MOVABLE Magic and Passion in Portland
The Movable Book Society Conference Portland, Oregon Ellen G. K. Rubin Scarsdale, New York
September 23-25, 2010
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I disembarked from my American Airlines flight at my final destination, Portland, Oregon. Without a direct flight from New York, it had been a very long day. "I could have
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Volume 18
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Number 4
Mulder & Zoon, Amsterdam An International Publisher of Movable Books Part One Theo Gielen The Netherlands
catalogue 1965 1966
been in Prague," I mused, anticipating seeing Dagmar KubaStova again and remembering my love for that city,
home of Vojtéch Kubata.
The magic and passion that would infuse the conference began on that flight. I had packed the New York Times magazine section: The entire issue centering on the use of electronics in education. One essay was devoted to the Livescribe, a very special pen suggested for note-taking. (Not to whine, but while MBS conferees are schmoozing and carousing, I try to be everywhere taking notes.) The article pointed out that when one takes notes, some of the lecturer's comments are unheard, mis-remembered, or, in my case, not remembered at all, never making it into the notebook. But I always say that when it comes to pop-ups, I'm the luckiest gal in the world. Well, here was divine intervention. A pen with a built-in recorder so that after the notes were taken on special paper and the pen pressed on to a word, the recorder skips to where that word was spoken and the scribe can hear those words and what came after. If this is not magic, what is? I had come early for the some vacation Tuesday before the conference start on Thursday, September 23. I had never been in Oregon. I hadn't gone all out on a guidebook and used Frommer's Portable Portland, a slender tome. It was sunny and warm, *. giving me the freedom to Pop-Up Now! Catalog explore my first day. Of course, I already knew my first stop would be Powell's Book Store, walking distance from the Hilton Portland and Executive Tower. Its reputation is legendary and its size greater than Strand's in NYC. I had already checked Powell's website http://www.powells.com/) for rare books and had little hope for a great find, but what book collector would pass
Powell's by?
Continued on page 2
CHHPREN'S
Boons
ulderzoon A 1965 English language catalog of Mulder & Zoon.
afterwards, I continued researching. I studied the Mulder trade catalogs and as many copies of their movable, pop-up, and novelty books as available, and even
When preparing the interview with Len van Groen, published in the May, 2010 issue of Movable Stationery, I researched the mostly anonymously published novelty books of Mulder & Zoon of Amsterdam, the company for which he had worked. I had hoped for more information about the other people responsible for the Mulder output. But, the otherwise very informative conversation with Mr. van Groen proved without much result to this end. So
y
pant GARAGE DE
HET VLIEGVELD No2
succeeded in getting some extra information
about
Panorama No. 1
Mulder's
publishing
activities
through former employees of the company.
Researching books of this kind, what] call "industrial" book publishers, is greatly hindered by their very publishing policy. These books are always undated, and are mostly issued without the names of the author or illustrator. When there are names, or signatures of illustrators found in the pictures, information about them or the solution of the -
often proves to be signatures impossible to find since they are only lesser known (and often rather inferior) "artists." Continued on page 6 -
Ducky squeaks and moves