When all paper was handmade, you could have deckled edges on any side of the book, but as today’s deckled edges are more of a faux-finish, they adorn the right margin only.

Before the era of continuously produced paper, which began with the invention in the early 1800s of the so-called Fourdrinier machine, all paper had a deckle edge. That edge could be trimmed or not.

The Deckle Edge Literary Festival – named for the uneven edges of paper formed by the deckle device in a papermaking machine – will be held Thursday, Feb. 18 through Sunday, Feb. 21 at various ...