[1] Sometimes plain, but often decorated.
[2] Sometimes omitted. In such a case this leaf is blank.
[3] Usually tipped in (pasted) when the book is bound, and therefore
not paged. Always on a verso page.
[4] When the half-title is omitted the paging of the front matter
begins as i.
[5] Sometimes omitted. In such a case the preface begins on this page.
[6] The illustrations themselves may be scattered through the text,
or inserted in the form of plates, where easily referred to, or
grouped together at the end of the volume, after the index. As a rule
single plates should occupy a right-hand (recto, odd number) page. If
the plate is an insert the back of the leaf (verso) is left blank. A
leaf of thin paper called a tissue is sometimes inserted to protect
the plate. In such a case the title of the plate is printed on the
recto of this leaf in the middle, or on the verso at the foot.
[7] Sometimes omitted. In such a case the index follows upon the
first recto page after the ending of the text.
[8] The front matter is usually set after the main text has been
completed, hence the numbering separately. (_See Page 9._)
[9] In some cases, especially in pamphlets, this numbering begins at
once, with the title-page.
[10] Paper cover, or, at least, flexible.
[11] In pamphlets the end paper is omitted and the inside of both
the front and the back cover is left blank, whenever possible.
Advertisements are printed on these pages.
[12] In leaflets the title-page and the chapter heading are often one
and the same.
[13] Often omitted. In such a case this page continues the text
commenced on the first page. The imprint is then placed at the end of
the leaflet.
However simple our booklet is to be, its plan should be orderly.
With this table as a guide and with such books as the children may
have for reference, we work out on the blackboard the plan for our
booklets. We will not be too ambitious at first. Here is our plan:
_Front Cover_ {Outside: Cover design
of colored paper {Inside: Blank
_Front matter_ 1st leaf. Fly leaf {blank
on white paper {blank
2d leaf {Blank
{Frontispiece
3d leaf {Title-page
{Imprint[D]
_Main Text_ 4th leaf {Chapter heading, I. Text
on white paper {Text
5th leaf, Text continued with illustrations
etc. to include the following
chapters:
I. Life.
II. Most Popular Poems.
III. My Favorite Poem.
_End Matter_ Appendix List of books consulted and
on white paper sources of illustrations.
Fly leaf {Blank
{Blank
_Back Cover_ {Inside: Blank
of colored paper {Outside: Cover design
The _x_ in this equation is the main text. Inasmuch as all our leaves
must be one-half of a folio[E] to bind properly, we must know just
how many pages our booklet is to contain, before we begin to forecast
its final form. This means that we make a dummy.
=Sixth, Make a Dummy=
A dummy is a sketch of the book, so to speak, made of cheap paper,
but having the exact size and right number of pages.
Before we can make a dummy we must, of course, decide upon the size
and shape of the pages. The illustrations will determine this.
The game is now “Follow the leader,” more closely than ever.
I lay out my illustrative material, the pictures I have gathered for
my own booklet, on my desk, and decide how I would better use them.
Not being limited by conditions imposed by the printer or publisher,
or by “the trade,” I will have all my pictures “read” with the text,
so that I shall not have to hold the book one way to read the text
and another way to look at the pictures. As a rule it is well to have
the choicest, the most important, the most significant picture used
as the frontispiece. If this happens to be the largest the problem of
size and shape of pages is solved--almost. The picture is placed on
a sheet of manila paper, and proper widths of margins to set off the
picture to best advantage are determined by experiment. In the case
of a picture on a page to be seen by itself, the top margin should be
narrower than the bottom margin and the side margins slightly wider
than the top margin (in the case of a wide picture), or slightly
narrower than the top margin (in the case of a narrow picture) and
equal to each other. In an opened book the two pages become the unit
perceived by the eye. In this case the inner margins are narrower
than the top margin. As the book presents a more harmonious
appearance when the pages are uniform, picture pages and text pages
are treated alike.[F]
[Illustration: PLATE I.
The frontispiece may determine the size and shape of the pages and
the widths of the margins throughout the entire booklet.]
If the picture to be used as frontispiece is not the largest, the
size and shape of pages may be determined by that picture just the
same; but it may be necessary to discard the largest picture in
favor of the best one. In the case of my own booklet, for example,
I decided to use a picture of the Longfellow monument at Portland
as my frontispiece, Plate I. This, with proper margins, gave me a
“vertical” page, nearly square in shape.[G] I found it necessary to
discard the larger pictures I happened to have of his birthplace
and home, and to trim severely my picture of the Wayside Inn. The
illustrations should seem to place emphasis where it belongs. A
picture of Mount Vernon, for instance, filling an entire page and a
portrait of Washington cut from a postage stamp would be incongruous.
The man should receive the emphasis rather than his house.
The children should now do as the teacher has done. The resultant
frontispiece pages will vary, of course, each pupil having his own,
thus insuring booklets of various sizes and shapes (unless the
pictures selected happen to be uniform in size). From an educational
point of view the greater the variety the better.
Having decided the size and shape of my pages, I next estimate
the number of pages I can fill with my other illustrations and my
probable text, and then proceed to make a dummy of any sort of
inexpensive paper I can find. The folios must, of course, be twice
the size of the frontispiece page, to fold to that size. I have
decided to make six folios, giving me a total of twelve leaves, or
twenty-four pages. The cover will make one folio more. But that need
not be considered as yet. This dummy may be bound by using a couple
of ordinary pins in the fold. Place the folios one inside another,
open the whole, flat, and insert the pins so that the heads and
points will be inside when the dummy is folded in pamphlet form. I
now number the pages and designate them as follows:
(First page, outside) i. Fly leaf.
(Second page, inside) ii. Fly leaf.
(Third page, recto[H]) iii. Blank.
(Fourth page, verso) iv. Frontispiece.
(Fifth page, recto) v. Title-page.
(Sixth page, verso) vi. Personal.
(Seventh page, recto) 1. Chapter I. Longfellow’s Life.
Initial.
(Eighth page, verso) 2. Text.
And so continue, leaving the last leaf unnumbered.
Up to this point the booklets of the children will be alike in
arrangement. Beyond this point they will vary according to contents.
My own booklet continues as follows:
Page 3. Portrait of Longfellow.
4. Text.
5. Text with two small illustrations, Birthplace and
Home.
6. Text.
7. Chapter II. Popular Poems. Initial.
8. Text.
9. Chapter III. My Favorite Poem. Initial.
10. Text.
11. Text with illustration, The Wayside Inn.
12. Text.
13. Illustration, Ships of the Norsemen.
14. Text.
15. Text.
16. Text with tailpiece.
Fly leaf.
The margins decided upon, with the aid of the frontispiece, should
now be transferred to all the pages of the dummy (except the fly
leaves). This may be done by pricking through the frontispiece sheet
with a pin. The margin lines should be ruled lightly, in pencil, on
all the pages, and the position and size of each illustration should
be indicated by drawn rectangles. Space should be set apart for the
chapter headings.
“The amount of blank space at the head of a chapter should be
governed by the amount of matter, shape of the page, the style of
leading, and often by the character of an initial letter. In very
open text matter (lines far apart) nearly half a page of blank may be
given to the chapter heading and head piece; in leaded matter (lines
not very far apart) one-third or less is sufficient; when there is
no head piece the space is usually less, one-quarter or one-fifth.
The space allowed for the first chapter heading of a book should
be, when practicable, the same in other similar headings.”[I] In
some manuscript books no space is allowed, the chapter heading being
emphasized by the ornamental initial and first line.
The chapter heading should be uniform in style with the text, but
written larger if the heading is brief. If the text is a somewhat
formal hand the heading may be in caps. Script caps and Old English
caps should never be used for entire words except under extraordinary
conditions.
“When the chapter heading is long and will not readily come into one
line, make two lines of it, the first one less than the full measure
and the over-run a shorter line in the center below it. To make the
first line full, in this case, and to put in the second line one word
or syllable only, is not good arrangement. Two short lines, properly
spaced, are more pleasing, as well as more legible, than one line
crowded at the ends.”[I]
=Seventh, Write the Text=
_Chapter I_--This chapter, Longfellow’s Life, may be written from
an outline worked out by the class and placed on the blackboard as
a guide to each individual pupil. The traditional topics may be
included:
His parentage.
Place and date of birth.
Boyhood.
Education.
Manhood.
Work.
Honors.
Date and place of death.
Present standing as a poet.
While the outline will be the same for all, the text will vary,
or should vary, according to the individuality of the pupils. The
teacher should not force even children to occupy a Procrustean bed.
The charm in children’s work lies in its freshness, its independence,
its lack of deference to traditionalism. On the other hand, the
teacher’s business is guidance. The children should be led to
recognize good form. Slang should be avoided. A certain precision
is necessary in written words, where quality of voice, expression
of countenance and gesture cannot assist in making clear the
intention of language.[J] To secure good English without destroying
originality--but that is another story.
The children should write their essays on scrap paper, keeping in
mind the space allotted to the chapter in the dummy. Of course the
dummy is not final. A new folio may be added at any time, or a folio
may be removed. But the pupil must remember that a folio means four
pages. The adaptation of text to space is another good opportunity
for self-discipline in English.
_Chapter II_--This will consist of a list of titles, with a suitable
introductory paragraph and, perhaps, a final paragraph of comment.
The list should be worked out by the children. What poems have they
learned? What poems do their parents know? What poems are most
frequently quoted, or referred to in conversation, in books, etc.?[K]
Why are such poems popular? Is the poet still waxing or waning in
popularity? The substance of this chapter will be the same in all the
booklets.
_Chapter III_--Here individuality blossoms! No two of these chapters
will be alike. Each pupil is to reveal himself, speak his own
mind, in his own way. The teacher must here keep in the background
until the pupils have arrived at an honest expression of their own
preferences. Then what the teacher has written about her own favorite
selection may be read to the school as a suggestion, to give the
children some idea of how to proceed in the writing of this third
chapter. Here is my third chapter:
Of all the poems of Longfellow I enjoy most that part of the
“Tales of a Wayside Inn” known as “The Saga of King Olaf.”
When I was a little boy my mother used to recite to me long
passages from “Hiawatha.” I liked that poem best then, but that
was before I could read for myself. Later I liked to read about
the “Courtship of Miles Standish”--but now I like the Olaf Saga
best. Perhaps it is because I was born within sight of the
Atlantic, and love
the ocean’s dirges,
When the old harper heaves and rocks
His hoary locks,
Flowing and flashing in the surges.
I have seen “the red light in the sky” and watched the north when
the rifted streamers o’er me shook and shifted. I have seen
Eyvind Kallda’s crew,
Of warlocks blue,
With their caps of darkness hooded.