Birthday Books: 5 by Nick Bantock

“Our house was a temple to The Book. We owned thousands, nay millions of books. They lined the walls, filled the cupboards, and turned the floor into a maze far more complex than Hampton Court’s. Books ruled out lives. They were our demi-gods.”

British-born artist and book designer Nick Bantock, who turns 68 on July 14, is one of the most celebrated and imaginative writer/designers of the intercentury era.

After graduating art school, Bantock became a successful freelance designer, turning out some 300 book covers in sixteen years. He moved to British Columbia, Canada, to an island near Vancouver, in 1988.

There he conceived of a series of books that were more than just a story. Lavishly illustrated tales of enigmatic encounters, they included all sorts of “tipped in” ephemera, as the book trade calls it: faux postage stamps, handwritten letters, documents, passports, postcards, and popups.

His Griffin and Sabine trilogies were a 1990s sensation around the world. With nearly thirty books to his credit, Bantock has also adapted the Griffin and Sabine legend for the stage, become a painter and gallerist, and spent three years on a Canadian government commission reviewing and approving postage stamp designs.

In honor of his birthday, Henry Bemis Books is pleased to offer five of Bantock’s best:

Bantock, Nick, The Venetian’s Wife (Chronicle Books, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1996). ISBN 0-8118-1140-9. A mysterious art connoisseur, communicating only by email, hires a museum curator for an equally mysterious task. Hardcover, dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $29.95 obo.

Bantock, Nick, The Forgetting Room (Byzantium Books/HarperCollins, 1st ed., 1st printing, 1997). ISBN 0-00-225176-0. Another of Bantock’s mysterious tales interweaving text and illustration, this one involving a man who inherits a house in Spain from his grandfather. Hardcover, dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $49.95 obo.

Bantock, Nick, The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy (Chronicle Books,

Vol. 1, Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence, (1991, 1st ed., 6th printing); Vol. 2, Sabine’s Notebook, (1992, 1st ed., 2nd printing); Vol. 3, The Golden Mean (1993, 1st ed., 1st printing). The first set of Bantock’s two Griffin & Sabine trilogies, in which- he says-  he presents “a new genre in publishing, a marriage of word and image embedded within a mysterious alchemical love story of postcards and letters.” Lavishly illustrated, these books were a publishing sensation. Hardcover dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $60 the set, obo.

Henry Bemis Books is one man’s attempt to bring more diversity and quality to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg market of devoted readers starved for choices. Our website is at www.henrybemisbookseller.blogspot.com. Henry Bemis Books is also happy to entertain reasonable offers on items in inventory; for pricing on this or others items, kindly private message us. Shipping is always free to US locations; local buyers are welcome to drop by and pick up their purchases at our location off Peachtree Road in Northwest Charlotte if they like.

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