Author Margaret Davis of Ma Nao Books in Portland Oregon published her book "China Under The Covers" early in 2017.

Looking for books in all the right places, Margaret E. Davis lands in China and tackles the history of books in paper. From the workrooms of Beijing's National Library of China to the Silk Road outpost of Dunhuang, she binds the techniques and materials of the craft with the adventure of traveling the Middle Kingdom.

Romance, intrigue, illustrated instructions to four of the oldest bookbindings, and images of tools and artifacts all play a part as ancietn and popular cultures blend and intersect.

Take the journey. Learn the Craft.

Author Statement:

China under the Covers tells how I wangled my way into the National Library of China to become apprentice to Zhang Ping, the internationally recognized conservator whose department handled the rarest, oldest, and best of Asia’s largest book collection. Under his watch, I learned to craft the five oldest forms of bindings, starting with the scroll.

I also traveled the country surveying traditional and modern practitioners of the binding and printing arts. With a Chinese companion I made a pilgrimage to far-west Dunhuang, at the edge of the Gobi, where the oldest printed, dated book in the world—The Diamond Sutra (868 CE)—was discovered in a walled-up cave.

My companion on that journey and others was a Chinese man whose work dictated that he never fraternize with foreigners. We fraternized.

After returning home to the United States, teaching bookbinding workshops, and producing a variety of handcrafted paper and book objects, I decided to write about the techniques and my education in China. A blend of how-to manual and adventure story, China under the Covers outlines the history of printing and binding from their birthplace with a few other escapades thrown in, such as falling down a Beijing manhole.

As a longtime bookbinder—having started with setting type by hand at Scripps College Press (for which Frederic Goudy designed a typeface)—I make and publish books that tell stories in a unique way. Whether it's a firsthand account from Tiananmen Square by Larry Hanbrook or a provocative poem by Charles Baudelaire, my imprint Ma Nao Books takes a close look at the world, often through an international lens. The form of the book supports its content.