Alcuin Awards

G'Day all, 

You might remember that David Mason's The Pope's Bookbinder has received an honourable mention for book design in the nonfiction category at this year's Alcuin Awards.  The awards ceremonies will be taking place this fall in Toronto and Vancouver.

The Toronto Awards will take place on Monday October 6th at 5:30 pm at the Arts & Letters Club of Toronto.

The Vancouver Awards will take place on September 11th at 7 pm at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design Auditorium, Granville Island (south building). 

You can see The Pope's Bookbinder, along with all of the other winning books at the Confederation Centre Gallery in Charlottetown, PEI from March 7th to April 16th. 

Cheers!

The Pope's Bookbinder Receives Honourable Mention from the Alcuin Society

Well we've thought for almost a year now that David Mason's The Pope's Bookbinder was one of our handsomest productions, and it seems that others agree. Want the specs? We printed it as a 6x9 hardback (boards Rainbow BB with a foil-embossed spine), jacket in uncoated Mohawk Feltweave, with the text on 55lb Rolland offset cream with 80lb gloss art paper for the photo spread. The vintage-looking Faber and Faber-inspired cover has been a hit with bibliophiles across the country. The endpapers were taken from a painting of David Mason's Gerrard St. store by Ruth Jackson. And we haven't even got to the limited-edition leatherback copies, hand-bound by Dan Mezza out of London, Ontario ....

Congratulations to David, to typesetter Chris Andrechek, and cover designer Kate Hargreaves. Well done!

"The One That Got Away": The NL News on David Mason, The Pope's Bookbinder, and Penny Blacks

There was a nice profile of David Mason's lost stamp episode (The Pope's Bookbinder, 2013) recently in the NL News out of St. John's. How's this for an endearing opening?

When recalling memorable fishing expeditions, for example, we sometimes idealize the trout that escaped our hook. "She was some big, b’y!" we exclaim, extending our arms in a generous if fictitious gesture. Such fish are simply too perfect for this world. Perhaps we should do the honourable thing and add those stories to the tall-tale category. 

David Mason has a story about the one that got away. However, in his case, it was not a fish but, of all things, a postage stamp.

For the full profile click here, and thanks to Burton K. Janes for the write-up.

Read a F*!king Book Reviews Canary; Ottawa Citizen on The Pope's Bookbinder

The good folks at Autostraddle, which for the uninitiated is one of the savviest lesbian/progressive feminist blogs out there, have a handsome little review of Canary in their "Read a F!*king Book" column. Check it out when you get a minute. The verdict? "Kind of weird and completely delightful." And for readers of the Ottawa Citizen, you may have seen the stupendous review of The Pope's Bookbinder that ran on Labour Day. Here's a pull quote for the ages:

"The Pope’s Bookbinder is like the man: boisterous, endearing, and engagingly blunt. It is a book to delight that endangered species, the book collector, ever on the prowl for the elusive 'must-have' title."

What's that? Must have? Must have in LEATHER? There are a few limited-edition leatherbound copies of The Pope's Bookbinder left, as bound by Dan Mezza out of London. Email Dan (Wells) if you're interested. And otherwise, happy Wednesday!

"It’s easy to become addicted to your product": The Globe & Mail on David Mason

This just in from today's Globe & Mail:

"Almost all booksellers are also book lovers which means antiquarian dealers are nearly inevitably divided souls, torn between the competing desire to collect what they love and the financial necessity to sell their wares. This tension between hoarding and retailing is both funny and sad, which explains the hilarious pathos that runs through The Pope’s Bookbinder, the sprightly but also melancholy memoirs of David Mason, a Canadian book dealer of international reputation ... A witty raconteur and compulsive gossip, Mason has written a book that will delight anyone who loves literary scuttlebutt."

But it doesn't end there. For a most suggestive conclusion check out the Globe website. Thanks to the Globe & to JH for their hard work, & have a great weekend, everybody. Peace & love from the Bibliomanse.

"Obsessive? Perhaps. Deeply satisfying? Unquestionably."

In today's Books section of The Washington Post, weekly columnist and

admitted bibliophile Michael Dirda discusses David Mason's The Pope's Bookbinder. "David Mason's absorbing memoir might be summed up by a button I recently acquired," Dirda writes: "'Life? Of course I have a life. It's a life filled with books.'" 

Tracking some of the best episodes and aphorisms in the book, from the Alice In Wonderland emergency buoy to the phrase that seems to speak to everyone in this crazy biz (“For anyone who might not know the difference between a job and a vocation, a vocation is a job where you don’t earn enough to live on”), Dirda situates Mason's memoir among the best of its kind: "Early on in this rambling, easygoing account of his career, Mason mentions three outstanding classics of that tiny subgenre: Charles Everitt’s The Adventures of a Treasure Hunter, David Randall’s Dukedom Large Enough and David Magee’s Infinite Riches. The Pope’s Bookbinder belongs on the same shelf."

Not too shabby, huh? Happy fourth of July. Keep an eye out for more Mason reviews soon. 

The Citizen Aesthete: David Mason in the Post

Morning all, and happy Monday. Just a quick note for those of you who missed it this weekend: David Mason's The Pope's Bookbinder had a lovely write-up in this weekend's National Post. "The Pope’s Bookbinder strikes a fine balance between impressing with insider lore and welcoming the outsider," says Paul Franz: "The chatty digressions and omissions — sometimes hinting at truly salacious tales sealed up for the principals’ lifetimes — invite you to learn more."

And you're all officially invited to do so at any number of new and used/rare stores across the country. David's book is now available for sale both in person and online. And, of course, as Franz points out, they're for sale "at David Mason Books. Beware, though: collecting is habit-forming."

Presenting The Pope's Bookbinder

The following ran in yesterday's issue of The Draught. 

We thought it was fun. 

(Maybe not so much fun as blackmail. We'll have to ask David.)

SPECIAL TO THE DRAUGHT

"Blackmail is Great Fun": An Interview with David Mason

Q. You’ve been a bookseller now for over four decades, and you’ve published short pieces about the trade in journals and magazines, but this is your first full-length book. Tell us about making the switch: how did bookselling prepare you for authorship? And is authorship what you expected it would be?

A. Nothing prepared me for writing a book. All antiquarian booksellers are aware that there are already way too many books in the world. Many booksellers would consider it a sin to add more. Writing a book was both exhilarating and humiliating, but in the end I loved doing it.

Unfortunately it also seems to be addictive, so I may commit some more sins.

Q. What’s your favourite story that didn’t make it into The Pope’s Bookbinder?

A. We ran out of space for all the stories about thieves. And also for all the tales of eccentric dealers and scouts I’ve known. There’s also a fair number of stories that can only be told if I outlive certain people.

Q. In your book you have advice about scouts, auctions, sleepers, employees, book fairs, and even on blackmail. What advice would you give to the reader who’s holding your book now?

A. I would advise any reader to take note of all the pleasure one can derive from collecting books, or just owning a library. But I would also advise them not ever consider becoming a dealer. My jokes about the small income a bookseller can look forward to are not really jokes. Many of our clients envy us all the pleasure we get from being booksellers but if they knew what we earned they wouldn’t envy that. I must also add that blackmail is great fun.

Q. The title of your memoir refers to a white morocco volume that you helped to gild before it was presented to Pope John XXIII. Did you ever see that book again? Would you buy it if you could?

A. I sewed it and covered it too. I presume that book now resides in the Vatican Library. If the current Pope ever finds himself a bit short of cash I’d love to buy it back.

Q. What was the most difficult part of this memoir to write?

A. I sometimes felt – and so did my editor – that I should be nicer, more gentle, with a few of my colleagues, but since I probably won’t be writing another I felt I needed to tell the truth as I saw it, for the record.

Q. Your publisher says you’ve requested a few unbound text blocks of your memoir. Is it possible The Pope’s Bookbinder is going to strike again? Will there be one more David Mason binding in the world?

A. The Pope’s Bookbinder is retired, I’m afraid. I will commission one or two binders to create bindings for my book since I have a modest collection of design bindings. I never thought of returning to binding myself. I’d actually love to bind a copy myself but binding is a skill that needs incessant practice and I would certainly ruin it if I tried now.

Q. If you could hand-deliver The Pope’s Bookbinder to one person anywhere in the world, who would it be and why?

A. The person I’d love to deliver a copy of my book to is unfortunately no longer in this world. And that would be my father, the banker, who was certain I would never amount to anything and would end up in the poorhouse. Which I may very well do. But I’d love to be able to hand him a copy so I could say, “See. If I’d listened to you I’d still be selling insurance.”

Q. What book are you sitting on right now that you’d most like to sell?

A. A bookseller never cares about selling his good books. What I’d really like to sell is about 25,000 of my general books. All I ever wanted to do was buy good books, which I’ve done for forty-five years. Now I have way too many and not enough space to put them in.

I am, in fact, trying right now to sell a few collections I’ve formed over the last thirty or thirty-five years, in particular my huge collection of publisher’s bindings which, I believe, to be the best in the world. But, I collected so passionately that sometimes I fear I’ve priced myself right out of the market.

Q. What do you consider your worst mistake of your career? What do you most regret?

A. Not buying a building. I always bought books instead of a building and now after forty-five years I’m still at the mercy of landlords and the marketplace. And I’ve got too many books.

Q. What’s next for David Mason?

A. Myself and my publisher are to begin editing a book of essays on bookselling and collecting. Aside from that I’m just going to continue to buy books. And continue to read books.

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