By Bonnie Eissner

Stepping into Jennifer Jestin’s book conservation workshop in her prewar Upper West Side apartment is like stepping back in time. Her craft had its heyday in the Middle Ages before the invention of the printing press.

A worktable fills most of the rectangular room. Atop it sit her clients’ treasured hardbound books in different states of repair. A wooden vise-like contraption, known as a finishing press, holds one book that’s waiting for its backing. Other books — ranging from antiques to a science textbook — in various states of rehabilitation lie in neat stacks under weights.

Since starting her business in the 1980s, Jestin has rescued hundreds of books. People from across the country — Texas, California, the Midwest — and even overseas reach out to her about saving

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