Have you ever had a much-loved or valuable book restored professionally or have you done it yourself? I have already had interviews with the professional restorers. Now I'd like to interview some people who have used their services or fixed ruined books themselves.

Thanks!
Rene
ireneculver@aol.com

I had a book restored after it was stolen from my home. Fortunately, the police were able to recover it but it had been roughly handled and the already fragile spine was deteriorating.
In a way, I hated to touch the original binding -- the book was published in 1655 -- but in order to protect it from further disintegration, I took it to a local artisan who restored it. He did a great job.
I still have the book. It is called The Compleat Ambassador and is a collection of letters between Elisabeth I and her ambassadors to the French court. Sounds dry but it is actually fascinating reading on Rennaissance/Tudor politics and diplomacy.
One of my favourite comments is Elisabeth's direction to her ambassadors on how they are to handle the delicate question of Mary, Queen of Scots, a former French Queen who was in English captivity at the time.

Keep well,
Val Lennox

Val, thanks so much for your response. I assume you are giving me permission to quote you in the article I'll write. If not, let me know! I'd like to know more about your book. It's very interesting. You can email me directly: IRENECULVER@aol.com. Thanks again.

_________________
Writing for magazines again, after a few years doing other kinds of writing. I have much to learn!

My husband had an old Finnish bible inherited from his grandmother which was litertally falling apart at the seams. The cover had worked its way loose and was being held on only by tiny strings. We brought it to a local restorer, who replaced the cover with a new cover of the same color and texture and rebound the pages to make sure they stayed in the new cover.
The bible was from the turn of the century, produced sometime before 1910. It was brought over from Finland when his grandmother immigrated from Finland to the US as a child. There were handwritten birth,marriage, and death dates on one of the inside pages, my husband's family tree. We were really pleased to be able to get the family bible restored. Without restoration, it probably would have fallen apart beyond repair. It's nice to be able to have a family heirloom to pass along to our own future children.

Bridget Coila
ailuri @ aol.com
Seattle, WA