August having finally arrived, I can at long last share a minor bibliographic discovery I made a couple months ago. For a seminar paper this spring I wrote on John Eliot's 1663 "Indian Bible," (Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God) a single-handed translation of the Bible into the Natick dialect of Massachusetts. This was the first Bible printed (in any language) in North America, and was the most substantive single printing project in the colonial period.
As part of the paper I decided to write up a bibliographic/provenance history of each of the copies of Eliot's Bible currently held at Massachusetts libraries (ten of the several dozen extant copies worldwide), by way of partially updating the most recent census of copies (done way back in 1890 by Wilberforce Eames). My full findings will hopefully make their way out into the world eventually, but I'm waiting on a couple outstanding questions before I do too much more with them (and, if I have time someday, I'd like to complete the full census of all remaining copies).
The most interesting and unexpected discovery I made was close to home; when I examined the Eliot Bible held at the Massachusetts Historical Society I found some odd lines of verse scrawled on a rear endleaf. They were not mentioned in either the MHS catalogs or Eames' bibliography of the Bible, so needless to say I was surprised to see them, and more than a little perplexed, since they didn't seem to make much sense at all:
"When sturdy storms are gon and past
shall pleasand calmes appare
I oftimes see in ashes deepe
ly hiden coles of fire
with fervent thou"
I called in the Librarian - who was just as surprised as I was to find them there - and we started digging around, searching databases and other sources for some of the strange word strings in the poem ("hidden coals of fire," "sturdy storms" &c.). JSTOR yielded the answer, and it turned out to be a fascinating one, so we've made the poem our Object of the Month for August. Turns out the poem, in complete form, is an acrostic - read the first word of each line from top to bottom, and there you'll have the question (the complete form and more commentary are here).
I'm still doing some research into acrostics of this sort and during this time period, but my guess is that this is probably a particularly early example of this specific type. As I find more, I'll certainly pass it along, and if any readers have any suggestions or thoughts, I'd love to hear them.
It's things like this that make bibliography fun - not only for the little hint of scandal, but also simply for the many neat avenues of inquiry that open up with each new discovery.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Yale Article on Sterling Library Maps
Via Everett Wilkie on ExLibris: the July/August Yale Alumni Magazine includes an article on some of the fallout from the Smiley thefts, with a focus on efforts taken at the Sterling Library to upgrade cataloging, security and storage for the rare maps and other items housed there.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Book Review: "The Fourth Bear"
At a reading recently, I heard Jasper Fforde say The Fourth Bear was his favorite book to write. It's easy to see why. One of the most interactive and complicated of his novels, this one seems full of Fforde's heart and soul. The second installment in Fforde's "Nursery Crime" series, featuring the inimitable and oft-suspended DCI Jack Spratt and his deputy Mary Mary, The Fourth Bear takes up the investigation of the mysterious disappearance of investigative reporter Henrietta Hatchett (that is, Goldilocks). Naturally, Goldilocks was on the trail of an explosive story (involving sunbeams and cucumbers, but you'll have to read to find out how).
Good satire, bad puns, and Fforde's stupendously glib wit are here in spades; recommended.
Good satire, bad puns, and Fforde's stupendously glib wit are here in spades; recommended.
Bulwer-Lytton Award Winners Named
The 2007 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest winners have been announced. The award "honors the memory (if not the reputation) of Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873). The goal of the contest is childishly simple: entrants are challenged to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels."
This year's overall winner was Jim Gleeson of Madison, WI. His entry: "Gerald began--but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them 'permanently' meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash--to pee."
There are, naturally, additional winners in various categories: adventure, children's literature, detective, fantasy fiction, historical fiction, purple prose, romance, science fiction, vile puns (awful, but hilarious) and western.
I must mention the winner of the children's lit category: "Danny, the little Grizzly cub, frolicked in the tall grass on this sunny Spring morning, his mother keeping a watchful eye as she chewed on a piece of a hiker they had encountered the day before."
Back on 1 July, San Jose State Univ. professor Scott Rice spoke to NPR's Liane Hansen about the contest, which is in its twenty-fifth year.
[h/t The Little Professor]
This year's overall winner was Jim Gleeson of Madison, WI. His entry: "Gerald began--but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them 'permanently' meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash--to pee."
There are, naturally, additional winners in various categories: adventure, children's literature, detective, fantasy fiction, historical fiction, purple prose, romance, science fiction, vile puns (awful, but hilarious) and western.
I must mention the winner of the children's lit category: "Danny, the little Grizzly cub, frolicked in the tall grass on this sunny Spring morning, his mother keeping a watchful eye as she chewed on a piece of a hiker they had encountered the day before."
Back on 1 July, San Jose State Univ. professor Scott Rice spoke to NPR's Liane Hansen about the contest, which is in its twenty-fifth year.
[h/t The Little Professor]
Monday, July 30, 2007
HRC Director Interviewed
Today's Chronicle of Higher Education features an interview [subscription required] with Thomas Staley, the director of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas.
Staley discusses the ideas behind HRC's major acquisitions of archival collections, particularly those of living writers: "The point is, we believe that this is a living place. And that's a difference. This is not just a library. This is a center for learning that radiates its research all over. But also inside the university, it's a wonderful, wonderful place to study. Writers are not coming here because they're pushing a book or anything like that. Writers are aware of us because writers talk to other writers. They know this place is serious."
The interview also touches on one of the most controversial of HRC's practices - buying archives of British writers and removing those materials to the U.S. Staley says "I think part of their argument, and it's a good argument, is to say we're losing things across because we're not supporting them, and these brigands or these vultures are here. What they're raising isn't simply 'Stop Texas.' It's 'For godsakes, get some sort of program where we can preserve our heritage.'"
Another interesting answer came in response to a question about digitization: "There are all kinds of things in digitization that you can't reproduce. In the Joyce proofs, we have people who can tell you, even if it's just a printers' sign or an editor's sign, whether it was Sylvia Beach or Joyce, because of the ink. You don't get that in the digitized version. There's the quality of the paper. The smell of certain things that is very important. The olfactory elements. ..."
Staley discusses the ideas behind HRC's major acquisitions of archival collections, particularly those of living writers: "The point is, we believe that this is a living place. And that's a difference. This is not just a library. This is a center for learning that radiates its research all over. But also inside the university, it's a wonderful, wonderful place to study. Writers are not coming here because they're pushing a book or anything like that. Writers are aware of us because writers talk to other writers. They know this place is serious."
The interview also touches on one of the most controversial of HRC's practices - buying archives of British writers and removing those materials to the U.S. Staley says "I think part of their argument, and it's a good argument, is to say we're losing things across because we're not supporting them, and these brigands or these vultures are here. What they're raising isn't simply 'Stop Texas.' It's 'For godsakes, get some sort of program where we can preserve our heritage.'"
Another interesting answer came in response to a question about digitization: "There are all kinds of things in digitization that you can't reproduce. In the Joyce proofs, we have people who can tell you, even if it's just a printers' sign or an editor's sign, whether it was Sylvia Beach or Joyce, because of the ink. You don't get that in the digitized version. There's the quality of the paper. The smell of certain things that is very important. The olfactory elements. ..."
Japanese Illustrations
BibliOdyssey once again manages to amaze with a collection of Japanese plant illustrations from the collections of the Museum at the University of Tokyo.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Book Review: "The Reckoning"
Charles Nicholl's prize-winning 1992 study The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe is a richly-detailed, if highly speculative, examination of the life, career and death of Marlowe, the well-known Elizabethan poet and playwright. A fascinating reconstruction of espionage and politico-religious intrigue during the later years of Elizabeth I's reign, the book offers up a plausible if not entirely proven (or prove-able) theory about Marlowe's murder being part of a high-level court struggle.
Nicholl's done his archival research, and includes many discoveries about Marlowe as well as significant amounts of biographical material relating to others in Marlowe's political, poetical and social circles. While I think in some cases that Nicholls' aren't the only conclusions that could be drawn from the available evidence, his theories seem just as possible as any others (admittedly, more evidence may be known now than Nicholl had access to; things might have changed in the last fifteen years).
My one major quibble with this book is the lack of good citation apparatus; in a book of this type, where significant amounts of the author's credibility depends on the reliability of the evidence being cited, it is an unconscionable negligence on the part of the publisher to leave footnotes unindicated in the text, forcing the reader to guess what might be cited and then look in the back to check for it. If not for this shortcoming, I'd feel much more positive about the book. As it is, I still recommend it highly for anyone who's up for a lot of details and some good old-fashioned court intrigue.
Nicholl's done his archival research, and includes many discoveries about Marlowe as well as significant amounts of biographical material relating to others in Marlowe's political, poetical and social circles. While I think in some cases that Nicholls' aren't the only conclusions that could be drawn from the available evidence, his theories seem just as possible as any others (admittedly, more evidence may be known now than Nicholl had access to; things might have changed in the last fifteen years).
My one major quibble with this book is the lack of good citation apparatus; in a book of this type, where significant amounts of the author's credibility depends on the reliability of the evidence being cited, it is an unconscionable negligence on the part of the publisher to leave footnotes unindicated in the text, forcing the reader to guess what might be cited and then look in the back to check for it. If not for this shortcoming, I'd feel much more positive about the book. As it is, I still recommend it highly for anyone who's up for a lot of details and some good old-fashioned court intrigue.
Links & Reviews
- A blog birth announcement, first: Bookshop Blog, "to help you be a better bookseller." I've added a link to the sidebar.
- In the NYTimes, Bruce Barcott reviews Eric Jay Dolin's Leviathan, a history of whaling in America. I'm looking forward to this one too.
- Scott at Fine Books Blog posts a short video featuring interviews with some major book dealers on why they joined the ABAA.
- Walter Bowne has an op/ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer about some unacceptable behavior by book dealers at a recent library book sale. A good "outsider looking in" piece that ought to be read by all the rabid bookhunters out there.
- Over at Mutterings, an early Kellogg's Corn Flakes ad. Colonel comments "Tony the Tiger? This woman would eat Tony for lunch and use his rib bone for a toothpick ..."
- In the Times, A.N. Wilson reviews Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (spoiler warning). I like his concluding paragraphs, and include them here:
"What these books ultimately hinge upon, however, is an unshakeable belief that love is stronger than death, and that while the pursuit of power is illusory, the pursuit of love will always in some way be rewarded.
It would be easy to write a sermon that spelt out such familiar ideas. But there are not many writers who have JK’s Dickensian ability to make us turn the pages, to weep – openly, with tears splashing – and a few pages later to laugh, at invariably good jokes. The sneerers who hate Harry Potter, or consider themselves superior to these books often seem to be hating their harmlessness – the fact that they celebrate happy middle-class family life, and the adventures of children privileged enough to attend a boarding school. But, as WH Auden said in another context, why spit on your luck? We have lived through a decade in which we have followed the publication of the liveliest, funniest, scariest and most moving children’s stories ever written. Thank you, JK Rowling."
- In the NYTimes, Bruce Barcott reviews Eric Jay Dolin's Leviathan, a history of whaling in America. I'm looking forward to this one too.
- Scott at Fine Books Blog posts a short video featuring interviews with some major book dealers on why they joined the ABAA.
- Walter Bowne has an op/ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer about some unacceptable behavior by book dealers at a recent library book sale. A good "outsider looking in" piece that ought to be read by all the rabid bookhunters out there.
- Over at Mutterings, an early Kellogg's Corn Flakes ad. Colonel comments "Tony the Tiger? This woman would eat Tony for lunch and use his rib bone for a toothpick ..."
- In the Times, A.N. Wilson reviews Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (spoiler warning). I like his concluding paragraphs, and include them here:
"What these books ultimately hinge upon, however, is an unshakeable belief that love is stronger than death, and that while the pursuit of power is illusory, the pursuit of love will always in some way be rewarded.
It would be easy to write a sermon that spelt out such familiar ideas. But there are not many writers who have JK’s Dickensian ability to make us turn the pages, to weep – openly, with tears splashing – and a few pages later to laugh, at invariably good jokes. The sneerers who hate Harry Potter, or consider themselves superior to these books often seem to be hating their harmlessness – the fact that they celebrate happy middle-class family life, and the adventures of children privileged enough to attend a boarding school. But, as WH Auden said in another context, why spit on your luck? We have lived through a decade in which we have followed the publication of the liveliest, funniest, scariest and most moving children’s stories ever written. Thank you, JK Rowling."
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Stolen Books Alert
This notice was posted on ExLibris yesterday afternoon:
Dear Colleagues,
Six months ago the following three books were stolen from us in transit. Should anyone be offered these books, we would greatly appreciate your getting in touch with us.
I. PISSINUS, Sebastiani Lucensis. De cordis palpitatione cognoscenda, & curanda libri duo. Frankfurt: Claudium Marnium & heredes Ioannis Aubrii, 1609. 8vo. 193, [23] pp., including index. Woodcut printer's device to title, chapter initials, head- and tailpieces. Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties, title in manuscript on spine; small wormhole at inner margin of a few leaves (text not affected). Contemporary ownership inscription of the Collegii Paris Societ[atis] Jesu to title.
II. SKODA, Joseph. Abhandlung uber Perkussion und Auskultation. Vienna: Mosle's Witwe &
Braumuller, 1839. 8vo. xviii, [ii], 271, [1] pp. Contemporary quarter-calf over marbled boards, extremities somewhat worn. From the library of Dr. Ferdinand Vielguth of Vienna on first flyleaf.
III. BURNET, Thomas. Archæologiæ philosophicæ: or, the ancient doctrine concerning the originalsof things; Dr. Burnet's theory of the visible world; by way of commentary onhis own theory of the Earth. being the second part of his Archæologiæ Philosophicæ, Written in Latin by Thomas Burnet, LL.D. master of the Charter-House. Faithfully translated into English, with
remarks thereon, by Mr. Foxton (with) [JONCHERE, Étienne Lécuyer de la]. The immobility of the Earth demonstrated by reasons drawn from the established rules of physics,mechanics, and geometry. Proving the Earth to be in the center of theUniverse; and that all the Celestial Bodies perform their diurnial motions round it, and not the sun. In opposition to the solar system. [translated by J[ohn] M[organ]. London: Printed for E. Curll, 1729. Three books in one (first title in two parts). 8vo. [viii], xxxii, [viii], viii, 90, 6, 40; 96, 41-104, 32 pp. (pages 41-104 mis-bound). Separate title to each book. Contemporary Cambridge binding (small piece torn away at hinges), spine decorated in gilt; fly leaves stained, sporadic browning on text and a few minor worm holes. From the library of Abner Jackson, Trinity College, with his bookplate and withdrawn stamp.
Thank you in advance,
Cassandra Joffre
B & L Rootenberg Rare Books & Manuscripts, ABAA, ILAB, ABA
(818) 788-7765
Fax: (818) 788-8839
PO Box 5049
Sherman Oaks, Ca. 91403
blroot@rootenbergbooks.com
www.rootenbergbooks.com
Dear Colleagues,
Six months ago the following three books were stolen from us in transit. Should anyone be offered these books, we would greatly appreciate your getting in touch with us.
I. PISSINUS, Sebastiani Lucensis. De cordis palpitatione cognoscenda, & curanda libri duo. Frankfurt: Claudium Marnium & heredes Ioannis Aubrii, 1609. 8vo. 193, [23] pp., including index. Woodcut printer's device to title, chapter initials, head- and tailpieces. Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties, title in manuscript on spine; small wormhole at inner margin of a few leaves (text not affected). Contemporary ownership inscription of the Collegii Paris Societ[atis] Jesu to title.
II. SKODA, Joseph. Abhandlung uber Perkussion und Auskultation. Vienna: Mosle's Witwe &
Braumuller, 1839. 8vo. xviii, [ii], 271, [1] pp. Contemporary quarter-calf over marbled boards, extremities somewhat worn. From the library of Dr. Ferdinand Vielguth of Vienna on first flyleaf.
III. BURNET, Thomas. Archæologiæ philosophicæ: or, the ancient doctrine concerning the originalsof things; Dr. Burnet's theory of the visible world; by way of commentary onhis own theory of the Earth. being the second part of his Archæologiæ Philosophicæ, Written in Latin by Thomas Burnet, LL.D. master of the Charter-House. Faithfully translated into English, with
remarks thereon, by Mr. Foxton (with) [JONCHERE, Étienne Lécuyer de la]. The immobility of the Earth demonstrated by reasons drawn from the established rules of physics,mechanics, and geometry. Proving the Earth to be in the center of theUniverse; and that all the Celestial Bodies perform their diurnial motions round it, and not the sun. In opposition to the solar system. [translated by J[ohn] M[organ]. London: Printed for E. Curll, 1729. Three books in one (first title in two parts). 8vo. [viii], xxxii, [viii], viii, 90, 6, 40; 96, 41-104, 32 pp. (pages 41-104 mis-bound). Separate title to each book. Contemporary Cambridge binding (small piece torn away at hinges), spine decorated in gilt; fly leaves stained, sporadic browning on text and a few minor worm holes. From the library of Abner Jackson, Trinity College, with his bookplate and withdrawn stamp.
Thank you in advance,
Cassandra Joffre
B & L Rootenberg Rare Books & Manuscripts, ABAA, ILAB, ABA
(818) 788-7765
Fax: (818) 788-8839
PO Box 5049
Sherman Oaks, Ca. 91403
blroot@rootenbergbooks.com
www.rootenbergbooks.com
Friday, July 27, 2007
On James Gilreath
I had one of those strange moments of convergence last night when I read Travis' Upward Departure post on James Gilreath, a former LOC librarian who pled guilty to stealing items from the Library after getting caught trying to sell them to a Boston dealer back in the mid-90s. It's not a case I know much about, probably because the guy's guilty plea got him out of any significant punishment - he spent a year in "home confinement" and is currently paying off a $20,000 fine in $50 monthly installments, as Travis notes.
The reason Travis' mention of Gilreath sort of threw me for a loop was that I'd only just opened a newly-arrived box of books from Colophon, one of which was The Judgment of Experts: Essays and Documents about the Investigation of the Forging of The Oath of a Freeman (1991), a collection relating to the infamous Mark Hofmann forgery of the earliest American printed document. The editor? None other than James Gilreath, back when he was working for (and presumably stealing from) the Library of Congress.
Just a hint of irony, having the editor of a book about an attempted literary crime turn out to be engaging in one of his own.
The reason Travis' mention of Gilreath sort of threw me for a loop was that I'd only just opened a newly-arrived box of books from Colophon, one of which was The Judgment of Experts: Essays and Documents about the Investigation of the Forging of The Oath of a Freeman (1991), a collection relating to the infamous Mark Hofmann forgery of the earliest American printed document. The editor? None other than James Gilreath, back when he was working for (and presumably stealing from) the Library of Congress.
Just a hint of irony, having the editor of a book about an attempted literary crime turn out to be engaging in one of his own.
CSM on Miniature Books
In the Christian Science Monitor, April Austin writes up the ongoing miniature book exhibit at the BPL (its counterpart at the Grolier Club closes tomorrow). A bit behind the eight-ball, but worth reading nonetheless.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Ffun with Fforde
Brookline Booksmith hosted a reading tonight with author Jasper Fforde (LT), and I'll just say if you have a chance to catch one of his events, go for it. He entertained a large audience with his "principles on writing" (scrawled on a piece of paper this afternoon, he said), tales of publishing woes, fun with Welsh pronunciations, &c. He took a bunch of questions as well, including one about the printers' oops in the British edition (he was intrigued when I told him I'd bought a copy of that edition specifically because of the error, thinking his publisher would be thrilled that it was increasing sales).
Fforde's as amusing in person as he comes across in his books, so if he'll be near you, stop by and see him.
Fforde's as amusing in person as he comes across in his books, so if he'll be near you, stop by and see him.
Links & Things
Alright, the delayed book reviews are finally all written, the books that arrived while I was on vacation (and those I purchased up in Maine, more on which later) are all catalogued, but the Google Reader still runneth over. A few goodies:
- First, continuations. Part two of "The Affair of the Diamond Necklace" at Mutterings of a Mad Bookseller is here (also, here's Part one, in case you missed it). And over at Bibliothecary, Ed continues his tale of what sounds like a super-exciting visit to Philadelphia by recounting a behind-the-scenes tour at the Free Library (first installment here).
- From BibliOdyssey, images from Athansius Kircher's Musurgia Universalis (1650), "an exhaustive compendium of musical knowledge at the transition point between sacred renaissance polyphony and secular Baroque music."
- Joyce passes along an op/ed from the Hartford Courant by Janet Nocek, director of the Portland library and a member of the Executive Board of Library Connection, a Greater Hartford library consortium. Nocek was one of the "Connecticut Four", libraries who challeneged the Patriot Act's national security letters provision as it applied to libraries. She writes about her experience under the court-ordered gag rule.
- Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Dragon makes the argument that the Harry Potter series is a "brilliant, ingeniously-crafted, long-resonating message about choice." "This isn't a fantasy series. Its not even a kids book, in the common sense of the phrase. This is a non-author's daring stand against a bleakening future, against apathy and selfishness. And it's BEAUTIFUL. Millions of children will internalize the Harry Potter myth, will latch onto one character or another as a small part of their psyche, and by that will come to unconsciously understand that we have CHOICES. We have the choice to be good or evil, to do harm or good, to be brave or craven. More importantly, we can choose to CHANGE. We can choose to turn the darkness in ourselves into light."
- fade theorist points out two news items: first, that Publisher's Weekly has a comparison chart for some of the major "social book cataloging" sites (in which they get at least a few things wrong), and, second, that the University of Edinburgh has announced a new one-year postgraduate program in Material Cultures & the History of the Book, which sounds quite interesting.
- Tim's giving away some copies of Everything is Miscellaneous to those who comment on the thread What Does Tagging do to Knowledge? It's a good discussion down there so far.
- Also, I forgot to link earlier to this Times story, in which just one of eighteen publishers and literary agents recognized Jane Austen's work when it was submitted using a different name (the others rejected the submissions).
- First, continuations. Part two of "The Affair of the Diamond Necklace" at Mutterings of a Mad Bookseller is here (also, here's Part one, in case you missed it). And over at Bibliothecary, Ed continues his tale of what sounds like a super-exciting visit to Philadelphia by recounting a behind-the-scenes tour at the Free Library (first installment here).
- From BibliOdyssey, images from Athansius Kircher's Musurgia Universalis (1650), "an exhaustive compendium of musical knowledge at the transition point between sacred renaissance polyphony and secular Baroque music."
- Joyce passes along an op/ed from the Hartford Courant by Janet Nocek, director of the Portland library and a member of the Executive Board of Library Connection, a Greater Hartford library consortium. Nocek was one of the "Connecticut Four", libraries who challeneged the Patriot Act's national security letters provision as it applied to libraries. She writes about her experience under the court-ordered gag rule.
- Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Dragon makes the argument that the Harry Potter series is a "brilliant, ingeniously-crafted, long-resonating message about choice." "This isn't a fantasy series. Its not even a kids book, in the common sense of the phrase. This is a non-author's daring stand against a bleakening future, against apathy and selfishness. And it's BEAUTIFUL. Millions of children will internalize the Harry Potter myth, will latch onto one character or another as a small part of their psyche, and by that will come to unconsciously understand that we have CHOICES. We have the choice to be good or evil, to do harm or good, to be brave or craven. More importantly, we can choose to CHANGE. We can choose to turn the darkness in ourselves into light."
- fade theorist points out two news items: first, that Publisher's Weekly has a comparison chart for some of the major "social book cataloging" sites (in which they get at least a few things wrong), and, second, that the University of Edinburgh has announced a new one-year postgraduate program in Material Cultures & the History of the Book, which sounds quite interesting.
- Tim's giving away some copies of Everything is Miscellaneous to those who comment on the thread What Does Tagging do to Knowledge? It's a good discussion down there so far.
- Also, I forgot to link earlier to this Times story, in which just one of eighteen publishers and literary agents recognized Jane Austen's work when it was submitted using a different name (the others rejected the submissions).
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Book Review: "The Treasure of the San José"
I always try to take at least one maritime-related book with me to the coast for vacation, so I was intentionally in the middle of Carla Rahn Phillips' The Treasure of the San José: Death at Sea in the War of the Spanish Succession (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007) when I headed up to Maine this year.
Phillips' subject is the much-fabled San José, a Spanish galleon sunk in a battle with English warships in 1708 off the coast of the Spanish Main. Using careful research of archival data, she provides the first in-depth historiographical analysis of the ship, its voyage, its crew, and its destruction - and as she does so, attempts to illustrate how historical memory can differ so wildly from actual events.
Some of the noteworthy elements of Phillips' treatment are her greatly detailed expositions on Spanish shipbuilding practices and measurement nomenclature, excellent biographical reconstructions of the ship's officers (very detailed) and crew (much less so), and a useful discussion of the Spanish imperial bureaucracy during the early eighteenth century. She dissects the available evidence regarding the still-missing and much-sought cargo that went down with the ship (and most of its crew), but certainly the most fascinating portion of the book to me was Phillips' minute description of the battle that resulted in the loss of the San José, drawing on the accounts of both the Spanish and English participants.
A good, narrowly-drawn, archives-based study of an important incident, Phillips' book does much to dispel longstanding myths and provides a close look at maritime practices as well as the difficulties posed by allowing memory to stand in for fact. While I thought the archival citations could in some places have been more extensive, the endnotes and bibliography were quite useful and welcome. I should add as well that the overall design is quite nice, and certainly added to my positive impression of the book.
Phillips' subject is the much-fabled San José, a Spanish galleon sunk in a battle with English warships in 1708 off the coast of the Spanish Main. Using careful research of archival data, she provides the first in-depth historiographical analysis of the ship, its voyage, its crew, and its destruction - and as she does so, attempts to illustrate how historical memory can differ so wildly from actual events.
Some of the noteworthy elements of Phillips' treatment are her greatly detailed expositions on Spanish shipbuilding practices and measurement nomenclature, excellent biographical reconstructions of the ship's officers (very detailed) and crew (much less so), and a useful discussion of the Spanish imperial bureaucracy during the early eighteenth century. She dissects the available evidence regarding the still-missing and much-sought cargo that went down with the ship (and most of its crew), but certainly the most fascinating portion of the book to me was Phillips' minute description of the battle that resulted in the loss of the San José, drawing on the accounts of both the Spanish and English participants.
A good, narrowly-drawn, archives-based study of an important incident, Phillips' book does much to dispel longstanding myths and provides a close look at maritime practices as well as the difficulties posed by allowing memory to stand in for fact. While I thought the archival citations could in some places have been more extensive, the endnotes and bibliography were quite useful and welcome. I should add as well that the overall design is quite nice, and certainly added to my positive impression of the book.
Book Review: "A Splendor of Letters"
The third of Nicholas Basbanes' books, A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World (HarperCollins, 2003) completes the trilogy begun with A Gentle Madness and Patience & Fortitude; in this volume, Basbanes discusses the important issues surrounding the preservation of the written word. As he writes early in the book, "the setting down of what Ralph Waldo Emerson ... called the 'splendor of letters' remains only half the task at hand; ensuring that what has been recorded is passed on properly to the next generation ... makes up the rest."
Like Basbanes' other books, this one takes an anecdotal and fairly idiosyncratic approach to its topic; also like the others, it works here. You find yourself bouncing from the perils of book thievery (p. 11-12) to the importance of the Rosetta Stone as surrogate (p. 23) to notes found trashed beneath the shadow of Hadrian's Wall (p. 56-7) to the bombing of the Sarajevo library to the potential impacts of digitization on third world countries - and you enjoy the ride.
Filled with jumping-off points (I've got about ten books and articles written down to find), good stories and incisive commentary, A Splendor of Letters is yet another Basbanes delight. Recommended.
Like Basbanes' other books, this one takes an anecdotal and fairly idiosyncratic approach to its topic; also like the others, it works here. You find yourself bouncing from the perils of book thievery (p. 11-12) to the importance of the Rosetta Stone as surrogate (p. 23) to notes found trashed beneath the shadow of Hadrian's Wall (p. 56-7) to the bombing of the Sarajevo library to the potential impacts of digitization on third world countries - and you enjoy the ride.
Filled with jumping-off points (I've got about ten books and articles written down to find), good stories and incisive commentary, A Splendor of Letters is yet another Basbanes delight. Recommended.
Book Review: "The Snoring Bird"
Biologist Bernd Heinrich's The Snoring Bird: My Family's Journey Through a Century in Biology (Ecco, 2007) is an intriguing glimpse into the life of a man perhaps best known for his work with ravens (Ravens in Winter) and hibernation (Winter World). It cannot properly be called an autobiography, as much of the book concerns the life and career of Heinrich's father, an extremely unorthodox fellow whose views about human interaction, biology and life in general come across as more than a little peculiar.
Relying on family memory, documents and other sources as necessary, Heinrich tells his father's story as best he can - from a comfortable life in pre-WWI Poland through a rough time during and after the Second World War through a tenuous post-war existence in Maine. "Papa", who never got a college degree, became an expert in ichneumons (a sort of wasp) and made it his life's (rather obsessive-compulsive) work to classify as many of the worlds' species as he could. To fund his collecting trips around the world, he arranged for European and American institutions to hire him as a specimen collector (usually for birds, mammals and other things).
It's clear that Heinrich still bears some residual bitterness toward his father, whose slights and inattentions to the people around him feature prominently in the book. It made, at times, uncomfortable reading; I felt like I was hearing more than I wanted to know. It's also clear just from Heinrich's description of his own interactions with people over the years that the son inherited at least a few of his father's less orthodox tendencies.
More the story of a family's journey than of a century in biology, this book was most interesting for its descriptions of life in wartime and post-war Europe than anything else. I enjoyed it, but not quite as much as I expected to.
Relying on family memory, documents and other sources as necessary, Heinrich tells his father's story as best he can - from a comfortable life in pre-WWI Poland through a rough time during and after the Second World War through a tenuous post-war existence in Maine. "Papa", who never got a college degree, became an expert in ichneumons (a sort of wasp) and made it his life's (rather obsessive-compulsive) work to classify as many of the worlds' species as he could. To fund his collecting trips around the world, he arranged for European and American institutions to hire him as a specimen collector (usually for birds, mammals and other things).
It's clear that Heinrich still bears some residual bitterness toward his father, whose slights and inattentions to the people around him feature prominently in the book. It made, at times, uncomfortable reading; I felt like I was hearing more than I wanted to know. It's also clear just from Heinrich's description of his own interactions with people over the years that the son inherited at least a few of his father's less orthodox tendencies.
More the story of a family's journey than of a century in biology, this book was most interesting for its descriptions of life in wartime and post-war Europe than anything else. I enjoyed it, but not quite as much as I expected to.
Reminder: Audubon on "American Masters"
PBS' "American Masters" will debut its biography of John James Audubon, "Drawn from Nature" tonight (check your local PBS station for air times; it's 10 p.m. on WGBH for us Bostonians). The Albany Times-Union and Louisville Courier-Journal offer previews.
Wild About Harry
As I note in my review of Deathly Hallows, it's been a pretty surreal week or so for those of us who pay any attention at all to the crazy phenomenon that is PotterMania. Last week I was - thankfully - far from the hubbub, hiding from the Internet, most newspapers and just about anything else with the potential to give away what happened. Since then, "have you finished it?" has been the question of the hour, and it's totally fascinating to see people walking down the street (carefully), waiting for buses, or sitting on the train completely enthralled by a book which is instantly recognizable.
It's been neat, and more than a little heartening to see a kind of instant community spring up around a book. As I wrote last night, this will fade, and we'll all soon go back to our other books and our own thoughts and troubles, but I must admit, this little interlude has been quite something.
Over at LT the Hogwarts Express group has been going full-bore with discussions on all aspects of the book; Tim's mounted a really nifty usage chart showing the number of message-posts over the course of the last few weeks, which is utterly fascinating. Also, some Slate writers have been discussing the book for a week or so now; many of the entries are well worth a read (I read through them all this morning since I'm trying now to catch up on all the things I'd been hiding from until I finished the book).
Sales of Deathly Hallows have been brisk to say the least. Barnes & Noble alone reported 1.8 million sales Saturday and Sunday, and Canada's Raincoast Books sold 812,000 copies. On Saturday, Borders stores sold 1.2 million copies, "the highest single-day sales of any title in the company's history" (a total of 8.3 million copies were snatched up in the U.S. on Saturday, according to Scholastic). Amazing, isn't it?
It's been neat, and more than a little heartening to see a kind of instant community spring up around a book. As I wrote last night, this will fade, and we'll all soon go back to our other books and our own thoughts and troubles, but I must admit, this little interlude has been quite something.
Over at LT the Hogwarts Express group has been going full-bore with discussions on all aspects of the book; Tim's mounted a really nifty usage chart showing the number of message-posts over the course of the last few weeks, which is utterly fascinating. Also, some Slate writers have been discussing the book for a week or so now; many of the entries are well worth a read (I read through them all this morning since I'm trying now to catch up on all the things I'd been hiding from until I finished the book).
Sales of Deathly Hallows have been brisk to say the least. Barnes & Noble alone reported 1.8 million sales Saturday and Sunday, and Canada's Raincoast Books sold 812,000 copies. On Saturday, Borders stores sold 1.2 million copies, "the highest single-day sales of any title in the company's history" (a total of 8.3 million copies were snatched up in the U.S. on Saturday, according to Scholastic). Amazing, isn't it?
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Book Review: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"
Warning: This review may contain some unintentional spoilers. If you haven't finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I'll be entirely unoffended if you quit reading now.
"Have you finished it yet?" This has been the near-constant whispered refrain between all the Potter-fans at work and beyond for the past couple days; thankfully I'll now be able to join the legions who can answer that question in the affirmative (and be able to take the spoiler-avoidance stoppers out of my ears). After a shipping delay followed by a visit to a Borders branch entirely bereft of copies yesterday morning, I found the final remaining first-shipment copy at one of the little independent shops in Boston; I promptly snagged it and barely set it down until I finished it this evening.
Rowling's seventh book forms a dramatic capstone to the series which has captivated readers for nearly a decade. While I am a latecomer to PotterMania myself, I admit to being a fairly zealous convert; the anticipation I felt for this book was both a surprise and a delight. Deathly Hallows is a roller-coaster ride in which many longstanding questions are finally answered and the great struggle between Harry and Voldemort is finally and decisively resolved. There are moments of intense humor, great hope, and, as expected, incredible sadness. It is almost certainly the best book of the series.
Some critics may whine about Rowling's writing and say these books aren't "great literature" - and maybe by some definitions they're not. But they are great stories, and they have managed to do something very special: they've got people - many people - reading, and talking about reading, and thinking about what they read. I realized upon boarding the train today on the way to work that five other people in the car were holding the same book; we all shared a brief smile, a moment of unexpected, tacit camaraderie. Any book that can do that must surely contain a generous portion of greatness.
The tales of Harry and his gang may end with Deathly Hallows, but their exploits will live on; these books will hold their power to amuse, to amaze, and to educate. The current atmosphere of intense anticipation will fade with time, but the powerful message contained in the series will long endure, as will their great power to inspire and to pique the imagination. As one of books' most important characters tells their hero near the end of this volume, "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"
"Have you finished it yet?" This has been the near-constant whispered refrain between all the Potter-fans at work and beyond for the past couple days; thankfully I'll now be able to join the legions who can answer that question in the affirmative (and be able to take the spoiler-avoidance stoppers out of my ears). After a shipping delay followed by a visit to a Borders branch entirely bereft of copies yesterday morning, I found the final remaining first-shipment copy at one of the little independent shops in Boston; I promptly snagged it and barely set it down until I finished it this evening.
Rowling's seventh book forms a dramatic capstone to the series which has captivated readers for nearly a decade. While I am a latecomer to PotterMania myself, I admit to being a fairly zealous convert; the anticipation I felt for this book was both a surprise and a delight. Deathly Hallows is a roller-coaster ride in which many longstanding questions are finally answered and the great struggle between Harry and Voldemort is finally and decisively resolved. There are moments of intense humor, great hope, and, as expected, incredible sadness. It is almost certainly the best book of the series.
Some critics may whine about Rowling's writing and say these books aren't "great literature" - and maybe by some definitions they're not. But they are great stories, and they have managed to do something very special: they've got people - many people - reading, and talking about reading, and thinking about what they read. I realized upon boarding the train today on the way to work that five other people in the car were holding the same book; we all shared a brief smile, a moment of unexpected, tacit camaraderie. Any book that can do that must surely contain a generous portion of greatness.
The tales of Harry and his gang may end with Deathly Hallows, but their exploits will live on; these books will hold their power to amuse, to amaze, and to educate. The current atmosphere of intense anticipation will fade with time, but the powerful message contained in the series will long endure, as will their great power to inspire and to pique the imagination. As one of books' most important characters tells their hero near the end of this volume, "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"
Book Review: "First Among Sequels"
NB: I am now fully immersed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so just about everything else is in suspended animation until I finish that (hopefully sometime tonight). It's easier to blog at work than read at work, however, so I thought I'd try to get at least one short review out today.
First Among Sequels, the fifth installment of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, debuted last week, and as his fans have come to expect, it's another winner. Thursday's up to her usual antics: fighting book-crime, dealing in black-market cheese, trying to prevent the arrival of the end of time, and, well, dealing with intransigent teenagers.
Fforde fills this book with the usual (and hilarious) scads of literary puns and allusions, and the constant action moves it along very quickly. A few too many of the plot elements were left hanging for my liking, but hopefully that means the next book will arrive in fairly short order. It's always a delight to escape into BookWorld for a while.
First Among Sequels, the fifth installment of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, debuted last week, and as his fans have come to expect, it's another winner. Thursday's up to her usual antics: fighting book-crime, dealing in black-market cheese, trying to prevent the arrival of the end of time, and, well, dealing with intransigent teenagers.
Fforde fills this book with the usual (and hilarious) scads of literary puns and allusions, and the constant action moves it along very quickly. A few too many of the plot elements were left hanging for my liking, but hopefully that means the next book will arrive in fairly short order. It's always a delight to escape into BookWorld for a while.
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