#bodley head

[uwmspeccoll]

Publishers' Binding Thursday

Today's Publishers' Binding Thursday book was found while simply browsing our stacks—and what a find it is! This is Poems, Dramatic and Lyrical by English poet, coin enthusiast, and botanist John Leicester Warren, Lord de Tabley (1835-1895). It was published in London by Elkin Mathews (1851-1921) and John Lane (1854-1925) at the Sign of the Bodley Head and in New York by Macmillan and Company in 1893. The book features five engravings by British artist, illustrator, and printer Charles Ricketts (1866-1931) and the bookplate of John Leicester Warren designed by Scottish artist William Bell Scott (1811-1890). Warren had an interest in bookplates and became an authority on them.

The binding was designed by Charles Ricketts, possibly with help from someone with the initials H.L.S. (or those initials in another order). Ricketts's initials and those of the mysterious H.L.S. are stamped in gold in opposite corners of the covers—C.R. in the top left and H.L.S. in the bottom right. The cover features in the upper righthand corner an angel inside of a golden heart holding a lyre made from wings and a heart. Surrounding this is a pattern of repeated rose petals, which to us look a bit like teeth or hot air balloons. The book cloth is a leafy green color that on our copy has either been glued unevenly or has become rumpled with time.

View more Publishers' Binding Thursday posts.

-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager

[vintagebooksdesign]

THE LINE BECOMES A RIVER Francisco Cantú

How does a line in the sand become a barrier that people will risk everything to cross? Francisco Cantú was a US Border Patrol agent from 2008 to 2012. He worked the desert along the Mexican border, at the remote crossroads of drug routes and smuggling corridors, tracking humans through blistering days and frigid nights across a vast terrain. He detains the exhausted and the parched. He hauls in the dead. He tries not to think where the stories go from there.

The jacket shows a painted silhouette of a wolf that is pertinent to the text. The lettering is in the graduated colour tones typically seen in Mexican printed matter. The paper stock is a very tactile brown paper. This contrasts with the stark reality of the photograph by Anthony Suau (Gallery Stock) of the open desert border between the US and Mexico which is used for the endpapers.

The Line Becomes a River is published on 1 March by Bodley Head.

[left-handlibrary]

Francisco Cantú, a third-generation Mexican-American, worked as a US Border Patrol agent on the US/Mexican border from 2008-2012, finally leaving the patrol as his sense of duty waned and nightmares became too invasive.

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One of my favourite aspects of The Line Becomes a River is its intertextual nature. Cantú’s writing here reminds me just a little (just enough) of Maggie Nelson in the way that he builds his text, reconstructing his experiences with the words of others, which he blends dexterously with his own. Perhaps this is why I found this compulsively readable. Underlying the text is a trauma both personal and collective. Cantú recounts a plethora of voices within his own, discussing grief, dehumanisation (and a plea for re-humanisation), cognitive dissonance, history, and overall a trauma which (mostly white, western) media often renders as subhuman. We are given quotes from academics, news articles, poets and even from agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Here we see that pain and trauma can be (and often is) political and collective. I’d picked this one up at random from the staff shelf at work and I’m very glad I did.

[vintagebooksdesign]

DAWN OF THE NEW EVERYTHING - Jaron Lanier

We first spotted the work of Copenhagen-based Dane and digital artist Christian Zander, on But Does it Float. He produced a series of photographs experimenting in 3D with polar co-ordinates and gradient mapping. More of his work can be seen on his blog, houseandbike.com

Dawn of the New Everything is published by Bodley Head and is available now

[vintagebooksdesign]

TALKING TO MY DAUGHTER ABOUT THE ECONOMY - Yanis Varoufakis

In this short book, world famous economist Yanis Varoufakis sets out to answer his daughter Xenia’s deceptively simple question - why is there so much inequality?

With personal stories and famous myths, Varoufakis explains what the economy is and why it has the power to shape our lives. Introducing us to the most important drama of our times, helping to make sense of a troubling world while inspiring us to make a better one.

With hand lettering by Lily Jones the cover is foil blocked onto a vibrant orange cloth.

Talking to My Daughter About the Economy is available now from The Bodley Head.

[vintagebooksdesign]

THE ISLAMIC ENLIGHTENMENT - Christopher de Bellaigue

The Muslim world has often been accused of a failure to modernise, reform and adapt. But, from the beginning of the 19th century to the present day, Islamic society in its Middle Eastern heartlands has in fact been transformed by modern ideals and practices, from modern medicine to the emergence of women from purdah and the development of democracy.

This revelatory book shows us how to look beyond sensationalist headlines to foster a genuine understanding of modern Islam and Muslim culture, and is essential reading for anyone engaged with the state of the world today.

The jacket design is adapted from an arabic pattern found in The Encyclopedia of Ornament (1869) by Albert Racinet.

Published now in Hardback by Bodley Head

[vintagebooksdesign]

AGAINST EMPATHY - Paul Bloom

In a divided world, empathy is not the solution, it is the problem; a source of prejudice, not kindness.

Against Empathy overturns widely held assumptions to reveal one of the most profound yet overlooked sources of human conflict. It demonstrates with absolute clarity that, when faced with moral decisions, we must choose reason and compassion, not empathy as our guides.

Whilst we were designing the cover last August, the editor saw Vanitas XVII, a photograph by John Philips at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition. He realised the photograph would eloquently express the tone and theme of the book and advised us to go and see it. The photograph worked really well on our cover and we were delighted to be able to work with John Philips.

The photograph above was taken at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, and the many red dots show just how many prints had already been bought at the time of our visit.

Against Empathy is available now.

[smashpages]

To celebrate the publication of the graphic adaptation of Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny, UK publisher Bodley Head has put up a poster display of the book’s contents in London’s Newington Green. The book is published by Ten Speed Press in the U.S.; the artist for the project is Nora Krug.