Manuals

Among the “paper oddities” that made up an earlier year’s mailing — alongside a tiny coloring book, a small paper doll, and a set of recipe cards — was a pre-publication copy of my book on etiquette, now more readily available as the Manual for Etiquette, Manners, and Style. That fondness for small, deliberately produced instructional objects ran well beyond that one year, though; it is really a habit of mine.

Every Formal Dinner and Quarterly Social came with its own bespoke Manual of Service — dated to the evening, printed in a short run, and handed to whoever was taking a turn behind the scenes. I have always found something quietly satisfying in a manual: a small, finite object that promises the reader exactly what they need to know and nothing more. Treated as a series in their own right, the manuals are as much an artifact of the club’s aesthetic as any photograph.