Providence, Rhode Island
Member for 36 years
The Robber Bridegroom, Eudora Welty
Goatskin, pigskin suede, gold leaf, silk thread, acrylic paint.
24.8 x 16.5 x 2.8 cm
Completed in 2019
For Sale - $5,000
What was your path into book work?
As a boy I sometimes helped my grandfather at his shoe repair shop. I always felt that I'd be happiest doing that kind of work, but shoemaking never felt quite right. Just out of college, in the early 1970's, I worked at a library where books were being sent out for binding and repair. This captured my imagination and stuck with me until I eventually found a way to begin learning the craft of bookbinding some seven or eight years later.
Mark Esser began bookbinding at the Harcourt Bindery in Boston in 1979. He worked in the Conservation Bindery at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and also studied with David Brock. He served an apprenticeship with William Anthony from 1982 to 1986. He was the first instructor for the hand bookbinding program at the North Bennet Street School in Boston, where he taught from 1986 to 1994. He was the Rare Book Conservator at the John J. Burns Library at Boston College from 1994 to 2008, and now works privately.