Share the elegance of classic book covers with guests at your next event with these literary guest books.  

Traditionally, guest books have been used to record the name, and sometimes a comment, of an attendee at a special occasion, be it a gallery opening, a shower, a wedding, a special birthday, an anniversary, or a funeral. These guest books are attractive all-occasion volumes inspired by classic covers of great works of literature: Voltaire’s Zadig; or The Book of Fate and William Shakespeare’s The Whole Contention betweenee the two Famous Houses, Lancaster and Yorke and Pericles, Prince of Tyre.

No detail has been overlooked in the design and production of these guest books. The covers of the journals are imprinted with gold, copper, and silver inks. Each journal measures 9" x 7", and has a red ribbon marker and an accordion-style memento pouch.

The binding boards are 100% recycled; the 144 pages are acid-free, FSC-certified paper. The binding is Smyth sewn, a traditional technique that results in a sturdy yet flexible book.

The design of the Voltaire cover is based on an antique binding of Zadig; or The Book of Fate, first published in 1747. The binding was crafted in 1893 in Paris by Chamerot et Renouard; today the original can be found in the Rare Book and Special Collections archive at the Princeton University Library. The Book of Fate tells the story of Zadig, an ancient Babylonian philosopher. In it one finds the seeds of the modern detective story, including a likely source of inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe’s master of “ratiocination,” C. Auguste Dupin.

The Shakespeare cover is inspired by a 1907 binding that held two Shakespeare volumes printed in 1619: The Whole Contention betweenee the two Famous Houses, Lancaster and Yorke and Pericles, Prince of Tyre. The Whole Contention is now considered to be a corrupt version of Parts 2 and 3 of Henry VI, one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated works.

144 unlined pages; 9" x 7": printed on custom-designed laid, acid-free, sustainable paper; no closure; Smyth-sewn binding.