We are used to books that tell a story. After all, that is the reason for a book: to tell us a story, whether of someone's life, of an idea, or of something we don't know.
But it is not only the text within a book that tells a story. The book itself, the physical object, tells us a story too - if we know how to listen.
Here, then, is the story of a book.
But it is not only the text within a book that tells a story. The book itself, the physical object, tells us a story too - if we know how to listen.
Here, then, is the story of a book.
Day Dreams of a Schoolmaster by Darcy Wentworth Thompson was published in 1864 in its second edition. This edition is available online and in reprint – or in the original, as I'm studying here. It is very much a Scottish book, written, printed, and published in Edinburgh (even the paper was probably made near Edinburgh). It is also very much a book of its time: the paper, the typeface, the printing, the binding, were all informed by the Industrial Revolution. 100 years previous, the printing of this book would have been quite different.
In 2013 my copy of the book is nearly 150 years old – if I live to half that age I shall have some good stories to tell! Day Dreams has its own story. Not just the story of one man’s ideas and beliefs as embodied in the text, but the story of technologies, of European society, and of a time past and how its people passed on their knowledge. |
The story is complex, and involves many different aspects of publishing:
The People
Production of a book needs several people – an author, to have the idea and write it down, a publisher, to agree to undertake the publishing, and a printer, to take a manuscript and make it into the object I hold in my hand today.
The Paper
Though often overlooked, paper gives a book weight and substance, as well as providing a location for the text.
The Type
In the nineteenth century there were no computers, no typewriters – not even Linotype machines. Every block of text in this book was put together by hand using thousands of slivers of metal.
The Printing
Nowadays anyone can buy a computer printer and run off a hundred copies of clean and perfect text. Printing Day Dreams used a very different printing technology.
The Binding
The first thing we see when we look at a book is its binding; it attracts us or repels us, it gives us our first taste of the book. It also protects the text inside – often to its own detriment.
The History
After binding, the life of a book is only beginning: now it is sent out into the world to spread the message of its author. And, perhaps, to pick up a few scars and stories on the way.
The People
Production of a book needs several people – an author, to have the idea and write it down, a publisher, to agree to undertake the publishing, and a printer, to take a manuscript and make it into the object I hold in my hand today.
The Paper
Though often overlooked, paper gives a book weight and substance, as well as providing a location for the text.
The Type
In the nineteenth century there were no computers, no typewriters – not even Linotype machines. Every block of text in this book was put together by hand using thousands of slivers of metal.
The Printing
Nowadays anyone can buy a computer printer and run off a hundred copies of clean and perfect text. Printing Day Dreams used a very different printing technology.
The Binding
The first thing we see when we look at a book is its binding; it attracts us or repels us, it gives us our first taste of the book. It also protects the text inside – often to its own detriment.
The History
After binding, the life of a book is only beginning: now it is sent out into the world to spread the message of its author. And, perhaps, to pick up a few scars and stories on the way.
Last updated June 2013. R.A. van Essen.
Project for INFO 536 at Victoria University of Wellington.
Unless otherwise indicated, all text and images belong to R.A. van Essen. Web design and background images care of Weebly.
Project for INFO 536 at Victoria University of Wellington.
Unless otherwise indicated, all text and images belong to R.A. van Essen. Web design and background images care of Weebly.
Day-Dreaming: The story of a book by R.A. van Essen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.