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)

sentiment for things to come

In his last contribution Sheldon Cheney shared what the Book-Plate Booklet project meant to him. It is my opinion that Alfred Fowler would come to hold similiar sentiments. Working behind the scenes has its own rewards. The following highlights were my own. KM

#######  May 1910, Volume 3, Number 3  #########
WITH this issue the Book-plate Booklet makes its last bow to the book-plate world. No further issues will be prepared under the present editor's guidance---though it is to be hoped that other venturesome spirits will come forward and continue the magazine's work. But personally I am through with it---tonight I am writing my last word for a publication which has been much with me these last four years. It has been a true companion, bringing its little worries and greater joys. As a financial venture it has not been a success. I fancy it will be many, many months before I can---with a clear conscience---cross off the several records of loans from myself, all properly registered in the Booklet's accounts. Nor has the magazine been eminently successful as a peridoical publication. It began modestly enough, announced to appear "occasionally." But with the second number ambition overcame better judgment, and the word "quarterly" appeared in the heading. After the first year the periods between the dates of issue gradually lengthened, until with the issue before this the adjective "occasional" again took its long-earned place, the number being one year behind quarterly schedule. It is only one more proof that personal magazines cannot be regular.  The material that is worth publishing does not come at stated intervals and expected times. But if there has been failures in the Booklet's life, there have been certain successes. Certainly I personally have gained much from the Booklet. The varied life of a publisher must always be interesting, and I shall long treasure the letters I have received, with sincere appreciation of the magazine expressed by understanding collectors. The friendships I have made are the greatest pleasures I have had in the Booklet. I have often thought how like we collectors are to a nation of citizens, looking up with undisputed loyalty to our princes, the artists. Our feeling toward these creators of the exquisite prints we gather, is one of reverence.  The Booklet has brought me in pleasant contact with many of these fine men. I have letters from that king of English engravers, Mr. Sherborn. Our own Mr. Hopson I may count among my intimate friends. Mr. Spencely, that nature-poet of the book-plate world, I have known. Mr. Stone, Mr. Plank, Mr.Cross, Mr. Fischer, Dr. Noll, Mr. Kirby, Dr. Clark---these all have helped the Booklet and have become my friends.  There are those too, who have written for the Booklet---I have come to know then well in other ways. To Charles Dexter Allen the reader owes more than he knows---as certainly I do. My thanks are due to Georgia Medora Preston and Olive Percival both a contributors and friends. And the list of the Booklet's closest friends would not be complete without Mr. Prescott, Mr. Brewer, Dr. Potter, Miss Wheeler, Mr. Ammann, and Mr. Brainerd. All these, I believe, felt a personal interest in the magazine.  The Booklet may die, but the friendship of these men and women I keep. Yes, I have gained from my little magazine. And you (I had almost said "dear subscriber"), you who have read the several numbers, have gained something, I believe, from these many artists and writers. So I do not mourn the discontinuance of the Booklet as the end of a venture which has failed of any worthy accomplishment. There have been ups and downs in this little publishing business as there must be in all life. But good has come out of it, as it must wherever there is sincerity and honest effort. As I look on the four years there are no lasting regrets. But now I am ready to step down, and to let another take the place I have found so full of pleasant experience. So a joyful farewell to you, reader---with just a passing pang of pain that our little medium of these past four years must die.

(courtesy of Sheldon Cheney, The Bookplate Booklet, May 1909, Volume 3, Number 2, pp. 71, 72, Missouri Valley Special Collection, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, accessed March 21, 2010)
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Karl comments: In the above selection Mr. Stone was a Chicago bibliophile and publisher of Herbert S. Stone & Company. (His name appears on page 4 of the Olive Percival booklet) A chap-book published by Herbert Stone & Company may be seen HERE, http://archive.org/stream/storieschapbook00editrich#page/n9/mode/2up.
accessed Oct 21, 2012)

(links to Charles William Sherborn, The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler, http://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/correspondence/people/biog/?bid=Sher_1;  William Fowler Hopson, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?ID=2300a; J.Winfred Spenceley, Fred Geary: Swept Up By The Revival, http://carrollton-wood-engraver.blogspot.com/2010/03/introducing-artists.html;  Charles Dexter Allen, Open Library.org, http://archive.org/stream/exlibrisessaysof00allerich#page/n7/mode/2up;
 Olive Percival, Open Library.org, http://archive.org/stream/olivepercivallos00apos#page/n3/mode/2up;  accessed Oct 19, 2012)

predecessor

In 1906 Sheldon Cheney ran a little magazine while attending the California School of Arts and Crafts. Double click on image to enlarge.

In his1974 interview with Suzanne Riess Sheldon explained:  "I had published a little magazine here while I was in college. I had been the editor of the Olla Podrida---the Berkley High School paper. Then when I came to college I did a little for the Occident and the Californian, but somehow I got the idea of publishing my own magazine. I was interested in book collecting---I was going to be a rare book collector...that kind of faded out." (first interview, page 8)
     "I published this little magazine. It was called a quarterly. What I did was to get out the first number and then wait until I'd sold enough copies of that, and then I'd get out the second issue. I think I put out three years of that. It's probably in the University library. As a matter of fact, I saw to it that the California Bookplate Society had its home (supposedly) at the University; so I thought if they accumulated a collection of bookplates and a collection of books that were made at the University."
     "The name of the quarterly was the Book Plate Booklet.
 The first issue we got out said Californian Bookplates, and then the rest of the issues were called the Book Plate Booklet. (first interview May 24, 1974)
(courtesy of The Bancroft Library, Jim Kantor,
Suzanne Riess, and Judith Johnson, 
http://archive.org/stream/conversationswit00chenrich#page/n1/mode/2up, accessed Oct 18, 2012)

Sheldon Cheney was an etcher and editor from Berkeley, California. He produced the Book Plate Booklet Volume 1 (1906-1907), Volume 2 (1908), and Volume 3 (1909-1910). The booklet measured 5 by 7 inches. "Address all business and editorial communications to the editor, P.O.Box 307, Berkeley, California."

In 1911 Cheney's endeavor was passed on the Alfred Fowler from Kansas City, Missouri. Fowler continued the Book Plate Booklet with the format Cheney began, with four issues in 1911. Then in 1912 Fowler changed the format to a 10 by 12 inch booklet, printed on Italian handmade paper. He did all the work himself, including setting the type, sewing the covers, and pasting the inserts. He gave the edition of four hundred Ex-Libran. "Address all business and editorial communications to the editor, 3 East Armour Boulevard, Kansas City, Mo, U.S.A."
(Link on California School of Arts and Crafts, http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h3071.html ; Sheldon Cheney link, courtesy of Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Warren_Cheney; California Book Plate Society under Sheldon Cheney, http://www.flickr.com/photos/prattinstitutelibraries/3247838451/in/photostream/, accessed Oct 19, 2012)