WEATHERSFIELD, Vt. – Do you like books? Are you curious about the art of book design? If so – or if you’d just like to learn more about how books come into being in general, and also something about how to make it to your ninth decade – join us at Weathersfield’s Proctor Library in Ascutney, on Sunday, Sept. 7, from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
The town will be celebrating the 90th birthday of long-term Weathersfielder and Yale University Press book designer Sally Harris.
To library director Mark Richardson, the display of books, book jackets, and posters about books on art, photography, history, poetry, and much more, will well represent the range of books Harris designed over her 30 years at Yale.
“We’re thrilled to have this event,” he says. “It will give us a good look at what she’s done and who she’s worked with…And she has also been so busy with lots of local things,” including writing, graphics, and design work for the Weathersfield Historical Society, which will also be on display at the birthday book event.
Richardson first met Sally’s now-deceased husband Chris, who also worked at the Yale Press, and Sally when he applied for the position in Weathersfield. He was excited to learn that his master’s thesis was on a Yale scholar that Sally and Chris were familiar with.
Richardson’s most recent interaction with Harris was his extended interview about her life with books. SAPA TV videotaped the interview and various items, which will be on view at the library event.
Becoming a book designer was somewhat serendipitous. Harris had studied Classics and ancient languages at Connecticut College when a new professor who had just graduated from the Yale School of Art suggested she apply there for graduate school. Part-time work at the Yale Press turned into full-time. There, she met and married Chris.
Asked which of the many authors she worked with and books she worked on stand out in her mind, Harris says, “There was no specific project. It was all the people I worked with, and getting to read all those books. What a wonderful job it was to have for 30 years.”