Binding

Figure 30

Bookbinding, or the process of "physically assembling a book from a number of folded or unfolded sheets of paper or other material" (Vaughan, 2013), was, at first, done by hand. However, later on, machines were used to complete the binding on books. In hand-binding, the spine is sewn and the cover is "applied gradually, step by step, as permanently as possible, so that the binding becomes an integral part of the book" (Avrin, 1991, p. 301).  In machine-made binding, begun in the 1890s, the binding case is created separately from the book itself and then glued onto the spine later. 
The binding of Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story is bound in a standard hardcover case binding. In case binding, the pages are arranged in signatures and then glued and sewn together to form a text block. The text block is then glued to the cover. Due to this process, many machine-made books are rapidly deteriorating faster than their hand-made counterparts. This book is no exception. 

This 1924 edition of Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story used for this study is in rough physical condition. This book has massive water and smoke damage (see Figure 30) most likely from the 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Central Library where nearly twenty percent of the library's volumes were destroyed, many located in the antique book rooms (Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Society, 2014). Aside from the water and smoke damage, the book's binding is significantly loose and torn at all edges (see Figure 31) and the casing on the spine is no longer glued or connected to the spine itself (see Figure 32).

Figure 31

Figure 32