The Third Helen Warren DeGolyer Triennial
Exhibition and Award for American Bookbinding

6 June - 28 July 2003

"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. . . . all American writing comes from that.  There was nothing before.  There has been nothing as good since."

-- Ernest Hemingway

The exhibition was a juried show drawn from a competition to design a binding for an important book in Bridwell’s collections. The book for the third Triennial was Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This 1985 Pennyroyal Press edition is the first significant edition since 1885’s cloth-bound original publishing. Illustrated by Barry Moser and with a foreword by Henry Nash Smith, it was prepared from the extant portions of Twain’s final manuscript, correcting errors and omissions in the first edition that have crept into every subsequent printing. Moreover, this edition features forty-nine original wood engravings crafted by Barry Moser, one of America’s foremost book designers and engravers. The Bridwell copy that was bound by the 2003 competition winner was not among the numbered and bound copies. It came to Bridwell Library directly from Mr. Moser’s stock and is signed by the artist.

Each entry in the competition included an original design for Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as well as one binding sample of a previous work. This year’s winner, announced at the opening of the exhibition on June 6, 2003, received a $6,000 commission to bind Huckleberry Finn for Bridwell Library. Other prizes were also be awarded that same evening.

The 2003 exhibition consisted of both the sample bindings and the Huckleberry Finn designs from competition entries chosen for inclusion by the jury. Bridwell Library also published a full-color catalog of the exhibition. The exhibition itself was free and open to the public from June 6 through July 28, 2003.

Helen Warren DeGolyer was a well-known supporter of education and the arts in Dallas during her life. She was also an artist herself, particularly skilled at the art of bookbinding. In 1996, the children of Mrs. DeGolyer, Everett Lee DeGolyer and Edith DeGolyer, established an endowment to create the Helen Warren DeGolyer Triennial at Bridwell Library. They also donated their mother’s collection of fine bindings to Bridwell Library and placed on deposit at Bridwell over twenty-five of Mrs. DeGolyer’s own design bindings.

2003 EXHIBITION

Jamie Kamph (2003 DeGolyer Award for American Bookbinding)
Monique Lallier (Jury Prize for Design, tie)
Eleanor Edwards Ramsey (Jury Prize for Design, tie)
Priscilla A. Spitler (Jury Prize for Binding)
Jan Sobota (Judges' Distinction for Interpretation)

Entries Chosen for Exhibition

2003 COMPETITION AND CONFERENCE

Post-Conference Newsletter
Calendar
Announcement
Physical Characteristics
Guidelines for Submissions
Artist Statement/Design Intent
Eligibility Requirements
Judges
Helen Warren DeGolyer
Conference Info

2006 COMPETITION AND CONFERENCE

Calendar

DEGOLYER CATALOGS

2003
2000
1997