The Third Helen Warren DeGolyer Competition for American Bookbinding 2003

Bridwell Library’s triennial bookbinding competition is named for Helen Warren DeGolyer (1926–1995), a well-known supporter of the arts and education in Dallas, as well as a skilled devotee of design bookbinding. Following her testamentary wishes, her brother, Joseph Warren, and her children, Everett Lee DeGolyer and Edith DeGolyer, established in 1996 an endowment to support a triennial bookbinding competition, exhibition, and conference on the contemporary book arts to be held at Bridwell Library.

The competition challenges bookbinders to submit their proposals for a specific book held by Bridwell Library, as well as a recent example of their work. While the DeGolyer Award winner receives a commission to bind the book according to his or her proposal, the jury also selects award winners for excellence in fine binding and artistic design. The judges for this year’s competition include

Colin Franklin, Chair, Author, book dealer, book collector, and former publisher, Oxford, England

Catherine Burkhard, Bookbinder, calligrapher, and owner of the Books 'n Letters Studio, Dallas, Texas

Bruce Levy, Winner of the 2000 Helen Warren DeGolyer Triennial Competition, Nevada City, California

Greg Warden, Director, Meadows Museum of Art, Professor of Art History, and local bookbinder, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain (1835 – 1910). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. West Hatfield, MA: Pennyroyal Press, 1985. Illustrated by Barry Moser. Foreword by Henry Nash Smith. 32.4 x 25.4 cm. Bridwell Library Special Collections.

The book for the third Triennial was Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This 1985 Pennyroyal Press edition is the first significant edition since 1885’s cloth-bound original publishing. Illustrated by Barry Moser and with a foreword by Henry Nash Smith, it was prepared from the extant portions of Twain’s final manuscript, correcting errors and omissions in the first edition that have crept into every subsequent printing. Moreover, this edition features forty-nine original wood engravings crafted by Barry Moser, one of America’s foremost book designers and engravers. The Bridwell copy that was bound by the 2003 competition winner was not among the numbered and bound copies. It came to Bridwell Library directly from Mr. Moser’s stock and is signed by the artist.