The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, First Edition, Unique Binding by Jamie Kamph

Binding Details:  Jamie Kamph has created a stunning unique binding for The Fountainhead which is bound in full blue Harmatan goatskin leather with a printed paper onlay strip that wraps around the binding showing part of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling which is interrupting gold-tooled onlays of white calf and grey goat which represent deteriorating classic-revival building elements. There are Laura Berretti’s handmade marbled endpapers and hand-sewn silk headbands. The book is housed in a custom made off-white rough silk solander box with blue silk sides with a gold tooled leather title label and is lined in marbled paper that matches the book. Jamie Kamph’s Stonehouse Bindery gold gilted stamp appears on the bottom edge of the inside back cover.

In her artist statement, Jamie Kamph commenting on her design concept for The Fountainhead wrote, “The book can be seen as an essay in explosive genius. The idea that extreme talent can write its own rules, ignoring popular taste and immediate opinion, exploding (literally) compromised creations, and succeed is very appealing and rather amusing. This is what I wanted to represent in the binding.”

The book measures approximately 9” x 6” x 2” with 768 pages.

Included with the book is a signed artist statement by Jaime Kamph that contains information about the book and binding.

Book Details:  This is the stated First Edition of Ayn Rand’s critically acclaimed first novel “The Fountainhead” published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1943 about reaching our full, superhuman potential and showcasing her philosophy of objectivism.

The following are some of the reviews that were published upon its release:

“Ayn Rand is a writer of great power. She has a subtle and ingenious mind and the capacity of writing brilliantly, beautifully, and bitterly.” - The New York Times Book Review

“By all the rules of the game it ought to sell by the carloads. It tells of exciting events and colorful characters. It is daring, not offensive. It is frankly intellectual and fearless discussing life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, but it never sinks to the highbrow. Her circle of readers ought to be 135,000,000” – N.Y. Herald Tribune

“A novel of remarkable vigor and interest. Strong, dramatic, intense, highly articulate … a pleasure to read” – Saturday Review

About the Artist:  Jamie Kamph is an author, educator, book conservator, and artist widely recognized as one of most knowledgeable and accomplished bookbinders in the world. She began her career working with Hope G. Weil before opening her own studio, The Stonehouse Bindery, in 1973. Her writings on bookbinding have been widely published in magazines and she is the author of “A Collectors Guide to Bookbinding, published by in 1982 by the Bird and Bull Press and “Tricks of the Trade: Confessions of a Bookbinder”, published by the Oak Knoll Press in 2015. Her design bindings are housed in private collections and institutions worldwide including Princeton University, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Pierpont Morgan Library, the New York Public Library, and the Bridwell Library at the University of Texas. Many of her other bindings have been widely exhibited in such places as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Grolier Club, Yale University, and the Aspen Art Institute. In 2003, she was awarded the Helen Ward DeGolyer Award for American Bookbinding. 

Condition Report:  Both the book and the clamshell box are in FINE condition.

Photographs of the binding, clamshell box, and Jamie Kamph’s design sketch for the binding appear in the photo section of the listing.