'For Now' Back in Stock (Plus, Casebinding, and Caponigro)

William Eggleston's beautiful For Now, which was our Book of the Week three weeks ago, is back in limited stock at Amazon (at $40.81). We cleaned 'em out the first time around—98 copies delivered from Amazon U.S. and U.K. before supplies temporarily ran dry.

Plus, I heard from Matt Suhre at Twin Palms Press, the book's publisher, and he tells us that the book continues to be available directly from them—both the Second Edition (at full price, $65) and the original First Edition ($200).

By the bye, there's been a little confusion about the publisher's description of this book as "casebound." That's just the proper term for a regular hardcover book. In case binding, the "case" consists of the spine and boards (the boards being the front and back covers), which is manufactured separately from the text block (the book's pages, folded, sewn together, and trimmed) and then affixed to the block with with the endpages. Case binding is by far the most common form of hardcover binding used now. The term is distinct from slipcasing, which refers to a separate five-sided board outer box that the casebound book slips into. For Now is casebound but not slipcased.

And, as promised, here's the link to For Now at The Book Depository. A little more expensive than Amazon at $49.58, but international shipping is free.

And while I'm on the subject of books, I think I'm going on a campaign to try to get Paul Caponigro's The Wise Silence reprinted. Published in 1983 by NYGS (a division of Little, Brown), designed by Paul's former wife the distinguished designer Eleanor Morris Caponigro, it really is one of the great masterpieces of my lifetime among books of large-format photography, the soul of the subtle and profound. If memory serves, Meriden-Stinehour did the original plates, and they have (as reported by us at the time) very sadly gone out of business in the face of fierce competition from the Far East; but surely a printer could be found to do the pictures justice.

Lesser books are being reprinted; why not that one? Onward, Rocinante!

Mike
(Thanks to Sheygetz)

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Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Jeff: "Good reminder. Hadn't looked at my Caponigro book in quite a while. I had forgotten it was signed by him; not bad for my $75.

"The first edition lists The Stinehour Press for the following: 'Set in Monotype Centaur; Letterpress Printing; and, Bound by...' Separations and duotone printing were done by 'The Meriden Gravure Company.' Paper, by the way, was 'Mohawk Superfine.'

"Forgotten, too, was a letter from Paul that I placed in the book regarding his Portfolio II. The portfolio included all original photographs, priced at $850 total, but the first 50 copies available first come, first serve for $385. I didn't jump on it. Ah, those were the days."

Comments

[Dan Berry]

From your lips to GODs ears, I never got a copy of Caponigro's "The Wise Silence" my best friend has one and every time I'm at his house I get lost in it. Eggleston never spoke to me.

[Geoff Wittig]

I will be first in line for a reprint of The Wise Silence. Like Minor White and Wynn Bullock, Paul Caponigro's work has not been well represented in print, particularly considering his artistic importance. His only recent books I'm aware of were New England Days (Godine) and Meditations in Silver (Nazraeli), both exquisite little gems that are already out of print.

Paul's son, Artist/photographer John Paul Caponigro, has dryly noted that his father apparently isn't "dead enough yet" to be appreciated.

[Jeff]

Good reminder. Hadn't looked at my Caponigro book in quite a while. I had forgotten it was signed by him; not bad for my $75.

Forgotten, too, was a letter from Paul that I placed in the book regarding his Portfolio II. The portfolio included all original photographs, priced at $850 total, but the first 50 copies available first come, first serve for $385. I didn't jump on it. Ah, those were the days.

[Jeff]

Forgot to mention that the first edition lists The Stinehour Press for the following: "Set in Monotype Centaur; Letterpress Printing; and, Bound by." Separations and duotone printing were done by "The Meriden Gravure Company." Paper, by the way, was "Mohawk Superfine."

[Maarten B.]

There is also a slipcased version available (on backorder):
http://www.twinpalms.com/?p=limited_editions&bookID=4

[Kalli]

If there's anything I love, it's free shipping and not having to worry about adding local VAT to my purchase. I wasn't aware of the Book Depository before, but I'll be sure to check it when searching for books now.

Important detail: I followed your link to "For Now", but as soon as I go to a different page on the Book Depository site, I see no referral information in the URL. Do you still get referral if I'd buy a different book after following your link, or do you have some special affiliate link to the Book Depository, so that you can get your affiliate share should I fancy buying a book you haven't linked to?

[QT Luong]

Images, sequence, and design are beautiful, but what do you think of the printing/paper in Wise Silence ? I thought that they are quite soft, and don't reproduce prints (at least the few I've seen) very well.

[Mike Johnston]

"Do you still get referral if I'd buy a different book after following your link"

Kalli,
Yup. I think your browser has to accept cookies for that to happen, though. Most peoples' do, though, so that's not a big issue.

Mike

[Gabriele Harhoff]

I just ordered For Now from The Book Depository. It is a bit confusing, if you type "Eggleston For Now" into the search field, you get two results: "William Eggleston", and "Eggleston For Now", the latter suggested at € 245.72. But if you click on the first title-less "William Eggleston", you get "Eggleston For Now". I ordered a minute ago, and since then the price has risen from € 36 to € 46. I guess it's best to hurry! I only hope I really get the book, I tried to order it from them about 2 weeks ago and the order was cancelled.

[Mike Johnston]

"There is also a slipcased version available (on backorder)"

That seems peculiar. How in the world could an edition limited to 350 signed copies be "backordered"? The only thing I can think of is that they've sent a bunch of books to Eggleston for his signature and he hasn't returned them. It seems implausible that they'd print only part of a 350-book run and then have to backorder the rest of the run.

Mike

[barrie]

thank you for the great work. Book depository is a very good idea or let me say it works very well for me. I order all by books from Them. From now on i will be ordering through your link.

The whole issue about eggleston´s For now is totally confusing to me. They have a limited edition within a limited edtion, and a second edition an sale while the first edition is still available at the publisher´s. I thought second editions are only published when the first edition is out of stock?

The limited edition is still available on Amazon.de for € 43,95.

[Nick]

1 of 3000 is on it's way back to Amazon. Not because I didn't like the book; loved it! But because the einstein at packaging decided to throw it in an oversized box without securing it.. One corner was bumped so bad that the damage was visible on every page... I asked for a new one but am afraid about its faith. It seems standard practice to ship books over a certain size this way.
I wonder how the Book Depository packiging is...

Kind regards from an annoyed reader.