William Landay

Official website of the author

bookplates

Bookplates are back

Bookplate

The last bookplate giveaway was so popular, we blew through my supply in just a few weeks. But a new shipment just arrived, and this bookplate is even nicer than the last — beautiful letterpress printing on thick paper. Even better than a plain old signed book. And your showoff friends who read the ebook on their fancy iPads will be sick with envy. (A photo of the full bookplate is here.)

For those of you who missed it the first time around, this is just my way of saying thank you to readers who can’t get to a reading to have their books signed in person. There’s no charge. Just send me your snail mail address and any special inscription you might want (“For Uncle Marvin on his 73rd birthday…”). Reminder: for security reasons, don’t post your mailing address in the comments section. Send it to me in an email (you can use the form here).

Thanks again, everyone.

Ex Libris

I’ve just received a new shipment of these bookplates. They are for readers who would like a signed book but can’t make it to a book signing. If you’d like one, just email me with your address and, if you want a personal inscription, what you would like it to say. There is no charge. It’s just a way of saying “thank you” to readers. (Click the image to view full sized.)

A little background on the design. The woodcut illustration is by the artist Rockwell Kent. It was originally commissioned by the Antioch Bookplate Company for a mass-market bookplate in the 1950s. Those Antioch bookplates used to be very common. You could find them at any bookstore. They were tasteful, inexpensive and, for the genteel middle class, a little aspirational. (My mom had them.)

Kent was a prolific bookplate designer. Most of his work was for friends and private clients, though, like the plate on the left. (Source. More examples here and here. There is even a book on Kent’s bookplates.) The series he designed for Antioch made it possible for everyone to have a Rockwell Kent bookplate.

Antioch stopped printing bookplates a few years ago, but Karen Gardner has continued the business under the name Bookplate Ink, where you can still get many of the old Rockwell Kent designs.

Personally, I love Kent’s art. So when it came time to order a bookplate for my readers, I asked Karen if she would modify one of Kent’s designs to make a little more space for a signature and inscription, since the original design left only enough space for the owner’s name. I cribbed the “compliments of” line from a similar bookplate offered by Alain de Botton, and the result is what you see above.

I admit it’s a little loony to spend so much time thinking about bookplates. In the age of ebooks, soon there may be nothing to stick them on. All the more reason to enjoy them now.