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Giambattista Bodoni in 1792. By Giuseppe Turchi. Reproduced with permission from David Godine.

Typography, the art and science of arranging type to make words legible, was long the province of a select group of printers and designers. (Now anyone with a word processor can adjust fonts to his heart's content.) Italian printer and type designer Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813) created fonts that continue to influence how we read today. He is now the subject of a book entitled Giambattista Bodoni: His Life and His World, by Valerie Lester (David R. Godine, $40, October 2015). Bodoni ushered in the era of modern typefaces with his use of clean lines, creating an elegant, geometrical look. Notable contemporary examples of Bodoni font include the masthead of Vanity Fair magazine, the brand logo for Hilton hotels, and even grunge-rock band Nirvana.

Lester spent almost eight years traveling to the charming Italian city of Parma, where Bodoni spent most of his career. This is the first substantial English-language biography of the typographer. "Other biographies indulge in hero-worshipping. They don't take on the whole man," she said during a conversation earlier this fall. But since Bodoni was a total perfectionist, and spent most of his time at work, "he's difficult to write about because his life actually isn't deeply interesting. He worked so hard, and left little time for other things!" (Bodoni didn't wed until the ripe old age of 51.) As a result, Lester's book is also a biography of eighteenth-century Parma. It was a hub of activity, welcoming visitors like Napoleon and the Mozarts père et fils. Even today Parma is a delicious little city. "You can walk around it, there is so much art and so much music. You can go to a concert every night of the week. On Sundays during the winter, the city hosts a midday concert and afterwards Prosecco is served alongside tiny little pieces of pizza. It's so civilized!"

Hugely ambitious, Bodoni devoted his spare time to completing what many collectors today consider his magnum opus, the Manuale tipografico, a specimen book filled with magnificent examples of type. Bodoni labored for forty years on this side project, which was ultimately published by his wife Margherita five years after his death. Two volumes are filled with Roman characters, capital letters, alphabets in Greek, Hebrew and Arabic (among others), exotic characters, and pages of symbols, ornaments, and ciphers. The Manuale is regarded as one of the greatest achievements of typography, a dazzling compendium of typefaces and designs.  

It was a story of book theft that sparked Lester's interest in Bodoni. Book conservator Mimi Meyer ransacked the Harry Ransom Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin during the early 1990s, stealing over 300 rare books, including the library's copy of Bodoni's Manuale. (Among the purloined items were a collection of Petrarch's poetry published by Aldus Manutius in 1514, works by Lewis Carroll, and a quarto edition of Audubon's Birds of America.) The FBI suspected Meyers of selling these and other books to auction houses -- including Heritage Auctions and Swann Galleries of New York -- raking in over $400,000 in ill-gotten gains. Many of the stolen books, including the Manuale, were recovered, and in 2004 Meyer was sentenced to three-years probation and ordered to pay $381,595 in restitution. "I wanted to talk to Meyer about the thefts, but she died in January 2010," Lester said. "Bodoni's home and workplace were burglarized too, but he was less concerned about the loss of silver and personal items than about his type. He lived to cut type and to print. It was his great joy."

Giambattista Bodoni: His Life and His World, by Valerie Lester; David R. Godine, $40, 280 pages.

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Bodoni's masterpiece, the Manuale Tipografico, Papale. Reproduced with permission from David R.Godine. 
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In preparation for the 1970 edition of The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien annotated a map of Middle-earth for illustrator Pauline Baynes who was creating her own colored map for the Allen & Unwin publication. Baynes then added her own notes to the map and tucked it away in her copy of The Lord of the Rings where it lingered for several decades. The map was found earlier this month by Blackwell's, an antiquarian bookshop in Oxford that is selling a number of books and illustrations from Baynes' collection. The illustrator died in 2008.

Blackwell's has priced the map at £60,000 ($92,000), calling it "an important document, and perhaps the finest piece of Tolkien ephemera to emerge in the last 20 years at least."

The map reveals some interesting details about Middle-earth; Hobbiton is on the same latitude as Oxford and the Italian city of Ravenna was the inspiration for Minas Tirith. Tolkien also offered Baynes a variety of suggestions about the flora and fauna of Middle-earth.

"The map shows how completely obsessed he was with the details. Anyone else interfered at their peril," said Sian Wainwright at Blackwell's in an interview with The Guardian. "He was tricky to work with, but very rewarding in the end."

"Before going on display in the shop this week, this had only ever been in private hands (Pauline Baynes's for the majority of its existence). One of the points of interest is how much of a hand Tolkien had in the poster map; all of his suggestions, and there are many (the majority of the annotation on the map is his), are reflected in Baynes's version," added Henry Gott of Blackwell's in the same interview. "The degree to which it is properly collaborative was not previously apparent, and couldn't be without a document like this. Its importance is mostly to do with the insight it gives into that process."

Image via Blackwell's.


cover-LE copy.jpgNow here's a terrific Halloween read: The Embalmed Head of Oliver Cromwell: A Memoir by Marc Hartzman (Curious Publications, 2015) is a romp through three hundred years of history as told by the decapitated head of England's former "Lord Protector." Cromwell, having died of natural causes in 1658, was exhumed by Charles II three years later in order to avenge his father's beheading. Cromwell's head was posthumously chopped off and impaled on a spike atop Westminster Hall, where it stayed for more than 25 years. As the story goes, the leathery skull finally fell one day, which initiated a series of "afterlife" adventures for Cromwell's brainless and embalmed noggin. It--the head, that is--jauntily narrates encounters with Spiritualists, phrenologists, and showmen. The result is delightfully wicked.    

Collectors can get in on the mischief too. The publisher, New York's Curious Publications, teamed up with Porridge Papers and Signature Bindery of Lincoln, Nebraska, to create a signed, limited edition of fifty copies in a sewn and stamped faux leather binding. The decorative endpapers reproduce a nineteenth-century letter about the transferral of Cromwell's head from one owner to another, and the textured dust jacket features a whimsical illustration by Brooklyn artist Vi Luong.

"Signature Bindery was excited at the opportunity to bind the limited edition run of Marc Hartzman's new book," said owner Kevin Oliver. "With our trademark attention to detail, we created a binding both beautiful in design and perfect in function. The binding celebrates both the author and the artist, and from the moment the book is opened, it takes the reader into the fantastic tale that Mr. Hartzman wove."

The limited edition is priced at $80. A letterpress-printed poster of Luong's illustration on handmade paper is also available for $75.

Image: Limited edition, Courtesy of Marc Hartzman.
9780802123213 copy.jpgOn Thursday, November 5, authors Bradford Morrow and Nicholas Basbanes will treat New York City bibliophiles to a public conversation about rare book collecting. Morrow, a book collector and the acclaimed author of last year's literary thriller, The Forgers (which we reviewed positively last fall), will read from his novel set inside the world of rare books, just released in paperback by the Mysterious Press. Then Basbanes, Fine Books columnist and author, most recently, of On Paper, will join Morrow for a larger discussion about books, forgery, and the art of collecting. The two are sure to share some legendary tales of the trade.    

This event is hosted by Swann Auction Galleries, 104 East 25th Street, 6th Floor, in conjunction with a preview of the Lawrence M. Solomon collection of mystery, detective, and science fiction literature. The book talk begins at 6:00 (RSVP required).

Image: Courtesy of The Mysterious Press
 
In a letter dated January 20, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt waxed poetic with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, scribbling some verses from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Sail on, O Ship of State!" FDR preceded the patriotic lines, originally written in 1849, with these words, "I think this verse applies to you people as it does to us." America had not yet entered the World War II, but his letter was meant to provide support and encouragement. According to the Library of Congress, Churchill was so moved he had the letter framed and displayed at his home.

Screen Shot 2015-10-25 at 10.04.14 PM.pngOff to auction next week is a significant piece of historical ephemera that brings this fascinating story to the surface: a keepsake broadside of "Sail on, O Ship of State," signed by both Roosevelt and Churchill during the secret Atlantic Conference held aboard two warships anchored off Newfoundland from August 9-12, 1941. At this meeting, the two leaders plotted strategy as the U.S. inched closer to war with Germany.   
 
According to Dallas Auction Gallery, "This document was printed at the direction of British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill for presentation to United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his top aides ... Both Churchill and Roosevelt kept copies and very few additional copies were signed for senior advisors present aboard Augusta." This one, formerly in the Forbes collection of American historical documents and most recently in the collection of Dallas collector Sam Wyly, goes to auction on November 4, with an estimate of $10,000-15,000.

The sale also offers a first edition of Churchill's The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898), a typed signed letter of FDR's from 1918, and several other historical documents, letters, and art.

Image Courtesy of Dallas Auction Gallery.

Winnie the Pooh, the first in a series of children's books about the eponymous toy bear and other cuddly inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood appeared between hardcovers on October 14, 1926, making 2015 the 89th year the world has reveled in the sweet tales penned by A.A. Milne and illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard. Since then, the four original books in the Pooh canon have been translated into fifty languages, including a Latin version, which spent 20 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in 1960. Movies, merchandise, Disney adaptations, and subsequent stories continue to charm new generations of children worldwide. 

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"Winnie-the-Pooh lived in a forest all by himself under the name of Sanders." "Pooh Shepard1928" by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pooh_Shepard1928.jpg#/media/File:Pooh_Shepard1928.jpg

While this isn't exactly a milestone year for Pooh and pals, a few events are sure to draw the attention of fans and collectors alike. First up is the auction of a rare 1932 sketch of Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet, available at Nate D. Sanders in Los Angeles. The watercolor includes a note from Shepard to his agent, Carter Brown, thanking him for all his good work. Minimum bidding starts at $50,000, and the auction runs until October 29. (Interested parties can follow the auction here.) Readers may recall the impressive December 2008 sale at Sotheby's London, where a 42 lot sale of Shepard's artwork that included 22 original Winnie the Pooh illustrations fetched £1.26 million ($1.97 million).

Nature enthusiasts will find much to enjoy in landscape designer and historian Kathryn Aalto's The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh: A walk through the forest that inspired Hundred Acre Wood (Timber Press, $24.95, September 2015), where she discusses the Ashdown Forest, the real woodland setting where Milne's son often wandered with his stuffed animals in tow. (Among other landmarks, the author points out the real Poohsticks bridge.) Parents nostalgic for a bygone era when children lost track of time playing outdoors might consider Aalto's book a companion guide to the Pooh tales, a gentle reminder that so much of childhood is founded on magic and secret hideaway places.


I've been celebrating Pooh's birthday by listening to The Best of Winnie-the-Pooh (A Gift Book and CD) (Dutton, $24.95, 1997), a selection of stories narrated by none other than journalist Charles Kuralt, whose distinctly sonorous, reassuring voice lends new dimension to the likes of Eeyore and Piglet. 

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"Pooh sticks bridge" by David BROOKER. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pooh_sticks_bridge.jpg#/media/File:Pooh_sticks_bridge.jpg





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An extremely rare 1631 Bible, dubbed "The Wicked Bible" after a critical error left out the word "not" from the seventh commandment ("Thou shalt *not* commit adultery), is heading to auction at Bonhams next month.

In 1631, London printers Robert Barker and Martin Lucas printed 1,000 copies of The New Testament. One year later,  it was brought to their attention that The Ten Commandants included the dubious line "Thou shalt commit adultery." The unfortunate mistake did not go unnoticed by the authorities. The printers were hauled to court on the orders of Charles I where they fined £300 (approximately £45,000 today, or just shy of $70,000) and had their printing license revoked. The vast majority of the 1,000 copy print run was also destroyed, with only 10 copies believed to have survived to modern times. Throughout its subsequent nearly four hundred-year history, the book has been variously dubbed "The Wicked Bible," "The Sinners Bible," and "The Adulterous Bible."

According to Bonhams, which will auction the book as part of its November 11 sale, research has revealed that the mistake may have been a deliberate act of sabotage by a rival printer. The fallout from the scandal did indeed sink the fortunes of both Barker and Lucas. 

The Wicked Bible is estimated at £10,000-£15,000 ($15,000-$23,000).

[Image from Bonhams]
exhibitions2015_spector-01-320x240.jpgBuzz Spector: The Book Under (De-)Construction opened at the Center for Book Arts in New York City earlier this month. Organized by the CBA's executive director and curator Alexander Campos, this exhibit explores more than three decades of Spector's altered books, book stacks, and collages made from clipped dust jackets. It is held in conjunction with an artist talk, scheduled for November 20, with a master class following on November 21-22. 

We profiled Spector and his tactile book art back in our spring 2014 issue. At the time, he told Richard Minsky, "Touch has always been central to my work." Spector further described his first found altered book project:

...The Evolution of a Life: or, From the Bondage of Superstition to the Freedom of Reason by the Rev. Henry Truro Bray. I loved the title, and as a visual pun I tore out the superstition and left the reason. Actually I started making it as a model of a blank book that I wanted Bill to bind for me. I started getting chills altering it after about thirty pages. As I tore the pages away I realized it still looked like pages and columns, but made nonsensical letterforms.
    At first it was the tearing gesture that was the intersection of physical process and text, and I quickly moved on to tearing them and painting on them, or digging into them with X-acto knives to form miniature geographies, and gluing small artifacts onto the surface. After about a year I discovered other artists were embellishing found printed books and realized that it was the tearing of pages that was the significant gesture. I started making serious choices about what book to alter.
The exhibit is up through December 12.

Image: Buzz Spector's Altered K, via the Center for Book Arts.


OPENROAD_render_cover copy.jpgLast week the Furthermore organization announced that this year's winner of The Alice Award is David Campany's The Open Road: Photography & The American Road Trip, published by Aperture. The Alice is an annual prize for illustrated books that puts the emphasis on "The book as book, which is a work of art in itself," as Furthermore's founder and president Joan K. Davidson said in a recent interview with us. "When you look around at book prizes, they mostly go to the contents of the book," she said. "We do that, too, of course, but we consider the quality of the total book. All aspects of it have to be excellent--the idea, the editing, the design, the production."

Candidates for the $25,000 prize are selected from Furthermore grant recipients by a panel of jurors. This year's shortlist included Coney Island Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008 (Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut); Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit (Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, Michigan); One Hundred Books Famous in Children's Literature (Grolier Club, New York City); and A Portrait of Britain (National Portrait Gallery, London).

Read the full text of our article about The Alice and Furthermore here.

Image Courtesy of Aperture. 
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An early cover of Frank Herbert's epic intergalactic adventure. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Before Star Wars, there was Dune. (Certainly, before Dune there was The Blazing World, a 1666 utopian romance by British aristocrat Margaret Cavendish, but let's stick to the 20th century.) It's all part of the science-fiction genre, and readers have long been enthralled with what author Isaac Asimov coined in 1953 as "that branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings."

Frank Herbert's Dune particularly reshaped the world of modern science fiction. This epic tale of a warring feudal society in search of a precious natural resource called spice melange, set 21,000 years in the future on a faraway sandworm-infested planet, addresses, among other things, how man-made technology affects our surrounding ecology. The book was groundbreaking, and in addition to becoming the bestselling science fiction novel ever, Dune is also credited with laying the groundwork for the Earth Day movement. The book eventually won the inaugural Nebula award as well as a Hugo, and remains in the public eye with numerous sequels, movies, and other associated tie-ins.

Marking the fiftieth anniversary of Dune's publication, the Pollak Library at California State University, Fullerton, which acquired the Dune manuscripts in the 1960s (as well as Herbert's articles, correspondence, and research materials), is exploring the book's contribution to popular science fiction with a speaker series called "Dune: From Print to Cinema and Beyond." Through November 6, Fullerton faculty and guest speakers will discuss the book's legacy and how its political and environmental messages remains relevant.

Fans looking for some spice of own might consider the Folio Society's recently published $125 commemorative edition of the book, with illustrations by Brooklyn-based artist Sam Weber. Weber, you may recall, was commissioned by the United States Post Office to create stamps honoring the life and work of American writer Flannery O'Connor. The artist's 11 haunting photorealistic oil on board portraits of futuristic men and women are far from being cheesy throwbacks and evoke people whose dark struggles aren't all that different from our own. The Washington Post's longtime Book World editor (and Pulitzer Prize winner) Michael Dirda wrote the book's new introduction, calling it "more than a futuristic swashbuckler or a science-fiction 'coming-of-age' novel....It is a serious moral fable about the unforeseen consequences of the choices we make."

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Sam Weber's Sandworm from Dune. Reproduced with permission from The Folio Society.

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