Letter from the Editor:

An editor we know told us with laughing admiration, "you make books as if they were hand-dipped chocolates." He was referring to the labor-intensiveness of the enterprise, but also to the great devotion and care that we lavish upon our books.

As readers, you, too, are passionate about the written word, and with that in mind we are pleased to present this collaboration between two independent publishers, The New York Review of Books and The Little Bookroom.

Lemony Snicket (aka Dan Handler), the best-selling children's author and literary critic, said the following about New York Review Books: "You'll marvel at the editorial choices—forgotten travelogues that turn out to be journeys themselves, nonfiction ephemera rescued from ferociously unfair obscurity, and deceptively short novels, like Darcy O'Brien's that remind you of the reason you like reading to begin with." And British Vogue wrote: "For pocket-sized covetable hardbacks bound in cloth or patterned paper (definitive guide books and works of love) look to The Little Bookroom."

The gifts and products you'll find interspersed with the books throughout the catalog also are chosen for their appeal to those for whom the written word is a beloved preoccupation. You'll find handmade journals and the legendary Moleskine notebooks, pencils and pens, items decorated with the alphabet and literary quotations, library and desk accessories, and much more—many made by artisans, craftspeople, small family-owned companies—the hand-dipped chocolate makers again.

We hope you'll agree that our catalog is a good companion to the reading life.

Rea S. Hederman