12.20 Ha UC-NRLF 'CO O Q THE FUNCTIONS OF THE BOOK CLUB AN ADDRESS BY Henry H. Harper AT THE ROWFANT CLUB, CLEVELAND, OHIO Saturday Evening, December 19, 1908 (..''- ", " .^' ^i c^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/functionsofbookcOOharprich r 1/\'^ THE FUNCTIONS OF THE BOOK CLUB By Henry H. Harper TKBASURBR OF THE BIBLIOPHILE SOCIETY, BOSTON Mr, Presidenty and fellow-members of the Row- fant Cluhy and of the fraternity of bookloverSy — It is a very great pleasure, I assure you, to be here as the representative of one book club, the guest of another, and a member of both. It is pleasing, also, to find here a number of your members who are members of the club which I have the honor to represent ; as well as members of the Caxton Club, and fellow-members of the Grolier Club. This denotes a sort of ** com- munity of interest" among the book clubs, and it is gratifying to know that such a thing can exist outside of the Harriman system of rail- roads, and so quietly as not to have attracted the notice of the head of the present Adminis- tration at Washington. In appearing before a gathering of such apparently good-humored comrades, I am sen- sible of renewed regrets that I could not have [I] ivi8566* been a: natural-born entertainer; but if I have ever been accused of being funny, it was cer- tainly npt . iri: the sense of being a fun-maker. However, when Mr. Swasey invited me to come to Cleveland he was kind enough merely to say that the members of the Rowfant Club would like to hear a few remarks upon book clubs and matters pertaining thereto. It is therefore my purpose to make what might be termed a personal-experience talk. The subject in hand is too intensely practical to admit of anything other than a plain business talk. New ac- quaintances have sometimes asked what my line of business is. A number of years ago I organized a corporation, of which I arbitrarily made myself president, but as I found the busi- ness was interfering with my game of golf (which is none too good at best), I decided to give up the business. It proved a costly ven- ture, because the stockholders complained of not getting any profits, so I had to buy up all the stock in order to get rid of my job. Since then The Bibliophile Society has given me a pretty steady job — enough work to keep me out of mischief most of the time. A moderate sense of humor is to be accredited to a Chicago pub- lisher who remarked to an acquaintance of mine [2] a few years ago that he heard that I had made a fortune out of The BibHophile Society and had retired from active business. He was partly mistaken in this, because I retired from active business before I made my fortune out of The BibHophile Society. It gives one a great pull to be treasurer of a book club, especially a club which collects no regular annual dues from the members; be- cause the treasurer has the first chance at lending the club money when it needs it, which is most of the time. It is, moreover, one of the few special privileges in office of which no one seems to be jealous. Such suggestions as I may offer along the lines of publication work will perhaps not be regarded as presumptuous, inasmuch as Mr. Swasey par- ticularly requested that I should say something which might stimulate the members of the club to greater activity in the Hne of pubHcation. Furthermore, as a member of this club I feel it my privilege and my duty to offer any seemingly advisable suggestions in the matter of promot- ing the interests of the club. You have a well-devised and successful plan of providing entertainment for the resident members, in the way of Saturday evening *'Club [3] Affairs," and I see no reason why a similar ar- rangement could not be applied to the publica- tions. As I understand it, some member, or group of members, becomes individually re- sponsible for your club entertainments, and for this reason they are successful. It strikes me that an effective working plan would be to determine upon issuing one or two publications yearly, and lay the work out for two or three years in advance. It usually requires from one to three years to prepare a publication and finish it for delivery to the members, and it is therefore advisable to keep this work outlined well ahead. It is well, I think, to avoid having too many committees, and too many members on a com- mittee. Too much system and red tape are decided hindrances to the work of a book club. It's better to have less committee work and more individual work; for what's everybody's business is usually nobody's business. It is perhaps a true saying that "two heads are better than one," but the adage does not say that five or six heads are better than one. I have observed that the best working committee in a book club is a committee of one. The publication committee, as a body, could [4] decide upon two or three works for publication ; then appoint some individual (preferably a member of that committee) who would be will- ing to assume the responsibility of preparing the work for the press. This would necessitate the employment of proper editorial talent and exercising a general supervision of the work of preparing the copy, with introductory remarks, notes, etc. The editor, who may, or may not, be a member of the club, would be answerable only to the person having the work in charge. After the "copy" is ready for the printer it could then be turned over to another member who would become responsible for the selec- tion and preparation of suitable illustrative material, as well as the selection of the paper, — which should always be of the handmade va- riety. It costs but little more for each copy issued, and is infinitely more satisfactory to the booklover. Let the member having charge of the illustra- tions be guided by his own individual judgment as to what sort and how much illustrative material is to be used ; also as to how it shall be reproduced, — whether by etching, engraving, photogravure or other photographic process, — always omitting the half tone process plates in [5] fine bookmaking. While this work is in progress the manuscript should be placed in the hands of a third member who would become respon- sible for seeing it through the press. This would involve the detail of choosing the printer, select- ing the type, having specimen pages made, and after deciding upon spacing and margins, obtain- ing definite cost estimates. There would be proofs to examine, and a considerable amount of detail would fall upon the member taking the responsibility of following the work through the process of composition and printing. Of course if there is any one member who has time and inclination to assume all of these duties, it would simplify matters greatly. Let it be understood that meagre economy has no place in fine bookmaking, and no reasonable expense should be spared. There is a super- abundance of cheap commercial books, and in order to make our club books stand distinctly apart and above these, both labor and expense must be bestowed upon them with equal freedom. It is no undue compliment to say that you have in this club an abundance of talent and ample means to rival the work of any book club in this country, or in the world, and in order to do this, all you need is to bestir yourselves [6] into the necessary activity. I find that Mr. Swasey was correct when he wrote me, — ''You will find here a splendid lot of men, thoroughly appreciative of good books and high ideals. '' I trust it will be understood that anything I say in regard to the objects and past achieve- ments of The Bibliophile Society is offered merely as information, and is not to be con- strued as vanity or vainglorious boasting. It is neither necessary nor desirable to recount the virtues of our work — the books themselves furnish the best evidence of their own merits or demerits. I will modify this, however, in its application to a single statement: we feel what is perhaps an excusable pride in the fact that most of our publications are the first printed editions of MSS. of great value, and of recog- nized literary and historic worth, — all protected by copyright. In the few publications that are reprints we have usually been able to add con- siderable new material, — enough to justify new editions. We have been singularly fortunate in having been the beneficiaries of Mr. Bixby's constant and unexampled munificence. My ob- ject in narrating our ambitions and experiences somewhat in detail is that you may perhaps profit in some measure thereby. ■ [7] For the first two or three years The BibHophile Society had the greatest difficulty in getting editors and printers to do their work as we wanted it done. Editors sometimes have arbi- trary ideas about technical matters not coming directly within their editorial functions. Then the printers had their own notions as to how the text should be arranged and punctuated. Some of them objected to printing a page with- out the conventional running headline, simply because it was not in accordance with their usual custom. They objected to setting quota- tion marks outside of the punctuation marks, merely because they had never done it in that way. One printer decHned to undertake the first publication we made — The Odes And Epodes Of Horace — because he did n't want to do the work as we wanted it done. He did n't like our plans, and said the publication could not be a success. He said he had been making books for twenty years, and he did n't propose to accept advice or suggestions from anybody. If he should live twenty years longer, he will perhaps be making books with but little better knowledge of the art than he had when he first began. When the publication was finished, however, he was frank enough to come to us [8 and express his regrets at not having taken the work, — the printing of which adds lustre to the well earned fame of The Riverside Press. We took the stand at the beginning that we wanted our work done in a certain way, and as long as we were paying for it, we wanted it exactly as we wanted it. If we were especially interested in promoting the reputation of any particular editor or printer, then we should be willing that our work bear the impress of his individual ideas ; but as long as the books were to be made by ourselves and for ourselves we were the ones to be satisfied or dissatisfied, as the case might be. We have always applied these principles to our work, no matter how prominent the names of the editors and printers might be. We started off in our first publication with the biggest kind of a row on our hands. The editor of the notes and English translations had prepared nearly a thousand pages of manu- script when we discovered that his treatment of the material was entirely out of harmony with our plans, and that the English was in many instances far below the required standard for such a scholarly work. Unhappily for me it fell to my lot to be made the battering ram in the [9] unpleasant task of writing the editor and tell- ing him wherein his style would have to be changed to meet our requirements. I per- formed this duty in as gentle a manner as I possibly could, but he replied very curtly that the manuscript was written just as he wanted it, and that it would have to be printed exactly as it was written. The final result was that it was all re-written by other hands, and after paying the first editor the stipulated price for his work he withdrew from the undertaking. We have yet to find an editor of such lofty name and scholarly accomplishments that his work will be accepted and passed at its face value without censorship or suggestion. This is a right we always reserve. If an author, or an editor, or a printer, is producing an original piece of work upon which his own reputation is to rest, then his latitude should be unrestrained; but if another person or organization is to become sponsor for it, then that person or organization should reserve the right of criticism and emendation in raising or lowering the work to the required standard. A book club must rest its laurels upon the merit of its issues, and there is no such thing possible as shifting the responsibility onto out- [10] side persons, any more than the business mana- ger of a corporation can shift the blame for ill success or failure upon the clerks or other em- ployes working under his direct orders. It may be true that our offspring have their obvious imperfections, but they are at least our own kindred, and as such we love them even though they be imperfect. If any of them are lacking in symmetry and beauty we love them the more, because in this they partake of our own infirmi- ties. It is, moreover, an obligation that we would not evade, even if we could. If our first publications had been models of perfection, we should have set a standard from which the suc- ceeding issues would have been more likely to work downward than upward, and the goal of our ambition would have been reached too quickly. A book club should have a definite purpose and work constantly toward its accomplish- ment. The club's issues should typify and illus- trate that purpose, in one way or another. For instance, it has been one of the ambitions of The Bibliophile Society to produce a series of volumes which in generations to come shall, aside from their literary value, stand as a fair representation of contemporary talent ; — in [II] paper, printing, engraving and general makeup. We have not tried to imitate the models or tendencies of any former period in designing, engraving or printing; nor have we endeavored to anticipate the possible future by attempting anything freakish, or out of harmony with present tendencies. Our series of engraved titlepages is unrivaled in the world's history of book-making, and is well worthy of special notice. We have in the Horace and the First Year Book two direct process titlepages after pen drawings by Howard Pyle. These are of singu- lar interest and uniqueness because this impor- tant branch of art is entirely distinct and apart from the regular work of this celebrated artist, and it was only from motives of personal friend- ship that he consented to undertake them. In the titlepages to the Fourth and Fifth Year Books we have two designs by Sidney Smith, in the reproduction of which he has combined the two arts of copperplate etching and engraving. In the Andre Journal and the Lamb Letters we have two examples of the mature work of the renowned engraver, Edwin D. French; one of them being among the last important pieces he did. They have the added distinction of [u] being the last two of the only five titlepages he ever made. One of these five, however, was never used. In the edition of Theocritus, Bion & Moschus and the Varick Court of Inquiry we have — engraved on copper — two of the finest titlepage designs ever made by the veteran engraver J. A. J. Wilcox. In the Payne-Shelley volume and the Dickens- Beadnell Correspondence we have two elaborate engraved titlepages by the well-known designer and engraver, F. S. King. The titlepage to the Rossetti publication was etched on copper by W. H. W. Bicknell, who is regarded by many as the foremost etcher in this country. We have no less than fifty other examples of his work throughout the various Bibliophile issues. The Sixth Year Book title is by Mr. W. F. Hopson, one of our members, who, in addition to being an artist of exceptional talent, is an ardent booklover. He engraved on wood the first plate ever made for The Bibliophile Society, — the first proof of which is now on exhibition here. His design was afterwards engraved on copper by Spenceley and is used as a subtitle in every publication issued. The plate is [13] changed to suit the name, date and hmitation of each work. Mr. Hopson is now doing some excellent work in copperplate engraving. And finally, that almost unrivaled specimen of the engraver's art, the titlepage to our last Year Book, is by the late J. Winfred Spenceley, who has but recently been snatched away in the prime of hfe, and from the top notch of his pro- fession, by the inexorable hand of Fate. Almost the last hours of his earthly existence were spent with his wasted and emaciated form bending over this very plate. I called upon him when it was about half finished and it was a pitiful sight to behold him laboriously tracing the lines (almost the last he ever made). He seemed to realize that this was about his last work and appeared anxious to make it his crowning masterpiece. The work itself bears undeniable evidence of how successful he was in accompKsh- ing his purpose. His original sketch with five successive working proofs are now on exhibition here. I had the honor of suggesting the obvious changes in design and when the plate was fin- ished he thanked me cordially for the assistance and said he regarded it as about his best work. We have also endeavored to make our publi- cations embody the highest type of the printer s [H] art, and have divided our work among such representative and well-known presses as the DeVinne Press, the Riverside Press, the Univer- sity Press, the Heintzmann Press, the Gillis Press, and the Plimpton Press. We are proud of the fact that every original drawing, every line of etching and engraving, and every page of printing are distinctly American products. The only product for which we have been obliged to go to foreign shores is our handmade paper. Whatever may be thought or said of our publi- cations by future generations, it cannot be denied that they are at least fairly represen- tative of the talent of the age and of the country in which they were produced, and as such, they will stand as silent and indisputable evidences through generations to come. A book club is a very difficult and complicated piece of mechanism to manage successfully, — much more so than a cold-blooded business enterprise. Discriminat;|f^ersons are usually "^^ very careful in selecting companions and adorn- ments for the home, where the refined tastes of wives and children are matters of consideration, no less important than their own individual tastes. A man's Club Books are usually his show books, partly because of personal association. [15] In entering upon a business proposition, men have but a single purpose, — to make money; but in joining a book club a man may be prompted by any one of a number of motives. When The Bibliophile Society was first organ- ized a great many invitations were sent out to various persons known to be interested in books, and these invitations were frequently passed on from one to another. In this way the prospec- tus sometimes fell into the hands of persons of an inquisitive or venturesome turn of mind. One of the present members once told me that a friend of his, who is a well-known book-collector, sent him a copy of the original invitation and prospectus merely as a joke. He said he had never bought but one set of books in his life, and he got badly *' stuck" on that. Knowing of this unfortunate deal, his book-collecting friend had never missed an opportunity to poke fun at him; and in forwarding the Bibliophile prospectus he endorsed it," Here 's another chance for you." He said he signed the application and sent it in, *'just to see what the game was." He subscribed for the first issue, and as he liked it he took the next. By that time his wife began to admire the books, and he continued his membership. Both he and his wife became [i6] interested in books and he has now collected a library of about three thousand choice volumes. The strange part of it is, that a couple of years later the friend who had jokingly sent him the papers applied for membership, and was on the waiting list more than a year before being admitted. Occasionally we find men, even among those of good standing in the business community, who join book clubs for the sole purpose of sell- ing the publications at a profit. During the past few years three or four such persons have been quietly dropped from our membership rolls, because it was discovered that as soon as they got their books they sent them to the auction- room. One of these men complained, and said that he supposed that he was fulfilling all mem- bership requirements if he subscribed for all the issues. There can be no objection to a man selling his books, if necessary, but the member- ship rolls of book clubs should be closed to per- sons who so flagrantly violate the principles of bibliophilism. There is but little toleration for those who outwardly wear the booklover's mask, but are continually gunning for profits on their book possessions. Books — particularly our club and association [17] books, on which a vast amount of gratuitous labor is spent — should be esteemed with more than a purely mercenary regard. They are not made to serve the purposes of speculators (whether club members or not) who treat books purely as objects of barter and traffic (it will of course be understood that this remark does not apply to legitimate dealers) ; they are made to gratify the book-loving propensities of biblio- philes, and if they accomplish this end, they serve faithfully the cause for which they are designed. The fact that club books, or in fact any books, are occasionally bid up to ridiculous figures in the auction-room does not furnish a standard by which their value, either as books or as merchandise, may be accurately measured. It is to be regretted that highly factitious values are frequently set upon books in the market, for thus they are apt to come to be regarded — even by bibliophiles of the genuine sect — as transportable assets of merchandise, rather than as companions and permanent fixtures of the home with which to gratify the higher and nobler senses. The restriction of a club mem- bership, and of the number of copies printed of each publication, is not necessarily designed [i8] to make the books rare or high-priced in the market. Speaking of cold-blooded commercialism, I once received a letter from a member of The Bibliophile Society, saying that he had been offered ;?200 for his membership, and asked if I thought the Council would be willing to ratify the transfer. A few years ago when the Andre Journal was announced, a member — well-to- do in the business community — wrote, saying that he was not particularly interested in the work, as he did n't care for early American history, and that he would be willing to sell his membership subscription rights on that work for ;^io. His initiation fee was promptly re- funded to him. It is a rather singular fact that book clubs seem to feel themselves called upon to monop- olize the issue of bibliographies and books about books. It would be much more exciting and profitable for the bibliophile, from the standpoint of entertainment, to make a collec- tion of dictionaries of all the languages. Pos- sibly once in a dozen years the voracious collector piay consult his bibliographical volume, but for the average booklover a copy of a Polish dic- tionary would be much more attractive, because [19] he could at least make up some fantastic story about it, and his friends could n't dispute it. There is sometimes a fine distinction to be drawn between the hook-collector and the book- lover. Most booklovers are collectors to a greater or less degree, but many collectors who hoard books in great numbers are not book- lovers in the true sense. The contents, and perhaps the exteriors, of their books are as entirely strange to them as though they were printed in Chinese characters. It may be as- sumed that the primary object in printing a book is that it may afford entertainment or instruction, or both, to the reader. Why, then, should book clubs insist upon directing their efforts along the line of books that are the least readable ? Perhaps we do not all read our books {personally I must plead guilty to not having read one-quarter of mine), but we delight in promising ourselves that sometime in the heyday of our old age we shall get around to them all. For my part, however, the bibliographies will be reserved till the last, with the fond hope that I shall never reach them. Those in charge of club publications assume grave responsibilities. They should remember that the mere fact that a volume is issued by a [20] book club, no matter how firmly its reputation be established, affords no adequate reason why the world at large, or even the members them- selves, should give it any particular notice, if it can claim no distinction other than that of being a club book. Each publication should lend credit to the club, instead of becoming its debtor by having to borrow the club's credit to sustain itself. But, on the other hand, let the lay members display a certain measure of toler- ance, and not be too severe in their criticism. If the gratuitous work of amateurs falls below that of well-paid professionals, it is nothing more than is to be expected. It is not probable, — indeed, it is scarcely possible, — that any issue will appeal alike to all the members; this would be too much to expect of any publica- tion, no matter how meritorious. There is a wide diversity of taste and opinion to be pam- pered, and the best that can be hoped for is that the majority may be pleased. An appreciative membership will encourage the workers in a book club, and the labor is made less irksome by an occasional expression of appreciation. Indeed, it would be impossible for a publication committee to do good work lone-handed with- out the moral support and encouragement of the [21] members. Fair-minded criticism likewise adds stimulus to the work in almost equal measure. A very common mistake that book clubs make is that many of their books are cumbersome and of irregular and inconvenient size. Some- times an awkward size results from some neces- sity, but more often not. The rules of good taste and convenience are frequently violated by setting a large solid page in small type, with insufficient margins, and having twice as many pages as there should be in a volume. It is not quantity that the booklover looks to, — it is quality. More than half the joy of possessing, handling and reading a book is lost to the book- lover if the size be of awkward and inconsistent proportions and the pages not properly set and spaced. The pleasure of handling and reading a beautiful book is trivial as compared with the enjoyment of showing it to admiring friends, especially if it's a book that can't be bought in the market. How much it adds to the joy of possession when we can lay out a beautiful book for our friend to feast his eyes upon, knowing all the while (and not forgetting to tell him) that a copy could n't be bought in the market for love or money ! This is not selfishness — it is a permissible heritage of the booklover's pride. [22] The book club is, as It rightfully should be, an important agency in promoting good-fellow- ship and a fraternal feeling among those of kindred tastes, whether united by personal association or only through bonds of sympathy; and in raising the standard of bookmaking to its proper sphere, in keeping with the advance- ments of the age. In the proper exercise of these functions its beneficent influence becomes general, not only among the members, but throughout the entire community of booklovers. Its publications are sought by many collectors outside the membership, who, though perhaps lacking in sentimental feeling toward the books, are none the less appreciative of their merits. It could be possible for a friendly rivalry to exist among book clubs, but there can scarcely be such a thing as competition among them. In this commercial age of cheap printing, cheap methods of illustration, and keen competition in nearly all lines of industry, most book pub- lishers appear no longer to endeavor to see how beautifully they may adorn their books with illustrative or emblematic titlepages, and etched or engraved illustrations on copper or steel, but rather, how cheaply and how quickly they can make them ready for the market. It is a lament- [23] able fact that the names of the few good engrav- ers and etchers that we have in this country are scarcely known among the pubHshers. Too little encouragement is given by publishers to this important branch of the Fine Arts. Indeed, I have been told by some of the best of these art- ists that they would gladly engage in some other more popular and remunerative line of work. It devolves upon our book clubs to lend all possible encouragement to the highest qualities of the arts employed in bookmaking, — in doing which we not only enrich ourselves, but we thereby endow posterity with a heritage that will live as a testimony to our labors long after we are forgotten. Gentlehien, I would not say a word that could be construed as reflecting upon the past achieve- ments of this club, for its publications would silently refute any such insinuation ; but as one of the members, I should be proud if we could begin a new and more productive era in pubHca- tion work. You notice I say we^ because, although a non-resident member, I do not feel myself such a stranger to the club and its wel- fare as to justify the use of the pronoun your. The social advantages of these beautiful club rooms are not within easy reach of the non- [24] resident members, and those residing at far distant points, who help support this club by their annual dues, pay this tribute chiefly for the privilege of subscribing for the club's pub- lications. The same is doubtless true of some of the resident members, who perhaps do not make frequent use of the club rooms. It there- fore devolves upon the publication committee to keep up its activities in order that no member, either resident or non-resident, may have oc- casion to ask himself why he is a member of this club, without finding a satisfactory answer expressed by the pubhcations themselves. It would be a mistake to suppose that a book club will just run itself by its own momentum. The theory of perpetual motion has never been successfully applied to our work, which must be kept under a constant head of steam. Fine books are the outgrowth of intelligent thought and artistic talent brought into harmonious com- bination, and while the finished product gives but a faint idea of the thousand and one details and vexations encountered in assembling the various arts during the process of evolution, yet it is the only visible sign by which the members and the world at large become acquainted with the ultimate achievements of our collaboration. [25] It is by our books, rather than our ambitions, that we shall be known and judged by con- temporary and future generations. The most important sinews of a book club consist of an active and intelligent publication committee, backed by the financial and moral support of the members, and this financial and moral support will not be found wanting if the work of the committee justifies it. [26]- PRINTED PRIVATELY FOR MR. HARPER BY THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. i"' UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY (mthelas^date stamped below. . r347 DEC 23 1947 : DEC 13^9'^^ ] DEC 2 8 1351 1 ^ OCi 1 6 1952 ^CT ] y 1953 NOV 1 9 1964 LD 21-100m-12,'46(A2012si6)4120 Gaylamount Pamphlet Binder Gaylord Bros.. Inc. Stockton, Calif. T.M. Reg. U.S. pat. Off. M85667 Z'^ H5 OQ THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY