#outward bound

A group heads into the desert of Big Bend National Park Texas

A new bookbinding project, and possibly my fastest one yet! The whole process, from reading the play for the first time to printing the dust jacket, took only four days.

Outward Bound is a 1923 play by Sutton Vane about a group of passengers aboard a liner who slowly realize theirs isn't a regular trip... though I won't say why to not spoil it (if you're curious, the blurb on the dust jacket reveals it). I don't know what about the story grabbed me, exactly, but in two days I had read the play, listened to a radio adaptation, and watched the 1930 movie with Leslie Howard, so I knew I needed my own copy of it right away.

I decided to get it done entirely at home using pre-cut paper to skip the cutting step that always leaves a bit of a split down the middle of a book. The printer settings didn't quite match my paper size (A5 vs half-letter), so the margins are a bit off, but overall I'm quite satisfied with the result! Even the slight waviness of the pages (from the heat of a slightly overworked printer) wasn't visible once everything was put together. It beats having to go to the print shop for sure!

The cover is blue (once again!) to match the dust jacket, the cover illustration of which is taken from the published version of the play. I decided to use a different paper than I usually do, and while I absolute love the pattern on it, the quality of the paper doesn't quite compare to the other. It already looks worn around the spine, though thankfully it's not too obvious. That said, this might be one book I actually like better without a dust jacket!