San Francisco Center for the Book : Metal Type

I am going to start volunteering at the San Francisco Center for the Book.  I'm so excited. It was amazing to be shown around all the different printing presses and book making binding areas. It sure gets my creative juices flowing. As a volunteer, you can earn free classes too. I'm already planning on taking all the letterpress, and book making classes I can handle. So cool, now that I don't work on Saturday's the opportunities are endless.

To add to the sweetness of my day, on the walk home I stopped by the donation center for the San Francisco library. They had a little cart outside with books for a dollar. I was so happy to find, "The Illustrated Treasury of Children's Literature edited by Margaret Martignon" 1955 ed. Lovely.  Here are a few pages from it.

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood: Illustrated by Howard Pyle

The Wind in the Willows:  Illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard

The Farmer's boy: Illustrated by Randolph Caldecott

The Wizard of Oz: Illustrated by W.W.Denslow

Two Happy Little Bears: Illustrated by Phoebe Erickson

Tweedledum & Tweedledee: Illustrated by John Tenniel

Halfway Down: Illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard

 So wonderful, aren't they? I just love the simplicity of all of them. (This book must contain a hundred of them.) I love finding old books filled with little artistic treasures. And I don't know about you there is something cool in finding a a old book and smelling all the dust and dirt (and the crayon) and trying to imagine who heard these stories when they were little. What were your favorite books growing up?