By A.W. Lewis

Re-published by Dover - Paperback from the 1952 Edition.  144 pages, 261 black & white illustrations. 13.5cm x 20.5cm

Starting from basic principles and assuming no previous experience, this modern exposition of the elements of bookbinding enables both the beginner and the expert to apply the latest and most simplified techniques to rebinding old favourites and binding many new paperback books.

A complete list of all necessary materials, including a guide to the proper selection of tools, paper, glue, boards, cloth and leather covering fabrics and lettering inks and pigments, introduces the subject. In surprisingly easy stages, you are shown how to collate a book, sew it, back it, trim it, make boards and attach them to the book. Step-by-step instructions and hundreds of photographs and diagrams of equipment and key operations reduce the process to essentials.

Individual chapters are devoted to single-sectioned, multi-sectioned and case-bound books, hollow-backed and library style binding, the use of end papers and the most practical methods of lettering the finished book. The author includes a valuable appendix which summaries the precise steps followed in each operation in convenient tabular form.

This elementary text is simple enough for the beginner yet contains new material of interest to the expert. Basic Bookbinding avoids intricate techniques and elaborate equipment. Mr. Lewis, twice first prize-winner in national competition, presents the Subject with the clarity born of many years of experience in teaching bookbinding.