A new theft case has made the news: the CBC reported this week that the Fall River, Nova Scotia home of John Mark Tillmann, 51, contained more than 1,300 books, documents and other artifacts believed stolen from multiple collections. After a traffic stop back in June in which stolen documents (including a James Wolfe letter from the collections of Dalhousie University) were found in Tillmann's car, police searched his house and found the additional materials.
An RCMP investigator told the CBC "We believe that items such as books, documents, paintings, antiques were stolen from private collectors around Atlantic Canada, also from local universities, museums and even the legislature."
Tillmann has so far been charged with four counts of unlawful possession of materials worth more than $5,000:
- the 1758 James Wolfe letter from Dalhousie University
- two 19th-century marriage records from the Nova Scotia Provincial Archives
- four books from Mount St. Vincent University (these reportedly include a first edition of Darwin's The Origin of Species stolen from the university before 2009
- an 1819 painting from the collections of the Provincial Building Legislative Library
Nova Scotia police say they've been in contact with authorities in Newfoundland and with the FBI as they work to track down stolen items. News reports suggest that the thefts may have taken place over more than two decades. Police displayed some of the recovered items this week: video here. Dalhousie University archivists said this week that the Wolfe letter had been damaged by tearing off a section of the page which would have contained a library stamp.
Another item recovered is a piece of sheet music from the collections of Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland believed stolen for "family reasons" (it was connected to the Tilman family). Joan Ritcey, head of the Centre for Newfoundland Studies, said she recalled Tillmann's visit to the archive.
Tillmann's rap sheet includes fifteen convictions for such deeds as extortion, assault, and fraud. He was already due in court next month on additional charges of assault, forcible confinement, and uttering threats. In a report published Friday, it was revealed that in a parole hearing several years ago, Tillmann admitted that he frequently bought and resold stolen goods.
The RCMP are requesting the public's help in identifying the owners of some of the recovered items, and reportedly will be adding images of the materials here.
Tillmann currently remains in custody, with a bail hearing set for 27 February. Prosecutors oppose Tillmann's release.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Links & Reviews
- New and interesting: Letterpress Commons, a community-based website designed as an "up-to-date manual" of letterpress techniques and information. And from Enlightenment scholar James Schmidt, Persistent Enlightenment. I've added sidebar links to both.
- At Contents Magazine, a must-read interview with the founders of The Appendix, which I certainly encourage all readers of this blog to be paying attention to.
- From the Royal Society's blog, a post on recent discoveries about their copy of Boyle's Sceptical Chymist, made because a scholar (Greg Girolami at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) is working on a census of extant copies of the book. As I've written before, I am a huge fan of book censuses in general, and encourage anyone who gets the opportunity to participate in them to do so!
- Over at Biblioguerilla, a book with Erasmus' name burned out wherever it occurred, "according to the prescriptions of the Expurgatory Index," and a fantastically-titled 1791 booksellers' catalog.
- This week's court of appeals decision on recess appointments [PDF] makes for fascinating reading for anyone interested in arcane-but-important constitutional provisions. Over at Boston 1775, J.L. Bell has begun a series on the origins of the recess appointment power: here and here. NB: Jay Wexler's recent book The Odd Clauses also has a useful primer on recess appointments.
- The "Identifying the Unidentified" series continues over at Past is Present.
- From Kevin Smith at Duke, some notes on the key importance of the Wiley v. Kirtsaeng case now under consideration at the Supreme Court.
- PBA Galleries, the San Francisco-based auction house, is now under the ownership of Sharon L. Gee.
- In today's New York Times, Steve Lohr profiles some of the "big data" projects being carried out by Matthew Jockers and others in "Dickens, Austen and Twain, Through a Digital Lens."
- Georgia governor Nathan Deal's proposed budget contains $4.3 million to keep the Georgia Archives open and restore five jobs cut last fall. A task force charged with developing a plan to transfer management of the Archives from the Georgia Secretary of State's office to the University of Georgia held its first meeting this month.
- Meanwhile, north of the border in South Carolina, genealogists and historians are concerned that a long string of budget cuts at the Department of Archives and History is having severe consequences for access to archival research material.
Reviews
- Joyce Chaplin's Round About the Earth; review by Jeffrey Wassterstorm in the LA Review of Books.
- John W. O'Malley's Trent: What Happened at the Council; review by Michael Dirda in at Washington Post.
- Bram Stoker and the Stage, ed. Catherine Wynne; review by Tracy C. Davis in the TLS.
- At Contents Magazine, a must-read interview with the founders of The Appendix, which I certainly encourage all readers of this blog to be paying attention to.
- From the Royal Society's blog, a post on recent discoveries about their copy of Boyle's Sceptical Chymist, made because a scholar (Greg Girolami at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) is working on a census of extant copies of the book. As I've written before, I am a huge fan of book censuses in general, and encourage anyone who gets the opportunity to participate in them to do so!
- Over at Biblioguerilla, a book with Erasmus' name burned out wherever it occurred, "according to the prescriptions of the Expurgatory Index," and a fantastically-titled 1791 booksellers' catalog.
- This week's court of appeals decision on recess appointments [PDF] makes for fascinating reading for anyone interested in arcane-but-important constitutional provisions. Over at Boston 1775, J.L. Bell has begun a series on the origins of the recess appointment power: here and here. NB: Jay Wexler's recent book The Odd Clauses also has a useful primer on recess appointments.
- The "Identifying the Unidentified" series continues over at Past is Present.
- From Kevin Smith at Duke, some notes on the key importance of the Wiley v. Kirtsaeng case now under consideration at the Supreme Court.
- PBA Galleries, the San Francisco-based auction house, is now under the ownership of Sharon L. Gee.
- In today's New York Times, Steve Lohr profiles some of the "big data" projects being carried out by Matthew Jockers and others in "Dickens, Austen and Twain, Through a Digital Lens."
- Georgia governor Nathan Deal's proposed budget contains $4.3 million to keep the Georgia Archives open and restore five jobs cut last fall. A task force charged with developing a plan to transfer management of the Archives from the Georgia Secretary of State's office to the University of Georgia held its first meeting this month.
- Meanwhile, north of the border in South Carolina, genealogists and historians are concerned that a long string of budget cuts at the Department of Archives and History is having severe consequences for access to archival research material.
Reviews
- Joyce Chaplin's Round About the Earth; review by Jeffrey Wassterstorm in the LA Review of Books.
- John W. O'Malley's Trent: What Happened at the Council; review by Michael Dirda in at Washington Post.
- Bram Stoker and the Stage, ed. Catherine Wynne; review by Tracy C. Davis in the TLS.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Auction Report: January Sales
A quick rundown of the January sales so far, and a look at what's coming up this week:
- PBA Galleries sold Architecture Books & Folios on 10 January, in 195 lots. Results are here. The top price, $8,400, went to a copy of Cornelius Gurlitt's Die Baukunst Konstantinopels (1912), a study of Istanbul architecture.
- Lyon & Turnbull held a Rare Books, Maps, Manuscripts & Photographs sale on 16 January, in 564 lots. Two lots fetched £7,500: an East India Company logbook of the Seaford (1703-1706), and another logbook, of HMS Kent (1800-1803).
- At Bloomsbury's Bibliophile Sale on 17 January, a partial set of Buffon's Histoire Naturelle (32 of 44 volumes) sold for £1,500.
- Swann held a Shelf Sale on 17 January. Ten volumes of reference books related to porcelain sold for $4,320.
- At Swann's 20th Century Illustration on 24 January, it was a set of 48 of Garth Williams/Rosemary Wells proof plates for the 50th Anniversary Edition of Charlotte's Web for the top price, at $28,800.
- Bloomsbury sold Antiquarian Books on 24 January, in 202 lots. Léon Bakst's Bakst: The Story of the Artist's Life (1923) came out on top at £7,000 (well above the £600-800 estimates).
- PBA Galleries sold Americana, Asian-American History, Travel, Maps & Views on 24 January, in 434 lots. Results are here. A copy of an early account of Frémont's expeditions (1847) fetched the highest price, at $14,400.
- Christie's sells Albrecht Durer Masterpieces from a Private Collection on 29 January, in 62 lots. A ~1501 St. Eustace rates the top estimate (so high that it's only available on request). Knight, Death and the Devil (1513) is estimated at $500,000-700,000, Melancholia I (1514) at $400,000-600,000, and St. Jerome in his Study (1514) at $300,000-500,000.
- Dominic Winter sells Printed Books, Maps & Ephemera on 30 January. A set of first impressions of each of the three Lord of the Rings books rates the top estimate, at £10,000-15,000.
- Bloomsbury sells Maps & Atlases, Drawings & Prints on 31 January, in 440 lots.
- PBA Galleries sold Architecture Books & Folios on 10 January, in 195 lots. Results are here. The top price, $8,400, went to a copy of Cornelius Gurlitt's Die Baukunst Konstantinopels (1912), a study of Istanbul architecture.
- Lyon & Turnbull held a Rare Books, Maps, Manuscripts & Photographs sale on 16 January, in 564 lots. Two lots fetched £7,500: an East India Company logbook of the Seaford (1703-1706), and another logbook, of HMS Kent (1800-1803).
- At Bloomsbury's Bibliophile Sale on 17 January, a partial set of Buffon's Histoire Naturelle (32 of 44 volumes) sold for £1,500.
- Swann held a Shelf Sale on 17 January. Ten volumes of reference books related to porcelain sold for $4,320.
- At Swann's 20th Century Illustration on 24 January, it was a set of 48 of Garth Williams/Rosemary Wells proof plates for the 50th Anniversary Edition of Charlotte's Web for the top price, at $28,800.
- Bloomsbury sold Antiquarian Books on 24 January, in 202 lots. Léon Bakst's Bakst: The Story of the Artist's Life (1923) came out on top at £7,000 (well above the £600-800 estimates).
- PBA Galleries sold Americana, Asian-American History, Travel, Maps & Views on 24 January, in 434 lots. Results are here. A copy of an early account of Frémont's expeditions (1847) fetched the highest price, at $14,400.
- Christie's sells Albrecht Durer Masterpieces from a Private Collection on 29 January, in 62 lots. A ~1501 St. Eustace rates the top estimate (so high that it's only available on request). Knight, Death and the Devil (1513) is estimated at $500,000-700,000, Melancholia I (1514) at $400,000-600,000, and St. Jerome in his Study (1514) at $300,000-500,000.
- Dominic Winter sells Printed Books, Maps & Ephemera on 30 January. A set of first impressions of each of the three Lord of the Rings books rates the top estimate, at £10,000-15,000.
- Bloomsbury sells Maps & Atlases, Drawings & Prints on 31 January, in 440 lots.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Links & Reviews
- Federal judge Royce Lamberth held the Russian government in contempt on Wednesday, ordering payment of a $50,000-per-day fine until a collection of books and manuscripts held in Russia is returned to a Brooklyn-based Jewish group. Lamberth ruled in 2010 that the library should be returned. The Justice Department opposed the contempt finding, and the Russian government denies the authority of the court in this matter.
- From Erin Blake at The Collation, "Myth-busting early modern book illustration, part one," drawing on recent work by Blair Hedges and others on what causes lines in engravings to become thinner and paler over time.
- New from the Institute of Historical Research at UCL, InScribe, a free online paleography course.
- Over at Past is Present, a new series on "Identifying the Unidentified" launched this week, with former AAS intern Lucia Ferguson beginning a discussion on newly-identified diarist Henry Martin.
- At American Book Collecting, a truly frightening post about the erasure of an ownership signature from an important association copy.
- Library and Archives Canada has acquired a copy of the first complete bible printed in Canada, an early 1830s edition published by John Henry White. The purchase was funded by the Friends of Library and Archives Canada.
- From the University of Glasgow library blog, a look at a few items from their special collections from the library of Richard Stonley, an Elizabethan official (whose main claim to fame is that his signature in a copy of Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis is the earliest-known signature in a Shakespeare work).
- The Library Copyright Alliance put out a paper this week responding to recent court rulings on fair use and other related copyright developments.
- Newly digitized by the New York Public Library, their Thomas Addis Emmet collection of Revolutionary-era American manuscripts.
- From the MIT Technology Review, "The Algorithms that Automatically Date Medieval Manuscripts."
- The much-damaged copy of the Book of Mormon stolen from Helen Schlie of Mesa, AZ by Jay Michael Linford earlier this year and later recovered was returned to Schlie this week.
Reviews
- Peter Ackroyd's Foundation; review by Walter Olson in the NYTimes.
- Ross King's Leonardo and the Last Supper; review by Michael S. Roth in the WaPo.
- Simon Garfield's On the Map; review by David L. Ulin in the LATimes.
- From Erin Blake at The Collation, "Myth-busting early modern book illustration, part one," drawing on recent work by Blair Hedges and others on what causes lines in engravings to become thinner and paler over time.
- New from the Institute of Historical Research at UCL, InScribe, a free online paleography course.
- Over at Past is Present, a new series on "Identifying the Unidentified" launched this week, with former AAS intern Lucia Ferguson beginning a discussion on newly-identified diarist Henry Martin.
- At American Book Collecting, a truly frightening post about the erasure of an ownership signature from an important association copy.
- Library and Archives Canada has acquired a copy of the first complete bible printed in Canada, an early 1830s edition published by John Henry White. The purchase was funded by the Friends of Library and Archives Canada.
- From the University of Glasgow library blog, a look at a few items from their special collections from the library of Richard Stonley, an Elizabethan official (whose main claim to fame is that his signature in a copy of Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis is the earliest-known signature in a Shakespeare work).
- The Library Copyright Alliance put out a paper this week responding to recent court rulings on fair use and other related copyright developments.
- Newly digitized by the New York Public Library, their Thomas Addis Emmet collection of Revolutionary-era American manuscripts.
- From the MIT Technology Review, "The Algorithms that Automatically Date Medieval Manuscripts."
- The much-damaged copy of the Book of Mormon stolen from Helen Schlie of Mesa, AZ by Jay Michael Linford earlier this year and later recovered was returned to Schlie this week.
Reviews
- Peter Ackroyd's Foundation; review by Walter Olson in the NYTimes.
- Ross King's Leonardo and the Last Supper; review by Michael S. Roth in the WaPo.
- Simon Garfield's On the Map; review by David L. Ulin in the LATimes.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Book Review: "The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle"
Ava Chamberlain's The Notorious Elizabeth Tuttle: Marriage, Murder, and Madness in the Family of Jonathan Edwards (NYU Press, 2012) is an excellent example of just how interesting and worthwhile a microhistorical study can be if done well. Far too many books like this are either full of rampant and unjustified speculation or just pile tangential discussion atop tangential discussion for several hundred pages. Chamberlain's book suffers from neither of those faults, I'm very pleased to say.
Chamberlain's subject is the woman who has been described as the "crazy grandmother" of Jonathan Edwards, Elizabeth Tuttle (the first wife of Edwards' grandfather Richard). Concluding that the traditional interpretation of Tuttle was at the very least overly simplistic if not simply untrue, Chamberlain went in search of her side of the story, so to speak. The result is both a compelling exploration of the Edwards-Tuttle family story, and a deeply interesting look at the historio-genealogical treatment of Elizabeth Tuttle.
Elizabeth Tuttle's life works beautifully as Chamberlain's springboard to discuss a whole range of topics, from migration patterns to colonial laws on marriage, divorce and mental illness, to uses of the "insanity defense" in criminal trials (one of Tuttle's brothers killed one of her sisters, and another sister killed her own son - events which had no small impact on the family). Richard Edwards' petitions for divorce are carefully analyzed, but Chamberlain goes further in a successful attempt to read between the lines and understand how the same sequence of events might have been seen from Elizabeth Tuttle's perspective (noting, for example, that Richard Edwards had prior to the divorce been implicated in a case of fornication with Mary Talcott, the woman who would become his second wife).
By examining the entire two decades of the Edwards-Tuttle marriage, Chamberlain is able to contextualize the final breakdown of the union in a much clearer way, and offers a much more coherent and more complete picture of the relationship than previous studies have done. And the final chapters, which explore how genealogists and biographers of Jonathan Edwards have treated Elizabeth Tuttle (at first ignoring the issue, either implicitly or explicitly declaring that she had died rather than been divorced from Edwards' grandfather and then adopting the "crazy grandmother" motif found in the modern Edwards biographical studies) are masterfully done.
One aspect of this whole story that was completely and utterly new to me was that the Edwards family was held up as a particularly "good" line during the period of the eugenics movement, with Elizabeth Tuttle deployed by anti-eugenicists as a personification of the "misguided aims and potentially tragic consequences of eugenic legislation" (p. 182). The addition of this curious and quite fascinating element is yet another reason to like this already thoroughly worthwhile book.
Chamberlain's subject is the woman who has been described as the "crazy grandmother" of Jonathan Edwards, Elizabeth Tuttle (the first wife of Edwards' grandfather Richard). Concluding that the traditional interpretation of Tuttle was at the very least overly simplistic if not simply untrue, Chamberlain went in search of her side of the story, so to speak. The result is both a compelling exploration of the Edwards-Tuttle family story, and a deeply interesting look at the historio-genealogical treatment of Elizabeth Tuttle.
Elizabeth Tuttle's life works beautifully as Chamberlain's springboard to discuss a whole range of topics, from migration patterns to colonial laws on marriage, divorce and mental illness, to uses of the "insanity defense" in criminal trials (one of Tuttle's brothers killed one of her sisters, and another sister killed her own son - events which had no small impact on the family). Richard Edwards' petitions for divorce are carefully analyzed, but Chamberlain goes further in a successful attempt to read between the lines and understand how the same sequence of events might have been seen from Elizabeth Tuttle's perspective (noting, for example, that Richard Edwards had prior to the divorce been implicated in a case of fornication with Mary Talcott, the woman who would become his second wife).
By examining the entire two decades of the Edwards-Tuttle marriage, Chamberlain is able to contextualize the final breakdown of the union in a much clearer way, and offers a much more coherent and more complete picture of the relationship than previous studies have done. And the final chapters, which explore how genealogists and biographers of Jonathan Edwards have treated Elizabeth Tuttle (at first ignoring the issue, either implicitly or explicitly declaring that she had died rather than been divorced from Edwards' grandfather and then adopting the "crazy grandmother" motif found in the modern Edwards biographical studies) are masterfully done.
One aspect of this whole story that was completely and utterly new to me was that the Edwards family was held up as a particularly "good" line during the period of the eugenics movement, with Elizabeth Tuttle deployed by anti-eugenicists as a personification of the "misguided aims and potentially tragic consequences of eugenic legislation" (p. 182). The addition of this curious and quite fascinating element is yet another reason to like this already thoroughly worthwhile book.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Links & Reviews
- Via the ILAB Blog, a list of books believed stolen from the library of the Abbey of Montecassino by de Caro and/or his associates. They include at least six incunables, some of them Aldine imprints, and several early Galileo editions, among others.
- Over on the Appendix blog, a food and drug miscellany.
- At 8vo, Brooke tries out tapestry with "Don Saltero's Coffeehouse: Or a Secret History of the Museum."
- From Mills Kelly, "Back of the Book History," on physical data in books, with some analysis of what library circulation records might be able to tell us.
- Sarah Werner has posted her talk from this year's MLA, "Make Your Own Luck," at Wynken de Worde.
- The Bodleian Library is looking to raise £2.2 million to fund the purchase of an archive of material related to early photographer William Henry Fox Talbot.
Reviews
- Jared Diamond's The World Until Yesterday; reviews by David Brooks in the NYTimes and David Ulin in the LATimes.
- James O'Brien's The Scientific Sherlock Holmes and Maria Konnikova's Mastermind; review by Matthew Hutson in the WSJ.
- Antonio Forcellino's Raphael; review by James Hall in the TLS.
- Susan Rennie's Jamieson's Dictionary of Scots; review by Robert Crawford in the TLS.
- Over on the Appendix blog, a food and drug miscellany.
- At 8vo, Brooke tries out tapestry with "Don Saltero's Coffeehouse: Or a Secret History of the Museum."
- From Mills Kelly, "Back of the Book History," on physical data in books, with some analysis of what library circulation records might be able to tell us.
- Sarah Werner has posted her talk from this year's MLA, "Make Your Own Luck," at Wynken de Worde.
- The Bodleian Library is looking to raise £2.2 million to fund the purchase of an archive of material related to early photographer William Henry Fox Talbot.
Reviews
- Jared Diamond's The World Until Yesterday; reviews by David Brooks in the NYTimes and David Ulin in the LATimes.
- James O'Brien's The Scientific Sherlock Holmes and Maria Konnikova's Mastermind; review by Matthew Hutson in the WSJ.
- Antonio Forcellino's Raphael; review by James Hall in the TLS.
- Susan Rennie's Jamieson's Dictionary of Scots; review by Robert Crawford in the TLS.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Book Review: "The Barbarous Years"
The latest volume in Bernard Bailyn's cycle of books on the peopling of British North America is The Barbarous Years: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675 (Alfred A. Knopf, 2012). The timeframe in the subtitle proves important: some reviewers have questioned why Bailyn doesn't use this book to discuss French Canada or Spanish Florida, but those areas weren't British-controlled during the period covered here. The British settlements in the Caribbean also aren't considered, though they are often mentioned in the context of the mainland settlements.
The book opens with a short introduction to the project in general, in which Bailyn lays out what quickly becomes a major theme of the book: that the experiences of European settlers in mainland North America "were not mainly of triumph but of confusion, failure, violence, and the loss of civility as they tried to normalize abnormal situations and to recapture lost worlds, in the process tearing apart the normalities of the people whose world they had invaded" (xv). There follows a fascinating chapter on the native inhabitants of eastern North America in the years leading up to European settlement of the area, highlighting their vastly different cultures and lifestyles and the ways in which these were disrupted by the arrival of Europeans with their unquenchable desire for furs and with their virulent diseases.
Three sections on the major areas of European colonization are at the core of the book: Virginia and the Chesapeake region, the Dutch and Swedish settlements in what is now New York and along the Delaware River, and the Pilgrim/Puritan colonies in New England. For each, Bailyn focuses on the tenuous nature of the settlements: the mismanagement and demographic troubles that very nearly put a quick end to the Virginia endeavors, the religious and bureaucratic wrangling over the Chesapeake, the squabbly nature of the Dutch commercial outposts in New Amsterdam. He does a fine job of describing the interesting Swedish and Finnish settlements along the Delaware, first taken over by the Dutch and then reverting to English control in the 1660s.
It is the New England section, of course, where Bailyn is most at home and comfortable, and this section of the book is chock full of fascinating details (even more full than the other sections). He analyzes the origins of settlers in various towns, explores the trend of reverse migration back to England in the years following the fall of Charles I, and delves deeply into the great conflicts at the heart of early New England: how to divide up the land, how to establish new towns, how to deal with religious and political controversy, how to live a goodly and godly life. He delves deeply into the antinomian controversy, and explores the many criticisms of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies leveled by those who fell afoul of their civil and religious leaders. All the while Bailyn stresses the difficulties, the stresses, the conflict points that made life for the early generations of Europeans in America no cakewalk, and which destroyed the cultures of the region's prior inhabitants through brutal conflict.
As other reviews have pointed out, Bailyn doesn't do as much as he might have with the interactions (both peaceful and armed) between the Europeans and the American Indians, particularly in the sections on the Dutch-controlled region and New England. And while the practice of forcibly importing African slaves is mentioned (at 174-177; 242-243; 257-259; 508-510, for example), there are perhaps additional sources Bailyn might have drawn on to bring the experience(s) of the few thousand Africans brought to North America during this period more to the fore (likewise with the enslavement of Indians at various points, which is mentioned only in passing).
I don't normally read reviews of books prior to writing my own, but I made an exception in this case and looked at a couple. I found much of Charles C. Mann's critique in the New York Times to be fair (he mentions the lack of attention to enslaved Africans and the Indian conflicts), but must take issue with his statement that Bailyn "appears to give some credence to John Smith's story about Pocahontas saving his life, for instance, though most anthropologists dismiss it out of hand." Here's Bailyn on this point: "... Smith recorded the story of his captivity at first briefly and with little drama (he 'procured his owne liberty'), then elaborated it in retelling, finally embellished it as an elaborate ceremony centered on the tale of how Pocahontas 'the King's dearest daughter' (who was eleven at the time) 'got his head in her armes, and laid her owne upon his to save him from death'" (58). I don't see this as giving credence to the story at all, merely pointing out how Smith's telling of it changed over time.
A thoroughly interesting and important book on the subject; not without faults, certainly, but filled with intriguing characters whose stories Bailyn has told clearly, well, and in the service of his larger study.
The book opens with a short introduction to the project in general, in which Bailyn lays out what quickly becomes a major theme of the book: that the experiences of European settlers in mainland North America "were not mainly of triumph but of confusion, failure, violence, and the loss of civility as they tried to normalize abnormal situations and to recapture lost worlds, in the process tearing apart the normalities of the people whose world they had invaded" (xv). There follows a fascinating chapter on the native inhabitants of eastern North America in the years leading up to European settlement of the area, highlighting their vastly different cultures and lifestyles and the ways in which these were disrupted by the arrival of Europeans with their unquenchable desire for furs and with their virulent diseases.
Three sections on the major areas of European colonization are at the core of the book: Virginia and the Chesapeake region, the Dutch and Swedish settlements in what is now New York and along the Delaware River, and the Pilgrim/Puritan colonies in New England. For each, Bailyn focuses on the tenuous nature of the settlements: the mismanagement and demographic troubles that very nearly put a quick end to the Virginia endeavors, the religious and bureaucratic wrangling over the Chesapeake, the squabbly nature of the Dutch commercial outposts in New Amsterdam. He does a fine job of describing the interesting Swedish and Finnish settlements along the Delaware, first taken over by the Dutch and then reverting to English control in the 1660s.
It is the New England section, of course, where Bailyn is most at home and comfortable, and this section of the book is chock full of fascinating details (even more full than the other sections). He analyzes the origins of settlers in various towns, explores the trend of reverse migration back to England in the years following the fall of Charles I, and delves deeply into the great conflicts at the heart of early New England: how to divide up the land, how to establish new towns, how to deal with religious and political controversy, how to live a goodly and godly life. He delves deeply into the antinomian controversy, and explores the many criticisms of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies leveled by those who fell afoul of their civil and religious leaders. All the while Bailyn stresses the difficulties, the stresses, the conflict points that made life for the early generations of Europeans in America no cakewalk, and which destroyed the cultures of the region's prior inhabitants through brutal conflict.
As other reviews have pointed out, Bailyn doesn't do as much as he might have with the interactions (both peaceful and armed) between the Europeans and the American Indians, particularly in the sections on the Dutch-controlled region and New England. And while the practice of forcibly importing African slaves is mentioned (at 174-177; 242-243; 257-259; 508-510, for example), there are perhaps additional sources Bailyn might have drawn on to bring the experience(s) of the few thousand Africans brought to North America during this period more to the fore (likewise with the enslavement of Indians at various points, which is mentioned only in passing).
I don't normally read reviews of books prior to writing my own, but I made an exception in this case and looked at a couple. I found much of Charles C. Mann's critique in the New York Times to be fair (he mentions the lack of attention to enslaved Africans and the Indian conflicts), but must take issue with his statement that Bailyn "appears to give some credence to John Smith's story about Pocahontas saving his life, for instance, though most anthropologists dismiss it out of hand." Here's Bailyn on this point: "... Smith recorded the story of his captivity at first briefly and with little drama (he 'procured his owne liberty'), then elaborated it in retelling, finally embellished it as an elaborate ceremony centered on the tale of how Pocahontas 'the King's dearest daughter' (who was eleven at the time) 'got his head in her armes, and laid her owne upon his to save him from death'" (58). I don't see this as giving credence to the story at all, merely pointing out how Smith's telling of it changed over time.
A thoroughly interesting and important book on the subject; not without faults, certainly, but filled with intriguing characters whose stories Bailyn has told clearly, well, and in the service of his larger study.
Sunday, January 06, 2013
Links & Reviews
Happening recently:
- Matthew Haley has been appointed head of Books, Maps, and Manuscripts for the UK wing of Bonhams, after four years in New York as a specialist in fine books for the auction house (during which time he also launched the annual Space History Sale for Bonhams). Congratulations to Matthew on this appointment!
- Bookseller Ken Karmiole has established a $100,000 endowment at UCLA to fund archival studies and lectures in the field.
- From the Rare Book Cataloging at Penn, blog, a student worker's perspective on jumping into the world of cataloging.
- The AE Monthly for January is up: it includes Michael Stillman's annual look at the top 500 auction items for 2012, a discussion of the recent Graham Arader sale and a piece on the Old South Bay Psalm Book decision by Bruce McKinney, among other articles.
- Reporting for the WSJ this week, Barry Newman explores the market for authors' archives, highlighting bookseller Ken Lopez and the recent acquisition by Yale of the papers of N. Scott Momaday.
- The British tabloid The Sunday Sun reports that authorities will hold an inquest into the apparent suicide of book thief Raymond Scott.
Reviews
- G. Thomas Tanselle's Book-Jackets: Their History, Form, and Use; review by Robin at Bookride.
- John Glassie's A Man of Misconceptions; review by Jad Abumrad in the NYTimes. Reviewed jointly with Lawrence M. Principe's The Secrets of Alchemy and John Freely's Before Galileo by Laura J. Snyder in the WSJ.
- Bernard Bailyn's The Barbarous Years; review by Charles C. Mann in the NYTimes.
- Simon Garfield's On the Map; review by Simon Winchester in the WaPo.
- Stephane Gerson's Nostradamus; review by Joshua Blu Buhs in the WaPo.
- Matthew Haley has been appointed head of Books, Maps, and Manuscripts for the UK wing of Bonhams, after four years in New York as a specialist in fine books for the auction house (during which time he also launched the annual Space History Sale for Bonhams). Congratulations to Matthew on this appointment!
- Bookseller Ken Karmiole has established a $100,000 endowment at UCLA to fund archival studies and lectures in the field.
- From the Rare Book Cataloging at Penn, blog, a student worker's perspective on jumping into the world of cataloging.
- The AE Monthly for January is up: it includes Michael Stillman's annual look at the top 500 auction items for 2012, a discussion of the recent Graham Arader sale and a piece on the Old South Bay Psalm Book decision by Bruce McKinney, among other articles.
- Reporting for the WSJ this week, Barry Newman explores the market for authors' archives, highlighting bookseller Ken Lopez and the recent acquisition by Yale of the papers of N. Scott Momaday.
- The British tabloid The Sunday Sun reports that authorities will hold an inquest into the apparent suicide of book thief Raymond Scott.
Reviews
- G. Thomas Tanselle's Book-Jackets: Their History, Form, and Use; review by Robin at Bookride.
- John Glassie's A Man of Misconceptions; review by Jad Abumrad in the NYTimes. Reviewed jointly with Lawrence M. Principe's The Secrets of Alchemy and John Freely's Before Galileo by Laura J. Snyder in the WSJ.
- Bernard Bailyn's The Barbarous Years; review by Charles C. Mann in the NYTimes.
- Simon Garfield's On the Map; review by Simon Winchester in the WaPo.
- Stephane Gerson's Nostradamus; review by Joshua Blu Buhs in the WaPo.
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
Literary Anniversaries 2013
Like last year, I'll highlight a few of the notable anniversaries coming up in 2013:
650 years ago (1363):
- Christine de Pizan born (approximate).
700 years ago (1313):
- Giovanni Boccaccio born, 16 June (uncertain).
50 years ago (1963):
- Yann Martel born, 25 June.
- Robert Frost dies, 29 January.
- Sylvia Plath dies, 11 February.
- William Carlos Williams dies, 4 March.
- Aldous Huxley dies, 22 November.
- C.S. Lewis dies, 22 November.
- Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar published.
- Thomas Pynchon's V. published.
- Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle published.
- Robert Frost dies, 29 January.
- Sylvia Plath dies, 11 February.
- William Carlos Williams dies, 4 March.
- Aldous Huxley dies, 22 November.
- C.S. Lewis dies, 22 November.
- Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar published.
- Thomas Pynchon's V. published.
- Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle published.
100 years ago (1913):
- Robertson Davies born, 28 August.
- Albert Camus born, 7 November.
- Willa Cather's O Pioneers! published.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Poison Belt published.
- D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers published.
- George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion published.
- Albert Camus born, 7 November.
- Willa Cather's O Pioneers! published.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Poison Belt published.
- D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers published.
- George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion published.
150 years ago (1863):
- Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch born, 24 November.
- George Santayana born, 16 December.
- Jacob Grimm dies, 20 September.
- Frances Trollope dies, 6 October.
- William Makepeace Thackeray dies, 24 December.
- George Eliot's Romola published.
- Edward Everett Hale's The Man Without a Country published.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn published.
- George Santayana born, 16 December.
- Jacob Grimm dies, 20 September.
- Frances Trollope dies, 6 October.
- William Makepeace Thackeray dies, 24 December.
- George Eliot's Romola published.
- Edward Everett Hale's The Man Without a Country published.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn published.
200 years ago (1813):
- Otto Ludwig born, 12 February.
- Søren Kierkegaard born, 5 May.
- Christoph Martin Wieland dies, 20 January.
- J. Hector St. John de Crèvecouer dies, 12 November.
- Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice published, 28 January.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley's Queen Mab published.
- Søren Kierkegaard born, 5 May.
- Christoph Martin Wieland dies, 20 January.
- J. Hector St. John de Crèvecouer dies, 12 November.
- Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice published, 28 January.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley's Queen Mab published.
250 years ago (1763):
- William Cobbett born, 9 March.
- Louis Racine dies, 29 January.
- William Shenstone dies, 11 February.
- George Psalmanazar dies, 3 May.
- James Boswell meets Samuel Johnson, 16 May.
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Letters published.
- Louis Racine dies, 29 January.
- William Shenstone dies, 11 February.
- George Psalmanazar dies, 3 May.
- James Boswell meets Samuel Johnson, 16 May.
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Letters published.
300 years ago (1713):
- Abbé Raynal born, 12 April.
- Denis Diderot born, 15 October.
- Laurence Sterne born, 24 November.
- Denis Diderot born, 15 October.
- Laurence Sterne born, 24 November.
- Joseph Addison's Cato debuts.
350 years ago (1663):
- Cotton Mather born, 12 February.
- Francis Atterbury born, 6 March.
- William Bradford (printer) born, 20 March.
- Francis Atterbury born, 6 March.
- William Bradford (printer) born, 20 March.
400 years ago (1613):
- François de la Rochefoucauld born, 15 September.
- Thomas Bodley dies, 28 January.
- Shakespeare (and Fletcher's?) Henry VIII debuts (at one performance of which the Globe burns).
- Thomas Bodley dies, 28 January.
- Shakespeare (and Fletcher's?) Henry VIII debuts (at one performance of which the Globe burns).
450 years ago (1563):
- Michael Drayton born.
- Jodocus Hondius born, 14 October.
- John Bale dies, November.
- Foxe's Book of Martyrs published in English by John Day.
- Jodocus Hondius born, 14 October.
- John Bale dies, November.
- Foxe's Book of Martyrs published in English by John Day.
500 years ago (1513):
- Jacques Amyot born, 30 October.
- Robert Fabyan dies.
550 years ago (1463):
- Giovanni Pico della Mirandola born, 24 February.
- Lorenzo de' Medici born, 4 August.
- Flavio Biondo dies, 4 June.
- Lorenzo de' Medici born, 4 August.
- Flavio Biondo dies, 4 June.
650 years ago (1363):
- Christine de Pizan born (approximate).
700 years ago (1313):
- Giovanni Boccaccio born, 16 June (uncertain).
What'd I miss? Let me know!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Year-End Reading Report 2012
I almost can't believe another year of reading has come to an end ... as usual, it fairly flew by.
In 2012 I joined one of the LibraryThing reading groups, the 75 Books Challenge for 2012, which was great fun: I enjoyed the group reads and the neat atmosphere (plus the semi-obsessive stats-keeping). The 2013 group is already getting active, so if you're keen on such things, join the fray!
At least partly due to the gentle competition of the reading challenge, but also since things were at least a bit more settled this year than last, I read 184 books in 2012, for an average of one every 2 days. That's by far the most I've read in a single year since I started keeping track, and the grand total surprised me greatly. It was also, I must say, one of the best reading years I've had in a while: it was difficult to come up with just ten "top" titles this time around.
As per last year's resolution, I did read more books published before the current year: 2012 publications made up just 52% of this year's total, but the vast majority of books read (84%) were published since 2000, so I'll maintain the same resolution for next year and try to continue reading more not-so-recent titles.
The titles broke down into 93 fiction and 91 non-fiction books, running just about even there this year. For the true stats geeks, I read 84 hardcovers, 50.5 paperbacks, 48 ARCs, and 2.5 e-books (the .5s are a book I started in paperback and left behind when I went on a trip, so I finished it in the e-version). For a full breakdown of 2012 reading stats, see Message 11 here).
Since I didn't manage it last winter, I still have to get all my books back into order on the shelves. We'll see if I can make more progress with that goal this year.
And now, my favorite ten fiction and non-fiction reads for 2012 (in no particular order within the lists):
Fiction
This Very Tree by Josephine Young Case (Houghton Mifflin, 1969). Review.
Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer by Wesley Stace (Picador, 2011). Review.
PYG: The Memoirs of a Learned Pig by Russell Potter (Canongate, 2011). Review.
The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann (Ecco, 2012). Review.
The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King (Picador, 2007). Review.
Arcadia by Lauren Groff (Voice, 2012). Review.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Random House, 2011). Review.
Shirley Jackson: Novels and Stories (Library of America, 2010). Review.
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (Henry Holt, 2012). Review.
Galore by Michael Crummey (Other Press, 2010). Review.
Non-Fiction
Books as History: The Importance of Books Beyond their Texts by David Pearson (Oak Knoll Press, revised edition 2011). Review.
The Rector and the Rogue by W.A. Swanberg (Collins Library edition published by McSweeney's, 2011). Review.
The Social Conquest of Earth by E.O. Wilson (W.W. Norton, 2012). Review.
The Passage of Power by Robert Caro (Knopf, 2012). Review.
The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom by Marcus Rediker (Viking, 2012). Review.
Writings from the New Yorker, 1927-1976 by E.B. White (Harper, 2006). Review.
The Dark Defile: Britain's Catastrophic Invasion of Afghanistan, 1838-1842 by Diana Preston (Walker & Company, 2012). Review.
The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies by Allan Taylor (Knopf, 201). Review.
Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile by Taras Grescoe (Times Books, 2012). Review.
A Man of Misconceptions: The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change by John Glassie (Riverhead, 2012). Review.
I also want to make a special mention of a literary podcast I discovered this year: A Podcast to the Curious, about the weird fiction of M.R. James. I've enjoyed making my way through all the episodes of this so far, and hope the hosts are able to keep up the great work.
My reading resolutions for 2013: continue reading more books published prior to the current year, and spend more time catching up on scholarly periodicals as they arrive.
Happy New Year, and may your 2013 be filled with good health, good fortune, and good books!
Previous year's reports: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006.
In 2012 I joined one of the LibraryThing reading groups, the 75 Books Challenge for 2012, which was great fun: I enjoyed the group reads and the neat atmosphere (plus the semi-obsessive stats-keeping). The 2013 group is already getting active, so if you're keen on such things, join the fray!
At least partly due to the gentle competition of the reading challenge, but also since things were at least a bit more settled this year than last, I read 184 books in 2012, for an average of one every 2 days. That's by far the most I've read in a single year since I started keeping track, and the grand total surprised me greatly. It was also, I must say, one of the best reading years I've had in a while: it was difficult to come up with just ten "top" titles this time around.
As per last year's resolution, I did read more books published before the current year: 2012 publications made up just 52% of this year's total, but the vast majority of books read (84%) were published since 2000, so I'll maintain the same resolution for next year and try to continue reading more not-so-recent titles.
The titles broke down into 93 fiction and 91 non-fiction books, running just about even there this year. For the true stats geeks, I read 84 hardcovers, 50.5 paperbacks, 48 ARCs, and 2.5 e-books (the .5s are a book I started in paperback and left behind when I went on a trip, so I finished it in the e-version). For a full breakdown of 2012 reading stats, see Message 11 here).
Since I didn't manage it last winter, I still have to get all my books back into order on the shelves. We'll see if I can make more progress with that goal this year.
And now, my favorite ten fiction and non-fiction reads for 2012 (in no particular order within the lists):
Fiction
This Very Tree by Josephine Young Case (Houghton Mifflin, 1969). Review.
PYG: The Memoirs of a Learned Pig by Russell Potter (Canongate, 2011). Review.
The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann (Ecco, 2012). Review.
The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King (Picador, 2007). Review.
Arcadia by Lauren Groff (Voice, 2012). Review.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Random House, 2011). Review.
Shirley Jackson: Novels and Stories (Library of America, 2010). Review.
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (Henry Holt, 2012). Review.
Galore by Michael Crummey (Other Press, 2010). Review.
Non-Fiction
Books as History: The Importance of Books Beyond their Texts by David Pearson (Oak Knoll Press, revised edition 2011). Review.
The Rector and the Rogue by W.A. Swanberg (Collins Library edition published by McSweeney's, 2011). Review.
The Social Conquest of Earth by E.O. Wilson (W.W. Norton, 2012). Review.
The Passage of Power by Robert Caro (Knopf, 2012). Review.
The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom by Marcus Rediker (Viking, 2012). Review.
Writings from the New Yorker, 1927-1976 by E.B. White (Harper, 2006). Review.
The Dark Defile: Britain's Catastrophic Invasion of Afghanistan, 1838-1842 by Diana Preston (Walker & Company, 2012). Review.
The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies by Allan Taylor (Knopf, 201). Review.
Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile by Taras Grescoe (Times Books, 2012). Review.
A Man of Misconceptions: The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change by John Glassie (Riverhead, 2012). Review.
I also want to make a special mention of a literary podcast I discovered this year: A Podcast to the Curious, about the weird fiction of M.R. James. I've enjoyed making my way through all the episodes of this so far, and hope the hosts are able to keep up the great work.
My reading resolutions for 2013: continue reading more books published prior to the current year, and spend more time catching up on scholarly periodicals as they arrive.
Happy New Year, and may your 2013 be filled with good health, good fortune, and good books!
Previous year's reports: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006.
Auction Report: January Preview
Not too much going on in January, but I'll try to remember to update this post with links as some more of the catalogs come online.
- PBA Galleries sells Architecture Books & Folios on 10 January, in 195 lots.
- Lyon & Turnbull sells Rare Books, Maps, Manuscripts & Photographs on 16 January, in 564 lots.
No preview yet for the following sales:
- Bloomsbury holds a Bibliophile Sale on 17 January, sells Antiquarian Books on 24 January, and Maps & Atlases on 31 January.
- Swann holds a Shelf Sale on 17 January, and 20th Century Illustration on 24 January.
- PBA Galleries sells Americana, Asian-American History, Travel, Maps & Views on 24 January.
- Christie's sells Albrecht Durer Masterpieces from a Private Collection on 29 January.
- Dominic Winter sells Printed Books, Maps & Ephemera on 30 January.
- PBA Galleries sells Architecture Books & Folios on 10 January, in 195 lots.
- Lyon & Turnbull sells Rare Books, Maps, Manuscripts & Photographs on 16 January, in 564 lots.
No preview yet for the following sales:
- Bloomsbury holds a Bibliophile Sale on 17 January, sells Antiquarian Books on 24 January, and Maps & Atlases on 31 January.
- Swann holds a Shelf Sale on 17 January, and 20th Century Illustration on 24 January.
- PBA Galleries sells Americana, Asian-American History, Travel, Maps & Views on 24 January.
- Christie's sells Albrecht Durer Masterpieces from a Private Collection on 29 January.
- Dominic Winter sells Printed Books, Maps & Ephemera on 30 January.
Auction Report: December Recap
The final auctions of 2012 are now behind us:
- At Swann Galleries' Fine Photographs and Photobooks sale on 11 December, the top lot was a San Francisco police department album containing more than 700 mugshots, which fetched $36,000.
- Sotheby's sold English Literature, History, Children's Books & Illustrations on 12 December, for a total of £1,987,850. The first edition of Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte containing six manuscript Bronte letters brought the highest price, at £223,250. A collection of Mick Jagger letters came next, at £187,250. The earliest known photo album by Julia Margaret Cameron sold for £121,250, as did the gun used by Sean Connery in James Bond publicity photos. The collection of Virginia Woolf's pocket engagement diaries sold for £73,250, and the imperfect Second Folio made £37,250. The presentation copy of Emma didn't find a buyer.
- The Art of Illustration - From the Collection of Michael Winner, also at Sotheby's on 12 December, resulted in a total of £1,127,296. The top seller was an E.H. Shepard ink drawing of Christopher Robin dragging Pooh down the stairs, which sold for £139,250.
- Results for the Bloomsbury Astronomy and Space Exploration sale on 12 December are here. A first printed edition of Ptolemy's Almagest fetched the top price at £20,000.
- Sotheby's 14 December sale of Fine Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana saw a total of $2,126,632. It was the set of The Pennsylvania Evening Post for 1776, including the first newspaper printing of the Declaration of Independence that brought the highest price, selling for $722,500. An 1814 work on the Lewis and Clark expedition sold for $218,500. The first edition of Newton's Principia, first edition of Audubon's Quadrupeds, and the collection of Charles Schulz drawings and letters all failed to sell.
- PBA Galleries sold Fine Literature, Illustrated and Children's Books, and Books in All Fields on 13 December; results are here. A first printing of To Kill a Mockingbird sold for $10,800. The first edition Ulysses failed to sell.
- Bloomsbury sold Antiquarian Books and Manuscripts on 14 December; results are here.
- There were quite a few bargains to be had at the 20 December PBA Galleries sale of Treasures from Our Warehouse with Books by the Shelf. Results are here.
Links & Reviews
A rather delayed links and reviews, since I took some time away for the holidays. It was very nice to have a full week at home with my family, and I was delighted to be able to meet a couple of the new additions (my cousins are now having children!), enjoy an afternoon of sledding on the hill across from my grandparents' house where we all spent many many winter days when I was younger, and snuggle with my sister's new puppy. And of course there were more delicious meals than I can count, several peaceful days in which I got a great deal of reading done, and some great birding at my mom's feeders, which I had a devil of a time keeping sufficiently filled!
But now, back to business:
- Last week's "On the Media" featured a discussion with Scott Sherman about his Vanity Fair piece "The Long Good-Bye," on the 1962-3 New York City newspaper strike. Both the interview and the article are highly recommended (I don't know about you, but I had no idea how dramatic and important the consequences of this strike were).
- From the Chronicle, Jen Howard's "The Secret Lives of Readers", on scholarly interest in the history of the reading experience, is a must-read.
- Jennifer Schuessler's "The Paper Trail Through History" in the NYTimes is a good look at some of the neat work being done in what Schuessler says might be called "paperwork studies."
- Convicted signature forger Allan Formhals has been sentenced to ten months in prison.
- Steve Ferguson highlights the scrapbooks created by Princeton Librarian Frederic Vinton in the 1870s and 1880s, on such topics as the assassination of President Garfield and the New York City snowstorm of 1888.
- From Wired, a look at how the digital shift has changed the antiquarian book market.
- Andrew Scrimgeour, dean of libraries at Drew University, has a NYTimes essay about the care and handling of scholars' personal libraries after their deaths. If only were treated with as much respect as those Scrimgeour discusses!
- The Dallas Morning News profiles Don Hobbs, a collector of Sherlock Holmesiana in languages other than English (he's got about 11,000 volumes!).
- Sarah Werner recaps the three-day Teaching Book History workshop held at the Folger Library earlier this month. I enjoyed following the discussions on Twitter and Sarah's post is a good summary of the proceedings.
- Quite a surprising auction result for a thirty-volume set of Dickens' works sold at a Virginia auction in early December: the volumes fetched $70,800 (over pre-sale estimates of $2,500-4,000). To be fair, the collection did have a nice association: it was inscribed by Dickens to a friend.
- Tomorrow marks the 150th anniversary of day the Emancipation Proclamation took effect. The National Archives has posted a short film about the original document.
- In the Guardian, Joe Moran covers the Great Diary Project, a new effort at the Bishopsgate Institute to preserve British diaries.
- Over at The Junto, Seth Parry writes about finding a bible in the University of Chicago's Regenstein Library with an unexpectedly interesting and important provenance. I'm torn about this post: part of me is delighted that he got to experience the book in the way that he did, but the archivist/librarian in me thinks he ought to have taken it to Special Collections immediately upon discovering what it was, heh.
Reviews
- Kevin Phillips' 1775; review by Jack Rakove in TNR.
- John Glassie's A Man of Misconceptions; review by Jennifer Schuessler in the NYTimes.
- Don M. Hagist's British Soldiers, American War; review by J.L. Bell at Boston 1775.
- B.A. Shapiro's The Art Forger; review by Maxwell Carter in the NYTimes.
- Joyce Chaplin's Round About the Earth; review by Bruce Barcott in the NYTimes.
But now, back to business:
- Last week's "On the Media" featured a discussion with Scott Sherman about his Vanity Fair piece "The Long Good-Bye," on the 1962-3 New York City newspaper strike. Both the interview and the article are highly recommended (I don't know about you, but I had no idea how dramatic and important the consequences of this strike were).
- From the Chronicle, Jen Howard's "The Secret Lives of Readers", on scholarly interest in the history of the reading experience, is a must-read.
- Jennifer Schuessler's "The Paper Trail Through History" in the NYTimes is a good look at some of the neat work being done in what Schuessler says might be called "paperwork studies."
- Convicted signature forger Allan Formhals has been sentenced to ten months in prison.
- Steve Ferguson highlights the scrapbooks created by Princeton Librarian Frederic Vinton in the 1870s and 1880s, on such topics as the assassination of President Garfield and the New York City snowstorm of 1888.
- From Wired, a look at how the digital shift has changed the antiquarian book market.
- Andrew Scrimgeour, dean of libraries at Drew University, has a NYTimes essay about the care and handling of scholars' personal libraries after their deaths. If only were treated with as much respect as those Scrimgeour discusses!
- The Dallas Morning News profiles Don Hobbs, a collector of Sherlock Holmesiana in languages other than English (he's got about 11,000 volumes!).
- Sarah Werner recaps the three-day Teaching Book History workshop held at the Folger Library earlier this month. I enjoyed following the discussions on Twitter and Sarah's post is a good summary of the proceedings.
- Quite a surprising auction result for a thirty-volume set of Dickens' works sold at a Virginia auction in early December: the volumes fetched $70,800 (over pre-sale estimates of $2,500-4,000). To be fair, the collection did have a nice association: it was inscribed by Dickens to a friend.
- Tomorrow marks the 150th anniversary of day the Emancipation Proclamation took effect. The National Archives has posted a short film about the original document.
- In the Guardian, Joe Moran covers the Great Diary Project, a new effort at the Bishopsgate Institute to preserve British diaries.
- Over at The Junto, Seth Parry writes about finding a bible in the University of Chicago's Regenstein Library with an unexpectedly interesting and important provenance. I'm torn about this post: part of me is delighted that he got to experience the book in the way that he did, but the archivist/librarian in me thinks he ought to have taken it to Special Collections immediately upon discovering what it was, heh.
Reviews
- Kevin Phillips' 1775; review by Jack Rakove in TNR.
- John Glassie's A Man of Misconceptions; review by Jennifer Schuessler in the NYTimes.
- Don M. Hagist's British Soldiers, American War; review by J.L. Bell at Boston 1775.
- B.A. Shapiro's The Art Forger; review by Maxwell Carter in the NYTimes.
- Joyce Chaplin's Round About the Earth; review by Bruce Barcott in the NYTimes.
Friday, December 28, 2012
More on the Bay Psalm Book Sale
A couple additional items of interest relating to the now-probable sale of one of two remaining copies of the 1640 Bay Psalm Book belonging to Boston's Old South Church.
On 25 December the New York Times ran a report by Jess Bidgood on the decision to sell one of the Old South copies; the article features comments by Rare Book School director Michael Suarez.
And from the "oldie but goodie" department, there's a 22 November 1954 LIFE article on the removal of the other three copies from the Prince Library, headlined "A Very Proper Swindle."
On 25 December the New York Times ran a report by Jess Bidgood on the decision to sell one of the Old South copies; the article features comments by Rare Book School director Michael Suarez.
And from the "oldie but goodie" department, there's a 22 November 1954 LIFE article on the removal of the other three copies from the Prince Library, headlined "A Very Proper Swindle."
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Book Review: "The Amistad Rebellion"
In his 2007 book The Slave Ship: A Human History, Marcus Rediker explored Atlantic slavery by focusing on the ships which carried enslaved Africans across the Atlantic and the slaves, sailors, and captains who populated those ships. In his new book, The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom (Viking, 2012), Rediker focuses on the slaves who made the middle passage aboard just one ship, the Teçora, and even then on just a small subset of those: the slaves transferred to the Amistad for what was supposed to be a quick three-day voyage from Havana to another part of Cuba, but which turned into something much more.
As Rediker notes in his introduction, in the story that's come down to us about the Amistad revolt and its legal aftermath, "American actors—abolitionists, attorneys, judges, and politicians—have elbowed aside the African ones whose daring actions set the train of events in motion" (p. 5). So instead of telling the story from an abolitionist perspective, or even by focusing on the political-legal aspects of the case, Rediker has, with this book, provided us, at long last, with a history of the Amistad case "from below," with the Africans themselves as the main characters (as, of course, they were). This is possible because of the great number of articles, letters, illustrations and other sources which the case engendered (Rediker has identified more than 2,500 articles, many of them written by correspondents who personally met with the captives):
"No other makers of a modern slave revolt generated such a vast and deep body of evidence, which in turn makes it possible to know more about the Amistad Africans than perhaps any other group of once-enslaved rebels on record, and to get to know them, individually and collectively, in intimate, multidimensional ways, from their personalities and sense of humor to their specifically West African ways of thinking and acting during their ordeal" (p. 11).
Largely relying on the words of the Africans themselves, Rediker is able to trace their individual stories: how they were enslaved, what their lives were like prior to their enslavement, and their experiences of the Middle Passage aboard the Teçora and later of the harrowing days on the Amistad and following their re-capture and transfer to Connecticut jails. The reader gets a real sense of how they felt about what was happening to them once they arrived in the United States: their continued fear that they would be either killed outright or returned to slavery in Cuba for almost certain execution, their often-expressed desire to go home.
Beyond this, though, Rediker explores much of what was going on around the case, from the way it was portrayed in newspaper articles to the plays it inspired, and how the case was seen and used by the various abolitionist/colonizationist/evangelical activist communities. He explores the efforts made to educate the group, and he provides a really important account of the "tour" the group went on following the Supreme Court's decision in their case, partly to raise money for their return to Africa. Finally, the closing chapters tell us what happened in the end, when the group returned to Africa alongside some American missionaries.
Rediker also brings up an element of this story which I wasn't familiar with before at all: the Poro Society, "an all-male secret society and fundamental governing social institution" (p. 31). All the Amistad Africans would have been familiar, Rediker argues, with the governing codes and hierarchies of the Poro, and the shared experience of Poro culture would have served to help bond the group together, even though they were from different ethnic and language backgrounds. It's a fascinating part to the tale that certainly seems worthy of further study.
Another interesting aspect of the case that Rediker explores is the way funds were raised for the Amistad group (for their board, education, and eventually for their homeward voyage). He notes that the general assumption has been that Lewis Tappan basically paid for the whole shebang, but Rediker found through an examination of the account books of the Amistad Committee that there was instead quite an impressive popular outpouring of funds ($90 from the "Color'd Citizens of Cincinnati," $58.50 from textile mill workers in Lowell, Massachusetts, &c.).
The political and legal elements of the case aren't ignored, but they're not Rediker's main concern, so much of the very complex legal drama is pared down quite a bit. Since I'm also interested in that part of the case, and particularly in the Supreme Court arguments about the case, I would have not have been averse to some deeper discussion and analysis in those areas from Rediker's perspective, but that's just me, and what Rediker has done is to put the Amistad Africans, both as individuals and as a group, back at the center of the story, where they belong.
I'm pretty sure I praised Rediker's footnotes with his last book, and I'll do so again here: they're thorough and useful, as footnotes should be. They, along with Rediker's excellent discussion of how the Amistad case was viewed at the time and how it has been seen and interpreted in the intervening years, add even more to what this book has accomplished. Highly recommended.
As Rediker notes in his introduction, in the story that's come down to us about the Amistad revolt and its legal aftermath, "American actors—abolitionists, attorneys, judges, and politicians—have elbowed aside the African ones whose daring actions set the train of events in motion" (p. 5). So instead of telling the story from an abolitionist perspective, or even by focusing on the political-legal aspects of the case, Rediker has, with this book, provided us, at long last, with a history of the Amistad case "from below," with the Africans themselves as the main characters (as, of course, they were). This is possible because of the great number of articles, letters, illustrations and other sources which the case engendered (Rediker has identified more than 2,500 articles, many of them written by correspondents who personally met with the captives):
"No other makers of a modern slave revolt generated such a vast and deep body of evidence, which in turn makes it possible to know more about the Amistad Africans than perhaps any other group of once-enslaved rebels on record, and to get to know them, individually and collectively, in intimate, multidimensional ways, from their personalities and sense of humor to their specifically West African ways of thinking and acting during their ordeal" (p. 11).
Largely relying on the words of the Africans themselves, Rediker is able to trace their individual stories: how they were enslaved, what their lives were like prior to their enslavement, and their experiences of the Middle Passage aboard the Teçora and later of the harrowing days on the Amistad and following their re-capture and transfer to Connecticut jails. The reader gets a real sense of how they felt about what was happening to them once they arrived in the United States: their continued fear that they would be either killed outright or returned to slavery in Cuba for almost certain execution, their often-expressed desire to go home.
Beyond this, though, Rediker explores much of what was going on around the case, from the way it was portrayed in newspaper articles to the plays it inspired, and how the case was seen and used by the various abolitionist/colonizationist/evangelical activist communities. He explores the efforts made to educate the group, and he provides a really important account of the "tour" the group went on following the Supreme Court's decision in their case, partly to raise money for their return to Africa. Finally, the closing chapters tell us what happened in the end, when the group returned to Africa alongside some American missionaries.
Rediker also brings up an element of this story which I wasn't familiar with before at all: the Poro Society, "an all-male secret society and fundamental governing social institution" (p. 31). All the Amistad Africans would have been familiar, Rediker argues, with the governing codes and hierarchies of the Poro, and the shared experience of Poro culture would have served to help bond the group together, even though they were from different ethnic and language backgrounds. It's a fascinating part to the tale that certainly seems worthy of further study.
Another interesting aspect of the case that Rediker explores is the way funds were raised for the Amistad group (for their board, education, and eventually for their homeward voyage). He notes that the general assumption has been that Lewis Tappan basically paid for the whole shebang, but Rediker found through an examination of the account books of the Amistad Committee that there was instead quite an impressive popular outpouring of funds ($90 from the "Color'd Citizens of Cincinnati," $58.50 from textile mill workers in Lowell, Massachusetts, &c.).
The political and legal elements of the case aren't ignored, but they're not Rediker's main concern, so much of the very complex legal drama is pared down quite a bit. Since I'm also interested in that part of the case, and particularly in the Supreme Court arguments about the case, I would have not have been averse to some deeper discussion and analysis in those areas from Rediker's perspective, but that's just me, and what Rediker has done is to put the Amistad Africans, both as individuals and as a group, back at the center of the story, where they belong.
I'm pretty sure I praised Rediker's footnotes with his last book, and I'll do so again here: they're thorough and useful, as footnotes should be. They, along with Rediker's excellent discussion of how the Amistad case was viewed at the time and how it has been seen and interpreted in the intervening years, add even more to what this book has accomplished. Highly recommended.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Book Review: "In Pursuit of a Vision"
For the second installment in my review series of the American Antiquarian Society's bicentennial publications (see this post for the previous review) I turned my attentions to In Pursuit of a Vision: Two Centuries of Collecting at the American Antiquarian Society, the sumptuous and thorough catalogue published to accompany this year's exhibition at the Grolier Club.
As Ellen Dunlap notes in her preface, there were many different shapes a bicentennial exhibition for the American Antiquarian Society could have taken. They might have gone the route of displaying some of the many exceedingly rare or unique items in the collections ... but they've done that before, in a 1969 Grolier Club exhibition called "A Society's Chief Joys." They might have shown items from the collections grouped broadly by genre, or highlighted specific time periods where the Society's holdings are particularly strong. They might have curated an exhibit to display fruits of the labors of their many research fellows, accompanied by the primary materials which shaped those projects. Instead, they took a somewhat unconventional path, organizing the exhibit and catalogue "as a celebration of the generosity and farsightedness of a few of the many collectors, dealers, librarians, and others who have, each in his or her own way, contributed to the greatness of the Society's library by sending collections our way" (p. 5).
The majority of this catalogue is, thus, devoted to short essays on various collector/donors (brief biographies and discussions of their collecting interests and their involvement with AAS), followed by a selection of exemplar items from their collections now at AAS, or items related in some way to their donations: Isaiah Thomas' manuscript catalogue of his library, for example, or one of the eighty-seven(!) volumes of the library catalogue of Thomas W. Streeter, or working slips from Charles Evans' American Bibliography.
I think this approach worked extremely well, and the curators did an excellent job of choosing points of emphasis. While the Isaiah Thomases and George Brinleys and Thomas W. Streeters are well represented, with this catalogue you'll also meet Lucy and Sarah Chase, who as teachers at freedmen's schools during the Civil War heeded the call of AAS librarian Samuel Foster Haven for items of contemporary interest and collected all sorts of materials, including Confederate imprints, a slave dealer's account book, and more. Charles Henry Taylor, the publisher of the Boston Globe, gave to the AAS important collections relating to American lithography, the book trade, and journalism. The reader comes to understand the canny strategy employed by longtime AAS librarian Clarence Brigham (and others since) of not competing with collectors in specific areas, but instead working with them, building a relationship and a trust with the hope that their collections would eventually find their way to the Antiquarian Society (Wilbur Macey Stone's collection of Isaac Watts' Divine Songs and Donald McKay Frost's extremely important gift of Western Americana are two that stick in my mind from the catalogue).
The final two sections of the catalogue take a slightly different but complementary approach, focusing on the AAS' key role in the field of American bibliography, current priorities in terms of continued collection growth and development, and the many initiatives in which the Society has engaged in order to preserve, protect, and make accessible their vast and hugely important collections.
Throughout, the tone of the catalogue in both the introductory contextual essays and the item descriptions is pitch-perfect. It is a delight to read, and the extremely wide range of materials selected for inclusion adds a nice variety. The design is nicely done, and the many illustrations, all full-color, complement the text extremely well. While not every item is pictured, so many are that several times I was surprised to come across one that wasn't.
A gem of a catalogue, and the best kind too, in that it both serves its purpose as an exhibition guide and also will remain as a handy reference (not to mention a good read) for decades to come.
As Ellen Dunlap notes in her preface, there were many different shapes a bicentennial exhibition for the American Antiquarian Society could have taken. They might have gone the route of displaying some of the many exceedingly rare or unique items in the collections ... but they've done that before, in a 1969 Grolier Club exhibition called "A Society's Chief Joys." They might have shown items from the collections grouped broadly by genre, or highlighted specific time periods where the Society's holdings are particularly strong. They might have curated an exhibit to display fruits of the labors of their many research fellows, accompanied by the primary materials which shaped those projects. Instead, they took a somewhat unconventional path, organizing the exhibit and catalogue "as a celebration of the generosity and farsightedness of a few of the many collectors, dealers, librarians, and others who have, each in his or her own way, contributed to the greatness of the Society's library by sending collections our way" (p. 5).
The majority of this catalogue is, thus, devoted to short essays on various collector/donors (brief biographies and discussions of their collecting interests and their involvement with AAS), followed by a selection of exemplar items from their collections now at AAS, or items related in some way to their donations: Isaiah Thomas' manuscript catalogue of his library, for example, or one of the eighty-seven(!) volumes of the library catalogue of Thomas W. Streeter, or working slips from Charles Evans' American Bibliography.
I think this approach worked extremely well, and the curators did an excellent job of choosing points of emphasis. While the Isaiah Thomases and George Brinleys and Thomas W. Streeters are well represented, with this catalogue you'll also meet Lucy and Sarah Chase, who as teachers at freedmen's schools during the Civil War heeded the call of AAS librarian Samuel Foster Haven for items of contemporary interest and collected all sorts of materials, including Confederate imprints, a slave dealer's account book, and more. Charles Henry Taylor, the publisher of the Boston Globe, gave to the AAS important collections relating to American lithography, the book trade, and journalism. The reader comes to understand the canny strategy employed by longtime AAS librarian Clarence Brigham (and others since) of not competing with collectors in specific areas, but instead working with them, building a relationship and a trust with the hope that their collections would eventually find their way to the Antiquarian Society (Wilbur Macey Stone's collection of Isaac Watts' Divine Songs and Donald McKay Frost's extremely important gift of Western Americana are two that stick in my mind from the catalogue).
The final two sections of the catalogue take a slightly different but complementary approach, focusing on the AAS' key role in the field of American bibliography, current priorities in terms of continued collection growth and development, and the many initiatives in which the Society has engaged in order to preserve, protect, and make accessible their vast and hugely important collections.
Throughout, the tone of the catalogue in both the introductory contextual essays and the item descriptions is pitch-perfect. It is a delight to read, and the extremely wide range of materials selected for inclusion adds a nice variety. The design is nicely done, and the many illustrations, all full-color, complement the text extremely well. While not every item is pictured, so many are that several times I was surprised to come across one that wasn't.
A gem of a catalogue, and the best kind too, in that it both serves its purpose as an exhibition guide and also will remain as a handy reference (not to mention a good read) for decades to come.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Links & Reviews
- New this week, and already bustling, The Junto: A Group Blog on Early American History. I've added a link to the sidebar.
- I rather love this: the signed copy of the seventh edition of A Christmas Carol sold recently at auction was purchased by the people of the town of Malton, the small Yorkshire town where the woman to whom Dickens inscribed the book lived (and which may have partly inspired the story).
- A complete set of Signer autographs was up for auction at New Hampshire's RR Auction yesterday. I haven't seen a result yet; estimates suggested that the collection might fetch $1.2-1.5 million.
- New from Harvard Law School, a digital exhibition on the life and work of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
- The Daily Mail got an early look at the BL's new newspaper storage facility.
- More on the Roger Williams shorthand, from Slate and (discussing the Slate piece in part) on the JCB blog.
- The Folger Library announced this week that they were the buyer of a beautiful copy of Gerard's Herball, with contemporary hand-coloring and the cipher binding of the Earl of Essex. Also from the cool new acquisitions department, the Houghton Library is now the owner of a fantastic sermon manuscript in print-facsimile.
- A good bit of provenance reporting, from the Cardiff University rare books blog.
- Over at The Collation, Sarah Werner considers the wonderful volvelle.
- From the Clements Library blog, a look at a Revolutionary War-era rebus.
- In the Houghton "You've Got Mail" bag this week, a letter from Delia Bacon to Ralph Waldo Emerson in which she lays out some of her theories about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays.
- It's not entirely clear whether this is an actual surprising discovery, or one of those stories, but an early Hans Christian Andersen tale has been identified.
Reviews
- David Von Drehle's Rise to Greatness; review by Harold Holzer in the WaPo.
- Victoria Glendenning's Raffles and the Golden Opportunity; review by Ann Chisholm in The Telegraph.
- Alberto Manguel's All Men are Liars; review by Michael Jauchen in the NYTimes.
- Stan Knight's Historical Types from Gutenberg to Ashendene; review by Alastair Johnson at Booktryst.
- David Schoenbaum's The Violin; review by Tim Page in the WaPo.
- Robin Sloan's Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore; review by Roxane Gay in the NYTimes.
- Joyce Chaplin's Round About the Earth; review by A. Roger Ekirch in the WSJ.
- I rather love this: the signed copy of the seventh edition of A Christmas Carol sold recently at auction was purchased by the people of the town of Malton, the small Yorkshire town where the woman to whom Dickens inscribed the book lived (and which may have partly inspired the story).
- A complete set of Signer autographs was up for auction at New Hampshire's RR Auction yesterday. I haven't seen a result yet; estimates suggested that the collection might fetch $1.2-1.5 million.
- New from Harvard Law School, a digital exhibition on the life and work of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
- The Daily Mail got an early look at the BL's new newspaper storage facility.
- More on the Roger Williams shorthand, from Slate and (discussing the Slate piece in part) on the JCB blog.
- The Folger Library announced this week that they were the buyer of a beautiful copy of Gerard's Herball, with contemporary hand-coloring and the cipher binding of the Earl of Essex. Also from the cool new acquisitions department, the Houghton Library is now the owner of a fantastic sermon manuscript in print-facsimile.
- A good bit of provenance reporting, from the Cardiff University rare books blog.
- Over at The Collation, Sarah Werner considers the wonderful volvelle.
- From the Clements Library blog, a look at a Revolutionary War-era rebus.
- In the Houghton "You've Got Mail" bag this week, a letter from Delia Bacon to Ralph Waldo Emerson in which she lays out some of her theories about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays.
- It's not entirely clear whether this is an actual surprising discovery, or one of those stories, but an early Hans Christian Andersen tale has been identified.
Reviews
- David Von Drehle's Rise to Greatness; review by Harold Holzer in the WaPo.
- Victoria Glendenning's Raffles and the Golden Opportunity; review by Ann Chisholm in The Telegraph.
- Alberto Manguel's All Men are Liars; review by Michael Jauchen in the NYTimes.
- Stan Knight's Historical Types from Gutenberg to Ashendene; review by Alastair Johnson at Booktryst.
- David Schoenbaum's The Violin; review by Tim Page in the WaPo.
- Robin Sloan's Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore; review by Roxane Gay in the NYTimes.
- Joyce Chaplin's Round About the Earth; review by A. Roger Ekirch in the WSJ.
Sunday, December 09, 2012
Auction Report: December 10-31
Here's what's up for the remainder of 2012:
- Swann Galleries sells Fine Photographs and Photobooks on 11 December, in 417 lots.
- Sotheby's sells English Literature, History, Children's Books & Illustrations on 12 December, in 186 lots. Austen friend Anne Sharp's copy of Emma rates the top estimate, at £150,000-200,000. The earliest known photo album compiled by Julia Margaret Cameron could fetch £100,000-150,000: a gun used by Sean Connery in James Bond publicity photos rates the same estimate, as does a first edition of Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte containing six manuscript Bronte letters. Eight of Virginia Woolf's pocket engagement diaries could fetch £40,000-60,000, while an imperfect Second Folio is estimated at £30,000-50,000.
- Also on 12 December at Sotheby's, The Art of Illustration - From the Collection of Michael Winner, in 157 lots. E.H. Shepard, Beatrix Potter, Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen, Edmund Dulac, they're all here.
- Bloomsbury sells Astronomy and Space Exploration-related lots on 12 December, in 403 lots.
- At Sotheby's on 14 December, Fine Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana, in 191 lots. A first edition, first issue of Newton's Principia is up for grabs, with a $400,000-600,000 estimate. A set of The Pennsylvania Evening Post for 1776, including the first newspaper printing of the Declaration of Independence (the second printing overall after the Dunlap broadside) rates a $300,000-400,000 estimate. The largest collection of Charles Schulz drawings and letters ever to come to auction, romantic notes and drawings to Tracey Claudius, is estimated at $250,000-350,000. A first edition of Audubon's Quadrupeds could sell for $250,000-350,000.
- PBA Galleries sells Fine Literature, Illustrated and Children's Books, and Books in All Fields on 13 December. A first edition Ulysses rates the top estimate, at $25,000-35,000.
- At Bloomsbury on 14 December, Antiquarian Books and Manuscripts, in 418 lots.
- On 20 December at PBA Galleries, Treasures from Our Warehouse with Books by the Shelf.
And that should be just about it for December! Will have updates as required.
- Swann Galleries sells Fine Photographs and Photobooks on 11 December, in 417 lots.
- Sotheby's sells English Literature, History, Children's Books & Illustrations on 12 December, in 186 lots. Austen friend Anne Sharp's copy of Emma rates the top estimate, at £150,000-200,000. The earliest known photo album compiled by Julia Margaret Cameron could fetch £100,000-150,000: a gun used by Sean Connery in James Bond publicity photos rates the same estimate, as does a first edition of Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte containing six manuscript Bronte letters. Eight of Virginia Woolf's pocket engagement diaries could fetch £40,000-60,000, while an imperfect Second Folio is estimated at £30,000-50,000.
- Also on 12 December at Sotheby's, The Art of Illustration - From the Collection of Michael Winner, in 157 lots. E.H. Shepard, Beatrix Potter, Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen, Edmund Dulac, they're all here.
- Bloomsbury sells Astronomy and Space Exploration-related lots on 12 December, in 403 lots.
- At Sotheby's on 14 December, Fine Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana, in 191 lots. A first edition, first issue of Newton's Principia is up for grabs, with a $400,000-600,000 estimate. A set of The Pennsylvania Evening Post for 1776, including the first newspaper printing of the Declaration of Independence (the second printing overall after the Dunlap broadside) rates a $300,000-400,000 estimate. The largest collection of Charles Schulz drawings and letters ever to come to auction, romantic notes and drawings to Tracey Claudius, is estimated at $250,000-350,000. A first edition of Audubon's Quadrupeds could sell for $250,000-350,000.
- PBA Galleries sells Fine Literature, Illustrated and Children's Books, and Books in All Fields on 13 December. A first edition Ulysses rates the top estimate, at $25,000-35,000.
- At Bloomsbury on 14 December, Antiquarian Books and Manuscripts, in 418 lots.
- On 20 December at PBA Galleries, Treasures from Our Warehouse with Books by the Shelf.
And that should be just about it for December! Will have updates as required.
Auction Report: November-Early December Sales
Okay, catch-up as usual. Sales from 13 November-9 December are covered here; a preview of the rest of December is coming later today.
- At the 13 November Bonhams sale of Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photographs, a first edition of Darwin's Origin sold for £45,650, and a nice copy of the first edition of Walton's Compleat Angler made £37,250.
- Bloomsbury sold Maps & Atlases, Watercolours and Prints on 14-15 November. Results are here.
- Looks like quite a few misses at the 15 November PBA Galleries Important Manuscripts and Archives sale; results are here. The top lot was an Elizabeth Blackwell manuscript letter, which sold for $9,600.
- Sotheby's sold Travel, Atlases, Maps & Natural History on 15 November, for a total of £2,229,738. Doing better than three times its estimate, John Thomson's Foochow and the River Min (1873) sold for £349,250. The collection of ornithological watercolors did not sell.
- At the 18 November Skinner, Inc. Books & Manuscripts sale, highlights included a delightful John Quincy Adams letter and a Sam Houston letter (both of which fetched $84,000). A full set of Diderot's Encyclopedie did not sell.
- The Sotheby's Paris on 19 November, Livres et Manuscrits brought in 2,092,450 EUR. The Catesby sold for 288,750 EUR, and a set of Theodor de Bry's Historia Americae fetched 228,750 EUR.
- At the 21 November Christie's, Valuable Manuscripts and Printed Books, the impressive total amounted to £3,260,525. A collection of letters from poet Marina Ivanova Tsvetaeva to poet Anatolii Shteiger was the surprise top lot, selling for £433,250 (over estimates of just £40,000-60,000). A Beethoven music manuscript made £241,250. The first edition Hypnerotomachia fetched £97,250. Another first edition of Origin in this sale: it went for £51,650. The ~1530 Paris Book of Hours failed to find a buyer.
- Bloomsbury sold Important Books & Manuscripts on 27-28 November; results are here. Yet another Origin first was the top lot; it made £38,000.
- At the 27 November Bonhams sale of Printed Books and Maps, the top lot was a near-complete run of The New Naturalist, which sold for £6,250.
- Christie's 27 November Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts sale brought in £425,650. A signed first edition of Proust's Les plaisirs et les jours (1896) sold for £20,000, while a first impression of The Hobbit fetched £16,250.
- The Music, Continental and Russian Books and Manuscripts on 28 November at Sotheby's realized a total of £3,538,150. The working archive of Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky was the star of the show, fetching £1,497,250. A Mozart manuscript sold for £409,250. The first edition Vesalius did not sell.
- The collection of manuscripts, letters, and memorabilia from the family of Alberto Toscanini sold at Sotheby's on 28 November brought in £1,281,402.
- The Christie's 29 November sale of An Important Collection of Russian Books & Manuscripts saw a total of £1,462,675. A 1769 illuminated heraldry manuscript sold for £205,250.
- Results for the 29 November PBA Galleries Fine Americana sale are here. An 1883 directory of Cheyenne, WY looks like the top lot, at $8,400.
- A coded 20 October 1812 letter by Napoleon indicating that he planned to blow up the Kremlin sold at a 2 December auction to a Paris museum, for more than $243,000.
- Bonhams sold the Dictionary Collection of Thomas Malin Rogers on 4 December, and the sale did quite well indeed. The top lot was a late 17th-century Chinese-Spanish manuscript dictionary, which fetched $112,900, but other lots also did very nicely.
- Also on 4 December, Bonhams sold Fine Books, Maps & Manuscripts. A copy of Purchas his Pilgrimes sold for $62,500, while a first octavo edition of Audubon's Birds (from the library of Boston's Samuel Appleton) fetched $47,500.
- The 5 December Western Manuscripts & Miniatures sale at Sotheby's brought in a total of £404,350, with more than half the total from a single lot: The Hours of Isabella d'Este (~1490), which fetched £217,250.
- Bonhams sold Russian Literature and Works on Paper on 5 December: a two-volume autograph album was the top lot, at $230,500.
- Bloomsbury held a Bibliophile Sale on 5 December. A first edition Tom Sawyer in a later binding sold for £2,200.
- Guernsey's New York sold maps, books, and illustrations from Graham Arader's collection on 5 December. I haven't seen a results list for this sale.
- Swann sold Maps, Atlases, Natural History and Ephemera on 6 December.
- The Christie's Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts Including Americana Sale on 7 December was probably the sale of the month. It realized a total of $7,709,250, and three lots shared the top price of $782,500: a copy of the 1823 Stone engraving of the Declaration of Independence on parchment; Julia Ward Howe's original draft of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (from the Forbes Collection); and Charles Blaskowitz's Revolutionary War manuscript map of New York (another Blaskowitz map, of the Philadelphia campaign of 1777-8, sold for $338,500). A Bien second folio Audubon sold for $422,500. A first edition of Jefferson's Notes sold for $314,500. A Shakespeare Second Folio made $194,500, and yes, yet another first edition of Darwin's Origin was on offer: this copy did the best of the bunch, at $158,500.
- Also at Christie's on 7 December, Derrydale Press Books from the Le Vivier Library, which sold for a total of $346,375.
Preview of the rest of December, coming in a few.
Links & Reviews
- New on the acquisitions table at AAS, the 1860 Bien edition of Audubon's Birds of America.
- The Boston Globe profiled the great Brattle Book Shop this week.
- More on the probable sale of a Bay Psalm Book, from NPR and The Guardian.
- From Editer, a nicely-illustrated primer on collecting rare books, featuring Pom Harrington of Peter Harrington.
- A volume of the quite rare American Woods set has been returned to Penn's Rare Book & Manuscript Library, more than sixty years after it was borrowed by biology professor Ralph Erickson.
- Over at The Little Professor, Miriam Burstein reports on her year in books. I really love some of her categories: "Most unenjoyable contemporary reading experiences," "Neo-Victorian novel not to be read over lunch," and "Oddest Victorian religious novel."
- From McSweeney's this week, "Welcome to my Rare and Antiquarian eBook Shop."
- Sarah Faragher posts on some of her favorite literary figures writing about some of her other favorite literary figures.
- The Getty Museum purchased the illuminated manuscript known as the Roman de Gillion de Trazegnies at Sotheby's this week for almost $6.2 million.
- From the Sydney Morning Herald, Nicky Phillips reports on Auckland Museum librarian Shaun Higgins' efforts to find the first mention on a map of the now-discovered-to-be-fictitious Sandy Island. He's found that it seems to have first appeared on a 1908 map (which indicates that it was discovered in 1876 by the crew of the whaling ship Velocity; an 1879 directory also contains information on the supposed island).
- Booktryst notes that a three-page Emily Dickinson letter will be up for sale at an 18 December Profiles In History auction.
- For your holiday gift list: Wittgenstein's copy of Tristram Shandy is for sale. [h/t David Armitage on Twitter]
- The December crocodile mystery is up at The Collation.
- Also new from the Folger Library, Folger Digital Texts, edited digital versions of Shakespeare's plays.
- From Rick Ring, word that Trinity College has acquired a collection of letters to add to their holdings of the papers of the publishing firm Roberts Brothers.
- At the Justin Croft Antiquarian Books blog, a look at a very attractive Edinburgh relief leather binding, found in Copenhagen and now back in Edinburgh at the National Library of Scotland.
- Heather Wolfe reports on the identification of a third Thomas Trevelyon manuscript, at University College Library.
- Over at the Rare Books @ Princeton blog, Steve Ferguson has found what is, perhaps, the earliest bookplate designed for a specific book collection within a library.
Reviews
- Digital resource The French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe, 1769-1794, edited by Simon Burrows; review by Robert Darnton at Reviews in History.
- Karen Engelmann's The Stockholm Octavo; reviews by Susann Cokal in the NYTimes and Ron Charles in the WaPo.
- Robert Gottlieb's Great Expectations; review by Janet Maslin in the NYTimes.
- Joyce Chaplin's Round About the Earth; review by Carolyn Kellogg in the LATimes.
- Kevin Phillips' 1775: A Good Year for Revolution; review by Joseph Ellis in the NYTimes.
- The Boston Globe profiled the great Brattle Book Shop this week.
- More on the probable sale of a Bay Psalm Book, from NPR and The Guardian.
- From Editer, a nicely-illustrated primer on collecting rare books, featuring Pom Harrington of Peter Harrington.
- A volume of the quite rare American Woods set has been returned to Penn's Rare Book & Manuscript Library, more than sixty years after it was borrowed by biology professor Ralph Erickson.
- Over at The Little Professor, Miriam Burstein reports on her year in books. I really love some of her categories: "Most unenjoyable contemporary reading experiences," "Neo-Victorian novel not to be read over lunch," and "Oddest Victorian religious novel."
- From McSweeney's this week, "Welcome to my Rare and Antiquarian eBook Shop."
- Sarah Faragher posts on some of her favorite literary figures writing about some of her other favorite literary figures.
- The Getty Museum purchased the illuminated manuscript known as the Roman de Gillion de Trazegnies at Sotheby's this week for almost $6.2 million.
- From the Sydney Morning Herald, Nicky Phillips reports on Auckland Museum librarian Shaun Higgins' efforts to find the first mention on a map of the now-discovered-to-be-fictitious Sandy Island. He's found that it seems to have first appeared on a 1908 map (which indicates that it was discovered in 1876 by the crew of the whaling ship Velocity; an 1879 directory also contains information on the supposed island).
- Booktryst notes that a three-page Emily Dickinson letter will be up for sale at an 18 December Profiles In History auction.
- For your holiday gift list: Wittgenstein's copy of Tristram Shandy is for sale. [h/t David Armitage on Twitter]
- The December crocodile mystery is up at The Collation.
- Also new from the Folger Library, Folger Digital Texts, edited digital versions of Shakespeare's plays.
- From Rick Ring, word that Trinity College has acquired a collection of letters to add to their holdings of the papers of the publishing firm Roberts Brothers.
- At the Justin Croft Antiquarian Books blog, a look at a very attractive Edinburgh relief leather binding, found in Copenhagen and now back in Edinburgh at the National Library of Scotland.
- Heather Wolfe reports on the identification of a third Thomas Trevelyon manuscript, at University College Library.
- Over at the Rare Books @ Princeton blog, Steve Ferguson has found what is, perhaps, the earliest bookplate designed for a specific book collection within a library.
Reviews
- Digital resource The French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe, 1769-1794, edited by Simon Burrows; review by Robert Darnton at Reviews in History.
- Karen Engelmann's The Stockholm Octavo; reviews by Susann Cokal in the NYTimes and Ron Charles in the WaPo.
- Robert Gottlieb's Great Expectations; review by Janet Maslin in the NYTimes.
- Joyce Chaplin's Round About the Earth; review by Carolyn Kellogg in the LATimes.
- Kevin Phillips' 1775: A Good Year for Revolution; review by Joseph Ellis in the NYTimes.
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