Dear Everyone ~
I’d like to end 2022 with an extraordinary story, almost a saga, of family and a long-distance romance. I have recently had the honour of binding three years’ worth of letters between young sweethearts. At the beginning of the story, the girl, Dolores LaBeau, is only 15, and the boy, Ellis S. Harrell, Jr., is 17. They date for almost a year, and then the boy enlists in the Navy. He is stationed in Hawaii and Guam from October 1942 until June 1945. Two hundred and thirty-eight letters later…they have fallen deeply in love. They get married and have seven children. Their letters live in an old suitcase for almost 20 years…and I’m going to let Kevin, one of their sons, tell you the rest of the story.
“When I was 6, I discovered the old suitcase full of letters. A cousin and I used them to play ‘mailman’. We took a few handfuls, and walked around our neighborhood delivering the letters. Before long, my mother got calls from a few neighbors, inquiring about the letters. We had to retrace our path and collect as many as possible. I didn’t see the letters again until 1998, well after my father had passed away. My mother was moving out of state, and she entrusted the suitcase to me. We laughed about what happened 35 years earlier. My mother passed away in 2016. For the next 7 years, my siblings and I talked about what to do with the letters.”
“My parents instilled in all of us that there is nothing as important as family. To this day, my siblings and I are very close to each other. Our parents never had much money but lived a great and happy life because they got what they wanted: a big family. So, to honor all their sacrifice, we decided to make the letters into a book for us to pass along to our children. In July 2022, we started scanning in earnest! We knew we would need a graphic designer, and we engaged the services of Donna Somerville in Chicago. She introduced us to Bari, who showed us another family history-type project she had done whose presentation really appealed to us. It was several separately-bound sections in a portfolder (Bari’s word, which we quickly adopted), protected in a slipcase.”
“Completing this project was a huge undertaking for everyone. The organizing, the scanning, the design, the printing, and the binding and assembling! I run a company that produces huge corporate events. I have the pleasure and honour to see many giant productions come together. ‘Sailor’s Mail’ was every bit as complex, stressful, creative, rewarding—and exhilarating!”
“Oh, I think I should mention that we set a deadline: Christmas of 2022, when I arranged for the entire family to come together for the presentation. And it wasn’t just one set of the letters, it was an edition of nine! I picked up the first copy from Bari almost the minute it was ready, to give to one of my brothers, who was unable to join us for the family gathering. Bari thinks it weighs ten pounds!”
“I picked up the remaining eight several days later. My original plan was to all be together for Christmas—fortunately, I moved it up a week, otherwise we would have been snowed out. Our kids all love the book and look forward to reading how our family came to be! And I think it turned out perfectly, thanks to Bari’s skill and dedication.”
You can read details about the making of Sailor’s Mail in the Project Gallery: binding techniques, constructing the portfolder and slipcase, letterpress printing the covers, and materials. My deep gratitude to Kevin for masterminding the project, showing focus, patience, and good humour throughout a time-sensitive collaboration between several craftspeople.
Wholeheartedly, Bari
Sailor’s Mail
P.S.
The project I showed Kevin as a starting point for his edition is called Johnston, and you can read about it here. And, if you are within visiting distance, you are cordially invited to make an appointment to experience Johnston in every detail.
