We began shipping of “Honest Labour” this week, and customers who placed a pre-publication order should receive their books soon. We received our first box of the books at the storefront yesterday. Our Michigan plant, as always, did a nice job with the printing and binding.
The act of unpacking a book that you worked on for years is always an odd experience. For me, it has offered more relief than joy. Relief that nothing went horribly wrong at the factory or during shipment. Relief that I didn’t misspell the title of the book on its spine (oh crap, I just had to check it again). Relief that I lived to see it.
That feeling fades after a couple days and is replaced with worry as I wonder: Will the readers like it? Or did we throw away months of (honest) labor and tens of thousands of dollars?
I guess we’ll find out.
Last night I took “Honest Labour” out for a practice run. After a long day at the bench I sat in our library with a beer, the book on my lap. I opened it to a random page and started reading at page 244.
“Money – has in fact, the most surprising limitations. Particularly in anything to do with craftsmanship….”
After an hour of reading, I had drained my glass and felt a lot better about the half-completed work on my benchtop, and the future of this book.
Also, this is important to know: Kara Gebhart Uhl and Megan Fitzpatrick did the lioness’ share of the work on this book. Kara selected the essays, typed them in using a variety of methods and proofed them. She also researched and wrote the 30 vignettes of each year’s news events (from 1936-1966) that begin each chapter. Megan designed most of the pages, a new role for her. Since becoming the editor of The Chronicle, Megan has taken a deeper interest in page design. This book was 474 pages of practice.
Our labor is, for the most part, done with this book. We are all now working on other titles. Your work – reading the essays and finding meaning in them – has just begun. We hope you enjoy it.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. If you would like to read some free excerpts from “Honest Labour,” you can find six of our favorite essays via these links:
For whatever consolation(?) it’s worth, mine copy is due to be delivered while I’m at work and I’m excited to get home afterwards so I can start thumbing through it.
Mine copy? That’s an odd typo…
Looking forward to reading it! Love the quality of this man’s writing. It is superb!
I know this is an add-on rather than a continuation of the green The Woodworker set, but red? Do you have any idea what that does to an obsessive compulsive? I’m having flashbacks of coral and sky blue Roubo volumes. What are, we animals? My bookshelf is in chaos, Chris. CHAOS!
Easy fix:
Image –> Mode –> Grayscale.
Too late. I’m a problem solver. I already bought a can of green Rustoleum.
At least I’m not the only one suffering from CDO.
CDO? Colors Dat Offend?
That as well… CDO is like ocd, but the letters are in the right darn order (I think that’s the explanation)
This book pushed me to buy the entire set, so you gotta be doing something right. 🙂 Can’t wait to go through them all.
Ditto!
Chris, as a guy who grew up in a book factory and has spent many thousands of hours making books (everything from preprint prep to plate making to helping on presses to running binding machines), the level of craft that goes into you books warms my heart. I love the shot of the book opened. That’s clearly fine work on the production end.
Received my copy yesterday. Read about 12 pages between breaks yesterday and last night, all enjoyable. Looking forward to reading even more this evening with a glass of Scotch or Rye by my side.
Cousin Mike?
Of course. If we go far enough back in our ancestral trees…
Thanks Chris and Megan for the fine work. Reading your links (and enjoying each) as well as spreading the word to my antsy boat building pals. Look forward to purchasing the book. All the best!
Mine just arrived. If you could drop by and mow two lawns for me, I can start readin’.
Mine just landed on my front step. Now to open to a random page and see what’s there!
Got mine, thanks. Opened to a random page and began reading to my wife. After the second paragraph she asked me to start again at the first sentence! Hahahahaha. This is going to be a fun read for this farm boy!
I hear you. You’ll get the rhythm after a while.
I received my copy yesterday and it looks as well made as the rest as the rest of the series. I’m a fan of Lost Art Press and have bought many of your book, so please don’t take this as mean spirited. I truly wish you well and will continue to buy your books.
However, I am profoundly disappointed with your decision to bind this volume in a red cover. It was a beautiful set of books and this fifth volume is jarring in appearance. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. Perhaps you do this deliberately out of a sense “anarchism”, but it is my belief that the majority of your readers would have preferred that you finished the set as you began.
As I said, my purpose was to give feed back, and not to troll. Others may disagree, but I felt this needed to be said.
Hey Mr. Schwarz:
Let me first say: THANK-YOU!
for your many books and magazine columns that you have written. I also left the business community in June of 2011 and have enjoyed reading your books on workbenches and woodworking during that time.
Today I fixed bacon and egg sandwiches for my wife (Sandy) and myself and due to pure laziness I tune into a local radio station instead of listening to my playlist and heard a joke I thought you might enjoy:
It goes: I was in love with my high school English teacher and when she gets out of prison I want to go to bed with her but I realized that the end of a sentence can not be followed by a proposition. (ha! ha!)
I am very much enjoying reading “Honest Labour”. Sandy (wife) says don’t worry any more about the title, as long as you are on the east side of the pond the spelling is correct (she has a masters in education from the University of Tennessee).
Please tell Ms. Fitzpatrick that I really liked her article on books she wrote for Fine Woodworking and I am now desperate to purchase a Roy Underhill bobble head.
When you questioned yourself in the opening: “from the publisher i hope i’m wrong”. Your guidance, your insight and your knowledge has been greatly appreciated!
Many thanks,
Sam Cody
Knoxville Tennessee
I guess I didn’t realize the size of this book. This is a BIG book. The size makes a statement! The color makes a statement!
Going to build a special place for the entire series in my library.
This is a “noteworthy” book.
Just a note to contrast with those who have objections to the red cover—I love it! Vibrant, very rich and makes the embossed cover art dazzle. It would make me pick the book up from a stack. The layout and illustrations look sumptuous, too, even by Lost Art’s normally high standards. Well done all.
Thank you for conceiving and publishing this wonderful volume. I am engrossed and savoring Charles Hayward’s columns and spirit. I note that in the sidebars ‘some important historical events’ for 1940, 1944 and 1945 Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th president, is named rather than ( correctly) Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president.
Chris, thanks for all of the work you did to make this book a reality. I’m savoring it one piece at at time. Bringing these thoughtful perspectives to a new generation all these decades later is a public service. It’s a treasure.
This book is just fantabulous. I can’t think of anything else to say.