tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382076272947689523.post3267088994921887541..comments2024-01-27T13:22:38.545-08:00Comments on BOOKTRYST: John Quincy Adams, The Sleeping-Pill PoetStephen J. Gertzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14369781936876020975noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382076272947689523.post-54149434821992034752013-07-04T09:52:06.192-07:002013-07-04T09:52:06.192-07:00I am reminded of Andrew Lang's character Thoma...I am reminded of Andrew Lang's character Thomas Blinton, who "had discovered a new sin, so to speak, in the collecting of books;" with the reservation that Adams, at 65, was old enough to know better. Blinton "maintained that every man who came to notoriety had, at some period, published a volume of poems which he had afterwards repented of and withdrawn. It was Blinton's hideous pleasure to collect stray copies of these unhappy volumes...He had all Lord John Manners' poems, and even Mr. Ruskin's. He had the 'Ode to Despair' of Smith (now a comic writer); and the 'Love Lyrics' of Brown, who is now a permanent under-secretary...Blinton was wont to say he expected to come across 'Triolets of a Tribune by Mr. John Bright, and 'Original Hymns for Infant Minds' by Mr. Henry Labouchere, if he only hunted long enough." Vincent Starrett tells how, as a very young collector, he was flimflammed out of his copy of H.L. Mencken's youthful poems when Mencken himself bemoaned the fact he no longer had a copy of his own. No doubt, Starret concluded in his maturity, this was true, and as true ten minutes after he received Starrett's copy, a gift, as it had been ten minutes before.Tom Conroynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382076272947689523.post-4762644228390140132013-06-19T21:12:13.056-07:002013-06-19T21:12:13.056-07:00Love John Quincy Adams and love his poem!Love John Quincy Adams and love his poem!lulabelldesignshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06415151162583678681noreply@blogger.com