Joel Spector

Portland, Maine

Kenneth Auchincloss, New York Revisited, 2002

Bound in full black Oasis; gray endleaves with marbled doublure and flyleaves; décor of blue and gray leather onlays and blind tooling. 29.5 x 17.5 x 1.5 centimeters. Created n.d. Lent by The University of Iowa Libraries.

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Joel Spector, rare book and paper conservator, woodworker, musician, poet, apple tree planter, teacher and friend, died from cancer on June 4, 2005. Joel was a graduate of the Library School at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, specializing in Rare Books. He was drawn to book conservation, and in Iowa City, Joel became a Mellon Foundation apprentice with Pamela Spitzmueller at the University of Iowa Library Conservation Lab 1993 to 1997. He was an adjunct instructor and taught bookbinding and boxmaking for the University of Iowa Center for the Book. He also organized and taught a week long Mellon Foundation funded Workshop for Book Conservators in making sewing frames at the Conservation Department. Following his apprenticeship, he did an internship at the Folger Library and received a grant to work in the Book Conservation Department under Julian Thomas, book conservator and fine binder, at the National Library, Aberystwyth, Wales. In 1999, Joel established Hollow Wood Bindery in Peacham, Vermont, and most recently was living and working in Portland, Maine. In addition to his conservation work, Joel translated the work of Peter Huchal, Yvon Goll and other modern German poets. Special Collections at The University of Iowa Libraries recently purchased his last binding, New York Revisited, a Grolier Club edition.