This one is for Don

On Feb 21, 2014 Don wrote:

The Binder of my Moby Dick was Sam Ellenport who is now retired and on the lecture circuit. When working, he owned Harcourt Bindery in Boston.

Sam did do a masterful job. Like most Moby Dick copies, mine was almost totally deteriorated and both spines were missing. The cost of the original book was only $175 plus media mail shipping.

I selected all materials and Sam did most of the work, including the new slipcase. The book is bound in 1/2 Harmatan Nigerian goatskin with boards and end pages from the Ann Muir collection of marbled papers.

The marbling of the page ends was done by Chena River Marblers.

This is one of approximately forty LEC rebound projects that Don was able to accomplish. If there is a silver lining over his collection being broken it is that now other book lovers can enjoy it. And may be, just may be someone will be touched by Don's inspiration for rebinding books and will carry it on.

I encourage other fellow GMD members who have purchased rebound books from the same collection to post pictures as a tribute.
...

I always thought this was Don's chef d'oeuvre of his rebinding projects. I wouldn't have thought of the red spine myself, but it goes very well with the marled papers. What always impressed me most, and which showed Don's design ability was the matching marbled page ends, which really pull everything together.

This should make any book lover drool! I hope others will post pictures of Don's rebinds. I can't imagine this being topped though. Thanks for sharing the outstanding pictures.

He wouldn't have thought there are so many supportive comment and admiration.

My favorite of Don's rebinding jobs. Thanks for the great photos.

Fantastic idea, and a fitting memorial. Don's Typee, also rebound by Sam Ellenport.

Wow, unbelievably beautiful! Where did you guys get these??

Don's Typee is utterly stunning. Wow.

Exquisite..
Did the rebinds have any effect on the price of the books? Just curious whether it enhanced the value compared to a fine regular edition.

Typee looks fantastic too!

>2 EclecticIndulgence: In one of his comments Don mentioned that the rebinding of MD started by choosing the marbled paper. The red leather complements the paper nicely.

>10 Jan7Smith: Yes and no. Let's take Confessions of an English Opium Eater as an example. It sold for $360. One can get a fine regular edition for half of that easily. At the same time Don's rebinding cost was higher. This is the trend that I have noticed with the other titles too. While they sell for more that a fine original edition, the price tag is less than the rebinding cost.

>11 BuzzBuzzard:
Yes, I've seen a few of Don's books sell on eBay for about the cost of the custom clamshell box in which it was housed.

Although I said this a long time ago (and Don took it amiss), a rebound LEC will always have a resell value less than the top-quality rebinding of the type Don made. Of course he wasn't interested in resell value, and I believe if you have the money to rebind, it's your book!

Oddly, if you search the online booksellers for some of the earlier (pre-1970s) Heritage Press books rebound by Baynton, Chelsea and even Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Although this may seem odd, the cost of the HP is almost always substantially less than an LEC and many of the earlier HPs feature letterpress printing on all-rag paper--in short, printed as well or better than many fine press books today.

Wow! Both lovely books. I love the color of the binding and marbling on Typee! So far I've acquired two books from Don's collection. They wern't rebinds, but it's easy to tell he treated his books well and only purchased volumes in uperb condition (that is if he wasn't planning a rebind)

Beautiful. I purchased four of Don's rebound books.

Poe: Tales of Mystery and Imagination
Bierce: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians
Cervantes: Don Quixote
More: Utopia

I'll post some pictures over the weekend if I can do them justice. The photographer in the family is out of town for a few days.

Question- does anyone know the name of a binder that can make quality custom slipcases or boxes? The Poe and the Bierce don't have them.

>15 SDB2012:

Not sure where you are located, but I have had very good results from this company in California:

http://www.katercrafts.com/

Don used firms back east so you may want to search the internet for "custom bookbinding."

>15 SDB2012: Please share pictures when you can!

I am using Currier Bindery. James Currier is a pleasure to work with.

Tales of Soldiers and Civilians by Ambrose Bierce

A beauty!

Don Quixote

The pictures dont accurately convey the beauty of this 1933 edition. Everything about it feels substantial and tasteful, and fresh. The condition of the book is if it was published yesterday, yet, God willing, I will be here to celebrate it's 100th anniversary with a fine Rioja.

Very high class binding, but the deckle edge was trimmed . I would have kept the dimension intact.

The binding seems to be a near copy from Arion's edition.

>21 kafkachen: Don did not like deckled edges because they are nearly impossible to keep clean.

>18 SDB2012:
I covet that Soldiers and Civilians -- gorgeous!

Lovely books! One of the things I enjoy about the LEC is the variety of styles of binding, but these are certainly a pleasure to look at and (I'm sure) to read! Around d how many LECs did don have rebound?

>22 busywine:

i thought so too. The pictures i posted show far more of an orange/yellow hue than the book actually has. I should have have just taken the photos with my iPad. DSLR settings/usage and light management are not my expertise.

Here is one that should be alot more accurate on the color.

The Poe

Utopia 1934

The Utopia is magnificent!

>27 SDB2012: A beautiful book. If it has the monthly letter could you please share a scan of it?

>25 asburytr:

Per >1 BuzzBuzzard: "This is one of approximately forty LEC rebound projects that Don was able to accomplish."

>30 Jan7Smith:

I have the letter. Send me a PM with your email address and I will send you a pdf of it.

>30 Jan7Smith:
>32 SDB2012:
A pdf of the letter is already available on Google Drive.

Edited to add: actually, it isn't yet, sorry.

>33 featherwate: I haven't been able to locate Poe's Tales of mystery & Imagination.

>32 SDB2012: Done.

>34 Jan7Smith:
Apologies! I mis-read the cross-reference and thought Utopia was the book in question.

Thanks to GMD SDB2012, Monthly Letter 133 for the May 1941 Tales of Mystery and Imagination is now available on Google Drive!

>37 featherwate: Thanks to both for getting the Poe letter shared.

I missed the auctions for Don's rebound books which I suppose is just as well because I probably wouldn't have won anything and would have just ended up pushing the prices up for others. However, I did pick two of his LECs to go with all of the HPs I've bought off of him over the years: the 1932 Three Musketeers and 1949 Brothers Karamazov, both in immaculate condition.

>39 kdweber: His rebound The Marble Faun was just sold (not quite to my taste compared with some of the others). I already have three of his regular LEC books (Vasari's Lives, Tartarin & Tarascon, Travels in Arabia Deserta) and his Tender is the Night and Gone w/ the Wind are on the way. If I remember correctly from Mr. Floyd's past posts he had collected every LEC minus the Declaration of Independence, so his remaining rebinds and standard books will likely be appearing in waves for quite some time. some of the standard/original volumes have been pretty good bargains. I forgot to bid on a lot that included Cyrano de bergerac, marguerite de valois, and The Black Tulip, and they were won by some lucky devil for about 60 dollars I think. Although I haven't purchased any of Don Floyd's rebinds, the immaculate condition of the regular LECs Ive gotten are certainly a testament to the care he took of his library.

Even some of the books Don didn't have rebound have nice custom slip cases or clamshell boxes to replace the frequently crappy LEC cases. Very nice, and I frankly think it's better that we all collectively get to appreciate them, than that they disappear into a university library's storage room.

>39 kdweber: >40 asburytr:

May be Don's may be not. Hoffman is a book dealer and has an independent LEC inventory. I have purchased a few other LECs from him, which I know are not Don's.

>41 kermaier: I think you make a good point.

I see a number of books on ebay that are very nicely and luxuriously rebound

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Twain-Life-On-Mississippi-LEC-Limited-Editions-Club-1944...

I'm not bidding on any of them, but maybe some of you might be interested? By the way, does anyone know what exactly happened with regards to these books being donated to his alma mater? That is, why are they not there?

Don wrote back in February 2014 that he had rebound Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer and Life on the Mississippi. All three are on the ebay seller's page. The Tom Sawyer is identical to the one pictured in Don's gallery except that the latter is a much paler, brighter blue than the one on ebay - different lighting set-ups perhaps? LotM isn't in his gallery but the ebay copy is bound in very much Don's style. The rebound Huck Finn in his gallery is the 1940 edition, while the ebay copy is from 1933, so no pictorial comparisons are possible. However, he mentioned in June 2015 that he'd had the 1933 Huck Finn rebound "in a bright green goatskin with light brown linen boards", which matches the copy on ebay.
One thing's for sure, I'd rather have either of the Hucks whatever their condition than this monstrosity:

>44 featherwate: "Edited by Gabriela Diani and Etta Devine"

If it wasn't bad enough to have "edited" (probably read "bowdlerized") Twain's masterpiece, the perps have rubbed salt into the wound with apparently replacing Jim, the noblest and most human character in the book, with a robot. I suppose this is applying the techniques of musical "mashups" to literature....

O tempora, O mores!

44-45: I think you're both likely missing the satirical point with that book

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dianidevine/replacing-the-n-word-with-robot...

>46 astropi:
Fair comment! I forgot the first rule of the internet: Never take anything at face value. Clearly it's not just a late entrant into the Austen-zombies/Bronte-werewolves/Emily-Dickinson-was-Jack-the-Ripper genre.
I was about to laugh aloud at the site's deadpan assurance under the silver 'ROBOT' necklace (yes, there is spin-off merchandising):
"If you would like your Robot necklace to be vegan the pearls can easily be replaced with sterling beads."
But then I thought, this comes from California and could be a genuinely thoughtful offer and I'm just a crass Britisher, so I didn't laugh. Aloud.

Don's remake of the 1937 Camille.

>48 BuzzBuzzard:
Sensitively done.

>48 BuzzBuzzard:

That is absolutely gorgeous!

The boards of Camille are unusually thick. I wonder if this is a function of the two piece binding or not.

Because Don could not I am sharing this for him.

This acquisition was suggested some time ago by Django. I would have rebound the book eventually, but Django's thoughts brought it to my mind sooner. This book is the 30s Tartuffe. It is bound in 1/2 maroon goatskin. Its a large, thin book so there is no titling on the spine. The boards are covered in a medium grey Iris bookcloth with a maroon goatskin label on the front board with gold titling. The end pages are a phantasmagoria pattern of maroon, grey, and black. The book is contained in a specially designed solander box covered in a maroon linen cloth. The inner lining is the Laval burgundy velour. The titling on the solander spine was done in gold using a high-temp font. One of the nicest LECs done to date.

Aug 31, 2015

>1 BuzzBuzzard:

Thanks for posting this, Vasil. I'm happy that a member was able to acquire this, and I feel sure Don would appreciate having his beautiful design shared with the members.

Elegant is a word that comes to mind when Don's books are pictured. I wish I could have acquired some of them.

>54 Jan7Smith:

Elegant, indeed.

I wish I had been quicker on the draw with regard to purchasing some of his books.

Although late to the game, I was able to purchase one of Don's fine rebindings:

Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincy

>56 dlphcoracl: This would make any book lover proud. I wish I could have seen Don's books all together on his shelves.

>56 dlphcoracl: 'Twas you who outbid me! I'm glad a fellow LT poster won it.