Books about Books: A History and Bibliography of Oak Knoll Press, 1978–2008 (review)

Oak Knoll Press, a division of the antiquarian bookselling business Oak Knoll Books, is a familiar name to special collections librarians, bibliophiles, bookbinders, and printers. Specializing in publishing books about books, Oak Knoll Press has made an important and lasting contribution to the field of bibliography. Between its founding by Robert D. Fleck in 1978 and the end of 2008, the press published or copublished 320 titles. These include reprints and new editions of classics in the field of books about books such as John Carter's ABC for Book Collectors and Ronald McKerrow's An Introduction to Bibliography as well as new titles by both established and upcoming writers in the field. The firm marked its thirtieth anniversary by releasing Books about Books, which provides a brief history of Oak Knoll Press and an annotated bibliography of its 320 publications.

The book's well-illustrated section on the history of Oak Knoll Press is written in a casual style, resulting in more of a cheerful overview than a penetrating analysis. As such, it will be of interest in particular to friends and acquaintances of the press. It consists mainly of Fleck's personal reminiscences about the development of the press, such as individuals' involvement in Oak Knoll projects and the difficulty in obtaining adequate space to house both the bookselling and publishing businesses. (Oak Knoll has now settled quite comfortably into the Old Opera House in New Castle, Delaware.) This section would benefit from more information on the process of selecting publication titles, for example, or on the relationship between authors and the publisher.

The primary value of Books about Books is in its bibliography rather than its history. Beginning chronologically with Oak Knoll's first publication in 1978, the bibliography covers all 320 Oak Knoll publications produced through December 2008. Each entry is arranged as follows: bibliography number, author, title and subtitle, description, copublisher if applicable (Oak Knoll frequently copublishes its titles with another literary body such as the British Library or the American Antiquarian Society), page count, type of binding, and Oak Knoll's inventory number.

Perusing the bibliography, one is struck by the breadth and quality of published titles in Oak Knoll's self-selected specialty of books about books. Oak Knoll acquired the rights to a number of heavy-hitters in the field of bibliography such as Jacob Blanck's Bibliography of American Literature and Philip Gaskell's A New Introduction to Bibliography. Oak Knoll has also published or republished many important books on the practice of bookbinding, such as Jane Greenfield and Jenny Hille's Headbands, and on the history of printing, including S. H. Steinberg's Five Hundred Years of Printing. Each book description is informative, often placing the title in a broader context of print and bibliographic history, as in this example from entry 89 for Philip R. Bishop's Thomas Bird Mosher:

This groundbreaking bibliography and biography describes the books published by American publisher, Thomas Bird Mosher, whose editions helped to convey England's literature and design to the American public. "The Mosher Books" include works by authors such as William Morris, Oscar Wilde, Fiona Macleod, Robert Louis Stevenson, Walter Pater, A. C. Swinburne, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, George Meredith, Robert Browning, and George Gissing. By promoting these authors, Mosher acted as a prime conduit in disseminating the more exotic literary fruits of the Aesthetic, Pre-Raphaelite, and Arts & Crafts movements. . . . Mosher's books also introduced to an admiring public the designs of Morris, Rossetti, Blake, Ricketts, Housman, Mackmurdo, Pissaro, and Strang. The Mosher books exposed Americans to designs from the Vale, Eragny, Daniel, Chiswick, and Kelmscott presses. Well-known binders also embellished Mosher productions with their best work (104).

Because it provides a broad print history context, such a description is particularly useful to a student of bibliography who may be unfamiliar with the importance of...