Glenn Malkin has been awarded a coveted prize in the 2009 Designer Bookbinders competition.His binding of the competition's set book, Le Grand Meaulnes, is a full lacunose design in mixed goatskin leather with onlays and blind tooling. Inside, there are full leather doublures and suede endpapers. Headbands are hand sewn in silk and the book block is decorated at the edges in acrylics. The book is presented in a custom-made drop-back box with suede lining.The competition is held annually by the Designer Bookbinders society, which noted in its citation, "This book design represents the physical and emotional journey made by...
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click to enlargeThis little gem was laid into an issue of George Hitchcock's seminal kayak literary magazine. From 1964-1984 the magazine, along with kayak press, was one of the premier literary magazines in the country. Though the focus leaned toward surrealist, imagist, and political poetry Hitchcock published early books by Raymond Carver, Charles Simic, Philip Levine, W.S. Merwin and James Tate.Hitchcock was also well known for his rejection slips which would often include an old woodcut or image he found along with the bad news.Above is one of his subscription renewal notices. It reads:Your subscription expires with this issue:to avoid...
Attention Letterpress Printers: Remember Mutanabbi Street!
Make Books Not War. Sarah BodmanIn March 2007 a car bomb exploded on al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. 30 people were killed and over 100 injured. What made this particular event stand out was that Mutanabbi Street was the center of the Baghdad bookselling world and the heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community. It was named after 10th century Arab poet, Al-Mutanabbi.To commemorate and protest this most violent form of censorship the Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition was created. It was founded by San Francisco poet and bookseller Beau Beausoleil and since April of 2007 they have been organizing...
Designer Bookbinders International Bookbinding Competition Winners for 2009
Designer Bookbinders has announced the winners of its International Bookbinding Competition 2009.Binders from around the world were invited to enter the event, which was organized in conjunction with the Bodleian Library. An exhibition of selected competition entries is being shown alongside the Bodleian’s own exhibition An Artful Craft - Fine and Historic Bookbindings from the Broxbourne Library and Other Collections.Designer Bookbinders International Bookbinding Competition 2009 featured two prizes awarded in honor of Sir Paul Getty KBE (1932-2003). Sir Paul Getty was one of the greatest book collectors of his era and was a passionate advocate for the art and craft...
The Great Omar: The Zenith of Bookbinding Art
In 1912, bookbinder Francis Sangorski decided to produce the most elaborate binding of all time, a jeweled edition of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám with illustrations by Elihu Vedder. The magnificent binding was a masterwork and contained almost 1,200 jewels. But the book and its binder were doomed.The Harry Ransom Center recently held a stunning exhibition based upon the book and this masterpiece of bookbinding art, The Persian Sensation: The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in the West.The Ransom Center has also produced a video telling the tragic story of what happened to the greatest binding ever created: