Jeanne Bennett

Granbury, Texas 
Jeanne Bennett was born in California in 1940. She established the Calliope Press in 1976, producing hand-bound private press books. Bennett studied art and design in California and at Tarleton State University in Texas. Since 2000 she has concentrated her studies in bookbinding at the Craft Guild of Dallas, studying with Judith Thompson and Sally Key and attending workshops with Jan Sabota and Gabrielle Fox.

Example Binding: 
Ray Samuel, Leonard V. Huber, and Warren C. Ogden. 
Tales of the Mississippi. 
New York: Hastings House Publishers, 1955.

Bennett's example is a three board structure with two-piece leather covering (one is suede to create a pictorial sunset). Inlaid agate, various green leather onlays and ascona line onlays were added in reds and oranges. There is onlay titling on the spine. The riverboat is inlaid in pyrographed wood veneer, with a graphite gauffered edge, leather headband, and hinges. Included is a uniquely constructed drop-spine box with a Plexiglas tray bottom allowing the viewer to look into the building's "sunset" from a pyrographed wood veneer steamboat deck.

Design Description: 
Full leather binding with hand-sewn silk headbands. Included will be various black-to-brown-to-white goatskin onlay links to represent Twain's role in unlocking the chains of racial prejudice and to emphasize that Twain's originality of style opened a new tradition in American writing. Onlay titling will be rendered in the style of Twain's writing. An inlaid vellum sheet of writing paper depicts Twain's writing of the first chapter of Huckleberry Finn in gouached pyrography. The pen and ink bottle are inlaid pyrographed wood veneers.