I've come across a bit more information on the Renehan thefts which I posted about yesterday. I mentioned then that one of the charges against Renehan was for possessing a forged document: that was "a letter purportedly signed by his predecessor [at the Theodore Roosevelt Association], John Gable, transferring ownership of the letter [that from TR discussing his son's death] to Renehan," according to an earlier Newsday article by Bill Bleyer.
Also, Renehan's legal team appears to be trying to muddy the waters by bringing up a 15-year old embezzlement case against another former head of the TRA which was kept quiet by the organization. Along with the bipolar argument, a very interesting strategy ... but this seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the current case.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Book Review: "A Voyage Long and Strange"
Reclaiming the historical muckraker mantle he donned in Confederates in the Attic, Tony Horwitz goes a little further back in time in his latest book, A Voyage Long and Strange (Holt). After coming to the realization - during a visit to the underwhelming pebble that is Plymouth Rock - that he didn't know much about what happened on the American continents between 1492 and 1620 ("This wasn't a gap in my education; it was a chasm", he writes), Horwitz decides to both brush up on his history and explore how the historical landscapes compare with their contemporary counterparts.
To that end, he sets off on wild journeys in the footsteps of the early explorers: Newfoundland with the Vikings, the Southwest's "pueblo country" with Coronado, the swamps and river valleys of the Southeast with De Soto, the Florida coast with a bunch of French Huguenots in the 1560s, and the Jamestown region with Captain John Smith (among others). Alternating brief historical essays with accounts of his own travels, Horwitz offers a rollicking (if slightly selective) tour of the American backcountry (it was all backcountry then, and some parts still are). He comes away from it all with a new perspective on the early explorers, lauding (?) the Spaniards for a "tenacity that bordered on derangement," (p. 192) and noting his newfound amazement not that so many Europeans died in trying to scratch a foothold in the Americas, but that any lived at all.
One of the most fascinating parts of the book to me was Horwitz' painstaking research into the native cultures of the areas tromped through by the European invaders - not only through historical records, but also by going to the areas today (including Zuni territory in New Mexico and Pamunkey lands in Virginia) and meeting with current members of the native groups. It's easy to come away from the European travel accounts without a good (or complete) sense of who they were meeting, interacting with (and, usually, not treating very well at all).
As usual, Horwitz meets a long list of strange folks along the way; those characters make his books what they are, and those he meets during the course of these travels are quite a bunch. The book's worth reading just for them.
Throughout the book, Horwitz asks how it is American memory has chosen to prioritize the Pilgrims. In the final paragraphs, after musing about tourist traps and historical memory, he concludes "The past was a consumable, subject to the national preference for familiar products. And history, in America, is a dish best served plain. The first course could include a dollop of Indian in 1492, but not Spanish spice or French sauce or too much Indian corn. Nothing too filling or fancy ahead of the turkey and pumpkin pie, just the way Grandma used to cook it."
Deluded we stand? Perhaps. But Horwitz' book offers a good route into the forgotten history of the first American centuries, and for that reason is highly recommended.
To that end, he sets off on wild journeys in the footsteps of the early explorers: Newfoundland with the Vikings, the Southwest's "pueblo country" with Coronado, the swamps and river valleys of the Southeast with De Soto, the Florida coast with a bunch of French Huguenots in the 1560s, and the Jamestown region with Captain John Smith (among others). Alternating brief historical essays with accounts of his own travels, Horwitz offers a rollicking (if slightly selective) tour of the American backcountry (it was all backcountry then, and some parts still are). He comes away from it all with a new perspective on the early explorers, lauding (?) the Spaniards for a "tenacity that bordered on derangement," (p. 192) and noting his newfound amazement not that so many Europeans died in trying to scratch a foothold in the Americas, but that any lived at all.
One of the most fascinating parts of the book to me was Horwitz' painstaking research into the native cultures of the areas tromped through by the European invaders - not only through historical records, but also by going to the areas today (including Zuni territory in New Mexico and Pamunkey lands in Virginia) and meeting with current members of the native groups. It's easy to come away from the European travel accounts without a good (or complete) sense of who they were meeting, interacting with (and, usually, not treating very well at all).
As usual, Horwitz meets a long list of strange folks along the way; those characters make his books what they are, and those he meets during the course of these travels are quite a bunch. The book's worth reading just for them.
Throughout the book, Horwitz asks how it is American memory has chosen to prioritize the Pilgrims. In the final paragraphs, after musing about tourist traps and historical memory, he concludes "The past was a consumable, subject to the national preference for familiar products. And history, in America, is a dish best served plain. The first course could include a dollop of Indian in 1492, but not Spanish spice or French sauce or too much Indian corn. Nothing too filling or fancy ahead of the turkey and pumpkin pie, just the way Grandma used to cook it."
Deluded we stand? Perhaps. But Horwitz' book offers a good route into the forgotten history of the first American centuries, and for that reason is highly recommended.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Historian Pleads Guilty to Thefts from TRA
Wow, sometimes these things just seem to come out of nowhere. Travis comments on a Newsday AP story regarding historian Edward Renehan, Jr., 51, who pleaded guilty last Tuesday to interstate transportation of stolen property. Renehan admitted to stealing letters by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln from the Theodore Roosevelt Association (Oyster Bay, Long Island) while serving as acting director of the association between January 2006 and October 2007.
Renehan tried to sell the letters to a Manhattan gallery (Swann) for $97,000. His lawyer blames the thefts on a Renehan's recently-diagnosed bipolar disorder: "It's similar to getting drunk and doing something you wouldn't do if you were thinking straight," Peter Brill told the press. Brill says Renehan will ask to be spared jail time; he faces up to 30 months in prison plus a $250,000 fine and restitution. Sentencing is set for 21 August.
The author of six books, including The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and his Family in Peace and War and the recent Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Renehan reportedly apologized during the plea hearing.
But that's not the end of the story. Writing for Newsday yesterday, Bill Bleyer adds "Besides four letters previously publicized, the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch recovered two books and a letter by Roosevelt that had been consigned to auction houses by Renehan and sold." Renehan's attorney admits the letter was stolen, but claims the books were Renehan's. AND "In a separate case in Nassau County, Renehan has been charged with stealing from the association's Muttontown office a letter by Roosevelt about the death of his son Quentin in World War I. He was also charged with possessing a forged document designed to cover up the theft. When Renehan consigned it to Swann, the auction house raised questions that led to the investigations." He's due back in Nassau County court on 13 July, and Brill told Bleyer he expects that a plea will be agreed upon in the state case as well.
Nassau County DA's spokesman Eric Phillips told the paper 'We are requiring him to plead guilty to the top charge,' grand larceny in the third degree, which is punishable by up to 7 years. 'He would be sentenced federally before he receives his state sentence.'"
Travis writes of the bipolar defense: "As a justification for a single theft, that seems to me only moderately believable. As a justification for multiple thefts and the subsequent attempts to sell the stolen items at a gallery, it seems particularly flimsy. We’ll see how far the defense takes this line."
I agree, especially if the pattern seems to be as long as it is starting to appear. Bizarre, and disturbing.
Renehan tried to sell the letters to a Manhattan gallery (Swann) for $97,000. His lawyer blames the thefts on a Renehan's recently-diagnosed bipolar disorder: "It's similar to getting drunk and doing something you wouldn't do if you were thinking straight," Peter Brill told the press. Brill says Renehan will ask to be spared jail time; he faces up to 30 months in prison plus a $250,000 fine and restitution. Sentencing is set for 21 August.
The author of six books, including The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and his Family in Peace and War and the recent Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Renehan reportedly apologized during the plea hearing.
But that's not the end of the story. Writing for Newsday yesterday, Bill Bleyer adds "Besides four letters previously publicized, the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch recovered two books and a letter by Roosevelt that had been consigned to auction houses by Renehan and sold." Renehan's attorney admits the letter was stolen, but claims the books were Renehan's. AND "In a separate case in Nassau County, Renehan has been charged with stealing from the association's Muttontown office a letter by Roosevelt about the death of his son Quentin in World War I. He was also charged with possessing a forged document designed to cover up the theft. When Renehan consigned it to Swann, the auction house raised questions that led to the investigations." He's due back in Nassau County court on 13 July, and Brill told Bleyer he expects that a plea will be agreed upon in the state case as well.
Nassau County DA's spokesman Eric Phillips told the paper 'We are requiring him to plead guilty to the top charge,' grand larceny in the third degree, which is punishable by up to 7 years. 'He would be sentenced federally before he receives his state sentence.'"
Travis writes of the bipolar defense: "As a justification for a single theft, that seems to me only moderately believable. As a justification for multiple thefts and the subsequent attempts to sell the stolen items at a gallery, it seems particularly flimsy. We’ll see how far the defense takes this line."
I agree, especially if the pattern seems to be as long as it is starting to appear. Bizarre, and disturbing.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Samuel Roth's Library
Yesterday I completed the cataloging of the personal library of Samuel Roth (1893-1974), a controversial publisher (most descriptions of him use the term "smut peddler" and "copyright pirate"), writer and bookseller. This was quite a departure from the Mathers, who wouldn't have been caught dead with the sort of books Roth kept around (and, if they could have, probably would have had the man ridden out of town on a rail, if not worse).
The library, along with Roth's personal papers and other archival materials, was recently acquired by Columbia University, Roth's alma mater.
The library, along with Roth's personal papers and other archival materials, was recently acquired by Columbia University, Roth's alma mater.
Andersen Association Copy Found
Among the books available at next month's London Antiquarian Book Fair will be an interesting copy of Charles Dickens' Pictures from Italy (second edition, 1846). This one is inscribed by Dickens on the half-title: "Hans Christian Andersen / From His friend and admirer / Charles Dickens / London Jul. 1847." It was one of twelve presentation copies given to Andersen by Dickens during the Dane's first trip to England in 1847.*
Its current seller, David Brass, says of the book "This is the greatest Dickens discovery since I’ve been in the rare book business, over 40 years. It is a legendary literary artefact. I feel like Indiana Jones. It’s like finding the Lost Ark but without the curse, aggravation and people trying to kill you."
The Dickens-Andersen connection prompted The Times' Dalya Alberge to write a short piece (basically lifting from Brass' excellent description of the book) on the relationship between the two authors, which soured after Andersen came to visit the Dickens family at Gad's Hill in 1857 ... and stayed for five weeks! "Dickens dropped polite hints that he should leave, but they were, perhaps, too subtle. After he finally left, Dickens wrote on the mirror in the guestroom: 'Hans Andersen slept in this room for five weeks — which seemed to the family AGES!'" Dickens' daughter recalled that their houseguest "was a bony bore, and stayed on and on."
Brass' price tag: $150,000 - but for this copy of this book, with such an excellent story, the sky's the limit.
*Brass details the fates of the twelve presentation copies: "Four were bequeathed to the Royal Library, Copenhagen, and seven were later sent to auction. Of those seven auctioned copies, only five have been accounted for: at Dickens' House, London; the Free Library in Philadelphia; a copy ultimately presented in 1956 to the Andersen Museum, Odense; the Webster. Currie copy; and that at Sotheby's sale LN8412, lot 111. Only nine of the twelve copies are thus recorded. The copy under notice is one of the three 'lost' copies."
Its current seller, David Brass, says of the book "This is the greatest Dickens discovery since I’ve been in the rare book business, over 40 years. It is a legendary literary artefact. I feel like Indiana Jones. It’s like finding the Lost Ark but without the curse, aggravation and people trying to kill you."
The Dickens-Andersen connection prompted The Times' Dalya Alberge to write a short piece (basically lifting from Brass' excellent description of the book) on the relationship between the two authors, which soured after Andersen came to visit the Dickens family at Gad's Hill in 1857 ... and stayed for five weeks! "Dickens dropped polite hints that he should leave, but they were, perhaps, too subtle. After he finally left, Dickens wrote on the mirror in the guestroom: 'Hans Andersen slept in this room for five weeks — which seemed to the family AGES!'" Dickens' daughter recalled that their houseguest "was a bony bore, and stayed on and on."
Brass' price tag: $150,000 - but for this copy of this book, with such an excellent story, the sky's the limit.
*Brass details the fates of the twelve presentation copies: "Four were bequeathed to the Royal Library, Copenhagen, and seven were later sent to auction. Of those seven auctioned copies, only five have been accounted for: at Dickens' House, London; the Free Library in Philadelphia; a copy ultimately presented in 1956 to the Andersen Museum, Odense; the Webster. Currie copy; and that at Sotheby's sale LN8412, lot 111. Only nine of the twelve copies are thus recorded. The copy under notice is one of the three 'lost' copies."
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Links & Reviews
- In The Chronicle Review, Thomas Bartlett explores the ongoing controversy over the Gospel of Judas, which was released last year to much fanfare. I guess I've missed most of the kerfluffle that's gone on since the original publication of the National Geographic translation, so this is a good way to catch up.
- Over at BookN3rd, Laura has a must-read post on gender and the rare book world, where she comments on the role of men and women in the biblio-community. Also quite a few excellent links.
- I watched a "Nova" episode ("Lord of the Ants") yesterday profiling one of my favorite authors ever, Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson. If you have a chance to see this show, do watch.
- Michael at Book Patrol notes that the Morgan Library will be displaying its three copies of the Gutenberg Bible simultaneously, through 28 September.
- Everyone else who blogs about books has already mentioned Robert Darnton's NYRB essay in the current issue; I hadn't yet simply because I haven't had a chance to read the whole thing. I will, and I think I'll have more to say about it once I have - I'm not sure I entirely agree with him so far.
- Travis posts another comment-rant he received recently, this one from a friend of the Brubakers.
- The folks at Houghton report that they've acquired a copy of the anonymous 1821 translation of Faust which some believe was translated by Coleridge.
- J.L. Bell had a useful Google Books moment the other day, discovering some mentions of Bartholomew Broaders, who played a bit-part in the Boston Massacre.
- BibliOdyssey's got a great miscellany up this week: images include Sri Lankan fish from an 1834 monograph, some drawings by Cruikshank and some early political cartoons, and a couple amazing Swammerdam engravings.
- The AP's Justin Pope interviews James Cuno, author of the forthcoming ("already controversial") book Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle for Our Ancient Heritage. One I'll have to read, sounds like.
Reviews
- This was the week for reviews of Simon Winchester's new book, The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom (HarperCollins). Here are a few: Washington Post, Boston Globe, Salon, The Inquirer.
- Alberto Manguel's The Library at Night was reviewed by Philip Hensher for The Telegraph. My review is forthcoming, I'm (finally!) reading the book now.
- Rick Ring reviews Richard Wendorf's beautifully-designed and excellently-written America's Membership Libraries.
- In the TLS, James Gould reviews Built by Animals: The Natural History of Animal Architecture.
- Over at BookN3rd, Laura has a must-read post on gender and the rare book world, where she comments on the role of men and women in the biblio-community. Also quite a few excellent links.
- I watched a "Nova" episode ("Lord of the Ants") yesterday profiling one of my favorite authors ever, Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson. If you have a chance to see this show, do watch.
- Michael at Book Patrol notes that the Morgan Library will be displaying its three copies of the Gutenberg Bible simultaneously, through 28 September.
- Everyone else who blogs about books has already mentioned Robert Darnton's NYRB essay in the current issue; I hadn't yet simply because I haven't had a chance to read the whole thing. I will, and I think I'll have more to say about it once I have - I'm not sure I entirely agree with him so far.
- Travis posts another comment-rant he received recently, this one from a friend of the Brubakers.
- The folks at Houghton report that they've acquired a copy of the anonymous 1821 translation of Faust which some believe was translated by Coleridge.
- J.L. Bell had a useful Google Books moment the other day, discovering some mentions of Bartholomew Broaders, who played a bit-part in the Boston Massacre.
- BibliOdyssey's got a great miscellany up this week: images include Sri Lankan fish from an 1834 monograph, some drawings by Cruikshank and some early political cartoons, and a couple amazing Swammerdam engravings.
- The AP's Justin Pope interviews James Cuno, author of the forthcoming ("already controversial") book Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle for Our Ancient Heritage. One I'll have to read, sounds like.
Reviews
- This was the week for reviews of Simon Winchester's new book, The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom (HarperCollins). Here are a few: Washington Post, Boston Globe, Salon, The Inquirer.
- Alberto Manguel's The Library at Night was reviewed by Philip Hensher for The Telegraph. My review is forthcoming, I'm (finally!) reading the book now.
- Rick Ring reviews Richard Wendorf's beautifully-designed and excellently-written America's Membership Libraries.
- In the TLS, James Gould reviews Built by Animals: The Natural History of Animal Architecture.
Suspected Book Thief On the Lam
The BBC reports that William Simon Jacques, 39, suspected of stealing books from the Royal Horticultural Society's building in Vincent Square, London, has gone missing after being released on bail.
"The items taken include 13 volumes of a rare collection on the camellia flower, valued at about £50,000, plus several other highly-prized 19th century books."
Jacques was arrested on 2 April after an investigation revealed he had been signing into the library with a false library card giving his name as "Mr. Santoro."
Photograph here.
"The items taken include 13 volumes of a rare collection on the camellia flower, valued at about £50,000, plus several other highly-prized 19th century books."
Jacques was arrested on 2 April after an investigation revealed he had been signing into the library with a false library card giving his name as "Mr. Santoro."
Photograph here.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Book Review: "The Black Tower"
Louis Bayard's new work, The Black Tower (William Morrow, forthcoming) is a riveting and masterful work of historical and literary fiction. Drawing on the legends of the "lost king of France" (Louis XVI's son Louis-Charles, who "died" in prison in 1795), Bayard lays the groundwork for a delicious complex story involving returning royalty, mistaken identities, the power of memory, and some good old-fashioned detective work (or, I guess I should say, new-fashioned detective work).
That last is courtesy of François-Eugène Vidocq, the real-life crook-turned-cop who initiated the establishment of the 'police de sûreté' during the Napoleonic period and went on to influence Poe's Inspector C. Auguste Dupin. Bayard's Vidocq is an investigative mastermind, and even if he remains a bit undercooked here, he's still one of the most fascinating characters I've read in a long time. He's accompanied in his investigations by the pathetic but well-meaning quasi-doctor Hector Carpentier, who is drawn (unwillingly) into the grand intrigue when his name is found on the body of a murdered man.
I won't give away the plot, but will note that it twists and turns right to the very last page. Just when you think you've got it figured out, Bayard throws over another curveball (always making them just believable enough to steer clear of overkill). He's written some very fun characters and spun a good yarn with this book. Oh, and his chapter titles ("In Which a Corpus Is Exhumed," The Reeducation of a Parrot," "Foiled Hopes") are wonderfully effective; I had to remember to go back at the end of some chapters and make the connection, but found myself chuckling out loud when I did.
Highly recommended.
That last is courtesy of François-Eugène Vidocq, the real-life crook-turned-cop who initiated the establishment of the 'police de sûreté' during the Napoleonic period and went on to influence Poe's Inspector C. Auguste Dupin. Bayard's Vidocq is an investigative mastermind, and even if he remains a bit undercooked here, he's still one of the most fascinating characters I've read in a long time. He's accompanied in his investigations by the pathetic but well-meaning quasi-doctor Hector Carpentier, who is drawn (unwillingly) into the grand intrigue when his name is found on the body of a murdered man.
I won't give away the plot, but will note that it twists and turns right to the very last page. Just when you think you've got it figured out, Bayard throws over another curveball (always making them just believable enough to steer clear of overkill). He's written some very fun characters and spun a good yarn with this book. Oh, and his chapter titles ("In Which a Corpus Is Exhumed," The Reeducation of a Parrot," "Foiled Hopes") are wonderfully effective; I had to remember to go back at the end of some chapters and make the connection, but found myself chuckling out loud when I did.
Highly recommended.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Microsoft Curtails Book-Scanning Project
Microsoft's Live Search Books project is being ended, according to a post on the Live Search blog. The site will be removed next week, and Microsoft's book-scanning projects with libraries and publishers will be ending (or, as they put it, "winding down"). Some other highlights from the announcement:
- "Given the evolution of the Web and our strategy, we believe the next generation of search is about the development of an underlying, sustainable business model for the search engine, consumer, and content partner." (Translation: we weren't making any money).
- "With Live Search Books and Live Search Academic, we digitized 750,000 books and indexed 80 million journal articles. Based on our experience, we foresee that the best way for a search engine to make book content available will be by crawling content repositories created by book publishers and libraries." (Translation: Libraries and/or publishers are better prepared and equipped to digitize books than Microsoft is. An entirely fair and valid point point).
- "With our investments, the technology to create these repositories is now available at lower costs for those with the commercial interest or public mandate to digitize book content. ... As we wind down Live Search Books, we are reaching out to participating publishers and libraries. We are encouraging libraries to build on the platform we developed with Kirtas, the Internet Archive, CCS, and others to create digital archives available to library users and search engines." (Another very fair point - the Internet Archive is doing a fine job of providing digital content with superb metadata; providing the resources to libraries to let them get their books into the system, and then making that content searchable in useful ways, is key).
- "We will continue to track the evolution of the industry and evaluate future opportunities." (Translation: If we can figure out a way to make money on this, we'll be back).
- "We are ... removing our contractual restrictions placed on the digitized library content and making the scanning equipment available to our digitization partners and libraries to continue digitization programs." (Excellent. This is good to know, and a classy thing to do).
As I said not too long ago, I've long thought Microsoft's program was the weakest of the three big projects; hopefully this will get more institutions moving toward the Internet Archive and shake things up a bit in the digitization world.
[h/t LIS News]
- "Given the evolution of the Web and our strategy, we believe the next generation of search is about the development of an underlying, sustainable business model for the search engine, consumer, and content partner." (Translation: we weren't making any money).
- "With Live Search Books and Live Search Academic, we digitized 750,000 books and indexed 80 million journal articles. Based on our experience, we foresee that the best way for a search engine to make book content available will be by crawling content repositories created by book publishers and libraries." (Translation: Libraries and/or publishers are better prepared and equipped to digitize books than Microsoft is. An entirely fair and valid point point).
- "With our investments, the technology to create these repositories is now available at lower costs for those with the commercial interest or public mandate to digitize book content. ... As we wind down Live Search Books, we are reaching out to participating publishers and libraries. We are encouraging libraries to build on the platform we developed with Kirtas, the Internet Archive, CCS, and others to create digital archives available to library users and search engines." (Another very fair point - the Internet Archive is doing a fine job of providing digital content with superb metadata; providing the resources to libraries to let them get their books into the system, and then making that content searchable in useful ways, is key).
- "We will continue to track the evolution of the industry and evaluate future opportunities." (Translation: If we can figure out a way to make money on this, we'll be back).
- "We are ... removing our contractual restrictions placed on the digitized library content and making the scanning equipment available to our digitization partners and libraries to continue digitization programs." (Excellent. This is good to know, and a classy thing to do).
As I said not too long ago, I've long thought Microsoft's program was the weakest of the three big projects; hopefully this will get more institutions moving toward the Internet Archive and shake things up a bit in the digitization world.
[h/t LIS News]
New Horowitz Shop in East Hampton
The East Hampton Star reports today that the Glenn Horowitz empire is expanding slightly, with the addition of a second branch of John McWhinnie @ Glenn Horowitz Bookseller opening at 38 Newtown Lane in East Hampton. In a short profile (punnily headlined "Little Shop of Horowitz"), Baylis Greene notes "The new shop will be many things: a sister store to Glenn Horowitz Bookseller at 87 Newtown Lane, an extension of a business on 64th Street in New York called John McWhinnie @ Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, and an expression of the personal tastes of Mr. McWhinnie, an art and rare books dealer who has a house in Northwest Woods."
McWhinnie: "This shop is so small, it’s meant to be a jewel box, a showroom, a display space. There will be 50 books, maximum. I’m a minimalist by training, if not by inclination. One of my overriding concerns here is that it look spare and clean. One thing I’ve always noticed is that the more books there are, the more people miss things."
Horowitz and McWhinnie are also profiled in this month's FB & C.
McWhinnie: "This shop is so small, it’s meant to be a jewel box, a showroom, a display space. There will be 50 books, maximum. I’m a minimalist by training, if not by inclination. One of my overriding concerns here is that it look spare and clean. One thing I’ve always noticed is that the more books there are, the more people miss things."
Horowitz and McWhinnie are also profiled in this month's FB & C.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
One More Auction Note
I knew I was missing one yesterday! Rare Books Review caught it, though. A first edition copy (12 July 1493) of the Nuremburg Chronicle in Latin (Liber Chronicarum) sold at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg this week for $170,400. This copy was colored throughout by Johannes Cincinnius (c. 1485-1555).
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Auction Report: Sotheby's
Some highlights from today's Sotheby's Paris sale, as promised:
- Several pre-Revolutionary Robespierre manuscripts sold for 72,250 EUR, better than doubling the estimate.
- An 1851 Flaubert manuscript made 89,050 EUR, while one by Gerard de Nerval fetched 120,250 EUR.
- As expected, the André Breton manuscripts were the high spots: his Manifeste du Surréalisme went for 1.9 million EUR (doubling the high estimate), while Poisson Soluble fetched 917,000 EUR (tripling its estimate). Others also sold well; another three broke 100,000 EUR. [Update on the Bretons: the Guardian reports that the total price for the nine Breton manuscripts was €3.6m (£2.9m), and that a "bidding war" broke our over the collection. "The nine manuscripts were eventually acquired by Gérard Lhéritier, a noted collector and the founder of the Museum of Letters and Manuscripts in Paris, assuaging fears the collection would be split up and sold separately."]
NB: The copy of Breton's Surrealist Manifesto sold today is the only known complete copy.
- Several pre-Revolutionary Robespierre manuscripts sold for 72,250 EUR, better than doubling the estimate.
- An 1851 Flaubert manuscript made 89,050 EUR, while one by Gerard de Nerval fetched 120,250 EUR.
- As expected, the André Breton manuscripts were the high spots: his Manifeste du Surréalisme went for 1.9 million EUR (doubling the high estimate), while Poisson Soluble fetched 917,000 EUR (tripling its estimate). Others also sold well; another three broke 100,000 EUR. [Update on the Bretons: the Guardian reports that the total price for the nine Breton manuscripts was €3.6m (£2.9m), and that a "bidding war" broke our over the collection. "The nine manuscripts were eventually acquired by Gérard Lhéritier, a noted collector and the founder of the Museum of Letters and Manuscripts in Paris, assuaging fears the collection would be split up and sold separately."]
NB: The copy of Breton's Surrealist Manifesto sold today is the only known complete copy.
Auction Report: Upcoming
There are a number of noteworthy book auctions coming in the next few weeks. Here's a sampling:
- Today, 21 May (in fact, as I'm writing), Sotheby's Paris will auction Books, Manuscripts and Photographs, including nine manuscripts by Andre Breton from the Simone Collinet collection. This sale features 169 lots. Since results are coming in now, I'll post highlights from this one later today (I'd intended to write this post yesterday but got sidetracked).
- Christie's London has a Valuable Manuscripts and Printed Books sale on 4 June, which includes 369 lots. They'll be selling copies of Shakespeare's First, Second and Fourth Folios. The first is estimated at $585,600-780,800, which (as Brian notes) seems a bit low. But this copy does have a few faults (it's a bit made up, with a few pages in facsimile and some repairs made, and it's in a 19th century binding). Still, I think it'll probably go higher than the estimate. Other goodies from this sale include some interesting H.G. Wells items, a desk owned by Dickens ($97,600-156,160), an unrecorded copy of the second edition of Copernicus' De revolutionibus ($58,560-78,080), and a first edition of Darwin's On the Origin of Species ($68,320 - $87,840).
- Swann Galleries (NY) will sell Printed & Manuscript Americana on 5 June. Interesting items here include a copy of the Aitken Bible, the first English Bible printed in America ($30,000-40,000); a 1781 collection of American state constitutions which was issued to the Foreign Affairs Office (the precursor to the State Department) ($5,000-7,500); one of an unknown number of the Stone broadside edition of the Declaration of Independence printed on paper (1823) with wonderful provenance ($150,000-200,000); a copy of the first American edition (1777) of Milton's Paradise Lost ($1,000-1,500); a forged death warrant from the Salem Witch Trials ($200-300); a copy of the first published English edition of Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia ($25,000-35,000); a report of the committee charged with creating the first Library of Congress in 1801 ($800-1,200); a 1667 Dutch account of the loss of New Amsterdam to the English ($1,000-1,500); and a bookplate engraved by Paul Revere for Boston merchant (and ne'er-do-well) Perez Morton ($1,500-2,500).
- On 11 June, Bonhams New York will hold a sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts, consisting of 480 lots. Christina Geiger writes of the sale: "Printed highlights include works by Bligh, Roberts, Audubon, a first edition Wealth of Nations, and a fine run of Dard Hunter. Noteworthy manuscripts include a Darwin draft leaf on 'sexual selection', a fine collection of signed literary photographs, an autograph receipt signed by Raphael for work on Vatican frescoes, Junipero Serra on the establishment of Mission San Juan Capistrano, and property from the estate of General Hap Arnold including his copy of the "Ship of State" broadside signed by Churchill and FDR, and a dinner menu from the Potsdam Conference signed by Churchill, Stalin, Truman and others."
- Today, 21 May (in fact, as I'm writing), Sotheby's Paris will auction Books, Manuscripts and Photographs, including nine manuscripts by Andre Breton from the Simone Collinet collection. This sale features 169 lots. Since results are coming in now, I'll post highlights from this one later today (I'd intended to write this post yesterday but got sidetracked).
- Christie's London has a Valuable Manuscripts and Printed Books sale on 4 June, which includes 369 lots. They'll be selling copies of Shakespeare's First, Second and Fourth Folios. The first is estimated at $585,600-780,800, which (as Brian notes) seems a bit low. But this copy does have a few faults (it's a bit made up, with a few pages in facsimile and some repairs made, and it's in a 19th century binding). Still, I think it'll probably go higher than the estimate. Other goodies from this sale include some interesting H.G. Wells items, a desk owned by Dickens ($97,600-156,160), an unrecorded copy of the second edition of Copernicus' De revolutionibus ($58,560-78,080), and a first edition of Darwin's On the Origin of Species ($68,320 - $87,840).
- Swann Galleries (NY) will sell Printed & Manuscript Americana on 5 June. Interesting items here include a copy of the Aitken Bible, the first English Bible printed in America ($30,000-40,000); a 1781 collection of American state constitutions which was issued to the Foreign Affairs Office (the precursor to the State Department) ($5,000-7,500); one of an unknown number of the Stone broadside edition of the Declaration of Independence printed on paper (1823) with wonderful provenance ($150,000-200,000); a copy of the first American edition (1777) of Milton's Paradise Lost ($1,000-1,500); a forged death warrant from the Salem Witch Trials ($200-300); a copy of the first published English edition of Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia ($25,000-35,000); a report of the committee charged with creating the first Library of Congress in 1801 ($800-1,200); a 1667 Dutch account of the loss of New Amsterdam to the English ($1,000-1,500); and a bookplate engraved by Paul Revere for Boston merchant (and ne'er-do-well) Perez Morton ($1,500-2,500).
- On 11 June, Bonhams New York will hold a sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts, consisting of 480 lots. Christina Geiger writes of the sale: "Printed highlights include works by Bligh, Roberts, Audubon, a first edition Wealth of Nations, and a fine run of Dard Hunter. Noteworthy manuscripts include a Darwin draft leaf on 'sexual selection', a fine collection of signed literary photographs, an autograph receipt signed by Raphael for work on Vatican frescoes, Junipero Serra on the establishment of Mission San Juan Capistrano, and property from the estate of General Hap Arnold including his copy of the "Ship of State" broadside signed by Churchill and FDR, and a dinner menu from the Potsdam Conference signed by Churchill, Stalin, Truman and others."
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Darwin Census Underway
Among the many interesting tidbits in this month's Fine Books & Collections is a notice that the Darwin Online folks have undertaken a census of all extant copies of the first edition of On the Origin of Species. "The Origin was first published in 1859. The publisher, John Murray, recorded a first printing of 1,250 copies. It went on sale to the trade on 24 November, and sold out the same day. Today, many copies of the 1st edition are in public and academic libraries, but many are also in private hands or in the trade. It is the objective of this census to record as many copies as possible regardless of their current status, and to provide a mechanism for keeping track of registered copies in the future."
The Census Guide [PDF] is available for download and can be returned by fax to the census-takers. So if your library, bookshop, collection, &c. contains a copy of the first edition, please do consider filling out the census.
The Census Guide [PDF] is available for download and can be returned by fax to the census-takers. So if your library, bookshop, collection, &c. contains a copy of the first edition, please do consider filling out the census.
More Theft Updates
Travis had a two important theft-case updates yesterday:
- Lester Weber's motion to suppress statements was denied. As it should have been. So this one moves forward.
- On the Brubaker front, Travis notes that James Brubaker's trial date has now been moved back to 15 July, to coincide with that of his wife Caroline (arraigned last week). Travis adds "That’s nice. Maybe they can get adjoining cells."
- Lester Weber's motion to suppress statements was denied. As it should have been. So this one moves forward.
- On the Brubaker front, Travis notes that James Brubaker's trial date has now been moved back to 15 July, to coincide with that of his wife Caroline (arraigned last week). Travis adds "That’s nice. Maybe they can get adjoining cells."
Monday, May 19, 2008
Fallon Slapped on Wrist for Archives Theft
Oliver Fallon, who pleaded guilty last month to thefts from the Scottish Catholic Archive in Edinburgh, has been sentenced to 300 hours of community service and ordered to pay a fine of £16,000. The fine was apparently calculated by (almost) combining the estimated repair costs of £5,000 to the value of the stolen documents which have not been returned, some £12,000.
The Edinburgh News reports that Fallon "has been released from jail in England for similar crimes." The Glasgow Daily Record adds that when he heard the sentence, Fallon "smiled and looked relieved." And who wouldn't?
Meanwhile, in the wake of Fallon's thefts, the Scottish Catholic Archive has made a preliminary agreement to loan the oldest materials in their collection to Aberdeen University for safekeeping and transfer the remainder of the archive to Glasgow, a plan which has drawn opposition from some quarters but which seems eminently reasonable to me considering that the documents are clearly not secure where they are.
The Edinburgh News reports that Fallon "has been released from jail in England for similar crimes." The Glasgow Daily Record adds that when he heard the sentence, Fallon "smiled and looked relieved." And who wouldn't?
Meanwhile, in the wake of Fallon's thefts, the Scottish Catholic Archive has made a preliminary agreement to loan the oldest materials in their collection to Aberdeen University for safekeeping and transfer the remainder of the archive to Glasgow, a plan which has drawn opposition from some quarters but which seems eminently reasonable to me considering that the documents are clearly not secure where they are.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Book Review: "Quiet, Please"
I first got to know Scott Douglas through his McSweeney's column, "Dispatches from a Public Librarian," of which I have become a devoted fan; when I heard he had a book coming out I knew it would be a must-read. Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian (DaCapo, 2008) is an insightful, blunt and provocative look at public libraries and librarianship from the inside out. Douglas, who's only in his early 30s if that, writes with a bitterness beyond his years, but thankfully it's that sort of witty bitterness that's tempered by his knowledge that what he's doing really does matter to the people who use his library (even if it's just to sleep in the bathroom).
Covering issues as wide-ranging as library school, food in the library, computer use, patrons (children, teens, homeless people, the handicapped, the elderly and just about every other demographic group gets sliced and diced here at some point) and his colleagues, Douglas offers a series of anecdotes - some depressing, some uplifting - about life as a public servant. The freewheeling narrative is broken up by sidebars of exposition on various matters related (or not) to libraries, as well as to footnotes (usually humorous) explaining or qualifying statements made in the text.*
Douglas gives us reason to doubt the complete accuracy of his stories: in one of the footnotes, on page 110, he writes "Things about the characters have been changed for their protection and to bring more humor to the story." He adds later "Everything in this book happened (though some in less exaggerated form)". Even if some of his stories about staff or patrons aren't entirely true, they might just as well be. And naturally he'd have had to disguise at least a few of the things he wrote about his colleagues, since I don't think they'd let him back in the building otherwise.
A fun read, but with a powerful punch lurking beneath the humor.
*I loved these.
Covering issues as wide-ranging as library school, food in the library, computer use, patrons (children, teens, homeless people, the handicapped, the elderly and just about every other demographic group gets sliced and diced here at some point) and his colleagues, Douglas offers a series of anecdotes - some depressing, some uplifting - about life as a public servant. The freewheeling narrative is broken up by sidebars of exposition on various matters related (or not) to libraries, as well as to footnotes (usually humorous) explaining or qualifying statements made in the text.*
Douglas gives us reason to doubt the complete accuracy of his stories: in one of the footnotes, on page 110, he writes "Things about the characters have been changed for their protection and to bring more humor to the story." He adds later "Everything in this book happened (though some in less exaggerated form)". Even if some of his stories about staff or patrons aren't entirely true, they might just as well be. And naturally he'd have had to disguise at least a few of the things he wrote about his colleagues, since I don't think they'd let him back in the building otherwise.
A fun read, but with a powerful punch lurking beneath the humor.
*I loved these.
Book Review: "Stiff"
In Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach takes an unconventional look at a very unconventional topic, examining the uses (current and historical) of human bodies after death. From anatomical examination or plastic surgery practice to decomposition studies, impact testing, and even stranger practices (real, or apocryphal?), Roach deftly explores the issues that make people queasy about utilizing human cadavers or their components (and if you think we do strange things to dead bodies now ...).
This book could have been just a creepy flop, but Roach's trademark wit saves the day. It's still morbid and gory, and a few chapters induced a cringe or two, but it's awfully hard to cringe while laughing. Each area is thoughtful and fascinating, and Roach somehow manages to maintain a sense of reverence for her subjects (at least the dead ones).
Enjoyable and recommended.
This book could have been just a creepy flop, but Roach's trademark wit saves the day. It's still morbid and gory, and a few chapters induced a cringe or two, but it's awfully hard to cringe while laughing. Each area is thoughtful and fascinating, and Roach somehow manages to maintain a sense of reverence for her subjects (at least the dead ones).
Enjoyable and recommended.
Links & Reviews
- Over at Weekend Stubble, Paul Collins discovers an absolutely hilarious letter to the editor from 1922. Poor Mrs. Sackett.
- The Morgan Library has acquired Queen Claude of France's prayer book, 132-page manuscript volume containing illuminated religious scenes. The piece measures just 2.75 x 2 inches, and is one of a few surviving works illuminated by a master known only as the Master of Claude de France. The piece was donated by Elaine Rosenberg in memory of her husband Alexandre, a well-known New York art dealer who died in 1987.
- A brand-new book evaluation tool from Mutterings of a Mad Bookseller. Spend a little time with this one, it's worth it.
- Houghton Library's Modern Books & Manuscripts Collection has a new webpage, along with a blog to document new acquisitions.
- The Boston Globe's book blog, Off the Shelf, confirms a long-standing rumor: that historians Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore have collaborated to write a novel. Blindspot will be published in December by Random House's Spiegel & Grau imprint. "Set in Boston just before the War of Independence and purportedly penned by 'a Gentleman in Exile & a Lady in Disguise,' the story concerns the murder of a prominent revolutionary, a crime blamed on his slaves. A Scottish-born painter and an African-born physician set about finding the truth. We trust that they do." Oh boy.
- The Little Professor comments on the hazards of academic regalia. Fitting (no pun intended) advice for commencement season.
- From BibliOdyssey, images from an 1829 German surgical album.
- A rare Vinegar Bible with fascinating provenance is returning to Nova Scotia.
- In the NYTimes this week, Alberto Manguel had an essay on his library, housed in a retrofitted barn in the Loire valley. More correctly, the essay is about his libraries, as they have grown and evolved with him through time and space. Manguel is one of the world's finest writers about books and biblio-things, so this is not a piece to skip.
- Michael at Book Patrol points out The Book Bench, a new blog by the book-folks at the New Yorker. Link added.
- Over on the Guardian book blog, Mark SaFranko writes about reading Casanova's Memoirs. He calls the volumes "masterpieces of world literature, the paradigm for how an autobiography should be written, a match for Proust's great novel in breadth and scope, and, frankly, a book that was vastly more entertaining and readable."
- University of South Carolina library science professor Robert Williams and graduate student Mittie Kristina McLean have released "A Bibliographical Guide to a Chronological Record of Statistics of National Scope on Libraries in the United States, 1829-1900." Williams writes: "This guide begins with the first identified survey of libraries in 1829 and covers all known surveys or studies of national scope to 1899. It includes informaton on: survey date; compiler; purpose of the survey; library types included; list of all variables covered in the survey (e.g., number of volumes, name of librarian, place/city, volumes added annually, value of library, etc.); method of study or survey; completeness (when known); quality (when known) and where published (usually a US government agency but also in journals, etc. of the period). ... Library types covered in the surveys for this period include: social, private, subscription, public, academic, school, special, state/government, and others." A second part, for 1900-2000, is in process.
- Over at Britannica Blog, Robert McHenry comments on "Whig History and Whig Biography," writing "Narrative history is almost inevitably whiggish to some degree. It’s not a matter of triumphalism or partisanship so much as the unavoidable consequence of the fact that the historian, whenever he is writing, occupies the unique present moment and is highly apt to pick out from the nearly infinite number of incidents and accidents of the past those that appear to bear a particular relevance to that present."
Reviews
- In the Telegraph, Tim Blanning reviews David Andress' 1789: The Threshold of the Modern Age. Blanning: "Andress writes with verve, never allowing the pace to slacken, moving swiftly from one character or episode to another. The result is exciting, exhilarating even. Not one chapter fails to deliver sharp insights, illuminating details and entertaining anecdotes. What is not supplied is coherence. Sudden thematic, geographical and chronological shifts lead to a narrative disjunction that bewilders and then irritates. Nor is there any compensating conceptual framework. .... So, after more than 400 pages of scintillating images, one is left asking: 'Where is the big picture?'"
- Heather Cox Richardson reviews Walter McDougall's Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era, 1829-1877 in the Washington Post. She writes "Rather than a definitive history, Throes of Democracy is a rollicking trip through historical events aimed at waking readers to America's past self-deceptions and prodding them to be more self-critical today." She criticizes the book for ignoring a decade's worth of recent historical scholarship, but declares McDougall's "laudable exploration of the American characters."
- J.L. Bell read Mark Puls' new biography of Henry Knox, and I'm glad he did because now I don't have to. John rightly skewers the book for just a few of what I'm sure are a multitude of problems (if Puls' last book was any indication). He concludes "It’s a shame that the early part of Henry Knox’s life is poorly documented. I’d love to know more about his growing up, when and how he got out of Boston during the war, and how he jumped from being an unranked volunteer to commanding the Continental Artillery. But we don’t have definite answers. Most of Knox’s biographers have been popular writers, not scholars, and have filled in the gaps in the record with legends and speculation. This new book is part of that tradition."
- The Morgan Library has acquired Queen Claude of France's prayer book, 132-page manuscript volume containing illuminated religious scenes. The piece measures just 2.75 x 2 inches, and is one of a few surviving works illuminated by a master known only as the Master of Claude de France. The piece was donated by Elaine Rosenberg in memory of her husband Alexandre, a well-known New York art dealer who died in 1987.
- A brand-new book evaluation tool from Mutterings of a Mad Bookseller. Spend a little time with this one, it's worth it.
- Houghton Library's Modern Books & Manuscripts Collection has a new webpage, along with a blog to document new acquisitions.
- The Boston Globe's book blog, Off the Shelf, confirms a long-standing rumor: that historians Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore have collaborated to write a novel. Blindspot will be published in December by Random House's Spiegel & Grau imprint. "Set in Boston just before the War of Independence and purportedly penned by 'a Gentleman in Exile & a Lady in Disguise,' the story concerns the murder of a prominent revolutionary, a crime blamed on his slaves. A Scottish-born painter and an African-born physician set about finding the truth. We trust that they do." Oh boy.
- The Little Professor comments on the hazards of academic regalia. Fitting (no pun intended) advice for commencement season.
- From BibliOdyssey, images from an 1829 German surgical album.
- A rare Vinegar Bible with fascinating provenance is returning to Nova Scotia.
- In the NYTimes this week, Alberto Manguel had an essay on his library, housed in a retrofitted barn in the Loire valley. More correctly, the essay is about his libraries, as they have grown and evolved with him through time and space. Manguel is one of the world's finest writers about books and biblio-things, so this is not a piece to skip.
- Michael at Book Patrol points out The Book Bench, a new blog by the book-folks at the New Yorker. Link added.
- Over on the Guardian book blog, Mark SaFranko writes about reading Casanova's Memoirs. He calls the volumes "masterpieces of world literature, the paradigm for how an autobiography should be written, a match for Proust's great novel in breadth and scope, and, frankly, a book that was vastly more entertaining and readable."
- University of South Carolina library science professor Robert Williams and graduate student Mittie Kristina McLean have released "A Bibliographical Guide to a Chronological Record of Statistics of National Scope on Libraries in the United States, 1829-1900." Williams writes: "This guide begins with the first identified survey of libraries in 1829 and covers all known surveys or studies of national scope to 1899. It includes informaton on: survey date; compiler; purpose of the survey; library types included; list of all variables covered in the survey (e.g., number of volumes, name of librarian, place/city, volumes added annually, value of library, etc.); method of study or survey; completeness (when known); quality (when known) and where published (usually a US government agency but also in journals, etc. of the period). ... Library types covered in the surveys for this period include: social, private, subscription, public, academic, school, special, state/government, and others." A second part, for 1900-2000, is in process.
- Over at Britannica Blog, Robert McHenry comments on "Whig History and Whig Biography," writing "Narrative history is almost inevitably whiggish to some degree. It’s not a matter of triumphalism or partisanship so much as the unavoidable consequence of the fact that the historian, whenever he is writing, occupies the unique present moment and is highly apt to pick out from the nearly infinite number of incidents and accidents of the past those that appear to bear a particular relevance to that present."
Reviews
- In the Telegraph, Tim Blanning reviews David Andress' 1789: The Threshold of the Modern Age. Blanning: "Andress writes with verve, never allowing the pace to slacken, moving swiftly from one character or episode to another. The result is exciting, exhilarating even. Not one chapter fails to deliver sharp insights, illuminating details and entertaining anecdotes. What is not supplied is coherence. Sudden thematic, geographical and chronological shifts lead to a narrative disjunction that bewilders and then irritates. Nor is there any compensating conceptual framework. .... So, after more than 400 pages of scintillating images, one is left asking: 'Where is the big picture?'"
- Heather Cox Richardson reviews Walter McDougall's Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era, 1829-1877 in the Washington Post. She writes "Rather than a definitive history, Throes of Democracy is a rollicking trip through historical events aimed at waking readers to America's past self-deceptions and prodding them to be more self-critical today." She criticizes the book for ignoring a decade's worth of recent historical scholarship, but declares McDougall's "laudable exploration of the American characters."
- J.L. Bell read Mark Puls' new biography of Henry Knox, and I'm glad he did because now I don't have to. John rightly skewers the book for just a few of what I'm sure are a multitude of problems (if Puls' last book was any indication). He concludes "It’s a shame that the early part of Henry Knox’s life is poorly documented. I’d love to know more about his growing up, when and how he got out of Boston during the war, and how he jumped from being an unranked volunteer to commanding the Continental Artillery. But we don’t have definite answers. Most of Knox’s biographers have been popular writers, not scholars, and have filled in the gaps in the record with legends and speculation. This new book is part of that tradition."
Book Review: "The Art Thief"
Noah Charney, author of The Art Thief (Atria, 2007), is the founder of the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA), the first think tank focused on art crimes. This, his debut novel, is a light mystery in the vein of Pears' Jonathan Argyll series (but not quite as enjoyable as those). Charney's knowledge of art crime comes through clearly, but in the form of long expository passages in the middle of a novel, that knowledge is misplaced.
The book is filled with way too many characters, none of whom is granted sufficient room to develop. I didn't like - or dislike - a single person in the book, possibly because I had a hard time figuring out which goofy investigator was narrating at any given moment (and by the time I'd figured out where I was, Charney had whiplashed me off to someplace else). And the end leaves much to be desired.
Not particularly noteworthy or memorable.
The book is filled with way too many characters, none of whom is granted sufficient room to develop. I didn't like - or dislike - a single person in the book, possibly because I had a hard time figuring out which goofy investigator was narrating at any given moment (and by the time I'd figured out where I was, Charney had whiplashed me off to someplace else). And the end leaves much to be desired.
Not particularly noteworthy or memorable.
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