Breaker Press is the little guy in the neighborhood that makes you wonder why you would ever go to a big guy.
For the second straight year, Breaker has donated printing services to the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame on the occasion of our biggest fundraiser. This allows us to again put together and produce a nice commemorative program to give out on the night of the auction and to keep for our historical records.
Rich Lewendowski runs the family printing business, along with his brother Mike and their two oldest boys, the juniors Rich and Mike.
Rich’s dad Dick started the business in his two-and-a-half car garage on 21st and Walcott 35 years ago; within a year Rich had graduated from Kelly High School and began working with the old man.
Breaker was successful enough from the start to move into a much bigger space at 2421 S. Western Ave., where they’ve been ever since. It is the second longest running business between 18th Street and Blue Island Ave.
From a relatively modest start, Breaker has grown into a small printer capable of incredible quality on jobs of all sizes. Breaker had two offset presses, a 100+-year-old letterpress and a dark room in the original garage space. Now it’s equipped with three state-of-the-art digital presses and several offset presses, as well as that original letterpress.
Rich has worked with a large variety of people in literary circles, including novelists, poets, copywriters and publishers. In most cases, Rich probably knows more about what needs to be done than his clients, and he shares his wisdom. He told me, “Doing perfect bound books is easier than ever if you have the right equipment and right software, and we have both. It’s cheaper now to do a hundred books than ever before.”
I’ve dealt with quite a few printers over the years, for a variety of reasons, but since we started using Breaker I don’t even bother to call anybody else. Rich and his family do beautiful work, they do it quick, and it’s fun to work with them. Above all else, they’re honest. When I want something done, I call Rich or go over to his shop and say, “Here’s the result I want.” He tells me my options and always tries to save the CLHOF money. Rich says, “I don’t let my customers waste money without telling them.”
Donald G. Evans is the founder and executive director of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. He is the author of the novel Good Money After Bad and editor of the anthology Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year. His short story collection An Off-White Christmas will be published by Simon & Schuster later this year. He is the current Senior Artist-in-Residence at Chicago's Cliff Dwellers Club and the Chicago editor of the upstart journal Great Lakes Cultural Review. He serves on the committee that selects the annual Harold Washington Literary Award recipient, as well as the Chicago Literary Advisory Council of the American Writers Museum.
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