merry christmas! and a round up

i meant to post this before the holiday...but i figure, better late than next year :)

merry christmas!
1943, alfred a. knopf, new york
illustrated by natasha simkhovitch

i'll be back in 2010...until then:

a wonderful collection of imaginary idol 'gigi gaston' ephemera by josh gosfield at steven kasher gallery...via boing boing.

once upon a blog... chronicles fairy tale relevent information...great stuff!

the lost pleasure of browsing...it's so true, i am on the wall about electronic readers, i love the tactile feel of a book and the whole bookstore experience...via the mccune collection...a collection of rare books and bookmaking objects, which now belongs to the city of vallejo, ca...via biblio odyssey.

between the covers an exhibition on "women's magazines and their readers"...via nothing elegant.

the 10 essential classics according to antler magazine.

bangkok rare books...if only i had millions!

design is mine explores the golden age of illustration in ten images.

answers to frequently asked questions about old books and their values at the american library association's rare books department.

more rare books...yale's beinecke library...columbia university's...and penn's.

when bad covers happen to good books and 100 notable books of 2009 both are via automatism (who always posts the best book links).

i've also added a bunch of new links to the sidebar!

happy new year <3

the gingerbread boy, little red riding hood and the house that jack built

a compilation of three great stories...i love the naïveté of the cover!

little red riding hood is perhaps my favorite fairy tale of all...i grew up with a large painting of little red with the wolf hiding behind a tree. the painting was by this man named eddie newman, who was a street fighter boxer friend of my grandfather's. it was hung directly across from my bed and it gave me nightmares for years.
i used to have these cartoon dreams that the wolf was after me and would catch me by my wrist and gnaw on it. really unpleasant stuff for my 5 year old self. but after a while, i guess it seeped in and i grew to love it and not fear it...and now i'm a bit of a morbid adult and i'm sure this painting has something to do with it!

i told this story to a college professor of mine...i was taking a class titled something like "medieval women's culture" (it was a summer course). after the shock of troubadour poetry being read to me at 8 a.m., the love-lorn letters between abelard and heloise, and many discussions on nuns...i was prompted to share this for some reason and my professor said, "well you must be afraid of men!!" i realized her point, being, that fairy tales concern girls/women in particular ways that they might not men...although i'm not sure about that. anyways, discussion for another day.

the gingerbread boy, little red riding hood and the house that jack built
1945, whitman publishing, racine
illustrated by hilda miloche and wilma kane

chester bear's adventures

mama bear, papa bear, baby bear...never gets old for me...this book's illustrations are unique and special, i think. adapted from romanian. this is apparently one in a series.

chester bear's adventures by maria zetea
adapted by ana marian
c. 1980, roydon publishing co. ltd, london
illustrated by ecaterina draganovici

robinson crusoe

i used to have a robinson crusoe coloring/activity book when i was a kid and i loved it. it had a real survival in the elements slant to it and i remember thinking i would've been a better leader when i read lord of the flies. pretty arrogant i guess, but then again i was 8 or something. anyways, long story short...i've never actually read this book! but i promise to and will hopefully some day soon.
these illustrations are really special...they were apparently created in the "tropics" so that they would accurately set the mood for the text.

the life and strange surprising adventures of robinson crusoe, of york, mariner by daniel defoe
c. 1900, harper and brothers, new york
illustrated by the brothers louis and frederick rhead

junior deluxe editions

i've posted about junior deluxe editions before here. they are little pieces of sunshine in book form! here are 3 stories of 3 strong and interesting men!

the story of doctor dolittle by hugh lofting
1948, j.b. lippincott, philadelphia
illustrated by hugh lofting

robin hood by howard pyle
c. 1955, junior deluxe editions, new york
illustrator not credited

treasure island by robert louis stevenson
1954, nelson doubleday, new york
illustrated by henry c. pitz

the golden book: the story of fine books and bookmaking - past & present

this book has a beautiful gilt cover...i'm not really sure how the title relates to the text...maybe it's something i'm missing (referring to books for the masses?). anyways...this used to belong to a church congregation and it must have sat on a library shelf for years because it is in excellent condition. just a loose spine which has been repaired in a few places. all of the paper is hallmarked with the printer's mark (which i've never seen in another book).

as a reference tool this book is remarkable! it includes all kinds of information on bookmaking (past and present)...
ancient forms of writing
the origin of the alphabet
types of paper
books in manuscript
woodcuts and block books
typography
the invention of printing
the venetian masters
early illustrated books
the study of the incunabula
roman type design
the printing press
benjamin franklin
isaiah thomas
william morris
bookmaking and its process
type design (have you seen helvetica?)
book illustration
the art of bookbinding
modern fine printing
and much much more...including a ton of illustrations. this book is 2" thick!

the golden book: the story of fine books and bookmaking - past & present by douglas c. mcmurtrie
second edition, 1927, pascal covici, chicago

david copperfield in copperplate

i found this amazing book at a book sale this past summer. i love the irony of the book...i find it very clever. i also love dicken's david copperfield. well, i love dickens. these copperplates illustrate the story very well and i like the style of illustration too. there are 46 illustrations in all with short quotes from the story filling in the gaps.

the publisher's note sums it up nicely...

in offering this series of drawings by william ross cameron, the publisher is confident that their charm will be apparent to collectors & amateurs alike. collectors of dickensiana will find in them a fresh interpretation of david copperfield, so often essayed by other artists, so seldom successfully. through his painstaking researches into the life and manners of the period and through his piquant characterization - often just this side of caricature - that is dickens, will cameron has added another bouquet to the great victorian's wreath. whether or not they have ever read the 800-odd pages of the novel amateurs from "seven to seventy" will find in these plates, with accompanying excerpts from the original text, a personally conducted tour of vivacity and sustained interest through the stirring scenes of david's fortunes & misfortunes. children of seven will be led to read this truly remarkable novel, and those of seventy to reread and relive it!

david copperfield in copperplate
first edition, 1947, bern porter, california
illustrated by william ross cameron