This article from 1969 recognizes the early start to Fr Charles bookbinding business, working for Simon Fraser University on material from their Special Collections. Restoration work from these collections included the 1821 first edition of Journals of a Voyage of Discovery of a North West Passage, the works of Abraham Cowley 1668 and a fourth edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost from 1688. Fr Charles spent his lifetime restoring our cultural treasures.
Bookbinding Tops
A hermit bookbinder, who lives 22 miles south of here at Wolf Creek, is receiving increased recognition for the high quality of his craftsmanship. Father Charles Brandt, a member of St John the Baptist Hermitage, has been accepted as a member of the Alcuin Society. The Vancouver based group was formed three years ago to further the interest of book collectors and promote a wider appreciation of fine books. Since 1967 the society has published three unusual books dealing with Canadiana. Special attention was paid to the quality of topography and binding and they were issued in a limited edition.
Father Charles has been commissioned to hand bind 50 copies of the society’s fourth book, A Female Immigrant’s Guide. In commenting on the priest’s work, Geoffery Spencer who is president of Alcuin said: “I venture to say that I have never seen his equal in my many years of book collecting.” Other craftsmen holding membership in the group include West Coast typographers, printers, artists as well as bookbinders.
At the moment, Father Charles is restoring Simon Fraser University library books taken from their special collection. Some of these titles include an 1821 first edition of Journals of a Voyage of Discovery of a North West Passage, The Works of Abraham Crowley, dated 1668 and a fourth edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost, dated 1688.
Father Charles learned his craft during seven years as a trappiest monk in New Melleray Abbey, Iowa. He has lived at the hermitage for the past three years. Besides his work in his bindery he is also guardian of the Wolf Creek salmon hatchery. The Federal Fisheries Research Board has established a pink salmon study at the mouth of the Wolf and Tsolum Rivers. The project consists of a fence and hatchery for pink salmon. Father Charles, who is a graduate biologist from Cornell University maintains the hatchery during the winter months and was involved in it’s initial planning and construction.
A link to Paradise Lost by Milton is below:
https://www.themorgan.org/collection/John-Miltons-Paradise-Lost/47
https://archive.org/details/journalofvoyagef00inparr/page/n7/mode/2up