I've no more grandparents, but I've some extremely dirty limericks....

My grandmother passed away today (more on this in another post), 12 years and one day following my grandfather. We have spent the day going through her photos, letters and the bits of ephemera that swirl around you after 94 years. It has been, pleasingly, great fun...reveling in her life (and that of my grandfather's) rather than mourning. Best of all, we found some things that she more or less hid to protect us.

For example, my grandfather was born and raised in Belfast, Ireland and had a quick and rollicking wit (among his many talents). Certain people, however, brought out his wicked streak and he their one. One such lifelong miscreant was Tommy Panzera. The two of them fed of each other's antic personalities and the results are the stuff of family myth and legend. We found a letter that Tommy wrote the Granddaddy in 1938. Greenie had hidden it in a dark, back corner as it is full of wildly dirty limericks. Quoting in part [N.B. seriously dirty words, etc. following...you are warned]:

Whereupon I explained that my best pal is a goddam Irishman and therefore there is no foolin' around. He retaliated or reiterated (I forget which) and gave me the following:

There was a young Chinese named Rhoda

Who kept an immoral Pagoda;

Festooned on the walls

Of the halls were the balls

And the tools of the fools who bestrode her.

Meantime his pal was thinking hard and having thunk sprang this one upon us (the dirty slob):

There was a young man of Bombay

Who modeled a cunt out of clay;

But the heat of his prick

Turned the clay into brick

And wore all his foreskin away.

Followed almost immediately by the young man from Thermopylae,

Who found he couldn't pee properly

He said, "Pax vobiscum

Why the hell won't my piss come?

My semen must have a Monopoly."

In my life, I heard my grandmother swear *once* that I can remember (she said, "Damn it" when scolding "the men" at a dinner). She and Granddaddy were so wonderful together. It has been great fun to laugh as much as we have today...

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."

Huge archive of medical illustrations and photos created by HMHM

The National Museum of Health and Medicine [part of the National Library of Medicine] has just created a massive archive of medical illustrations and photography. Best yet, it is *all* free and housed at flicker.

Per a very good Wired article:

An Army archivist is undertaking a massive project to digitize and make public a unique collection of rare and sometimes startling military medical images, from the Civil War to Vietnam.
This previously unreported archive at the Army-run National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C., contains 500,000 scans of unique images so far, with another 225,000 set to be digitized this year.
Mike Rhode, the museum's head archivist, is working to make tens of thousands of those images, which have been buried in the museum's archive, available on Flickr. Working after hours, his team has posted a curated selection of almost 800 photos on the service already.
"You pay taxes. These are your pictures," Rhode said. "You should be able to see them."

It is a remarkable collection. All images are being provided for free under a Creative Commons Attribution license. I look forward to see how this project evolves. 

Thanks to CD at BoingBoing for the heads up.

Fun in DC....or, my day at at the LoC

Suzanne and I spent Tuesday having fun about DC. We went to Union Station for lunch (very good Greek food) and picking up some silly things for friends and family. 

We arrived at the Library of Congress in early afternoon. When we visited last year, they were in the midst of some major renovations, technological and otherwise. The results are quite spectacular. 

One of the biggest/most interesting changes is the evolution/integration of "myLOC.com". When  you go in you can get a "passport"...placing it in one of the many kiosks, you enter your contact info, etc. and create an account (tied to the bar code on the passport). As you tour the LoC, there are many kiosks into which you can stick your passport, logging the exhibit, getting additional information and playing library games. 

myLOC allows you to "take the library home" with you. You can engage in virtual tours, create your own collections, etc. It is really quite the biblio-geek playground. I will dig about with it more deeply after Road Trip 2009 and post a more cogent review of it.

The interactive displays are exceptionally well done. I've included an image of the one for the Gutenberg Bible. The virtual tour (link) is pretty good...but the kiosk is extremely cool...the closest you can come to playing with a GB...no gloves necessary. 

The new(ish...it opened April of last year) exhibit of Jefferson's Library is amazing. it is an open circle...you can stand in the center and be surrounded by his library...the core of what became the LoC. There are placeholders for lost books that have yet to be replaced (Suz has a new life goal of donating at least one book to this collection). [Hypothetically, I kissed Suz surrounded by TJ's library...too fun.] The interactive kiosks in TJ's library allow you to explore the books by shelf, organized as TJ had them (Memory, Imagination, Reason). It was really wonderful. 

We are planning to include an extra day or two next time...as we didn't really get anywhere *but* the LoC. DC is a remarkable place to visit. If you have not been in a while, go...bring comfortable shoes. If you live in and around...step back and revel is what a remarkable place it is...most I know who live there have ended up very blasé about the wonder and scope that surrounds them (admittedly, because most are working way too hard, all the time). 

Really, I handle so much that does not involve long pig...

Well, for the second time in as many weeks, my History of Gastronomy/J. Dahmer volume is in the news. This quarter's Gastronomica (Winter, Vol. 9, No. 1) has a full page (the last page in the volume, "Rare") article on the book and its history. The author, Jeanne Schinto, saw the book at a show in Boston nearly a year ago and asked if I would allow an article about it for Gastronomica. 

I do not recall making all the statements for which I am quoted...but there is nothing hugely off-base, either and the gist of the background is solid. It is an interesting and very intriguing piece. As she notes, it really does appear to be prima facia evidence of an effort on his part to understand something that he had to know was...well...not normal. 

I'll never complain about press placements...but I do hope the next one or two are focused on fine press books, early printed matter or...er...anything that does not include serial killers...

Remarkable letters and ephemera collection

They met when in their late teens and were dating each other's best
friends. They remain friends to this day. She "knew at 16 that he was
going to do great things...and kept everything he ever sent me." The
collection provides a look at a little known side of one of the
cultural icons of the 20th century (and a remarkably talented
catoonist). All is packed and ready for San Fran.

Friends of the Darby Free Library...

From their FaceBook page:

The Darby Free Library, which was founded in 1743 and is believed to be the oldest continuously operating public library in America, will be forced to close its doors at year's end if somebody doesn't write a big check or a lot of little ones.

It would be a shame if this old library closed. It is not only a vital resource for its community but also a symbol, as our oldest known public library, of our country's commitment to access to knowledge and education for everybody.

Thanks to CD at BoingBoing for the post...

Philogelos: The Laugh Addict

And you thought Monty Python was original...

In Philogelos, a fourth century (and arguably the first) joke book has been getting a bit of press lately. William Berg, a classics professor in the US, has translated it and created a digital iteration (see below). It is confirmation that there really are no new jokes.

Consider the brilliant "Dead Parrot" skit by the collective genius that was Monty Python (e.g. "he's resting"). 1600 years ago, when a man complains that the slave he purchased was dead, he's told, '"By the gods," answers the slave's seller, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing."'

You can literally hear Dangerfield, Rickles, Youngman, etc tell:

"A misogynist is attending to the burial of his wife, who has just died. When someone asks, 'Who is it who rests in peace here?', he answers, 'Me, now that I'm rid of her!'."

"I had your wife, without paying a penny". He replied: "It's my duty as a husband to couple with such a monstrosity. What made you do it?"

"A student dunce goes to the doctor and says, ‘Doctor, when I wake up, I’m all dizzy, then after half-an-hour I’m O.K.’ ‘Well, wait a half hour before waking up,’ advises the doctor."

Articles on the translation(s): here, here, here, and here.

Translations of some here, here and here:

Greek here.

A "free highlights" version of his digital translation of this work can be found here.

Llareggub revealed...

So who knew? The National LIbrary of Wales has a sketch map, in Dylan Thomas' hand, of his famed Llareggub. LLareggub is the name of the town on Thomas' Under Milk Wood. It is also "bugger all" backwards (while sounding suitably Welsh). It is likely to be the name of my next cat.

"L'Enfer" [Hell] on display at Bibliothque Nationale [Addendum - alas, a year ago...]

Bibliothque Nationale [Paris] displayed their collection of erotica and pornography, built over 170 years and "forbidden" from access generally. It is referred to officially as "L'Enfer" [Hell]...which I think is wonderful.

The "Enfer" section of the Bibliothque Nationale books and prints and photographs purchased, confiscated or donated over almost two centuries is believed to be one of the largest and richest collections of pornographic and erotic materials in the world. The Vatican's secret stash is said to be even larger but that, presumably, will never be opened to the public.

How strong can this stuff be? Given what appears daily on the internet, on cable TV, or in the pages of the Daily Sport, is it possible to be shocked by exquisite, but explicit, 17th-century porn?

The answer is, yes. The exhibition is an eye-opener: a quietly and intelligently displayed but garish cornucopia of sadism, masochism, bestialism, scatology, bums, tits and staring genitalia. It is also a fascinating, and sometimes beautiful, expedition through the dark, winding corridors of the human psyche.

It has just been pointed out that I payed no attention to a minor issue...that of the exhibition dates. This exhibit ran from Dec. 2007 through March 2008. I am relieved as I no longer need to ponder at all a jaunt overseas. Sadly, it appears they did not print a catalogue. Bah...

[N.B. Bib. Nat. has a great collection of "Virtual Exhibitions"...well worth a look.]

If you are not completely appalled...

you are not paying attention. One of my more favorite quotations and an apt slogan on a political T-Shirt. It is captured, as such, in Judy Seigel's "[Read My T-Shirt] for President... a true history of the political front - and back."

Meeting and chatting...at length...with Judy was one of the better bits of the NY fair I attended last weekend. A photographer, writer and the founding editor of the "leading alternative photography journal", I do not think I am understating it when I say she is a force of nature.. We ended up talking a bit of politics and she told me about the book she had written on the t-shirt politics of the Bush years. I told her I would have to track a copy down as such things amuse me. She said not to worry about it. I just received not one but two copies in the post...signed even. I haven't had time to read it, but have flipped through for some favorites and all are there save one. I predict I will have good fun looking at these with the boys in a few years.
[there should be an image of the cover, but blogger seem disinclined to import images at the moment...I'll try to update later.]

Why book fairs are fun...

So after the NY fair I trundled up to Northampton and spent the night with Forrest Proper and family of Joslin Hall fame (who blogs at FoggyGates). Sunday morn we were all off to the MARIAB fair in Northampton. Forrest, et al. to show and me to poke about, visit with the kindred and shop.

The top image was my most entertaining find of the day. I'm in the process of tracking down what war it was associated with...woodblock letters and a hotel noted...I am rather hopeful I will be able to nail it down.

The other is a well-known dealer who shall remain nameless. He amused himself throughout the day by occasionally channeling the Gipper and doing a bit of campaigning. A bit of Theatre of the Absurd performance art brightens nearly any day.

It was a very long few weeks...I am looking forward to a few days of rest and catching up on various dropped balls...

Since when did being well-read and intellectually sophisticated become an anathema?

I watched the debate last night and was more or less pleased with all parties. Gwen was her usually sharp and focused self. Biden kept himself reigned in and exuded the deep knowledge and competence he is known for (and avoided any significant gaffes, that he is also known for). Palin spoke in more or less diagram-able sentences and certainly nailed her talking points, to her credit (and ignoring the much lower bar that was apparently set for her...). It was interesting and I do not feel like I *completely* wasted 2 hours of my life. That said, it further irritated an increasingly sensitive issue for me...

I am *really* tired of "faux-folksy" and the snide condescension being directed at the well-read and...you know..."smart folk". I know the practice(s) has waxed and waned for a long time, but in recent years, it has been rolled out as a major mantra for a small segment of society...to the profound detriment of the whole. The most recent wave was triggered by the "ya'll just don't understand" anti-intellectualism of our Yale College and Harvard Business School educated president. He has spoken with pride of his "C" average at Yale (a genuine feat, as mediocrity must be strived for at the Ivies), of his self-professed dis-inclination to read and has spoken, repeatedly, with contempt for those "ivory tower intellectuals" (cf. Yale, HBS above). He seems to take pleasure in his inability to pronounce certain words and/or speak in complete sentences.

Last night's debate demonstrated that the next generation of national figures are embracing this trend...at least those who don't bring much, you know, education, sophistication, depth and/or knowledge to the table. I really do not think it unreasonable to have national political figures speak in complete sentences and avoid bogus terms of art. I do not want a national figure saying "Doggone it," "You guys," and/or "Darn right". I do not want "you" to be "ya,"... dropping the "g" from any "...ing" word is just sloppy and is it REALLY too much to ask to expect such folk to be able to correctly pronounce "nuclear"? [N.B. I also have an issue with Eye-ran and Eye-raq...but this might be more that it *really* annoys me when my name is pronounced Eye-an. Iraq, Iran, Ian. It is really not that tricky).

If I hear one more person say, "I like her, she sounds just like the girls down at the lunch counter" [this and a close second version heard on various programs this morning], I'm going to start twitching uncontrollably. I also heard more than one iteration of "she's common folk". I do not want "common folk" as the VP (or, god forbid, President). I do not want someone who "talks like the girls at the lunch counter". These are NOT selling points. I find it profoundly disturbing that some people seem to think it is a good thing.

I *want* a Pres/VP to be *smarter* than I am. I want them to have a *more* sophisticated world view than I do. I want them to be able to control their tendencies toward snarky condescension, because they are "better" than that (and me ). I know they are human and I am comfortable with slips...to err is human and all. I am not expecting "perfect" humans, but I do not think it is unreasonable to expect articulate, intelligent and intellectually questing humans. I simply do not understand why people would want national leaders who are anything less.

Thomas Jefferson [and H.L. Mencken] is credited with saying “The government you elect is government you deserve.” It is seldom mentioned by all these "strict constructionist" that voting in this country was restricted (by the oft mentioned Founding Fathers) to young country's equivalent of landed gentry...only educated, land-owning men need apply (though exceptions were routinely made for land-owning widows...). It made a good deal of sense then...and perhaps now. The idea was to vest the vote in those who could make calculated, ration decisions and had a vested interest in "success". I am being facetious, of course...more or less.

And I will not even start on the issue/idea of a national figure who actively investigated removing books from a public library because s/he did not agree with their content. It does not matter as to the success or failure of such an effort...that anyone would consider such a thing should *preclude* office-holding (and library use) for life.

We are suffering, I think, from the "dilemma of the lowest-common-denominator". We seem to have moved away from national figures trying to educate "the masses", of trying to "raise up" their knowledge base. Rather, they "speak the language of the people"...and increasingly such speech is directed toward the *slowest* person in the proverbial room. I know I am an elitist. I know I think reading more, listening more, thinking more and striving to comprehend more is *better* than apathy, ignorance and/or the conscious embracing of mediocrity. It is undoubtedly a flaw. Again, I would just much prefer to have politicians *smarter* than I (and most others) am... [N.B. though, clearly, not smart enough to realize what a thankless, masochistic job national politics is...]. This is not a liberal or conservative issue, there are people from all sides pandering to the lowest-common-denominator...to their, and the country's, great diservice.

Then again, doggone it...ya know, I'm probably wrong. The world is changin' and I should just stop worryin' my pretty little head 'bout it. I think I'll just disconnect myself. [N.B. Slightly updated to clean up some ugly grammar/typo issues...I should probably proofread as I spew...]

Very cool criminal broadside....

Five people, four men and a woman, were executed at Newgate in the mid-1600s (well, many more than that...but here we are only interested in those described in this broadside). One of them was a man of some importance, the entire back sheet was given to his story and contrition (he insured and then burned his offices). The other four were convicted together of the same crime.

The three men and one woman apparently worked together to "make a coin appear to be silver" That is, they counterfeited a single coin. For this crime, the three men were sentenced to hang and the woman, for the same crime, was sentence to be burned at the stake.

The broadside is a lovely piece...but it is the woodcuts that make it wonderful. There are only two, the publisher chose not to illustrate the single hanging. The three men take up about half the front page, the woman at the stake is about 1/3 the third page. Apparently the crowd begged for mercy as she cried out on the stake...

Really long catalogue entries to make yourself crazy...

So I have been cataloging a collection of Civil War volumes (one of several collections that I am up to my eyes with or under, depending on the day...sorry about my silence of late). I just spent several days working on an unusual atlas...one that involved a great deal of research and from which I must admit I learned a great deal and found profoundly interesting. The entry is currently as follows:

U.S. War Department, et al. [Compendium Civil War Atlas Built Around:] Military Maps Illustrating the Operations of the Armies Of The Potomac & James May 4th 1864 to April 9th 1865: including Battlefields of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Totopotomoy, Cold Harbor, The Siege Of Petersburg And Richmond Battle-fields of Five Forks ... Maps partially prepared by order of Lieut. Genl. U.S. Grant ... Surveys and Maps were executed under the direction of Bvt. Brig. Genl. N. Michler ... and Bvt. Lieut. Col. P.S. Michie ... prepared for publication by Bvt. Brig. Genl. N. Michler ... under the authority of the Hon. Secretary of War. The Surveys and Maps relating to the Battle-fields ... under orders of Brig. & Bvt. Maj. Genl. A.A. Humphreys ... [N.B. This atlas includes Eight additional, related maps (including the renowned "Battlefield of Gettysburg" (all three days/maps), as fully described below)]. Washington DC: War Department/Office of the Chief of Engineers, 1869. First Edition Thus/Privately Bound. Light shelf/edge wear, light wear at head, tail and tips, light rubbing at hinges, dampstain to front board, several maps show minor careful repair, handful small closed tears, the last (Central VA) is a "built" map (in three parts), very minor toning to leaves, else tight, bright and unmarred. Halfbound, black leather spine and tips, gilt lettering and decorative elements. Elephant folio. np. Illus (color and b/w plates). All but one map is double folio (two elephant folio leaves) or larger (several fold-out and one "quad" comprised of two double folios sheets). Hardcover. Very Good [Maps Very Good to Fine]. No DJ as Issued.

Stephenson states these are a "detailed series of maps indicating fortifications, roads, railroads, houses, names of residents, fences, drainage, vegetation, and relief by hachures." (Stephenson 518) The color embodied in these first edition maps makes these significantly more readable than the later editions. This atlas contains all 16 maps as required of the 1869 edition (including the often missing "Harper's Ferry"); interestingly, one of the extra maps tipped in at rear is the "South Mountain" map that was *not* included in the original 1869 printing but *was* included in the 1872 second printing. Originally published as a portfolio of loose plates with a title page, this set was tab-bound (so the maps open flat with no loss) with additional, related maps.

The original maps include, in order:
1: Richmond (double folio; 1.5":1mi scale)
2: Appomattox Court House (double folio; 3":1mi)
3: The Wilderness (double folio; 3":1mi)
4: Spottsylvania Court House (double folio; 3":1mi)
5: High Bridge and Farmville (double folio; 3":1mi)
6: Jettersville and Sailors Creek (double folio; 3":1mi)
7: Bermuda Hundred (double folio; 1.5":1mi)
8: Petersburg and Five Forks (double folio; 1.5":1mi)
9: Totopotomoy (double folio; 3":1mi)
10: Harper's Ferry (double folio; 3":1mi)
11: North Anna (folio; 3":1mi)
12: Gettysburg and Appomattox Court House (double folio x2)
13: Antietam (double folio; 3":1mi)
14: Cold Harbor (double folio; 3":1mi)
15: Chancellorville (double folio; 3":1mi)
16: Fredericksburg (double folio; 3":1mi)

Additional maps include, in order:
1: Campaign Maps Army of the Potomac Map No. 1 Yorktown to Williamsburg (double folio (fold-out); b/w; map compiled 1862; engraved by Dongal)
2: Campaign Maps Army of the Potomac Map No. 2 Williamsburg to White House (double folio (fold-out); b/w; engraved by Dongal)
3: South Mountain (double folio, b/w, N.B. omitted from the original 1869 P&J atlas but added in the 1872 second printing, included here as part of the compendium material)
4: Map of the Battle Field of Gettysburg - Day One, July 1st, 1863 (oversized double folio (fold-out), color, 1":1000', First Printing, 1876) [N.B. This set of three Gettysburg maps are *extremely* desirable and equally hard to find either together or in good condition...a spectacular addition to this collection.]
5: Map of the Battle Field of Gettysburg - Day Two, July 2st, 1863 (oversized double folio (fold-out), color, 1":1000', First Printing, 1876)
6: Map of the Battle Field of Gettysburg - Day Three, July 3st, 1863 (oversized double folio (fold-out), color, 1":1000', First Printing, 1876)
7: Map of the Vicinity of Hagerstown, Funkstown, Williamsport, and Falling Waters Maryland. (showing positions circa Oct. 1, 1863, oversized double folio, color, 1879)
8: Central Virginia Showing Lieut. Gen'l U.S. Grant's Campaign and Marches of the Armies under his Command in 1864-5. (oversized double folio, color, pieced in three sections.

A remarkable collection of 24 maps exploring the actions of the Armies of the Potomac and James. The "core" atlas is rarely found complete and/or in good condition and the "Three Days of Gettysburg" maps are also a rare find complete and in Near Fine Condition. Together and with the additional maps present, this is a unique and quite exceptional collection and a wonderful addition to any sophisticated Civil War collection.

Simon Winchester on his new book...

I mentioned some time ago hearing one of the Simon's first "public" presentations around the subject of his new book on J. Needham.

Enjoy.

To prove I am working while traipsing about the West Coast

So, in addition to my meeting out here, I had this remarkable little collection arrive on Sunday...just before I flew out. In addition to a collection of Presidential letters/documents from Washington to Reagan and a very significant letter (and signed engraving) of John Hancock, there was this interesting photograph of Lincoln dated "March 6th, 1865"...this got me thinking, as he was shot about 6 weeks later and I dug about to see what I could find out about the image. As it turns out, it was the *last* photograph of Lincoln and, interesting, was immediately remounted/reissued by the photographer with a mounting of "The Last Photograph..." after the assassination. By itself, this would be a cool backstory for an image...but it gets much better, involving the President's young son and a pony. Enjoy:

Lincoln, Abraham; Warren, H.F. (photo). The Latest Photograph of Abraham Lincoln. Waltham, MA: H.F. Warren, March, 1865. First State. Bright and clean. 6”x8.25” image on 10”x13.5” mount. Original Albumen Photograph.. Fine.
This original albumen official photo of Abraham Lincoln, taken on March 6, 1865, by photographer H. F. Warren of Waltham, MA, is the last photograph taken of the President before his death on April 15th. Taken on March 6th, 1865, the photo is mounted to a cardstock photographer's mount and labeled "The Latest Photograph of President Lincoln - Taken On The Balcony At The White House, March 6, 1865." After Lincoln's assassination, the photograph was immediately reissued with the caption changed to "Last Photograph of President Lincoln.

“The most unusual photograph of President Abraham Lincoln, and his very last, was ... [taken] in the White House itself on a windy Monday afternoon, March 6, 1865. It was during the closing days of the Civil War that Henry F. Warren, a photographer from Waltham, Massachusetts, attempted to obtain a pass to photograph the Union forces in front of Richmond. He arrived in Washington in time for Lincoln’s second inauguration when the historical importance of photographing the president occurred to him. Though turned away with the daily throng of office seekers and lobbyists, Warren was told by a White House guard that “the surest way to obtain an audience with the President was through the intercession of his little son, ‘Tad.’” When Lincoln’s son appeared in the White House garden on his pony, it didn’t take Warren long to devise a plan to photograph the president.

“Tad” and his pony were soon placed in position and photographed, after which Mr. Warren asked “Tad” to tell his father that a man had come all the way from Boston, and was particularly anxious to see him and obtain a sitting from him. “Tad” went to see his father, and word was soon returned that Mr. Lincoln would comply. In the meantime, Mr. Warren had improvised a kind of studio upon the south balcony of the White House. Mr. Lincoln soon came out, and saying but a very few words, took his seat as indicated. After a single negative was taken, he inquired: “Is that all sir?” Unwilling to detain him any longer than was absolutely necessary, Mr. Warren replies: “Yes, sir,” and the President immediately withdrew. At the time he appeared on the balcony the wind was blowing freshly, as his disarranged hair indicates, and, as sunset was rapidly approaching, it was difficult to obtain a sharp picture. Six weeks later President Lincoln was dead, and it is doubtless true that this is the last photograph ever made of him.14 Lincoln interrupted his busy day—a meeting with former Congressman John T. Stuart of Illinois, a noon reception of a diplomatic corps, a conference with Marcus L. Ward, later governor of New Jersey—simply to comply with his son’s request to be photographed. The slight scowl on the president’s face, as clearly seen in the Warren photograph, might reflect his annoyance over the intrusion, or perhaps Lincoln was simply preoccupied." [From the White House History web site].

I leave on the redeye at midnight and get into NY tomorrow at 8ish. Too much to do. I should be in rare form this weekend.

Weather modification for fun and pleasure...

Admittedly, this is not really bookish...but it is amazing *and* I promise that at least on book *will be* published about it, so it is "proto-bookish":

MIT Review has a short, yet amazing, article on China's plans for weather modification to see that no rain falls on their 91,000 seat open air stadium. Last year China purchased an IBM p575 supercomputer. This wee bit of hardware is capable of executing 9.8 trillion floating point operations per second. They are using it to model an area of 44,000 square kilometers (17,000 sq. miles) and it is apparently accurate enough to generate hourly forecasts for *each kilometer*. They then use silver iodide, dry ice and a liquid nitrogen based coolant shot/dropped from field artillery and planes. From the article:

Unsurprisingly, therefore, China's national weather-engineering program is also the world's largest, with approximately 1,500 weather modification professionals directing 30 aircraft and their crews, as well as 37,000 part-time workers--mostly peasant farmers--who are on call to blast away at clouds with 7,113 anti-aircraft guns and 4,991 rocket launchers.

Personally, I find the very idea of "controlling" weather intellectually pleasing...admittedly, it will likely lead to some catastrophic disaster...but, after all, a civilization can only last so long. Really, mixing supercomputers, interesting chemicals, anti-aircraft artillery and rocket launchers...I challenge you name something more fun than that.

On the bookish front, it is worth noting that the origin of weather control began in 1946 in the labs of General Electric discovered that silver iodide could create crystals around which cloud moisture would condense and form rain...on of the lead scientists in this work was Bernard Vonnegut, the brother of the late Kurt Vonnegut). Work hard enough, and there is always a book angle...

Maine Dec. of Independence to stay in VA

Maine and Wiscasset have lost a court case to bring back a D of I that belonged (at one time) to the town.

An intellegintly designed alternative....

A prof. in Swarthmore's Biology department is offering this handy sheet of Textbook Disclaimers. It includes many for those annoying theories like gravity, special relativity and that whole "spherical earth" hogwash. Oh, and this one:

This book discusses evolution. President George W. Bush said, "On the issue of evolution, the verdict is still out on how God created the Earth." Therefore, until 2009 this material shood be aproched with an open mind, studeed carefuly, and critcly consid'rd.

He also has a great page title "Evolution Outreach Projects - Part of the Axis of Evo". From his site, a great quotation from Darwin, himself:

“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”

Don't miss the "Darwin has a Posse' page. Also, there are only 350 days until Charles Darwin's 200th birthday (12th February, 2009). Mark your calendars now....

Shall be lifted -- Nevermore

...and yet, it shall be celebrated today. Happy publishing birthday to Poe's, The Raven, published today in 1845 by the New York Evening Mirror [to be read, if one is so inclined, in its entirety at House of Usher]. It was Poe's more or less "breakthrough" hit and offered him reasonable fame and demand for the last few years of his life (he died in 1849).

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door —
Only this, and nothing more."

I guess I know what I'll be reading to my wife before bed this evening...

Amusing book references in law....

I was reminded by todays news of one of my favorite cases from law school. In this famous (among law students, at least) case, the judge explores whether the court has jurisdiction over Satan and in pertinent part writes:

While the official records disclose no case where this defendant has appeared
as defendant there is an unofficial account of a trial in New Hampshire where
this defendant filed an action of mortgage foreclosure as plaintiff. The
defendant in that action was represented by the preeminent advocate of that
day, and raised the defense that the plaintiff was a foreign prince with no
standing to sue in an American Court. This defense was overcome by
overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

This is, of course, a reference to the brilliant 1937 Stephen Vincent Benet short story, The Devil and Daniel Webster. Great story and a great, now passed, judge.

Pilgrimage...

Well, as we wander back toward Maine, we stopped to make a visit to the Rosenbach Museum & Library. It is truly one of the sacred places of the book world (at least of my book world). We took the tour with a lovely docent and had a great time. I have a feeling we will be back soon, as I would really like to see the Dracula event they are planning.

There are two lovely row houses on the same block currently on the market. It would be far too much fun...though I just heard that the Bauman's are renovating a house on the block already. In short, between the RM&L, Bauman's (and others), the Mudder, and the Phil. Library, it is really and amazing book town. Sorry so brief, still on the road...urgh. With luck, photos and cogency might follow...

Mildly interesting coincidence...

Courtesy of TiL, we learn that on this very day, in 1763, Samuel Johnson and James Boswell first met and in commemoration of this event, on this very day in 1791 Boswell published his Life of Johnson. In and of itself, this is a fun bit of information to know.

Interestingly, I had a new client give me a lovely 1793 Second and Augmented Edition of Life of Johnson just yesterday. I love it when the universe works in entertaining ways...

?Happy? Douglas Adams Death Day.

I was once actively involved in organizing an extremely cool, brain-candy conference called the Camden Technology Conference (now Pop!Tech). I was on the Program Committee for many years. In April of 2001, we successfully secured Douglas Adams to come and speak at the October conference. I was ecstatic, as Adams had always been a favorite of mine and held at least two places on my rather short list of "people I'd like to meet before I start rotting".

Three weeks later, on May 11, Douglas Adams had the unmitigated gall to die...denying me and countless others from the pleasure of his company. I was toying with writing a pithy tribute, but find I am just too depressed. I'm going to go reread HGttG and sulk.

A great bio and far too much trivia can be found here.

Baxter meeting - Priscilla Juvelis

Priscilla Juvelis spoke last evening at the Baxter Society. Her topic was, "Women Under the Influence: The Persistence of Books and Book Culture in Women's Lives". She is, for those unfortunate enough to have failed to make her acquaintance, a past president of the ABAA and an absolutely *brilliant* book dealer. Priscilla entered the business under the tutelage of John Flemming, himself under the arm of The Doctor. Spending time with Priscilla is spending time at the end, as it were, of over 120 years of the very best of book(wo)man. I should mention that she is also personally responsible for defining and driving two (and a half, or so) major collecting areas.

Her presentation was exception. I learned more in an hour and a half or so on the subject than I learned in the last book I read on the subject. I also, horrifyingly, added a half dozen books to my "read these soon" list (to be distinguished from the "read these in the near future," "read these when you get a chance," and "read these someday" lists). Do not miss a chance to hear her speak.

An importand day...(far more than my slow crawl toward death)

Finnegans Wake was published on this day in 1939.

I am passing out. O bitter ending! I'll slip away before they're up. They'll never see. Nor know. Nor miss me. And it's old and old it's sad and old it's sad and weary I go back to you, my cold father, my cold mad father, my cold mad feary father, till the near sight of the mere size of him, the moyles and moyles of it, moananoaning, makes me seasilt saltsick and I rush, my only, into your arms, I see them rising! Save me from those therrble prongs! Two more. Onetwo moremens more. So. Avelaval. My leaves have drifted from me. All. But one clings still. I'll bear it to me. To remind me of. Lff! So soft this morning, ours. Yes. Carry me along, taddy, like you done through the toy fair! If I seen him bearing down on me now under whitespread wings like he'd come from Arkangels, I sink I'd die down over his feet, humbly dumbly, only to washup. Yes, tid. There's where. First. We pass through grass behush the bush to. Whish! A gull. Gulls. Far calls. Coming, far! End here. Us then. Finn, again! Take. Bussoftlhee, mememormee! Till thousendsthee. Lps. The keys to. Given! A way a lone at last a loved a long the
~James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, 1939, IV

I read FW for the first time when I was about 15 at my Grandfather's mildly malicious suggestion. I wrote a book report about it, using (to the best of my stunted ability) Joyce's language and cyclical style. Years later the English teacher I wrote it for told me that they had read the first two pages, understood *what* I had done, but didn't understand any of it...gave me an A+ and moved on. Somewhere, it is still kicking around...I need to find it and see if it is as horrid as I think it probably was...

I quoted the above (near the end of the novel) because it so summed up my grandfather's death. My grandfather was a lay Joyce scholar (born and raised in Belfast, Ireland and a great lover of Irish lit.). He woke one morning, did not wake my grandmother. He went into the kitchen and got a glass from the cabinet, got poured himself a glass of orange juice and returned the container to the fridge. He sat down at the kitchen table and died. My grandmother woke a hour or so later, went into the kitchen and found my grandfather sitting at the table with a full glass of juice in front of him, dead. Leave it to my grandfather to have such a wonderfully Joycean death.

Carry me along, taddy, like you done through the toy fair!

Happy Birthday to me...

So today is my birthday. I am 40. I am not dead. I love what I do. My family is wonderful. All things considered, life could be much worse. I have had the Birthday Dirge going through my head all morning. It is a family tradition. It needs to be sung as a "dirge" (low and slow) and goes as follows:

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Sin and sorrow fill the air,
People dying everywhere,
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday

It is very perky and festive.

Also born today are Nicollo Machiavelli (1469), Golda Meir (1898), Pete Seeger (1919) and James Brown (1928).

Other fun things on the biblio front that happened today:

In 1810, Lord Byron swam the Hellespont in tribute to Leander's legendary swims to visit his beloved Hero. Byron was 22 and still relatively unknown (though he had finished Childe Harold). He had, however, just wrapped up a affair with a married woman...that culminated in a sunrise duel.

English writter Dodie Smith was born today in 1896. She is best known for The One Hundred and One Dalmatians (did you know that someone other than Disney wrote that...shocking). She and her husband raised dalmatians for years...including a bitch who had a litter of FIFTEEN (including one stillborn but revived...as in the story).

Dylan Thomas, having spent over a decade trying to finish it, gave "Under Milk Wood" its first reading on this day in 1953. Still not finished, he was making changes literally until he stepped up to the proverbial mike at Harvard. It tells the of the day in the life of Llareggub, Thomas' fictional town in Wales. Some may recall that Thomas rather loathed Wales. Llareggub, you may note, is "Bugger All" backwards.

In 1926, Sinclair Lewis was given a Pulizter Prize for Arrowsmith (in 1937 M. Mitchell won it for Gone with the Wind, in 1943, Upton Sinclair won it for Dragon's Teeth, etc.)

Many other fun things happened today as well. For example, in 1851 most of San Fransisco burned to the ground. Also, in 1765, the first medical school in the United States opened in PA (founded by John Morgan, it was part of the College of Philadelphia (now Univ. of PA)). Finally, the symbol of New Hampshire, the natural granite formation Old Man of the Mountain, collapsed.

So all things considered, a very nice day. (Thanks to TiL for some of the lit events).

Time joins Newsweek in keeping America stupid...

Well, Newsweek treated its US readers as morons twice last year (here and here), now Time joins its competition in "protecting" us from...well...you know, real news. I don't know about you, but I am not certain if I am insulted these NEWS journals view the US "market" as preferring a protracted advertisement for Leibowitz's retrospective to "real news" or if I just feel sorry for our society that "news" has, to all extent and purposes, become lost to our "lowest common denominator" cultural morass.

Sadly, I have been getting most of my day-to-day "news" from foreign sources for the last several years (one of the better side effects of the emergence of the web). CNN, et al have effectively been relegated to the equivalent of an alternative to a poorly scripted "reality" show...which seems to be the niche they are seeking to fill. I have this vague memory of R. Murdoch under oath before Congress stating that Fox "News" had "no obligation" to tell the truth in their reporting...that they were an entertainment corp (I have not citation for this and lack the time to find it...but the memory is reasonably clear (it...er...annoyed me *a lot*)).

I'm going back to preparing for the Boston book fair this weekend. More shortly on this front.

RTFM...or is that RTFS...

This has been about for a little bit, but deserves all the eyeballs it can get. Scrolls, of course, have that very complex rolling aspect.

451 degrees isn't so nice for human flesh, either

Thanks to TiL for reminding me that today in 1556, Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake for being "a bit too Protestant" (arguably a balancing by Bloody Mary for Henry VIII's execution of Thomas More for being a bit too Catholic). One of the "Oxford Martyrs" (the other's being Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley), Cranmer was "saved for last", as his recantation was more sought after by Mary. He was, you may recall, the author of The Book of Common Prayer.

The Oxford Martyrs are, at this point, perhaps most widely remembered because Ray Bradbury quoted the last words of Latimer in Fahrenheit 451:

Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.

I would like to think that while I stood on a pyre with a bag of gunpowder hung around my neck, I would have the wherewithal to say something that exceptional. Sadly, I doubt I'd be able to get it out over the whimpering and keening.

Happy Death Day to HP Lovecraft.

I am a Lovecraft fan. Lovecraft, who died unexpectedly, early and, most unfortunately, never knowing the power of what he created, died effectively penniless and convinced he was a failure. His first book (A Shunned House) had been printed, but not published when he died. As a result, though there are MANY letters by him (he was a prolific letter writer, as many as 20 letters a day) there is only ONE copy of an inscribed book...a set of loose signatures of Shunned House (shown here).

I will not rant about HPL (others do it so well). I will simply state that he died far too young (46) and thank him for creating a genre. I can not recommend reading his cannon highly enough (or early enough, I give Baby's First Mythos as shower gifts (thanks Nate)). I'll leave you to reflect on his passing with the opening paragraph of "The Call of Cthulu".

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

Heritage in transition...

The bookworld back channel is abuzz with word that Heritage Books is in transition. My very cursory search for information indicates that a foreign businessman, in an effort to acquire a block or so of Beverly Hills real estate, offered the owners, Lou included, something on the order of a 20% premium over appraised value. In this case, one can assume it was +/-$10MM, that is, a tidy retirement sum, if one were so inclined.

It appears that Lou will continue working with a handful of clients and it appears Ben, et al, will keep the heritage of Heritage running, though where and in what form remains to be seen. Heritage, founded in 1963 by Louis and Benjamin Weinstein, is...well...Heritage Book Shop. This is either going to have major implications for the rare book world...or it won't. I'm guessing the will find new and lovely digs and keep being being Heritage. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

A good day for libraries...

TiL offers: "On this day in 1901 Andrew Carnegie offered New York City $5.2 million for the construction of 65 branch libraries. Of the 56.5 million given by Carnegie for over 2500 libraries in a dozen countries, this was his largest single grant, part of a wider attempt to gainsay those who attacked his "Gospel of Wealth" and to live up to his famous dictum: 'The man who dies thus rich, dies disgraced.'"

With luck, some of our current crop of hyper-moneyed will decide they need to do something to cement their legacy (Gates and Buffet notwithstanding).

[S]ex Libris...

Thanks to my friend Nancy for the heads up on the nonist's post Red-Hot and Filthy Library Smut.

A clever post (title here stolen) focuses on "the full-frontal objectification of the library itself. Oh yeah." A wonderful collection of images from Candida Höfer's book, "Libraries."

To the right is Trinity College Library, Dublin. It is almost enough to make me go back to school.

Llareggub, my homeland...

Sorry for my lull of late, it is good to be busy. Less so to be so busy that one lacks the time to rant a bit now and then. Dylan Thomas has always been a favorite in my home, due largely to my grandfather. Today, in 1954, Under Milk Wood was published (posthumously). In it he caps his lifelong ambivalence toward Wales ("Land of my fathers. My fathers can keep it") by focusing the action in "Llareggub".

This word, "bugger-all" backwards, holds a valued place in the lexicon of my family. My 5 year old can use it correctly in a sentence. Thanks to TiL for the reminder.

I need a tower library (and less appreciation for irony)...

Thanks to TiL for letting me know that today was doubly important to Michel de Montaigne. Firstly, he was born today (well, not "today", but today in 1533). Then, as if the day was not special enough, on this same day in 1571 he retreated to his rather famous tower library. In addition to reading the works of the greats and penning various iterations of what would become his contribution to that same body of work, he carved sixty-five Greek and Latin phrases into the library rafters.

Interestingly, this one is Terence’s famous “I am human; let nothing human be foreign to me.” Personally, I find it hard to ignore the irony of the man carving this phrase into a beam of the tower he is too bound up by his own psychological issues to leave. Then again, I rather envy his life, ""Every day I spend time reading my authors, not caring about their learning, looking not for their subject matter, but how they handle it."

Perhaps more interestingly, over his bookshelves in his primary workroom, he carved:

An. Christi 1571 aet. 38, pridie cal. cart., die suo natali, Mich. Montanus, servitii aulici et munerum publicorum jamdudum pertaesus, dum se integer in doctarum virginum recessit sinus, ubi quietus et omnium securus quantillum in tandem superabit decursi multa jam plus parte spatii; si modo fata duint exigat istas sedes et dulces latebras, avitasque, libertati suae, tranquillitatique, et otio consecravit.
[1571 A.D. Michel Montaigne, 38 years old, weary of long years of public service and while still vigorous, would teach the young by returning to the bosom of his ancestral home where all is quiet and free from care, and with this little effort finally overcome the censure of public life; if his candor has caused his exile, it is to this sweet sanctuary and his own sanctified freedom, tranquility, and leisure.]

I am 39. Part of me is glad I do not have a tower to retreat to, part of me wishes for little else.

Longfellow's 200th and Maugham on mothers....

Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequences than to have a really affectionate mother.
- William Somerset Maugham

My mother has informed me that while I am more amused by Lovelace and her father (I never knew Byron was her father, though I have known both for so long...just a wonderful loose end tied up), my mother points out, rightly, that today is the 200th anniversary of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's birth.

Longfellow's House (and museum) is here in Portland, ME. My home is about two blocks from Longfellow Square. The Maine Historical Society has a great website dedicated to him. They are also hosting *many* events throughout the year celebrating his life and work.

If you are in the Portland area, there will be a party this very evening from 5 to 7pm at the Maine Historical Society on Congress Street. This will be both a birthday party (with CAKE!) and the opening of the new exhibit, "Drawing Together: The Arts of the Longfellows". I'll most likely be there (CAKE!) and hope to see one or two of you, as well...

Ada Lovelace's father was born today....

I admit it, I'm a geek and I'm proud of it. Ada Lovelace collaborated with Charles Babbage on his "analytical engine", an ancestor of the modern computer. Her father was pretty cool, too. Lord Byron (George Byron, 6th Baron Byron) was born today. I offer you some of my favorite Byron quotations in his honor and to his tribute:

I am never long, even in the society of her I love, without yearning for the company of my lamp and my library.

I have no consistency, except in politics; and that probably arises from my indifference to the subject altogether.

'Tis pleasant, sure, to see one's name in print. A book's a book, although there's nothing in 't.

There is something pagan in me that I cannot shake off. In short, I deny nothing, but doubt everything.

I know that two and two make four - and should be glad to prove it too if I could - though I must say if by any sort of process I could convert 2 and 2 into five it would give me much greater pleasure.

"News guy snobbery"...funny or sad?

Thanks to ThinkProgress for one of the funniest/saddest things I have read in a very long time. Apparently Fox News has grown tired of their Favorite War Ever(tm)...In defending his obsessive coverage of the Anna Nichole Smith, Fox talking head John Gibson accuses Anderson Cooper and others of "new guy snobbery" and basically attacked them for covering the Iraq war. "Oh, ‘There’s a war on! There’s a war on!’ Maybe, just maybe, people are a little weary, Mr. Cooper, of your war coverage, and they’d like a little something else."

Clearly, the rational alternative to the day to day horror/depression/angst/humiliation of our current plight in Iraq is the death by vomit of an exploited, drug addled, depressed and depressing pseudo-celebrity. Clearly an improvement. The great irony, of course, is that after years of hawking the War and its advocates, Fox is now calling those who speak of it "snobs."

As noted in the blurb, since Smith's death on Feb. 8th, 42 US soldiers have died in Iraq, not to mention nearly 1000 Iraqis. To be Fair and Balanced(tm), reporting on such things is just ever so tedious. If Fox is really lucky, Ms. Shriver will find Gov. Schwarzenegger in flagrante delicto with an illegal housekeeper and smother them both in their sleep...a Kennedy killing the traitorous Republican gov. *with* a good dirty/illegal alien aspect...why I bet no one would talk about Iraq for weeks.

It would be quite funny where it not so deeply, mind-numbingly pathetic and depressing.

Happy birthday to The New Yorker...

via TiL:

The New Yorker will be a reflection in word and picture of metropolitan life. It will be human. Its general tenor will be one of gaiety, wit and satire, but it will be more than a jester. It will be not what is commonly called sophisticated, in that it will assume a reasonable degree of enlightenment on the art of its readers. It will hate bunk….

With these worlds, Harold Ross introduced The New Yorker to the world and the world was a better place. In addition to Ross' exceptional editorial work, Rea Irvin's renowned design skills created a journal that stood alone. He was responsible for the first “Eustace Tilley” cover (right), the highly identifiable three-column format and created the Art Deco typeface (now known as Irvin type).

In honor of the event, I offer the following wonderful collection:

Various. New Yorker 1941-1946 24 Bound Volumes. New York: F-R Publishing Co., 1946. First edition. Tight, bright and unmarred. Cloth boards (various colours), gilt lettering and decorative elements, decorative endpages, covers (front and rear) bound in. 4to. Paginated by edition. Illus. (color and b/w plates). Each year bound in four volumes in matching colors (1941 brown; 1942 navy; 1943 brick red; 1944 dark green; 1945 olive green; 1946 black). Hardcover. Fine. (1972) $7,500.00
Each volume includes approx. 13 to 15 individual issues filled with what has made the New Yorker famous, outstanding articles and cartoons by some of the period's luminaries (N.B. This was the golden age of the New Yorker, Harold Ross was the editor, contributors included E.B. White, Joseph Mitchell, James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, Truman Capote, S.J. Perelman, John McNulty, Peter Arno, Charles Addams, J.D. Salinger (Franny and Zooey first saw print in these leaves), A.J. Liebling and Joseph Wechsberg.). These are truly outstanding volumes. A very handsome set of books embodying some of the best short writing of the era.

Yeats', Second Coming, the Iraq war and irony...

Adam Cohen has an OpEd item in the NYTimes that is worth a good read for the bookishly inclined...or at least the bookishly inclined with a healthy sense of irony. He notes that the recent Brookings Institution report on the Iraq war is titled, "Things Fall Apart"...that Rep. Jim McDermott (D. WA) titled his speech calling for the administration to present a cogent plan for Iraq, "The Center Cannot Hold" and that blogs on the conflict are rife with "the blood-dimmed tide is loosed" in the Iraq (see here, here, here or here). Then there is one of my personal favorites, "The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity."

The common thread, of course, is that all come from W.B. Yeat's, 'Second Coming' and herein rests the irony. The pundits love to quote it...but don't seem to really understand it...or Yeats. Above and beyond the fact that he was far from a Christian (he considered Christianity "an idea whose time had passed"), and far from a democrat (he was a fan of Plato's benevolent dictatorship...or fascism), the poem is really "a powerful brief against punditry."

I offer the final few passages for your review and consideration:

The Christian era was about the ability to predict the future: the New Testament clearly foretold the second coming of Christ. In the post-Christian era of which Yeats was writing there was no Bible to map out what the next “coming” would be. The world would have to look toward Bethlehem to see what “rough beast” arrived.

This skepticism about predicting the future has more relevance to the Iraq war than any of the poem’s much-quoted first eight lines. The story of the Iraq war is one of confident predictions that never came to pass: “We will find weapons of mass destruction”; “we will be greeted as liberators”; “the insurgency is in its last throes.”

The confident predictors who have been wrong in the past do not hesitate to keep offering up plans. That is true of President Bush, certainly: he talks about what his “troop surge” will do as if he had never been wrong before. It is also true of the pundits. The co-author of “Things Fall Apart,” the Brookings guide to going forward in Iraq, is Kenneth Pollack, who is — incredibly — best known for his 2002 book “The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq.”

It is bizarre to see shards of “The Second Coming” appended to the Brookings report, or to any of the other plans and prognostications about the war in Iraq. Yeats, who grew up feeling “sort of ecstasy at the contemplation of ruin,” did not just welcome whatever new order his rough beast was ushering in. He believed the only way it could plausibly be spoken of was in the form of a question.

A great voice of reason (and sarcasm) is silenced...

Molly Ivins is dead. I am going to sulk for a day or two....and uproot a shrub in her memory.

Changing text while on-press...the creation of variants/states

Thomas', Great Books and Book Collectors offers up another gem. Most are aware that "points" that distinguish a first state from a second (or third) often revolve around a caught misspelling or other typographical error. Seldom, however, is it the result of the author's change of heart regarding a substantiative bit of text.

There was an early and interesting example of the later, however, in James Boswell's renowned, "Life of Johnson." Apparently a handful of the first editions contain the following passage, "swiftly suppressed":

Sunday, 10 October 1779. I mentioned to him a dispute between a friend of mine and his lady, concerning conjugal infidelity, which my friend had maintained was by no means so bad in her husband, as in the wife. JOHNSON. 'Your friend was in the right, Sir. . . . Wise married women don't trouble themselves about infidelity in their husbands, they detest a mistress, but don't mind a whore. My wife told me I might lye with as many women as I pleased, provided I loved her alone'

Boswell had second thoughts about the prudence of the passaged while it was on on-press and called for it to be struck. Perhaps his wife read the manuscript and offered a more compelling authority...

Fun trivia fact of the day...

So you want to reproduce an incunabula bible and you find yourself wondering, "Just how many sheep will I need to secure to supply me with the vellum needed?" (This is the sort of query that keeps the PETA people up at night.) The short answer is, 210 to 225 sheep. I ran across this tidbit in Alan Thomas' wonderful, Great Books and Book Collectors, but found this for those of you insist on immediate gratification.

I am guessing that the monks ate a great deal of mutton.

New book on the theft (and history) of Dr. Zhivago...

In brief:

CIA and British Intelligence agents forced a passenger plane to land in Malta in 1957, to go on board and steal the manuscript of the banned Russian novel ‘Dr Zhivago’, which was subsequently published and awarded a Nobel Prize.

Great story....will have to read the proverbial book.

But for a label, that early Pollock would have been mine...

Forrest, the ghost behind Joslin Hall Rare Books (and crafter of, I suggest, the best catalogue entries currently being printed) offered up this wonderful piece today. The story is from the August, 2006 issue of Maine Antiques Digest (and I am embarrassed to admit that I missed it when published). In (very) brief: the US government is somewhat aggressively pursuing WPA program art pieces. Their position is that these art pieces (focused on painting and prints here, but probably extends to photographs, etc.) where paid for by the Feds and they own them, as put here:

“…There is much that needs to be made public about this…There are at least 10,000 WPA easel paintings missing. And the WPA artists and their work were treated shabbily by any standards when the project came to a close. Many works were unceremoniously dumped or otherwise mistreated, and some may have found their way back to the artists.”

According to the article, the distinguishing artifact appears to be a wee label reading something like, "Federal Works Progress Administration, Pennsylvania". In the case discussed, one labeled painting was seized while another, by a WPA artist and of the "right" period...but lacking the label...was not. Expect to find similar labels in various gallery waste bins.

Interestingly, a large number of these works appear to have been legally transferred by the government:

“In late 1943, a Long Island junk dealer paid a government warehouse in Flushing, Queens [New York], four cents a pound for bales of canvas that he planned on reselling as insulation for hot water pipes—until he noticed that the canvas was painted on. It turned out that the bales contained a ton of paintings from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Federal Arts Project, two New Deal programs that had employed artists as part of the Roosevelt administration’s much broader effort to cut the 25% unemployment rate of the Great Depression. The now-defunct programs had required artists to turn in one piece a month as a condition of employment, but with World War II going on, the paintings, minus their frames, were declared surplus property.

It is an interesting and complex issues. One one hand, if the government made a very bad sale (say, several tens of millions of dollars worth of art for, you know, a liquidation price of $50/ton), then they should just have to suck it up and deal. Frankly, from a legal standpoint, they had the "stronger" negotiating position in the sale and errors should be "read against them." That said, they are the government and have the annoying ability to change the rules as they see fit. There has been some litigation...but none that seems determinative. This will, I wager, change. Certainly worth keeping an eye on this one as well...

Top 10 List of Top 10 Lists...

NYT has a nice article on Top 10 (insert area of interest here) for 2006. It includes many links to various top 10 lists (heavy on tech and pop cult) and some for "what will 2007 bring".

Of particular note is the list of Top 10 Blogebrities for 2006...sadly, I was not included...however, my acquaintance/distant friend/brilliant twisted freak, Ze Frank took first place...well deserved as his "The Show" is, in my not-remotely-humble opinion, one of the few web shows that is fresh and worth watching every day.

Fair warning, Ze's, The Show can suck a huge number of hours from your life...and his broader site will eat dozens more. You have been warned.

Sadly, it looks like Lenin was right...

Vladimir Lenin, noted advocate of the press is quoted as saying:

Why should freedom of speech and freedom of the press be allowed? Why should a government which is doing what it believes to be right allow itself to be criticized? It would not allow opposition by lethal weapons. Ideas are much more fatal things than guns. Why should a man be allowed to buy a printing press and disseminate pernicious opinions calculated to embarrass the government?

So have things changed since he said this? Well, unfortunately, no. TPM Muckracker has an incredibly disturbing story: Bush Admin: What You Don't Know Can't Hurt Us.

Basically, someone noticed that after issuing monthly reports on the number of attacks in Iraq since the war began, DoD suddenly declared these reports "classified" since September of this year. Curiosity as to what triggered this change led, as such things often do, to discovering an extraordinary pattern of conduct when it comes to reports/studies/commissions/etc. that produce (or may produce) data the administration does not want to hear (and/or want you to hear).

Some examples:

When a gov. report showed an increase in global terrorism in 2005, the Admin. announced it would stop publishing the report.

When the Bur. of Labor Statistics reported a significant increase in the number of factory closings in the US, the Admin. announced it would stop publishing information about factory closings.

When the Dept. of Eduction found that charter schools were underperforming, the Admin. announced it would sharply curtail the amount of information it collects on charter schools.

The EPA announced plans to close several libraries used by researchers and scientists. The agency claimed it was a cost-cutting measure...which conflicts with a 2004 report indicating that the facilities *made* the EPA a $7.5MM surplus annually.

And, of course, on November 1st, 2001, President Bush issued an executive order limiting the public's access to presidential records. This order undermined the 1978 Presidential Records Act, which required the release of such records after 12 years. Bush's order prevented the release of "68,000 pages of confidential communications between President Ronald Reagan and his advisers" (some of whom had positions in the Bush Administration).

There are many other examples. It depresses me. I want to rant about it...but lack the energy. I think I will just go reread 1984, curl up into a fetal position and wait for this to be over.

whatever happened to flogging dead horses...

Vintage photo of the day brought to you by, I'm not making this up, the Sheboygan Press (I admit, I thought Sheboygan was some of those fanciful places like Oz, Narnia or R'lyeh). It is unclear *why* there is a man, in a tophat, sitting on a dead horse...but sometimes you have to just enjoy an image for the image's sake.

Timbuktu Manuscripts

There has been a quiet buzz growing about the quest/reclamation/preservation of what appears to be a remarkable cache of manuscripts. They have the very real chance of effectively rewriting large portions of the history of Africa. Two good reads on the subject can be found here and here. There is an interesting exhibition by the LoC of some of what has already been found.