Rich Tong of Lyra's Books
Rich Tong is an award-winning bookbinder at the world-renowned Ludlow's Bookbinders and in 2020 he expanded into new territory and started his own small press under the name of Lyra's Books. Lyra's has two different lines of releases including a contemporary track and one focused on classics (Lyra's Classics). Rich is just coming off the back-to-back release of Coraline by Neil Gaiman and Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens in the last couple months. His willingness to do this interview with us at such a busy time is a testament to his kindness and dedication to those of us that are lucky enough to own his work. We were honored to be able to have this conversation with Rich who has been a friend to all of us at Collectible Book Vault and extremely generous with his valuable time.
Q: Through your years at Ludlow Bookbinders, you have had the honor to work underneath, and eventually alongside master binder Brian Settle. In what ways do you feel you are continuing his storied legacy and in what ways are you forging your own path?
A: From what he told me, Brian had apprenticed as a binder back in the late 1950’s, first working at a large, commercial printer/bindery and then as a hand binder for the Oxford University Press where he worked for over a decade. Back then, things were not quite as relaxed as now and, by all accounts, life as an apprentice could be very hard. Brian brought this strict way of working and teaching with him, and when I was learning from him it could often be… quite tough to say the least. He was a very hard man to please and I guess I learned my craft always with the fear of being taken to task for minor errors. That being said, this meant that I learned quickly and with very particular methods. In hindsight, I wouldn’t have had my training any other way. Brian was indeed a true master of his craft and was a ‘go-to-guy’ for a lot of fine presses, from the 1970’s/80’s onwards, through the Fine Bindery, Smith Settle and later, Ludlow. I think the people that work with me would agree that I sometimes have the same level of grumpiness at the very least (although I hope I’m easier to work with!), but I could only dream of being at Brian’s level of skill. In fact, I’m sure I never will be and wouldn’t dare to even suggest that I could be. I know of a couple of other binders who are from the ‘Brian lineage’ and it is amazing how you recognise your own work in theirs. Certain ways of doing things are passed down and, to me at least, it is very noticeable. He will always be there, certainly in what I produce anyway. I couldn’t have hoped for a better teacher. He was a fierce man who produced great results with his trainees. I don’t think he would disagree with that.
Brian was strictly a craftsman and an extremely respected one at that. As far as I know, he wasn’t one for designing his own bindings, or for entering competitions or ever entertaining the idea of publishing his own stuff. He absolutely hated ‘designer binders’ and always saw what they produced as being purely aesthetic rather than thinking about the functionality of a ‘proper’ book. I agree with him to a certain extent but I think this is where we branch away from each other. I think they can be both if done properly. He is long retired now but I did see him at the Ludlow Book Fair last year and I showed him the lettered edition of Stardust. After looking at it critically for a very long minute or two he nodded his head, gave a slight smile and said “That’s not bad. You’re learning” before plonking it back down on the table and wandering off. This is about the maximum praise you could ever expect, so I guess I finally passed the test. It almost brought a tear to my eye (honestly)! He does still joke that I’ve turned to the dark side when occasionally I see him. I’ve become a dreaded designer binder in more ways than he ever worried I might be.
Q: Well, I think there are quite a few of us who are glad you turned to the “dark side” and this wonderful synthesis of classic and modern has become your hallmark. While you were working on commissioned projects at Ludlow Bookbinders, you also began to entertain the idea of starting Lyra’s Books. How long had you been ruminating on this idea and how did it evolve over time?
A: Lyra’s Books was a total accident. After Brian retired, the managing director (Paul Kidson) gave me a set of keys to the bindery and allowed me to start going in on the weekend to mess around on my own things. Many years before, I had studied Fine Art and had spent a lot of my free time creating all sorts of stuff (mainly drawings). Around the time I started binding in my free time, I’d hit a bit of a creative brick wall with painting and drawing and wanted to try my hand at pushing the boundaries of what I already knew about binding. All of the projects I usually worked on at the bindery were already designed by the publishers and we worked from a ‘job bag’ which usually contains all of the information we need to make the books. Like a blueprint in some ways, I suppose. And then there are hours, weeks and months of seemingly endless, laborious processes to go through until it’s finished. Strictly craft and no design. I never got to work on one-off books and I’d never been trained to do so. We are a ‘craft’ bindery, or ‘edition’ bindery depending on who you ask. We only make large runs of new limited-edition books and now I wanted to try designing and making my own books, one at a time. By this time, I had already made thousands of books and honed my skills to the point where I was confident that I had a good solid base to start creating my own personal work.
In the beginning, I started by just making fancy boxes for books I already owned. Then I started buying old, past their best Arthur Rackham books and rebinding those. I managed to sell one on eBay quite early on and I was ecstatic. So, then I invested that money in a very lucky find – an 1867 copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which I had somehow managed to get at a bargain price. Then I sold that and kept buying more and more old, damaged books and giving them a new lease of life. Really, it was just a nice little side-line and I had fun doing it so I thought I’d make a Facebook page and see if anyone else was interested. It was somewhere to share the links to my eBay shop more than anything else. Occasionally, I’d sell a book but mostly I was enjoying having the bindery to myself and having free reign over which materials to use. After a while, I started binding the Tolkien books starting with Folio Society rebinds. These books were ideal, as they were inexpensive compared to first editions, yet bound in sewn sections which meant they were a better choice for rebinding than modern ‘perfect bound’ books, which have a tendency to crack at the spine and fall apart. I believe some of these bindings caught the attention of a Folio Society forum and I suddenly found myself getting a few followers.
The publishing part of Lyra’s Books came about quite slowly. I’d spent years making books for small publishers and watching how they operated, chatting with them and so on. Finding out a bit about what they do. Most of them publish in quite niche markets – luxury cars, fishing, occult, that kind of thing. Nevertheless, it was all quite enlightening and seemed like a really interesting avenue to explore. I asked Paul what he thought about me trying it for myself one day and he was very supportive. It was never an idea to start a small press but perhaps to just publish one book and see what happened with it. It would be something that I could look back on and be proud of, regardless of how well it sold. I had no idea what that book would be, until I bound American Gods. But more on that later…
The response to Stardust was a massive shock to say the least.
Q: Where did the name of your press originate from and what does it mean to you personally?
A: Lyra is the name of my cat! I have been a bookbinder for about 13 years and I have had her from almost the first day on the job. You could say that she has been my constant bookbinding companion. She was named after Lyra Belacqua from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, which is a favourite of mine. In the Lyra’s Books logo, the cat is (obviously) Lyra and she is sitting on three books which are supposed to be the HDM books. I couldn’t get the whole Lyra constellation on there but the star is a nod to that Lyra too. I believe Lyra from the constellation was often depicted as a bird, so it seemed quite apt to have the cat trying to catch it. She does like chasing things.
Q: The cat makes a lot more sense now! Clearly you are no stranger to the art of bookbinding, but running your own small press is a new venture. How have you enjoyed and/or been challenged by the new aspects of the business since you have taken on a full-fledged press of your own?
A: Running a small press on your own is a very challenging experience, but I also have a full-time job as a binder so this makes it especially tough. For the most part of this year, I have had basically no free time. At all. I work pretty much seven days a week and have rarely had days off this year. Day to day, when I finish work at the bindery, I go home and then work on the publishing side of things. It is extremely tiring, often majorly frustrating, but also a joyful experience. I mean, I get to create stuff all day long so it never really feels like proper work, right?! The admin work is especially hard to keep up with though.
I think I mentioned in one earlier social media post that when I’m in binding and designing mode I work with a kind of tunnel vision. My brain has to be 100% focused on the work at hand otherwise the wheels start falling off. This is also the reason why I rarely take time off. Weekends and evenings are quiet times where I can work undisturbed. Over the last year or two, I’ve also had to accommodate the thoughts of other projects that are sloshing around in my brain and all the minute details that they comprise of. One day I’ll hire someone to do the admin stuff for me at least. That’s the dream anyway.
Q: You seem to have a unique ability to create designs that have a rich sense of timelessness, but also a modern touch. The designs are never boring, but also seem to never veer into the realm of gimmick. Is this simply your personal style coming through or have you consciously sought to strike that balance as you think about a new project?
A: Well, thank you! I suppose the classic edge to the designs comes from my training. For example, The Picture of Dorian Gray (with the raised bands, half-leather etc.) is the kind of binding I was trained to do and the kinds of bindings that are our bread and butter at Ludlow. It’s also more the kind of thing that you will see with the Classics imprint as the style lends itself particularly well to those titles. That’s not to say that they will all always be like that. If the artist and the book steer us down a more contemporary design route then that is always a possibility. I remain flexible. The more modern touches come from all sorts of places, although often it is just flashes of inspiration based on what I know will work with certain materials. Mostly, it’s just what I think looks good personally, nothing deeper than that. But I do tend to bash out mountains of test pieces until it feels right. I very much like to physically work on a design and develop the ideas that way rather than doing it on a computer. I also like to work with the artist on the cover designs if I can. After all, it is their work inside the book, so it should be reflected in some way on the outside too. What the artist gives me will influence the overall look of the book in a big way.
I’m not really into gimmicky stuff. I know some people like it but it’s not really for me.
I mean, I won’t even put my logo on the cover as I think it can draw the eye away from the design of the book. The company name and all relevant information is inside the book, preferably at the back and out of the way, so I don’t see why it needs to be outside too. I know that absolutely everyone else does it, in all walks of publishing but, personally, I’ve always thought it cheapens the thing a bit. I don’t think the design of a binding should be disrupted by a bit of company advertising, especially on high-end books. It’s about as jarring to me as banging a barcode on the back cover. But that’s just my opinion!
Q: I’ve never thought about a logo from that perspective, but that makes a lot of sense. You don’t seem like someone who enjoys thinking about marketing, but instead let the quality of the pieces speak for you. Are there any ways you consciously seek to widen your audience or are you just laser focused on the quality and design and let that do the talking?
I'm a bit allergic to marketing and I guess I've just lazily allowed things to naturally progress over the last couple of years. Mostly I’ve just been dazzled by the interest I already have. Marcelo berates me frequently on this and so I think we will try and push to widen the audience in some way or other a lot more. He thinks way further ahead than me and about what our reach could be. We are fully aware that we need to keep our current buyers as well as expanding that customer base so that we can continue to make books.
The only real drawback of that is that I can't really increase the limitation sizes too much. It's just too much for me to cope with. I am constantly torn between hoping I can accommodate everyone and get books into everyone's hands and the fear of a book not selling very well. At the end of the day, more customers are certainly better than no customers at all! Through Arete Editions, we are starting to push into the fine art world, most especially by using well known and respected fine artists. That means I can work with some incredible contemporary artists on designs and hopefully come up with really innovative and creative looking books. Brave New World will be the first of those, with art by Pop Artist Allen Jones which is very exciting. He said that the only thing he hasn’t done in his long career is work with a bookbinder. Very cool. So, hopefully, through that it's possible we can widen our audience into that market too. But, even with all of these amazingly exciting things on the horizon, fundamentally I’m focused on quality in the craftsmanship and the design. I want to make books that people want to own and take pleasure in reading.
Q: When you choose a new title and start thinking about all the aspects of bringing it to life (overall aesthetic, binding material, color, artist, typeface, etc.), where do you begin and what does that process look like for you?
A: Since Stardust, it now starts with a very long call with Marcelo Anciano of Arete Editions. He and I have been working together since about September 2020, while I was still in production of Stardust. We have long calls about potential titles and artists all of the time. Daily. We will mull over multiple ideas for a title until one forms itself into something with potential. The artist comes next. We need to know what the overall mood of the book will be before we can go about choosing bindings and typefaces. Marcelo and I will chat with the artist and give them an outline of what we’re looking for while staying entirely flexible. Marcelo will then go and create a rough layout for the book while working out where all the art should go. Once we have some semi-finished artwork, I can start thinking about binding designs. The whole process takes a very, very long time.
Q: From my perspective, you seem to hold a uniquely high level of respect in the small press community. I think this comes from the fact that you are not just a press owner and artist, but a bookbinder as well, following the process from start to finish. When you started as an apprentice under Brian, how did you see your career going, and did it ever include anything like what you are experiencing today?
A: If that is true then it is very kind, but it’s a little peculiar to me as I haven’t really published very much yet! But yes, I suppose being the binder and the publisher is not a normal occurrence. Printer and publisher maybe, but not binder.
When I first began my career, I had no aspirations to be anything other than a competent binder. I was told at my interview “you’ll never earn a lot of money being a bookbinder,” which is still true, but I didn’t and don’t really care all that much about that. I just wanted a job where I could be creative and where I didn’t dread going in to work every day. I certainly never thought I would be one of the customers of the bindery too. I’m busier than ever but happier than ever with how things are going.
Q: From the outside, it looks like you might be one of the busiest people in the small press world. How do you strike the balance between your own projects, collaborative work with other imprints and commission jobs? Do you prefer one over the other or do they all provide rewarding experiences?
A: Yes, there is a lot going on at the moment. The only other publisher I am really working with full-time is Arete Editions. In fact, between Marcelo, Phil Abel and myself, it is exactly the same team of people who work on both Arete and Lyra’s projects. Essentially, we are one and the same, it’s just that I own Lyra’s and those guys own Arete. We all do the same jobs for each press. So, an Arete book is a Lyra’s book and vice versa. I think between us we have about 10 or 12 projects on the go right now at different stages. I have also done some work with Curious King recently on their Ready Player One rebind project and The Blade Itself prototypes.
It is very hard to balance everything – everything is pressing and everybody always wants everything immediately (including myself). Unfortunately, hand binding isn’t something that can be done at the flick of a switch. Sometimes things go wrong, or things take even longer than expected, even with vast experience behind you. There are so many binding processes and delays in any of them can have massive knock-on effects. It’s not a job that can be hurried and, quite frankly, sometimes it just takes as long as it takes. From my own point of view, I have to not only do the all of the production binding but also juggle all of the admin work, the designing, the project development, the prototype making, liaising with suppliers and publishers… Some days there’s so much back and forth between different projects that I don’t really feel like I’ve achieved much and that is incredibly frustrating to me. The process of hand bookbinding is very slow and methodical so working to such tight deadlines across multiple projects and in such large numbers is always a struggle and a bit of a moving target. Thankfully, in the last several months, I have been given the helping hands and fine skills of two wonderful young binders who are now working with me exclusively in the bindery. The core Lyra team so to speak.
I would just like to take a moment to namecheck them as they deserve praise for what they do and they help to lessen the load on me. Firstly, there is Sam who has been working for Ludlow for around 6 years. She is an incredibly capable binder and will go on to do great things, I have no doubt of that whatsoever. And also, Meriel, who only started with us at the beginning of this year with no prior experience. She is a natural and has already become an invaluable member of the team. She has progressed more in her first few months than I did in my first couple of years. Sam was responsible for the CK Ready Player One Atari cases and both of them were involved for large parts of the construction of The Case of Death and Honey and Dorian Gray. I am also well supported by the bindery manager (and master binder) Phil Parkins who will give me advice if I’m at a loss from a technical point of view, and by the managing director Paul Kidson, who has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to suppliers, materials and the financial side of things.
I don’t really do commission work anymore as I just don’t have the time. In fact, I rarely did it even when I had the time. Mostly, I made books that I wanted to make and then just sold them to whoever wanted them! I have a few outstanding jobs to do so, if you’re one of the people waiting, don’t worry! I’ll get to them as soon as I can!
I think the most enjoyment these days comes from experimentation and this occurs mostly in the prototype making sessions. That moment when something appears after months of dead ends and seemingly wasted time. Perfection.
Q: That’s great to hear that you are raising up new talent, can’t wait to see what they do in the future as well! In 2018, you won the Elizabeth Soutar Award for a rebind of American Gods that now sits in the National Library of Scotland. How did that design develop and where does it fall among your proudest works? What has been the most interesting and challenging commission you have taken on?
A: Oh, this has to be one of the proudest for sure. This was the first proper design binding I ever really attempted and I was blown away that it was chosen as the winner of such a prestigious competition. I originally started it for another competition but it took so long to develop that it ended up in this one instead. I think it probably took me about a year to make. Maybe a little more. A lot of this time was me blindly trying to come up with a design and forcing myself to think in a way that I hadn’t done since I was at art school. I created a whole lot of junk in the process. But, the binding itself still took a couple of solid months to make.
This book is also important in that it was what kickstarted the publishing part of Lyra’s Books. I made two copies of this binding (the first being to test every process as I bound the final version, in case of errors) and I sent the spare one to Neil Gaiman’s assistant hoping that it would get to him and that he might at least look at it. He did more than that and sent me the most wonderful thank you note which absolutely made me walk on air. So, I forced more re-bound copies of his books on him before getting up the courage to ask if I could publish a limited edition of one of them. Thankfully he said yes.
Probably the most interesting and hair-raising commission I took on was a re-bind of a 1937 first edition of The Hobbit. I did this for a private customer along with his second printing at the same time. All’s well that ends well. It looked beautiful when it was finished but it gave me palpitations working on a book that rare and valuable.
Awhile back I made a couple of first edition rebinds of The Exorcist. I was particularly pleased with these. They were fairly simple but I thought they looked so slick.
Q: From afar, it seems like you not only have a strong affinity for his works, but also a close friendship with Neil Gaiman. What is it about his works that inspire you and why do you think you collaborate so well together? Who are some other authors that you hold in high regard?
A: I think it would be misleading to say I have a close friendship with Neil and I wouldn’t want him to think I go around saying we do! I have only met him once. But he has always been extremely gracious and unbelievably kind to me and I’m still not sure what I did to deserve it. He is one of those genuinely lovely souls who just gives and gives and I know he does the same for many others too. The worlds he creates are so rich and dreamy and he writes such visual books. From a designing point of view and most definitely from an artist’s point of view, they are perfect. Lyra’s Books would not exist as it does without Neil. He took a chance on a random bookbinder and let me do God knows what with his precious book. And then he allowed me to do another. In the future, I think I am going to send him a copy of every single title I publish as a thank you. Whether he likes it or not.
As for other authors, I have a quite wide-ranging taste. At the moment I’m reading a lot of Daphne Du Maurier and John Wyndham which I’m enjoying immensely. I suppose my go-to genres are magical realism and fantasy and I especially love Mervyn Peake, Haruki Murakami, Ursula Le Guin, Alan Garner, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams etc. Tolkien of course. I like a bit of horror too as well as historical fiction. But really, I’ll read pretty much anything. I listen to a lot of audio books at work but it has to be quite lightweight, background stuff so I can still concentrate on what I’m doing. So, I read a lot of rubbish too. I love a cheap throwaway thriller as much as a literary classic.
Q: I would imagine there are a lot of authors out there who would love to see their books get the Lyra's treatment. Do you see Lyra’s Books continuing on with more of Gaiman’s catalog or are there plans in the works to expand out to other contemporary authors?
A: I think we will leave it at that for the Gaiman books for the time being. I will definitely be branching out into other contemporary authors for the Lyra’s Press imprint, although these titles won’t be released very often. Maybe every 18 months or so. It depends on the title, the art and how difficult it is to deal with the publishers! The long process of accessing rights is one of the main reasons why I branched off into public domain titles.
Q: I want to give you a chance to nerd out for a second on the intricate detail in which press owners think about designing new projects. What are some of your favorite binding materials, paper selections and bookbinding techniques that you can’t get enough of?
A: I trained primarily as a leather working hand bookbinder so the favourite binding material would be leather, hands down. Cow, goat, lamb, pig… I’ve even bound with toad skin. Also, snake, stingray, fish, ostrich. They are all so different. And each and every skin from each and every supplier is different. A different grain, a different softness, often a slightly different shade within the same batch. Some leathers have coatings on them, some are hand polished, some are totally natural. Each and every piece of leather you work with can react differently to the last one so, when making large scale binding projects like we do, you have to be alert to the inconsistencies and you are kept on your toes from moment to moment. It’s very difficult and it takes a very long time to learn how to tool, foil block, pare and manipulate various types of leathers but that’s what makes it so satisfying when you do it correctly.
I absolutely love foil blocking. It was something I REALLY struggled with when I first started training and I hated it with a passion back then. I just couldn’t get my head around how it worked and why I wasn’t getting the results I should have been. Now I can see it for the beautiful process it is. But it is still a test from day to day. To get it right, it’s a lot more complicated than you might imagine.
Another love is marbled paper. I have always used it on my bindings. The process is such a beautiful thing and I was lucky to strike up a friendship with the very talented Freya Scott some years ago, before enticing her to join us at Ludlow. She is without a doubt, one of the top marblers operating in the world today so having her working so closely with us now is amazing.
Q: Who are some of the other modern artisans (binders, printers, artists, etc.) in your field that inspire and challenge you to keep pushing yourself?
There are so many talented people keeping the book craft alive. Instagram is full of it. There are lots of binders who I really admire and who create things that absolutely blow me away on a regular basis. Louise Bescond, Luigi Castiglioni, Dominic Riley, Kate Holland, to name just a few. These guys are really pushing the boundaries and I often find myself looking at their work and scratching my head as I try to work out how they do what they do. But, the world of one-off bindings is quite different from the world of limited edition binding. With limited editions we can't spend weeks or months working away on one book at a time and so the approach to design and construction has to be quite different. My pal Roger Grech who has a bindery in West Yorkshire, UK, is someone who creates stuff like me and often in similar quantities. That man is a hard working beast of a binder so hats off to him!
For printing - as well as Phil Abel at Hand and Eye, there is also Pat Randle of Nomad whose father created the Whittington Press. He is keeping the family business very much alive and you will see his work in forthcoming projects from Curious King and Conversation Tree Press. I recently went to visit Pat and also Stan Lane of Gloucester Typesetting and I was really impressed with their setups. Stan has been at it for over 50 years and he has amassed a mind boggling amount of stuff over the years. It's like an Aladdin's cave of print equipment in his studio. It has to be seen to be believed. Stan is a bit of a legend and, although he is now close to retirement, I'd love to squeeze a project in with him at some point before he calls it a day. We will see.
Q: If there was one word or phrase that came to people’s minds when they think of Lyra's Books, what would you hope that it would be?
A: I would wish for “quality.” But I suffer from a not insignificant amount of imposter syndrome so I’d never allow myself to fully believe that even if it was said. “Those are nice looking books” will do!
Q: What should we expect next from Lyra’s Books? We know that the goal is for Christmas Carol to be ready for pre-order and shipped by Christmas and Coraline will be shipping at some point in the future, but is there anything further out on the horizon that you would like to or can share?
A: Yes, Christmas Carol is on the way. Coraline is currently at the printers and Phil Abel and the guys at Hurtwood Press are working out the complexities of that one at the moment. The books will be out some time in the first half of next year.
As for other projects… hmm… OK then. I had to mention it somewhere and sometime soon so why not here?!
For the Classics, the next couple of titles will likely be – The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. We chose Wizard because Greg Manchess really wanted to paint it. In fact, he’s been wanting to do it for many years and he has a huge number of ideas just spilling out of his head for it. After Dorian, we just unleashed him on it. I think that one is going to be spectacular. Definitely a much darker and grown-up version than we’ve seen before. Most likely, this will be the next Classics title.
For the Press – the next title which I have just signed the contracts for is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Again, this is a title that our artist has been unbelievably keen to do for years. That artist is, again, Gary Gianni. Like with Greg, after Christmas Carol we just let him go wild on that. It was just chance (and luck) that I wanted to publish these titles, and these guys had been wishing for someone to hire them to do them for years. The Lost World will have an artist we have not used before but I won’t reveal the name until we’re a little further down the road.
This year has been a rude awakening as to how much work I can reasonably pile on myself. Right now, I’m at the point of complete exhaustion. It has been very intense and has almost broken me a few times, so next year will be very quiet on the Lyra front. We will finish Coraline and then I will be concentrating on Arete projects for the large part of 2023. I may release something next year (towards the end) but I’m not sure yet.
This interview was done in a series of communications back and forth and we want to thank Rich for his willingness to be a part of this series amidst his busy schedule. If you want to see more from Lyra's Books you can check them out at https://www.lyrasbooks.com/ and sign up for their mailing list to get periodic updates. You can also follow them on Facebook or Twitter for more info.
Interview by: Zach Harney a contributor to the Collectible Book Vault
*Since there are often different spellings in American English and British English of the same words, we have chosen to adhere to the spelling of the person who is speaking rather than conform to one convention for the whole interview.
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