Monday, August 24, 2009

New Old Book

Let's hear it for the under-appreciated art of book-binding. This 1940 edition of Osa Johnson's I Married Adventure (published by J.B. Lippincott Company; manufactured in the USA by The Haddon Craftsmen, Inc. of Camden, NJ) has these amazing zebra skin-patterned boards. I wonder what the dust-cover looked like? I usually lift dust covers to look for interesting design work on clothbound books, but it's rare to find anything of interest. Pity.
Osa & Martin Johnson were the Kansas-born Jacques Cousteaus of the first half of the 20th Century, filming, photographing, lecturing, and otherwise hitting the big time with their tales of safaris and travels in Africa and Asia. Martin died in a plane crash in 1937; Osa survived the crash and lived until 1953, when she passed away in the wilds of New York City.

1 comment:

ScottieinaCanoe said...

Gorgeous binding on that book. I too am wondering what the dustjacket looked like. Nice find.