The Curative Power of Storytelling

A wonderful story about books brought to us by author, illustrator and animator William Joyce and the team at Moonbot. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is full of detail and theater with many book-related themes going on in some of the backgrounds of the story. Check out a previous short about the iPad version of this story I posted here earlier.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore available in the iTunes App Store for $4.99. You can even get a Moonbot case for your iPad that looks like the cover of the book.

The Pocket Bookmobile

This adorable bookmobile-shaped brochure from 1952 was to promote service for the library on wheels in the state of Maryland. According to Larry Nix at the Library History Buff Blog, the first traveling bookmobile service in the US actually began in Hagerstown, Maryland in 1905. It was a wagon pulled by 2 horses with enough space for 200 books on the outside and additional space for more books on the inside of the wagon. The driver of the wagon did double duty as the janitor of the library. 
      Prior to the bookmobile, there were traveling libraries with small rotating collections of books which were stationed for months on end at convenient locations such as a post office, store or someone's home. This allowed for library service to be extended to rural areas across the US in the late 19th century. 
      Bringing books to the people has a long legacy around the world, yet it's unfortunate the bookmobile barely coasted into the 21st century before it became roadkill. Call me a sentimental old bibliofool, but I miss having a traveling library on wheels. 
Hey Amazon! Give us an eReader shaped like a bookmobile why don't you?

Festival of the Book Poster

Missed out on the 2011 Montana book festival, but caught the poster on a recent visit to the Exile Bibliophile site. Host Benjamin Clark tells me it was designed and illustrated by Joana Yardley. I just want to be inside this Montana poster, and reading by alpenglow beside the lake. Very dreamy! 

Life Before You Tube

Caricatures of cats in compromising situations become all the rage in early 19th century England. The comic book soon goes viral... and advertising is born. ; )

:: From Henry Alken's oddly comic caricatures in Symptoms of Being Amused. Vol. 1, Thomas McLean, 1822. Via Bonhams. 

A Mash-up of Chromolithography, Meat Extracts and MacArthur Fellows

No. 1: The artist composing the image in his studio.

No. 2: Extracting the limestone.

No. 3: The studio for lithographic reproduction. 

No. 4: Making press proofs.

No. 5: Printing the final large press sheets.

No. 6: The final trimming and collating of the cards.


The highly regarded German chemist, professor, and a founding father of organic chemistry, Justus von Liebig (1803-1873), invented a way to produce beef extract from carcasses (hmmm) as a cheap alternative to real meat. In 1865 he formed the Leibig Extract of Meat Company and like many businesses of the 19th century, he advertised his business with beautiful sets of trade cards. Nearly 2000 Liebig cards have been documented since the Liebig Company began issuing them around 1872. They continued to produce them for over 100 years on everything subject from famous Belgian scientists to masters of illusion, usually in sets made up of 6 cards. The earliest Liebig cards were printed using a method called chromolithography, and are prized among collectors for their fine quality of printing and design. 
       This set of 6 cards displayed above, from User Online, illustrate the actual production of chromolith printing of the day. The process of Chromolithography was invented in the late 1790s, 40 years before the invention of photography, and it was an alterative to the woodcut or engraving process where you carve into the surface in order to create a relief image. Chromoliths, (sometimes referred to as chromos), are known as planographic prints, meaning the images and text were drawn on a flat, limestone surface with a greasy crayon and when it chemically treated, the drawn areas would attract ink and the stone would repel it. Each color represented a different stone and press run, so the task of producing this method of lithography was not only extremely labor intensive, but an art that few mastered. The subtle texture of each print comes from the irregular grain of the stone. Some of the finest printers were in Germany and France where much of the best quality limestone was mined.
       The set of 6 cards above illustrate the entire chromolithography printing process in consecutive order. In one corner of each card is a small infographic of ink colors next to a portrait of Mr. Liebig. Each card progressively adds 2 more colors resulting in a combination of 12 ink colors for the final portrait. The background on each has an illustration of the one step of the print process beginning with the first card of your average long-haired, pointey-beard artist at his drawing table. Next, in consecutive order, is the extraction of limestone (a nice word for mining); a factory of artists painting stones; making press proofs; the printing; and then the final trimming, collating and packaging. I regret that I could not find larger versions of this set of Liebig cards, but the Princeton University Library reported on a larger rez which I've included below. It is a German version of the same French card No. 4 you see above. Interestingly, they were probably printed at two different printing houses and you can see some dissimilarities in color and detail. The text at the bottom of the German version is also much nicer, which leads me to think it was likely the original or first edition. Granted these are at 2 different resolutions, but it does appear that German card has more definition and detail overall. 

Another version of card No. 4, but in German this time.
Below is a photo of 2 litho stones which I took this past summer at the wonderful Museum of Printing in N. Andover, MA. The people at the museum actually printed from the stone recently and you can see an example of it next to the original.   

Below you can see a 1907 Liebig card on Venezuela from Four Ages of Sand. A magnified portion of it displays the extraordinary detail and combination of colors in a typical Liebig color chromo. 

If you are interested in learning more about the stone lithography process, you must visit The Museum of Modern Art's site, The Printed Picture, hosted by noted author, former Dean of the Yale School of Art, photographer and MacArthur "genius grant" recipient, Richard Benson. In addition to a video on chromolithography, Benson has a total of 8 hours of videos there discussing every printing process from early Lumière autochromes, Japanese woodblock printing, wood engraving to printing processes such as the old piano roll. It is an incredible archive of material and extremely well-documented. His beautifully designed companion book to the MOMA site and a 2008 exhibit, The Printed Picture is one of the most comprehensive guides on printing processes I have ever seen and an essential resource for printers of all stripes. You can read a great book review of it by Jerry Kelly on AIGAs site.

As a side note, Richard Benson just happens to be the uncle of Newport, RI stonecarver, Nick Benson who is also a recent MacArthur fellow. For those not counting, that is two "Macs" in one family! Nick was honored with a "genius grant" just last Fall for his lettering and stone carving work. I reported on Nick last Winter here on Letterology and for AIGA's Voice series, and I had the wonderful honor of visiting him and his brilliantly talented father John Benson in their RI shop in July. John's father, John Howard Benson began the family stone carving business at The John Stevens Shop in 1927. He was an artist, calligrapher, teacher at the Rhode Island School of Design and author of The Elements of Lettering. At the time of my visit I learned of yet another talented Benson; Nick's brother, Christopher, who lives in New Mexico and is a very fine painter in his own right. He also designs and publishes some very fine-editioned portfolios of artists work at The Fisher Press. I found it hilarious that each one of the Bensons will independently claim the other is more talented than the next. They are a one-family art colony—the art gene runs very deep in that family! 

The York Book Fair

The 2011 York National Book Fair, the largest antiquarian book fair in the UK, is set to open on Friday with 215 booksellers. Wish I could be there, but this lovely artwork by Mark Hearld is a nice consolation. See more of Hearld's work at St Jude's Gallery.

Just my Type of Book

Just My Type from Pentagram on Vimeo.

Released in the UK last Fall, Just My Type, by Simon Garfield will be released tomorrow, September 1st, in the US. I love this book (cover design; not so much). It is indeed a great read—like a pleasant walk through the long corridor of type history! Maria Popova over at Brain Pickings, just included it in a great post on her list of the 10 Essential Books on Typography. You can also read more about it in my earlier Letterology post here which has some cool links.

Any Book in a Storm

Recently seen at WORD bookstore in Brooklyn NY.
::Via ShelfAwareness

Cover Curiosities

I've been cleaning out my attic and bookshelves lately and rediscovered some old forgotten books. Some of these gems are silkscreened trade bindings, while most are printed by letterpress which would technically make them cloth stamped bindings. Often they are designed by anonymous artists. My favorite is the book above, which is in lousy shape, sadly. I recall buying it years ago just for the cover design. The title appears to be all hand-lettered, and the copyright page is missing, but the owner boldly signed his name and date of 1917 in blackletter penwork on the endsheets. This was just a few years prior to the the time designer W.A. Dwiggins was credited for coining the term, graphic designer in 1922, which has since displaced the less descriptive label of commercial artist. I'll do my best to post all of these books on Flickr before long, with more information on each. 
Note to self: clean more often.

Reading for Pleasure

Donald Brun poster, 1966

Oliver Jeffers Book, 2004

Don't miss Shelley Davies' recent post on reading as seen through the eyes of designers, artists and illustrators. These 2 selections are just a sneak preview of her entire archive of readers. It is such a pleasure to see them all in one place. Delightful! 

Better Than the Ice Cream Man

It's the adorable Penguin Bookmobile circa 1937, introduced just 2 years after Allen Lane popularized paperback book publishing after launching Penguin Books. This same year Lane also invented the Penguincubator, a book-dispensing machine which made its' first appearance at 66 Charing Cross Road.
:: Via TYWKIWDBI (Tai-Wiki-Widbee). 

The Greenwich Library Bookmobile circa 1940.
:: Via Flickr

Boston Public Library Bookmobile circa 1963.
:: Via Flickr

The Biblioburro Bookmobile in La Gloria, Columbia began in the late 90s by teacher, Luis Soriano on the backs of his two burros, Alfa and Beto and with just 70 books. With the aid of donations, he has since built his own library by hand and now has 1000s of books to share with Columbian children. Soriano is an amazing soul and educating young children has become his life work. There is even a children's book published about him and his burros, titled Biblioburro by Jeanette Winter. You can read more about his heroic quest in a New York Times article and make donations at the Biblioburro Foundation website.

:: Photos below from Scott Dalton for the New York Times.

Keds. Not Just for Kids

Smart shoes to make you think on your feet. 

:: Via Phil Bradley

Boekenweek Revisited

The Netherlands have such a rich heritage of the book and printing and hold them both in high esteem. Nearly every year since 1932, the CPNB or Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek (the Collective Promotion for the Dutch Book) organizes a book week, or Boekenweek to promote Dutch literature and reading. The entire country observes this literary festival for 10 days in March, with debates, book signings, author readings, a Book Ball, children's book events and even a commemorative postage stamp. What a lovely concept! The 2011 Boekenweek just ended on Saturday, so start planning for a visit next March maybe. 

The posters designed for the event this year were by Van Wanter Etcetera who collaborated with the fine art printer Souverein to create a series of 3D author book portraits called the Written Portraits. The 4 Dutch authors portrayed in the 3D books are Van Gogh, Anne Frank, Louis Vann Gaal and Kader Abdolla. The team at Souverein used original book pages for the text inside the portraits as a poetic salute to each of the four authors. 

For the 75th anniversary of Boekenweek last year, a commemorative postage stamp was issued for the event. As you can see below it is actually a small book with a short story included. The book which can be detached was designed as an actual appendix for the book written by Joost Zwagerman titled Duel. Zwagerman was invited to specifically write Dual for the coinciding event, Boekenweekgeschenk (Book Week Gift) where a prominent author is asked to write a book to be given by bookstores to customers purchasing a set amount of books in the Dutch language. I have no doubt this all requires a great deal of planning and logistics on many levels, but celebrating the book for one week each year is nothing compared to all the pleasures we get in return from books. 

Below are some past posters from Boekenweek. The first is designed by Wim Crouwel. The 2nd is a poster for the Boekenweek Dubutant Ball. Designer unknown, but from Jar Geerlings Flickr set. The poster of the dog with an identity crisis is from Designpolitie. If anyone knows the authors of the remaining posters, I will gladly post them if you get back to me here. 

:: Props to Cerebral Boinkfest for the Boekenweek lead and some of the images!