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In quest of the perfect book

Chapter 1: IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK
By William Dana Orcutt
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About This Book

The author presents a series of reminiscences and reflections on the making, design, and appreciation of books, blending personal anecdotes with historical sketches of printers and typographic movements, close studies of illuminated manuscripts, and accounts of friendships with writers and craftsmen. Chapters examine type design, illustration, and binding alongside practical and aesthetic judgments about materials and layout. Throughout, the search for an ideal book is depicted as an ongoing, personal quest in which text, design, and reader response must harmonize rather than converge on a single definition.

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Title: In quest of the perfect book

Reminiscences & reflections of a bookman

Author: William Dana Orcutt

Release date: September 14, 2023 [eBook #71634]

Language: English

Original publication: Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1926

Credits: Terry Jeffress, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK ***

IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK

A book is a portion of the eternal mind caught in its progress through the world stamped in an instant, and preserved for eternity.

—Lord Houghton (1809–1885)

QUEEN MARY’S PSALTER, English, 14th Century

The Last Judgement

(Brit. Mus. Royal MS. 2B vii, 11 × 7 inches)

IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK

REMINISCENCES

& REFLECTIONS

OF A BOOKMAN

WILLIAM DANA ORCUTT

PUBLISHED · MCMXXVI · BOSTON

LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY

Copyright, 1926, by Little, Brown

and Company · All rights reserved

·.·

Printed in the United States of America

Published September, 1926

·.·

Reprinted October, 1926

Reprinted November, 1926

THE AUTHOR is indebted to the Atlantic Monthly for permission to reprint as the first chapter of this volume an essay which originally appeared in that magazine; to the Christian Science Monitor for permission to use, in quite different form, certain material which has been drawn upon in literary editorials written by him for its columns; to Alban Dobson, Esq., G. Bernard Shaw, Esq., Henry James, Esq., Mrs. Anne Cobden-Sanderson, and others, for permission to print personal letters and photographs.

To ITALY

That great Country whose Master-Spirits

in Art, Typography, and Literature

have contributed most toward

THE PERFECT BOOK

this Volume is Dedicated