This article from Abebooks.com reminds us of one of the perks of finding a dread mistake in a book:

typos can help discern a first printing from a second

A mistake is always terrible to realize, but it is a bit of a gift to future bibiliographers.

A pretty happy message to wake up to, huh?

Good morning!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for another SUPERB presentation of our work!!! I just downloaded the file that Stephanie sent and I started to cry. I am so happy with what you have done with our manuscript. NOBODY could have equaled your creative eye and attention to detail. I thank you so very much.

Time to start looking at the pages!!! This is like winning the lottery!

One of my favorite parts of the design for Overland Journal is the title page for each article. Shown here is the feature article from the summer 2014 issue, which was completed in August. Interesting lettering on top of a striking image help catch the reader’s eye and draw them in to the text, and it gives me a chance to use swashes and ornaments, like that loop off the ‘s’ in ‘arrieros’.

Shown here also is a variation on the idea. This is a regular column run in each issue, but we usually only have two pages to devote to it. The author often sends a beautiful image that would not make nearly the impact if run at a quarter or even half page, but the space considerations prevented giving it a full page with just a title. So here we do the title plus the first paragraph on the nice open sky, while allowing the subject of the photo (Oregon Trail landmarks Courthouse Rock on the left, Jail Rock on the right) much larger than we’d otherwise be able to. I also like to set off the beginning of articles by this author (Dave Welch), as the topic of trail preservation is an important one to the organization (the Oregon-California Trails Association), and his writing style–not too flowery and to the point–suits the highlight.

Capital A Publications has its own mini soccer team! Let’s hope they have a fun season.

This is the eighth anniversary of Capital A Publications! I remember my very first day very clearly–spent in my temporary office, working on the index for The Land Beyond: Italian Migrants in the Westward Movement, by Dr. Gloria Lothrop, and later going to the office-supply store to buy a big bag of rubber bands. Since then, I’ve moved into a real office, but I’m still going through that stash of rubber bands.

My workflow has improved over the course of producing nearly ninety (!) books and over sixty journal issues since that day in 2006, but I continue to do indexes and remain fascinated by the materials and humbled by the amazing authors and brilliant collaborators I have had the pleasure of working with.

A new book just came in from the printer, and I’m very excited about it. George Carson: Los Angeles Pioneer, by Judson A. Grenier, is another collaboration with the Historical Society of Southern California. Grenier’s association with the Carson family began in 1972, so the book has been a long time coming! The result of his years of labor is an easy read, with a lot of photos that put faces to the many Carson family members discussed in the biography.

From the back cover:

Among the pioneers who shaped the county of Los Angeles in the nineteenth century, few men played a more decisive role than George Carson. Although a city of more than ninety thousand people bears his name, history books offer little mention of him and his accomplishments.

Born along the Erie Canal in central New York, Carson was reared near Chicago, enlisted as a drummer boy during the war with Mexico and marched west to the Spanish settlement of Santa Fe, where, after discharge, he began a career supplying American outposts in the West. In 1853, he drove a flock of sheep from Mexico to Los Angeles and settled in the central city as hardware store owner and livery stable operator. Carson’s business and fraternal connections won him a seat on the town council and soon thereafter, the elected office of County Public Administrator. In 1857 he married Victoria Dominguez, daughter of Manuel Dominguez, longtime owner of Rancho San Pedro, the first Spanish land grant. Carson assumed management of the ranch and introduced large-scale sheep raising and diversified agriculture and later participated in one of the most intensive land surveys ever attempted in the county. He led the development of Redondo Beach, Terminal Island with its rail lines, the port of Los Angeles, and other communities, all from land once part of the Rancho San Pedro. At Carson’s funeral in 1901, he was celebrated as one of the most influential pioneers in local history. This biography aims to restore his place in the annals of his adopted homeland.

I copyedited and designed the text, which turned out beautifully, but the covers are the part that I am particularly proud of.

The paperback cover, shown above, has a matte cover with a shiny gloss on the white border and title. It is subtle, but I like how it highlights the signature used for the title. Because Carson has not been included in history books, I wanted his name to be very prominent in this one.

For the hardcover, we used gold stock for the end papers, which echoes the brilliant gold stamping on the front cover. As with the paperback, the George Carson signature is the focus–the subtitle and author name are blind stamped in the leather binding. It was hard to simulate in a file what the blind stamping would look like, but Pat Adler-Ingram, the head of HSSC, took the leap with me and was very pleased with the result.

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George Carson: Los Angeles Pioneer by Judson A. Grenier · Los Angeles: Historical Society of Southern California, 2014 · 208 pages · 56 maps and illus. · index · 7 x 10 · ISBN 978-0-914421-35-1 (hardcover); ISBN 978-0-914421-34-4 (paperback)

The spring 2014 Overland Journal has just gone to the printer! Here is the mailing wrap (more about why we do the wrap here). On the cover of this issue is Karl Bodmer’s Funeral Scaffold of a Sioux Chief, engraving with aquatint, 1839. Museum Purchase, Museum of Nebraska Art Collection.

From OJ’s editor, Marlene Smith-Baranzini:

The smart readers know that if the design isn’t great, the words also don’t come off that well. You have enhanced both.

The end product of another great collaboration!

I saw this artwork at the new Journalism building at the University of Montana, where I went to school. The artist is Lloyd G. Schermer, the former publisher of the Missoulian, and the sculpture is composed of antique wood type, engravings, and foundry type.