The Fine, Deluxe Edition

April is the month of the Book, marking not just World Book Day, International Day of the Book and Copyright Day, but also the birthday of Shakespeare. But this year one is compelled to ask: what does World Book Day mean for the Book, the object which after nearly thousand years of being the way we read and learned, now seems headed for an unknown future?

As a collector of books my simple response to this is: turn to the finely produced book which will never go out of currency because it can offer what digital books cannot: the visceral pleasure of the well made physical book.

In my collection is a whole shelf devoted to the deluxe edition where the value lies not in the book being a first edition or a signed copy, but in how the book has been produced. First editions and signed copies have a premium presence in the rare book market and in the heart of a collector, but just as desirable and fascinating are handsomely printed limited editions.

For instance consider, this edition from my cricketing books collection: The Young Cricketer’s Tutor by John Nyren, often referred to as one of the first classics in the literature of cricket books. It had many editions, but in 1948 the Dropmore Press brought out a deluxe edition of it with woodcuts by John O’Connor, one of England’s most famous illustrators. The book is utterly charming, particularly because of the woodcut illustrations which show how cricket was first played (under arm bowling!) when the game began.

When you look at most of the cricket books in the market, they are all regular editions. Great photographs, and wonderful text, but nothing special about the edition itself. That’s why an edition like The Young Cricketer’s Tutor stands out.

Or, in another instance, where a deluxe copy also happens to be signed, the attraction of the book would have been just as powerful if no signature had been present. A good case in point is the deluxe edition of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman that I recently bought. It is in full leather with a black illustration of a mocking bird on a branch, and the title blind-stamped to the spine.

All four edges are gilt and the book is housed in a green cloth folding box with train track design in black to the upper cover. Lee’s scarce signature adds luster to this beautiful book, but you can see that even without it, it is a highly desirable edition.

There have been over the years numerous copies of Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince and Other Stories, but none more lovely than the one done by the Overbrook Press with colour wood engraving by the American master Rudolph Ruzicka. This edition is a little scarce because it is quite sought after.

At first looking at the illustrations you are not very impressed but the more time you spend with it, you see how magical they are. Subtle and yet enchanting, exactly in the spirit of Wilde’s celebrated fairy tales.

Within the collecting area of limited editions there is another type of book production that is much admired and criticized! These are the books coming from arts and crafts bookmakers. That is, they are a guild of bookmakers who will produce limited editions almost like a factory would! One such famous guild were the Roycrofter Press founded and run largely by a remarkable man named Elbert Hubbard.

Hubbard wanted the average householder to know what beautiful books look and feel like, and wanted to manufacture as many of them at an affordable cost as he could. To this end The Roycrofters issued a series of books with various themes. One that I have in my collection is Journeys to the Homes of Authors. Here the books are not illustrated as much as decorated with designs. Some in black and white, some in colour. They were popular in their time in America, which was mid and late 19th century.

No limited edition collection will be complete without some books from The Limited Editions Club. I have some of their more high end books, such as the Picasso signed. But here I want to mention one of their more standard productions. What the LEC specialized in was reprinting the great classics from all over the world in a fine edition. I have a copy of Charles Dickens’ Cricket on the Hearth on lovely paper with water colour illustrations.

Once again, the aim of the LEC was not to make these editions expensive but at a price lovers of literature could afford. And so what I’d like to remind readers is that collecting limited editions of books is not always an expensive proposition. Yes, many of them are expensive, but there are plentiful in the market that are affordable.

To give you one example from my collection: ABC of Bookbinding by Jane Greenfield printed in full colour. You see, some deluxe editions are also trade editions –that is, the print run is not very limited. This book is an excellent source book for all terms related to the production of beautiful books, and is illustrated with over 700 line drawings.

Let me quote to you from the jacket blurb of the book,-

Ms. Greenfield, a master in the field of bookbinding and conservation, examines the book’s development from the earliest periods and in different places. She has provided names and drawings for almost every conceivable part of the book as well as a multitude of styles, bindings, and decorations. She literally takes apart the structure of the book and illustrates the many and varied facets and definitions that clearly outline the historical development of the book’s structures and styles.

Like this trade edition which is also a beautiful edition, there are many attractively printed editions whose prices are tempting enough for the book lover to begin making a small, but beautiful collection of handsomely produced books.

What better remedy or tonic or refuge can a book lover turn to in the onslaught of digital books in our lives than embracing such well printed books, and what better way of celebrating the Book as we once knew it?