Bow Valley, Alberta, Canada - Issue 46 / November 13, 2003
History was made at the Banff Mountain Book Festival last week as a record-setting $20,000 CDN was paid for a single copy of a new book.
Antarctica: Explorer Series, Volume 1 was bought by Texas resident Brian Hanson, a vice-president of the Explorers Club of New York City, whose honorary chairman is Sir Edmund Hillary.
The 19-pound book is a stunning collection of photos and essays about one of the earth’s last great wild areas, created by Canadian photographers Pat and Rosemarie Keough in a decade-long process that’s almost more interesting than the book itself.
Just 950 of the books were printed, with proceeds from the sales going to BirdLife International to aid in its campaign to preserve the albatross. All 950 copies have been signed by Queen Noor of Jordan, honorary president of BirdLife International.
Five of the books, however, have been signed by an additional 32 people, all of whom have left their mark on Antarctica. Some of them are famous, like Sir Hillary, and some are not so famous, like the first man to land a plane at the South Pole, the first woman to ski solo to the pole, and Admiral Byrd’s dogsled driver, now 98 years old.
It was one of these five that was purchased by Hanson.
The first of the five special copies sold in March for $10,000 US at the Explorers Club in New York. The Keoughs themselves raise the price of the book by $5,000 after each sale. Friday’s (Nov. 7) sale to Hanson, which set the Canadian record for a new book sale, was the second of the five. There were actually three people at the Book Festival seeking to buy the book, with one woman calling Saturday morning (Nov. 8) to inquire whether it was still for sale, Pat Keough said Sunday (Nov. 9).
The other 945 books sell for $2,900 US each, with about $500 of that going to BirdLife International.
photo: Pascale Robillard
The Keoughs began the project in the early 1990s, when they were already well established as photographers and creators of upscale, fine art books. They were frequently asked to donate money to various causes, and decided instead on their own, unique form of philanthropy.
They would create the best book in the world.
“We are unapologetic. We wanted to create a project that would appeal to people who have money, and to create a book that is considered a piece of art,” Keough said.
The two began researching ancient techniques of bookbinding, a voyage of discovery almost as fascinating as their two summers in the Antarctic.
“It led us into the whole world of leather and bookbinding and what makes a strong book. The old monks tanned leather with natural products like black oak and sumac, leather that was not mass-produced and was made to last.”
Their research led them to just three tanners left in the world, in England, Scotland and France, who used sumac and black oak to tan the leather.
They chose goatskin for the cover, as it is very long lasting and abrasion resistant. Then they researched the actual binding of the book itself, sending out their specifications to binderies recommended by their leather manufacturer. Because the book is so large — when open about 38 inches by 14 inches — they were seeking a technique similar to the way accounting ledgers were bound in the 14th to 16th centuries in Venice.
“What we needed was something that gave the strength of split board binding and the elegance of fine binding. It took a decade just to figure out how the books would be put together,” said Keough.
Only two binders in the world were able to meet their requests — Harcourt Bindery in Boston and Felton Bookbinding in Georgetown, Ont.
During this time the Keoughs and their seven-year-old son Glen had spent two summers, October to May, in Antarctica, photographing and writing about what Keough calls “the most inhospitable of continents, but stunningly, achingly beautiful — the one place on earth where you truly believe you’ve landed on another planet.” Back home, they researched publishing companies that might be able to do justice to their photography.
“We sent photos to four printers and asked them to drum scan them, put them on the commercial presses and show us what they could do.”
To their surprise, the firm they were looking for was right in their backyard. Hemlock Printing of Burnaby was testing a revolutionary technology called 10-micron stochastic printing, which reproduced the photos “three times higher resolution than anyone else in the world could do,” said Keough.
“We went looking to create the best book in the world, and we looked all over the world and found the people that could do it were right here in Canada.
The book has won 14 major awards for excellence since it was officially unveiled in January 2002 at a reception hosted by Prince Charles at St. James’s Palace. Among those awards is the Benjamin Franklin Award, the Oscar of the publishing industry.
From the sale of the Antarctica book, they hope to donate $500,000 to the BirdLife effort to preserve the albatross, a majestic polar bird whose numbers are declining precipitously, largely due to longline fishing practices. Attracted to the baited hooks, the seabirds are hooked or entangled and then drowned as the trailing lines sink behind the fishing vessels.
CAROL PICARD – EDITOR
