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Amy Brooks: author, illustrator, and book cover designer
Working with the Girls Books in Series Collection at UNCG, it’s hard not to come across the name Amy Brooks. She illustrated many books, including the Little Prudy series by Sophie May and the Helen Grant series by Amanda Douglas. I came across a reference to her the other day that intrigued me. Not only… Continue reading
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Making a Molehill out of a Misprint
There are events, sometimes small, that reverberate down through the years, sometimes with unexpectedly momentous consequences (“For want of a nail …”). This is not one of those. Rather, it’s the story of a misprint composed by an unknown hand in a book published by the L.C. Page Company in 1901. The misprint reappeared 111… Continue reading
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Twelve bindings of Christmas
Happy Holidays! This Christmas we’d like to offer you a selection of 12 seasonal bindings from the University of North Carolina Greensboro’s American Trade Bindings Collection. But before presenting them, we’d like to give a nod to our last holiday for Thanksgiving fans. It’s hard to believe that it was a month ago, and it’s… Continue reading
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Stitt Publishing Company
1905 was a year of possibilities in the literary world. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle came out in serial form, O. Henry’s The gift of the Magi was published for the first time, and both Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A little princess were published in book form. In this same year, publishing companies were forming after several big name… Continue reading
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Remembering F. Hopkinson Smith
F. Hopkinson Smith was a talented person who wore a lot of hats in his life. Not only was he an author and illustrator, but he was also a renowned engineer. Francis Hopkinson Smith was born in Baltimore, Maryland on October 23, 1838 to Francis Hopkinson Smith Sr. and Susan Teackle. He left home at… Continue reading
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April on the high seas
Hello again from Paul and Callie, your friends at American Trade Bindings and Beyond! The beginning of spring, and this first day of this new month of April, seemed like a good time to re-introduce the blog after a long hiatus. During these uncertain and tumultuous times, when so many of us are working from… Continue reading
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Holiday greetings for 2019
We wish you a joyous holiday season! Illustrated by L.J. Bridgman. Boston: L.C. Page & Co., 1904. Illustrated by Harriet O’Brien. Boston: L.C. Page, 1912. From our little cousins, Boston: Little, Brown, 1906. Illustrations from drawings by Alice Barber Stephens. Janet, the Decorative Designers, and your friends, Paul and Callie, at American Trade Bindings and… Continue reading
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Marion Peabody update!
Remember our blog post about Marion Peabody, the binding designer, whom we posted about way back in 2015? If not, go check it out! You can even see the photograph of her that we found in passport records. Anyway, we have an update thanks to the sleuthing of Linda Obora! I was sitting at my… Continue reading
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A Christmas Wish: Mammoth Cheese on the Hearthstone
Once again Christmas has crept up on us. We’re through the solstice turn and are in the final stretch of 2017. However, I’m devastated to say that I’ve never heard that Santa delivers binding images, even to the best behaved, which prompted this bitter image. Cover by Margaret Armstrong To celebrate the holiday season appropriately,… Continue reading
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Margaret Armstrong's Great Series; Cloth Color part 2
In the last post we began to look at cloth color as an aspect of trade binding design. We also took a brief look at publishing practices such as the role of electrotyping in keeping books available for long periods, and “case binding” and how this method of bookbinding allowed publishers to meet increased consumer… Continue reading
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