Any Book in a Storm

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

Meet the Classics

Typewriters are placed in the computer department of bookstores to call attention to Penguin Classic Books.

Ad agency: EC Comunicacao, Sao Paulo, Brazil

:: Via This Isn't Happiness

Japanese Matchbook Label

I heart the sweet handlettering the artist gave to this small matchbook label for the Tokaido Co. Bookstore. They even took the care to make the kite string sail through the counter of the B. But I mostly love the innocent and naive illustration and printing quality so typical of vintage matchbook labels. Charming!
Thanks W. Creswell!

Story of The Little Book of Big Type

This miniature type specimen book from 1961 was the result of a collaboration between Los Angeles bookseller, Glen Dawson and printer Will Cheney. It contained type specimens from Will Cheney's cases. Cheney (1907-2002) was a self-styled typesticker in LA and loved setting metal type into words. He was obsessed with typography and perhaps best known for his miniature books along with his wry sense of humor. I never had the pleasure to meet Cheney or see this little book of Big Type, but it is a very sweet gem.












































































































As a sidenote, bookseller, Glen Dawson and his brother Muir, were second-generation owners of what I believe was the best rare book shop in Los Angeles for many years—the legendary Dawson Bookshop on Larchmont Boulevard. It was a family business which began in downtown LA in 1905 by their father Ernest Dawson and they specialized in rare books on California history, Western Americana, photography and fine printing. Ernest was not only a rare book dealer, but was also an accomplished mountain climber who served as president of the Sierra Club for several years in the 1930s. His two sons, Glen and Muir (namesake of John Muir) took to the mountains as well. Glen was part of a team of climbers who did a daring first ascent of Mt. Whitney in 1931. During World War II, both he and his brother Muir served as ski and rock climbing instructors in the Tenth Mountain Division at Camp Hale, Colorado and in Italy. Together, they later took over the family bookstore and moved to various downtown locations before eventually settling into their Larchmont location in 1968. During the course of their careers, the Dawson's published nearly 400 collectible books, many of them miniatures like the one featured above by Will Cheney.

It was in the early 1980s, when I first discovered Dawson's Bookshop myself. It was probably by gravitational pull. I was a young designer and eager to soak in anything I could read about fine printing and books. Dawson's was one of my earliest introductions to a rarified collection of materials on fine printing and typography and I would spend hours browsing their bookshelves. I couldn't afford much more than an occasional piece of ephemera at the time, but the Dawson's always made me feel welcomed just to stop in and browse.

Last August, after more than a century of bookselling, Muir's son and third generation owner, Michael Dawson made the difficult decision to officially close the doors of the Larchmont store and shift his family book trade online. After years of catering to book collector's and libraries he felt it was time for a new chapter to the family business. I am sad that I am no longer able to visit their friendly shop again, but comforted knowing it still virtually exists. You can read a recent interview with Michael and review a slide show of more historic photos of the various Dawson Bookshop incarnations here. The images below are several of the first Dawson Bookshops' in Los Angeles beginning with the earliest store on Broadway taken in 1907.

Thanks to Paul Ritscher's Typesticker Flickr for Cheney's Type Book images. And special thanks to Dawson's Bookshop for all of the great memories!

Could Santa Be a Space Alien?

Some intergalactic holiday covers which are out of this world.
From Froggyboggler.

What else I saw on my Summer Vacation

The Mission in San Francisco is so colorful. Murals, people and signage...the place just vibrates day and night. I love the large handpainted Tuscan letters of an old sign here. You could see the gentrification taking place in the Mission as city sign workers were modernizing old signs with the new. Sigh...Then stopping in at 826 Valencia, AKA McSweeney's Pirate Supply and literary arts promoter, we could see young children busily at work writing and creating books in the backroom. Just how many ways can you spell Aaaarrghhh?

The other photos below are from Adobe Bookshop, just off Valencia on 16th. This ain't no stinkin' Borders bookstore! Adobe has to be San Francisco's most beloved used and eclectic bookstore, where their more than 20,000 books were once arranged entirely by color and handwritten names of various artists and writers are scribbled on the walls. People bang out manuscripts on old typewriters in the back and cats roam around freely amidst the piles of used books. Sadly, like many used independent bookstores, it is struggling with survival and may have to close it's doors soon. The handmade "Everything Must Go" sign on the front window is a remnant from an art exhibit last May, and the owner leaves it there to encourage people to come inside. When my husband, Paul and I walked in last Summer, we instantly felt this was a place where time stood still and the ghosts of writers could mingle with the wayward souls who napped beneath the skylights on comfy old couches and chairs–one with a pigeon resting on his stomach. The clerk at the counter said it was nap time, so we quietly made our purchase, departed the wayback machine and ambled on.