Meet Interns Grace and Charlotte!
Grace Buck
Hi, Oak Knollers! My name is Grace Buck and I am a current sophomore at the University of Delaware. I am currently pursuing an English major with a minor in Advertising. I am from Chester Springs, Pennsylvania where I also work as a waitress when I am not away at school. I adore writing, reading, yoga, and traveling, and I am absolutely thrilled to be Oak Knoll’s newest team member this fall!
Originally, I had applied to UD as a biology major. This was a surprising decision, to both myself and everyone who knew me. Though I loved the natural world and loved learning about it, my endless passion for reading and writing made it an uncharacteristic choice. Quickly, however, I realized that while biology may be a subject I enjoy learning about, it was not the field where I would find the most happiness and fulfillment in my future career. I switched to English, made an entirely new schedule of classes, and began my freshman year. Having this experience working at Oak Knoll is only making me more certain that I am on the path that is best for me.
I cannot remember a time where books were not an influential part of life; my mom would read me and my siblings stories on end before bed, and when I was old enough I began reading anything and everything I could get my hands on. Growing up in a household filled with people and pets, I would hide away any chance I could and throw myself into a book. Though life has certainly gotten busier, I still pursue an avid love of reading, with my GoodReads account potentially being more active than my Instagram.
Because the English major can lead to a fairly broad field, I found myself (and still find myself) faced with the decision of where it will lead me and one milestone of this decision was finding Oak Knoll books. I was always incredibly interested in the book publishing field and the creation of books, but had very little knowledge of what it entailed, and very little idea how to learn. In the spring of last year, I decided to additionally purse an Advertising minor, as I thought obtaining a deeper knowledge of the business and marketing world would help me understand what it takes to make and sell a product, namely, books.
When I received an email from the English department asking for applications for an intern position at a book publishing company that specializes in books about books, I thought it could not be more perfect. I am so incredibly excited to learn all that I can from this experience and am so grateful that the staff has been so wonderfully welcoming! I can’t wait to get started!
Charlotte Brown
Hello all! My name is Charlotte Brown, and I am a current junior at the University of Delaware. I am currently majoring in English. During my time at UD, I have studied a broad range of literature and other topics, such as British and American literature, as well as literature in relation to gender, advertising, film and film history, and several creative writing classes. In addition to my position as intern at Oak Knoll, I work part-time in the UD library, helping to digitally preserve historical documents. When I am not studying or scanning old books, I enjoy reading, writing, hanging out with friends, and a myriad of other activities.
Despite not knowing what exactly I want to do as a full-time career, thanks to the English major’s broad range of options, I always knew I wanted to work with books in some capacity. Books have always been a major part of my life: I started reading children’s books at a very young age, but quickly grew bored and moved on to higher-level reading material. It used to be that I would read so much that my mother would have to ban me from doing so until I got some actual work done. Now, unfortunately, I don’t read as often as I used to. I hope that while at Oak Knoll, I will learn the inner workings of how a store is run and how books are created and published, but I also hope that being surrounded by so many physical books will re-inspire me to continue reading as I once did.
When I received an email from the English Department that asked for applications for an internship position at a bookstore/publisher, I knew immediately that I wanted this position. I can’t wait to learn as much as I can from this experience, and I am so happy that everyone has been so kind and welcoming! I can’t wait to get started!
The Story Behind Film Script Collecting
The Celluloid Paper Trail: Identification and Description of Twentieth Century Film Scripts just arrived at Oak Knoll Books! Author Kevin R. Johnson was kind enough to answer a few questions from the Oak Knoll staff. We learned about the major factors involved in establishing the value of a script, the Holy Grails of the script world, and the importance of evidence of use in value.
Do you want to know more about the story behind script collecting? See below for the full interview!
For Oak Knoll’s online listing for The Celluloid Paper Trail, available for immediate order, click here.
Kevin R. Johnson will also be holding a seminar to discuss The Celluloid Paper Trail at the Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair. See here for details.
Oak Knoll welcomes Erin Evans, our new “Generalist”
Erin just graduated from the University of Delaware, where she majored in English with minors in Journalism, Business, and Political Science. During her time there, she was a member of the service sorority Gamma Sigma Sigma (her favorite service project was Adopt-a-Highway) and a student editor for the literary magazine Caesura (she worked on Fiction for two years and then Creative Non-Fiction). She says her hobbies include “crafting, traveling, and adding the Oxford comma.”
Erin also progressed from a valuable intern last year, to part-time employee earlier this year, and finally to full-time assistant in all areas of antiquarian and publishing, and distribution—hence the title “Generalist.” Her immediate responsibilities are in marketing, photography, orders, cataloging, editing, and royalty reports, and she looks forward to gaining experience in the complexities of bookselling and publishing. We are delighted to have her on board.
“Victoria” is focused on the Great Exhibition for the finale this Sunday. Don’t miss it, and don’t miss our book on the photography of that event!
As fans of “Victoria” on PBS Masterpiece, we were pleased to note that the season 3 finale focuses on the 1851 Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, held in the magnificent “Crystal Palace” erected in Hyde Park for that event.
We worried that the show had skipped over the Great Exhibition when they focused on the London cholera outbreak of 1854 a few episodes back. Apparently they were just taking poetic license with the chronology in order to end with a bang on Albert’s great contribution and the historic event itself.
If you’re a fan of the show, or interested in the Victorian period, check out Anthony Hamber’s groundbreaking study of the photographic record, Photography and the 1851 Great Exhibition, published in 2018 by Oak Knoll Press and V&A Publishing.
The Great Exhibition was the genesis of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Published in part to to accompany the opening of the V&A Photography Centre, this book makes extensive use of the V&A collections and archival material related to the 1851 Great Exhibition.
“Any student of early photography — or of the international exposition housed in the famous Crystal Palace in London — will covet this magisterial work of careful scholarship and beautiful bookmaking.”
— Michael Dirda,
The Washington Post
Now at a special price through Sunday, March 10. Click HERE.
In the NY Times, Simon Critchley explores the mysteries of Athens with Kostas Staikos as guide, (while Oak Knoll holds a Staikos sale)…
Konstantinos Sp. Staikos has been an authority on the history of the library for over 30 years and has had a close relationship with Oak Knoll Press, publishing 18 titles with us since 2000. He is featured in Simon Critchley’s opinion series for the New York Times, “The Stone,” as Critchley’s expert guide in three columns headed “Athens in Pieces”: “The Art of Memory” (Jan. 30), “The Stench of the Academy” (Feb. 6), and “In Aristotle’s Garden” (Feb. 18.). (Click HERE to read the articles.)
(Coincidentally — I promise! — we are having a one-week sale of the remarkable books authored by Staikos and published with Oak Knoll, at discounts up to 50% off. Browse the sale HERE.)
Critchley’s third column ends, “I saw the ground was littered with tiny delicate snail shells, no bigger than a fingernails, scattered like empty scholars’ backpacks. My partner gave me one, and I put it in my pocket. I had it on my desk right in front of me as I was writing this. Inadvertently, I crushed it to pieces under the weight of one of Mr. Staikos’s huge tomes on the history of libraries. There’s probably a moral in this, but it escapes me.”
Indeed!
A Discovery on the Josef Halfer Assembly Line
As intern Erin Evans and I were tipping in swatches created by Dick Wolfe for Josef Halfer and the Revival of the Art of Marbling Paper, we came across a Chevron pattern swatch with a “recipe” on the back in Dick’s hand. We sit down once a week to complete a few dozen more copies, carefully inserting 17 unique swatches in each. We’re making good progress and will have them all done soon, keeping an eye out for any more notes as we go.
– Matthew
The new Oak Knoll Press publishing catalogue is online!
Our new publishing and distribution catalogue is out, with exciting new and recent titles from Oak Knoll Press and our distribution partners, including (among others) the Grolier Club, The Cotsen Children’s Library, Penn Libraries, the Center for Book Arts, the Smithsonian, and CODEX.
Featured new Oak Knoll Press titles: Photography and the 1851 Great Exhibition by Anthony Hamber (co-published with the V&A); Robert Granjon, letter-cutter by Hendrik Vervliet; Monique Lallier: A Retrospective (co-published with Guilford College Art Gallery); the Oak Knoll Fest XX Portfolio; and Richard Wolfe’s final two projects: Josef Halfer and the Revival of the Art of Marbling Paper and the new edition of Marbled Paper: Its History, Techniques and Patterns.
To browse the entire catalogue online or as a PDF, click here.
Forthcoming from Oak Knoll Press!
Available for order now, ships in October…
Photography and the 1851 Great Exhibition by Anthony Hamber, published with the Victoria & Albert Museum publishing division, is the first comprehensive study of the seminal gathering of photographs and photographic equipment that marked the global launch of the form. Click HERE for more information.
Monique Lallier: A Retrospective is the catalogue for a forthcoming exhibition at the Guilford College Art Gallery in Greensboro, NC (October 29, 2018 to January 6, 2019). “A prolific and endlessly inventive designer with flawless technical mastery…” (Theresa Hammond, Director and Curator). Click HERE for more information.
Meet Interns Erin and Sarah!
Erin Evans
I am a rising senior English major at the University of Delaware with minors in Business, Journalism, and Political Science. I have studied a variety of subjects ranging from Shakespeare and British epic poems to marketing and the design of online information. I enjoy creative writing courses on poetry and have participated as a fiction editor in the student literary magazine Caesura.
As a student considering a career in publishing, what better place to intern than one specializing in “books about books”? As a Delaware native, I have always appreciated the beauty of old New Castle, and I believe the history of the area is not only evident in Oak Knoll’s unique home, but also in the books housed within.
From the moment I walked through the door, I was in awe of the surrounding shelves of beauty and knowledge. I have gained a better understanding of the world of bookselling and publishing through my work at Oak Knoll!
Sarah Smith
I am a rising junior at the University of Delaware, majoring in English with minors in History and Linguistics. I have focused my coursework on poetry, British and American history, and English linguistics.
I began playing the violin as a child, and early on I realized that my heart belonged in two worlds: literature and music. When my family visited historical sites along the East Coast, I gravitated towards antique books. I began my own small collection of poetry, which now includes Tennyson’s works published in 1878 and an edition of Cyrano de Bergerac in French.
I arrived at Old New Castle and recalled being here as a child. Upon entering Oak Knoll for the first time, I was greeted by many books and a friendly pup. I knew then that I was in the right place. I met a remarkable family here, their chemistry creating a comfortable atmosphere for a newcomer eager to learn about the bookseller and publishing business.
Marbled Paper by Richard J. Wolfe is back in print!
When first published in 1990 by the University of Pennsylvania in connection with the A. S. W. Rosenbach Fellowship in Bibliography, Marbled Paper was immediately recognized as the most comprehensive study of the art marbling to that point, and its status has not diminished over the years. For that reason, and with the goal of making it available again to scholars, students, and practitioners of marbling, Oak Knoll Press is pleased to be able to present the second edition with corrections.
Available this month: https://www.oakknoll.com/pages/books/128896/richard-j-wolfe/marbled-paper-its-history-techniques-and-patterns
The Oak Knoll Biblio-Blog 