A New Fine Press Edition of “Leaves of Grass” by Walt Whitman September 24, 2014 – Posted in: book arts, book design, bookbinding, Content, Paper

“A holy book of the nation, along with the Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence,” – poet laureate Robert Hass on Leaves of Grass To mark their one-hundredth publication the noted fine press publisher Arion Press has chosen the 1855 first edition of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Chosen in part as a tribute to the publisher’s predecessors Edwin and Robert Grabhorn, whose masterpiece was their 1930 edition of the Whitman poem. “I thought Arion Press might…

A Tectonic Pop-Up Book September 15, 2014 – Posted in: book arts, book design, Content, Paper, Video

The supercontinent Pangaea that connected South America and Africa broke apart 200 million years ago. What a better way to convey the moving and shaking of the earth within a physical object than within the confines of a movable book. In ‘The Pangaea Pop-up’ Lesson at TED-Ed, animator Biljana Labovic explains how she and her team of animators created a pop-up book to visualize Pangaea — and how you can make your own. [youtube]http://youtu.be/RZR_b753ZJ0[/youtube]…

Mother book: The book that keeps growing and growing August 5, 2014 – Posted in: book design, Content

Bell-Net Obstetrics wanted to come up with something special to give to expectant mothers. They hired the Japanese advertising agency Dentsu who then went to work and created “the world’s first book that grows with mothers.” The awarding-winning 3-D book features 40 pages, one for each week pregnancy. It provides sharp visuals of the both the process for the baby and the mother while also providing space for the mother to juornal about her experience. Each week the page…

Book Design and the Native American Experience August 4, 2014 – Posted in: book arts, book design, bookbinding, Content, Exhibits

Indian Horrors by Henry Davenport Northrop. Unsigned cover design. Imperial, 1891 The latest work from the scholarly side of the venerable Richard Minsky is Trade Bindings with Native American Themes 1875-1933. Minsky gathers together 120 books designed by many of the leading illustrators and book designers of the day. From kids books to captivity narratives to fiction and “fiction purporting to be truth, including a white missionary writing under a pseudonym as an Indian Chief, and a multiracial black man,…

The McSweeney’s Archive is open for business June 17, 2014 – Posted in: book design, Content, In the Stacks, Special Collections

Dave Eggers launched Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern from his Brooklyn apartment in 1998. When the the McSweeney’s archive was acquired by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas a mere 15 years later the McSweeney’s community had become one of the seminal hubs of literary culture in the 21st century. In addition to the highest quality writing each publication conveys a deep appreciation for design and craft making their publications instantly recognizable and consistently appealing.…