On Presidents and Editing the Bible...

Imagine, for a moment, if news broke that Barack Obama had cut up a Bible, separating it into "diamonds" to be distinguished from the rest of the "dunghill". I am guessing that the media's collective head would explode, as would any number of politicians, Rep & Dem alike.

A President did this very thing, however...drafter of the Declaration of Independence and our third President, Thomas Jefferson. The 46 page book "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth", generally referred to as the Jefferson Bible, was based on his lifetime of research, contemplation and inquiry. He sums up his efforts in an 1813 letter to John Adams:

In extracting the pure principles which he taught, we should have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms, as instruments of riches and power to themselves. We must dismiss the Platonists and Plotinists, the Stagyrites and Gamalielites, the Eclectics, the Gnostics and Scholastics, their essences and emanations, their logos and demiurges, aeons and daemons, male and female, with a long train of … or, shall I say at once, of nonsense. We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus, paring off the amphibologisms into which they have been led, by forgetting often, or not understanding, what had fallen from him, by giving their own misconceptions as his dicta, and expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood themselves. There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. I have performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently his, and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill. The result is an octavo of forty-six pages, of pure and unsophisticated doctrines.

While it has been written about in main-stream media and was once ordered printed by Congress and distributed to all members (in 1904, what fun it would be to do that again), it remains relatively little known and seldom discussed. This is, I think a great shame, as his issues then are every bit as relevant now...perhaps more so, as we seem to be in a period where one can not discuss such things (at least not rationally). One either believes lock, stock, and barrel or does not believe at all. Anyone who might wish to discuss something between those two points gets shouted down by one or both of the extremes. Such is discourse at the start of the 21st century.

In an 1803 letter to Benjamin Rush, Jefferson said that his edited version sought to determine whether the ethical teachings of Jesus could be separated from that which was attached to "Christianity" over the centuries. He wrote, "To the corruption of Christianity I am indeed opposed, but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself."

Such contemplation was of importance to Jefferson, whose Statute for Religious Freedom (and its embodied Separation of Church and State) was one of only three achievements he instructed to be included in his epitaph. We are reduced now to breathless (and/or incorrect) articles on which church the president "pick" and why he has not yet done so.

It is a sad commentary that men (and women) of conscience are not able to discuss such matters, reducing the debate to rabble-rousers on both sides. Yeats, of course, was right, "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity." It is, none-the-less, a shame.

If you would like to read it, GoogleBooks iteration is what you would expect, but this version allows easy side-by-side comparisons of Jefferson's edits against the KJV.

Alternatively, there is Robert Heinlein, "Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything."

"Christians" seek damages for exposure to a book...and the right to burn it...

I wish I could make things like this up. T. Gerristen (who I would love even if she were she not a friend) has just posted a great piece at Murderati on book banning efforts. Her post revolves around efforts in Wisconsin to ban/burn "Baby Be-Bop":

Robert C. Braun of the Christian Civil Liberties Union (CCLU) distributed at the meeting copies of a claim for damages he and three other plaintiffs filed April 28 with the city; the complainants seek the right to publicly burn or destroy by another means the library’s copy of Baby Be-Bop. The claim also demands $120,000 in compensatory damages ($30,000 per plaintiff) for being exposed to the book in a library display, and the resignation of West Bend Mayor Kristine Deiss for “allow[ing] this book to be viewed by the public."

Terry offers a nice overview of small-mindedness and error of such efforts...taking particular note of the fact that such efforts nearly always fail and generally serve the opposite effect, that is, peaking interesting and increasing sales of the subject books. She closes with a plea:

So please, ban my books. I want to join that lofty pantheon of authors that includes Alexie and Sendak and Twain and Vonnegut. My books have plenty to offend everyone. There's adulterous sex and graphic violence, foul language and disturbing perversions. So go ahead, ban me!

For those who do not have it bookmarked, here is the ALA's site for all things banning and bookish.

Personally, I think I am going to sue those who seek to ban books for emotional distress. I wonder if I could have them burned... Enough daydreaming, back to cataloguing books. Happy Tuesday.

RBMS09: Seas of Change: Navigating the Cultural and Institutional Contexts of Special Collections

What follows is a quick overview of our first trip to the annual "Preconference" event held by the Rare Book and Manuscript Section (RBMS) of the American Library Association (ALA). It was a very interesting week. The event was extremely well run, especially given the numbers involved (368 attendees, 450 total with speakers and booksellers).

I drove down Saturday with Thing 1 and 2, leveraging the drive with some educational bonus stops. We spent Sunday in Philly, visiting Declaration House, the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin's printing press and, best of all, a good long tour of The Rosenbach Museum. We left Philly and headed down to Annapolis for a night with my in-laws.

Monday found us in Washington, DC. I met with a client early in the morning (and sold the entire box I brought down for review) and then we were off to the museums. The boys had a great time at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museum. We did a bit of vehicular site seeing on the way out of town and headed to Charlottesville to settle in for the week.

Tuesday started with a wonderful seminar by Dan Gregory and sponsored by the Southeast Chapter of the ABAA. He tried very hard to instill in attendees the usefulness and value of taking pictures of books and how to do so with a minimum of errors. Lorne Bair co-ordinated this seminar and the following tour of the Small Special Collections. Set-up for the next day's "Bookseller Showcase" began at 4pm and before we knew it, we were done and ready for the main event.

We decided some time ago to stay on UVA campus. With the four of us (Suzanne flew in Thursday morning), the dorms offered a rather nice, very inexpensive (and air-conditioned) option. We had an entire quad to ourselves, everyone their own bed and a private bath. One of the great surprises was the water pressure in the Peters building...stunningly good. All UVA based events were only a building or two away. It turned out to be a very nice choice and we were all very pleased with it.

The Bookseller's Showcase ran from 9am to 730pm...a very long day. The boys were remarkable all day. T1 was very pleased with himself. He picked out a wonderful "Bloomsday" tshirt at the Rosenbach with a sketch of Joyce on the front and "Read" "Joyce" in his glasses. It looked very good under his blazer. T2 was, if possible, even more pleased with himself, as this was the first time he was able to wear his "real" bowtie (black with skull and cross bones)...even his older brother admitted that he looked very cool. They spent the day at the edge of the booth playing with their DSs and politely answering questions posted by bemused librarians.

This was a great event for us. We sold some good things, which was nice...but really it was all about meeting and learning about Special Collections librarians. We are still young and foolish enough that we know far less than we should and this was a great way to meet a lot of great librarians in one convenient (and lovely) site. I had signed up for the entire seminar, in part as there were some interesting seminar/speaker/events and in part as it offered a longer time with this interesting group of bibliophiles.

There were some really fun/interesting moments. Marvin Taylor (NYU's Fales Library) was so pleased to discover I had a copy of Your House is Mine that he held not one but two impromptu walkthroughs of each print, offering context and background on the pieces and the artist(s). He uses the book in courses at NYU. I love the book...Marvin loves it even more and it was such a treat to turn the pages and listen.

Also at the Showcase, a person entered and very politely told me that they were really just looking, as they were only seeking early Italian travel books and I wouldn't have anything for her. When I told her I had a nice copy of the very scarce "The Italian Sketchbook", her first response was "no you don't". This was and especially fun sale because, in addition to putting a scarce book in the hands of the "right" owner, the *only* reason I had brought the book (of exceedingly narrow appeal) is that it had "fit" a void in one of my cases and had been added for that specific purpose. Sometimes things just work out as they should.

The Preconference itself was very interesting and well run (details here). Of particular interest was an afternoon session of 3 seminars, each with three very young Spec. Coll. librarians presenting papers. As one who spends a lot of time thinking about and working with young collectors, it was great having an opportunity to listen to a few such professionals.

Another highlight, personally, was listening to Sarah Thomas wrap up the event. She is, for those who might not know, is the American Spec. Coll. librarian (last of Cornell) who is now the head of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, a double first (first American, first woman to head the Library). She was brilliant and funny and it was a great end to the formal Preconference.

Saturday night capped the week with a wonderful, if somber, event: Terry Belanger's Farewell event. Terry founded the Rare Book School (based at UVA) and, after 26 years as Director, is stepping down. There was a tribute, where many who know and love Terry spoke followed by a very nice reception. The tribute was wrapped up by RBS's newly anointed Director, Michael Suarez (ex of Fordham and Oxford). It was one of the best written, best presented and funniest toasts I have heard in a long time. I regret I did not record it (Jesuits are just better at such things than most *g*). RBS is, it appears, in very good hands. This is good, as both Suzanne and I will be back in C'ville soon for RBS classes and we look forward to taking many more in years to come.

We drove back in a more more direct fashion. We had planned to take two days, but after getting up to Philly early and touring Independence Hall and the exceptional Mutter Museum, we found that we were really ready to sleep in our own bed and made it home just before midnight on Sunday. It was a very long, intense and very interesting week. The boys were wonderful. We met a lot of great people and really look forward to next year.

Ulysses meets Twitter...

Two lovers of Joyce's brilliant Ulysses have taken chapter 10, "Wandering Rocks" and adapted it to Twitter. They chose the chapter because it follows 19 Dubliners going about their daily activities.

...have dubbed their performance "Twittering Rocks," a play on the chapter's title that could also mean Twittering is awesome. They have registered 54 of the novel's key characters as Twitter users, and Bogost built a software program that tweets their first-person utterances at the correct moments in the chapter.

See, e.g. http://twitter.com/leopoldbloom; http://twitter.com/StephenDedalus

Quick & Curious Observation

I've noticed, here at RBMS, that heads of Special Collections tend to
be rather advanced in years or quite young (with many exceptions). I am
curious, however, if there might not be a soft trend where Boards/
Selection Comm. actively seeking 'the next generation' and effectively
skipping a generation of librarians from these roles... Thoughts??? [edited to correct iphone typos...]

Day 2 at RBMS [or] Omnivora-Goddess of Special Collections

Another great day at RBMS. Interesting conversations,fun people and
best of all (for me) Suzanne arrived. Life is always better when Suz
is near.

Highlight was a wonderful tour of the Small Special Collections
Library. More pictures later

Bookseller Showcase at RBMS09

What a great day. Theboys and I arrived a bit before 9am in the
pouring rain. The day got steadily better.

The boys were simply outstanding. T1 in his 'Read Joyce' tshirt and
sport coal and T2 in his skulls & crossed bones bowtie (a real one, as
he is pleased to point out)...liked great and behaved better. 13 hours
of extreme goodness is truly above the call.

Met a number of wonderful librarians...saw old friends..,sold some
good books and generally had a great time.

Exhausted. Must to bed be I.

Happy Bloomsday: Rare recording of James Joyce reading

Boing Boing

Rare recording of James Joyce reading; Happy Bloomsday!

05:03 AM

Original Article
Generated by iNews for iPhone/iPod Touch

NEWS SUMMARY:

Happy Bloomsday! Here's a rare reading of James Joyce performing his own work; as John Naughton notes, "When I first heard it I was astonished to find that he had a broad Irish-country accent. I had always imagined him speaking as a 'Dub' -- i.e. with the accent of most of the street characters in Ulysses."

James Joyce MP3

James Joyce MP3 (mirror)

(via Memex 1.1)

(Image: Revolutionary Joyce Better Contrast.jpg, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

Warm regards,

/ijk

--

Ian J. Kahn

Lux Mentis, Booksellers

207.329.1469

Member-ABAA/ILAB

Sent from my iPhone

DC to C'ville: RBMS09 continued...

3 boys loose in DC. Limited time, so we focus on 2 museums and some
vehicular sightseeing.

Started the day with a quick client meeting. Brought a full box for
review and left with none...a nice way to start the day. We then
parked and headed to the Museum of Natural History (photo). Spent
several hours there and then hit the Air & Space Museum. T1&T2 were
remarkalby engaged and good throughout. [many more photos at http://www.facebook.com/iankahn
]

Headed south before rush hour. Nice relaxing evening in C'ville before
the chaos of the next several days.

RBMS Roadtrip underway...

Things 1 & 2 and I left Sat. and made my sister's my bedtime (dinner
at Rein's en route). Sister et al in Maine, so we had the house to
ourselves. Left for Philly in the morn...after hiding to traditional
Fresh Trout (should be relatively easy to find when they return in a
week or so...)

Philly was great, though we really needed much more time (we are
planning another assault next Sunday). We started at Declaration
House, then the Liberty Bell and Franklin Court.

Lunch was great. The boys had never had Philly Cheese Steaks. We
scoped out what appeared to be the best street vendor on Independance
Square and were not disappointed. T1 deemed it "the best sandwich I've
ever had" & T2 quickly concurred. As luck would have it, there was a
pretty great gay pride/rights parade through the middle on
Independence Square...fun to watch and a good stepping off point to
talk with the boys (as were the handful of intensely hateful
protesters).

We then headed over to the Rosenbach Museum (see image). We were given
a private tour that was the best I've had. The boys were amazing (as
they were all day). They asked great questions and correctly answered
all that our guide threw at them (including several tricky ones). We
picked up a bit of Bloomsday material and headed to the out-laws home
in Annapolis. DC tomorrow.

More thieves benefiting from ebay...

These thieves are apparently not even bothering to be sneaky (or careful)...just ripping out the textblocks and leaving the debris in dark corners of the library. Annoyed by title, as they are not really vandals, they are thieves. I wager you can (or could have) found the stolen plates on ebay. I wonder how many loose plates sold on ebay are *not* stolen...very few these days, I wager.

10 Best Bookshops in the World...

The Independent has just posted a list of the 10 "Best Bookshops in the World. There is a brief description of each (all not, not antiquarian). It is quite a list and I must admit to having only set foot in two. All are now added to my "future places to travel" list.

[Updated to fix link]

Great moments in the defense of freedom of speech...

If you have not seen this, or do not remember it, take the time to watch it again. Frank Zappa defending the First Amendment, specifically rock lyrics, against the narrow minds of Lofton, Braden and Novak. 1986 to 2009...one step forward, three back.

Would a Wordle, by any other name, smell as sweet...

 This is E. A. Poe's, The Raven as a word cloud via Wordle. I am not certain how utilitarian it is, but it makes really pretty pictures from text. Very cool.

Because things are not busy/complex enough...

We woke this morning, at approximately 3am, to the sound of heavy rain. Startlingly, it did not seem to be coming from the open window next to the bed, but within the house. It is interesting how quickly we went from "deep sleep" to "wildly awake". It turns out the toilet tank on the third floor spontaneously split down the side last night.

The good news is that we had just made it home after being gone for 4 days and it just as easily could have happened on Friday and we'd have arrived home to a catastrophic problem. One has to take one's silver linings where one can...

The bad news is that we have major water damage down three stories (third floor to the basement). It appears we are going to lose part of the second floor bathroom ceiling. There is a great deal of wet horsehair plaster and streaking on several walls where water ran between the floors. We lost a bit of ceiling in the basement, too. 

I was *very* lucky as to my shelved books. I lost a set of Little Journeys in limp leather and about a dozen or so other books. However, the water really just ran down one section of the one of the shelving walls and I try not to let things actually touch the wall (something that no book will do in the future). Given that there are about 1500 books on the shelves on the first floor under the natural failure path for water, I am actually very pleased. It could have been so much worse. 

That said, the front of the house smells like wet plaster, we have at least one wall that will need to be heavily repaired and probably two ceiling areas. The plumber has already been here and capped the line until we replace the toilet. The insurance human is due soon. Chaos reigns supreme. So much to do already. Urgh.

Cambridge incunabula collection going online...

A remarkable collection of incunabula is being digitized and coming online from Cambridge University Library. 

Very few records of the Library's 4,650 treasures are currently in its online catalogue, which means that they are often invisible to scholars and students - both in Cambridge and around the world.

It is told that their copy of the Gutenberg Bible arrived on morning in 1930 when a man stepped out of a taxi and told the library he had a bible he would like to give them...

Can't wait to see the results of this project.

Teaser...

Recognize the document or handwriting? Doesn't count if you are one of
the few who've seen it...

Seriously bad blogger...

I have been far too busy of late, it seems, to have time to post more than 140 characters. Quite pathetic. I've had several things arrive that have taken a great deal of research and cataloguing time. Partially drafted posts notwithstanding, I apologize, loyal readers. As I now have a dozen emails along the lines of "are you dead or just lazy?", I thought I should throw up a missive.

Substantive posting will recommence momentarily. Also embarking on long travel jaunt with Thing 1 and Thing 2 with a heavy biblio/museum component. Should be highly entertaining for me and properly torturous for the boys. More to follow....really...