Cover Story

If there’s one thing we all know about books, it’s not to judge them by their covers. But maybe all it takes to turn that cliche on its spine is a little creative craftsmanship.

Which brings us to the customer waiting area of Kater-Crafts Bookbinders in Pico Rivera. Displayed on the shelves lining one wall are works that make a hard-bound statement: It’s what’s outside that counts.

“The Wind in the Willows” is sheathed in the skin of a giant bullfrog, and “The Thorn Birds” sports a kangaroo-skin cover. “Fahrenheit 451” is covered in asbestos, and James Michener’s “Hawaii” is cloaked in Pacific Island tapa cloth.

Then there’s the creme de la creme of inspired wackiness: Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” with a cover of linen and an inlay of AstroTurf.

These projects are a dalliance for Kater-Crafts; the company’s bread and butter is standard library binding, which owner Mel Kavin started doing by hand 51 years ago in the breakfast room of his City Terrace home. Now the company has 70 employees and 25,000 square feet of space, and Kavin, 83, lives in Seal Beach.

But Kavin still lets his binding mind run wild. In his office right now, on a stack of old papers and pamphlets, a skunk skin awaits cover stardom. (It’s earmarked for a book on Lockheed’s historic “Skunk Works” plant.)

Wherever Kavin goes and whatever he sees, he thinks potential cover. The cobra skin on Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” came from a Bangkok shoe store. The monkey fur on Darwin’s “The Origins of Species” came from an old friend who planned to use it for fishing flies.

That friend, Vick Knight, 71, conceived many of the two-of-a-kind books he and Kavin own. A school board president (Lake Elsinore Unified) and former Orange County school administrator who has written 25 books on a variety of subjects, Knight proposed “Out of Africa” in zebra skin and T.E. Lawrence’s “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” in camel hide. “I wanted to do ‘Lassie,’ but the collies were reluctant to contribute,” he said.

It was also Knight who brainstormed the AstroTurf version of “Leaves of Grass.”

“Well, we couldn’t exactly plant fescue,” he said.

Although the idea of using animal skins in this way might strike some as unpleasant, Kavin said he doesn’t use the skins of any animals that are endangered.

This odd enterprise began about 30 years ago, Kavin said, when he was approached by the California Assn. of Teachers of English. Charlton Heston had taped a reading of “Moby Dick” for them, and the teachers wanted to thank him in a special way. So they came to Kavin with the Melville classic and a request.

“I said what I always say when someone comes to me like that: How much time do you have, and how much can you spend?” Kavin recalled. “They had one month and $25.”

Kavin accepted the challenge. His quest took him to leather shops, boot makers, even a whaling station in Northern California. Can’t be done, they told him. Whale skin is too thick to tan.

Then a whaling contact relented. He said there is one part thin enough to use. Kavin’s single-minded pursuit now focused on the leviathan’s, ahem, manhood.

He finally located a guy in Texas who was the supplier for a maker of whale-skin wallets. The English teachers were pleased enough that when Ray Bradbury did a reading, they returned with “Fahrenheit 451.”

Almost three decades later, Kavin is still scouting cover material. His two sons and daughter have joined him in the business, and they, too, search out possibilities.

For Kavin and Knight, it’s a mutual pursuit, not a competition. But a friendly rivalry can seep into the conversation--for instance, when Knight describes the volume of “Airport” that he alone owns. All it took, he said, was a couple dozen baggage claim checks and some glue.

“Did that one all by myself,” Knight said gleefully.