A Bookish Memoir
When I think of Mary-Margaret Gallaway, I think of long phone calls. Full of energy, Mary-Margaret would detail recent events, travels, or amusing stories, at a fast pace in her south Texas, Kingsville accent. Usually, I would put on my headphones so I could continue to do bindery work at the bench while we talked. We had a tradition of calling each other on our birthdays.
Mary-Margaret first worked at Jensen Bindery around 1986 when Craig Jensen moved his home bindery to the building where W. Thomas Taylor ran his rare book and publishing operation on Miriam Avenue, now the site of Slugfest studios. She was primarily trained to make boxes in the Jensen style, famous for the air press that allowed the bindery to make what one client described as the largest boxes in North America.
By summer 1987, Jensen Bindery had moved to larger space in the Walnut Creek Business Park with a crew of about six, including Mary-Margaret. I joined the bindery that July after attending a two-month master class in fine binding held at Harry Ransom Center. Within a year, Jensen Bindery expanded further and became BookLab, Inc., growing to a staff of thirty plus employees over the next nine years. Mary-Margaret worked on both book and box editions, and trained staff in box-making. After her departure from BookLab in the mid 1990s, she worked for a while in book repair at the Handbridge Bindery on south Congress Avenue. She assisted me from time to time on edition projects when I established my own Hands On Bookbinding studio in 1995, first in Austin, and later in Smithville.
In the 1980s, Austin had become a center for binding and letterpress printing, which inspired Mary Baughman and others to establish a local Austin Book Workers group. Mary-Margaret attended meetings, served as Treasurer, and was a regular demonstrator at the annual Austin Book Arts Fair held each July in the classrooms of Laguna Gloria Art Museum, now part of the Austin Museum of Art. In 1991 Mary Baughman and I worked together to establish a Texas chapter of the national Guild of Book Workers and Mary-Margaret became a charter member. She exhibited a unique artist book and box work in the Lone Star Chapter’s first exhibit in 1993.
I will miss making my annual call to Mary-Margaret for her birthday this August 21. She would have been 79.
Priscilla Spitler
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
Mary-Margaret was a founding donor and active supporter of Austin Book Arts Center. Mary-Margaret very kindly gave Austin Book Arts Center a board shears, tabletop cutters, and the tables to hold them, a nipping press, drawers of book binding tools, leather, book cloth, and decorative paper. The tools and equipment that she donated to ABAC are “monogramed” and I think of her each time I make use of one of her donations. We miss her humor, intellect, and skills. ABAC is grateful for Mary-Margaret’s continuing contribution to book arts in Austin.
Mary Baughman
Austin, Texas
https://beyondthedash.com/obituary/marymargaret-gallaway-1079394256?fbclid=IwAR01LEMasemOCm_uaVzh7AJ_CDt_-Qeu0m0Pl9Y6erEydPQbfPr768oV1oQ
Mary-Margaret sewing a book at BookLab
Guild of Book Workers Lone Star Chapter meeting in Dallas, (from left to right) Gayle Young, Gary Frost, Barbara Brown, Mary-Margaret Gallaway, Mary Baughman, Olivia Primanis, Jan Sobota
Mary-Margaret 1996