The Building of a Book / A Series of Practical Articles Written by Experts in the Various Departments of Book Making and Distributing

A SERIES OF PRACTICAL ARTICLES WRITTEN BY EXPERTS IN THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF BOOK MAKING AND DISTRIBUTING
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THEODORE L. DE VINNE
EDITED BY FREDERICK H. HITCHCOCK

THE GRAFTON PRESS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
Copyright, 1906, By THE GRAFTON PRESS. Published December, 1906.
Dedicated TO READERS AND LOVERS OF BOOKS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY
The Building of a Book had its origin in the wish to give practical, non-technical information to readers and lovers of books. I hope it will also be interesting and valuable to those persons who are actually engaged in book making and selling.
All of the contributors are experts in their respective departments, and hence write with authority. I am exceedingly grateful to them for their very generous efforts to make the book a success.
THE EDITOR.

To the hasty observer printing seems the simplest of arts or crafts. The small boy who has been taught to spell can readily arrange lettered blocks of wood in readable words, and that arrangement is rated by many as the great feature of printing. With his toy printing-press he can stamp paper upon inked type in so deft a manner that admiring friends may say the print is good enough for anybody. The elementary processes of printing are indeed so simple that they might have justified Dogberry in adding typography to the accomplishments of the reading and writing that come by nature. With this delusion comes the desire for amateur performance. Men who would not undertake to make a coat or a pair of shoes are confident of their ability to make or to direct the making of a book.