Compiled by Janet Hamilton
In the foreword of "The Meme Machine" by Susan Blackwell, Richard Dawkins (author of "The Selfish Gene") uses origami in an example of how information can spread from person to person, in a reliable way. This is supposed to show how 'memes', or culture, can spread in the same way genetically inherited traits can spread through a population. Dawkins says that transmission of a product, as through the game of telephone, doesn't spread information accurately. PHowever, instructions on how to make a product, as in making the fortune teller, gets passed accurately even if individuals don't make accurate fortune tellers. (ISBN 0198503652)
In the children's sign language book "The Handmade Counting Book" by Laura Rankin, the number 25 is illustrated with origami cranes. (ISBN: 0803723091)
The biography of Jane Anne Russell, a biologist who made major discoveries in endocrinology, notably on growth hormone, states that she "enjoyed origami (Japanese paperfolding)." David R. Stronck, "Jane Anne Russell (1911-1967)", pp 451-457, in Grinstein, Louise S., Carol A. Biermann, and Rose K. Rose, eds. "Women in the Biological Sciences: A Biobibliographic Sourcebook". Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. (ISBN 0313291802)
George Coffee wrote a book titled "Beyond Survival: A POW's Inspiring Lesson in Living". Coffee was a captain in the U.S. Navy whose plane was downed over North Vietnam. He spent years as a POW, confined in a small cell. Christmas in 1968 the Vietnamese distributed some candy bars to the prisoners. The candy bars were wrapped in foil that was red on the outside and silver on the inside. Coffee folded the wrappers into an origami swan, a rosette, and a star. (ASIN 0425124428)
"Birdbaths and Paper Cranes: A Family Tale"
by Sharon Randall (a syndicated writer whose columns appear in over 400
newspapers), is a collection of her columns. One column is "Paper
Cranes", written when her husband, a teacher and coach suffering from
cancer, received the gift of 1,000 cranes from his students. Besides relating
the personal family story of the presentation, the article tells the story of
Eleanor Coerrs' "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes". The cover
include pictures of paper cranes around the border. (ISBN 0452283698)
Alice Lindsay Price, in "Cranes: The Noblest Flyers in Natural History and Cultural Lore" mentions paper cranes several times: page 19 (three paragraphes on Sadako's attempt to make 1,000 cranes before she died of atom bomb effects), page 123 (an AIDS version of the Sadako story), and page 221 (re: Thoung Nguyen's "Our World: 2000 Paper Cranes"). Albuquerque: La Alameda Press, 2001. (ISBN 1888809248)
In “Origami Bridges: Poems of Psychoanalysis and
Fire”, Diane Ackerman shares her experience undergoing intense
psychoanalysis in these self-probing poems. The cover includes pictures of an
origami chair and bed, arranged as if in a psychiatrist's office. (ISBN
0060199881)
Bina Cady Kiyonaga wrote "My Spy: Memoir of a CIA Wife" (Perennial/Harper Collins PB, 2000). In 1952, the author found herself living with 2 small kids near Kamakura, Japan without any orientation or explanation from her CIA husband. After a few weeks, she and the children made their first walk outside the house and beach: "I approached Kamakura that day--and the Japanese--with some trepidation. It was my first real contact with the country and its people. Everything about the Japanese intrigued me, but it was an intrigue mixed with distrust. I'd lost too many cousins and my first boyfriend in the war. I wasn't in a real forgiving mood. ...Without any money (it didn't occur to Joe to leave me any) and not speaking any Japanese, we ventured out into the maze of alleyways of Kamakura ...We were the only Westerners in sight. We visited the closet-sized shops, each selling a particular item...One shop sold iridescent animal toys--rose-colored cranes, aqua tigers--made of celluloid. The shopkeeper gave Mary a small paper crane as we left. You can't hold history against someone who is kind to your child. That small gesture did more to ease my distrust of the Japanese than any diplomatic initiative could have." (ISBN 0756718767)
Popular Mechanics Do-It-Yourself Encyclopedia Vol. VIII (1955) has article on Paper Folding, also one on Paper Cutting. Folding includes crane with instructions to paint eye, frog, painter's hat. Also other paper projects & neat stuff on pottery, plastic, plumbing, etc.
"Baby-gami Baby Wrapping for Beginners" by Andrea
Sarvady, was published in March 2005. "Origami meets the age-old art of
swaddling in Baby-Gami and no longer does baby wrapping have to be an
intimidating undertaking. Easy-to-follow instructions illustrated with
step-by-step diagrams and unbearably cute photographs make it a cinch to execute
flawless wraps. The first part of the book offers a variety of cocoon-like
styles for newborns; the second shows parents how to create slings for
"wearing" older babies. Once new parents master the basic swaddles and
slings, they can branch out into more pizazzy terrain. Try the Picnic Wrap, the
Glamour Sling, or the satin and tulle Gift Wrap. With advice from experts and
real parents, tips on baby-carrying, baby-soothing, and a rundown of items not
to wrap your baby in, Baby-Gami is a must-have for any new parent."
(ISBN 0811847640) http://www.chroniclebooks.com/site/catalog/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=4889
"The Origami Bird", a book 14 stories by
Elizabeth Ashworth. "Esme Strang is stung by the sight of her dead
husband's tiny blue sedatives on their bedside table. But the world wakes up for
her and soon she's accepting Love Hearts from the paper boy." and "in
"The Origami Bird," conjuring the feeling of "purity and
delight" to be derived from step-by-step diagrams of origami
instructions..." (ISBN 1902638255, 2004).
"The Lost Art of Towel Origami", by Alison
Jenkins, claims that "You'll never look at laundry the same way
again". Models include and elephant, monley, palm tree, lips, skyscraper,
ladybug, dog, fish, heart, cake, and windmill. (ISBN 0740755633, 2005)
"Rubb-Origami The Art of Creating
Rubber Band Sculptures: Volume One How to Make Your Very Own Rubber Rubberband
Man (Paperback)" by Smatt and Charlie Read. (Smattworks, October 15,
2006, ISBN 0977877906)
In "The Gecko's Foot" by Peter Forbes, Chapter 8 is entitled 'Origami for Engineers' and talks about map folding. Koryo Miura, the "Director of the Institute of Space and Astronomical Science in Tokyo" is noted for "revolutionary work in origami". The chapter states that at the '10th Conference of International Cartographers' in 1980 Koryo Miura presented his map folding technique which he initially called the 'Developable Double Corrugation Surface'. This in turn came to the attention of someone in the BOS who coined the name of Miura-ori (Miura's fold) which he apparently liked and adopted. There is also a paragraph on the origins of the BOS which mentions Alfred Bestall, the Rupert Annuals and Robert Harbin. (W. W. Norton, May 29, 2006, ISBN 0393062236)
"The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins, in the chapter "Tread softly, because you tread on my memes", discusses memes and uses an origami Chinese junk basically unchanged over 70 plus years as an example. The Oxford English Dictionary defines meme as an element of a culture or a system of behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation or other non-genetic means. (Houghton Mifflin, September 18, 2006, ISBN 978-0-552-77331-7)
Stephen Gill has published "Anonymous Origami" which features
photos of the folded ends of toilet paper rolls he has collected from hotels
around the world. "The photographs in this book feature folded toilet paper
sourced between 2004 and 2007. They were collected at hotels and B&B’s
from different parts of the world including – The UK, France, Spain, Italy,
Romania, Netherlands, Germany, Russia, United States, Canada and Japan.
Initially I intended to state where each paper is from, but sadly they all got
mixed up. With the places they were found, now unknown, the creations stand one
step even further away from their anonymous creators." http://www.stephengill.co.uk
http://www.stephengill.co.uk/origami/index.htm
http://www.stephengill.co.uk/nobody/books.html#ao
"Earth: a Visitors Guide: Weird,
Strange, Bizarre...and True" by Ian Harrison is a book of facts and
trivia. Information includes some unusual origami patterns. (Dorling Kindersley
Publishers Ltd, Oct 2007, ISBN-10: 1405322241)
Juan, Mann, author of the upcoming "Illustrated Guide to Free Hugs book and the Free Hugs" YouTube video, says origami cranes help with his writing. He hangs around Sydney, Australia's Pitt Street Mall on Thursdays giving out free hugs in his campaign to make people fell better. '"Instead of writing, I'd sit here with a lump of paper beside me folding, looking at the words on the screen and thinking 'I'll just fold some birds for a while'," he said. "'Procrastinating' would be an understatement." Eventually Mann finished his section of the book when he realised that constructing origami cranes was even more boring than doing work. "It was a good way to procrastinate, because I'd rather be writing than folding 1000 birds," he said.'
March 15, 2008 - Giles Foden's review in The Guardian of "Blood & Rage - A Cultural History of Terrorism" by Michael Burleigh states, "Blood & Rage is strong on 1970s terrorism - Abu Nidal, Carlos the Jackal, the Baader-Meinhof gang, including the odd participation of the Japanese Red Army, "who went to war with Rimbaud poems and small origami dolls in their pockets". http://books.guardian.co.uk:80/review/story/0,,2265405,00.html
"Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China" by Phillip P. Pan tells the story of several political dissidents in China. Lin Zhao was encouraged to criticize the Communist Party as part of the 1957 Hundred Flowers Movement, then was punished for doing so and eventually executed in 1968. Lin gave a origami sailboat, folded from a cellophane candy wrapper, to her friend Zhang Yuanxun, who passed it on to Hu Jie, a documentary filmmaker. The boat represented a promise to preserve Lin Zhao's memory, which he did by working for years to track down people who knew her and to recover her prison writings, some inked in her own blood.
"Economia Canalla - La Nueva
Realidad del Capitalismo" by Loretta Napoleoni features sharks folded
from dollar bills on the cover. http://www.lorettanapoleoni.org:80/economia_canalla/
"It's Not About the Money:
Unlock Your Money Type to Achieve Spiritual and Financial Abundance"
by
Brent Kessel features a crane folded from a dollar on the cover. (HarperOne
April 2008, ISBN 978-0061234064)
"Stop Me If You’ve Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes" By Jim Holt is a book about what makes jokes funny. The book has a long section on Gershon Legman, who is known in origami circles for his 1952 publication "Bibliography of Paperfolding". While the book mostly covers Legman as a collector of dirty jokes and author of books on said jokes and the nature of humor versus pornography, it does mention his part in introducing origami to the west. (W.W. Norton, July 2008, ISBN-13: 978-0393066739)
"Having Faith, an Ecologist Journey to Motherhood" by Sandra Steingraber: "Of all the biological processes I've studied - from photosynthesis to echolocation - organogenesis is, hands down, the most fantastical. Sometimes it seems like a magic show. At other times it's like origami, the formation of elegant structures for the folding of flat sheets. It also involves cellular wanderings worthy of Odysseus. No single metaphor can describe it. It certainly isn't like taking a lump of clay and molding a little head from one end and legs and feet from the other." The definition for organogenesis is the formation of body parts. It takes place in the month between weeks six and ten of the pregnancy. (Da Capo Press, October 2, 2001, ISBN 978-0738204673)
Eamon Carr, drummer for the Irish rock band Horslips, has writte a poetry book called "The Origami Crow, Journey Into Japan, World Cup Summer 2002", inspired in part by visits to places associated with haiku poet Matsuo Basho. (Seven Towers Ltd., September 30, 2008, ISBN-13: 978-0955534669). http://www.seventowers.ie/index2.php?id=company.php http://www.columba.ie/
The Sunday 11/16/2008 New York Times Book Review, p 30, includes a charcoal drawing of an origami crane flying toward a high wall topped with barbed wire. The drawing is by Alan Lee, for the book "We Are All Born Free" by Amnesty International, illustrating the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. http://www.franceslincoln.com/Book/5946/1/We%20Are%20All%20Born%20Free
December 6, 2008 - the Naional Public Radio show
"Science out of the Box" ran a program called "Playing with your
Food - Scientifically" which featured "The Hungry Scientist Handbook:
Electric Birthday Cakes, Edible Origami, and Other DIY Projects" by Patrick
Buckley and Lily Binns. The book includes instructions on folding cranes from
wonton wrappers and deep frying them. There is also a "modular pecan
pie". http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97909534
(Colllins Living, September 23, 2008, ISBN-13: 978-0061238680)
"The Toyota Leaders: An Executive Guide" by by Masaaki Sato
(Author), Justin Bonsey (Translator) features an origami model of a Toyota Prius
(by Joseph Wu) on the cover. http://www.flickr.com:80/photos/josephwuorigami/2766110392/in/photostream/
"The Magic of Lewis Carroll" by John Fisher contains instructions for a paper pistol (traditional banger), a fishermen's boat with seats and a basket (traditional Chinese Treasure Ship), a carpenter's cap as seen in the Walrus and the Carpenter illustration (traditional printer's cap) and a two piece figure (traditional footman). It also contains a mouse and rabbit handkerchief folds. (Cengage Learning Australia, August 30, 1973, ISBN-13: 978-0171350029)
"Paper Illusions: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave" by by Barbara and Rene Stoeltie shows paper dresses in many historic and contemporary styles created by the Belgian artist. (Publisher: Abrams, October 1, 2008, ISBN-13: 978-0810971332).