition to the projects and collaborators named above, James has worked with a long list of artists including Jimmy Page, Michael Stipe, Thomas Dozol, Donovan, Quentin Crisp, Peter & Alice Gowland, Klaus Voormann, Jurgen Vollmer, Diane di Prima, James Iha, Mick Rock, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Gillian McCain, Sam Haskins, Storm Thorgerson, Olivia Harrison (George Harrison Estate), Sean Carrillo, Prince Stash Klossowski de Rola, Kate Simon, Paul Kostabi, Mark Kostabi, Leee Black Childers, Gretchen Berg, Rose Hartman, Dustin Pittman, Carl Fischer, Stephanie Chernikowski, Carl Fischer, Allen Midgette, Wes Wilson, Ross Halfin, Wolf Suschitzky, Bebe Buell, Adam Cooper (Michael Cooper Estate), and Daido Moriyama.

James’ publications can be found in numerous institutional collections including The School of Visual Arts, New York City, the Bowes Art & Architecture Library at Stanford University, Stanford, California, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Library & Archives, Cleveland, Ohio, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, the Andy Warhol Museum Archive, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, Washington, DC.

James also manages the estate of Billy Name, best known as Andy Warhol’s 1960s Silver Factory era photographer and creative collaborator.

Some of Dagon James’ design work can be seen here: http://www.hyphen-hyphen.com