venturesome spirit

Ten months after California etcher Sheldon Cheney stepped away from the Book Plate Booklet project, one of his subscribers decided to carry that vision forward. The new editor was a young grain broker in Kansas City, Missouri. His name was H. Alfred Fowler.  

 

 

     The "venturesome spirit" has "come forth" and once more the Book-Plate Booklet will make a bid for the approval of the book-plate world---or rather, it will make an effort to maintain this approval, which it already possesses, and prove worthy of a continuation of the support it has so long enjoyed under the editorship of Mr. Sheldon Cheney.

     When the editorial for the last number was written it seemed the the Booklet was doomed to die, but after the publication was on the press---just at the last moment---the "venturesome spirit" as Mr. Cheney puts it, came forth and for awhile at least the Booklet will maintain its place as the only periodical published in the English language devoted entirely to the subject of Book-plates.

      And it is a cause well worthy of being maintained. The ranks of modern American designers have suffered heavily but really commendable work continues to go on. The English designers are still at work turning out good designs and wonderful heraldic achievements and the Continental designers are constantly busy---although the latter are a bit beyond our province just at this time. But whether the work is American or English, it needs constant attention.

     Then there are the old plates. What has been said and written concerning them has far from exhausted the field, as a matter of fact we are in a better position today than ever before to develop that field. There does not seem to be such a strong tendency at present to collect and discuss the old plates and yet new varieties of old plates are constantly appearing and affording wonderful vistas for research and establishment of data. An old plate is always interesting, perhaps in a different manner than a modern example, but certainly worthy of our best attention.

     The enthusiasm of collectors has not suffered a decline---it is simply finding more difficulty is expressing itself. The American Ex Libris Journal was in existence but one year, the English Ex Libris Journal flourished for eighteen years but was suddenly discontinued, leaving the Booklet as the sole means of expression on the subject of book-plates in the English language. There are many foreign Ex Libris Societies publishing journals but they are devoted almost entirely to plates of their own nationality---and these plates permit of a different treatment than that necessary for our modern American and English plates.

     Mr. Cheney has said that the Booklet has not been financially successful, and that is ordinarily a rather serious defect. But enthusiasm should overcome the objection to lack of gain if the Booklet can only be made to maintain itself. And that is all I ask---that the proposition be not a loser even though it may not prove what would ordinarily be termed a successful financial venture. If my work may prove worthy of approbation it will have proven its own reward.

     So will all good intentions we shall strive to add at least one more successful volume to the existence of the Book-Plate Booklet and we shall try to make it a worhty successor to those that have gone before.

 

(courtesy of Alfred Fowler,The Bookplate Booklet, March 1911, Volume 4, Number 1, pp. 8,9, Missouri Valley Special Collection, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, accessed March 21, 2010)