Inspired by Audrey and Jane, I pulled Margery Sharp's The Eye of Love off the TBR shelves (partly in preparation for the arrival of the book on the left).
My copy is a first edition (third printing), and at almost 60, looking its age. It arrived without the dust jacket, which I don't mind at all. But the top of the spine is broken - luckily not yet completely detached. Someone probably have grabbed it from the top once too often. I've done that myself, pulling a book down from a shelf, and noticed how vulnerable the binding there can be. I do know enough not to try and tape a book back together (I could show you horrors of bad taping in my archives). So I decided to go the old-fashioned route and make a book cover. Not out of acidic brown paper, though, I used a sheet of acid-free paper instead. I couldn't quite remember how to fit the cover, and one of my co-workers helped me. It took me straight back to high school, those first days of the new school year with the books piled up. To be honest, my cover looks rather sad, a bit lumpy in spots, and the lettering leaves a lot to be desired. Hopefully it will keep the spine intact for a while, and that's all that matters to me.
Isn't the Martha in Paris cover lovely?
Oh, I absolutely remember the grocery-bag book covers! I always liked that more than the cheesy ones full of ads that businesses gave out. I do love those vintage Margery Sharp covers!
ReplyDeleteI am tempted to race through Martha in Paris and Martha, Eric & George - but I've decided to space them out :)
DeleteYes, grocery bag book covers. At the beginning of the year they were stiff but as the months went on they would get soft. And when you were bored in class you could doodle on them. Now the kids buy cloth book covers at Target. It is not the same though possibly more durable. My kids think I get nostalgic about the weirdest things.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we had any pre-made covers, even the kind with ads that Audrey mentioned above - but we lived in a pretty small town.
DeleteThey would also get pretty tattered, as I remember!
We always had to cover our math books in school...some kids brought those shiny store-bought covers, but I always just used a brown paper bag...because then I could doodle on it whenever I got bored. :)
ReplyDeleteI was always bored in math class - when I wasn't totally confused :) I think we had to cover all of our books, except maybe the novels we read in English.
DeleteWe did this in the '60s and tried to outdo each other with out "art". It's a great idea to resurrect for older (and even newer) books!
ReplyDeleteI am sadly out of practice! Looking at my shelves, I see a couple of other books that could use even my uneven book jackets.
DeleteIn Scotland we used either brown paper or left-over wallpaper in the 1960s. The 1970s in high school it was all brown paper and covered with the names of favourite bands and their song titles. I love most 1950s and 60s book covers, they're nearly always very stylish.
ReplyDeleteOh, I bet the wallpaper looked good - or at least interesting :)
DeleteI forgot all about those brown-paper covers! Some years they gave us large white papers with ads all over to cover the textbooks in, and that was way less good. I liked being able to write on them.
ReplyDeleteWe were a small Catholic school in a small rural town - I don't think any businesses were interested in sponsoring the covers :) And I don't remember there being any for sale in the stores either.
DeleteI went to a talk a while back where the speaker mentioned that one could buy fake dustwrappers of first editions to cover books missing them. It looked very pretty but seemed a bit unethical if it wasn't made clear they were fake down the track! I feel that yours is a much more honest attempt! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of this - and I'm a bit shocked! The fake covers presumably wouldn't fool a book dealer, but someone buying on the internet could easily be taken in. I often buy the older copies without covers, because they're less expensive.
DeleteCovering books...a lost art? I remember doing this, but I never liked it for some reason. It sort of felt like I was hiding the book. Anyway, you saved a book and kept from resorting to tape!
ReplyDeleteI remember making those brown paper covers for school books. I like book jackets or covers and keep them on my books, even if tattered. When I worked for a university library I argued for them to keep the book jackets on novels in their collection, but they insisted the covers be removed. Sad, I thought.
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