Juniper Books is a library curation firm and book jacket designer. Founded by Thatcher Wine in 2001, the company is located in Boulder, Colorado. Juniper Books develops libraries for private homes and commercial spaces, in addition to producing custom book jackets for the books.
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History
Thatcher Wine had previously founded and served as CEO of the Santa Monica, California company Feedback Direct. He founded Juniper Books in Boulder, Colorado after his career as an Internet entrepreneur. The origins of Juniper Books came from his selling of rare books out of his home starting in 2001. He started with first edition books from his own collection, and then moved on to reselling books purchased from estate auctions and other sources. It was initially intended to be a part-time hobby, but soon grew into a larger business. On November 5, 2015 two book sets from Juniper, Ernest Hemingway Elephant Set and African American Literature Set were included in Oprah's Favorite Things 2015.
Book collections
Juniper Books creates custom libraries for private homes and commercial spaces. The New York Times interviewed Thatcher Wine about the creation of travel libraries specifically, which Wine stated was an important extension for someone who enjoys travel. He discussed methods of developing subject libraries with the use of researching new titles in concentric circles from the starting point of a single author or place. He also discussed the use of footnotes or appendices to discover similar works to add to the collection. Clients of Juniper Books include individuals building libraries for their homes or offices, and institutional clients like hotels looking for decorative libraries as a part of their décor. Some libraries are used for reading, others only as decoration. Clients have included the Architectural Digest Greenroom at the 2012 Academy Awards, the NoMad Hotel in NYC, Kiehl's retail stores, Gwyneth Paltrow (who Wine knew growing up in NYC), the St. Regis San Francisco Hotel, Macy's pop-up shops, and the Lorien Hotel in Virginia. Libraries are costed out by the linear foot or by individual book. The price can range from hundreds of dollars to over $100,000. Juniper Books also works with interior designers like Jenny Fischbach, David Phoenix, and Philippe Starck.
Book jackets
Starting in 2010, Juniper Books began creating custom book jackets for use in the libraries he designs for his clients, which can either be singular or create a pattern over the bindings of several books aligned together. Nate Pedersen wrote of the process that, “Say, for example, a client wants one thousand books on natural history, but with green jackets and black silhouettes of birds in flight spanning the spines. Wine takes that request, builds a personalized book collection, and then employs an artist to design the collection’s book jackets. When printed and wrapped around the books, the collection becomes a piece of art.” The method is also used to “upcycle” old books that are of little use to the owner, creating a décor piece out of the old volumes. Art on the book jackets have included basic digital art to commissioned murals.