Aidan arrives for the summer…

My son, who spends far too much of the year in south Florida, is up for the summer. He will be up from May to August…making this the best summer ever. He is absolutely the single most wonderful “thing” I have ever had a hand in creating and leaves me more pleased and proud every day. Thus far, it appears he has absorbed the best parts of his mother and of me with little or none of the annoying baggage…granted, he has years to cultivate all sorts of annoying traits…but for now he is an absurd pleasure.

If you ever see a man gently starting to lead a young boy away from a display of video games, only to have the boy begin jumping up and down while saying, “Help, Help…I’m being repressed,” do say hi. (N.B. He is also practicing Ministry of Funny Walks walks ).

Judging a book by its cover

Harry G. Frankfurt has made my father’s year. By publishing, “On Bullshit” he has provided my father with countless hours of amusement. Not so much reading it, for it is a short, rather well crafted tome, but rather for giving him an opportunity to talk about bullshit a great deal and give a wee book about bullshit to everyone he knows. I hope Prof. Frankfurt knows the amount of pleasure he as brought to one physician/med. historian on the coast of Maine.

Patriot Act alive and kicking...

each of us...in the head. Ok, I admit it, I have a deep, heart-felt loathing of the Patriot Act. Anytime you have legislation that is rushed through both houses of Congress…so fast that *not one* of the people voting on it actually read it prior to the vote…you have a problem. When that Act makes sweeping changes of little things like the 4th Amendment, etc., that risk of a problem is increased. Personally, whenever something is named something like, “The United States Patriot Act,” it should be a red flag…why not just call it “The Had Better Vote For This Or You Too Will Be An Evil Evildoer.”

Anyway, my minor issues notwithstanding, USAToday ran an interesting article on one librarian’s recent run in with the FBI and her evolving feelings toward the act. Personally, I am just rather stunned I am deliberately aiming people toward USAToday…I am not certain if that speaks well for them or poorly for the overall drop in the quality of print media…hmmmm…

Unintended consequences....

Technology, the bane of the collector. As we pine and angst about the changes web technology has wrought upon the fine and noble art of book dealing, perhaps a bit of perspective is in order. A.S.W. Rosenbach wrote, in his auto-biographical collection of tales and musings, Books and Bidders:

"The typewriter - what a curse it has become to the collector! A century from now it will be almost impossible to find the original autograph manuscripts of writers of to-day who stand the test of time. Who knows but that the styles will have changed, and the machine upon which a masterpiece was brought to life will be considered even more precious!"

This was in 1926. He was right and wrong. It took far less than a century to make it all but impossible to find original autograph manuscripts. What he could not have foreseen is that today, we do not even have the "original typewritten manuscript." Virtually everything is produced and edited in word processors and often transmitted to the publisher in digital form. The printed manuscript itself is all but lost.

The greater loss, I think, is that of a view into the process of creating great works. If you look at the manuscript of Joyce's, Ulysses you can *see* the process he went through to get the finished work where he wanted. Twain's manuscripts are wonderful to look at for the amount of changes and tweaking he applied. I've a lovely copy of Sylvia Beach's manuscript for, Shakespeare and Company (auto-biographical tale of the Left Bank publishing house that printed, among others, Ulysses)...what sets this proof apart is that it contains marginalia and edits from the pen of James Johnson Sweeney (Beach's friend and curator of the Guggenheim).

Today, Sweeney's notations would be a "Track Changes" function of MS Word. Perhaps, one day, a disk with various iterations of a given volume will be much sought after...I doubt it. It does seen a shame that so much of the "process" of creating a major work appears have been lost as a "capturable" thing...less for the collection world than that of scholarship. How a great work came into being is, for many, as significant as the end product itself. I fear we may be sweeping away the heart of literary creation as easily as we wipe a hard drive before disposing of an old computer.

First and Sixth...

I learned something new recently...well, I learn new things pretty much every day, which is one of the great things about the book business...but this is particularly neat. If you wish to collect Darwin's Origin of Species, you should acquire both the First and Sixth edition. This is because the first edition was, well, the first edition...however Darwin was "rushed to press" and not very happy with the work product. The sixth edition was the last edition Darwin himself edited prior to his death. Thus if you really want to appreciate what Darwin was attempting to convey, or more importantly, to understand the evolution of his thinking, you need to compare the first with the sixth. I hope I have time, someday in the not too distant future, to read both.

Favorite description of the week....

This is of a rather scarce volume illustrated by NC Wyeth:

"This book has so many issues it's hard to know where to start. Ex. Lib is the least of it's problems. The spine is taped and the tape is falling off. There is so much rub wear to the front cover that you can only tell that there was a picture there. The first page is loose from the book. There is some commentary written on some pages and 4 of the 8 Wyeth pictures are missing. The only reason that I put it up is that the 4 Wyeth pictures that are still in it are worth the sales price. I have not put down all of the damage but let your imagination run free based on what I have listed and you won't fall to far from the mark."

I love truth in advertising. I must admit that if it were mine, I would probably finish off what is clearly a nearly dead volume...de-bind it, sell the plates to someone I trusted to do a good job with them. [N.B. the seller is/was seeking $80 for the book]

A minor obsession...

If you have a chance, find a copy of something published by TN Foulis press in Edinburgh (and London). They published about 470 different book between 1904 and 1925. The vast majority of these titles were produced at the highest standards...wonderful colored buckram bindings, color plates tipped in, the ever elegant Auriol typeface and rose-watermarked paper. I love this press. You need to hold one of these volumes to appreciate what they were striving for at Foulis. Now I just need to find someone who wants to build a collection around the press...

No pressure...

We have a wonderful bibliographic group based here in Portland, the Baxter Society. Members include collectors, dealers, librarians, artists and more...the binding factor being a love of books and/or book arts. I spoke at the monthly meeting last night on evolving issues in collecting and, more specifically, the last bastion for the hunter/collector, esoterica.

I know most of the memebers and was looking forward to the event. Talking about books, collecting and such things with a group of people book junkies is great fun.

I have to admit that I was a tad nervous when I realized there were some special guests attending. When you are a relatively young dealer, finding yourself speaking about books to the current Curator of Rare Books at Harvard and the ex-director of Special Collections at the Huntington Library can be a bit intimidating. The President of U. of Maine Press was also there, as was one of the Head Librarian for the Center for Maine History Library (Maine Historical Society).

It is a wonderful feeling to have people you respect a great deal come to hear you speak. It is an even better feeling when they do not throw tomatos and seem to genuinely enjoy themselves. Overall, it was a great night.

Left-handed compliment of the week (maybe more...)

"Love your blog, even if it is a little arrogant in style. Please post more!"

Hmmmm...I think this is a compliment...but I'm perplexed by the arrogant reference. I don't think I am being arrogant...it is certainly not my intent to sound/be so. I will continue to post...and strive to avoid arrogance at every turn.

However, this does bring to mind some rather fun quotations:

Customs Agent: Do you have anything to declare?
Oscar Wilde: Nothing but my own genius.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
~ George Bernard Shaw

Every effect that one produces gives one an enemy. To be popular one must be a mediocrity.
~ Oscar Wilde

A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.
- James Joyce

Maine Antiquarian Booksellers Association...

We have just been accepted into MABA, which is really wonderful. The organization was formed in 1977 with 28 members - it now has approximately 80 members throughout the state. Now we just need to be patient for the next three years until we are eligible to join the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA).

A remarkable experience...

Sometimes little things happen that have a great "feel" to them. I met a collector recently who spent over 30 years seeking a particular volume, inscribed by Arthur Conan Doyle. It has a remarkable little quantrain damning the pirate publisher and, almost best of all, he circled the publishers mark and drew a little "skull and crossed bones" flag on it. It was an amazing thing to hold in my hands...both for the fact that Doyle himself held the book and vented his well-known contempt for pirates in such a clever way upon it...but also because it is such a testament to the book hunt. To spend decades seeking unique book that you *know* exists...but can not find. To finally have it in your hands. It is the cornerstone of this collector's remarkable library...and rightly so. It made my month to simply hold it for a moment or two.

Happy birthday to...

Niccolo Machiavelli (May 3, 1469) and to me (sometime later than NM). My parents gave me a remarkablly beautiful iron book press. A picture of it should appear sometime in the not too distant future.