Booksby Press

Booksby Press I’m a small press dedicated to the art of miniature books. http://booksbypress.com

Booksby Press is a private press that specializes in producing new, limited run miniature books. I am also interested in the history of miniature books and miniature book collecting. At the website I have short descriptions of interesting books in the gallery and longer articles about historical topics as well as my adventures in publishing.

Today we're taking a look at Lime Rock Press.Lime Rock was the private press of Whitney North Seymour, Jr. of Salisbury,...
03/11/2026

Today we're taking a look at Lime Rock Press.

Lime Rock was the private press of Whitney North Seymour, Jr. of Salisbury, CT. Between 1979 and 1985 this press produced 23 miniature books, six of which reside at Booksby. While Seymour does the publishing and, in four cases, writing of the books, he is joined by his wife and two daughters who contribute artwork and binding skills, making this a family enterprise.

The books range from the typical codex bound in paper, leather or cloth to some more fantastical books, including one bound in a wine cork and another housed in a corkscrew handle. I'll mention a few of the books a Booksby now.

"Holiday Memory" by Dylan Thomas was the first miniature book from this press. Published in 1979, it measures 2½"×2⅛" and is bound in gilt tan cloth. It contains 30 pages letterpress printed in two colors. Of 125 copies, mine is #60.

"Where Tigers Roar in Silence" by Lynn Hess is a poem riddle book published in 1980, in an edition of 999. Bound in embossed paper covers and housed in a red cloth drop-back box, it contains 32 fold out pages of riddles illustrated by wife Catryna Ten Eyck. It measures 2¹³/¹⁶"×2¹¹/¹⁶".

"Thoughts from the Cork" was compiled by Seymour and published in 1981. This is one of the more quirky books from this press, being bound in a split wine cork. The book measures 1¾"×⅞" and comes in a plastic case. The 28 pages contain quotes about wine from various famous persons.

"A Little Bit of History About Very Small Books" is a single sheet broadside folded to 8 pages and a full sheet catalog of Lime Rock Press books then in print. Folded it measures "2¾"×2½". Open it measures 10"×5½".

Next time we'll take a look at the Limited Editions Club.

Well, I wasn't sure till this week if my workshop would happen or not but we got the required number of registrants so I...
02/28/2026

Well, I wasn't sure till this week if my workshop would happen or not but we got the required number of registrants so I was scrambling all week to finish preparations. Here then is the bindery at the Morga Conservatory set up and ready to go! I'll let you know how I did tonight.

The Morgan Conservatory

I was asked yesterday about miniature books produced in Hungary. While I have a sizable collection of Hungarian miniatur...
01/01/2026

I was asked yesterday about miniature books produced in Hungary. While I have a sizable collection of Hungarian miniature books, relatively few of them are on my shelf because I can't read Hungarian, making it difficult to catalog. So then here are the Hungarian books I have at hand right now. One day I'll pull the rest out, go through them and get them cataloged.

Between the end of World War II and the end of the Soviet Union, Hungary was the miniature book capital of the world. While miniature book publishers in the US and western Europe were putting out editions of a hundred or two hundred copies, Hungarian publishers were making editions of up to 5,000 copies regularly. Subject matter was widely varied with communism and book history being popular. The Hungarians took great pride in their tiny books as can be seen in their great beauty.

I'd like to highlight just a few now. The first two are really quite amazing, being printed on pages of aluminum! The first one, published in 1985, is quite well known but I had never seen the second one, published in 1999, till this copy was offered via eBay.

Janka Gyula was a great promoter of miniature books in Hungary and published many miniature books about miniature books. One series he did was a bibliography of Hungarian miniature books. I have five volumes covering books published between 1945 and 1976. If there were later volumes, I've never seen them. My copy of the first volume came from the personal collection of famous German bookseller Abraham Horodisch and has his bookplate.

Many of the miniature books of Hungary are multilingual, with English, German and/or Russian being commonly found alongside the Hungarian.

While the production of miniature books dropped of significantly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it hasn't stopped completely. I have a lovely book of memoirs by Béla Zelei done in 2015. I bought the entire set that included a larger reading copy and three miniature copies, one in paperback, one in gilt cloth and the last in gilt leather.

One beautiful book I have is a miniature facsimile of "Chronica Hungarorum" a 1488 Latin book of medieval Hungarian history.

Sadly, we will be ignoring Lilliput Press and Lilliputian Press, each with three entries to come to the silently signifi...
12/31/2025

Sadly, we will be ignoring Lilliput Press and Lilliputian Press, each with three entries to come to the silently significant Lilliputter Press.

Lilliputter was the press name for Frank Teagle's miniature book production who, along with Ruth Adomeit and Achille J. St. Onge spurred the miniature book Renaissance in the second half of the 20th century, giving rise to this series of posts.

In 1960 Archie St. Onge and Ruth Adomeit approached Frank Teagle, a childhood friend of Ruth's, about publishing a periodical about miniature books. This collaboration resulted in eight issues of The Miniature Book Collector beginningin 1960, which encouraged six giants of the miniature book world to begin publishing in miniature. Even before this, in 1952, Frank and Ruth were working on publishing a miniature cookie book that wasn't published till Christmas of 1960, an eight year delay. Along with the Miniature Book Collector, Frank was responsible for 6 miniature books listed in Bradbury and the reprint of the important 1920s miniature book periodical, "The Newsletter of the LXIVMOS" in bound form. The Newsletter included two miniature publications as well as 21 issues printed by different publishers in different formats. I also have a few unique items produced by or related to the Lilliputter Press that I'd like to highlight.

The first one is a letter to Ruth from Frank printed in miniature format discussing different potential miniature books projects including the Little Cookie Book. It measures 2½"×1⅝" and contains four pages printed on eight leaves. As far as I know, this is the only copy of this letter extant as I couldn't find a copy in the Adomeit papers at the Lilly Library.

My copy of "The Little Cookie Book" is in its original snap case with paper straw spacers. This book is significant because I casually looked for a copy of it for twenty years after Ruth told me she sold all 2,000 copies, save the one she kept for herself (more on that copy later). I finally found mine at a book fair in Akron in 2009, and have been seriously collecting miniature books ever since.

The next special item is a miniature gingerbread cookie that Ruth gifted to her friend Hilda Neiman in 1976. It was gifted to me several years ago by another friend that bought part of Hilda's collection. At the 2019 Conclave in Bloomington I had the opportunity to see Ruth's copy of "The Little Cookie Book." The covers were faded and the pages dog-eared with bits of chocolate and dough smeared on every page. I am convinced that my gingerbread cookie from 1976 was baked using the recipe in that exact copy of "The Little Cookie Book"! How cool is that?

The final special item I'd like to draw your attention to is the oddball "The Lilliputter Cybernetic Edition of The Book of Numbers." This appears to be a joke Frank made for miniature book great Bob Massmann (who wrote the indexes for both The Miniature Book Collector and The Newsletter of the LXIVMOS) in 1984. It consists of a printed cardstock cover and a single signature of pages randomly cut from newsprint. The whole affair measures 2-3/16"×1-7/8" and is held together with two staples. I picked this up at my first Conclave in 2104.

Next time we'll take a look at Lime Rock Press.

Well, 2025 is almost over so here's the current condition of my miniature book library. As you can see, I'm nearly out o...
12/31/2025

Well, 2025 is almost over so here's the current condition of my miniature book library. As you can see, I'm nearly out of shelf space... again. Maybe 2026 will be the year I finally build that second large shelf. In the meantime enjoy my chaotic shelves. See you next year! 🎉🎉🎉

I am slowly preparing for my miniature book workshop at the end of February at The Morgan Conservatory. While I think th...
12/27/2025

I am slowly preparing for my miniature book workshop at the end of February at The Morgan Conservatory. While I think this will be a higher level workshop, I'm prepared to teach it as a beginning bookbinding class. Because I want to give participants enough to go home and make their own books, I am using everyday items to replace expensive professional equipment.

Here then is the beautiful bindery at the Morgan that the workshop will be conducted in as well as some of the things I'll be using for it. A couple of $1 clamps and some bookboard instead of a $140 finishing press and a piece of cardboard angle from a furniture store works well as a punching cradle. I'm currently practicing with my poor man's tools so I know exactly how they will work in the classroom.

We currently have three or four people signed up but the workshop will only run if we have five or more, so if you're interested be sure to bop on over the the Morgan Conservatory website and sign up today! (Link in comments)

12/13/2025

Just a sneak peek at the book and box we'll be making in February at The Morgan Conservatory

Today we'll take a look at Light of Day. Bradbury offers no information on this publisher but the colophon does have all...
12/10/2025

Today we'll take a look at Light of Day.

Bradbury offers no information on this publisher but the colophon does have all the pertinent information as to who and where.

The book is "The Rose," a short story by John Jeter, published by Dea Sasso of Northampton, Massachusetts in 1993. It measures 2"×1½" and has 32 pages. It is bound in marbled paper boards and cloth spine with printed paper label. Letterpress is by Swamp Press. There is an embossed rose and one hand colored illustration by Jane Rini. Mine is copy 110 of 350 and has a slipcase. The little slip of paper inserted in the front is a tag from Tokyo's Lilliput Oval Saloon, the only miniature book store in the world that closed in 2005.

Next time we'll take a look at the Lilliputter Press.

Here we have 28 of the 34 Colgate calendars produced from 1880 to 1913. The only longer running series of miniature cale...
12/03/2025

Here we have 28 of the 34 Colgate calendars produced from 1880 to 1913. The only longer running series of miniature calendars in America was that of the E. T. Hazeltine/Piso Almanacs that ran from 1879 to 1919. While quote colorful, the calendars from 1880 to 1896 have pretty pedestrian artwork inside, with identical decorative boarders for each month. In 1897 the boarders become pictorial with a different boarder for each month. Starting in 1898 they began to have illustrations, with several years having themes.

They all measure about 2¼"×1¾" and have 16 pages including the covers. Additionally, I have found four years (1880, 1882, 1888, 1892) that have variants printed in different colors.

Those six missing calendars (1885, 1886, 1887, 1889, 1991, 1993) have proven to be a source of frustration for me for a long time now. While Bradbury lists them all, I have never seen any of them, not even a picture of the front. I have been looking since about 2010 for the Colgate calendars but haven't bought one since September of 2020. If you have any that I am missing, please let me know. I may be interested in buying it from you or at the very least, have a photo of the front so I know what I'm looking for. ☺️

Today we'll take a look at Jack L. Libby for Not much is known about Jack Libby and his one miniature book. Bradbury no...
12/02/2025

Today we'll take a look at Jack L. Libby for

Not much is known about Jack Libby and his one miniature book. Bradbury notes that he's seen only one copy in Bob Massmann's collection. While there is no publication information in the book itself, Bob had a note mentioning the publisher and that it was made in Kennebunk, Maine. Fortunately for me, I purchased a collection a couple of years ago thst turned out to have been put together by a mother and daughter. The daughter was Doris Libby, wife of Jack. It turns out that there was a bakers dozen copies of his one book in the collection.

That book is "Raggedy Ann and the Mouse" by Johnny Gruelle, published in the mid 1960s. It measures 2⅞"×1⅞" and contains 16 pages. Printed on green paper, it is bound in gilt red cloth. While not mentioned in the book, Bradbury notes it was limited to 50 copies. 12 of my copies have no number in them but the 13th copy is signed by Jack Libby and hand numbered " #5".

Another interesting twist is that the signed copy is wrapped in thick paper with thin strips of paper tape holding it closed. That's not so unusual except that I was given by a friend two Hillside Press books wrapped in the exact same manner, with the titles written in the same hand. My friend told me he got the Hillside books directly from Frank Irwin in the wrapping and just never opened them. I have no idea what this means. I guess it could mean that Frank made the Raggedy Ann books for Jack but the quality is far inferior to the Hillside books. I don't suppose we'll ever know the true story, but it's fun to speculate.

Next time we'll take a look at Light of Day.

Today I have questions about a couple of miniature books that have been lingering in cataloging for over a year. The fir...
12/01/2025

Today I have questions about a couple of miniature books that have been lingering in cataloging for over a year.

The first is a mother-of-pearl cover. It has a charming painting on mother-of-pearl inset in the front cover, cosway style. The back is mother-of-pearl engraved in a diamond pattern. The spine and interior is a green silk. There is a pocket of the same silk on thr inside front cover and three loops of the same material that presumably held a pencil. It measures 2"×1-¼". I'm assuming because of the pocket and pencil holder that it was either a notebook or almanac, but am open to other ideas. My questions are, have you seen anything like this before? If so, was there a book inside? If so, what was the book and were you able to date it?

The second one is a beautiful hand painted accordion book. It measures 2-³/¹⁶"×1⅝" and has 12 pages, written on one side only. Ther is no indication of who, where or when it was made or a limitation. I have an idea of who might have made it but I'd like to see if anyone had their own idea of who it might have been.

Address

Parma, OH
44129

Telephone

+12169657590

Website

https://booksbypress.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Booksby Press posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share