The Lists
Why Easton Press Makes Leather-Bound Books
What is it about a book that makes people want them in beautiful, dressed up editions?
I think about that question in one way or another every day.
And I keep coming back to the thought that the act of reading is about as intimate as art can get.
Until you pick up a book – until you engage it – it might as well just be black marks on white pages. But once you do, the funny little black marks that go into a book have a strange way of reaching into our pasts and referencing every experience and insight we’ve ever had. Good books inspire us to re-think and re-frame those experiences and insights. The best ones, actually become new experiences for us.
The truth is that Alice’s adventures do not play out in Wonderland. Odysseus’s fantastic voyage does not take place on the Aegean Sea. And Huck Finn and Jim do not run away on the Mississippi River.
Those adventures take place in us and through us when we read.
In a mysterious and magical way, a book actually allows someone else to think thoughts in our heads. And in an equally mysterious way, those thoughts can somehow also become ours. And that can change us forever.
How much more intimate than that can art get?
Which brings us back to beautiful leather-bound editions.
While there may be a place in this world for e-book readers, the very quality that allows an electronic device to offer an infinite variety of texts is the same quality that makes it impossible to make any single text special … meaningful … important.
That’s exactly what a beautiful edition does so well.
A beautiful leather-bound edition is a symbol that allows us to recall the wonderful experience of reading a great book by just looking at it. More than that, it is a way of saying back to a book, “You matter to me. You made a difference in my life.”
It is only because books can so mark and enrich our lives that leather-bound editions exist … because books can give us meaning … because books can make us say, “I’d never thought of it like that before” … and “yes, that’s exactly the way it is for me, too.”
They exist because books can be precious to us.
They exist for the books we love.
A Leather-Bound Family Bible
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If 
an American household has only one leather-bound book, the odds are it’s a Bible.
I remember a note I got several years ago from Kevin about our leather-bound Family Bible.
Kevin’s family used to celebrate Christmas at his Grandfather’s house every year when he was a boy. There was a tree, of course. And presents. And children filled with anticipation about what was inside.
But before the presents were opened, Kevin’s grandfather would always bring down the old Bible that had been in the family for generations and read the familiar words of the Christmas story.
That old Family Bible made quite an impression on Kevin.
Every year, he’d notice some change that had been recorded in the Family Record. One year, it would be a new baby. Another year, there might be a wedding. And, sadly, once in a while there would be a record of a family member passing.
As the years went by, somehow Kevin lost track of the old Family Bible. It was probably still in the family, but he didn’t know where. So every year, it just seemed like an important piece of Christmas was missing.
Kevin was inspired to write to me with this story because he had just purchased the Easton Press Leather-Bound Family Bible illustrated with Rembrandt artwork and featuring an elegant Family Records section.“I opened the carton, and instantly felt like I was right back at my Grandfather’s house,” I recall Kevin saying. He went on to share that he had already started giving the Family Bible to special friends as a Christmas gift, and was now starting his own family tradition by giving a Family Bible to each of his children at the time they got married.
Favorite Books
When people find out I’m the guy behind the books that Easton Press offers in beautiful leather-bound editions, their next question almost always begins with the words, “Oh, do you publish [insert their favorite title here]?”
The titles they ask about vary, but the excitement that a favorite book might be immortalized in a collectible deluxe edition is constant.
That always makes me think about my own favorite leather-bound books.
Call me fickle, but after 21 years heading up Easton’s editorial board, my favorites are usually the books that I’m working on.
Right now, for instance, there’s –
- An extraordinary 8-volume set from the time of Lincoln’s centennial that collects his Complete Writings.
- A set of Plutarch’s Lives, one of the landmark works of the classical work, in a remarkable illustrated edition that dates back to 1693.
- A powerful edition of Twelve Years a Slave, the true-life source for the Academy Award-winning film, in the original 1853 edition that the author Solomon Northup would have seen for himself.
- A beautifully illustrated copy of Myths of Greece and Rome in an edition dating back over a century.
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, one of the greatest American children’s stories ever written, in its original fully illustrated format.
And, of course, there’s also the upcoming … well, maybe, we should keep that one secret for a little while longer.
The list goes on and on. But, what’s your favorite leather-bound book? Leave a comment and let me know, or, better yet, visit our site, and maybe you’ll discover a whole new love.
The Books for Your Shelves 