The Building of a Book

•^. f. THE BUILDING OF A BOOK THE BUILDING OF A BOOK A SEKIES OF PRACTICAL ARTI- CLES WRITTEN BY EXPERTS IN THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF BOOK MAKING AND DISTRIBUTING WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THEODORE L. DE VINNE EDITED BY FREDERICK H. HITCHCOCK THE GRAITON PRESS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK COPTEIGHT, 1906, Bt the GRAFTON PRESS. Published December, 1906. ©etiicatctj TO RE.VDERS AND LOVERS OF BOOKS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY FOREWORD " The Building of a Book " had its origin in the wish to give practical, non-technical infor- mation to readers and lovers of books. I hope it will also be interesting and valuable to those persons who are actually engaged in book making and selUng. All of the contributors are experts in thoir respective departments, and hence write with authority. I am exceedingly grateful to them for their very generous efforts to make the book a success. THE EDITOR. vU ARTICLES AND CONTRIBUTORS Introduction 1 By Theodore L. De Vinne, of Theodore L. De Vinne & Company, Printers, New York. The Author 4 By George W. Cable, Author of " Grandissimes," "The Cavalier," and other books. Resident of Northampton, Massachusetts. The Literary Agent 9 By Paul R. Reynolds, Literary Agent, New York, representing several English publishing houses and American authors. The Literary Adviser 16 By Francis W. Halsey, formerly Editor of the Nexo York Times Saturday Itevieio of Books, and literary adviser for D. Appleton & Company. Now literary adviser for Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York. The Manufacturing Department ... 25 By Lawton L. Walton, in charge of the manufacturing department of The Macmillan Company, Publishers, New York. The Making of Type ..... 31 By L. Boyd Benton, Mechanical Manager of the Jersey City factory of the American Typo Found- ers' Company. Hand Composition and Ki.kctkotyping . 41 By J. Steakns CrsniNc;, of J. S. CushiiiK & Com- pany, Norwood, Ma-ssachiisotts, f)no of the three concerns forming the Norwood Press. ix ARTICLES AND CONTRIBUTORS PAOE Composition by the Linotype Machine . 53 By Frederick J. Warbcrton, Treasurer of the Mergenthaler Linotype Machine Company. Composition by the Monotype Machine . 66 By Paul Nathan, a member of Wood & Nathan, New York, selling agents for the Lanston Mono- type Machine. Proof-reading 77 By George L. Miller, with the Charles Francis Press, New York. Paper Making 89 By Herbert W. Mason, of S. D. Warren & Com- pany, Paper Makers, Boston, Massachusetts. Presswork 99 By Walter J.Berwick, of Berwick & Smith Com- pany, Norwood, Massachusetts, one of the three concerns constituting the Norwood Press. The Printing Press 112 By Otto L. Raabe, with R. Hoe & Company, New York, Printing Press Manufacturers. Printing Ink 139 By James A. Ullman, of Sigmuud Ullman Com- pany, Ink Makers, New York. The Printer's Roller 144 By Albert S. Bcrlingham, President of the Na- tional Roller Company, New York. The Illustrator 154 By Charles D. Williams, Artist, New York. Half-tone, Line, and Color Plates . 164 By Emlyn M. Gill, President of the Gill Engrav- ing Company, New York. X ARTICLES AND CONTRIBUTORS PAGE The Wax Process 176 By Robert D. Servoss, Engraver of maps, etc., by the wax process, New York. Making Intaglio Plates .... 180 By Elmer Latham, Manager of the mechanical department of M. Kramer & Company, Photo- gravure Makers, Brooklyn, New York. Printing Intaglio Plates .... 190 By George W. H. Ritchie, Printer of photogra- vure plates, etchings, etc.. New York. The Gelatine Process 198 By Emil Jacobi, Manager of the factory of the Campbell Art Company, New York, and Elizabeth, New Jersey. Lithography 204 By Charles Wilhelms, late of Siickett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Printing Company, Brooklyn, New York. Cover Designing 216 By Amy Richards, Artist, New York, her specialty being cover designs. The Cover Stamps 221 By George Becker, of Becker Brothers Company, Die Cutlers, New York. Book Cloths ....... 226 Bt Henry P. Kendall, of the Holliston Mills, Book Cloth Manufacturers, Norwood, Massachu- setts. Book Leathers ...... 234 By Ellery C. Bartlett, of Louia Dejonge & Com- pany, Dressers and Importers of Book Leathers, New York. xi ARTICLES AND CONTRIBUTORS PAGB The Binding 237 By Jesse Fellowes Tapley, President of J. F. Taplcy Company, Binders, New York. Special Bindings 248 By Henry Blackwell, Fine Binder, New York. Copyrighting ....... 257 By Frederick H. Hitchcock, Member of the New York Bar ; President of The Grafton Press, Publishers, New York. Publicity ... .... 269 By Vivian Burnett, formerly in charge of the Publicity Department of McClure, Phillips & Com- pany, Publishers, New York. Reviewing and Criticising .... 292 By Walter Littlefield, a Member of the Staff of the New York Times Saturday Beview of Books, and literary correspondent of the Chicago Record- Herald, and other papers. The Travelling Salesman .... 303 By Harry A. Thompson, formerly representing John Lane, and Small, Maynard & Company, Publishers. Now one of the Associate Editors of the Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia. Selling at Wholesale 320 By Joseph E. Bray, formerly with A. C. McClurg & Company, Wholesalers, Chicago. Now with the Outing Publishing Company, New York. Selling at Retail 328 By Warren Snyder, Manager of the Book Stores of John Wanamaker, Philadelphia and New York. Selling by Subscription 339 By Charles S. Olcott, Manager of the Subscrip- tion Department of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Company, New York. xii ARTICLES AND CONTRIBUTORS PAGE Selling at Auction ...... 350 By John Anderson, Jr., President of the Ander- son Auction Company, New York. Selecting for a Public Library . 362 By Arthur E. Bostwick, Chief of the Circula- tion Department of the New York Public Library. Rare and Second-hand Books . 370 By Charles E. Goodspeed, Dealer in Rare and Second-hand Books, Boston. XllI THE BUILDING OF A BOOK INTRODUCTION By Theodore L. De Vinne To the hasty observer printing seems the simplest of arts or crafts. The small boy who has been taught to spell can readily arrange lettered blocks of wood in readable words, and that arrangement is rated by many as the great feature of printing. With his toy printing-press he can stamp paper upon inked type in so deft a manner that admiring friends may say the print is good enough for any- body. The elementary processes of printing are indeed so simple that they might have justified Dogberry in adding typography to the accom- plishments of the "reading and writing that come by nature." With this delusion comes the desire for amateur performance. Men who would not undertake to make a coat or a pair of shoes are confident of their ability to make or to direct the making of a book. In real practice this apparent simplicity disap- pears. Commercial printing is never done q\iickly or cheaply by amateur methods. The piinting- 1 THE BUILDING OF A BOOK house that undertakes to print miscellaneous books for publishers must be provided with tons of type of different faces and sizes. It needs type-making and type-setting machines of great complexity, printing-presses of great size and cost, and much curious machinery in the departments of electrotyping and bookbinding; but these machines, intended to relieve the drudgery of monotonous manual labor, do not supplant the necessity for a higher skill in craftsmanship. They really make that craftsmanship more diffi- cult. The difficulty of good book-making is greater now than ever. Improvements made during the last century in processes of engraving and the making of ink and paper and the increasing ex- actions of critical readers and reviewers, compel a closer attention to the petty detail of manufac- ture. The novice soon finds that some of the methods recently introduced are incompatible with other methods. For the production of a superior book practical experience and theoretical study of all processes are needed to harmonize their antagonisms. One has but to read over the head-lines of the foregoing table of contents to note how many different arts, crafts, and sciences are required in the construction of a well-made book. A reading of these articles makes one under- stand the scope and limitations of each art and the necessity for its proper adjustment in its relation 2 INTRODUCTION to the workmanship of other crafts with which it may be associated. For this purpose this book has been prepared. It is believed that a compilation of the experience of men eminent in their respective departments will be a useful guide to the amateur in author- sliip or the novice in publication. THE AUTHOR By George W. Cable In a certain fine and true sense books of imagina- tive writing — and the present writer cannot undertake to speak of any others — are not built, but born. Nevertheless, there has always been an unlucky tendency on the part both of writers and readers to overstate this non-mechanical nature of poetic works, whether in prose or verse, and to give the processes of this production that air of mystery — not to say miracle — in which art is always tempted to veil its methods. There is an anatomy of the book, which is not its life, but is just as real as its life, and only less essential. There is an architecture awaiting the book while it is still in its author's brain ; and for want of due regard to this architecture's laws, for want of a sound and shapely anatomy, many a book misses the success — not commercial only, but spiritual as well — which the amount of toil and talent spent on it ought to earn. And now that reading has become so democratic that the fortunes of a book of the imagination are largely in the hands 4 THE AUTHOR of the Crowd, which cares nothing and feels nothing as to grace of form and tone in what it reads, the commercial risk in the physical deforixdties of a book is not so great as the risk of its spiritual fail- ure.

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