Monday, April 23, 2007
"On Crocodiles"
McSweeney's runs an occasional series called "Dispatches from Adjunct Faculty at a Large State University," by Oronte Churm (who also blogs here). Today's installment of "Dispatches" is well worth reading, all the way to the end.
Metuchen's Herbal Sold
One last followup (presumably) to the story of Metuchen, NJ's 1636 edition of Gerard's Herball. Yesterday, the Asbury Park Press reports, about thirty people came to see the book before ownership was transferred to the buyer, described as "a New Jersey man who wished to remain anonymous." He bought the book for "more than $5,000."
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Links &c.
- The Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art (near Millersburg, PA) has mounted a new exhibit centered around the life and work of John James Audubon. "The Mysteries of John James Audubon" will include not only a copy of Audubon's elephant folios but also "a life mask formed on the face of the man himself to some paintings, drawings, prints and personal possessions, some of which have never before been seen by the public." The exhibit will run through 29 September.
- "Dickens World" (Chatham, Kent) opened this week. Yes, there is a Dickens theme park. More here, at Reading Copy.
- Ed's got a few things for us this week: new Lippard chapters, a gluttonous feast, and some thoughts on Shakespeare's jokes.
- At Book Patrol, Michael posted this week on the re-emergence of a famed plagiarist as cheerleader for the elimination of newspaper book review sections, the reader/collector continuum. He also has comments on the Streeter sale and the developments at Heritage.
- From BibliOdyssey: the art of Sergei Tyukanov, and a spectacular miscellany.
- Bookride profiles the first edition of Frankenstein.
- At Upward Departure, Travis has two posts (here and here) this week on book thief David Breithaupt.
- The Millions offers up a walking tour of New York City's independent bookshops.
- The Book Trout folks have started up a nice annotated list of biblionovels, and also note the upcoming celebrations to mark the 'birthday' of William Shakespeare.
- At BiblioHistoria, a review of Kurzweil's wonderful The Grand Complication.
- Biblio-Technician has discovered a few volumes of Sabin on Google Books; hopefully the whole thing will be up there at some point, but it could take a while.
- "Dickens World" (Chatham, Kent) opened this week. Yes, there is a Dickens theme park. More here, at Reading Copy.
- Ed's got a few things for us this week: new Lippard chapters, a gluttonous feast, and some thoughts on Shakespeare's jokes.
- At Book Patrol, Michael posted this week on the re-emergence of a famed plagiarist as cheerleader for the elimination of newspaper book review sections, the reader/collector continuum. He also has comments on the Streeter sale and the developments at Heritage.
- From BibliOdyssey: the art of Sergei Tyukanov, and a spectacular miscellany.
- Bookride profiles the first edition of Frankenstein.
- At Upward Departure, Travis has two posts (here and here) this week on book thief David Breithaupt.
- The Millions offers up a walking tour of New York City's independent bookshops.
- The Book Trout folks have started up a nice annotated list of biblionovels, and also note the upcoming celebrations to mark the 'birthday' of William Shakespeare.
- At BiblioHistoria, a review of Kurzweil's wonderful The Grand Complication.
- Biblio-Technician has discovered a few volumes of Sabin on Google Books; hopefully the whole thing will be up there at some point, but it could take a while.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Discussion on Gerard's Herbal
Back in November I mentioned the discovery of a 1636 edition of Gerard's Herball in the Metuchen, NJ library. On Sunday, 22 April, historian of science Karen Reeds will be giving a talk about the book at the library at 2 p.m. For more information, contact the Metuchen Library at (732) 632-8535.
Reeds notes "This will be the library's 'farewell party' for the volume - the Friends of the Library will announce the book's purchaser on Sunday." You'll recall that they'd decided to sell it after determining that the costs of insurance and conservation were too high.
Reeds notes "This will be the library's 'farewell party' for the volume - the Friends of the Library will announce the book's purchaser on Sunday." You'll recall that they'd decided to sell it after determining that the costs of insurance and conservation were too high.
NYT Profiles New York ABAA Fair
Today's NYTimes has a brief article about the New York ABAA fair, which runs today through Sunday. It highlights a copy of Theodor de Bry's Grand Voyages in German with the John White drawings of Virginia Indians. This fair promises.
Also see Fine Book Blog's one-on-one with Allen Ahearn for some advice about book fairs. And Ian Kahn's checked in with a first dispatch from the floor [at the Carriage House Antiquarian Book Fair, another of the multiple events in NYC this weekend] ... more to come from him and others over the weekend, I'm sure.
Also see Fine Book Blog's one-on-one with Allen Ahearn for some advice about book fairs. And Ian Kahn's checked in with a first dispatch from the floor [at the Carriage House Antiquarian Book Fair, another of the multiple events in NYC this weekend] ... more to come from him and others over the weekend, I'm sure.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Vonnegut in Demand
It seems that AbeBooks' evidence confirms my anecdotal observations about the sharp rise in demand for Kurt Vonnegut books after the author's death last week. On Friday in the shop, I got multiple requests for Vonnegut titles (all of which had been sold the previous afternoon); AbeBooks reports that of their top ten best sellers for the week of 8-15 April, four were by Vonnegut (1, 3, 9, and 10).
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Gutenberg Goes Digital
The Gutenberg Bible held at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich is now available in digital form. In an announcement, the library's Bettina Wagner notes "The Munich Gutenberg Bible is one of only two copies which contain the table of rubrics, a printed list of headlines which served as a guide to the rubricator. The Bible is printed on paper and contains some illumination and manuscript annotation, the latter can be ascribed to a Benedictine monk from Tegernsee."
Virtual Bookfair
The good folks at Fine Books & Collections have put together a beautiful "virtual book fair": "Nearly 100 dealers from the three fairs this week in New York City sent in descriptions and pictures of an item they are featuring at the shows," Scott Brown notes. An impressive compilation, to say the least.
Streeter Sale Smashes Estimates
I'm not sure yet just how many records were set this week at Christie's with the sale of the Frank S. Streeter Library, but some of the realized prices are little short of staggering. Presale estimates were battered into the ground by what had to have been some very intense bidding battles. I haven't read any firsthand dispatches from the auction yet, and so far the only press story I can find is in the Vancouver Sun (here), so bear with me. That said, I think the prices tell their own story. Since there were so many highlights of this sale, I'm going to focus on the lots which realized upwards of $100,000*:
- Lot 60: William Bourne's A Regiment for the Sea: Conteyning most profitable Rules, Mathematical experiences, and perfect knowledge of Navigation, for all Coastes and Countreys: most needefull and necessarie for all Seafaring men and Travellers, as Pilotes, Mariners, Marchants, &c. London: [1574?]. Called the first printed original treatise on navigation by an Englishman, this was the first copy to appear at auction in more than thirty years. Presale estimate: $50-70K. Sold for $102,000.
- Lot 101: Samuel de Champlain's Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France occidentale, dicte Canada faits par le Sr Champlain Xainctongeois, Capitaine pour le Roy en la Marine du Ponant, & toutes les Descouvertes qu'il a faites en ce paos depuis l'an 1603. Iusques en l'an 1629. Paris: chez Pierre le Mur, 1632. This copy includes the first map of the "entire Great Lakes network." Presale estimate: $90-120K. Sold for $264,000.
- Lot 109: Louis Choris, Voyage Pittoresque Autour de Monde, avec des portraits de sauvages d'Amérique, d'Asie, d'Afrique, et des iles du Grand Ocean; des Paysages, des Vues Maritimes, et plusieurs objets d'histoire naturelle; Accompagné de Descriptions par M. le Baron Cuvier, et M.A. de Chamisso. Paris: Imprimerie de Firmin Didot, 1822-[?1823] with Choris' Vues et Paysages des Régions Équinoxiales, recueillis dans un voyage autour du monde, avec une introduction et un texte explicatif. Paris: Paul Renouard, 1826. Presale estimate: $50-70K. Sold for $156,000.
- Lot 124: Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium with Rheticus, De libris revolutionum Nicolai Copernici Narratio prima. Basel: Heinrich Petri, 1566. The second edition of Copernicus, this copy with a very interesting provenance (once owned by Henry Briggs, Henry Gellibrand and John Wells, all early English Copernicans). Presale estimate: $60-90K. Sold for $180,000.
- Lot 126: Martin Cortés, The Arte of Navigation, Conteyning a Compendious Description of the Sphere, with the Making of Certayne Instruments and Rules for Navigations: and Exemplified by Many Demonstrations. Translated from Spanish into English by Richard Eden. London: Richard Jugge, 1572. Second edition in English, with a rare map of "The Newe Worlde." Only one copy of another early edition (1584) of this title at auction in the last thirty years. Presale estimate: 70-100K. Sold for $120,000.
- Lot 135: Alexander Dalrymple, A Collection of Charts and Memoirs. London, 1771-72. An atlas of Pacific charts, as well as Dalrymple's writings on Pacific voyages. Presale estimate: $20-30K. Sold for $102,000.
- Lot 148: J.F.W. Des Barres, The Atlantic Neptune, published for the use of the Royal Navy of Great Britain... under the Directions of the Right Honble. the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. London, [1774-1779]. Four volume atlas of the eastern seaboard of America, described as "the most splendid collection of charts, plans and views ever published." Presale estimate: $400-600K. Sold for $779,200.
- Lot 166: Sir Robert Dudley, Arcano del Mare. Florence: Giuseppe Cocchini for Jacopo Bagononi and Antonfrancesco Lucini, 1661. Second edition of this, "the first sea-atlas compiled by an Englishman, the first atlas to show the charts constructed on the Mercator projection, the first to show prevailing winds and currents in the principal harbors, and the first to give magnetic declination." Presale estimate: $250-350K. Sold for $824,000.
- Lot 174: The East-India Pilot, or Oriental Navigator, on One Hundred and Eighteen Plates: Containing a Complete Collection of Charts and Plans, &c., &c. for the Navigation not only of the Indian and China Seas, but of those also between England and the Cape of Good-Hope; Improved and Chiefly Composed from the Last Work of M. D'Apres de Mannevillette; with Considerable Additions, from Private Manuscripts of the Dutch, and from Draughts and Actual Surveys Communicated By Officers of the East-India Company A New Edition, Containing One Hundred and Five Charts. London: Robert Laurie and James Whittle, 1799. A collection of navigation charts "for navigating all the coasts which might be encountered between England and the East Indies. Also included were charts for navigating between England and the Cape of Good Hope." Presale estimate: $25-35K. Sold for $144,000.
- Lot 178: Martín Fernández de Enciso, Suma de geographia que trata de todas las partidas y prouincias del mundo: en especial delasindias. Y trata largemente del arte del marear: juntamente con la espera en romance: con el regimiento del sol y del norte: nueuamente hecha. Seville: Jacob Cromberger, 1519. "The first book printed in Spanish relating to America, the first practical guide to sailing in American waters and the first navigational manual printed in Spain." This copy once owned by Marqués de Caracena, the Spanish Governor-general of the Netherlands. Presale estimate: $60-90K. Sold for 288,000.
- Lot 185: Lewis Evans, Geographical, Historical, Political, Philosophical and Mechanical Essays. The First, Containing an Analysis of a General Map of the Middle British Colonies in America; And of the Country of the Confederate Indians: A Description of the Face of the Country; the Boundaries of the Confederates; and the Maritime and Inland Navigations of the several Rivers and Lakes contained therein. Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin and D. Hall, 1755. An important pre-independence American map. Presale estimate: $90-120K. Sold for $168,000.
- Lot 197: Luke Foxe, North-West Fox, or, Fox from the North-West Passage... Following with briefe abstracts of the voyages of Cabot, Frobisher... Mr. James Hall's three voyages to Groynland. London: Printed by B. Alsop and Tho. Fawcet, 1635. First edition, with the rare map of Foxe's Arctic explorations which exists in "but one or two copies." Presale estimate: $40-60K. Sold for $132,000.
- Lot 198: Fracanzano da Montalboddo, Itinerarium Portugallensium e Lusitania in Indiam et inde in occidentem et demum ad aquilonem. Translated from Italian into Latin by Archangelo Madrignano. Milan: J.A. Scinzenzeler, 1508. First edition in Latin of "the first printed collection of voyages, and one of the most important collections of voyages ever printed." Presale estimate: $60-80K. Sold for $192,000.
- Lot 217: Galileo, Dialogo... sopre i due massimi sistemi del mondo Tolemaico, e Copernicano. Florence: Gian Battista Landini, 1632. First edition of Galileo's defense of Copernicanism. Presale estimate: $40-60K. Sold for $102,000.
- Lot 218: Antonio Galvano, The Discoveries of the World from their first originall unto the yeere of our Lord 1555. Edited and translated by Richard Hakluyt. London: G. Bishop, 1601. First edition in English, by Hakluyt. First complete copy sold since 1971. Presale estimate: $40-60K. Sold for $114,000.
- Lot 228: Hieronymus Girava, Dos libros de cosmographia. Milan: G.A. Castiglione and C. Carron, 1556. Includes a world map and a description of Brazil. Only one other copy sold at auction in the last thirty years. Presale estimate: $30-40K. Sold for $102,000.
- Lot 232: Juan Gonzales de Mendoza, The Historie of the great and mightie kingdome of China, and the situation thereof: Together with the great riches, huge Citties, politike governement, and rare inventions in the same. Translated from Spanish into English by Robert Parke. London: Printed by I. Wolfe for Edward White, 1588. First edition in English of this history of China; this copy inscribed by Thomas Cavendish. Very rare. Presale estimate: $12-18K. Sold for $216,000. The estimate on this one seems off by an order of magnitude, no?
- Lot 243: Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English nation, made by Sea or over Land, to the most remote and farthest distant Quarters of the earth at any time within the compasse of these 1500 yeeres: Devided into three severall parts, according to the positions of the Regions whereunto they were directed. London: George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, Deputies to Christopher Berber, 1589. First edition of this great collection of English voyages, with the world map. Presale estimate: $40-60K. Sold for $456,000.
- Lot 253: John Harrison, A Narrative of the Proceedings Relative to the Discovery of the Longitude at Sea. London: Printed for the Author and sold by Mr. Sandby, 1765. A pamphlet regarding the second sea trial of Harrison's fourth marine chronometer (Harrison you'll remember from Dava Sobel's delightful book Longitude). Last copy sold was in 1973. Presale estimate: $8-12K. Sold for $114,000.
- Lot 254: Harrison and Maskelyne, The Principles of Mr. Harrison's Time-Keeper, with Plates of the Same. Published by Order of the Commissioners of Longitude. London: W. Richardson and S. Clarke for John Nourse and Mess. Mount and Page, 1767. Includes the ten folding engraved plates. Presale estimate: 25-35K. Sold for $228,000.
- Lot 280: Thomas James, The Strange and Dangerous Voyage of Captaine Thomas James, in his intended Discovery of the Northwest Passage into the South Sea. Wherein the Miseries indured both Going, Wintering, Returning; and the Rarities observed, both Philosophicall and Mathematicall, are related in this Journal of it. London: Printed by John Legatt for John Partridge, 1633. First edition with the map of James' Northwest Passage explorations. Presale estimate: $25-35K. Sold for $102,000.
- Lot 294: Johannes Kepler, Astronomia nova ... seu physica coelestis, tradita commentariis de motibus stellae martis, ex observationibus G. V. Tychonis Brahe. [Heidelberg: E. Vögelin,] 1609. The first edition of Kepler's key work. Presale estimate: $150-200K. Sold for $204,000. One of the few at the high end which is even close to its estimate.
- Lot 295: Kepler, Harmonices mundi libri V. Linz: Johann Planck for Gottfried Tampach, 1619. Another key Kepler work, containing his third law of planetary motion. Presale estimate: $100-150K. Sold for $144,000. The first of the $100K+ items not to surpass the high estimate.
- Lot 297: Kepler, Tabulae Rudolphinae, quibus astronomicae scientiae, temporum longinquitate collapsae restauratio continentur. Ulm: Jonas Saur, 1627. First edition of Kepler's astronomical tables, with the folding world map. Presale estimate: $90-120K. Sold for $120,000. Just something about Kepler, I guess.
- Lot 322: Marc Lescarbot, Nova Francia: Or the Description of that Part of New France, which is one continent with Virginia. Described in the three late Voyages and Plantation made by Monsieur de Monts, Monsieur du Pont-Grané, and Monsieur de Poutrincourt, into three countries called by the French men La Cadie, lying to the Southwest of Cape Breton. Translated from French into English by Pierre Erondelle. London: George Bishop, 1609. First English edition by this Champlain rival. The Boies Penrose copy. Presale estimate: $50-70K. Sold for $144,000.
- Lot 325: Lewis and Clark, History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky Mountains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed during the years 1804-5-6. Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep, 1814. First edition, with map; in an early binding. Presale estimate: $100-150K. Sold for $288,000.
- Lot 327: Ian Huygen van Linschoten, His Discours of Voyages unto ye Easte & West Indies. Devided into Foure Bookes. Translated from Dutch into English by William Phillip. London: John Wolfe, 1598. First edition in English, this copy extra-illustrated with plates from the original Dutch edition. Presale estimate: $30-40K. Sold for $156,000.
- Lot 349: Peter Martyr, The Decades of the newe worlde or west India, Conteyning the nauigations and conquestes of the Spanyardes, with the particular description of the moste ryche and large landes and Ilandes lately founde in the west Ocean perteynyng to the inheritance of the kinges of Spayne. Edited and translated into English by Richard Eden. London: William Powell, 1555. "First edition in English of the first collection of voyages printed in English, and the first work to contain narratives of English voyages." This copy owned by British explorer Roger North, later Boies Penrose. Presale estimate: $80-120K. Sold for $768,000. This one astounds me.
- Lot 359: Pedro de Medina, Regimento de navegacion. En que contienen las reglas, declaraciones y avisos del libro del arte de navegar. Seville: Juan Canalla, 1552. First edition of Medina's work, with map of the Atlantic. "Medina's work was intended for ship-born pilots rather than study on land and Drake carried a copy during his circumnavigation." Just one copy sold at auction in the last thirty years. Presale estimate: $30-40K. Sold for $192,000.
- Lot 386: Bartolome Garcia and Gonçalo de Nodal, Relacion del viajé par orden de Su. Magd. y Acverdo del Real Consejo de Indias ... al descubrimiento del Estrecho nuevo de S. Vicente. y reconosimio. del de Magallanes. Madrid: Fernando Correa de Montenegro, 1621. First edition, with the extremely rare map. "[F]amously rare work which even in the 1860s was described by Sabin as 'one of the rarest books of its class.'" An account of the first circumnavigation of Tierra del Fuego by the Nodal brothers. Presale estimate: $20-30K. Sold for $108,000.
- Lot 426: Samuel Purchas, Purchas his Pilgrimes. In five bookes. London: William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, 1625, with Purchase his Pilgrimage. London: William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, 1626. Five volumes of Purchas' collected voyages, a continuation of Hakluyt's work. Called "very fine," in a "near contemporary goatskin binding." Presale estimate: $50-70K. Sold for $576,000.
- Lot 462: Johann Schöner, Opera Mathematica. Nuremberg: J. Montanus and U. Neuber, 1551. Includes eleven woodcut volvelles and a "full-page cut of Schöner's terrestial globe." The first edition of Schöner's star catalog. Presale estimate: $20-30K. Sold for $120,000.
- Lot 465: Willem Corneliszoon Schouten, The Relation of a Wonderfull Voiage made by William Cornelison Schouten of Horne. Shewing how South from the Straights of Magelan, in Terra Del-fuogo: he found and discovered a newe passage through the great South Sea, and that way sayled round about the world. Translated from Dutch into English by William Phillip. London: T. D. for Nathanaell Newbery, 1619. First edition in English of this voyage, "the first time Cape Horn was rounded from the East." The Penrose copy. A rarity. Presale estimate: $30-40K. Sold for $168,000.
- Lot 482: Capt. John Stevens (ed.), A New Collection of Voyages and Travels: with Historical Accounts of Discoveries and Conquests In all Parts of the World. None of them ever before Printed in English... For the Month of December, 1708. To be continu'd Monthly. London: printed, and sold by J. Knapton, J. Round, N. Cliffe, E.Sanger, and A. Collins, 1708. A collection of first editions in English of seven key voyages, mostly translated from Spanish or Portuguese. King George II's copy. Uncommon complete. Presale estimate: $20-30K. Sold for $102,000.
- Lot 501: Vicente Tofiño de San Miguel, Coleccion de cartas de America publicadas por la direction de trabajos hidrograficos. Madrid, 1800. A collection of sixteen maps from the Spanish Atlas Maritimo Español. Presale estimate: $25-35K. Sold for $120,000.
- Lot 524: Henry James Warre, Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory. [London:] Lithographed, Printed & Published by Dickinson & Co., [1848]. First edition, with colored plates, of a series of views of the Northwest by a pair of British "observers." Thomas W. Streeter's copy, left to his son Frank (he of this sale). Presale estimate: $100-150K. Sold for $192,000.
- Lot 534: Edward Wright, Certain Errors in Navigation. Detected and Corrected ... With many Additions that were not in the former Editions. London: Joseph Moxon, 1657. Third edition enlarged, with a Mercator world map and two additional maps. Rare early edition. Presale estimate: $40-60K. Sold for 264,000.
I think that's all. If I missed some, or if I made an oops, let me know.
* Note to self: next time check to see how many fall above the arbitrary cutoff point; had I known how many lots realized more than $100K I think I would have raised the bar for inclusion here. But I digress, and this list is interesting anyway. Further note: these prices, as reported by Christie's, include the buyer's premium and have been rounded to the nearest dollar.
- Lot 60: William Bourne's A Regiment for the Sea: Conteyning most profitable Rules, Mathematical experiences, and perfect knowledge of Navigation, for all Coastes and Countreys: most needefull and necessarie for all Seafaring men and Travellers, as Pilotes, Mariners, Marchants, &c. London: [1574?]. Called the first printed original treatise on navigation by an Englishman, this was the first copy to appear at auction in more than thirty years. Presale estimate: $50-70K. Sold for $102,000.
- Lot 101: Samuel de Champlain's Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France occidentale, dicte Canada faits par le Sr Champlain Xainctongeois, Capitaine pour le Roy en la Marine du Ponant, & toutes les Descouvertes qu'il a faites en ce paos depuis l'an 1603. Iusques en l'an 1629. Paris: chez Pierre le Mur, 1632. This copy includes the first map of the "entire Great Lakes network." Presale estimate: $90-120K. Sold for $264,000.
- Lot 109: Louis Choris, Voyage Pittoresque Autour de Monde, avec des portraits de sauvages d'Amérique, d'Asie, d'Afrique, et des iles du Grand Ocean; des Paysages, des Vues Maritimes, et plusieurs objets d'histoire naturelle; Accompagné de Descriptions par M. le Baron Cuvier, et M.A. de Chamisso. Paris: Imprimerie de Firmin Didot, 1822-[?1823] with Choris' Vues et Paysages des Régions Équinoxiales, recueillis dans un voyage autour du monde, avec une introduction et un texte explicatif. Paris: Paul Renouard, 1826. Presale estimate: $50-70K. Sold for $156,000.
- Lot 124: Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium with Rheticus, De libris revolutionum Nicolai Copernici Narratio prima. Basel: Heinrich Petri, 1566. The second edition of Copernicus, this copy with a very interesting provenance (once owned by Henry Briggs, Henry Gellibrand and John Wells, all early English Copernicans). Presale estimate: $60-90K. Sold for $180,000.
- Lot 126: Martin Cortés, The Arte of Navigation, Conteyning a Compendious Description of the Sphere, with the Making of Certayne Instruments and Rules for Navigations: and Exemplified by Many Demonstrations. Translated from Spanish into English by Richard Eden. London: Richard Jugge, 1572. Second edition in English, with a rare map of "The Newe Worlde." Only one copy of another early edition (1584) of this title at auction in the last thirty years. Presale estimate: 70-100K. Sold for $120,000.
- Lot 135: Alexander Dalrymple, A Collection of Charts and Memoirs. London, 1771-72. An atlas of Pacific charts, as well as Dalrymple's writings on Pacific voyages. Presale estimate: $20-30K. Sold for $102,000.
- Lot 148: J.F.W. Des Barres, The Atlantic Neptune, published for the use of the Royal Navy of Great Britain... under the Directions of the Right Honble. the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. London, [1774-1779]. Four volume atlas of the eastern seaboard of America, described as "the most splendid collection of charts, plans and views ever published." Presale estimate: $400-600K. Sold for $779,200.
- Lot 166: Sir Robert Dudley, Arcano del Mare. Florence: Giuseppe Cocchini for Jacopo Bagononi and Antonfrancesco Lucini, 1661. Second edition of this, "the first sea-atlas compiled by an Englishman, the first atlas to show the charts constructed on the Mercator projection, the first to show prevailing winds and currents in the principal harbors, and the first to give magnetic declination." Presale estimate: $250-350K. Sold for $824,000.
- Lot 174: The East-India Pilot, or Oriental Navigator, on One Hundred and Eighteen Plates: Containing a Complete Collection of Charts and Plans, &c., &c. for the Navigation not only of the Indian and China Seas, but of those also between England and the Cape of Good-Hope; Improved and Chiefly Composed from the Last Work of M. D'Apres de Mannevillette; with Considerable Additions, from Private Manuscripts of the Dutch, and from Draughts and Actual Surveys Communicated By Officers of the East-India Company A New Edition, Containing One Hundred and Five Charts. London: Robert Laurie and James Whittle, 1799. A collection of navigation charts "for navigating all the coasts which might be encountered between England and the East Indies. Also included were charts for navigating between England and the Cape of Good Hope." Presale estimate: $25-35K. Sold for $144,000.
- Lot 178: Martín Fernández de Enciso, Suma de geographia que trata de todas las partidas y prouincias del mundo: en especial delasindias. Y trata largemente del arte del marear: juntamente con la espera en romance: con el regimiento del sol y del norte: nueuamente hecha. Seville: Jacob Cromberger, 1519. "The first book printed in Spanish relating to America, the first practical guide to sailing in American waters and the first navigational manual printed in Spain." This copy once owned by Marqués de Caracena, the Spanish Governor-general of the Netherlands. Presale estimate: $60-90K. Sold for 288,000.
- Lot 185: Lewis Evans, Geographical, Historical, Political, Philosophical and Mechanical Essays. The First, Containing an Analysis of a General Map of the Middle British Colonies in America; And of the Country of the Confederate Indians: A Description of the Face of the Country; the Boundaries of the Confederates; and the Maritime and Inland Navigations of the several Rivers and Lakes contained therein. Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin and D. Hall, 1755. An important pre-independence American map. Presale estimate: $90-120K. Sold for $168,000.
- Lot 197: Luke Foxe, North-West Fox, or, Fox from the North-West Passage... Following with briefe abstracts of the voyages of Cabot, Frobisher... Mr. James Hall's three voyages to Groynland. London: Printed by B. Alsop and Tho. Fawcet, 1635. First edition, with the rare map of Foxe's Arctic explorations which exists in "but one or two copies." Presale estimate: $40-60K. Sold for $132,000.
- Lot 198: Fracanzano da Montalboddo, Itinerarium Portugallensium e Lusitania in Indiam et inde in occidentem et demum ad aquilonem. Translated from Italian into Latin by Archangelo Madrignano. Milan: J.A. Scinzenzeler, 1508. First edition in Latin of "the first printed collection of voyages, and one of the most important collections of voyages ever printed." Presale estimate: $60-80K. Sold for $192,000.
- Lot 217: Galileo, Dialogo... sopre i due massimi sistemi del mondo Tolemaico, e Copernicano. Florence: Gian Battista Landini, 1632. First edition of Galileo's defense of Copernicanism. Presale estimate: $40-60K. Sold for $102,000.
- Lot 218: Antonio Galvano, The Discoveries of the World from their first originall unto the yeere of our Lord 1555. Edited and translated by Richard Hakluyt. London: G. Bishop, 1601. First edition in English, by Hakluyt. First complete copy sold since 1971. Presale estimate: $40-60K. Sold for $114,000.
- Lot 228: Hieronymus Girava, Dos libros de cosmographia. Milan: G.A. Castiglione and C. Carron, 1556. Includes a world map and a description of Brazil. Only one other copy sold at auction in the last thirty years. Presale estimate: $30-40K. Sold for $102,000.
- Lot 232: Juan Gonzales de Mendoza, The Historie of the great and mightie kingdome of China, and the situation thereof: Together with the great riches, huge Citties, politike governement, and rare inventions in the same. Translated from Spanish into English by Robert Parke. London: Printed by I. Wolfe for Edward White, 1588. First edition in English of this history of China; this copy inscribed by Thomas Cavendish. Very rare. Presale estimate: $12-18K. Sold for $216,000. The estimate on this one seems off by an order of magnitude, no?
- Lot 243: Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English nation, made by Sea or over Land, to the most remote and farthest distant Quarters of the earth at any time within the compasse of these 1500 yeeres: Devided into three severall parts, according to the positions of the Regions whereunto they were directed. London: George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, Deputies to Christopher Berber, 1589. First edition of this great collection of English voyages, with the world map. Presale estimate: $40-60K. Sold for $456,000.
- Lot 253: John Harrison, A Narrative of the Proceedings Relative to the Discovery of the Longitude at Sea. London: Printed for the Author and sold by Mr. Sandby, 1765. A pamphlet regarding the second sea trial of Harrison's fourth marine chronometer (Harrison you'll remember from Dava Sobel's delightful book Longitude). Last copy sold was in 1973. Presale estimate: $8-12K. Sold for $114,000.
- Lot 254: Harrison and Maskelyne, The Principles of Mr. Harrison's Time-Keeper, with Plates of the Same. Published by Order of the Commissioners of Longitude. London: W. Richardson and S. Clarke for John Nourse and Mess. Mount and Page, 1767. Includes the ten folding engraved plates. Presale estimate: 25-35K. Sold for $228,000.
- Lot 280: Thomas James, The Strange and Dangerous Voyage of Captaine Thomas James, in his intended Discovery of the Northwest Passage into the South Sea. Wherein the Miseries indured both Going, Wintering, Returning; and the Rarities observed, both Philosophicall and Mathematicall, are related in this Journal of it. London: Printed by John Legatt for John Partridge, 1633. First edition with the map of James' Northwest Passage explorations. Presale estimate: $25-35K. Sold for $102,000.
- Lot 294: Johannes Kepler, Astronomia nova ... seu physica coelestis, tradita commentariis de motibus stellae martis, ex observationibus G. V. Tychonis Brahe. [Heidelberg: E. Vögelin,] 1609. The first edition of Kepler's key work. Presale estimate: $150-200K. Sold for $204,000. One of the few at the high end which is even close to its estimate.
- Lot 295: Kepler, Harmonices mundi libri V. Linz: Johann Planck for Gottfried Tampach, 1619. Another key Kepler work, containing his third law of planetary motion. Presale estimate: $100-150K. Sold for $144,000. The first of the $100K+ items not to surpass the high estimate.
- Lot 297: Kepler, Tabulae Rudolphinae, quibus astronomicae scientiae, temporum longinquitate collapsae restauratio continentur. Ulm: Jonas Saur, 1627. First edition of Kepler's astronomical tables, with the folding world map. Presale estimate: $90-120K. Sold for $120,000. Just something about Kepler, I guess.
- Lot 322: Marc Lescarbot, Nova Francia: Or the Description of that Part of New France, which is one continent with Virginia. Described in the three late Voyages and Plantation made by Monsieur de Monts, Monsieur du Pont-Grané, and Monsieur de Poutrincourt, into three countries called by the French men La Cadie, lying to the Southwest of Cape Breton. Translated from French into English by Pierre Erondelle. London: George Bishop, 1609. First English edition by this Champlain rival. The Boies Penrose copy. Presale estimate: $50-70K. Sold for $144,000.
- Lot 325: Lewis and Clark, History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky Mountains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Performed during the years 1804-5-6. Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep, 1814. First edition, with map; in an early binding. Presale estimate: $100-150K. Sold for $288,000.
- Lot 327: Ian Huygen van Linschoten, His Discours of Voyages unto ye Easte & West Indies. Devided into Foure Bookes. Translated from Dutch into English by William Phillip. London: John Wolfe, 1598. First edition in English, this copy extra-illustrated with plates from the original Dutch edition. Presale estimate: $30-40K. Sold for $156,000.
- Lot 349: Peter Martyr, The Decades of the newe worlde or west India, Conteyning the nauigations and conquestes of the Spanyardes, with the particular description of the moste ryche and large landes and Ilandes lately founde in the west Ocean perteynyng to the inheritance of the kinges of Spayne. Edited and translated into English by Richard Eden. London: William Powell, 1555. "First edition in English of the first collection of voyages printed in English, and the first work to contain narratives of English voyages." This copy owned by British explorer Roger North, later Boies Penrose. Presale estimate: $80-120K. Sold for $768,000. This one astounds me.
- Lot 359: Pedro de Medina, Regimento de navegacion. En que contienen las reglas, declaraciones y avisos del libro del arte de navegar. Seville: Juan Canalla, 1552. First edition of Medina's work, with map of the Atlantic. "Medina's work was intended for ship-born pilots rather than study on land and Drake carried a copy during his circumnavigation." Just one copy sold at auction in the last thirty years. Presale estimate: $30-40K. Sold for $192,000.
- Lot 386: Bartolome Garcia and Gonçalo de Nodal, Relacion del viajé par orden de Su. Magd. y Acverdo del Real Consejo de Indias ... al descubrimiento del Estrecho nuevo de S. Vicente. y reconosimio. del de Magallanes. Madrid: Fernando Correa de Montenegro, 1621. First edition, with the extremely rare map. "[F]amously rare work which even in the 1860s was described by Sabin as 'one of the rarest books of its class.'" An account of the first circumnavigation of Tierra del Fuego by the Nodal brothers. Presale estimate: $20-30K. Sold for $108,000.
- Lot 426: Samuel Purchas, Purchas his Pilgrimes. In five bookes. London: William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, 1625, with Purchase his Pilgrimage. London: William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, 1626. Five volumes of Purchas' collected voyages, a continuation of Hakluyt's work. Called "very fine," in a "near contemporary goatskin binding." Presale estimate: $50-70K. Sold for $576,000.
- Lot 462: Johann Schöner, Opera Mathematica. Nuremberg: J. Montanus and U. Neuber, 1551. Includes eleven woodcut volvelles and a "full-page cut of Schöner's terrestial globe." The first edition of Schöner's star catalog. Presale estimate: $20-30K. Sold for $120,000.
- Lot 465: Willem Corneliszoon Schouten, The Relation of a Wonderfull Voiage made by William Cornelison Schouten of Horne. Shewing how South from the Straights of Magelan, in Terra Del-fuogo: he found and discovered a newe passage through the great South Sea, and that way sayled round about the world. Translated from Dutch into English by William Phillip. London: T. D. for Nathanaell Newbery, 1619. First edition in English of this voyage, "the first time Cape Horn was rounded from the East." The Penrose copy. A rarity. Presale estimate: $30-40K. Sold for $168,000.
- Lot 482: Capt. John Stevens (ed.), A New Collection of Voyages and Travels: with Historical Accounts of Discoveries and Conquests In all Parts of the World. None of them ever before Printed in English... For the Month of December, 1708. To be continu'd Monthly. London: printed, and sold by J. Knapton, J. Round, N. Cliffe, E.Sanger, and A. Collins, 1708. A collection of first editions in English of seven key voyages, mostly translated from Spanish or Portuguese. King George II's copy. Uncommon complete. Presale estimate: $20-30K. Sold for $102,000.
- Lot 501: Vicente Tofiño de San Miguel, Coleccion de cartas de America publicadas por la direction de trabajos hidrograficos. Madrid, 1800. A collection of sixteen maps from the Spanish Atlas Maritimo Español. Presale estimate: $25-35K. Sold for $120,000.
- Lot 524: Henry James Warre, Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory. [London:] Lithographed, Printed & Published by Dickinson & Co., [1848]. First edition, with colored plates, of a series of views of the Northwest by a pair of British "observers." Thomas W. Streeter's copy, left to his son Frank (he of this sale). Presale estimate: $100-150K. Sold for $192,000.
- Lot 534: Edward Wright, Certain Errors in Navigation. Detected and Corrected ... With many Additions that were not in the former Editions. London: Joseph Moxon, 1657. Third edition enlarged, with a Mercator world map and two additional maps. Rare early edition. Presale estimate: $40-60K. Sold for 264,000.
I think that's all. If I missed some, or if I made an oops, let me know.
* Note to self: next time check to see how many fall above the arbitrary cutoff point; had I known how many lots realized more than $100K I think I would have raised the bar for inclusion here. But I digress, and this list is interesting anyway. Further note: these prices, as reported by Christie's, include the buyer's premium and have been rounded to the nearest dollar.
Sharpe Snags Heritage Talent
Scott Brown's got the very latest update on what's happening with Heritage Books: he reports today that Michael Sharpe of LA is planning to open Michael Sharpe Rare and Antiquarian Books at 569 South Marengo Ave. in Pasadena by the end of the summer.
"Staffed by former Heritage employees, including Nat Des Marais and Mike Garabedian, initially the shop will boast an inventory worth $10 million. The stock will derive largely from Mr. Sharpe's Heritage-formed personal library, and include holdings in voyages and travels, science and natural history, literature, fine printing, Western Americana, and books from Printing and the Mind of Man."
Brown notes that the shop will be housed in a "beautiful, two-story Craftsman home that was once the residence of Pasadena hotel magnate Colonel G.G. Green" and is listed on the National Historic Register.
Always interesting to eye these developments in the upper stratosphere of the bibliocommunity from afar. Speaking of which, I'll have a full update on the Streeter sale later this morning; I'm running through the lot lists now.
"Staffed by former Heritage employees, including Nat Des Marais and Mike Garabedian, initially the shop will boast an inventory worth $10 million. The stock will derive largely from Mr. Sharpe's Heritage-formed personal library, and include holdings in voyages and travels, science and natural history, literature, fine printing, Western Americana, and books from Printing and the Mind of Man."
Brown notes that the shop will be housed in a "beautiful, two-story Craftsman home that was once the residence of Pasadena hotel magnate Colonel G.G. Green" and is listed on the National Historic Register.
Always interesting to eye these developments in the upper stratosphere of the bibliocommunity from afar. Speaking of which, I'll have a full update on the Streeter sale later this morning; I'm running through the lot lists now.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Voynich Manuscript: Hoax?
Joyce has an important update on the Voynich Manuscript, a rather fascinating document written in a thus-far indecipherable code and accompanied by a series of intensely bizarre illustrations (for a bit more background, see my review of The Voynich Manuscript by Gerry Kennedy and Rob Churchill).
Back in 2004, Keele University professor Gordon Rugg concluded that the manuscript could be an elaborate hoax, probably cooked up by English mystic/alchemist Edward Kelley. Now an Austrian physicist, Andreas Schinner, has published an article in Cryptologia in which he concludes "that the manuscript’s statistical properties were consistent with a hoax consisting of meaningless gibberish."
Rugg adds: "This does not prove that the manuscript is a hoax, but it strongly suggests that the hoax theory is correct. If there is meaningful coded material in the manuscript, then either there is only a small amount, surrounded by large amounts of meaningless padding – otherwise the statistics would have come out differently, or if there is a large amount of meaningful coded material, then it must have been encoded using a method which just happens to produce the same statistical properties as a quasi-random gibberish generator."
There are some excellent, detailed articles on the Manuscript and much more background on Rugg's methodology here. There's still much more work to be done in my view (and still some explaining to do - why go to all the trouble?), but it does seem like this might finally be some progress toward solving a longstanding literary mystery.
Back in 2004, Keele University professor Gordon Rugg concluded that the manuscript could be an elaborate hoax, probably cooked up by English mystic/alchemist Edward Kelley. Now an Austrian physicist, Andreas Schinner, has published an article in Cryptologia in which he concludes "that the manuscript’s statistical properties were consistent with a hoax consisting of meaningless gibberish."
Rugg adds: "This does not prove that the manuscript is a hoax, but it strongly suggests that the hoax theory is correct. If there is meaningful coded material in the manuscript, then either there is only a small amount, surrounded by large amounts of meaningless padding – otherwise the statistics would have come out differently, or if there is a large amount of meaningful coded material, then it must have been encoded using a method which just happens to produce the same statistical properties as a quasi-random gibberish generator."
There are some excellent, detailed articles on the Manuscript and much more background on Rugg's methodology here. There's still much more work to be done in my view (and still some explaining to do - why go to all the trouble?), but it does seem like this might finally be some progress toward solving a longstanding literary mystery.
Holmes Manuscript on the Block
The BBC reports that a manuscript copy of the Sherlock Holmes tale "The Adventure of the Three Gables" will be sold at Sotheby's on 21 June. Presale estimates are $350,000 to $500,000.
Marsha Malinowski of Sotheby's told the BBC "Conan Doyle had extraordinarily clear and beautiful writing. He was the sort of writer who would not put pen to paper until he had thought out clearly what he wanted to write. So, although there are more than 100 amendments, they are usually minor changes such as clarification or emphasis."
The report adds that the copy, bound in vellum, "was once owned by the Marquis of Donegall and has been in a private collection since the 1970s."
Well I guess there's always a chance I'll win the lotto before then ... right?
Marsha Malinowski of Sotheby's told the BBC "Conan Doyle had extraordinarily clear and beautiful writing. He was the sort of writer who would not put pen to paper until he had thought out clearly what he wanted to write. So, although there are more than 100 amendments, they are usually minor changes such as clarification or emphasis."
The report adds that the copy, bound in vellum, "was once owned by the Marquis of Donegall and has been in a private collection since the 1970s."
Well I guess there's always a chance I'll win the lotto before then ... right?
Monday, April 16, 2007
Pulitzers Announced
The 2007 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded today:
Fiction: The Road, Cormac McCarthy. Runners-up: After This by Alice McDermott and The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
History: The Race Beat, Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff. Runners-up: Middle Passages by James Campbell and Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
Biography: The Most Famous Man in America, Debby Applegate. Runners-up: John Wilkes by Arthur Cash and Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw
General Nonfiction: The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright. Runners-up: Crazy by Pete Earley and Fiasco by Thomas Ricks.
Must get a copy of the Wilkes biography and the Campbell book. The Applegate is the only winner I've read so far (review here), along with Philbrick's (review here).
What happens to the people who refuse to read any Oprah choices but also read every Pulitzer winner for fiction? There must be a few out there ...
Fiction: The Road, Cormac McCarthy. Runners-up: After This by Alice McDermott and The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
History: The Race Beat, Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff. Runners-up: Middle Passages by James Campbell and Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
Biography: The Most Famous Man in America, Debby Applegate. Runners-up: John Wilkes by Arthur Cash and Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw
General Nonfiction: The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright. Runners-up: Crazy by Pete Earley and Fiasco by Thomas Ricks.
Must get a copy of the Wilkes biography and the Campbell book. The Applegate is the only winner I've read so far (review here), along with Philbrick's (review here).
What happens to the people who refuse to read any Oprah choices but also read every Pulitzer winner for fiction? There must be a few out there ...
Book Review: "The Minutemen and Their World"
Sometimes I wonder how I made it through four years of college and now almost two years of grad school without being exposed to certain books at all. Robert Gross' The Minutemen and Their World is one of those. First published first in 1976, and the winner of the Bancroft Prize the following year, it was re-released in 2001 by Hill and Wang with a new foreword by Alan Taylor and an afterword by Gross.
A product of the 'new social history' movement, Minutemen goes far beyond the town-based histories of Demos, Greven and others and, as Taylor writes, melds the traditional methods of new social history with "attention to grand events, biographical detail and literary craft." This book "transcends the limitations" of earlier community-studies "by discarding their sharp distinction between the social and the political." Taylor calls Gross' book "the single most influential work in shaping my sensibility as a historian" - having read Taylor's books (and been utterly fascinated by them) I can testify to the stylistic and methodological continuities that persist in Taylor's excellent writings.
As Taylor's works do, Gross' book examines a town's role in wider events - in this case, Concord, Massachusetts in the years before, during and after the Revolution. By providing minute details about the inner workings of town politics, religion, and society for the period, Gross is able to flesh out important details about Concord and its people that might have gone unnoticed by prior historians or unremarked upon by historians more concerned with strictly parochial matters. He notes how intra-town rivalries and religious fissures occupied the townspeople through the early 1770s and kept Concord largely aloof from the pre-Revolutionary activities of other communities, and then the galvanization/unification process that occurred as conflict grew nearer.
Using demographic analysis and biographical spotlights, Gross is able to carefully draw conclusions about the town's actions and non-actions in the years leading up to 19 April 1775 when Concord found itself the site of the famous 'shot heard round the world.' He continues his analysis through the war and beyond, discussing the role of post-Revolutionary Concord and how it came to be shaped as the home of Transcendentalism in the early decades of the next century.
A meticulous study, with copious and rich footnotes that enhance the narrative without getting in its way. Gross' afterword, placing the book into its context as a product of its time was enlightening as well. A fine read, and highly recommended. I am ashamed that it had escaped my notice for so long; it has stood and will continue to withstand the passage of time.
A product of the 'new social history' movement, Minutemen goes far beyond the town-based histories of Demos, Greven and others and, as Taylor writes, melds the traditional methods of new social history with "attention to grand events, biographical detail and literary craft." This book "transcends the limitations" of earlier community-studies "by discarding their sharp distinction between the social and the political." Taylor calls Gross' book "the single most influential work in shaping my sensibility as a historian" - having read Taylor's books (and been utterly fascinated by them) I can testify to the stylistic and methodological continuities that persist in Taylor's excellent writings.
As Taylor's works do, Gross' book examines a town's role in wider events - in this case, Concord, Massachusetts in the years before, during and after the Revolution. By providing minute details about the inner workings of town politics, religion, and society for the period, Gross is able to flesh out important details about Concord and its people that might have gone unnoticed by prior historians or unremarked upon by historians more concerned with strictly parochial matters. He notes how intra-town rivalries and religious fissures occupied the townspeople through the early 1770s and kept Concord largely aloof from the pre-Revolutionary activities of other communities, and then the galvanization/unification process that occurred as conflict grew nearer.
Using demographic analysis and biographical spotlights, Gross is able to carefully draw conclusions about the town's actions and non-actions in the years leading up to 19 April 1775 when Concord found itself the site of the famous 'shot heard round the world.' He continues his analysis through the war and beyond, discussing the role of post-Revolutionary Concord and how it came to be shaped as the home of Transcendentalism in the early decades of the next century.
A meticulous study, with copious and rich footnotes that enhance the narrative without getting in its way. Gross' afterword, placing the book into its context as a product of its time was enlightening as well. A fine read, and highly recommended. I am ashamed that it had escaped my notice for so long; it has stood and will continue to withstand the passage of time.
Air Sampling to Determine Conservation Needs
UK Channel 4 reports that a team of chemists will be taking air samples from the stacks at the Cambridge University libraries in order to gauge the level of decay in books and determine conservation priority.
A university spokesperson told the station "By sampling the air in different parts of the library, researchers hope to identify the areas with a high acid content, so that the books can be treated before handling and damage cause further decay. The aim is to improve the way the books are stored and, if possible, develop an early warning system that will alert the librarians when decaying books begin to produce significant quantities of destructive acids."
Seems like an interesting concept; I'll have to watch for any followup on this one.
[h/t: Shelf:Life]
A university spokesperson told the station "By sampling the air in different parts of the library, researchers hope to identify the areas with a high acid content, so that the books can be treated before handling and damage cause further decay. The aim is to improve the way the books are stored and, if possible, develop an early warning system that will alert the librarians when decaying books begin to produce significant quantities of destructive acids."
Seems like an interesting concept; I'll have to watch for any followup on this one.
[h/t: Shelf:Life]
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Book Review: "Tea"
Commodity histories are in vogue these days (although nobody's yet written the one I really want to read, about cranberries); tea has been the subject of at least a few recently and also forms the basis for Laura Martin's Tea: The Drink That Changed the World (Tuttle Publishing, 2007).
This was an enjoyable, quick overview of tea's place in world culture, from the advent of its use in early China, Japan and Korea through its rise in popularity as a trading commodity as it came into fashion in Europe and America. Martin also includes information on the processing, brewing and marketing of various sorts of tea and how the beverage has evolved over the centuries into the version we know today.
The lack of citations, an index and a full bibliography bothered me, but as a casual examination of tea this was a worthwhile read. I learned a great deal about tea processing and varities, and the discussion of the current tea-growing industry around the world was enlightening. This is a nice book for a rainy weekend afternoon ... with a nice cup of hot tea at your side.
This was an enjoyable, quick overview of tea's place in world culture, from the advent of its use in early China, Japan and Korea through its rise in popularity as a trading commodity as it came into fashion in Europe and America. Martin also includes information on the processing, brewing and marketing of various sorts of tea and how the beverage has evolved over the centuries into the version we know today.
The lack of citations, an index and a full bibliography bothered me, but as a casual examination of tea this was a worthwhile read. I learned a great deal about tea processing and varities, and the discussion of the current tea-growing industry around the world was enlightening. This is a nice book for a rainy weekend afternoon ... with a nice cup of hot tea at your side.
Links &c.
A few of the exciting posts, news and other miscellany that I didn't get a chance to write more fully about during the week:
- Playbill reports that the New York Public Library will host a one-show-only performance of "The Rosenbach Company," on 20 April (7 p.m., Fifth Ave. and 42nd Street branch). The show, by Ben Katchor and Mark Mulcahy, is described as a "multi-media 'chamber rock opera' about the pleasures and perils of bibliomania." It examines the lives of Abe and Philip Rosenbach, the well-known dealer/collectors.
- Europeana, part of the EU's answer to Google Books, has unveiled an initial installment of approximately 12,000 books digitized from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and other libraries across the Continent. Jack Kessler has a translation of the site, some comments and other background here.
- Speaking of Google Books, Biblio-Technician has compiled a list of some of the bibliographies of bookplate-related books that can be viewed full-text.
- Book Trout recommends Christopher Morley's "bookshop novels," Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop. I heartily agree.
- From BibliOdyssey: flowers from the Karlsruhe Tulpenbuch, and some early etchings.
- Over at FoggyGates, Forrest has some neat illustrations from an 1866 "museum cast" catalog.
- Michael at Book Patrol's got a link and comments about the Plagiarism Museum (just opened in Cologne) as well as some thoughts about recent literary plagiarism controversies.
- Reading Copy notes that the "Bookseller" magazine award for 2006's oddest title went to The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification.
- Ian at Lux Mentis, commenting on the world's smallest book (my post here) says "Finally, something to do with my electron microscope."
- At Campaign for the American Reader, Marshall points us to John Gribbin's list of five scientific works that are also "literature of a high order." Gribbin's newest book is on the top of my pile and I hope to get to it soon.
- Ed offers the fifth chapter of The Quaker City, and also discusses a new movie about Keats and a Wordsworth rap song.
- Paul Collins at Weekend Stubble links us to his new New Scientist article about matematical prodigy Zerah Colborn.
- Joyce at Bibliophile Bullpen led the way to a very interesting "On Point" segment with author Seth Lerer about the evolution of the English language. It's quite a good discussion, but of course now I'll have to read Lerer's book too ... sigh.
- Playbill reports that the New York Public Library will host a one-show-only performance of "The Rosenbach Company," on 20 April (7 p.m., Fifth Ave. and 42nd Street branch). The show, by Ben Katchor and Mark Mulcahy, is described as a "multi-media 'chamber rock opera' about the pleasures and perils of bibliomania." It examines the lives of Abe and Philip Rosenbach, the well-known dealer/collectors.
- Europeana, part of the EU's answer to Google Books, has unveiled an initial installment of approximately 12,000 books digitized from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and other libraries across the Continent. Jack Kessler has a translation of the site, some comments and other background here.
- Speaking of Google Books, Biblio-Technician has compiled a list of some of the bibliographies of bookplate-related books that can be viewed full-text.
- Book Trout recommends Christopher Morley's "bookshop novels," Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop. I heartily agree.
- From BibliOdyssey: flowers from the Karlsruhe Tulpenbuch, and some early etchings.
- Over at FoggyGates, Forrest has some neat illustrations from an 1866 "museum cast" catalog.
- Michael at Book Patrol's got a link and comments about the Plagiarism Museum (just opened in Cologne) as well as some thoughts about recent literary plagiarism controversies.
- Reading Copy notes that the "Bookseller" magazine award for 2006's oddest title went to The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification.
- Ian at Lux Mentis, commenting on the world's smallest book (my post here) says "Finally, something to do with my electron microscope."
- At Campaign for the American Reader, Marshall points us to John Gribbin's list of five scientific works that are also "literature of a high order." Gribbin's newest book is on the top of my pile and I hope to get to it soon.
- Ed offers the fifth chapter of The Quaker City, and also discusses a new movie about Keats and a Wordsworth rap song.
- Paul Collins at Weekend Stubble links us to his new New Scientist article about matematical prodigy Zerah Colborn.
- Joyce at Bibliophile Bullpen led the way to a very interesting "On Point" segment with author Seth Lerer about the evolution of the English language. It's quite a good discussion, but of course now I'll have to read Lerer's book too ... sigh.
Dictionary Anniversaries
Given my recent readings in lexicographical history I cannot let the opportunity pass to note that this weekend marks the anniversary of two important dictionary publications. On 14 April, 1828, Noah Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language was published; the product of two decades' labor, it contained 70,000 entries in two quarto volumes, and included such 'American' words as skunk and squash. Webster also simplified British spelling, giving us color and center rather than colour and centre. Garrison Keillor has some comments on Webster's in Saturday's "Writer's Almanac."
And on this day, 15 April, back in 1755, Samuel Johnson's great Dictionary of the English Language made its debut. It had taken nine years to produce, and appeared in two (or more, depending on the binder) large folio volumes. There were 42,773 word entries in the first edition, explained by some 114,000 literary quotations. Johnson's remained the "dictionary of record" in England until the appearance of the OED. Keillor mentions Johnson's too, but has the date wrong by twenty years.
For more on Webster, Johnson or dictionary-history in general, see my reviews for Jonathon Green's Chasing the Sun and Henry Hitchings' Defining the World.
And on this day, 15 April, back in 1755, Samuel Johnson's great Dictionary of the English Language made its debut. It had taken nine years to produce, and appeared in two (or more, depending on the binder) large folio volumes. There were 42,773 word entries in the first edition, explained by some 114,000 literary quotations. Johnson's remained the "dictionary of record" in England until the appearance of the OED. Keillor mentions Johnson's too, but has the date wrong by twenty years.
For more on Webster, Johnson or dictionary-history in general, see my reviews for Jonathon Green's Chasing the Sun and Henry Hitchings' Defining the World.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Book Review: "Puritans in the New World"
Puritans in the New World: A Critical Anthology is a collection of documents, sermons and poems edited by Harvard Divinity School professor David D. Hall (Princeton University Press, 2004). Hall's stated purpose is "to present, in all its richness, the lived experience of being a Puritan in the strange, contested, and hopeful setting of the New World" (p. x). He has woven together a string of the most important Puritan writings (mostly well-known), with useful and accessible introductory essays and suggestions for further readings in many different areas of Puritan culture and life.
What I found most intriguing about the texts as edited by Hall was how brightly the humanity of the Puritans showed through. It's easy for us to envision the Victorian caricature of Puritan religion and society, but from these documents it becomes abundantly clear that things weren't quite so black and white (literally and figuratively). They were a people vastly different from us, in many ways, but they felt and loved and worried and rejoiced over most of the same things we do.
I have concerns about all edited collections, particularly those in which documents are abridged (I cringe at the sight of ellipses), and those concerns remain in the back of my mind whenever I'm reading something like this. Thankfully most of these documents are widely available elsewhere, so we don't have to feel constricted by Hall's excisions. A worthy compilation volume, well selected; Hall's contextual comments top it off admirably.
What I found most intriguing about the texts as edited by Hall was how brightly the humanity of the Puritans showed through. It's easy for us to envision the Victorian caricature of Puritan religion and society, but from these documents it becomes abundantly clear that things weren't quite so black and white (literally and figuratively). They were a people vastly different from us, in many ways, but they felt and loved and worried and rejoiced over most of the same things we do.
I have concerns about all edited collections, particularly those in which documents are abridged (I cringe at the sight of ellipses), and those concerns remain in the back of my mind whenever I'm reading something like this. Thankfully most of these documents are widely available elsewhere, so we don't have to feel constricted by Hall's excisions. A worthy compilation volume, well selected; Hall's contextual comments top it off admirably.
Book Review: "Red, White, and Black"
Gary Nash's Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early North America has been around so long it probably doesn't even need a review, but I'll offer some brief thoughts on it anyway. Now in the fifth edition (Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006), Nash's book is a classic text on the interactions between white colonists, blacks (slave and free) and American Indians from the time of colonial settlement through the end of the Revolutionary War.
Nash goes to great lengths to point out the difficulties of generalizing the experiences of any group, given the wide diversity that existed within and amongst the various peoples who populated eastern North American in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and this new edition incorporates much recent scholarship while retaining the important historiographical threads. My one quibble is that Nash's footnotes almost always are from the older scholarly treatments - while he's worked the new research into the text, and provides the titles in the "further reading" lists at the end of each chapter, the citations themselves seem rather dated.
On the whole, an excellent study of colonial America and its people.
Nash goes to great lengths to point out the difficulties of generalizing the experiences of any group, given the wide diversity that existed within and amongst the various peoples who populated eastern North American in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and this new edition incorporates much recent scholarship while retaining the important historiographical threads. My one quibble is that Nash's footnotes almost always are from the older scholarly treatments - while he's worked the new research into the text, and provides the titles in the "further reading" lists at the end of each chapter, the citations themselves seem rather dated.
On the whole, an excellent study of colonial America and its people.
Book Review: "Looking for Mr. Gilbert"
John Hanson Mitchell's Looking for Mr. Gilbert: The Reimagined Life of an African American (2007, Shoemaker & Hoard) is the sort of book that gives me fits. It's nicely written with some very fascinating details and much potential, but something about it just didn't quite work for me.
After stumbling across some old photographic plates long attributed to Harvard ornithologist William Brewster, Mitchell finds out that the photographer was likely Robert Gilbert, Brewster's longtime assistant. The book is the story of Mitchell's pursuit of knowledge about Gilbert, particularly regarding his role in the ornithological scene of the late 1800s and the aftermath of his time with Mr. Brewster (when he lived in Paris, &c.).
Unfortunately Mitchell decided he needed to move beyond what facts are known about Gilbert's life and offer significant and unwarranted speculations to fill in the gaps. Of course since nothing is footnoted the reader's never sure where fact stops and fiction begins, which is always a troubling state of affairs. If Mitchell wanted to write a novel about Gilbert, he ought to have done so (and easily could have, there's plenty of grist for the mill). Aside from the biographical details - imagined or real - Mitchell's discussion of his own travels in search of information about Gilbert is the more interesting part of the book. He meets some real characters along the way (even if he doesn't ever manage to learn much of relevance from them).
Mitchell's flights of fancy sometimes seem rather overwrought, as when Mitchell 'finds' Gilbert in an F. Scott Fitzgerald character from Tender is the Night and meanders on for pages drawing conclusions about Gilbert's life from Fitzgerald's novel.
Perhaps the most ironic deficiency of this book is the lack of illustrations. Considering that the man he's searching for was, er, may have been, a photographer, the number of photographs in the book is surprisingly meager. Instead, at many points find Mitchell describing photographs to the reader - hardly effective without the visual accompaniment.
Mitchell's prose is clear and pleasant, and his topic is certainly a worthy and interesting one. If you can overcome the difficulties I had with it, I'm sure it would be an enjoyable read.
After stumbling across some old photographic plates long attributed to Harvard ornithologist William Brewster, Mitchell finds out that the photographer was likely Robert Gilbert, Brewster's longtime assistant. The book is the story of Mitchell's pursuit of knowledge about Gilbert, particularly regarding his role in the ornithological scene of the late 1800s and the aftermath of his time with Mr. Brewster (when he lived in Paris, &c.).
Unfortunately Mitchell decided he needed to move beyond what facts are known about Gilbert's life and offer significant and unwarranted speculations to fill in the gaps. Of course since nothing is footnoted the reader's never sure where fact stops and fiction begins, which is always a troubling state of affairs. If Mitchell wanted to write a novel about Gilbert, he ought to have done so (and easily could have, there's plenty of grist for the mill). Aside from the biographical details - imagined or real - Mitchell's discussion of his own travels in search of information about Gilbert is the more interesting part of the book. He meets some real characters along the way (even if he doesn't ever manage to learn much of relevance from them).
Mitchell's flights of fancy sometimes seem rather overwrought, as when Mitchell 'finds' Gilbert in an F. Scott Fitzgerald character from Tender is the Night and meanders on for pages drawing conclusions about Gilbert's life from Fitzgerald's novel.
Perhaps the most ironic deficiency of this book is the lack of illustrations. Considering that the man he's searching for was, er, may have been, a photographer, the number of photographs in the book is surprisingly meager. Instead, at many points find Mitchell describing photographs to the reader - hardly effective without the visual accompaniment.
Mitchell's prose is clear and pleasant, and his topic is certainly a worthy and interesting one. If you can overcome the difficulties I had with it, I'm sure it would be an enjoyable read.
Book Review: "Boomsday"
Christopher Buckley's first novel since Thank You for Smoking hit the big screen is Boomsday, just out from a new Warner Books imprint, Twelve. In a brilliant satire reminiscent of Jonathan Swift's "Modest Proposal," the plot of Boomsday revolves around a blogger's idea to provide incentives for Baby Boomers to kill themselves (er, "voluntarily transition") in order to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security. Outrageous, yes ... but wait'll you see what happens to the idea once the "American political system" gets ahold of it (no spoilers here, go read the book).
Buckley's at his best with the creation of characters who seem caricatured almost beyond belief and yet still seem oddly plausible. From bitter blond blogger Cassanda Devine to ambitious Congressman Randolph K. Jepperson IV (MA, of course) to Gideon Payne, self-righteous leader of the Society for the Protection of Every Ribonucleic Molecule (acronymize it, you'll see) and beyond, Buckley's cast fills the bill perfectly. Nobody comes out smelling like roses, but hey, that's politics.
Boomsday's portrayals of the DC media feeding frenzy, the high-level political shenanigans and that bizarre moment when politics, policy and personality all collide to create a perfect storm of utter ridiculousness had me laughing out loud several times. An enjoyable read, and recommended.
Buckley's at his best with the creation of characters who seem caricatured almost beyond belief and yet still seem oddly plausible. From bitter blond blogger Cassanda Devine to ambitious Congressman Randolph K. Jepperson IV (MA, of course) to Gideon Payne, self-righteous leader of the Society for the Protection of Every Ribonucleic Molecule (acronymize it, you'll see) and beyond, Buckley's cast fills the bill perfectly. Nobody comes out smelling like roses, but hey, that's politics.
Boomsday's portrayals of the DC media feeding frenzy, the high-level political shenanigans and that bizarre moment when politics, policy and personality all collide to create a perfect storm of utter ridiculousness had me laughing out loud several times. An enjoyable read, and recommended.
Friday, April 13, 2007
New Common-place
The April edition of Common-place is now available; one of my favorite web journals. Their theme this time is "Revolution in Print: Graphics in Nineteenth-Century America," and essay topics include caricatures of the woman suffrage movement, portrait prints, and photography in wood engravings, among others. I look forward to giving these a thorough perusal this weekend.
Just Don't Sneeze!
The Vancouver Sun reports that physicists at Simon Fraser University have created the "world's smallest book" (a fleeting distinction, probably): their Teeny Ted from Turnip Town (by Malcolm Douglas Chaplin) measures just .07 mm x .1 mm (the paper notes, for comparison, that the head of a pin is about 2 mm x 2mm). The 'book' consists of "thirty carved tablets linked side by side," and requires an electron microscope to be read. The team plans to make 100 copies if they can get orders for them, to be sold at $20,000 a pop (or speck).
Asked who she thought would be the market for this book, physicist Karen Kavanaugh said "It's some type of feat, so maybe libraries would be interested in having one. And maybe some book collectors. Because getting access to an electron microscope isn't impossible. There's one at SFU people could use."
I'll stick with the books I can read, I think ... or at least those I can't accidentally inhale.
[h/t Shelf:Life]
Asked who she thought would be the market for this book, physicist Karen Kavanaugh said "It's some type of feat, so maybe libraries would be interested in having one. And maybe some book collectors. Because getting access to an electron microscope isn't impossible. There's one at SFU people could use."
I'll stick with the books I can read, I think ... or at least those I can't accidentally inhale.
[h/t Shelf:Life]
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Book Review: "Briefe and True Report"
Thomas Hariot's A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia is one of the earliest and most important accounts of Indian life along the coast of what is now North Carolina and Virginia, as well as an interesting compilation of 'commodities' and natural resources of the region.
The University of Virginia Press has just issued a beautiful facsimile of the 1590 Theodor de Bry Latin edition, which includes a modernized English text. The copy used for the facsimile, that of the Mariners' Museum, is one of two known in which the engravings (from John White's famous drawings) were hand-colored at the time of publication. The high-quality facsimile, photographed and printed by the Stinehour Press, is remarkably clean and bright; not only the colors but also the shades of the paper come through sharply (even the small amount of off-setting is replicated).
Alone, the Hariot/de Bry facsimile would be a great book; combined as it is with excellent complementary essays, this is a work which is certain to hold a wide appeal. Karen Ordahl Kupperman's contextual introduction summarizes the expeditions during which Hariot and White did their work, while Peter Stallybrass examines the history of Hariot's manuscript, White's drawings, and de Bry's combination thereof into the 1590 folio editions (English, French and German editions were also printed). He comments on the rationale behind the printing of such an expensive volume (to appeal to the natural history-obsessed European elite), and also analyzes the interesting differences between the White drawings and the de Bry engravings (as well as the Hariot captions).
Of the huge crop of books appearing this spring related to the Jamestown anniversary, this is certainly the best designed and most lavishly illustrated. Kupperman's and Stallybrass' essays complement the facsimile nicely, and Hariot's text manages to remain interesting across the centuries. Highly recommended.
The University of Virginia Press has just issued a beautiful facsimile of the 1590 Theodor de Bry Latin edition, which includes a modernized English text. The copy used for the facsimile, that of the Mariners' Museum, is one of two known in which the engravings (from John White's famous drawings) were hand-colored at the time of publication. The high-quality facsimile, photographed and printed by the Stinehour Press, is remarkably clean and bright; not only the colors but also the shades of the paper come through sharply (even the small amount of off-setting is replicated).
Alone, the Hariot/de Bry facsimile would be a great book; combined as it is with excellent complementary essays, this is a work which is certain to hold a wide appeal. Karen Ordahl Kupperman's contextual introduction summarizes the expeditions during which Hariot and White did their work, while Peter Stallybrass examines the history of Hariot's manuscript, White's drawings, and de Bry's combination thereof into the 1590 folio editions (English, French and German editions were also printed). He comments on the rationale behind the printing of such an expensive volume (to appeal to the natural history-obsessed European elite), and also analyzes the interesting differences between the White drawings and the de Bry engravings (as well as the Hariot captions).
Of the huge crop of books appearing this spring related to the Jamestown anniversary, this is certainly the best designed and most lavishly illustrated. Kupperman's and Stallybrass' essays complement the facsimile nicely, and Hariot's text manages to remain interesting across the centuries. Highly recommended.
Rare Canadiana Among Streeter Lots
Canadian newspapers are (not surprisingly) taking a particularly Canada-centric perspective on the upcoming Streeter Sale (Christies, NY, 16-17 April). Streeter's library "documents both the history of exploration from the 15th century onwards, and the technological advancements devised to achieve these accomplishments," Christies notes.
The Edmonton Journal notes that the library contains many works of importance to Canadian history, including first editions by Champlain, Mackenzie, and Vancouver. Also included is an illustrated 1846 edition of Sketches in North America, drawn up by two British spies as they traversed the Oregon Territory (the boundaries of which were then much in dispute). This last, "now considered one of the most beautiful books ever published about the Pacific Northwest," has a pre-sale estimate of $100,000-150,000.
A J.W.F. DesBarres atlas, The Atlantic Neptune (4v., 1774-9), with extremely accurate depictions of the eastern seaboard of North America, is expected to fetch $500,000 or more. The catalog description of this alone is spectacular. And these few are only the beginning. Purchas, Lewis & Clark, Peter Martyr ... 552 lots, and all highly valuable and desirable works on travel or exploration.
Frank M. Streeter, (1918-2006) worked in the financial industry after serving in the navy during WWII; he advised New York Tribune publisher John Hay Whitney. This is going to be a tremendously fascinating sale, and one for which I think I might have to get the catalog just to have as a useful reference source.
The Edmonton Journal notes that the library contains many works of importance to Canadian history, including first editions by Champlain, Mackenzie, and Vancouver. Also included is an illustrated 1846 edition of Sketches in North America, drawn up by two British spies as they traversed the Oregon Territory (the boundaries of which were then much in dispute). This last, "now considered one of the most beautiful books ever published about the Pacific Northwest," has a pre-sale estimate of $100,000-150,000.
A J.W.F. DesBarres atlas, The Atlantic Neptune (4v., 1774-9), with extremely accurate depictions of the eastern seaboard of North America, is expected to fetch $500,000 or more. The catalog description of this alone is spectacular. And these few are only the beginning. Purchas, Lewis & Clark, Peter Martyr ... 552 lots, and all highly valuable and desirable works on travel or exploration.
Frank M. Streeter, (1918-2006) worked in the financial industry after serving in the navy during WWII; he advised New York Tribune publisher John Hay Whitney. This is going to be a tremendously fascinating sale, and one for which I think I might have to get the catalog just to have as a useful reference source.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Book Review: "Edmund Curll, Bookseller"
Paul Baines and Pat Rogers offer up a real bibliographic treat with Edmund Curll, Bookseller - the first monograph-length biography in eighty years of one of the most interesting bookmen of all time, and the first ever to utilize the full range of modern archival sources. Edmund Curll (1683-1747) was known in his day as an unscrupulous and piratical member of the London book trade (Ralph Straus' 1927 biography is titled simply The Unspeakable Curll). Curll's various trangressions against propriety included publishing letters without permission, arranging for the printing and sale of salacious and objectionable material, and engaging in marketing/business practices which can be charitably described as questionable. Curll is best known, perhaps, for his longstanding and bitter feud with Alexander Pope (the bookseller comes in for quite a lambaste in Pope's Dunciad, though over the course of the conflict it's hard to say which combatant emerges more bloodied). He's a fascinating character who deserves much more scholarly and popular attention today, which is why I was delighted to see that Oxford University Press was publishing this new biography; a bibliographical volume is apparently forthcoming, and I'll wait for that with much anticipation as well.
Baines and Rogers sought very explicitly to offer a scholarly treatment of Curll's life and work, and they have certainly accomplished that goal. This is a dense and detailed examination of the publications which emanated from Curll's pen, press and shops over the course of his career, as well as a dispassionate and reasoned account of his relations with his comrades in the book and printing trades, his authors and translators, and his many antagonists (beyond Pope, these included Jonathan Swift and Henry Fielding, just to name the prominences). The authors' aim, as they put it, is to take a sober look at Curll's output with an eye toward the non-controversial items he published and sold (basic works on theology, for example, as well as an extensive list of books pertaining to English antiquities), in order to gain a more complete understanding of the man.
Baines and Rogers conclude that Curll's major innovations in the book trade came through his unorthodox use of promotion and publicity; they point out that while we today view the use of notoriety to sell things as perfectly normal, in the early to mid-eighteenth century it was a "disturbing novelty" (pg. 315). Curll's practices (publishing pamphlets critical of his own prior publications, for example, to drive of sales of both) made him more than a few enemies, but they also unquestionably sold many books. A master of cheek, understatement ("Curll could do more with an et cetera than anybody else in recorded history" - pg. 172), and wit, Edmund Curll built himself a much-deserved reputation in his time as a rascal; and rascals, as we all know, usually make for the most interesting historical subjects. Curll's certainly no exception.
Meticulously-researched and footnoted (albeit with a rather odd combination of footnotes and endnotes which seemed to switch back and forth somewhat idiosyncratically), Edmund Curll, Bookseller must give all bibliophiles and fans of Curll reason to celebrate; this book has been a long time coming.
Baines and Rogers sought very explicitly to offer a scholarly treatment of Curll's life and work, and they have certainly accomplished that goal. This is a dense and detailed examination of the publications which emanated from Curll's pen, press and shops over the course of his career, as well as a dispassionate and reasoned account of his relations with his comrades in the book and printing trades, his authors and translators, and his many antagonists (beyond Pope, these included Jonathan Swift and Henry Fielding, just to name the prominences). The authors' aim, as they put it, is to take a sober look at Curll's output with an eye toward the non-controversial items he published and sold (basic works on theology, for example, as well as an extensive list of books pertaining to English antiquities), in order to gain a more complete understanding of the man.
Baines and Rogers conclude that Curll's major innovations in the book trade came through his unorthodox use of promotion and publicity; they point out that while we today view the use of notoriety to sell things as perfectly normal, in the early to mid-eighteenth century it was a "disturbing novelty" (pg. 315). Curll's practices (publishing pamphlets critical of his own prior publications, for example, to drive of sales of both) made him more than a few enemies, but they also unquestionably sold many books. A master of cheek, understatement ("Curll could do more with an et cetera than anybody else in recorded history" - pg. 172), and wit, Edmund Curll built himself a much-deserved reputation in his time as a rascal; and rascals, as we all know, usually make for the most interesting historical subjects. Curll's certainly no exception.
Meticulously-researched and footnoted (albeit with a rather odd combination of footnotes and endnotes which seemed to switch back and forth somewhat idiosyncratically), Edmund Curll, Bookseller must give all bibliophiles and fans of Curll reason to celebrate; this book has been a long time coming.
Renaissance Magic Book Translated
The Guardian reports that a book reputed to be the world's oldest text on magic has been translated into English for the first time. Luca Pacioli's De Viribus Quantitatis (On The Powers Of Numbers) was written between 1496-1508, and contains "the first ever reference to card tricks as well as guidance on how to juggle, eat fire and make coins dance. It is also the first work to note that Da Vinci was left-handed."
De Viribus Quantitatis has until now been secreted away at the University of Bologna, but after an eight-year transcription/translation project will now be available in English. William Kalush, of the Conjuring Arts Research Center (NY), who helped fund the translation, says of the work "Sources of magic methods go back at least to the first century, but this book teaches not only the methods but also gives a glimpse into how one might perform them with an eye to entertaining an audience."
A compendium of tricks, puzzles, and verses, the book includes hints on "how to write a sentence on the petals of a rose, wash your hands in molten lead and make an egg walk across a table." Some of the tricks are included in the Guardian article if you want to start practicing.
The translation will be published next year, according to the paper, in order to coincide with the 500th anniversary of its original completion.
You may remember Pacioli from another discovery back in January: a long-lost study of chess attributed to him was found in the Palazzo Coronini Cronberg.
[h/t The Wit of the Staircase]
De Viribus Quantitatis has until now been secreted away at the University of Bologna, but after an eight-year transcription/translation project will now be available in English. William Kalush, of the Conjuring Arts Research Center (NY), who helped fund the translation, says of the work "Sources of magic methods go back at least to the first century, but this book teaches not only the methods but also gives a glimpse into how one might perform them with an eye to entertaining an audience."
A compendium of tricks, puzzles, and verses, the book includes hints on "how to write a sentence on the petals of a rose, wash your hands in molten lead and make an egg walk across a table." Some of the tricks are included in the Guardian article if you want to start practicing.
The translation will be published next year, according to the paper, in order to coincide with the 500th anniversary of its original completion.
You may remember Pacioli from another discovery back in January: a long-lost study of chess attributed to him was found in the Palazzo Coronini Cronberg.
[h/t The Wit of the Staircase]
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Another Slap to the Used/Rare Book Trade
The latest big story to rock the used and rare book world is the Post Office's decision to end international surface shipments as of mid-May: "These so-called surface deliveries have been the crucial method by which booksellers have sold books to foreign markets because the cost is about one-third that of air mail," the NYTimes reports.
USPS said that surface shipments accounted for just 2.7% of international mail, and that the demand for airmail shipments has increased. A spokeswoman told the Times "The Postal Service has a longstanding commitment to small businesses and is working to accommodate customers’ needs as the international mail changes take effect," promising "customized agreements" for "higher-volume shippers."
But there will likely be no "customized agreements" for the used/rare booksellers who may make just a few international sales per month where the customer wants surface shipment rather than airmail. A few, maybe, but usually fairly important nonetheless. One bookseller says "I think the Postal Service dangled that to defuse any pushback. If they were really serious about this, they would’ve pushed back the cancellation of surface mail until they could incorporate these other standards."
A surprisingly detailed and comprehensive article from the Times about this, kudos to Bob Tedeschi for a nice job done. This decision will undoubtedly have a major ripple affect across the book world, and the trend will certainly be worth keeping an eye on.
Joyce has more,
USPS said that surface shipments accounted for just 2.7% of international mail, and that the demand for airmail shipments has increased. A spokeswoman told the Times "The Postal Service has a longstanding commitment to small businesses and is working to accommodate customers’ needs as the international mail changes take effect," promising "customized agreements" for "higher-volume shippers."
But there will likely be no "customized agreements" for the used/rare booksellers who may make just a few international sales per month where the customer wants surface shipment rather than airmail. A few, maybe, but usually fairly important nonetheless. One bookseller says "I think the Postal Service dangled that to defuse any pushback. If they were really serious about this, they would’ve pushed back the cancellation of surface mail until they could incorporate these other standards."
A surprisingly detailed and comprehensive article from the Times about this, kudos to Bob Tedeschi for a nice job done. This decision will undoubtedly have a major ripple affect across the book world, and the trend will certainly be worth keeping an eye on.
Joyce has more,
Monday, April 09, 2007
Recent Reviews
Good book review weeks seem to go in cycles, and apparently papers didn't want to run much of interest on Easter Sunday (or at least so it seemed to me in my perusal of the book sections). Here are the few that caught my eye this weekend:
- In the London Times, Bryan Appleyard has a lengthy essay on the forthcoming Tolkien book. He suggests that the release of The Children of Hurin is timed to return Tolkien to the printed page, to capitalize on the audience created by the films but at the same time to create a new generation of Tolkien readers rather than viewers.
- Michael Kammen reviews Hugh Brogan's Alexis de Tocqueville in the Boston Globe. Since this one's on my "to be read" pile I haven't looked at the review yet, but if you want a sneak preview, feel free.
- Edmund and Marie Morgan have a fascinating review commentary in the most recent New York Review of Books on six of the recent crop of books related to the anniversary of Jamestown. An elegant essay, which serves as a very good overview of Jamestown's place in American history and memory.
- In the TLS, A.E. Harvey reviews Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony.
- In the London Times, Bryan Appleyard has a lengthy essay on the forthcoming Tolkien book. He suggests that the release of The Children of Hurin is timed to return Tolkien to the printed page, to capitalize on the audience created by the films but at the same time to create a new generation of Tolkien readers rather than viewers.
- Michael Kammen reviews Hugh Brogan's Alexis de Tocqueville in the Boston Globe. Since this one's on my "to be read" pile I haven't looked at the review yet, but if you want a sneak preview, feel free.
- Edmund and Marie Morgan have a fascinating review commentary in the most recent New York Review of Books on six of the recent crop of books related to the anniversary of Jamestown. An elegant essay, which serves as a very good overview of Jamestown's place in American history and memory.
- In the TLS, A.E. Harvey reviews Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Book Review: "The Areas of My Expertise"
John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise is a compendium of facts (or, in this case, fictional facts) designed as a book of "complete world knowledge." Delivered in Hodgman's famous deadpan (which doesn't quite translate as well without Jon Stewart as foil), this book is generally amusing, but rarely laugh-out-loud funny. It can get a bit tedious at times, and is recommended more for a casual, occasional browse rather than a full read-through (I don't think I would have managed to complete it if I'd tried that).
Links &c.
- If you haven't made Bibliopolis a regular stop, I highly encourage it. It's a great biblioblog clearinghouse, and has quickly become indispensible.
- Travis McDade has some more on the McTague case, noting that McTague's lawyer used to work with the U.S. Attorney's office in Philadelphia, prosecuting "sales of stolen art and manuscripts."
- fade theory points out a new online exhibit from the University of Cincinnati libraries, "The Shape of the Book." Fairly basic, but worth checking out.
- From BibliOdyssey, Franciscus Valentin's 1726 collection of fish images from Indonesia and Ceylon and a great selection from "The Book of Curiosities".
- Reading Copy posts on ABE's new "not-book" (Nineteen Eighty-Five: Things are Looking Up by George Orwell).
- Ian has more thoughts on the Boston fair, and also a few comments on Bookride.
- Ed's got the fourth chapter of The Quaker City up, and has also created a site on the gravesite of George Lippard.
- Over at Critical Mass, they link to Scott McLemee's Inside Higher Ed column on the republication of Cawdrey's dictionary (1604). Joyce also commented on this; I'm excited for the reprint.
- Scott at Fine Books Blog has much excellent background information on the happenings at Heritage Book Shop. There will be more in the upcoming May/June edition of Fine Books and Collections.
- Travis McDade has some more on the McTague case, noting that McTague's lawyer used to work with the U.S. Attorney's office in Philadelphia, prosecuting "sales of stolen art and manuscripts."
- fade theory points out a new online exhibit from the University of Cincinnati libraries, "The Shape of the Book." Fairly basic, but worth checking out.
- From BibliOdyssey, Franciscus Valentin's 1726 collection of fish images from Indonesia and Ceylon and a great selection from "The Book of Curiosities".
- Reading Copy posts on ABE's new "not-book" (Nineteen Eighty-Five: Things are Looking Up by George Orwell).
- Ian has more thoughts on the Boston fair, and also a few comments on Bookride.
- Ed's got the fourth chapter of The Quaker City up, and has also created a site on the gravesite of George Lippard.
- Over at Critical Mass, they link to Scott McLemee's Inside Higher Ed column on the republication of Cawdrey's dictionary (1604). Joyce also commented on this; I'm excited for the reprint.
- Scott at Fine Books Blog has much excellent background information on the happenings at Heritage Book Shop. There will be more in the upcoming May/June edition of Fine Books and Collections.
Recommendation: Dogtown Bookshop
Yesterday some friends and I ventured up the coast from Boston and visited Gloucester; somehow we ended up in Dogtown Bookshop, which has just recently reopened in a new location on Main Street. We browsed around awhile, and I was very impressed with the stock and the selection. Good amounts of New England/Massachusetts/&c. books, as well as a nice case of books on books and much more. They're still in a little bit of organization mode after the move, but no matter ... it was a great shop for a browse (or as the sign on the door put it, "exploratory shopping"). I'll be sure to make it a regular stop when I'm up that direction.
Be sure to check out the other signage as well: our favorite was "Unattended children will be given an espresso and a free puppy."
Be sure to check out the other signage as well: our favorite was "Unattended children will be given an espresso and a free puppy."
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Newsweek Covers Thieving Intern
Denning McTague's fifteen minutes are just about up (ironic that that's also probably about the time he'll spend in jail for selling pieces of the nation's cultural heritage on eBay), but first, the obligatory Newsweek article. Eve Conant has the byline for "To Catch a Thief: It was the perfect setup. How a quiet, unassuming 40-year-old historian got away with some of the nation's priceless historical documents."
Not a bad article, but I'm puzzled by comments from US Attorney Patrick Meehan, who's quoted as saying that the documents McTague stole "are valued well into the tens of thousands. Their intrinsic value may be limited, but they are of incalculable value to historians." Incalculable ... exactly. So why let McTague plead out and get a minimal punishment? Why not throw the book at the guy and take a firm stand against cultural crime, instead of charging him on one count of the least serious possible charge? Incalculable worth, but not worth your time? Bah.
Not a bad article, but I'm puzzled by comments from US Attorney Patrick Meehan, who's quoted as saying that the documents McTague stole "are valued well into the tens of thousands. Their intrinsic value may be limited, but they are of incalculable value to historians." Incalculable ... exactly. So why let McTague plead out and get a minimal punishment? Why not throw the book at the guy and take a firm stand against cultural crime, instead of charging him on one count of the least serious possible charge? Incalculable worth, but not worth your time? Bah.
More on the Churton Thefts
The New Zealand Herald has a very detailed article on the Karen Churton thefts from Massey University Library; it reports for the first time I've seen how the librarians finally discovered that Churton was the culprit. Since she'd deleted the records of the books she sold from the computer catalogue, it was only a printed shelf-list made prior to the deletions which alerted library officials to what had happened and allowed them to confirm ownership of the books.
Friday, April 06, 2007
German Bible (1560) Missing
From the ABAA security listserv:
"Gone missing, and perhaps stolen, while in transit from Connecticut to British Columbia or in BC:
German Bible (Title = "Biblia. Das ist die gantze heylige Schrift, Teutsch D. Mart. Luth.") in two volumes, printed in Frankfurt in 1560. Folio (about 14 inches high), bound in plain dark brown calf, raised bands, simple gilt lettering on spine. With hand-colored woodcuts and with more
than 1,000 very charming and quite distinctive hand-painted vignettes in the margins, probably done in the 16th century."
If you have any information on this title, please contact Pirages.
"Gone missing, and perhaps stolen, while in transit from Connecticut to British Columbia or in BC:
German Bible (Title = "Biblia. Das ist die gantze heylige Schrift, Teutsch D. Mart. Luth.") in two volumes, printed in Frankfurt in 1560. Folio (about 14 inches high), bound in plain dark brown calf, raised bands, simple gilt lettering on spine. With hand-colored woodcuts and with more
than 1,000 very charming and quite distinctive hand-painted vignettes in the margins, probably done in the 16th century."
If you have any information on this title, please contact Pirages.
Wordsworth Manuscript Acquired by Trust
Well we all know how Wordsworth treated his books, but now we can gain some insight into how he edited his poems, thanks to a new acquisition by the Wordsworth Trust. A first edition of Wordsworth's poem "The White Doe of Rylstone" has come to light, "covered in revisions in the handwriting of the poet’s wife Mary Wordsworth. They were made in preparation for the second edition of the work in 1820 and show Wordsworth’s constant changes from the early drafts to proof stages."
Trust director David Wilson said of the find "For Wordsworth the process of composition of verse and prose was a continuous one. Publication was just one stage in the never ending reworking and revisiting of the his text. This is an excellent example of that process and it is an important addition to the collection we hold here."
The Wordsworth Trust, in Grasmere, holds some 90 percent of existing Wordsworth manuscript material.
[h/t Shelf:Life]
Trust director David Wilson said of the find "For Wordsworth the process of composition of verse and prose was a continuous one. Publication was just one stage in the never ending reworking and revisiting of the his text. This is an excellent example of that process and it is an important addition to the collection we hold here."
The Wordsworth Trust, in Grasmere, holds some 90 percent of existing Wordsworth manuscript material.
[h/t Shelf:Life]
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Book Review: "The Secret of Lost Things"
Sheridan Hay's The Secret of Lost Things (Doubleday, 2006) is a novel designed for the bibliophile in all of us. Set primarily in a large New York City bookstore (modeled not-so-loosely on the sprawling Strand), with a key plot thread revolving around a lost Melville novel, Hay's debut offers some very interesting potential, which sadly goes largely unfulfilled.
The narrator, a young Tasmanian emigre named Rosemary Savage, comes to New York and finds employment at the Arcade, a bookstore filled with characters who would be interesting if they weren't so stereotypical: the imperious, domineering owner, odd albino manager, transsexual cashier, garrulous rare book guru ... you get the idea. Rosemary's youth and inexperience are put to the test over the course of a few months on the job as she finds herself drawn into an odd quest for knowledge, love, and acceptance (not all from the same people or at the same time).
Hay's premise is an interesting one, and the book held my interest throughout; I just kept hoping it would all come together in the end, and was disappointed when it did not.
The narrator, a young Tasmanian emigre named Rosemary Savage, comes to New York and finds employment at the Arcade, a bookstore filled with characters who would be interesting if they weren't so stereotypical: the imperious, domineering owner, odd albino manager, transsexual cashier, garrulous rare book guru ... you get the idea. Rosemary's youth and inexperience are put to the test over the course of a few months on the job as she finds herself drawn into an odd quest for knowledge, love, and acceptance (not all from the same people or at the same time).
Hay's premise is an interesting one, and the book held my interest throughout; I just kept hoping it would all come together in the end, and was disappointed when it did not.
Book Review: "Absurdistan"
I very rarely don't finish a book once I've started it. I made an exception to that rule for Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart. This book may have been listed among the "best of 2006" by oodles of newspapers, but I couldn't manage to get into it at all. I lasted about thirty pages and then gave it up - life's too short and there are far too many good books out there. Maybe there's something there for someone else, but it was not for me.
New Online Print Collection at UToronto
The University of Toronto Library has recently announced its latest online collection: The Wenceslas Hollar Digital Collection includes more than 2500 prints of Wenceslaus
Hollar (1607-1677), a Czech who settled in England but worked throughout western Europe. The biographical description calls Hollar "one of the most skilled etchers of his or any other time, which is all the more remarkable given that he was almost blind in one eye."
Digital collections, when done well, can be spectacular. This one has been done very well. Easily navigable and browsable, the images are crisp and clean. Even beyond the prints, a selection of books which contain Hollar etchings have been made available full-text, providing a nice context for some of the illustrations.
Stop by and check this out when you get a chance, but be careful - it's easy to get sucked in!
Hollar (1607-1677), a Czech who settled in England but worked throughout western Europe. The biographical description calls Hollar "one of the most skilled etchers of his or any other time, which is all the more remarkable given that he was almost blind in one eye."
Digital collections, when done well, can be spectacular. This one has been done very well. Easily navigable and browsable, the images are crisp and clean. Even beyond the prints, a selection of books which contain Hollar etchings have been made available full-text, providing a nice context for some of the illustrations.
Stop by and check this out when you get a chance, but be careful - it's easy to get sucked in!
Most Stolen Hocking Books Recovered
A short AP notice from late last week escaped my notice until this morning, but it's good news to pass along: 443 books stolen from the home of the late Harvard philosopher William Ernest Hocking back in February have been recovered.
"[Madison, NH] Police Chief John Pickering says investigators were led to the 443 books, in Madison, by a tip last week. He said the recovery will not result in immediate arrests, though police have identified suspects and gotten some good clues from the discovery. The owner still is compiling a list to see if other books still are missing."
Excellent! Hopefully those "good clues" will pan out and those responsible will be brought to justice, or at least what passage for justice when it comes to book thefts in this country. Probably the "tipster" was the thief and will get a gold medal for good citizenship or something equally ridiculous.
[h/t Kurt Bodling, Ex-Libris]
"[Madison, NH] Police Chief John Pickering says investigators were led to the 443 books, in Madison, by a tip last week. He said the recovery will not result in immediate arrests, though police have identified suspects and gotten some good clues from the discovery. The owner still is compiling a list to see if other books still are missing."
Excellent! Hopefully those "good clues" will pan out and those responsible will be brought to justice, or at least what passage for justice when it comes to book thefts in this country. Probably the "tipster" was the thief and will get a gold medal for good citizenship or something equally ridiculous.
[h/t Kurt Bodling, Ex-Libris]
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
McTague Pleads Guilty, Sentence TBD
As expected, Thieving Intern Denning McTague pleaded guilty to one count of stealing government property today in federal court. The AP notes that all but three of the 165+ items stolen from the Philadelphia branch of the National Archives have been returned.
In making his plea (on which Travis McDade comments here at Upward Departure), McTague admitted that he had slipped the archival documents inside the pages of a yellow legal pad in order to get them out of the building where he worked as an intern.
McTague's sentencing is set for 12 July; the top sentence is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, but as the AP notes "federal sentencing guidelines call for much less." And as we know, chances are fairly good that McTague will spend less than a year in jail (that is, if he's sent there at all).
A shameful shirking of responsibility by the federal prosecutors, who ought to have taken this crime much more seriously.
In making his plea (on which Travis McDade comments here at Upward Departure), McTague admitted that he had slipped the archival documents inside the pages of a yellow legal pad in order to get them out of the building where he worked as an intern.
McTague's sentencing is set for 12 July; the top sentence is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, but as the AP notes "federal sentencing guidelines call for much less." And as we know, chances are fairly good that McTague will spend less than a year in jail (that is, if he's sent there at all).
A shameful shirking of responsibility by the federal prosecutors, who ought to have taken this crime much more seriously.
MLK Papers Found, Auction Planned
A set of approximately 25 Martin Luther King Jr. documents - unknown to King scholars - has emerged, and an auction is planned. The AP reports "The collection had sat in the basement of a King friend for nearly 40 years. The woman said she got the papers in a debt settlement with a radio station connected to King, according to Gallery 63 in Atlanta, which is hosting the April 15 auction."
The King Center's president, Isaac Newton Farris, told the AP "Unless the woman has documentation that the papers were given to her, they are owned by the King Estate. We're moving forward to get as much information as we can about that."
Gallery 63 officials say they've received multiple inquiries about the collection - which consists of "first drafts of speeches and letters to and from King, all dating from the early to mid-1960s" - from institutional repositories as well as major collectors.
Today marks the 39th anniversary of Dr. King's assassination.
The King Center's president, Isaac Newton Farris, told the AP "Unless the woman has documentation that the papers were given to her, they are owned by the King Estate. We're moving forward to get as much information as we can about that."
Gallery 63 officials say they've received multiple inquiries about the collection - which consists of "first drafts of speeches and letters to and from King, all dating from the early to mid-1960s" - from institutional repositories as well as major collectors.
Today marks the 39th anniversary of Dr. King's assassination.
Nostradamus Collection on the Block
Over at Fine Books Blog, Scott Brown previews the upcoming Swann sale of the late Daniel Ruzo's Nostradamus collection. "Ruzo, a Peruvian attorney, built the most comprehensive Nostradamus library in private hands." This sale, which is set for 23 April, will include unique copies of Nostradamus' earliest almanacs, as well as more than 35 pre-1800 editions of the Prophecies.
Scott comments on the very low estimates Swann has placed on these items, adding "My prediction: These books will sell for quite a bit more than their estimates. The most recent sale at auction of Les Propheties was in 2000, when a 1568 edition reached about $3,500. The first English edition last sold for roughly the same price in 2001. The lone copy listed online is priced at $13,500. No almanacs have sold at auction in at least 30 years."
I'd agree with that prediction - particularly for the unique almanacs, I can't imagine that the bidding will be anything but fierce.
Scott comments on the very low estimates Swann has placed on these items, adding "My prediction: These books will sell for quite a bit more than their estimates. The most recent sale at auction of Les Propheties was in 2000, when a 1568 edition reached about $3,500. The first English edition last sold for roughly the same price in 2001. The lone copy listed online is priced at $13,500. No almanacs have sold at auction in at least 30 years."
I'd agree with that prediction - particularly for the unique almanacs, I can't imagine that the bidding will be anything but fierce.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Only Two Librarian-Lifted Books Recovered
More today on the Karen Dale Churton front - she's the New Zealand thieving librarian. The librarian at Massey University told Radio New Zealand that just two of the six books Churton stole have been recovered. The Massey News has some more background on the case, and reports that the library is missing more books "of a similar theme to those Mrs Churton had removed from the catalogue." In total, 24 books "appear to have been removed from the library’s closed access collections, which would have a likely market value of about $40,000 [NZ]."
Monday, April 02, 2007
Recent Reviews
- Apparently it's "literary figure as crime-solver" season: Giulio Leoni's got Dante solving murders in fourteenth-century Florence in The Mosaic Crimes (reviewed by Frank Wilson in the Philly Inq) and Joel Rose's The Blackest Bird is yet another take on the 1841 Mary Rogers murder, featuring Edgar Allan Poe. That's reviewed by David Hiltbrand, also in the Inq.
- One final review from the Inq this week (packed full of them!): Glenn Altschuler comments on The Lost World of James Smithson, just out from Bloomsbury. Smithson was the man behind the gift which enabled the formation of the Smithsonian Institution.
- Arthur Phillips, whose The Egyptologist I recently reviewed, has a new novel out: Angelica, which takes place in Victorian England and whose plot seems rather difficult to summarize, if Art Winslow's LATimes review is anything to go on. Elizabeth Hand also writes on Angelica, in the WaPo.
- Also at the LATimes, Amy Wilentz reviews Christopher Buckley's newest, Boomsday. I didn't read this review since I recently picked up an ARC of this at the shop, so I'll have some comments on it eventually.
- Lots of history/biography reviews in the Washington Post this week: Joe Ellis reviews Hugh Brogan's new biography of Tocqueville; Benjamin Forgey reviews Grand Avenues (about L'Enfant's designs for Washington, D.C.); and James Campbell reviews a pair of new books relating to slave escapes on the Underground Railroad. One of those titles, I've Got a Home in Glory Land, is also reviewed in the Boston Globe by Renee Graham.
- Our friend Ed Pettit has a review of Thomas Jackson's From Civil Rights to Human Rights, which appeared in the Greensboro News & Record this weekend.
- One final review from the Inq this week (packed full of them!): Glenn Altschuler comments on The Lost World of James Smithson, just out from Bloomsbury. Smithson was the man behind the gift which enabled the formation of the Smithsonian Institution.
- Arthur Phillips, whose The Egyptologist I recently reviewed, has a new novel out: Angelica, which takes place in Victorian England and whose plot seems rather difficult to summarize, if Art Winslow's LATimes review is anything to go on. Elizabeth Hand also writes on Angelica, in the WaPo.
- Also at the LATimes, Amy Wilentz reviews Christopher Buckley's newest, Boomsday. I didn't read this review since I recently picked up an ARC of this at the shop, so I'll have some comments on it eventually.
- Lots of history/biography reviews in the Washington Post this week: Joe Ellis reviews Hugh Brogan's new biography of Tocqueville; Benjamin Forgey reviews Grand Avenues (about L'Enfant's designs for Washington, D.C.); and James Campbell reviews a pair of new books relating to slave escapes on the Underground Railroad. One of those titles, I've Got a Home in Glory Land, is also reviewed in the Boston Globe by Renee Graham.
- Our friend Ed Pettit has a review of Thomas Jackson's From Civil Rights to Human Rights, which appeared in the Greensboro News & Record this weekend.
NZ Librarian Sentenced, Will Appeal
Former Massey Univ. librarian Karen Churton, nabbed back in March as part of the ongoing Operation Pukapuka investigations in New Zealand, has been sentenced to a whopping eleven months in prison after admitting the theft of six rare books worth more than $23,000 from the library where she was employed.
"In sentencing, Judge Gregory Ross said Churton's offending involved a significant breach of trust and some of the rare books may never be recovered. He noted she had paid full reparation of more than $23,000 prior to sentencing and granted her leave to apply for home detention." Isn't that nice, now she'll probably get to spend her 11 months at home, rather than in jail.
Radio New Zealand adds that Churton's lawyer says she'll be appealing the sentence; she's been remanded to jail while the appeal is pending. Maybe the higher court will realize what a slap on the wrist this sentence is and increase it ... yes, I know, pigs fly, &c.
"In sentencing, Judge Gregory Ross said Churton's offending involved a significant breach of trust and some of the rare books may never be recovered. He noted she had paid full reparation of more than $23,000 prior to sentencing and granted her leave to apply for home detention." Isn't that nice, now she'll probably get to spend her 11 months at home, rather than in jail.
Radio New Zealand adds that Churton's lawyer says she'll be appealing the sentence; she's been remanded to jail while the appeal is pending. Maybe the higher court will realize what a slap on the wrist this sentence is and increase it ... yes, I know, pigs fly, &c.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Book Reviews: "The Bernini Bust" and "The Last Judgement"
I've decided to depart from typical practice and review The Bernini Bust and The Last Judgement (both by Iain Pears) together since I've read both in the past week and, well, they're pretty much alike anyway. Two more installments in the Art History Mysteries series, these two continue the haphazard adventures of the erstwhile-but-bumbling Jonathan Argyll and the Italian art squad's Flavia di Stefano as they jaunt around trying to solve various crimes somehow related to pieces of art. In these as with Pears' other attempts in this series the plots are fairly conventional and the writing doesn't approach Pears' more literary works (An Instance of the Fingerpost, for example). But they make for good, quick, weekend reading, and everyone needs that now and again.
Links &c.
- The British Book Awards were announced on Thursday. [h/t: The Book Depository]
- Paul Collins has been deliciously busy lately and has a whole bunch of goodies for us. First, he's got a new piece in the April issue of The Believer on alloynomic literature - that in which a famous author's name is appropriated (usually but not always after their death). Quite fun, this one. He's also got a post on some classic April Fools' pranks, including one which caught some gullible Bostonians in the 1840s.
- Ed's posted two new chapters of Lippard's The Quaker City for us to read as part of the ongoing serialization.
- Over at Reading Archives, Richard Cox comments on the new book Stealing Lincoln's Body and its links to historical documentation.
- Reading Copy this week comented on literary misspellings and, very interestingly, of books ordered through ABE by American soldiers serving in Iraq.
- FoggyGates has some thoughts about the announced Harry Potter cover designs. I agree with him.
- From BibliOdyssey this week: comets and Renaissance drawings.
- Our friend at Fade Theory posts the lyrics and some thoughts on the song "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream," as sung by Simon & Garfunkel. One of my favorites.
- Travis at Upward Departure has been busy this week too. He links to a newly-mounted list from NARA of some of the documents that have "gone missing" from the National Archives (and a contest to name such thefts); he also comments on my post from last weekend on the upcoming guilty plea by Denning McTague (court date: Wednesday, 4 April).
- Over at The Millions, Garth has a post about some of the recent fiction relating to the Jamestown settlement.
- Book Trout announces an April sale, 20% off books listed on their website. I'll have to check that out and see what they've got to offer.
- Paul Collins has been deliciously busy lately and has a whole bunch of goodies for us. First, he's got a new piece in the April issue of The Believer on alloynomic literature - that in which a famous author's name is appropriated (usually but not always after their death). Quite fun, this one. He's also got a post on some classic April Fools' pranks, including one which caught some gullible Bostonians in the 1840s.
- Ed's posted two new chapters of Lippard's The Quaker City for us to read as part of the ongoing serialization.
- Over at Reading Archives, Richard Cox comments on the new book Stealing Lincoln's Body and its links to historical documentation.
- Reading Copy this week comented on literary misspellings and, very interestingly, of books ordered through ABE by American soldiers serving in Iraq.
- FoggyGates has some thoughts about the announced Harry Potter cover designs. I agree with him.
- From BibliOdyssey this week: comets and Renaissance drawings.
- Our friend at Fade Theory posts the lyrics and some thoughts on the song "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream," as sung by Simon & Garfunkel. One of my favorites.
- Travis at Upward Departure has been busy this week too. He links to a newly-mounted list from NARA of some of the documents that have "gone missing" from the National Archives (and a contest to name such thefts); he also comments on my post from last weekend on the upcoming guilty plea by Denning McTague (court date: Wednesday, 4 April).
- Over at The Millions, Garth has a post about some of the recent fiction relating to the Jamestown settlement.
- Book Trout announces an April sale, 20% off books listed on their website. I'll have to check that out and see what they've got to offer.
Report from Boston MARIAB Fair
I spent most of Saturday out at the Bayside Expo Center enjoying the MARIAB book fair. A good selection of New England book dealers, with a few outliers thrown in for good measure (there were a couple booths from Canada, New York, and the Griffons brought some of their illuminated manuscripts up from St. Petersburg, FL). A very manageable fair; I got through my first pass of all the booths in under two hours, then poked back around a few of them two or three more times. I swung through the antiques side briefly, but quickly remembered why it is that I collect books and not oh, antique tables or lamps or paintings or something: for what they offer us, books are a steal!
There were some really excellent offerings in the book department: a Historia Insectorum Generalis (1693), with some amazing insect engravings (magnified by microscope) really caught my eye ... sadly it cost more than a month's rent, and stayed on the shelf. The Brattle recently acquired a neat collection of books containing subscriber lists, and had some on display including a set of Laurence Sterne's works with William Franklin (Ben's son) as the first subscriber. Another work listed Washington and Franklin as the first subscribers. I could go on all day ...
I was delighted to have a chance to meet some of my longtime book-blog correspondents, including Joyce from Bibliophile Bullpen and Ian from Lux Mentis (who's got a couple dispatches from the show posted already, here and here) [update: Joyce has a dispatch from the fair up now too]. And it's always nice to see the Boston book community out in full force. I was surprised when the organizers finally opened the doors that very few among the crowd headed for the book-side of the fair first, but things filled out fairly well toward the middle of the day. Hopefully things got a little busier later in the day and will continue thus for Sunday (10-5 today, so you've still got time to get there!).
Of course the big question: what'd I buy?? Surprisingly I ended up spending more on prints than books: Paper Art (Newburyport) had a couple "bargain bins" that I sifted through and found a few goodies for $10 or less which I couldn't pass up. Seventeenth and eighteenth century images mainly: printing presses, the Radcliffe Library at Oxford, some geometrical perspectives, an Audubon portrait, and a few gifts. I also picked up a very nice copy of Extracts from the Writings of Francis Fenelon (the author of Telemachus, of which I saw not a single example yesterday). That was an excellent find, and one I'm quite happy with.
Like I said, you've still got today, so hustle out to Bayside and enjoy a Sunday with books.
There were some really excellent offerings in the book department: a Historia Insectorum Generalis (1693), with some amazing insect engravings (magnified by microscope) really caught my eye ... sadly it cost more than a month's rent, and stayed on the shelf. The Brattle recently acquired a neat collection of books containing subscriber lists, and had some on display including a set of Laurence Sterne's works with William Franklin (Ben's son) as the first subscriber. Another work listed Washington and Franklin as the first subscribers. I could go on all day ...
I was delighted to have a chance to meet some of my longtime book-blog correspondents, including Joyce from Bibliophile Bullpen and Ian from Lux Mentis (who's got a couple dispatches from the show posted already, here and here) [update: Joyce has a dispatch from the fair up now too]. And it's always nice to see the Boston book community out in full force. I was surprised when the organizers finally opened the doors that very few among the crowd headed for the book-side of the fair first, but things filled out fairly well toward the middle of the day. Hopefully things got a little busier later in the day and will continue thus for Sunday (10-5 today, so you've still got time to get there!).
Of course the big question: what'd I buy?? Surprisingly I ended up spending more on prints than books: Paper Art (Newburyport) had a couple "bargain bins" that I sifted through and found a few goodies for $10 or less which I couldn't pass up. Seventeenth and eighteenth century images mainly: printing presses, the Radcliffe Library at Oxford, some geometrical perspectives, an Audubon portrait, and a few gifts. I also picked up a very nice copy of Extracts from the Writings of Francis Fenelon (the author of Telemachus, of which I saw not a single example yesterday). That was an excellent find, and one I'm quite happy with.
Like I said, you've still got today, so hustle out to Bayside and enjoy a Sunday with books.
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