Happy Birthday to me...

Thanks to the NYT and my mother-in-law for the the following list of "other things that happened on May 3rd...other than my birth:

N.B. Missing from the following is that it is also the birthday of Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, b. 1469 (which is also the last four digits of Lux Mentis' phone number...as I like to point out to bewildered tele-marketers).

On this date in:

1802 Washington, D.C., was incorporated.

1898 Israeli founder and prime minister Golda Meir was born Goldie Mabovitch in Kiev, Ukraine.

1916 Irish nationalist Padraic Pearse and two others were executed by the British for their roles in the Easter uprising.

1921 West Virginia imposed the first state sales tax.

1936 Baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio made his major league debut with the New York Yankees.

1937 Margaret Mitchell won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel "Gone with the Wind."

1948 The Supreme Court ruled that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities were legally unenforceable.

1960 The musical "The Fantasticks" opened off-Broadway, beginning a record run of nearly 42 years and 17,162 performances.

1979 Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first female prime minister as the Tories ousted the incumbent Labor government in parliamentary elections.

1988 The White House acknowledged that first lady Nancy Reagan had used astrological advice to help schedule President Ronald Reagan's activities.

2000 The archbishop of New York, Cardinal John O'Connor, died at age 80.

2001 The United States lost its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.

2005 Iraq's first democratically elected government was sworn in.

2006 A federal jury in Alexandria, Va., rejected the death penalty for al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, deciding he should spend life in prison for his role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

2007 Astronaut Wally Schirra died at age 84.

Here are some added images of the front room in its current state. The first image shows the wall color "Wolf" next to the trim color...something like "Frozen Phlegm". The shelves are painted "Half-Tone" (a real cop out, if you ask me...N.B. Martha Stewart holds the current best paint color name with "Pudding Mold"). The bottom picture allows you to see all three colors on one wall (and the old door color as I have not yet painted the inside of the closet).

The bottom image also shows "things to be". The shelves will run over the two doors to the wall and there will be a very narrow vertical bookshelf between them. It should, I hope, look very cool with nice narrow tomes in it...

The last extremely cool element will be the "notch" built into the case at the wall above the little space behind the closet door. If all goes according to plan, there will be a notch there that will receive and hold the library ladder that will fit into spaced grooves that will run along the fascia of all the cases. Shelves running 11 feet require a good library ladder. I just hope it all works out as currently conceived.

Update on the front room project...

Well, the boxes for the shelves are finally here (most of them). These are, as you can see, just the boxes...though painted in a spray booth (anyone who has ever had the pleasure of painting installed shelving knows how nice this is). The color looks great with the "Wolf" on the walls (I just realized I did not post pictures of the wall color, will do so as it does not show in these as I did not paint that which is to be hidden)...the jury remains out as to the trim color.

It is a little hard to get the scale in these pictures. We have 11 foot ceilings on the first floor. The boxes are currently sitting on the floor, but will be sitting on about 8 inch boxes so the rooms baseboard molding can be carried across them (if you look in the first picture by the bottom edge of the fireplace, you can see a bit of the baseboard). So the shelves will start about 8 inches or so off the ground and once the crown molding goes on, they should pretty much run the full 11 feet.

The bottom boxes are 2 or so inches deeper and designed for folios and similarly difficult to shelve volumes. The boxes as shown are not yet trimmed out, as they will be getting 3/4 inch trim that will tie everything together and, eventually, frame the glass doors that will be installed (the final design calls for full-height glass inset doors on the upper and bottom shelves...providing both an aesthetically pleasing finish and, more importantly, dust and UV protection).

These weigh a ton...everything you see is 3/4 inch ply-wood (even the backs). Each box is insularly strong enough to take pretty much any load and, when they are all fused together, they should be structurally significant to the house as a whole...

If you look at the first box, you can see the step that will box in a vertical steam pipe running to the second floor. All the shelves for that section are notched to fit. Two point to the Opus. We are planning to tile the fireplace as it was rebuilt at some point and of a brick type that does not fit the house, period or any reasonable aesthetic measure. The current plan also involves rebuilding the mantel to bring it up several inches to balance the size/scale of the shelf between the upper and lower portions of the bookcases. If all goes as planned, the mantel will have a shelf for 12mos and smaller built into it, carrying the books across the chimney span.

I am waiting for the thin, deep shelf that will go in between the closet and interior doors and support the shelves that will carry over the two doors. It should look wonderful when it is done. I'll try to get some other pictures of the walls, etc. shortly.

The Bathtub Collection...Dorothy Schullian and some [not actually] dirty books

The National Library of Medicine is hosting an exhibition of its "Bathtub Collection"...a collection of material discovered when old bindings held by the library were conserved. The collection was started in the 1940s when the Library began a conservation program, retaining Dorothy Shullian as curator and Jean Eschman, a master binder. Eschman repaired many bindings, but replaced many, as well. Shullian was clever enough to save the boards:

Though she did not consider many of the intact bindings worth preserving, she was aware of the interest and value of the materials from which they were made. When the books were rebound in the bindery, instead of discarding the old covers, Dr. Schullian, took them home, soaked them in her bathtub to loosen the paste and separate the layers of paper or parchment, hung them up to dry, and placed them in envelopes, labeled with information about the volume from which they were removed. The History of Medicine Division staff came to refer to them as the "Bathtub Collection," both a tribute to Dr. Schullian's labors and a mark of affection for this eccentric assemblage.

They have many examples (like these and these) of the treasures found within the bindings. My wife does not seem pleased with the idea of soaking apart boards in the tub...

Not remotely book related...just annoying...

So Fortune just announced the biggest profit makers of 2007. The winner is, of course, ExxonMobil with 40.61 BILLION dollars in profits...nearly twice that of the number two and a record for annual profits for an American company. ExxonMobil *also* set this record in 2006 and 2005.

I am all for vibrant markets and making profits where/when possible...but there seems to be a little bit of a disconnect (at least to me) when fuel (gas/diesel/heating) prices are skyrocketing *and* the likes of ExxonMobil are claiming it is due to refining limitations and crude oil prices. I just spent $70 to fill the car. I wonder how many books will fit in a SmartCar.

Modern (nearly) book curse

Book curses are most often associated with medieval volumes, but I ran across this today in a 1918 tome:

Whoever shall steal this book of knowledge shall graduate in Sing Sing College.

Great bookish weekend...

This weekend was the Five-Colleges Library Sale in Lebanon, NH. We had never gone before, but had heard that it was big and good and fun...so we thought we would give it a try (and have a fun, relaxing weekend after two back-to-back fair weekends in NY and Boston).

We set out on Friday, stopping by to see George Sutton and DeWolfe and Wood. George was setting off on a buying trip of his own, but we had a nice chat. The stop at D&W was very nice. We picked up several very nice things and some fun things for clients and had a nice visit.

On our way to the B&B, we stopped by two places in NH (well, really one: Old Number Six Book Depot (both shops)). Again, found some nice things and had some good chats (the later being as much fun as the former, much of the time). We then went on to the Silver Maple Lodge in VT (inexpensive while nice and clean...good coffee in the morning).

The next morning we set out early to get to the sale. We arrived about a hour early (about 805 for a 9am sale). By my rough...but reasonably accurate count, we were about 100 and 101 in line. We were told that some people get there at 5 am...personally, I do not see that as rational, but who am I to judge *laughing*. By 5 of 9, there were at *least* 400 people in line and we were told by a security person with a clicker that, by the time we left (at about 12), over 1100 people had passed through the door (admittedly, I saw her click me twice on a return from the car).

It was an interestingly organized sale. They had things grouped reasonably well and as one would expect...though they added "Oddments", covering things that did not fit well elsewhere (think Victorian bindings, strange little bits of this and that and the like). They had a "Specials" table...from which we picked up some very nice things (e.g. reasonably significant Poe, a good Wyeth title in extremely good condition in the original box, a nice Walter Crane item, etc.). They also has some very nice things on a Sealed Bid table (I managed to pick up 5 of those, as well...nice limited of Kent's Shakespeare, a nice Russian Pushkin set, a beautiful copy of How to Wrap Five Eggs, etc.). I was pretty impressed with the pricing on the specials table...more than the $1-5 elsewhere, but not remotely unreasonable (and not the increasingly common "if it is "worth" $100 on ebay/abe, it should be priced such here).

The tables were filled with a stunning volume of material. We picked up a little bit from there, too...though not as much as from the Specials or Sealed. They have been doing it for years and it shows. Just a really well run show. I still favor the Brunswick Library's preview approach of a preview (night before, must join the FoL (good for coffers and mailing list) and then you are limited to just 10 books...little/no rudeness, no "sweeping", not picking a few things and going home). This was almost as nice. Too many people with scanners and laptops vetting...but that is because I do think you need to be able to do such things by touch. Hell, it is how you learn. The vast majority is $1-2...just buy the frigging book and move on with your life.

We left after the Sealed Bids were dealt with and went to have lunch and visit Left Bank Books, Bearly Used Books and Chapman's Store and Books. We realized that Suzanne had left my good ball point at the fair. This is a pen that has been with me for about 20 years...lost once or twice and found its way home. I was reasonably certain that it was gone for good...and pretty much would not have bothered to return to the fair if Suz had not been willing to run in (her leaving it is *very* unusual and, I am certain, she was seeking redemption *g*). As it turned out, it was with the people at the auction table...they had been expecting her return. The pen, yet again, made its way back to my pocket.

Sunday morning we set out very early to meet a dear friend at a flea market from which his has culled remarkable things from and to which we have never been able to make it. We stopped by an absolutely great coffee shop in Hanover, Dirt Cowboy Coffee. They custom drip each cup, they offer a free scone to double espresso orders before 930am. They ship their coffee within 24 hours of roasting. It was one of the highpoints of the trip.

We were a bit late to the flea market (needed to get there around 830...did not make it until nearly 930). It was still fun to go and we did pick up a very large, slightly foxed engraving of "Shakespeare and Friends" (circa 1860)...for $5.00. Can't beat it with a stick. Stopped by Drake Farm Books in North Hampton, NH...wonderful shop and a great owner. 45K books in a huge barn. Not enough time...going back soon to dig.

Made it home at a reasonable hour...tried to catch up on email and the like and prepare for next week of shipping and cataloguing. Argh.

MARIAB fair follow-up (finally)

This is going to be short and sweet...as it has taken me too long to get it out as it is. It was, as my previous posts probably make clear, a great show for us. We had strong sales and strong buying and...perhaps best of all...strong stickiness. We had great conversations, what I hope will turn out to be a great interview with a trade journal and, well, just a great time. Enough "greats".

Eli was a lot of fun and remarkably well behaved for a 6 year old boy spending about 10 to 11 hours a day at a book fair. Joyce and Ken (and the rest of their crew) were lovely to and with him. He was very pleased with his bow tie, though was as disappointed as I that it was a clip-on (J. Crew's site did not indicate it and I assumed, wrongly, that the absence of the term meant it was "real"). He is getting a real one for his next show. He is overly excited about this. I am certain it will embarrass him later in life.

The promoter did, I think, a great job getting bodies in the door. The site was much better than last year...attractive and centrally located. $10/day is a genuine treat the week after a NY fair (and $45/day). The 7-11 next door even had cherry in the Slurpee machine (I know, embarrassing, a geeky but wildly addictive remnant of my tainted youth).

I was very pleased with the volume of humans in the aisle and in the booth. Admittedly, we were on the central aisle and I am not certain how steady the traffic was on the other three rows on the book side. We definitely did have a fair number of people really "there" for antiques stop by and look...and geared our front display case specifically to draw people in...it seemed to work.

In the end, it reaffirmed my belief that these kinds of hybrid shows are very good for us (Baltimore is another great example). I like any fair that draws in good crowds...the more the merrier. For these smaller and regional fairs, drawing in larger crowds seems like a good idea for all involved. I think it is great that MARIAB was willing to give this format a try...while it has only been two years now, it seems to me to have been a great decision.

A butterfly flapped its wings in Brazil and...

science looses another great. Edward N. Lorenz has passed away and somewhere there is a very guilty-looking butterfly. The meteorologist, seeking better models of weather systems, and in doing so be became the father of Chaos Theory.

The concept of the butterfly effect dates to the 1890s, but it was Lorenz in 1961 who reduced the concept to its modern conception and developed it into the theory we are familiar with. Interesting, his analogy first revolved around a seagull, "One meteorologist remarked that if the theory were correct, one flap of a seagull's wings could change the course of weather forever." (1963 paper to NY Acad. of Science).

It is possible that his subsequent use of the butterfly is, at least in part, a hat tip to Ray Bradbury. Bradbury's 1952 short story on time travel, "A Sound of Thunder", revolved around consquences of the death of a butterfly in the days of the dinosaurs. It is hard to argue that the wings of a butterfly are more poetically pleasing than the wings of a seagull.

It has been a bad week for the sciences. Three days ago, another butterfly flapped its wings which ultimately opened a wee black hole that took the life of John Wheeler. Wheeler coined the term "Black Hole" and was one of the key brains behind the development of nuclear fission. Wheeler was the last of physics' rockstars...those whose names are nearly all ubiquitous. He argued the nature of reality with Bohr and Einstein, his grad students include the likes of Richard Feynman (whose Nobel Prize is owed, in part, to Wheeler) and Hugh Everett (of "Many Worlds" theory fame...to the pleasure of cosmologists and speculative fiction writers everywhere). Freeman Dyson said of him, “He rejuvenated general relativity; he made it an experimental subject and took it away from the mathematicians,” (see, also and just for fun, Dyson shere).

I think in escapist homage I'll read, Who Got Einstein's Office? Eccentricity and Genius at the Institute for Advanced Study.

[and yes, the MARIAB wrap-up is forthcoming...I need more time in the day]

Michelle Obama: Funny and Truthy

For the record, I do not recall any of my law school professors being this...er...lovely. From last night's Colbert Report:

[N.B. Nothing bookish here...but I wager she will write one in the not too distant future...it is, thus, proto-bookish.]