Reviving Heidi
My mom has been getting books from her local auction house for a while now. Some she sells in the store for $1. And some are so beat up that she doesn't put them out. That's how I got this copy of Heidi. I have no idea what the book's history is, other than it came from the auction with a torn front cover (at the top of the book).
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
The book is a reprint of the classic (copyright 1944 and 1955) by Johanna Spyri. This edition is a Walt Whitman Classic, illustrated by Janet Smalley. It is a hardcover book printed on acidic paper and perfect bound. (This means the pages are glued together with no stitching--similar to your average mass market paperback.) The front and back cover boards had been put on incorrectly. The grain in the board was perpendicular to the spine, instead of parallel to the spine. The book must have gotten wet at some point as the damage to the book was along the the join between the front cover and the spine. The cover must have gotten wet, the front cover board curled and ripped itself away from the book.
Since this book has little value (less than $5 even if it were in good condition) I decided to practice some conservation techniques I'd read about in various books (most recently Annie Tremmel Wilcox's A Degree of Mastery: A Journey Through Book Arts Apprenticeship--a must-read for anyone interested in book conservation and book binding). I'm most definitely not qualified to restore books. Conservators should not read the pages that follow. They will be shocked and appauled I'm sure. :) I'm using the term "revival" because I'm not trying to restore the book back to its original condition. In fact I plan on using the cover for a blank book to accompany the novel when I'm done. The two books will be a gift to my niece for Christmas (she's three). My thought is that she may want to create some illustrations for the chapter book in the blank book. It's a thought at least.
As I move through the revival of the book I'll add more pages here. So far I've pulled the book apart and am just finishing the washing of the pages. I don't know enough about deacidification so I've skipped that step. I also feel that the pages are strong enough that I don't need to add size back into them, so I've skipped that step as well. ("Size" is typically a glue of some sort that helps make pages stronger. It also helps to prevent ink from running on a page when you write on it and contributes a little bit toward repelling water and moisture.)