Original Version of "On the Road" to be Published

The Boston Globe noted last week that the unedited first version of Jack Kerouac's On the Road will be published next year, to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the work's original publication. Viking Penguin has the project. The original manuscript (on a 119-foot scroll) is currently touring the country, and is scheduled to appear in Kerouac's hometown of Lowell, MA, next summer.

Book Review: "The Third Translation"

I can sum up my recommendation of author Matt Bondurant's debut novel The Third Translation (2005) in two words: skip it. I almost didn't finish this book; the only reason I did was to make sure that it didn't improve as it moved along - turns out I needn't have worried about that.

Some of my problems with Third Translation are perhaps stylistic: Bondurant doesn't put quotation marks around his dialogue, which I found incredibly annoying; he also repeats many of the same descriptive phrases and/or scenes (including a particularly repulsive motif in which the main character's neighbors come into his apartment to use the bathroom) and has the odd habit of referring to one character by his full name, "Alan Henry" (which creates a ripple effect of tortured pronoun usage that could perhaps have been mitigated by the efforts of an editor).

Those issues are minor, however, compared to the fact that the plot is barely developed (and then - perhaps fittingly - barely comes to a conclusion, most of which is to be found only in the epilogue). The characters are either too bland or too ridiculous to be believable (the introduction of a gang of American pro-wrestlers was yet another point where I almost gave up on this book), and the sections where Bondurant tries to discuss Egyptology are totally lost amongst the silliness of the rest of the book.

The author's interest in Egyptology and particularly in the unsolved puzzle of the Stela of Paser are evident. Unfortunately, I don't think his attempt to make a thriller out of them turned out particularly well.

Libraries Suspect Smiley in More Missing Map Cases

The Hartford Courant (which has been doing an exemplary job in coverage of the Smiley case, I must say) reports today that the libraries hit by map thief E. Forbe Smiley are beginning to realize that the thefts uncovered by the FBI may be only the tip of the iceberg.

Kim Martineau writes "The British Library, Yale and now Harvard are reporting more maps missing from their collections than those the map dealer has admitted to taking. The most valuable fall within Smiley's area of interest - early maps of North America - and several are copies of maps Smiley has already admitted stealing. The British Library suspects Smiley of taking three additional maps and has hired a high-powered Philadelphia lawyer to push its case. Privately, Yale and Harvard have also expressed concern."

On Friday, Harvard announced that five more maps are missing from its collections; the BL and Yale had made similar notices previously. Martineau reports that the libraries will meet with the FBI on August 7 to "sort out loose ends" before Smiley is sentenced; these new concerns will certainly be a part of that meeting.

Smiley's lawyer claims that his client has been entirely cooperative in the FBI's investigation, that he didn't steal the additional maps and is being scapegoated by the libraries. The FBI says they're happy to look at new information brought forth by the libraries, but much of the evidence is circumstantial, as Martineau outlines in depth.

I think it's entirely possible if not likely that Smiley did make off with at least some of the additional maps. However, the lack of proof only speaks more loudly to the need for institutional control by the libraries over their materials so that future Smileys won't have such any easy job of it.

Some New Links

I have been collecting a bunch of new links to add, and finally bit the bullet this morning and did it. These can now be found on the sidebar:

- Bookworm Droppings: A collection of funny and/or disturbing things overheard in bookshops.
- The Journey of a Sleep-Deprived Grad Student: The blog of a fellow library science grad student.
- Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie: All bookplates, all the time.
- Luminous Books: Book news and musings.
- The Book Depository: Bookselling and publishing news.
- Book World: "One woman's attempt to read what's worth reading and say something about it along the way."
- Shelf Life: Rare book news with links.
- Bibliophile Bullpen: "A whiff of old books with your coffee." Almanac, news, events and more.
- Books Rare - Conversation: New blog by an antiquarian bookseller, appraiser, and consultant.
- Spellbound Blog: Thoughts of an archives student at the University of Maryland.

Book Review: "The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop"

Former bookseller and publishing rep Lewis Buzbee's new memoir The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop found its way to the top of my pile this week. Interesting timing given the list of bookseller reminiscences I've been compiling lately. Buzbee's book (published by Graywolf Press) is a nice little volume, the design of which I like very much: nice dust-jacket, deckled edges, good paper with wide margins. More importantly, the content's not bad either.

Buzbee intersperses autobiographical anecdotes about his life among books with short sections which together comprise a very decent history of the book and bookselling from the early days to the present. This is carried off well, sometimes a tricky thing to do. Both parts are interesting, but it is the personal thoughts and musings which held my attention the most, particularly Buzbee's thoughts on how it was that he came to love books and know that they'd always be a part of his life. I think that many of us have very similar stories, and reading those of others is fascinating.

As Buzbee writes, "There's nothing exceptional in my reading history, and that's why I've chosen to detail it. For those who are afflicted with book lust, those for whom reading is more than information or escape, the road to our passion is quite simple, paved merely by the presence of printed matter."

There is much more to this book than a simple memoir: Buzbee offers thoughts for parents seeking to pass on a love of books to their children ("Take someone who likes to read; give her a comfy place to do so and ample time for doing it; add one good book, and then more; stand back"), some comments and statistics on the health and well-being of the book industry and the role that the internet has come to play in the book world. At the end, he even offers up an annotated list of his favorite bookshops, which is certainly a good resource for the traveling reader.

I quite enjoyed The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, and recommend it to all you bibliophiles out there.

LC Cataloging Controversy

Inside Higher Ed has an excellent article on a major fight going on in the cataloging community after the Library of Congress announced that it will no longer provide series authority records, devolving the responsibilities to individual libraries.

The LC's move has been panned by researchers, the American Library Association, and other groups. The Library of Congress has provided very little information about what prompted this decision, and was "unprepared" to discuss the issue on Thursday, according to Inside Higher Ed.

Thieving Librarian Pleads Guilty

The Manchester Evening News (England) reports that Norman Buckley, a librarian at the city's Central Library, has entered guilty pleas on ten counts of theft after he pilfered more than 400 rare books and other items and began selling them on eBay.

More than £250,000 worth of stolen items were discovered in Buckley's apartment, including a 16th-century edition of Chaucer and a 1654 volume of John Donne's elegies. Buckley had already sold items for more than £11,000 when an alert rare books librarian at Central recognized an item up for auction and called the police.

After the raid on his apartment, Buckley admitted the thefts, "telling police that he had started to steal after breaking up with his long-term girlfriend." He issued guilty pleas on ten of the counts, and according to the paper "has asked for 445 offences to be taken into consideration." He could face a maximum of six months in prison for each count. Buckley will be sentenced on August 25.

My thoughts on this one: include all 445 counts when calculating prison time. And that still wouldn't be enough punishment for this guy.

Library of Parliament Reopens

The Canadian Library of Parliament in Ottawa reopened last month after a four-year, $136-million renovation project, reports The Record. The library's air handling and electrical systems were replaced, and the building's appearance was restored to its original 1876 look, complete with layers of translucent glass floors allowing light to enter from the library's dome, a new copper roof, paint job and floor. The new look is described as "breathtaking."

The article discusses the many fires that have plagued the library, as well as some of the rarer pieces held by the institution, including a copy of Audubon's Birds of America with marginal notes by John James Audubon himself (donated by his widow Lucy when the library's original copy was lost in one of the fires). The Birds and other rare items will now be housed in new underground vaults constructed during the renovation project.

Book Review: The Coffee Trader

I'm always open to recommendations for books, and a couple months ago in the shop a customer suggested that I try out David Liss; he's written three historical novels. I read A Conspiracy of Paper earlier this year and enjoyed it quite well, so I picked up the other two and have just finished the second, The Coffee Trader. While the first focused on the English stock market, Coffee Trader centers around the commodities trade in 1650s Amsterdam - in particular, as might be surmised, around a scheme to profit in the emerging coffee market.

Liss writes well, and is able to provide valuable insight into the intricacies of financial markets without losing even me. Also, one of the more interesting things about this book is its discussions on Jewish culture in Holland during this period, a most interesting subject and well handled. His plot in this book as well as Conspiracy is meticulously constructed, and I was kept guessing until the end how the whole thing would unravel. Certainly not a bad read.

Best Book Memoirs

A poster on the Ex-Libris listserv last night asked for suggestions of the "best memoirs by rare book collectors or dealers" - the responses (from some of the best in the rare book community) have been so excellent that I thought I'd compile the list and share them [updates have been added, and the suggestions are now in order alphabetically by author]. Biographies are included, links are to the LT page if available:

- Altick, Richard D.: The Scholar Adventurers (most often recommended, and highly).
- Basbanes, Nicholas: A Gentle Madness, Patience & Fortitude, A Splendor of Letters, Among the Gently Mad, Every Book Its Reader.
- Baxter, John: A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict.
- Collins, Paul: Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books.
- Dickinson, Donald C.: John Carter: The Taste and Technique of a Bookman.
- Everitt, Charles P.: The Adventures of a Treasure Hunter.
- Gekoski, Rick: Tolkien's Gown and Other Stories of Famous Authors and Rare Books, published in the US as Nabokov's Butterfly and Other Stories of Famous Authors and Rare Books.
- Kraus, H.P.: A Rare Book Saga.
- Lake, Carlton: Confessions of a Literary Archaeologist.
- Lansky, Aaron: Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books.
- Lewis, Wilmarth: Collector's Progress (an excellent website on Lewis and the Walpole Library is here).
- Magee, David: Infinite Riches: The Adventures of a Rare Book Dealer.
- Markham, Sheila: Book of Booksellers: Conversations with the Antiquarian Book Trade 1991-2003 (some info here).
- Meyer, David: Memoirs of a Book Snake and Inclined Toward Magic: Encounters with Books, Collectors and Conjurors.
- Milne, Christopher Robin: The Path Through the Trees.
- Muir, Percy: Minding my Own Business: An Autobiography.
- Newton, A. Edward: Amenities of Book-Collecting and Kindred Affections, A Magnificent Farce and Other Diversions of a Book-Collector, The Greatest Book in the World and Other Papers.
- Powell, Lawrence Clark: Bookman's Progress: Selected Writings, A Passion for Books, among others.
- Randall, David Anton: Dukedom Large Enough: Reminiscences of a Rare Book Dealer 1929-1956.
- Roberts, William: The Book-Hunter in London: Historical and Other Studies of Collectors and Collecting.
- Rosenwald, Lessing: Recollections of a Collector.
- Rostenberg, Leona and Madeleine B. Stern: Old Books in the Old World: Reminiscences of Book Buying Abroad; New Worlds in Old Books; Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Shared Passion.
- Rota, Anthony: Books in the Blood.
- Sims, George: The Rare Book Game, More on the Rare Book Game, Last of the Rare Book Game, A Life in Catalogue and Other Essays.
- Sowerby, E. Milicent; Rare People and Rare Books.
- Steloff, Frances and W.G. Rogers, Wise Men Fish Here.
- Storm, Colton and Howard Peckham: Invitation to Book Collecting.
- Tanselle, G. Thomas: The Pleasures of Being a Scholar-Collector.
- Weissman, Stephen: "What use is Bibliography? The Life and Opinions of an Antiquarian Bookseller" (PBSA, v. 89.2; 06/1995).
- West, Herbert F.: The Impecunious Amateur Looks Back: The Autobiography of a Bookman, The Mind on the Wing: A Book for Readers and Collectors, Sunny Intervals and others.
- Winterich, John: Primer of Book Collecting (several editions, some co-authored by Dave Randall).
- Wolf, Edwin: Rosenbach.
- Wrigley, Arthur: "From a Correspondent" in The Book Collector 52, no. 4
(2003): 490-7 and Nicholas Barker, "Arthur Edward Wrigley (1865-1952)" in the same issue, pages 529-36.

Slightly off-topic but still interesting:
- Benjamin, Walter: "Unpacking my Library," in Illuminations.
- Harvey, Miles: The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime.
- Highet, Gilbert: People, Places, and Books.
- Martin, William: Harvard Yard.
- Towner, Wesley: The Elegant Auctioneer.

Additionally, collector Jerry Morris provides this extensive list of books pertaining to collecting and collectors in England; another good source for this will be the forthcoming Out of Print and Into Profit: A History of the Rare and Secondhand Book Trade in Britain in the 20th Century (to be published this fall by the British Library and Oak Knoll Press).

Wow, I have a lot of reading to do!

Best of Boston

The new "Best of Boston" issue of Boston magazine is out, and I was delighted to find that Commonwealth Books was recognized this year in the "Best Used Bookstore" category. The write-up focuses on our shop in Kenmore Square: "This independent bookstore's inventory might not be as large as the hangar-size Barnes & Noble across the street, but it wins on originality and quirkiness. Recent arrivals include La Bible Mythes et Realities, Bibliography of Islamic Philosophy, and A History of Haiku. Cluttered and cozy, the Comm. Ave. shop welcomes both literati and loiterers and has built up a solid following of crusty bibliophiles. Best of all is the bookshop's aroma: the musty, pungent odor of literary history. Browse the shelves and breathe it in for yourself."

While I think some of our customers might not liked being called "crusty," I know at least a few who'll wear that title proudly. If you're in town, do stop in and see any of the three Boston shops (Boylston, Kenmore, Old South) ... and of course don't forget all the other fabulous used bookshops in town: the Brattle, Booksmith, Raven, Harvard Bookstore - all are winners in my book (no pun intended, of course).

LibraryThing Unveils "Groups"

The good folks at LibraryThing keep finding ways to make a great thing even better (not to mention more addictive). "Groups" have made their debut, and they're proving very popular with the Thingamabrian set. From "Bostonians" to "Tea!" to "Chick Lit" and (way) beyond, there really is at least one thing for everyone ... and if the group hasn't been started yet, well then start it up! With message boards, group statistics, and more, this is certain to be still another way that LT will provide hours of fun and enlightenment.

If you haven't been subjected yet to my full review of LibraryThing, it's here.

Webster's Dictionary Turns 200

Via Rare Book News comes this article from The Republican (MA) on the two hundredth anniversary of Noah Webster's Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, one of America's greatest early dictionaries.

Maria Antonetti, "curator of rare books at the Neilson Library at Smith College in Northampton and a past president of the American Printing History Association, said the 1806 dictionary is one of the most important publications in the history of American culture. 'It's the first great American dictionary, but it's more than just that,' said Antonetti, who described the work as a kind of declaration of independence from English as spoken by the British."

The first edition of Webster's dictionary ran to 408 pages, and contained some 37,000 definitions (about 5,000 of which were new words). A small volume (6.5 x 4 inches) with tiny type, the work cost just $1.00 when it was printed (today it would cost at least ten times that much to get even a facsimile of the first edition; I couldn't find a true first for sale).

Webster's 1828 two-volume American Dictionary of the English Language was his masterpiece, doubling his early effort (it cost $20 when published); it contained more then 70,000 definitions.

For more on Webster and his dictionaries, I suggest Jill Lepore's recent A is for American.

Irish Psalm Book Found in Bog

This story's been getting a huge amount of play in the mainstream press, but I thought I'd pass it along anyway just in case anyone missed it. A construction worker in Ireland discovered a small psalm book in an Irish bog last week, a find believed to be "the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries."

The psalm book (or psalter) about twenty pages long, has been tentatively dated to 800-1000 AD by Trinity College (Dublin) manuscript experts, and is bound in vellum. Work will now be done to try and figure out how to conserve the book and (hopefully) allow access to its contents someday.

BBC quotes National Museum director Pat Wallace, who said of the book "Nobody has found anything like this for centuries - we are going to find it very hard to find people who know about it ... In my wildest hopes, I could only have dreamed of a discovery as fragile and rare as this. It testifies to the incredible richness of the Early Christian civilisation of this island and to the greatness of ancient Ireland."

New Article on Hedges

Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Tom Avril has published an article on the new method of dating rare prints and engravings offered by Penn State biology professor Blair Hedges (my original post on the subject is here, with Terry Belanger's followup criticism here). Avril discusses the response to Hedges from within the rare book community (including Belanger's critique) and offers Hedges' rather glib response to it: "I would feel the same way if somebody from their area came into mine."

Avril does a good job of summarizing Hedges' method, and offers some interesting insights into his methodology as well:

"Printing pressure had no impact on copper plates, he says. Immense pressure would have made the grooves wider, not narrower. To prove this point, Hedges bought a new copper plate and engraved some lines in it. Then he covered it with a steel plate and drove over it with his SUV. No change in the engraved lines. Finally, he pounded the plates with a sledgehammer, exerting considerably more pressure than what would come from a printing press. Sure enough, the lines got wider, not thinner."

The article concludes by noting that Hedges is now working his method on the undated fourth quarto edition of "Hamlet." I hope that doesn't include running it over with his car.

Shelley Work Reappears

London bookseller Bernard Quaritch has announced the rediscovery of a long-lost early political pamphlet by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written while he was an undergraduate at Oxford (and published very soon before his expulsion for refusing to disavow his authorship of another controversial essay).

Quaritch notes "Until now the very existence of the Poetical Essay has been doubted, remaining 'one of the unsolved mysteries of Shelley bibliography', deduced only from a series of advertisements in Oxford and London newspapers in March-April 1811 and from a few sparse references in contemporary correspondence. The text of the poem - 172 lines - is completely unknown, and represents a major find for Shelley and Romantic scholarship."

The poem, "Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things," was attributed on the title page to "A Gentlemen of the University of Oxford," a pseudonym used by Shelley several times in 1811. There is some suggestion that Shelley's sister Elizabeth colloborated with him on this work.

A lengthy article by H.R. Woudhuysen in the July 12 "Times Literary Supplement" adds "The pamphlet is a quarto, consisting of twenty pages with a final leaf of notes on the recto and errata on the verso; printed on paper with a watermark date of 1807, it is stitched and uncut, still very much in the same state as it was when it was issued. The poem is dedicated 'TO HARRIET W–B–K', that is Harriet Westbrook with whom Shelley eloped in August 1811: this constitutes the first printed reference to the poet’s wife. The dedication is followed by a 'Preface', a short essay touching on politics and religion, calling for 'a total reform in the licentiousness, luxury, depravity, prejudice, which involve society', not by warfare, which he vigorously denounces, but by 'gradual, yet decided intellectual exertions'."

It's always exciting to see "phantom" works like this reappear after long absences.

Missing Yale Maps Posted

While I was away, some movement on the rare map front; Yale University libraries have posted a list of the nearly 100 maps they believe are missing from their Sterling Library collections following a full survey in the wake of the E. Forbes Smiley arrest and subsequent plea deal.

Alice Prochaska, a librarian at Yale, wrote in a statement "We believe this list is as complete as possible, and we hope it will be helpful to the map community, including dealers, collectors and librarians. If additional material is recovered, or more items are discovered missing, this list will be edited accordingly. Missing maps from the Beinecke Library will be posted soon."

The missing maps range from a 1562 chart of Russia by D. Henrico Sydneo to several maps by Mercator and Ortelius from the 1590s all the way through the late nineteenth century.

A Hartford Courant story from July 20 provides some more details, and also notes "By making its list public, Yale has set a precedent among the libraries that inventoried their collections after Smiley's arrest. If other libraries follow, it could bring about a sea change in how maps are bought and sold, as dealers and collectors start to insist on proof of clear title."

Reputable map dealers seem to be wholeheartedly embracing Yale's action, as well they should. Harry Newman notes "This is what we need. If you realize something is missing, don't keep it quiet, let us know." William Reese adds "The more institutions make people aware of these problems, the further we come to solving them. The vast majority of people are selling maps conscientiously, but we have to understand that potential thieves like Forbes Smiley are at work. Anyone shopping in these markets has to be conscious of provenance."

Libraries and other institutions are often reluctant to admit that they've been the victims of theft, to avoid embarrassment. This must end. Yale's action is a good one, and I hope other libraries that have lost materials will follow suit; it is the best way to combat people like Smiley (although stronger penalties certainly wouldn't hurt either).

In a related story, the Boston Globe reported yesterday that the eight maps Smiley admitted to stealing from Harvard University libraries will be returned to Cambridge in September.

Book Review: "The Audubon Reader"

Richard Rhodes, author most recently of the excellent biography John James Audubon: The Making of an American, has edited another very useful Audubon volume, the Everyman's Library Audubon Reader. A collection of personal letters, autobiographical writings, and chosen segments of Audubon's extensive ornithological species accounts, this volume offers an open window into the writings of one of America's greatest naturalists through his own words. Rhodes has edited wisely, drawing from a wide range of materials covering the entire scope of Audubon's life and works.

For any Audubon enthusiast or nature-writing fans in general, this book will happily fill a gap on your shelf. Whether read straight through or dabbled at will, I recommend Rhodes' effort highly.

Vacation Reading

I'm headed "down east" tomorrow for a week on the Maine coast with my family; I figured I'd pass along the books I'm taking with me to read. I don't anticipate getting through all of them, but better too many than too few, right?

- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling: The fifth Harry Potter, which I've already started. I figured the first couple days of vacation would be a good way to get another of these under my belt.

- A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicholas Basbanes: This author's first book, which I am ashamed to say I've never read before. A collection of "book stories" covering many areas of book culture.

- The Audubon Reader: Edited by recent Audubon biographer Richard Rhodes, this Modern Library edition presents some of the great naturalist's best writings. I'm looking forward to reading this as I sit on the rocks watching the tide come in around me.

- Captain Alatriste by Arturo Perez-Reverte: Because, well, what's summer vacation without the adventures of a swashbuckler?

- A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century by Witold Rybczynski: A biography of Olmsted, who designed many of America's most familiar urban landscapes, including New York's Central Park and Boston's Emerald Necklace.

I'll have reviews of these next week.

Playing Politics with Cultural Artifacts

I wanted to pass along this very troubling article from yesterday's LATimes, which discusses a case with tremendous implications for the field of cultural preservation. A federal court has ordered the seizure and sale of a collection of cuneiform tablets (estimated to number between 5,000-10,000) on loan from the government of Iran to the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute. The proceeds from that sale would be used to compensate American victims of a 1997 bombing in Israel, who successfully sued Iran for backing the Hamas militants who carried out the attack.

Another federal court hearing on the seizure will be held on Monday; Iran argues that the seizure is not allowable on sovereign immunity grounds. The Justice Department has filed briefs in the case "claiming that the country's national interest would be better-served if the dispute were settled through diplomacy instead of legal action," and the University of Chicago and Field Museum have also intervened on behalf of Iran.

"Museum officials said they worried that turning over the on-loan artifacts could create a chilling effect, and were concerned that nations would curtail their willingness to share priceless objects - and that American artifacts could be at risk of being seized while touring overseas." I have to say that I agree. This ought to be settled in another way, preferably diplomatically - to seize and sell these significant historical artifacts would set a dangerous and unfortunate precedent.