Things I Picked from the Trash at the Publishing House

Folded and Gathered Sheets

After college I worked in the Children’s Trade Division at Houghton Mifflin in Boston (as well as for Clarion Books in New York, as Clarion was also part of the company). In the 1980s, most of the illustrations were traditional media, although we were still handling some pre-separated art. I loved the smell of ink, paper and binding glue; loved the original watercolors, ink and pastels that came through our office.

Now and then I took night design classes. Back then, especially before computers were widely used, Pantone sheets were used for color work in graphic design. Pantone was expensive, still is, with good reason. One delicate Pantone sheet equaled two days of food in my budget (I was only making ten thousand at the time). On my salary I couldn’t afford rent AND art supplies, so I would salvage discarded endpapers and paper samples from the office trash barrels and use them for my assignments.

One of my responsibilities was packing and unpacking the delicate pastel paintings for Polar Express as they traveled back and forth between the office and the printer. Even all these years later, I still get a touch nervous when I see the book in stores before Christmas.

Huge Harold Binding Dies