{"id":78346,"date":"2014-10-22T14:00:10","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T18:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=78346"},"modified":"2014-10-22T14:42:39","modified_gmt":"2014-10-22T18:42:39","slug":"tiny-books-about-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny Books About Cats"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"20580\"<\/a>

From Adlai Stevenson\u2019s Veto 1949<\/i>, illustrated by Alice Garman.<\/p><\/div>\n

Given the passionate nature of bibliophiles, the fanatical devotion of cat fanciers, and the obsessive tendencies of miniaturists, it only stands to reason that when the three join forces, it is to form the most powerful coalition in the world. (Or the least powerful, I suppose, depending on how one quantifies these things.) In any event, what you end up with are miniature cat-themed books, a prominent subgenre.<\/p>\n

I fell down this particular rabbit hole when I ran across the miniature bookstore on Berlin\u2019s\u00a0Torellstra\u00dfe. It\u2019s affiliated with Freundeskreis Miniaturbuch Berlin<\/a>, one of many associations of miniature-book collectors; there are miniature-book societies<\/a> around the world. (The best museum for miniature books is said to be in Baku<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

As Louis Wolfgang Bondy, an enthusiast, wrote in his 1988 book Miniaturb\u00fccher von den Anf\u00e4ngen bis Heute (Miniature Books from the Beginnings Until Today)<\/em>,<\/p>\n

\n

In this small world, books occupy a place of honor. They join to the great skill lavished on their creation\u00a0the crowning glory of man\u2019s spirit enshrined in their text. Small wonder then that the ranks of collectors who specialize in them and who cherish, nay adore, them is forever growing \u2026 An increasing number of people are convinced of the dictum that small is beautiful.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

The workmanship displayed on these tiny objects is indeed remarkable. And there\u2019s still a cottage industries of publishers putting out small runs of limited-edition miniature books. Historically, the genre has involved lots of religious tracts, some erotica, and various improving volumes. But cat literature forms a not-inconsiderable part of the canon. Oftentimes, out of respect for the volumes\u2019 scale, the works printed are excerpts or essays rather than full-length books. The Bromer Booksellers site<\/a> lists Mark Twain\u2019s Jim Wolf and the Cats<\/em>, a verse called \u201cOld Pussy, Grave Pussy,\u201d and an illustrated edition of a 1949 Adlai Stevenson veto of a bill by the Illinois State Legislature<\/p>\n

\n

that would have required cats to be leashed. \u201cI cannot agree that it should be the declared public policy of Illinois that a cat visiting a neighbor\u2019s yard \u2026 is a public nuisance,\u201d Stevenson observes. \u201cIt is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps most intriguing of all is a tract called The Cat as a Musical Instrument, or, The Propagation of the Musical Art Assisted & Advanced by the Feline World,\u00a0<\/em>penned by a wag styling himself \u201cHugh Morist.\u201d The catalog describes this as \u201can amusing defense of the back-fence serenade. Elegantly printed and fine in blue boards with printed label.\u201d<\/p>\n

Needless to say, the body of dog literature is considerably smaller\u2014no pun intended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given the passionate nature of bibliophiles, the fanatical devotion of cat fanciers, and the obsessive tendencies of miniaturists, it only stands to reason that when the three join forces, it is to form the most powerful coalition in the world. (Or the least powerful, I suppose, depending on how one quantifies these things.) In any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[6397,8017,15746],"class_list":["post-78346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-berlin","tag-cats","tag-miniature-books"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTiny Books About Cats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on cat literature throughout history.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tiny Books About Cats by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 22, 2014 \u2013 Given the passionate nature of bibliophiles, the fanatical devotion of cat fanciers, and the obsessive tendencies of miniaturists, it only stands to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-22T18:00:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-10-22T18:42:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/20580.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"305\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"Tiny Books About Cats\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-22T18:00:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-22T18:42:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/\"},\"wordCount\":462,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/20580.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Berlin\",\"cats\",\"miniature books\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Our Daily Correspondent\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/\",\"name\":\"Tiny Books About Cats\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/20580.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-22T18:00:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-22T18:42:39+00:00\",\"description\":\"Sadie Stein on cat literature throughout history.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/20580.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/20580.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tiny Books About Cats\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sadie Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tiny Books About Cats","description":"Sadie Stein on cat literature throughout history.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tiny Books About Cats by Sadie Stein","og_description":"October 22, 2014 \u2013 Given the passionate nature of bibliophiles, the fanatical devotion of cat fanciers, and the obsessive tendencies of miniaturists, it only stands to","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2014-10-22T18:00:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-10-22T18:42:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":305,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/20580.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sadie Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sadie Stein","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/"},"author":{"name":"Sadie Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9"},"headline":"Tiny Books About Cats","datePublished":"2014-10-22T18:00:10+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-22T18:42:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/"},"wordCount":462,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/20580.jpg","keywords":["Berlin","cats","miniature books"],"articleSection":["Our Daily Correspondent"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/","name":"Tiny Books About Cats","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/20580.jpg","datePublished":"2014-10-22T18:00:10+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-22T18:42:39+00:00","description":"Sadie Stein on cat literature throughout history.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/20580.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/20580.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/tiny-books-about-cats\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tiny Books About Cats"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9","name":"Sadie Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sadie Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78346"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78376,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78346\/revisions\/78376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}