Brian Leno lets me know today: “Upgraded my Treasure Island dustjacket. What a difference, huh?”
The original wrappers for Leno’s inscribed first edition thus of the Stevenson classic — thus, because this edition featured illos by Mervyn Peake — was kind of rough, especially the chipping at the spine ends.
In some strict bookish circles, “wedding” a better dustjacket to a book is frowned upon, but obviously Brian will hang on to this one (and thousands more) until he croaks, and wants it to look pretty on the shelf.
But he understands why sometimes if you have a beat-up book with a beat-up jacket, you keep them together — in particular if the book was beaten-up by someone like Jack Palance.
