News Release

A unique exhibition of 45 leaf books will make its only West Coast visit Nov. 5-Dec. 31 when it will be on display in the Jewett Gallery at the Main Library. Disbound and Dispersed: The Leaf Book Considered is the first exhibition to examine the history of the leaf book, a late 19th-century development that incorporates a leaf, or single page, from an original work with new supplementary text in a fine press publication. The leaf books in this exhibition contain manuscripts and printed leaves dating from the 12th through 20th centuries.

Noteworthy leaf books in the exhibition include those containing original leaves from the first four folios of William Shakespeare’s plays, a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible, and a leaf from the first edition of the Canterbury Tales. Books were drawn from the collections of Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Brigham Young University, Harvard University, Indiana University, R.R. Donnelly & Sons Co. and three private collectors. Related materials from the Main Library’s Book Arts & Special Collections Center will supplement the exhibition during its stay in San Francisco and will be on view in the Rare Book Room on the Library’s sixth floor.

The Caxton Club of Chicago, a society of book collectors founded in 1895 and named after the first English printer William Caxton, organized the exhibition. After its two-month stint in San Francisco, the exhibition will travel to Harvard University’s Houghton Library and Indiana University’s Lilly Library.

While leaf books have a devoted following, the practice of creating them, which entails destroying one book to make another, continues to be controversial. The exhibition’s opening program, “A Poor Man’s Morgan Library: The Challenges and Issues of Publishing and Collecting Leaf Books,” will feature a panel of book collectors and enthusiasts who will discuss the ethical, legal and historical issues surrounding the creation of leaf books. John Windle, antiquarian bookseller and leaf book publisher; Anthony Bliss, curator of rare books at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library; Michael Thompson, attorney and co-author of “Disbound and Dispersed;” and private collector Paul Robertson are among the panelists. The program is sponsored by the San Francisco Public Library and the Book Club of California.

The panel discussion will be held 2-4 p.m. on November 5 in the Koret Auditorium at the Main Library. The program and exhibition are free and open to the public. For more information, please call 415.557.4277.