Inspired by a recent exhibition at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, the book group selected Creative Endpapers as the topic for the April 2025 meeting. Works of both fiction and nonfiction with artistic or content-driven endpapers were shown. Examples of styles of endpapers included marbled papers, maps, and illustrations related to the book's content, including drawings or paintings, reproduction or facsimile images, and photographs.
Marbled Paper
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| Christian Ballads |
Coxe, A. Cleveland. Christian Ballads. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1865. New edition. Illustrated by John A. Hows and Bobbet & Hooper. The endpapers are handmade marbled paper. The red leather borders on the inside cover contain gilt ornamentation on all edges.
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| Marbled endpapers |
Maps
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| Winnie-the-Pooh |
Milne, A. A. Winnie-the-Pooh. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1926. First American edition. Illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard. The endpapers are Christopher Robin’s map of the Hundred Acre Wood ("DRAWN BY ME AND MR SHEPARD HELPD").
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| 100 AKER WOOD |
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| The Hobbit |
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1938. First American edition, second state with elf playing the flute on the title page. Illustrations by the author. In a facsimile dust jacket. The front endpaper is Tolkien's Map of Wilderland, and the rear endpaper is Thror's Map.
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| Map of Wilderland |
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| Thror's Map |
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| The Lawless Roads |
Greene, Graham. The Lawless Roads: A Mexican Journey. London: Longman’s, Green and Co., 1939. First edition, first issue. The endpapers are a map of Mexico showing Greene’s journey through Tabasco and Chiapas in 1938. The endpapers are a point of issue for identifying the first edition; the endpapers for the first printing were printed in blue ink on yellow paper while subsequent printings were printed on white paper.
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| Map on yellow endpapers |
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| Japan: The New Official Guide |
Japan National Tourist Organization, compiler. Japan: The New Official Guide. Tokyo: Japan Travel Bureau, 1966. The endpapers are a global map showing commercial airline routes to Japan.
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| Routes to Japan |
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| The Stars |
Rey, H. A. The Stars: A New Way to See Them. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1975. Enlarged world-wide edition. The Stars was originally published in 1952. The endpapers are maps of the stars and constellations.
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| Constellation map |
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| The Eagle and the Raven |
Michener, James A. The Eagle and the Raven. Austin, TX: State House Press, 1990. First edition. The front endpaper is a map of The Eagle's World, highlighting the Mexican states which later form part of Texas, and the rear endpaper is a map of The Raven's World, highlighting the eastern half of the state of Texas.
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| The Eagle's World |
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| The Raven's World |
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The Wicked Years series:
Wicked, Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz |
Maguire, Gregory. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. New York: Regan Books, 1995. First edition. The endpapers are a map of the Land of Oz, printed on colored, parchment-looking paper. This copy is signed by the author on the half title page.
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| The Land of Oz in Wicked |
_____. Son of a Witch. New York: Regan Books, 2005. First edition. The endpapers are a map of the Land of Oz which focuses on The Vinkus territory, where most of the action of the book takes place. This copy is signed by the author on the title page.
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| The Land of Oz in Son of a Witch |
_____. A Lion Among Men. New York: William Morrow, 2008. First edition. The endpapers are a map of the Land of Oz which focuses on Munchkinland, where most of the action of the book takes place. This copy is signed by the author on the title page.
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| The Land of Oz in A Lion Among Men |
_____. Out of Oz. New York: William Morrow, 2011. First edition. The endpapers are a map of the Land of Oz. This is the same map which appears in Wicked, except it is printed in full color and contains additional detail of places of significance in this book. This copy is signed by the author on the title page.
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| The Land of Oz in Out of Oz |
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| Catacombs of Terror! |
Donwood, Stanley. Catacombs of Terror!. Blue Ash, OH: Tyrus Books, 2016. First edition. The endpapers are a map of the city of Bath and a detailed enlargement of the Bath City Centre.
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| The City of Bath |
Illustration
Original Artwork
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| The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1928. First British edition, second printing, with illustrations by Arthur Rackham. The endpapers contain a three-color illustration by Rackham, a seemingly tranquil scene until one notices the spooky images in the trees.
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| Illustration by Arthur Rackham |
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| Tales of Mystery and Imagination |
Poe, Edgar Allan. Tales of Mystery and Imagination. London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1935. First British edition, limited to 460 copies bound in full velum with gilt decorations. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham with 12 laid in color plates. The endpapers contain a nightmare black-and-white image by Rackham of skeletons in which the right half of the illustration is a negative mirror image of the left half.
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| Illustration by Arthur Rackham |
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| Barbar's Picnic |
de Brunhoff, Laurent. Barbar’s Picnic. New York: Randon House, Inc., 1949. First American edition, translated into English by Merle Haas. The endpapers depict two elephant walks winding down the page against a green background. Other early Babar books use the same image but with differently colored backgrounds.
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| Elephant walks by Laurent de Brunhoff |
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| If I Ran the Zoo |
Dr. Seuss. [Theodor Seuss Geisel] If I Ran the Zoo. New York: Random House, 1950. First edition, second printing. The endpapers depict eleven creatures from young Gerald McGrew’s zoo.
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| McGrew's Zoo creatures by Dr. Seuss |
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| Beowulf |
Glover, Julian. Beowulf: An Adaptation by Julian Glover of the Verse Translations of Michael Alexander and Edwin Morgan. Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1988. First edition. Introduction by Mangus Mangusson and illustrations by Sheila G. Mackie. The endpapers contain a line drawing by Mackie.
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| Illustration by Sheila Mackie |
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| Armstrong |
Kuhlmann, Torben. Armstrong: The Adventurous Journey of a Mouse to the Moon. New York: North South Books, 2016. First American edition, translated into English by David Henry Wilson. Illustrated by the author. The endpapers consist of various sketches of Armstrong and his spacecraft.
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| Illustration by Torben Kuhlmann |
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| Just Ask! |
Sotomayor, Sonia. Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You. New York: Philomel Books, 2019. First edition. Illustrated by Raphael Lopez. The endpapers contain line drawings of characters and images by Raphael Lopez from the book. The green endpapers are printed on both sides. This copy is signed by the Supreme Court justice on the title page.
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| Illustration by Raphael Lopez |
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| Legends & Lattes |
Baldree, Travis. Legends and Lattes. New York: Tor Books, 2022. First edition. Illustrations by John Golden with endpaper art by Carson Lowmiller. The front and rear endpapers are different illustrations depicting scenes from the story.
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| Illustration by Carson Lowmiller |
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| Illustration by Carson Lowmiller |
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| Bookshops & Bonedust |
Baldree, Travis. Bookshops and Bonedust. New Tork: Tor Books, 2023. First edition. Illustrations by John Golden with endpaper art by Carson Lowmiller. The front and rear endpapers are different illustrations depicting scenes from the story.
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| Illustration by Carson Lowmiller |
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| Illustration by Carson Lowmiller |
Reproduction Images
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| In Search of a Character |
Greene, Graham. In Search of a Character: Two African Journals. London: The Bodley Head, 1961. First edition. The endpapers reproduce a page from Greene’s journal during his trip to the Belgian Congo in 1959. The journal entry can be found on pages 39 and 40 of the book. This copy is signed by the author on the title page.
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| Reproduction of Greene's travel journal |
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| Victorian Detective Fiction |
Greene, Graham and Dorothy Glover. Victorian Detective Fiction: A Catalogue of the Collection Made by Dorothy Glover & Graham Greene. London: The Bodley Head, 1966. Preface by Graham Greene, Introduction by John Carter, and Note by Eric Osborne. Limited edition of 500 copies signed by Dorothy Glover, Graham Greene, and John Carter. The endpapers reproduce two illustrations by John Everett Millais. The rear flap of the dust jacket contains the following:
It is clever and apt of Greene and Glover to include this unsolved mystery in their catalogue of detective fiction.
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| Reproduction of images by John Everett Millais |
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| The Power and the Glory |
Greene, Graham. The Power and the Glory. New York: Viking, 1990. Special Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, with an Introduction by John Updike. The endpapers reproduce two pages from Greene’s holograph manuscript. This copy is signed by Updike on the first preliminary page.
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| Reproduction of Greene's holograph manuscript |
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| A Gentle Madness |
Basbanes, Nicholas A. A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1995. First edition, second printing. The endpapers reproduce images of some of the collections and libraries discussed in the book. This copy is signed by the author on the half title page.
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| Reproduced collection and library images |
Photographs
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| Tolkien's Gown |
Gekoski, Rick. Tolkien’s Gown & Other Stories of Great Authors and Great Books. London: Constable & Robinson Ltd., 2004. First edition. Gekoski tells stories of twenty of his favorite purchases and sales as a bookseller. The endpapers are a collage of the dust jackets or covers of the twenty books discussed. This copy is signed by the author on the title page.
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| Photo collage of book covers |
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| Young Mungo |
Stuart, Douglas. Young Mungo. New York: Grove Press, 2022. First edition. The endpapers are a full-color photograph of a pigeon dovecote, a sanctuary for the two central characters in the story.
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| Photograph by Stephen McLaren |
