Thursday, May 04, 2006
New reading
I picked up this book some time back, from another local used bookshop (I can't stay out of them, it's terrible): The Kingdom of Books by William Dana Orcutt (Little, Brown 1927). The first sentence reads: "All my life I have been seeking a Baedeker to the Kingdom of Books." Apparently he set out to write his own, when others were found unworthy. I hope the rest of the book is as good as his first line. It looks like a fine addition to the books-about-books section:
It's got many pretty pictures, too, but you'll just have to go find your own copies, dear readers, to find out what they are. My worn desk copy of The Reader's Encyclopedia tells me that Orcutt was a book designer as well as an author. He designed the Humanistic and Laurentian typefaces. I had to cut open the back pages to get at the colophon, which says that he supervised all aspects of the book's production. A hands-on author, nice.
It's got many pretty pictures, too, but you'll just have to go find your own copies, dear readers, to find out what they are. My worn desk copy of The Reader's Encyclopedia tells me that Orcutt was a book designer as well as an author. He designed the Humanistic and Laurentian typefaces. I had to cut open the back pages to get at the colophon, which says that he supervised all aspects of the book's production. A hands-on author, nice.
