The exhibition of American Publishers'
Bindings on the Books of Amelia E. Barr 1882-1919
reveals Barr's life and work in the context of the history of
authorship, reading and publishing. There is an original
manuscript of a novel, serializations in magazines and newspapers,
magazine publication of short stories that were later expanded
into novels, an original letter from Amelia Barr explaining why
she does not write about contemporary American life, first
editions in book form and reprints in various formats, including
uniform editions and pocket format hardcover editions, and a
paperback. The catalog illustrations are accompanied by relevant
excerpts from Amelia Barr's autobiography, which reveal details of
the evolution of the texts, how writing fit into her life, her
relationships with publishers, how much she was paid, and letters
she received from readers.
Amelia E. Barr [1831-1919], whose writing career took flight when
she was in her 50s, became among the most prolific and popular
authors in America. Her output of about 70 novels took place
during the time of greatest change in book cover design. The
exhibition begins with some of the best examples of late Victorian
Eastlake style and progresses through Arts & Crafts, Art
Nouveau, Japonisme, Poster style, Typographics, the use of paper
onlays, and color pictorial dust jackets. We see the output of
both religious and secular publishers, and the change in
production during World War I. Cover artists include Thomas Watson
Ball, the Decorative Designers, William Snelling Hadaway, Theodore
B. Hapgood, Blanche McManus Mansfield, Harry B. Matthews, Alice
Cordelia Morse, and Amy Richards.
There are variants of cover designs on different cloths, with
different color stampings, and with partial reuse of designs.
There are are textblock variants with different title pages,
illustrations, or title page dates, and variations as small as the
name of the printer on or absent from the copyright page.
Please do get in touch if you will be near Hudson, New York and
would like to see the exhibition, which is open by appointment. I
am happy to give a guided tour to small groups. Yesterday a local
college president brought some of his faculty.
Richard
http://minsky.com
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