Preserving Knowledge: Fondren Library’s Eudey Turns Book Repair into an Art

Preserving Knowledge: Fondren Library’s Eudey Turns Book Repair into an Art

BY DAVID KAPLAN
Rice News Staff
April 29, 1999

Garry Eudey can look at a damaged book and know what happened.

Picking up a hardback with a badly frayed corner, he says: "a dog."
As fate would have it, the book is titled "Political Theory and Animal
Rights."

"The Unrealists," a book profiling philosophers, is full of holes.
"Worms," Eudey says. And it was water that undid "The Wealth
of Races."

Some libraries throw their deteriorating books away, others send them to commercial
binders. At Rice’s Fondren Library, they’re given to Eudey, the library’s book
repair specialist. He’s been restoring Fondren’s books since 1979.

He loves his work, in part because, he says, "Every book is different.
Once you take the spine off a book, you don’t know what’s going to be there."

Eudey’s office is hidden away on the library’s third floor. He has part-time
clerical and student assistants, but his work is essentially solitary. There
is no computer or phone in his office.

Eudey’s cardboard toolbox contains an assortment of brushes, pencils, rulers,
scissors, bone folders (used for applying pressure) and X-Acto knives, but he’ll
use "whatever works," which has included a mortician’s scalpel.

To repair hardback binding, he uses a strip of buckram material and acid-free
glue. With paperbacks, a clear adhesive will often do.

For leather books, Eudey uses Klucel G, a leather consolidation agent that
gives the leather a smooth surface. In some instances he won’t repair a damaged
leather book; instead he places it in a wraparound rare book storage box.

Most books aren’t made to withstand the treatment they receive in libraries,
Eudey says. He observes that a book that lands in a bookstore leads a much safer
life: After being purchased, it gets read, then most likely spends the rest
of its days on a bookshelf untouched. However, a library book gets banged around
in transit, and when people photocopy pages of a library book, they press down
hard on the spine.

Some books are much sturdier than others. There are bookmakers who cut costs
by using inferior glue, says Eudey, who notes that a well-made book is comprised
of smaller books within the book–sewn-together pages called signatures. Paper
used for books in the modern era is far less durable than book paper produced
in earlier centuries, says Eudey, who does page repair with special library
tape.

Eudey came to Rice with no experience in book repair. His boss was the late
William D. McCool, an 81-year-old retired railroad employee. Book repair is
a skill passed on from person to person, and it was McCool who taught Eudey.
"He was quiet, but when he spoke he was loud, probably from working around
trains," Eudey says. "He could be very abrupt, but I liked him."
After McCool’s death–he died a year after Eudey arrived– Eudey was put in
charge of book repair.

Eudey grew up in Fort Worth and, after graduating from Texas Weslayan University,
moved to Houston to attend the University of Houston law school. He went to
school at night and by day worked as a bookkeeper at a downtown Ford dealership.
Before finishing law school, he took a job as an insurance adjuster for American
General. At that time, he met his future wife, Barbara Eudey, who is the student
affairs division administrator.

Eudey’s line of work hasn’t diminished his love for reading. It’s his favorite
hobby. He prefers mysteries, science fiction and Westerns.

Years ago, he’d take on personal book repair projects, such as restoring family
Bibles. He no longer does because, he says with a laugh, "everyone has
a family Bible."