Holiday gift books `bound' - by hand or machine - to please
By RON BERTHEL
November 30, 2004

Most books are churned out, thousands at a time, on printing presses
and binding machines.

Not "Antarctica."

Each volume of Pat and Rosemarie Keough's photographic tour of the
South Pole is assembled by hand, bound in goat leather with French
velvet endpapers, and housed in an archival box covered in Dutch linen
and lined in velvet.

Such a pampered book doesn't come cheap: It costs $3,000 for one of
the 950 copies of this luxurious, limited-edition album that weighs 19
pounds - 27 pounds with the storage box. And since holding such a hefty
book on one's lap might prove tiring, there's also a custom-designed
stand of solid African mahogany - for an additional $1,500.

The book's 336 thick pages measure 17.5 by 13.5 inches and display
330 magnificent color photos and 15 duotones of the landscapes,
seascapes, flora and fauna of Antarctica. Other features include the
authors' essay describing their expedition, a map, a glossary and a list
of images.

"Antarctica" would be a "cool" gift to give or get this holiday
season, as would any of several other new illustrated books.

Their subjects range from great art to the Great White Way, vintage
cars to inventors, menorahs to memorable photos, and New England to
antiques. And although these books aren't handmade like "Antarctica,"
one of them could seem just made to order for someone on a holiday gift
list.

For art lovers, two books each offer an armchair visit to one of the
world's great museums.

"Paintings in the Musee d'Orsay" (Abrams, $75) takes browsers to the
Paris museum that has the world's largest collection of Impressionist
and Postimpressionist paintings. Editor Serge Lemoine, the museum's
director, has assembled more than 800 color illustrations that feature
works by Cassatt, Gauguin, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Whistler and other
artists from the mid-19th to early-20th centuries.

And "National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings From the Collection"
(Abrams, $60) by John Oliver Hand features 400 illustrations of works by
Botticelli, da Vinci, Homer, Picasso, Vermeer and others. The paintings
are among the 3,000 pieces housed in the Washington, D.C., museum, home
to one of the world's foremost collections of European and American art.

Behold more beauty in the nation's capital in "Spectacular
Washington" (Hugh Lauter Levin, $50) by Van Hardesty. This broad volume
_ 32 inches wide when open _ contains 175 color photos and several
foldouts that visit, inside and outside, the city's monuments, museums
and government buildings, as well as Ford's Theater, Arlington National
Cemetery and Georgetown University.

Admirers of cartoon art will be drawn to "The Complete Cartoons of
The New Yorker" (Black Dog & Leventhal, $60), edited by Robert Mankoff.
This 11-by-13-inch volume includes 2,500 cartoons by Charles Addams, Roz
Chast, Peter Arno, James Thurber and others, and essays by Roger Angell,
Lillian Ross, Calvin Trillin and John Updike. More chuckles lurk in the
two accompanying CDs that contain every cartoon _ a total of 68,647 _
published in the magazine since its debut on Feb. 21, 1925.

The Jewish Museum in New York houses the world's largest collection
of menorahs _ more than 1,000. In "Luminous Art" (Yale University Press,
$50) by Susan L. Braunstein, more than 100 of those pieces are shown in
140 color illustrations. The lamps, which date from the Renaissance to
modern times, include examples from six continents. They appear in a
variety of designs and materials, including various metals, pottery,
wood and glass.

Glass in colorful lampshades and windows made Tiffany famous. But in
"Louis C. Tiffany: The Garden Museum Collection" (Antique Collectors'
Club, $195, slipcased), Alastair Duncan offers 1,100 illustrations of
works from every field in which Tiffany dabbled, including furniture,
paintings, enamelware, metalware and sliver. Examples include tables,
chairs, clocks, dinnerware, and covered bowls and boxes. The book also
features art reviews, print ads and catalog excerpts.

"The Complete Collection of Antiquities From the Cabinet of Sir
William Hamilton" (Taschen, $200) is one huge volume _ 17 by 11 inches _
that reproduces a four-volume, 18th-century catalog of Hamilton's
collection of ancient vases. Author Pierre-Francois Hugues D'Hancarville
documented the collection, considered the finest of its time, before it
was sold to the British Museum in London in 1772. The book displays 312
vases on 550 pages.

The life and work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright is right at hand
in "Frank Lloyd Wright: The Interactive Portfolio" (Running Press, $40,
slipcased) by Margo Stipe. Besides text and 100 illustrations, there are
removable facsimiles of 65 documents, photographs and architectural
sketches in glassine envelopes bound into the book, and a 60-minute
audio CD of Wright's interviews and lectures.

An "architect" of fashion is Tom Ford, whose designs for Gucci and
Yves St. Laurent are on show in "Tom Ford" (Rizzoli, $125). This
slipcased volume contains more than 300 images by Richard Avedon, Herb
Ritts, Annie Leibovitz and others, many in color and many previously
unpublished. The book is divided into one-year segments, from 1994 to
2004, and shows Ford's designs draped upon Meg Ryan, Sarah Jessica
Parker, Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicole Kidman and others.

Clothing and home-fashions designer Tommy Hilfiger has put his label
on "New England Icons and Inspirations" (Rizzoli, $75). Its 200
illustrations, many in color, include archival photographs, paintings,
artifacts and graphics that celebrate the New England lifestyle _ its
people and places, art and architecture, lobsters and lighthouses _ in
all six states. Scattered throughout this mostly visual book are quotes
by Longfellow, John Adams, E.B. White and others.

Travel books often focus on one country or region. But "The Travel
Book" (Lonely Planet, $39.99) visits every country _ 230 of them, from
Afghanistan to Zimbabwe _ in its 444 pages, 1,200 images and 100,000
words. Stops include the obscure and the obvious: Brazil and Belarus,
Nauru and The Netherlands, Tuvalu and Tahiti, South Africa and North
Korea. Also on hand are maps, recommendations about when to go and what
to do, and a simple sample of the native tongue.

A great way to travel would be in a vintage automobile _ 100 of
which appear in "Automobiles of the Chrome Age: 1946-1960" (Abrams, $50)
by Michael Furman. The era's cars are typically huge, with bold colors,
globs of chrome trim and, in later years, soaring tail fins. Also shown,
however, are the exceptions _ the Nash Metropolitan, VW Beetle and BMW
Isetta, in which excess took a back seat to economy and practicality.
Besides production models, some limited-edition cars are shown,
including the Firebird III, which resembles a jet fighter on four
wheels.

Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gordon Parks, Margaret Bourke-White, Robert Capa
and Larry Burrows are among the subjects of "The Great Life
Photographers" (Bulfinch, $50). Parks wrote the foreword to this
600-page album of 698 photos, some in color and many of which depict
famous faces and events: Ted Williams, FDR, Ella Fitzgerald, Marilyn
Monroe and Georgia O'Keeffe; and the Woodstock Music Festival, the
running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, and V-J Day celebrated in New
York's Times Square.

Times Square is where you'll find New York's theater district, the
setting for "Broadway: The American Musical" (Bulfinch, $60). Michael
Kantor and Laurence Maslon provide a history of musicals, from the turn
of the 20th century to today, in a densely packed, generously
illustrated volume. It features biographies, lyrics and interviews,
along with 500 photos, including production stills, rehearsal scenes,
sheet music covers, posters, and views of Times Square throughout the
years.

In "They Made America" (Little, Brown, $40), Harold Evans salutes
two centuries of innovators whose creations, "from the steam engine to
the search engine," helped shape the nation. Text and 500 illustrations
laud, among others, Singer's sewing machine and the Wrights' flying
machine, Eli Whitney's cotton gin and Levi Strauss' blue jeans, Garrett
Morgan's gas mask and Edwin Drake's oil drills, and Eastman's Kodak and
Polaroid's Land cameras.

More than 240 photos illustrate "Sports Illustrated, 50 Years"
(Sports Illustrated Books, $29.95). Images, organized by decades,
include Muhammad Ali standing triumphantly over a knocked-out Sonny
Liston, 1965; Jackie Robinson dancing menacingly off third base in the
1955 World Series; and Sarah Hughes figure-skating her way to Olympic
gold in 2002. There are features by Jimmy Breslin, Frank Deford, George
Plimpton and others, and reproductions of each of the magazine's 2,585
covers _ from its debut on Aug. 16, 1954, through mid-2004.

James Balog found himself up a tree when he set out to photograph
"Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest" (Barnes & Noble, $50). He
photographed huge redwoods and sequoias by rappelling down a neighboring
tree to take hundreds of tiny images that were later pieced together.
The book _ which, at 32 inches when open, is wider than many trees _
offers a photographic record of the forest, stressing its oldest,
tallest, broadest and just plain biggest trees.
¶ The biggest passenger ship ever is the Queen Mary 2 _ a fifth of a
mile long and 23 stories high. In "Queen Mary 2: The Birth of a Legend"
(Abrams, $40), photographer Philip Plisson has documented the first two
years of the ship's life _ from the cutting of the first sheet-iron
plate in January 2002 to its maiden voyage and arrival in New York from
Southampton, England, in April 2004. More than 300 color images show the
ship inside and outside, up close and from afar.

Many people keep a scrapbook; Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz kept more
than 100 scrapbooks. "Lucy & Desi" (Running Press, $35, slipcased) by
Elisabeth Edwards contains artifacts culled from the stars' collection
of letters, telegrams, photos, newspaper clippings, magazine covers and
even traffic tickets. Among the removable items are facsimiles of
Arnaz's passport, the couple's marriage license and a typewritten
shooting schedule for a September 1951 episode of "I Love Lucy."

It might not be the book for everyone, but "Human" (DK, $50) is the
book about everyone. Robert Winston and others, in association with the
Smithsonian Institution, have compiled a 512-page visual guide to the
body with thousands of photos, drawings and maps that show how we
evolved, how our bodies develop, and how the body and mind function
during various stages of life.

Among other worthy choices:
Art and Architecture

"China: Dawn of a Golden Age 200-750 AD" (Yale University Press,
$75) by James C.Y. Watt. Text and 500 illustrations exhibit 300 objects
from the Han and Tang dynasties.

"Great Expectations" (Bulfinch, $60) by Barbara Dayer Gallati. U.S.
painter John Singer Sargent's depiction of children, with 180
illustrations.

"Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand" (Yale University Press, $60), edited by
Richard F. Townsend. Ancient art and artifacts of American Indians, with
300 examples in stone, ceramics, wood and metal.

"I, Goya" by Dagmar Feghelm; and "I, Michelangelo" by Georgia
Illetchko (Prestel, $59 each). Generously illustrated slipcased albums
of each artist's life and work.

"Impressions of New York" (Princeton Architectural Press, $50) by
Marilyn Symmes. City views in 150 prints from the New-York Historical
Society's collection.

"Matisse: From Color to Architecture" (Abrams, $125, slipcased) by
Rene Percheron and Christian Brouder. The French artist's paintings and
architectural designs, with 400 illustrations.

"MiMo: Miami Modern Revealed" (Chronicle, $40) by Eric P. Nash and
Randall C. Robinson Jr. The architectural style that flourished in South
Florida from the mid-1940s to late 1960s, in 250 illustrations.

"Miro" (Flammarion, $85) by Jacque Dupin. The life and work of the
20th-century Spanish artist, told in text and 450 images, many in color.

"Skyscrapers" (Prestel, $35) by Andres Lepik. The world's tallest
buildings, from Barcelona to Beijing, are described in text and 260
illustrations, many in color.

Fashion and Style

"American Style" (Assouline, $50) by Kelly Killoren Bensimon. An
illustrated study of 200 American style icons, from "Afro" to "zoot
suit."

"Art Deco New York" (Watson-Guptill, $40) by David Garrard Lowe. The
history of art deco design in New York buildings, fashion, interiors and
artifacts, with 200 illustrations.

"Glamour: Fashion, Industrial Design, Architecture" (Yale University
Press, $45), edited by Joseph Rosa et al. Glamour in clothing, cars,
furniture and buildings, in 300 photos, most in color.
¶ "New Scandinavian Design" (Chronicle, $50) by Katherine Nelson. With
450 color illustrations of contemporary designs in housewares, furniture
and electronics.

"Panama: A Legendary Hat" (Assouline, $45) by Martine Buchet. The
history, production and variety of the familiar topper.

History and Biography

"Alexander the Conqueror" (Da Capo, $35) by Laura Foreman. The
ancient ruler's life and exploits, illustrated by 250 paintings,
artifacts, maps and photos.

"Diana: The Portrait" (Andrews McMeel, $50) by Rosalind Coward.
Interviews and 500 photos profile Diana, Princess of Wales.

"Jackie: A Life in Pictures" (Powerhouse, $60) edited by Yann-Brice
Dherbier and Pierre Henri-Verlhac. A biography of Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis in 250 images.

"Historical Atlas of the United States" (National Geographic, $40).
Key events in U.S. history, accompanied by 200 illustrations and maps.

"World War II" (DK, $40) by H.P. Willmot et al. The war, its causes
and consequences, illustrated with hundreds of photos, maps, graphics
and artifacts.


Homes and Gardens

"American Writers at Home" (Library of America, $50) by J.D.
McClatchy. Erica Lennard's photos show the private homes where Melville,
Longfellow, Wharton and other U.S. writers toiled.

"Castles From the Air" and "Gardens From the Air" (Frances Lincoln,
$40 each) offer bird's-eye views of European examples in more than 100
color photos each.

"Country Homes" (Filipacchi, $39.95) by Jean Demachy. With 250 color
photographs showing weekend retreats, from cabins to contemporaries.

"50 of the World's Best Apartments" (Images Publishing, $60), edited
by Robyn Beaver. Floor plans and 300 color photos visit posh "pads" in
New York, Sao Paulo, Sydney and elsewhere.

"The Most Beautiful Gardens in the World" (Abrams, $60) by Alain Le
Toquin. Author's photo album of 32 public and private gardens, on five
continents, includes 150 color photos and 12 foldouts.

Nature and Science

"Earthsong" (Phaidon, $59.95) by Bernhard Edmaier. Unspoiled and
remote places on Earth in 250 color aerial views.

"The Encyclopedia of Animals" (University of California, $39.95). An
illustrated guide to 2,000 species, from "aardvark" to "zorro."

"Flying Flowers" (Welcome, $40) by Rick Sammon. Butterflies up close
in 80 color photos.

"Jardin de la Malmaison" (Prestel, $180, slipcased) by H. Walter
Lack. Reproductions of colored engravings by 19th-century illustrator
Pierre-Joseph Redoute show 120 rare plant species in Josephine
Bonaparte's garden.

"Weather: A Visual Guide" (Firefly, $29.95) by Bruce Buckley et al.
Meteorology explained, from isobars to acid rain, with 500
illustrations.


Photography

"Anonymous" (Thames & Hudson, $45) by Robert Flynn Johnson. More
than 200 "enigmatic images from unknown photographers."

"Beaton Portraits" (Yale University Press, $50) by Terence Pepper.
Vivien Leigh, Audrey Hepburn and Tennessee Williams are among those who
pose in 160 portraits by Cecil Beaton.

"Fall" (Powerhouse, $39.95) by Christopher Griffith. Close-up views
of autumn leaves in 48 color photos.

"In Focus" (National Geographic, $30) edited by Leah Bendavid-Val.
With 280 portraits from 100 years of National Geographic magazine.

"Magnum Stories" (Phaidon, $79.95), edited by Chris Boot. Magnum
photographers discuss their work, illustrated with 800 photos, some in
color.

"Picture Machine" (Abrams, $40) by William Hannigan and Ken
Johnston. With 300 historical newswire photos from the archives of
United Press International.


Show Business

"Burlesque" (Collectors Press, $39.95) by Jane Briggeman. A
generously illustrated history of the medium's "golden days."

"Made You Laugh!" (Andrews McMeel, $29.95) by Joe Garner. Text, 200
photos and a three-hour DVD offer classic comedy moments.

"Oscar Night: 75 Years of Hollywood Parties" (Knopf, $75) by Graydon
Carter and David Friend. A massive volume of 500 photos of Hollywood
celebs in party mode, since the 1929 Oscar bash.

"Sinatra" (DK, $40) by Richard Havers chronicles the crooner's life
and career in text, sidebars and more than 1,000 photographs, while "The
Sinatra Treasures" (Bulfinch, $45) by Frank Pignone does so in 200
photos, 30 removable facsimiles of documents and memorabilia, and a
60-minute audio CD.

"U2 Show" (Riverhead, $35) by Diana Scrimgeour. Text and 500 photos
accompany the Irish rock band on tour.


Sports

"Golf Courses of the PGA Tour" (Abrams, $50) by George Peper. Third
edition's 250 photos take armchair duffers to each venue of the 2005
Tour.

"The Gridiron's Greatest Quarterbacks" (Sports Publishing, $24.95)
by Jonathan Rand. Text and 75 photos honor Otto Graham, Joe Montana,
Y.A. Tittle and others.

"Thunder and Glory" (Triumph, $34.95) by the editors of NASCAR Scene
magazine. A 1-hour DVD accompanies this illustrated survey of memorable
Winston Cup races.

"Ultimate Basketball" (DK, $30) by John Hereas. The game's history,
with 500 photos.

"Unhittable" (Triumph, $34.95) by James Buckley Jr. and Phil Pepe.
Baseball's outstanding pitching performances since 1876; includes
100-minute DVD.

Travel

"Call of the Desert" (Abrams, $50) by Philippe Bourseiller. A huge
volume with 200 color photos of the Sahara.

"Island Dreams: Mediterranean" (Thames & Hudson, $40) by Jeremy
Horner. With 246 color images.

"Japan" (Norton, $59.95) by Hiroji Kubota. The landscape, people and
customs of author's homeland in 175 color photos.

"Last Places on Earth" (Graphis, $60) by Eric Meola. People, places
and things in remote and exotic corners of the world are shown in 100
vivid color photos.

"Paris" (Flammarion, $95), edited by Gilles Plazy. The city's
lifestyle, history, art and architecture, with 600 color photos.

"Wanderlust" (Powerhouse, $50) by Michael Clinton. Author's trek to
100 countries, illustrated in 200 color photos.