[ back ]
Washington U. library hosts miniature books exhibition
(by Tim Woodcock - April 09, 2008)
To rare books collector Julian Edison smaller is better.
Julian Edison’s obsession with miniature books began when his wife of 50 years gave him a tiny, nine-volume set of the complete works of Shakespeare for their first wedding anniversary. “I was intrigued and that is what started the chase,” he said.
His collection has grown steadily since then, through relationships with book dealers, purchases at auctions and by scouring flea markets and antique stores for these small wonders.
Edison, a retired businessman who lives in Ladue, has loaned a portion of his collection of miniature books to Washington University’s Olin Library to create an exhibit called Miniature Books: 4,000 Years of Tiny Treasures. He also co-wrote a book of the same name that came out last year; the chapters of that book are the organizing principles of the show. The exhibit has also appeared in an expanded form at New York’s Grolier Club, an organization that promotes the book arts.
Miniature books are defined as those being 3 inches by 3 inches or smaller in size. In most cases, however, they can be read by the naked eye — only the turning of the pages must be done more frequently than when reading a regular-size book, and it must be done with more delicacy.
There are three impulses for creating a book in miniature form, Edison said. Firstly, they are objects of curiosity (often soliciting the question: “How did they do that?”); secondly, their size almost automatically makes them items of aesthetic admiration; and thirdly, and perhaps less obviously, their size can have a practical purpose.
Miniature books can be carried with you at all times, Edison said. The exhibit includes several examples of miniature Bibles and Korans, as well as various devotional books. “Thumb Bibles” were seen as a way to capture children’s attention and set them on the right moral path.
Miniature almanacs were popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. Almanacs contained a hodge-podge of information, including holidays, tide schedules, names of government officials and currency exchange rates. It was a useful tool to have on hand in the days before BlackBerrys, and the miniature versions were especially portable, Edison said.
Maybe the best-known tiny book in the world is Mao Tse Tung’s Little Red Book, one of several examples of political propaganda in the exhibit. The book contains advice intended to “keep the masses in line” during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Edison said. At one point it was policy for Chinese citizens to have a copy of the book with them at all times.
On the other end of the political spectrum, there are several pieces of Nazi propaganda that feature photos of Hitler on the front, while the pages inside are topical tracts about Hitler’s recent achievements. These were given out in return for donations to the Nazi Party, and doubled as lapel pins.
Similar mass-produced curiosities had their moments in the U.S., too. Theodore Roosevelt’s 1904 presidential campaign circulated The Facts about the Candidate in miniature-book form, and it appeared not only in English but also in German, Yiddish and Danish. And Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation was first published in book form as a pamphlet measuring a little more than 3 inches in height. A million copies were distributed to slaves and to Union soldiers, but most of these have been destroyed or disappeared, making the one in Edison’s collection something of a rarity.
But the days of mass-produced miniature books are probably behind us now, Edison said.
Most of the ones being produced today are best described as art books. For example, Maryline Poole’s limited edition of 55 Matryoshka books exploits the familiar conceit of Russian dolls. In addition to cramming four books inside the largest, which measures 2-13/16 inches by 2-1/4 inches, they also feature movable illustrations.
Equally delicate is Pat Baldwin’s miniature book Monarch, which describes the annual migration of the monarch butterflies on hand-painted pages that fold out like a concertina and are shaped like butterfly wings. The text is in the form of a series of haikus.
What is most impressive about Edison’s collection is the sheer scope of the miniature books he has accumulated, said Erin Davis, a university curator of rare books who helped install the exhibit.
The exhibit, which opened March 17, has been “a real crowd-pleaser, probably one of our most popular,” she said.
Miniature Books: 4,000 Years of Tiny Treasures is on display through June 6 in the Gingko Reading Room of Washington University’s Olin Library. Visit www.library.wustl.edu/about/hours.html for a list of the times when the library is open to the public.
E-mail the author
[ back ]
