My Personal Collection

Imagine money wasn't an issue. You could buy anything for any amount of money, big or small. A book lover's dream would be to step into a library filled with books of their choosing. Much like Belle in Beauty and the Beast.

This would be my collection. It may not fill up Belle's library, but it's a start. I decided to collect fantasy novels because that's what I've grown up reading. My mother and grandmother are avid readers of fantasy and I caught that bug. 

Enjoy my fantasy.

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again 

by JRR Tolkien 

First edition, with dust jacket. $45,000

"The Hobbit" is the prelude to Tolkien's trilogy The Lord of the Rings. This copy from Abe books is in prime condition. This is a beautiful book.

Carrie

by Stephen King

First edition, with dust jacket. $7,500

King is my favorite author. Carrie was the first novel of his that I ever read. 

The Game of Thrones

by George RR Martin

Entire collection, books 1-5, hardcover $139

It pains me to say that in real life, I own these on my Kindle. My collection would not be complete without these. Often called the modern-day Tolkien, Martin fills his books with maps and drawings that cannot be appreciated on the Kindle. 

Harry Potter

by JK Rowling

Classic hardcover, box set $89

Of course my collection would not be complete without Harry Potter. I already own all the books, but I've always wanted these super cool box sets. There is one that comes in a trunk and this particular one is a special edition "classic" hardcover. I personally do not like the American version of the books, the UK and other editions are better looking.

His Dark Materials trilogy

by Phillip Pullman

Box set $19

Fantasy novels often show up in the children's section. I got some strange looks when I was reading this series on the beach while all the other women my age and older were reading 50 Shades of Grey. But, this series is a prime example of fantasy that reaches all ages. And what's a good fantasy novel without stirring up a little controversy?

Northern Lights

by Phillip Pullman

First edition, hardcover with dust jacket, signed $9,900

With the last portion being said, I then found this. Take a look at how beautiful that dust jacket is. I've never seen this before, especially now that a movie has been made based on the book. I want this very much.

Insomnia

by Stephen King

First edition hardcover $3.47 

This book is not one of King's most raved about. There isn't a movie, mini-series, or television series about it. But oh is it good. What I love about King is his connections to other books. This book connects to his newer book, Under the Dome. And for the record, I most definately count King's works as fantasy. 

The Bards of Bone Plain

by Patricia McKillip

First edition, hardcover, signed by author $38.00

This is a beautiful book.  A contemporary fantasy, McKillip tells the completely original tale of the magic of music. 

Interview with the Vampire

by Anne Rice

First edition, signed, hardcover with dust jacket, $2,7500

No fantasy collection would be complete without an Anne Rice. This novel is a Knopf book, no less, which makes it a truly beautiful book.

The Lord of the Rings

by JRR Tolkien

First printing with collectable slip case, $350

The gold inlay in this book is perfect. The beauty of a Tolkien is the whole experience takes you to Middle Earth. This book looks as if I found it in Bilbo's collection.

The Once and Future King

by TH White

Paperback, $9.99

This is another book I think is a necessary part of a fantasy collection. Originally meant to be released in three parts, The Once and Future King is the untold story of King Arthur and the knights of the round table. The final section of the book was never released on its own because of strong anti-war sentiments during World War II.

The Stand

by Stephen King

Paperback $8.99

One day King's books might be worth something, so that's my hope with my collection. 

Coraline

by Neil Gaiman

Paperback $17.50

Regrettably, Coraline is the only Neil Gaiman book I've ever read, but he is fantasy writing. So my collection would not be complete without him.

A Wizard of Earthsea
by Ursula Le Guin
First edition, hardcover with dust jacket, stamp from private library inside, $49.00

Before Harry went to Hogwarts, Ged went to wizarding school. Le Guin also earns a spot in my collection for being one of the few female fantasy writers.

The Edible Book

The Golden (Graham) Compass

This past week the class assignment was to make an edible book. It could be any book we wanted, but everything had to be edible. When I described this to friends, they were confused. They thought we had to make a book, literally. No. Instead it had to be the books likeness, or meaning. Or it could be cute and witty.

I decided to make The Golden Compass. I chose this book because while it is a children's book, I just read it over the summer and fell in love with Lyra and her compass. I figured the compass would be a perfect way to describe this book, plus I could make it a little cute by using graham crackers to make it gold.

The finished product displayed at the Edible Book Tea.

The process was simple. I used yellow cake and frosted it with white icing. Then I crushed the graham crackers into pieces and dust. I can assure you I made a mess in the kitchen trying to adhere the crackers to the icing. I only had a small window of time before the icing dried and the crackers wouldn't stick. Then I used gummy fruit snacks, such as Scooby-Doo fruit snacks, for the symbols on the compass. For anyone who has not read the books, the symbols have different meanings that Lyra can read when she falls into some type of trance. The symbols include a dagger and a bird, but Scooby and Tinkerbell had to do.

A top view of the compass

I was really impressed with what the rest of my class came up with for their books. Here are a view of my favorites.

The Game of Thrones. This was actually a playable game to make it to the throne. The dice were made out of sugar cubes. This one best in show.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets made out of bread! By Rachel Hagley

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Betsy Haugh. I was really impressed by how big this building was.

The class and the judges looking at the edible books.

Not all that glitters is gold

One of my personal favorite things on a beautiful book is gold pages, or all edges gilt. Something about the shimmer of the edges has drawn me to books since I was little. My little prayer book has that extra little glimmer.

The term gilding covers a number of different techniques of applying gold leaf to solid surfaces. Specifically for books, there are a number of different techniques to gild the edges of a book's pages. Roger Grech gives a really good step-by-step guide to rough edge gilding. It would be really cool if I would be able to do this myself when I make my own book in class, but there are too many extra tools needed.

The gold in the gold leaf is usually mixed with other metals or alloys. However, as Beth Carswell says, "not all that glitters is gold," and sometimes it can just be gold-colored paint. Books from the Easton Press gild its pages in 22kt gold.



Taking the gild up a notch is fore-edge painting. This is truly amazing. What looks like normal gold gild turns into a painting.

Typography

Because I am a page designer for the school paper, typography is something that I enjoy. A well-designed page for me is all about the type.  So needless to say, I was excited about this blog.

The type for my book is blackletter.  Blackletter is often referred to as Old English or gothic.  The Gutenburg Bible was printed with blackletter. 

A sample of the type from the prayer book.  

It was used in Germany until the 1920s, when sans serif fonts became more popular. In 1933 Hitler declared the new typography un-German and Fraktur to be the people's font. The Nazi's continued to use this font until 1941 when the Nazi's banned its use, citing its "Jewish origins." (Heller)

Sample of Fraktur

Blackletter is characterized by tight spacing and condensed lettering.  Condensing the lines and letter spacing reduced the cost of book production by cutting the amount of materials needed. (Graphic)

Blackletter is not used much today because it is hard to read.  The font is not as hard to read in my book, because of the small amount of text. Imagine if this font was used in commercial books today.  Would you like to read Harry Potter or  your favorite paperback in this font?

You can see blackletter today in the New York Times masthead, on a bottle of Corona, or, my personal favorite, at the entrance of Disneyland.

"The text of the book is the thing for which everything else exists." -W.A. Dwiggins, The Structure of the Book 

Works Cited
Graphic Design History. Blackletter/Gothic Lettering. N.p., 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.
Heller, Steven. The meaning of type. Eye Magazine, 2003. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.

More History than Expected

Paper

In the town where I grew up, there was a paper mill.  It doesn't produce as much now, mainly gets the paper shipped to them where they package it, but at the time when it was producing paper, it wasn't pretty.  It smelled and put a lot out into the air.  That is my one and only personal experience with paper making.

It's not something you think about when you pick up a book.  I can't say I've ever picked up a book and thought, "How did they make this?" But that has been my task this past week.  I needed to look at my little prayer book and think about the paper.

I wish you could really see and touch the paper.  I can't take a good enough picture to show you this time.  The pages are soft, except for the ones with the illustrations.  Those pages are thicker, but still smooth.  On the regular pages, you can see the fibers of the paper.  Where the illustrated pages are smooth and white, the regular pages have a grainy texture to them.

With an educated guess to the timeframe of when my book was printed and knowing the book was printed in Germany, led me on a discovery of papermaking history in Germany.

 The German papermakers contributed to the art of making paper by hand. The nomadic Germans travelled around both their own countries and Europe, sharing the secrets and terminology of paper making that was not written down or put in print. The papermakers eventually settled in small groups, teaching the craft at conventions attended by masters and companions. A companion, surprisingly, had the upper hand in the relationship of master and companion, being able to reprimand the master.  A companion was not allowed to work with a reprimanded master.

The craft of papermaking was strong in Germany at the end of the 16th century that Niklaus Durr, papermaker of Basel said, "No emperor nor king, nor prince, is able to resist the will of the German handcraft." (Dabrowski)

Central Europe then moved to paper mills and manufactured paper in that way.  Handmaking paper is now a thing of the past for the most part, other than in artist books, but never for commercial books.

Works Cited
Dąbrowski, Józef. Paper Manufacture in C entral and Eastern Europe Before the Introduction of Paper-making Machines. N.p., July 2008. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.

Forget-me-not

 Illustration

What good does illustration do in a prayer book?  The Bible, as it is currently printed, doesn't have illustrations.  The importance is the text.  Anything else just gets in the way of the word.  

However, in my Christian forget-me-not, the scripture is meant to be remembered.  As the months pass in the book, the flowers tell the story of the changing of the seasons.   It all ties together the forget-me-nots on the cover of the book and the overall meaning of the book.

There is no publishing date in this book, which means I can only guess as to how these illustrations were printed.  What I do know is the book was printed in Germany, the illustrations are on thicker paper and there is gold overlay on some of the illustrations. 

My educated guess is the illustrations were printed by the process of chromolithography.  Chromolithography is a way of making multi-colored prints.  Invented in the early 1800s, chromolithography was an easy way to get color to the masses.  

The Chicago Antiques Guide blog explains that in order to tell a chromolithograph from a color separation print, which is the "modern" process of printing, the dots are important. When magnified, the dots on a chromolithograph will resemble the stone the illustration is printed on, making the pattern irregular.

This close up of a cigar label from 1930 is a closely resembles the same dot pattern from the illustrations on my book.

Works Cited

Chicago Antiques. Chicago Antiques Blog. N.p., 16 Feb. 2012. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

Provenance

Let's meet the Johnson family.

They are what really makes this book special.  In the beginning, I didn't know much about them, but I did know that Herb and Carl both married women named Tillie.  I knew when each was born and when they died.

There are a few different handwritings in this book.  The one in blue looks like my grandmothers and is predominant throughout.  The woman (I only assume woman) has found older entries in the book and written birth and death dates.

The best one is about Carl Johnson, as it details where he was when he died and his funeral.

I like to imagine the story goes that the book belonged to a grandmother, who brought it with her from Germany.  The daughter found it when she went through her mother's possessions and wanted to find out more about her family.  There is some subtraction of dates within the pages, and scratches out when the information changed.

Of course, I can only guess.

But I do know is the writing give the book provenance.  Provenance is basically the history of a books ownership.  Who owned the book affects the value.

While the Johnson's probably weren't famous or prominent, it makes it more interesting. But if this were the prayer book of a Danish prime minister, it would be valuable.

But searching for the Johnson's nonetheless is fun.  Carl was buried in Colton, South Dakota.  A quick search led me to "The Duroc Bulletin" where you can find Carl's name, along with other Johnson's. The bulletin is all about swine.  Who sold, who bought, what's best and what's not.  It is dated 1941.

Look a little farther, and I found the whole family.

Carl's mother came from Norway when she was 11 years old.  His father was born in Wisconsin, but his grandmother was from Norway as well.  

Carl farmed until the 1940s.  He married Tillie, but they had no children. By joining the site, I was able to look at photos.  Here's one of Carl and Herb.

I could look at this family's history all night long.  Finding this history, seeing Carl's gravestone and the pictures of his brothers and sisters also in my book, is so exciting.  Possibly the coolest thing I've ever had to do for a class.

My little book might have only cost $10 on e-bay, but the history with it is priceless.

The Book

I have finally decided on a book to study this semester, and let me tell you, I am very excited about it.  When it finally got it in the mail, I couldn't keep my hands off it.

Are you ready to see it?

Drum roll, please....

"Kristelig Forglemmigej" is my book of choice.  This Danish prayer/poem book caught my eye while I was browsing eBay.  

"Kristelig" mean Christian, and "Forglemmigej" means "Forget-me-not," hence the forget-me-not flowers on the cover of the book.

There is no author.  This is just a collection of poems and scripture for every day of the year.  There are also blank pages inside the book for what I am assuming is to write your own devotions.  In this particular book, there are names, dates and short details of what happened to the person.

This is what makes this book special.

The book has writing from a few different people, but I believe it is the same family--The Johnson's.  My favorite entry is on page 131.  This page is a good example of the different handwriting. The entry says "Carl Johnson, May the 2nd, 1884."  The rest is done at a later date, which is evident of the use of a blue fountain pen.  The entry says when Carl died, how old he was, where his funeral was and where he is buried.

The book was published by the Augsburg Publishing House, located in Minneapolis, but the book was printed in Germany.  

The Augsburg Publishing House is now the Augsburg Fortress, combining the names of two Lutheran publishing houses. 

The Augsburg Publishing House was founded in 1891 at Augsburg Seminary.  At the time, both the house and the seminary were a part of United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America, until the publishing house moved and became the publishing arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.  In 1960, the Lutheran denominations formed the American Lutheran Church.

Overall, I am excited to explore this little book and find out more about it.

Works Cited

About Us. Augsburg Fortress, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.

The Power of Print

I live, quite literally, for the written word.

I am a junior print journalism major at Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va., where I am the news editor for the daily student newspaper The Parthenon.

While my true passion is writing, I appreciate the value of a well-designed page.  The story cannot make an efficient impact if it is not presented well.

The world of newspapers is on the same unknown journey as books through an ever-changing, technical terrain.  Will it all go digital?  If it's digital, is it still the printed word?

My decision to be a print journalism major, and not an online major or broadcast major, was an easy one.  When the choice between a hardback, 1,000 page book versus a Kindle version of the same book presents itself to me, I choose the hardback, 1,000 page book.  I want to hold it.  I want to hold the newspaper.  I need that.

For the next few months, I will be analyzing a book of my choice (which I haven't chosen yet).  I'm going to research the paper, the typography, the binding and everything else.  I'm currently on the hunt for my soul-book (the book equivalent to a soulmate).

Stay with me and let's discover why the book is beautiful.  Let's all rediscover why the printed word is so important.