Binding Designs, 1889-1893
The Odd Number: Thirteen Tales, by Guy de Maupassant (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1889)
Carol Jording Rare Book Acquisition Fund, Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives, Delaware Art Museum
Morse’s breakthrough came in 1889, when Harper & Brothers commissioned her to launch a series of French classics. For the first volume—Guy de Maupassant’s The Odd Number—she devised what she later called “an apparently simple cover” [that] required a great deal of study, as the beauty of the design depended on the proper disposition of borders, and the balance of one set of lines with another.”
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Summer Holidays, Travelling Notes in Europe, by Theodore Child (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1889)
Carol Jording Rare Book Acquisition Fund, Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives, Delaware Art Museum
That same year she produced the binding for Theodore Child’s Summer Holidays a pattern that Dubansky traces to sixteenth-century strapwork, but also evokes Islamic influences as reflected in the work of William Morris, showcasing Morse’s gift for reinterpreting historical ornament for modern cloth bindings.
The success of these two designs triggered a rush of new assignments and confirmed that she could make a living as a book artist. Within four years, she had completed over forty covers for leading publishers.
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The Chatelaine of la Trinité, by Henry B. Fuller
(New York: The Century Company, 1892)
Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives, Delaware Art Museum
Morse described her inspiration for the design of The Chatelaine of la Trinité in an article in The Art Interchange: “I got the idea from a Tyrolean belt, it being the tale of travel dealing largely with the Tyrol. The design included a conventionalized edelweiss, the national flower.” This book was exhibited in the Woman’s Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago.
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In 1892, Putnam’s hired Morse to design a deluxe edition of Washington Irving’s The Alhambra. The cover features intricate gilt tracery on white cloth, no doubt inspired by her study of Owen Jones’s magisterial The Grammar of Ornament. The following year she created a companion design for Irving’s Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada, blending Arts and Crafts geometry with Arabic and Persian motifs.
Left: The Alhambra, by Washington Irving (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1892)
Carol Jording Rare Book Acquisition Fund, Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives, Delaware Art Museum
Center: "Moresque No. 3" from The Grammar of Ornament, by Owen Jones (London: Day and Son, 1865)
Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives, Delaware Art Museum
Right: Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada, by Washington Irving (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893)
M. G. Sawyer Collection of Decorative Bindings, Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives, Delaware Art Museum
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Marse Chan: A Tale of Old Virginia, by Thomas Nelson Page (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1892)
M. G. Sawyer Collection of Decorative Bindings, Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives, Delaware Art Museum
Morse’s eye for narrative detail extended to regional associations as well: Marse Chan: A Tale of Old Virginia by Thomas Nelson Page features borders of stylized tobacco leaves, subtly rooting the story in its Southern landscape. By adapting her approach—Arts and Crafts rigor here, Persian arabesques or Moorish latticework there—she satisfied both publishers’ marketing demands and her own belief that a cover should, in her words, “complement the book’s theme and appeal to the widest audience.”
Morse’s hallmark was her versatility, tailoring the ornament to each text. Speaking about her process in an 1894 interview, she said, “The period in which the story is written sometimes suggests the style… A love story should be dainty… Essays require something dignified… I get a hint from a flower, perhaps.”
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