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.