EE: When I was doing research for my first book, At Home with Books, eight years ago, I observed not only how people lived with their books but how they cared for them. It was disturbing to discover that so many of their treasured books, printed before there was acid-free paper, were falling apart. Their efforts to repair them with ruinous scotch tape, household glue, pencil and ink erasers did more harm than good. They were oblivious to the fact that librarians and book conservators had access to the tools and materials that were needed to professionally repair loose bindings, separated book jackets, torn or wrinkled or stained pages. I felt it was logical that if we could go to our medicine cabinet to doctor a wound, we should have a first aid kit in our home libraries to mend our books. This lead to the conclusion that a book that answered how to fix the bad things that happen to good books should be boxed with everything needed to get the job done.

Q: Who were the readers you had in mind when you wrote your proposal for the book?

EE: People with a passion for books. Men and women who want to extend the life and value of their home libraries. Their well-worn books have increased in numbers and sentiment as they moved from one stage of life to another, from one home to another. Bibliophiles were distressed to discover that many of the books they treasured and hoped to pass on to their children and grandchildren are in need of repair. Their bookshelves reveal a time line of discovery and recovery: their first thesaurus, the classics they awoke to in college, the early paperbacks they collected, their favorite childhood storybooks, the cookbooks they got as wedding gifts, the travel books that expanded their horizons, the poetry and art books that opened their eyes and hearts, the bruised out-of-print books that they are now acquiring from the web.

Q: Where did you find the many different people you needed to work together on this multi-faceted book project?

EE: There were several people who were indispensable to this collaborative book venture. Each of them believed in it from the outset and committed their time and unique talents into making a two-year project happen in a miraculous nine months.

The first two to sign on, Wilton Wiggins and Douglas Lee, became my co-authors. I had interviewed these gifted Santa Fe book conservators when I was researching "The Enemies of Books," a seminal chapter in At Home With Books that inspired The Booklover's Repair Kit. I was impressed by their no-nonsense approach to book repair and their confidence in the ability of inexperienced people to mend the books they treasure.

Wilton and Douglas readily defined the "fourteen bad things that happen to good books" and wrote a confidence-instilling instruction manual that prescribed the archival (acid free) materials, tools, and repair skills non-professionals need to preserve their books.

I discovered the third book conservator we required, Timothy Ely, in Portland, Oregon. Ely, who teaches bookmaking and book saving, is known internationally for his collectible artist's books and bindings. We commissioned him to do explicit drawings to clarify the repair process, to illuminate the parts and pieces of a book and the sculptural design of book care tools. Ely's frameable drawings, coupled with the evocative images of books in distress that were created by New York photographer Leonard Morris transformed a how-to book into a work of art. Together these conservator/artists remind us of the enduring beauty of books and our responsibility to preserve them.

Binding us together with the book was the editor assigned to us by Knopf, Andy Hughes. He piloted us from contract to publication launch. His love of books equalled ours. His patience, diligence, and experience was unlimited and uplifting. He helped us navigate a complex publishing journey that resulted in this one-of-a-kind, long-awaited book.

Q: What made the collaborative process work?

EE: The respect we had for each other and the passion we share for books and book preservation.

Q: Why did you choose Alfred A. Knopf?

EE: Because of its legendary reputation as a publisher with a history and heritage supporting quality books and inventive authors.

Q: How did you know you could help people who are inexperienced in the practice and process of book repair learn to do it themselves?

WW & DL: People don't have to be professional chefs to follow a recipe and produce a wonderful dinner. We were confident that if we gave people the right tools, materials, and directions, they could repair and care for their own books. We wrote the manual so that it would be easy to understand, readable, and encouraging. We were determined to make the instructions simple and clear and worked closely with Tim Ely to make sure his illustrations supported our verbal guide to the repair process.

A good illustration of this is Tim Ely's drawings of the repair tools throughout the book and the parts and pieces of the book in the opening pages of the manual. We deliberately labeled them with the same words professionals use, to increase our readers' knowledge of book conservator vocabulary and to facilitate any future need they might have to consult with professionals on more complex book restoration projects.

Once Knopf sent us final proof pages, we brought several groups of book lovers together for what we called "will it work?" workshops. They were staged in three different cities: in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where our other passionate collaborator, David Magoon who heads up University Products, was producing and assembling the Archivalware tools and materials for our repair kit; in Estelle Ellis' New York City writing studio; in Santa Fe where Wilton Wiggins and Douglas Lee held several roundtables in their Twelfth Night Bindery. At each session, a book conservator observed and recorded questions and problems raised by people performing repairs on the distressed books brought to the meeting.