Friday, October 30, 2009

Glamorous Ghost Haunts Louisiana Library

Movie Star And Library Ghost Marguerite Clark.

Perhaps it is the quiet that draws them in. Or the musty scent of aging leather bindings and brittle pages. Or maybe it's the all too rare reverence those who frequent them have for history and literature. Whatever their reasons, ghosts are especially fond of libraries. One librarian has documented haunted libraries in 44 of the 50 states, with most claiming more than one poltergeist-plagued public institution. Whether or not one swears by the mantra of the Cowardly Lion of Oz, ("I do believe in ghosts, I do believe in ghosts, I do, I do, I do, I doooo.") these fables of folio-fancying phantoms continue to fascinate. In celebration of Halloween, Book Patrol brings you the biography of a singularly seductive specter of the stacks.


Fittingly, this glamorous ghost haunts a Neo-Italianate mansion turned public library located on St. Charles Street in New Orleans. The Milton H. Latter Memorial Library is distinguished not only for its lavish architecture but also for its celebrity ghost. The celestial being who haunts the halls is thought to be a former owner of the stately manor, silent film star Marguerite Clark.


The diminutive Miss Clark stood only 4 feet, 10 inches tall and was blessed with a remarkably youthful appearance well into her thirties. She exuded an air of virginal purity and innocent charm. This led to a successful career playing the sweet ingenues in vogue as film heroines before the liberated flappers of the 1920's became all the rage. Her portrayal of Snow White (1916) inspired Walt Disney to base his first animated heroine on her performance. She also took on the literary roles of the Prince and Tom in Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper (1915) and again played dual roles as Little Eva St. Clair and Topsy in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1918). In her last film, Scrambled Wives (1921), she inadvisedly chose to play a collegiate party girl forced into a marriage of convenience to salvage her ruined reputation. Audiences did not accept the childlike star in such a racy role, and the film flopped. Acknowledging that her days as a leading lady were numbered, Marguerite Clark retired from the silver screen at the height of her fame in 1921.


Unlike Norma Desmond, Clark made a trauma-free transition from screen goddess to civilian. Her marriage to the son of a millionaire New Orleans lumber baron bought her a new life on easy street in The Big Easy. In addition to inherited wealth and social position, Clark's new husband, Harry Palmerston Williams, was said to possess "more charm than the law allowed." Williams was a carefree daredevil with a taste for danger. The only thing he loved more than speeding in a fast car was piloting one of the racing airplanes he designed with his business partner, aviation pioneer Jimmie "Speed King of the World" Wedell.


Mr. and Mrs. Williams were a golden couple who effortlessly became the toast of New Orleans society, hosting lavish parties in their palatial Garden District mansion. (The house boasted a ballroom occupying the entire third floor, as well as one of the city's first elevators.) Mrs. Williams was chosen to be the "Tsarina" of the first New Orleans Ball of Alexis in 1924. At this event she wore a gown worthy of an empress, priced at a record $5,000. Such an elaborate haute couture design would cost a customer a cool $63,000 dollars today.


Marguerite and Harry Williams enjoyed a happy marriage until tragedy struck in 1936. Harry Palmerston Williams finally paid the price for his lifelong addiction to adrenaline when the small plane he was piloting inexplicably crashed. Williams and his passenger were killed instantly. The widowed Marguerite stayed on in the Garden District mansion for three more years, but eventually could no longer endure the memories of her late husband which lingered there. She moved to New York City and died of complications from a cerebral hemorrhage and pneumonia in 1940. The charismatic couple are interred side by side in Metairie Cemetery.

According to many witnesses, however, Marguerite Clark Williams still watches over what was once her opulent estate. The mansion was donated to the New Orleans Public Library and opened as the Milton H. Latter Memorial Branch in 1948. Soon thereafter strange sightings of a "woman-child spirit" roaming the building after sunset were reported. Lights inexplicably flickered as this ethereal entity passed by, leaving in her wake downdrafts of chilly air scented with an exotic oriental perfume. Those who beheld the spirit at first thought the slight and graceful figure to be the ghost of a teen-aged girl. But the figure was later identified by a more careful observer as the dead ringer for the tiny silent movie queen.


Superstitious readers will be glad to know the ghost of the Latter Library is a friendly one. Not only do those who have seen the ghost maintain she radiates an appealing "lightness" but many also believe she protects the historic landmark from harm. While Hurricane Katrina caused extensive damage to many of the Garden District's neighboring estates, the library unaccountably emerged completely unscathed save for a few missing roof tiles.


The skeptical among us might attribute this good fortune to a meteorological oddity, but the Cowardly Lion would surely find it to be proof of the presence of a benevolent spirit. Do you believe in ghosts?

A "Witch" So Rare It's Scary

Yes, some water-stains; it's a maritime novel, what'd you expect?
This copy, apparently, skimmed the seas.


Some days I wake up lucky. I now have before me one of the great rarities in American literature, the true first edition of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Water Witch. Published no later than September 18, 1830, the London edition followed in October, and the Philadelphia edition in the the Spring of 1831.

Only sixteen copies of this, the Dresden edition, are known to exist: OCLC and KVK locate twelve copies in institutional collections worldwide, and ABPC records only four copies at auction within the last thirty-five years (one of which was a bound-up train-wreck).

This edition was printed by C.C. Meinhold and Sons in Dresden for the German bookseller who grandly styled himself as Walthersche Hofbuchhandlung, and then distributed to Cooper's translators and other publishers. Cooper, per his (draft) contract with Walther (at Dartmouth College Library), was given ten copies out of an unknown total print run which must surely have been exceedingly small.

"I do not know of any copies of the Dresden edition now existing" (Susan Fenimore Cooper, Letter dated October 4, 1886, to Rev. Richard Salter Storrs, D.D.).

The copy under notice is bound three volumes in one, in contemporary half-cloth over German marbled boards; a typical Dresden binding of the era.



The most romantic of Cooper's sea-tales (as a young man Cooper was a midshipman in the United States Navy), the novel occurs entirely in New York City, its environs, and on its waterways during the close of the seventeenth century. The chief character of this rousing drama is the charming and restless brigantine named the Water Witch, whose charming and restless owner and commander is known only as the "Skimmer of the Seas." The rakish brigand's romantic abduction of a local burgher's beautiful niece sets the story in motion.

Cooper's genius here was to use the late seventeenth-early nineteenth century popular plot device of European lady-kidnapped-by-oriental-pirates and adapt it to an American locale with American characters. Its popularity, like that of Cooper's novels and tales featuring Natty Bumpo, i.e. The Last of the Mohicans, rests on its faithful recreation of early America, with romance and adventure.

"Cooper's achievement, although uneven and the result of brilliant improvisation rather than a deeply considered artistry, was nevertheless sustained almost to the close of a hectic, crowded career. His worldwide fame attests to his powers of invention, for his novels have been popular principally for their variety of dramatic incidents, vivid depiction of romantic scenes and situations, and adventurous plots. But a more sophisticated view caused a revival of interest in the mid-20th century concentrating on Cooper's novels in their creation of tension between different loevels of society, between society and the individual, between the settlement and the wilderness, and between civil law and natural rights as these suggest issues of moral and mythic import" (OCAL).

"This was rather a drama of the coast than a tale of the sea; the movements of the vessels being confined entirely to the waters connected with the harbor of New York. If less brilliant than 'The Red Rover,' the spirit and interest which pervade 'The Water-Witch' are still very striking; there is an atmosphere of romance infused into the narrative, singularly different from the sober coloring of Puritan life in 'The Wish-ton-Wish.' It is strikingly picturesque also, more so than most works from the same pen. But on the other hand, there is less of high moral tone in the book than was usual with Mr. Cooper; it carries a carnival aspect about it; the shell was very gay and brilliant, the kernel was less nourishing than usual" (Susan Fenimore Cooper, Pages and Pictures from the Writings of James Fenimore Cooper, p.231).

Cooper (1789-1851) wrote the novel in Rome, during his travels abroad (1826-1833) as the nominal U.S. consul at Lyons.

It is a novel that cries out for adaptation to film.

As far as this scarce edition is concerned, the odds are that I'll never see another copy in my lifetime. Like I said, I woke up lucky this morning
________

[COOPER, James Fenimore]. The Water-Witch or The Skimmer of the Seas. A Tale by the Author of Pilot, Red Rover, etc., etc. etc. ... In Three Volumes. Dresden: Printed for Walther, 1830. Three octavo volumes. xii, 207, [1, blank]; [4], 292, [4]; 250, [2] pp. BAL 3845. 
 

Thursday, October 29, 2009

A Big Book. A VERY Big Book

Welcome to my book. Please, step inside.

Oh, to curl up in bed with a good book! But not this book.

Measuring more than 5 x 7 feet and weighing in at 133 pounds, Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom has been certified by Guinness World Records as the largest published book in the world. At this size, it may qualify for its own zip code.

Production of the book stretched image-processing systems to their limits. The life-size portraits of people and the panoramas convey some of the staggering sweep of the mountains and the ancient architecture in Bhutan, the last intact Himalayan kingdom.


The book's creator, Michael Hawley of MIT, challenged Acme Bookbinding of Charlestown, Mass, the world's oldest book bindery. "Every page in this book is a masterpiece," notes Paul Parisi, president of Acme. "We built the permanent binding it deserves." Acme invented a hand-built binding that combines the strengths of Western-style stitched books with Asian-style fanfolding.

The book features 112 pages of spectacular images and showcases the variety of digital, photographic and printing techniques that Hawley used. Copies are printed on-demand (imagine warehousing a print run!) using a roll of paper longer than a football field and more than a gallon of ink. It takes a full twenty-four hours to print.

Copies may be bought for a mere $30,000. Stick a mast on it and you can raft your way around the world, just like Thor Heyerdahl, Kon-Tiki-style.

Love the book but turn a page and we capsize. The damp-stains are really annoying.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

O. Henry's Morphine Overdose, Pay-Scale, and Advice to Writers



Recently, while on recon for Book Patrol, I discovered Fog in Santone, a short story by O. Henry (William Sydney Porter, 1862-1910) set in San Antonio Texas and loaded with morphine. In it, O. Henry limns the nexus of tuberculosis, desperate sufferers, and drug addiction amongst the sick and “sporting class" with lighthearted morbidity.

In contrast to Fog in Santone, At Arms With Morpheus takes place in turn-of the-century New York City boarding house. From clues in the narrative, it is the boarding house located off Madison Square where Porter lived.

In At Arms With Morpheus, which first appeared in the October, 1903 issue of Ainslee's Magazine under the pseudonym S.H. Peters and in book form in the posthumously published collection, Sixes and Sevens (1911), O. Henry, who was a registered druggist at age nineteen, tells a story about a morphine overdose. It appears to be the first literary treatment of a narcotic OD in American literature; it is certainly the first time that a drug overdose is played for laughs.

"’Oh, Billy, I'm going to take about four grains of quinine, if you don't mind -- I'm feeling all blue and shivery. Guess I'm taking cold.’

"’All right,’ I called back. ‘The bottle is on the second shelf. Take it in a spoonful of that elixir of eucalyptus. It knocks the bitter out.’

“After I came back we sat by the fire and got our briars going. In about eight minutes Tom sank back into a gentle collapse.

“I went straight to the medicine cabinet and looked.

"’You unmitigated hayseed!’ I growled. ‘See what money will do for a man's brains!’

“There stood the morphine bottle with the stopple out, just as Tom had left it.”

And from there, Billy narrates the amusing trials of keeping the dimwitted, wealthy Southern gent, Tom, alive with the help of citrate of caffeine, coffee, walking him around, and keeping him awake. The amateur therapy hasn’t changed much in a hundred years.

Now, another literary gem is added to the corpus of drug literature in English.

* * *

On April 4, 1909, an interview with O. Henry appeared in the New York Times that provides insight in the writing profession and the author’s working habits. Current writers may rush to the needle when they learn what O. Henry earned and how facile a writer he was.

"After drifting about the country I finally came to New York about eight years ago. I have Gilman Hall, now one of the editors of Everybody's Magazine, to thank for this fortunate step. Mr. Hall, then the editor of Ainslee's Magazine, wrote me saying that if I would come to New York he would agree to take $1,200 worth of stories annually at the rate of $100 a story. This was at a time when my name had no market value.Yes, since I came to New York my prices have gone up. I now get $750 for a story that I would have been glad to get $75 for in my Pittsburgh days.

[We pause here to contemplate in a swoon the fact that $750 in 1911 is worth approximately $16,000 in 2009, an opium pipe-dream for most writers of any era].

"Editors are just like other merchants--they want to buy at lowest prices. A few years ago I was selling stories to a certain magazine at the rate of 5 cents a word. I thought there was a chance that I might get more, so I boldly asked the editor for 10 cents a word. 'All right,' said he, 'I'll pay it.' He was just waiting to be asked.

[Who knew that's all it took to get a pay raise? Readers who write or edit may now ROTFL].

"I’ll give you the whole secret of short story writing. Here it is. Rule I: Write stories that please yourself. There is no Rule II. The technical points you can get from Bliss Perry. If you can't write a story that pleases yourself you’ll never please the public. But in writing the story forget the public.

"I get a story thoroughly in mind before I sit down at my writing table. Then I write it out quickly; and, without revising it mail it to the editor. In this way I am able to judge my stories as the public judges them. I've seen stories in print that I wouldn't recognize as my own.

[Submitting first drafts that are accepted as is. Holy mackerel!]

"Yes, I get dry spells. Sometimes I can't turn out a thing for three months. When one of those spells comes on I quit trying to work and go out and see something of life. You can't write a story that's got any life in it by sitting at a writing table and thinking. You've got to get out into the streets, into the crowds, talk wtth people, and feel the rush and throb of real life--that's the stimulant for a story writer.”

Amen.
_________

O. Henry. Sixes and Sevens. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page, and Company, 1911. BAL 16298. 
 

A Library For Astro Boy And Cultural Cat Girl



Japanese androids Astro Boy and All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku will find a home in the stacks, along with Totoro, Pikachu, and many other famous graphic novel characters, upon completion of the proposed Tokyo International Manga Library at Meiji University. Slated to open in 2015, the huge library and archive is expected to house two million graphic novels, animation cels, illustrations, video games, and cartoon artifacts.



Library spokesman Susumi Shibao sees the collection as the first "solid archive for serious study"of the Japanese art forms of anime and manga. Shibao hopes to help scholars worldwide publish academic research on Asian graphic novels and their animated film adaptations. He believes manga has been "taken lightly" in the past and is ripe for a major reappraisal: "We want to [encourage] academic studies on manga as part of Japanese culture."

To give those scholars eager to investigate the collection a taste of what's forthcoming, the school will open the Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subculture on Halloween of 2009. This smaller library is named in honor of an illustrious alumnus of Meiji University.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa was Japan's most famous critic of manga and anime, as well as an avid collector of and advocate for dōjinshi.


This self-published subgenre of manga is more experimental and controversial in nature than mass market graphic novels. Dōjinshi creators frequently base their materials on other creators' works and publish only a few copies of each volume to avoid copyright litigation. This makes dōjinshi a scarce and coveted commodity. Yonezawa amassed the world's premiere collection of dōjinshi before his untimely death from lung cancer at age 53, and left over 140,000 rare volumes to his alma mater.

Serious study of manga and anime may be the goal of Meiji University, but the fun and entertainment that graphic novels provide to millions of rabid fans worldwide can't be overlooked. Fifty-seven years after his debut, Astro Boy is making a reappearance in movie theatres in 2009. And this Halloween tribute to Cultural Cat Girl is a testament to the undying devotion of her most avid readers.


Maintaining the balance between the fun of popular culture and the goals of serious researchers might require the help of a couple super-powered androids, too.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

I Sing the Blue Jeans Electric: Walt Whitman For Levi's

"Hi, Walt Whitman for Levi's. A fustian cloth, rough-hewn, enduring, yeoman, riveted,
the fabric of America. These are my pants.
Boot-cut. Perfect fit. Get into them, O shapeless, unformed youth!
"

American poet, Walt Whitman, has been drafted by advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy of Portland to lead the battle cry, i.e. shill, for the American economy in general and Levi’s jeans in particular in an effort to get the demographic of the young into the venerable working-man’s pants that Whitman likely wore.

“America’s poet was an optimist at a time when it as easier to be a pessimist. He lived through the civil war, one of the darkest periods in American history, and drew strength from the struggle. He saw the potential for greatness that lies in each of us, to flourish in our personal search and build our brave vision of this country. Please accept his words as a small ray of hope.”

So reads the blurb on the website that Levi’s has devoted to the campaign.

While the prospect of young men in his pants is likely pleasing to the spirit of Whitman, I wonder whether he is pleased by the tone of the television campaign.

Whitman’s poetry can be edgy but the edge is always softened by the old-soul calmness and gentleness of his voice in print. Here, the voice-over talent and direction projects a stridency absent on the page, the quiet. primal yearning of the poet transformed into a an urgent, shout-out poetry-slam, flag-waving hipster performance that I suspect would make Whitman wince.

Whitman’s actual voice can be heard on an early wax-cylinder recording reading four lines from his poem, America, used in the Levi’s commercial below:



The voice is old and rough but the gentleness remains.

Contrast that to the voice heard in another commercial in the campaign, a sort of Burning Man incantation of Whitman’s O Pioneers!:


While I’m sure that Whitman would appreciate the pagan-nature/wild-child aspect that is projected, I suspect he might be a bit creeped-out by the hints of the ominous that are manifest in the television ads. And the let-your-freak-flag fly interpretation of Whitman could not be more superficial.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Publisher's Clearing House Presents: No Garden-Variety Library

Next time you impatiently yank an over-sized envelope emblazoned with the words: "You May Have Already Won 10 Million Dollars!!!" out of your junk-filled mailbox, take a moment to say: "Thanks." Without Publisher's Clearing House, the New York Botanical Garden might not have

a library.

The Botanical Garden's LuEsther T. Mertz Library is named for its largest benefactor, the genius behind the concept of the mass market mailing of multiple magazine subscription offers. Founded in 1953 by former librarian Mertz, her husband, and their daughter, Publisher's Clearing House became the largest and most profitable magazine circulation agency in the world. (And this even before the savvy stealing of the sweepstakes stunt from Reader's Digest in 1967.) But despite being one of the few librarians ever to end up a multimillionaire, LuEsther Mertz never forgot her former profession. Her charitable trust benefits the New York Botanical Garden's many programs, including the unique library that bears her name.

The library houses one of the world's foremost collections of materials on botany and horticulture. Cataloged items number over one million, including books, journals, seed and nursery catalogs, original works of art, photographs, and architectural plans. The holdings cover the literature, art, science, history, and lore of the plant kingdom from the 12th century to the present day.
Many of the rare books that are housed in the library will be on view for the first time in an exhibit that opened on October 17. 2009: Ex Libris: Treasures From The LuEsther T. Mertz Library. Over the centuries, such sensuous subjects as flowers, fruits, fungi, and herbs have inspired generations of bookmakers, artists, and illustrators to create the sumptuous works of art now delightfully on display.




The Ex Libris exhibit will continue through January 10, 2010 at the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. For those unable to savor a sample of the Big Apple's produce, a checklist for the exhibit, including images worthy of a state fair prize, is available. Visiting the library that owes its bountiful harvest to Publisher's Clearing House will no doubt prove more fruitful than subscribing to two dozen magazines and hoping for a bouquet from the Prize Patrol.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

One Hell of a Book Store - Or the Wrong One?


From Book Patrol's International Book Shops We'd Like To Visit Department. This one in Hong Kong.

Thanks to LISNews for the lead.

Gen. McChrystal's "Bad Habit": He Loves Rare Books



(I wish I was home, relaxing in my library, reading a good book)

During the 1960s, the phrase “military intelligence” was considered an oxymoron. In the midst of the Vietnam war it was a darkly glib joke, defensible only because of the series of strategic blunders that were made; it certainly seemed to be true that military officers were not the brightest candles in the chandelier and disdained expressions of intellect.

It wasn’t true then, it isn’t true now. Buried within Dexter Filken’s New York Times magazine feature last Sunday profiling Gen. Stanley McChrystal, head of allied military operations in Afghanistan, is evidence of the Army’s intellectual firepower and well as its duds:

“Yet for all his asceticism, McChrystal displays a subtlety that suggests a wider view of the world. ‘If you go into his house, he has this unreal library,’ Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn, McChrystal’s intelligence chief and long time friend, told me this summer. ‘You can go over and touch a binding and ask him, ‘what’s that one about?’ And he’ll just start. His bad habit is wandering around old bookstores. He’s not one of these guys that just reads military books. He reads about weird things, too. He’s reading a book about Shakespeare right now.’” [our emphasis].

There you have it: A four-star general who enjoys exploring old book shops, has a vast library of well-read books, can discuss them intelligently and in depth, and reads Shakespeare. And another general who seems to think that reading books about anything other than the military is weird.

Gen. McChrystal, apparently, loves Caliban, hates the Taliban, and is comfy with The Tempest and in a tempest.

According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff official bio of McChrystal, the general, who earned a BS at West Point, also has a MA in National Security and Strategic Studies, and a MS in International Relations. The Army really does want their troops to be all that they can be; commissioned officers are encouraged to earn graduate degrees, as many as they desire and to whatever level they aspire to.

U.S. military officers can pursue full-time studies toward a master’s or doctoral degree through either fully funded or partially funded programs or a bachelor’s degree through the Degree Completion Program. Under these programs, the Army pays all tuition costs and reimburses officers up to $600 per fiscal year for textbooks and supplies. In addition, the Army provides officers with full pay and allowances and moves officers and their families to the college or university of study.

Whatever your feelings are toward the military in general and our involvement in Afghanistan in particular, it is reassuring to know that our man in charge of operations is not a numb skull.

Warrior-scholar may not be a hyphenate appreciated by a general public that prefers its military to be all-fight, all-tough, all the time, no pointy-heads, please, but the U.S. military has no problem with it at all. They understand that a broad and deep perspective of the world is crucial to comprehending and coping with the challenges we face. Higher education, a love of books, and reading can only benefit its officer corps.

There will always be military officers (and business executives) with a maraca where their head is supposed to be; shake 'em and you can hear beans bouncing around inside. That is not the case with Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

"...for the play, I remember...'twas caviar to the general" (Hamlet, Act 2, scene 2). 
 
 

Monday, October 19, 2009

Books Fight Back: Islamabad Bibliophiles Flock to rae Books Fair Despite Taliban Violence

Islamabad at night
The Taliban attack on Rawalpindi shied large crowds from a rare book exibition-fair at Islamabad’s Nomad Center and Gallery the weekend of October 10-11, 2009 but failed to dampen the spirits of the city’s bibliophiles, who relished the feast.

This was, perhaps, a strong signal, prior to the Pakistani army's recent major offensive against the Taliban, that Pakistani society, in its own offensive action, is pushing back against the forces of regression and ignorance. The Nomad Center and Gallery is at the cultural forefront.

Displaying a collection of rare and contemporary books on art, literature, culture, religion and social issues, the exhibition-fair provided Islamabad’s book lovers with a chance to browse 3000 books, transcripts and manuscripts on display and offered for sale.

The fair featured a wide range of books ranging from technical and scientific manuals to volumes on history, religion, and the arts. Of particular interest were the books and educational materials, in Urdu and English, for children; children’s literature and texts are, alas, painfully neglected in the Pakistani school system which, on balance, is pitiful. Schoolchildren, moreover, are being killed in suicide attacks, most recently in Lahore last week.

The fair was formally inauurated by Syed Shahzad Ali and Mazhar Ali, two brothers who own Hero Books, established by their father Syed Ghulam Ali Hero at the famous Anarkali Bazaar, Lahore, in 1954.

One of the rare books that attracted viewers was a copy of Bostan-e-Saadi (The Fruit Orchard, the first book of poetry by the Persian poet, Saadi) and Gulistan-e-Saadi (The Rose Garden) published in 1257 and 1258 C.E. respectively, for which the seller asked Rs 400,000 ($4819). (Presumably first printed editions bound together, but it is unclear).

Saadi in His Rose Garden, from an early 17th century manuscript

A signed copy of Altaf Hussain’s (1837-1914) Musaddas e-Madd o-Jazr e-Islam (An Elegiac Poem on the Ebb and Tide of Islam), written under his poetic pseudonym Hali ("The Contemporary") had a price tag of Rs 45,000 ($542). The Musaddas, or Musaddas-e-Hali, as it is often known, was published in 1879 to critical acclaim, and heralded the modern age of Urdu poetry,

An English translation of Shah Shams Tabrez’s works was also offered at Rs 25,000 ($301).

A copy of A.J. Arberry’s Religion in the Middle East, published in 1969 by the Cambridge University, was offered for Rs 18,000 ($217).

A battered copy of Fatuhat Sham, written by Syed Inayet Hussain Saharanpuri, published by Nawal Kishore in British India, sold for Rs 45,000 ($542). I have thus far been unable to discover anything about this book.

A complete volume of Naqoosh’s Rasool Number, compiled by the influential magazine's late publisher and editor, Javed Tufail; three volumes of Catalogue of Indian Coins, edited by E.J. Ripon in 1967; and a wide range of books printed in 1950s and 1960s also attracted foreign visitors.

Interviewed by the Daily Times of Pakistan, Shehzad Ali said this was the first time that he had exhibited his rare books in the nation's capital. “So far a lot of customers visited and purchased rare books and as the day progressed, I am hoping for more to come. Although, today’s (Saturday) attack at GHQ in Rawalpindi restricted my customers to visit this place,” he said.


Pakistan has a lively book trade, with many book shops in the larger urban regions. Bibliophiles need not go far or spend much to obtain the books they want because every Sunday, a large bazaar of old and new books is organised on the footpaths of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Full story about the exhibition-book fair in Islamabad at the Daily Times of Pakistan.

Nomad Center & Art Gallery, # 383, Eighth Avenue, F-8/3, Islamabad.Tel: 051 – 2262502.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Balloons on the Loose at Doyle's

(Artist Unknown). A View of Monsr. Garnerin’s Balloon and Parachute. Hand-Colored Engraving, c. 1802. Lot 313

Yesterday’s drama involving an escaped, untethered balloon and the possibility that a child may have been aboard reminds us of the challenges and dangers of balloon flight and the role of ballooning in the history of aeronautics.

On Wednesday October 28, 2009, Doyles - New York will be auctioning the aeronautical collection of William G. Gerhard (1905-1975), who spent sixty years assembling a remarkable collection of material relating to early aviation, including stunning engravings.

Below, a few highlights.


W. Gauci, Representation of the Balloon Immediately Proceeding its Ascension from the Village of Seal. Hand-Colored Lithograph, 1826. Lot 317


After Desrais. Globe Aerostatique, Dedie a Monsieur Charles
Hand-Colored Engraving, c. 1783. Lot 292.


Allarme Generale de Habitants de Gonesse, Occasione par la Chute du Balloon Aerostatique de Mr. De Mongolfe, Hand-Colored Engraving, 1784. Lot 291.


[Sadler Ascension]. Hand-Colored Aquatint, c. 1811-1814, Lot 313.

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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

New Trend at Book Signings: Punch the Author


British pop diva Leona Lewis was slapped upside the head while signing copies of her autobiography, Dreams, at a London book shop today.

According to an eyewitness at Waterstones' Piccadilly branch,"[the attacker] walked up there with the book, she signed it and, as she looked up, he just punched her. She was running out with her hand over her eye."

A statement on the singer’s website declares that “Leona is understandably shaken and apologises to the fans she was unable to meet and complete signings.”

PEN has yet to issue a statement but I imagine it will read something along these lines: PEN is outraged and obviously concerned that this incident may not be isolated and provide further evidence of the decline of civility in Western culture.

We at Book Patrol do not condone violence, particularly against writers, yet we cannot help but think that there are probably a few authors, dead or alive, who might have or would benefit from the attitude-adjustment which only a knuckle sandwich can provide.

As strictly a thought experiment, we invite you to submit your nominations for Writers We'd Like To Wallop with a brief explanation about why your choice merits a slug. Larry King, who has never met a book he didn't sign, is not eligible secondary to age, eyeglasses, and the fact that he is, alas, a nice guy.

An O. Henry Story Loaded With Morphine


“The drug clerk looks sharply at the white face half concealed by the high-turned overcoat collar.

"’I would rather not supply you,’ he said doubtfully. ‘I sold you a dozen morphine tablets less than an hour ago.’

“The customer smiles wanly. ‘The fault is in your crooked streets. I didn't intend to call upon you twice, but I guess I got tangled up. Excuse me."

Thus begins Fog in Santone by American short story master O. Henry (1862-1910). Those who know O. Henry only as the author of the classic tale of loving sacrifice, The Gift of the Magi, with its typically O.Henry ironic and surprise end, may be shocked to learn that the same author wrote a story soaked in morphine.

Fog in Santone, posthumously published in the October 1912 issue of The Cosmopolitan (Yes, that Cosmopolitan, which began in 1886 as a family periodical, morphed into a literary magazine, then, in the 1960s, transmogrified into Helen Gurley Brown's Cosmo) but likely written c. 1904, is one of a handful of stories that O. Henry set in San Antonio, Texas, where the author lived at some point during the early 1880s – 1896.

At the time of his residence, San Antonio, with its warm (some – me, for instance – would say unbearably hot), dry, and sunny climate and clean air, was a destination for tuberculosis sufferers. Within the story we are informed that San Antonio had 3,000 “tubercules” living within the city limits. Many were in the final stages of the disease and liberally dosed themselves with whiskey and/or morphine, at the time freely available over-the-counter without prescription, as palliative or final exit strategy.

Readers of O. Henry will be further stunned to learn that in this story a prostitute plays a major role. She, in fact, is the plot twist providing the ironic surprise ending. This is a very morbid story and O. Henry is having a lot of fun telling it in stereoscopic vision with one eye on the melancholy, the other one on the jolly with a wink and raised eyebrow.

I will not blow the ending (or beginning and middle) for you. The link above provides the full text to the story, and it will only take five minutes or so to read.

It offers a colorful view of drug use and cultural attitudes about opiates in the American Southwest during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the period of America’s first drug epidemic. It is to be taken seriously for that reason alone. That it was written by O. Henry makes it important.

This story has heretofore been unknown to scholars and collectors of drug literature. It is now a major catalogue contribution to the literature of drugs, and adds to our understanding of the continuum of drugs and drug use in American culture.
____________

Previously on Book Patrol:
The Story of O. Henry House

An O. Henry Story Loaded With Morphine


“The drug clerk looks sharply at the white face half concealed by the high-turned overcoat collar.

"’I would rather not supply you,’ he said doubtfully. ‘I sold you a dozen morphine tablets less than an hour ago.’

“The customer smiles wanly. ‘The fault is in your crooked streets. I didn't intend to call upon you twice, but I guess I got tangled up. Excuse me."

Thus begins Fog in Santone by American short story master O. Henry (1862-1910). Those who know O. Henry only as the author of the classic tale of loving sacrifice, The Gift of the Magi, with its typically O.Henry ironic and surprise end, may be shocked to learn that the same author wrote a story soaked in morphine.

Fog in Santone, posthumously published in the October 1912 issue of The Cosmopolitan (Yes, that Cosmopolitan, which began in 1886 as a family periodical, morphed into a literary magazine, then, in the 1960s, transmogrified into Helen Gurley Brown's Cosmo) but likely written c. 1904, is one of a handful of stories that O. Henry set in San Antonio, Texas, where the author lived at some point during the early 1880s – 1896.

At the time of his residence, San Antonio, with its warm (some – me, for instance – would say unbearably hot), dry, and sunny climate and clean air, was a destination for tuberculosis sufferers. Within the story we are informed that San Antonio had 3,000 “tubercules” living within the city limits. Many were in the final stages of the disease and liberally dosed themselves with whiskey and/or morphine, at the time freely available over-the-counter without prescription, as palliative or final exit strategy.

Readers of O. Henry will be further stunned to learn that in this story a prostitute plays a major role. She, in fact, is the plot twist providing the ironic surprise ending. This is a very morbid story and O. Henry is having a lot of fun telling it in stereoscopic vision with one eye on the melancholy, the other one on the jolly with a wink and raised eyebrow.

I will not blow the ending (or beginning and middle) for you. The link above provides the full text to the story, and it will only take five minutes or so to read.

It offers a colorful view of drug use and cultural attitudes about opiates in the American Southwest during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the period of America’s first drug epidemic. It is to be taken seriously for that reason alone. That it was written by O. Henry makes it important.

This story has heretofore been unknown to scholars and collectors of drug literature. It is now a major catalogue contribution to the literature of drugs, and adds to our understanding of the continuum of drugs and drug use in American culture.
____________


Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The Miracle of the Two-Week Rare Book: A Nancy Drew Mystery


We rare book collectors and dealers have, apparently, been asleep. While we’ve been aslumber, the meaning of “rare” has undergone a radical transformation guaranteed to startle us to wide-eyed wakefulness.

“RARE NANCY DREW APPLEWOOD THE MESSAGE IN THE HOLLOW OAK Item #200366792295. FROM A SMOKE AND PET-FREE HOME, THIS IS A FIRST OR SECOND EDITION!!! HOLLOW OAK IS A RARITY- I DID NOT FIND 1 ON EBAY INCLUDING COMPLETED AUCTIONS!!!"

Once upon a time, Ebay provided auction records for the prior three months. Far from a reliable indicator of rarity at that short interval, not too long ago the time frame was reduced to an absurd thirty days. Now it’s a mere two weeks.

Hasn’t been seen in two weeks! Alert the media!

I’m not a friend of Ebay but I do know a few serious and savvy collectors who’ve picked up some good material through the site but only because they knew a whole lot more about the book being offered than the seller and asked important, key questions.

On balance, however, Ebay continues to be a rare book source where those who know little if anything about what they have sell to those who know little if anything about what they’re doing. It’s still caveat emptor-land in capital letters.

Now, as it turns out, The Message in the Hollow Oak, Nancy Drew Mystery #12 (1935) is indeed a rarity. But this Ebay seller’s complete description is strictly Earth vs. the Flying Saucers:

“FROM A SMOKE AND PET-FREE HOME, THIS IS A FIRST OR SECOND EDITION!!! THE NUMBER LINE IS "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2". YOU ARE BIDDING ON HARDBACK "THE MESSAGE IN THE HOLLOW OAK" IN VERY GOOD CONDITION- COMPLETELY UNMARKED ASIDE FROM BOOKSTORE PRICE MARKED INSIDE, ONLY THE MOST MINIMAL EDGEWEAR. HOLLOW OAK IS A RARITY- I DID NOT FIND 1 ON EBAY INCLUDING COMPLETED AUCTIONS!!! COPYRIGHT 1999; 4 GLOSSY INTERNALS !!! INTERNALS ARE THE HOLY GRAIL- MOST NANCY DREW FANS HAVE NOT SEEN ALL 4. . IMPROVE YOUR SUMMER BY READING THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE TITIAN-HAIRED INGENUE AND YOUNGEST DETECTIVE IN RIVER HEIGHTS! IMPROVE YOUR NDQ BY SEEING THE 4 RARE GLOSSY PICS INSIDE AND READING MORE ABOUT THE MOST CLEVER (AND PRETTIEST) TEENAGER THIS SIDE OF THE MUSKOKA RIVER AND HER DADDY LAWYER CARSON DREW'S DARLING! I'LL THROW YOU A TIDBIT: DID YOU KNOW THAT ORIGINALLY THE 16 YEAR OLD NANCY HAD A GUN? YES, THE PERFECTLY COIFFED, SUMMER FROCK-WEARING HIGH-SCHOOL GIRL PACKED HEAT! I BELIEVE THAT SHE KEPT HER WEAPON IN THE GLOVE COMPARTMENT (ALONG WITH SHORT WHITE GLOVES, JUST IN CASE) OF HER SPORTY BLUE ROADSTER! NANCY WAS MADE TO BE 18 AND BLONDE (SHE WAS ORIGINALLY 'TITIAN-HAIRED") IN MORE RECENT TIMES. SEE MY OTHER AUCTIONS FOR SIMILAR- ALWAYS CHEAPEST SHIPPING, IN THIS CASE FREE- NEVER ANY HANDLING!!!”

Having plowed through the seller’s all-caps, exclamation point-happy, smoke and pet-free garrulous paean to sixteen year old titian-haired innocent gun moll gumshoes with white gloves, the sharp eyed will have noticed that the copyright date for the copy in question is “1999.” Not even close to the first edition. But “always cheapest shipping, in this case free.”

Contrast the Ebay seller’s description for his copy of this book with the description provided by Tavistock Books, whose proprietor, Vic Zoschak, is a solid, reliable and trustworthy veteran of the rare book trade:

KEENE, Carolyn (pseudonym, here, of Mildred A. Wirt). The Message in the Hollow Oak. New York: Grosset & Dunlap., (1935). 12mo. 1st edition, 7th printing (Farah 1937A-7). iv, 218, [2] pp. Adverts last 2 pages. Light blue cloth binding with orange lettering (Format #3). Orange topstain. Orange silhouette eps. Dust jacket with white spine, wear & soiling). Frontis + 3 inserted plates by Russell H. Tandy.

Vic accurately provides all that the concerned collector needs to know without needless palaver substituting for knowledge. The most basic and important piece of info is offered, the bibliographical citation. Vic charges for shipping, a small price to pay for dealing with an individual who has invested decades into learning the trade and knowing books.

It’s the difference between peace of mind when buying and having to give a piece of one’s mind to the seller after buying.

If this Ebay seller wanted to know how rare the book actually was, all he had to do was log on to the great aggregator, Addall, where Vic's copy is listed for anyone to see, if he knew where to look. It doesn't get much more basic than Addall, which the trade has been using for years to get an accurate sense of the marketplace.

Ebay remains the wild, wild west. Keep a roscoe in the glove compartment for protection and take off the white gloves when buying rare books there lest they get soiled. That's the real message in the hollow oak.

Hat’s off to Jennifer of the Series Books for Girls blogspot for the lead.
______________

Monday, October 12, 2009

Patrolman's Book List Busts Stereotypes

Searching the internet can sometimes lead to an unexpectedly intriguing result through sheer serendipity. While looking for an item the other day, a hit that popped up that sidetracked me: "The 'How to Be a Better Cop' Reading List."

The man behind the list, Dean Scoville, is a retired patrol supervisor and investigator with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, and currently the Associate Editor of Police Magazine. He writes the "Patrol" blog for the magazine's website which is described as: "straight talk [for] officers and deputies working the urban and rural beats." Scoville describes himself as "a wordy bastard" given to "flippancy." But despite his snarky style, his book list is anything but lightweight.

Because public librarians deal with every kind of person and situation imaginable--just like cops--I thought there might be something useful to me on that list. What I found was a lineup of titles that gave me new insight into the mindset required to be a smart cop. (And anyone who works in the high-crime neighborhood known as "customer service" will find these titles almost as helpful as a bulletproof vest.)

Scoville's first recommendation is The Art of Deception, an introduction to logic by Nicholas Capaldi. The retired patrolman admits the book will be a hard sell to his fellow officers but makes this convincing argument for tackling the tricky tome: "Capaldi illustrates how people fall prey to fallacious contentions and illogical conclusions. By recognizing the error of their ways, officers can conduct better interviews [and] better investigations and write reports that anticipate others' anticipations [i.e. defense lawyers' arguments.]" A book that helps cops outsmart lawyers. I bet that one gets picked up by an officer or two.

The list continues with both titles and annotations that surprise:

The PTSD Workbook: Simple, Effective Techniques for Overcoming Traumatic Stress Symptoms by Mary Beth Williams and Soili Poijula: "If you have any inkling that you or a fellow worker may be suffering from the delayed effects of stress-inducing incidents, consider picking this book up."

The Art of War by Sun Tzu: "Epigrammatic wisdom that has stood the test of time, which is more than I can predict for Al Franken."

Blue Blood by Edward Conlon: "This former NYPD officer's book is the best patrol memoir ever written. Conlon knows how to turn a phrase, and his book will give every cop who's ever been screwed over... a sense of vicarious vengeance."

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: "Yeah, I can just picture macho cops lining up to buy this staple at their bookstore, you bet. [But] the truths it presents still carry weight today."

The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell: "It lays out all manner of nasty little enterprises, such as bombs and booby traps, you need to know about."

Scoville dryly notes that he has the "dubious distinction of perhaps being the only person" to put those last two titles on the same recommended reading list.

The retired cop even makes a statement that sounds suspiciously like the words of an old pro at reader's advisory: "I decided to include books that if they don't help you become a better cop may at least help you in some other aspect of your life." Prima-facie evidence that the patrolman and the public librarian really do walk similar beats.

 
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