Has An Unrecorded Thackeray MS Gift Book Been Discovered?

by Stephen J. Gertz

Hand-lettered titlepage.

A small manuscript book with original art purportedly written and drawn by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), the great nineteenth century English novelist, has surfaced. There are no references to it in any bibliography, biography, or collection of Thackeray's letters.

Titled A Wonderfulle, Veritable and Trulye Delectable Hystorye; of a certain flock of sheep that went astray, during ye Shepherde his absence. Together wh. divers wondrous matters wh. are contained in thys little Boke, it was "published" in London by "John Snobbe Gent. at ye Inkpotte and Asse in Fleet Street" in 1848. In 2013 it appeared on my desk and, the object of near total Thackeray immersion, it has been under investigation for the last three months. The case for WMT's authorship is strong yet circumstantial and the jury remains out.

The book is composed of seven leaves of pale blue writing paper, each 7 1/4 x 5 3/16 inches (185 x 127 mm), with recto-only holograph captioning below colored drawings that were rendered on artist's paper, clipped, and pasted in. A gentle satire, with charming wit it tells the story of an English parson who visits the Continent but not before warning his congregation against being led astray by worldly vanities while he is away.  Compelling news from home returns him to England where he discovers that his flock has, indeed, flirted with the devil and succumbed to the vanities that contemporary society draws the unwary into.

The Shepherd, having perused 'the loving ballad of Lord Bateman,' is impressed
like that high-soul'd Nobleman with a desire 'some foreign countree for to see,'
he accordingly inserts his best blacks into a carpet bag -

and in a brief and improving discourse of two hours + fifty nine minutes
admonishes his flock against being led astray by worldly vanities during
his absence -

There are three possibilities as to the book's origin: by Thackeray; a Thackeray pastishe by an anonymous someone; or a forgery.

It is not a forgery; a forger would have signed Thackeray's name or initials in an attempt to deceive. There is no identifying signature, or initials.

He purchaseth an Alpinstock for the better ascent of mountainous regions, and
embarks at Kingstown in the 'Teakettle Royal Mail Steamer' -

On the voyage he meets the Great Sea Serpent, wife and family -

The Case For Thackeray's Authorship

The paper and ink are true to period. Internal text details nail the date to, indeed, 1848.

Thackeray's is known to have created little illustrated gift books for his friends or their children. In The Pen and the Album he wrote:

Caricatures I scribbled have, and rhymes,
And dinner-cards, and picture pantomimes;
And merry little children's books at times.

The title page is a riot of archaic and curious word spellings. From Thackeray's letters we know that he enjoyed playing with spelling, and he commonly used "wh." to abbreviate "with" and "which," as here.

The "John Snobbe" imprint is highly significant. In 1847 Thackeray serially published The Snobs of England; in 1848 a revised book edition was issued as The Book of Snobs. Thackeray created and popularized this class of individual and our current definition of snob is based upon Thackeray's conception. We can chalk-up the imprint's location - "at ye Inkpotte and Asse" - to Thackeray's self-deprecation and his negative feelings about writing. Like Dorothy Parker, he enjoyed having written but didn't enjoy the writing process. "At ye Inkpotte & Asse" is the lightly grumpy and sarcastic equivalent of slaving in the salt-mines.

Text:

In The Book of Snobs, Thackeray devotes a chapter to the clergy, and a clergyman is here the object of the satire.

The allusion to Lord Bateman in the second leaf's first line is significant. Thackeray was a fan of the traditional story of Lord Bateman and wished to adapt a version of his own. He shared this desire with caricaturist George Cruikshank, who warned him not to; Cruikshank was planning his own, and The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman was published in 1839 with notes by Charles Dickens. Thackeray, however, never got the story out of his head and later composed The Famous History of Lord Bateman, with his own illustrations and text variations.

The second leaf text refers to being "led astray by worldly vanities." We're in Thackeray territory here; Vanity Fair had been serially published 1847-48 and the book edition was issued in 1848.

In the forth leaf reference is made to a trip to Germany. Thackeray visited Germany in 1848 (he had spent time there earlier in life). The parson reading Galignani's newspaper is noteworthy: it was the leading English-language newspaper on the Continent and, significantly, Thackeray had been a contributing writer to it.

The reference to "news of a most horrifying nature" refers to the Young Irelander Rebellion, which occurred in late July 1848.

Reference in the fifth leaf to a Jenny Lind concert - We know from his letters that on June 3, 1848, Thackeray attended a Jenny Lind concert in London.

On the wall in the sixth leaf's illustration is a portrait of French minister Louis-Eugene Cavaignac, the de facto French head of state and dictator in the immediate wake of King Louis-Philip's abdication during the June revolution of 1848.

The final leaf's tableau presents a social scene worthy of Thackeray's wit: is the loud smacking sound that of a kiss or someone smacking their lips in satisfaction of eating a rich dessert? The illustration at far left is amusing - a man seems to be going in for a kiss with a young lady while simultaneously reaching behind her to grab something off a food tray.

IRELAND
FASHIONABLE INTELLIGENCE!

Festivities At Clontarf  Splendid reunion……..
Rank and fashion….elegance and beauty….light fantastic…
Salon de danse…polka…valse…on dit…
Hon. Charles M….hymnal altar…lovely and accomplished…
fair fiancée…eighteenth year…amiable as beautiful…
gallant bridegroom…splendid prospects…immense estates in the Moon
demise of his granduncle the Man thereof…&c. &c.

Arrived at Schmdttronichbrandtt he reads news of a most horrifying
nature, -

Which causeth him to return instantly by Special Extra Express Train -

The Illustrations:

At first glance they appear to not be by Thackeray. They are more developed than is usually the case with his illustrations. Thackeray was, in his mind, first and foremost an artist; it was his first love, what he did for pleasure, and his ambition in life was to become a painter; writing was a chore he did strictly for the money. But as John Buchanan-Brown's The Illustrations of William Makepeace Thackeray demonstrates, Thackeray's artwork varied from simple line drawings to more elaborate compositions. (His draftsmanship and technique were limited; he had to quit his art studies after he squandered his inheritance and had to earn a living, pronto). Given the time and motivation it is entirely possible that he created these illustrations.

Noteworthy in respect to technique is that when he designed crowd scenes or groups of people their facial features were generally rendered as simple dots or dashes, as seen in the second leaf. This same detail is found throughout Thackeray's illustrations.

So, too, Thackeray's variation of visage, often caricatured but sometimes, as here, somewhat straight without exaggeration or grotesquerie.

The Banshee not going fast enough, a boat is sent ahead to help
her on + by which means he gets back in something less than no time!

He goes in search of his flock + finds some of them at Jenny Lind's concert

Provenance

Purchased by John Ruston of the Horace G. Commins Bookshop located at 100 Old Christ's Church Road, Bournemouth, Dorset, from the Chadwick family of Sherborne, Dorset.

Purchased from Ruston by Jack Joseph of E. Joseph Booksellers of London in 1965.

In descent from Jack Joseph to his nephew, bookseller David Brass.

Maj. James Chadwick was an old friend of Thackeray's. Thackeray created his Alphabet Book for Chadwick's son, Edward.

others coortin'!

The Case Against Thackeray's Authorship 

At first glance, the handwriting is not what we expect of Thackeray. Though the penmanship here is as minute and precise as found in Thackeray's letters, there are a few details which concern. Thackeray's downstems (below the line, as "g" or "y"), for instance, are typically straight; here they curve to the left with a flourish.

The illustrations are too well-done.

Thackeray was too busy during 1848 to create this little book. He was up to his inkpotte & asse writing Pendennis.

Counter:

Thackeray used a standard pen nib when writing his letters. The designer here uses an artist's pen with thin nib, allowing for flourish. These illustrations are finer than most that we see of Thackeray's and he might very well have artistically varied his handwriting to suit the occasion.

Variations in penmanship style - sometimes for amusement purposes - are found between his letters, and between captions to his illustrations.

Thackeray used a straight and slanted handwriting style. Both are present here. 

While it is true that Thackeray was deeply immersed in writing Pendennis during 1848 and perhaps too busy to devote his energies elsewhere, it is also known from his letters that Thackeray quit Pendennis for brief periods of time. Again, writing was toil for him and he might very well have taken time to do this book simply for diversion and relaxation to reinvigorate his creative powers.

•  •  •

The question arises: why would someone anonymously create a one-off Thackeray pastiche in the first place? It's too good to not wish to be associated with it; pride of authorship is warranted. Thackeray had no need to sign it; as a gift the recipient (a member of the Chawick family, possibly James) knew who did it. How would an anonymous author (and clearly trained artist) have known of Thackeray's interest in the Lord Bateman ballad? His affection for unusual spellings? His Galigani connection? The Jenny Lind concert? Too many coincidences; the circumstantial evidence piles up.

And some, it is whispered, have been suspected (oh my eye! my eye!)
of kissing under the Misletoe!!, but owing to its being dark at the
time, and a violent cachination caused by the sudden appearance of
a rummy Old Gentleman on the wall the Informant was not able to
declare positively whether the noise heard was the mundane vanity
of a kiss, or that peculiar smack which is oft-times given to express
the satisfaction felt after the mastication of a rich Tart or the like,
and of which description of the period in question - and thus ends this
strange eventful history! -

The flock have now gone back to Sermon and Tract,
There's none of them courted, there's none of them smack'd;
Thus a Proverb's come true we have oft heard rehearsed
Things are certain to mend when they've come to the worst!

What the Scholars Say

John Aplin, Thackeray family biographer and curator of the Thackeray Bicentennial Symposium at Harvard's Houghton Library in 2011; Victorian literature scholar Kurt Harris, Ph.D; and Peter L. Shillingsburg, general editor of the Works of W.M. Thackeray; author of William Makepeace Thackeray: A Literary Life, etc., were consulted.

Mr. Aplin is sanguine about Thackeray's authorship. Dr. Harris wrote, "The drawings and handwriting in the images you sent me appear to be those of W. M. Thackeray." Mr. Shillingsburg is dubious: "I have seen a number of iffy manuscripts and this one did not convince me but 'attributed to' is accurate."

In 1972, Gordon N. Ray (1915-1986), editor of Thackeray's letters, was consulted. It is reported that he glanced at the book's second leaf for a moment and without investigation declared that it was not by Thackeray. The handwriting was, apparently, all he needed to see and he didn't instantly see Thackeray. I am told, however, that Ray, at this point in his life aging, irritable, and cantankerous, was a bit of a cuss about the matter, refusing further and deeper examination of the book. With all due respect to Ray, however, experts after their great successes can sometimes mutate into rigid doctrinaires inflexible to anything that might contradict their experience. Mr. Ray may have been correct. But he may have been completely wrong.

The provenance should definitively settle the issue but, alas, there is no paperwork to document Ruston's purchase from the Chadwick family, nor a bill of sale from Ruston to Jack Joseph. There is no smoking gun, just the scent of gunpowder and traces of it on Thackeray's hand.

I admit to scholastic bias; I want this to be by Thackeray; it excites the latent academic and ignites the thrill of exploration and discovery. It is so very cool. And, without putting too fine a point on it, if accepted as being by Thackeray it's a book whose value is in five-figures. 

The matter is now left to academics, bibliographers, and collectors. Whatever the result, this is one of the most fascinating pieces of Thackerayiana to appear in a very long time.

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Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks. This item is not currently for sale.
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The Marquis De Sade Gripes To Mrs. Marquis De Sade & His Kids

by Stephen J. Gertz

Oh Sade, poor Sade, mamma's hung you in the closet
and I'm feeling so sad.*

A revealing eleven-page signed autograph letter written by the Marquis de Sade to his ex-wife and children is being offered by Christie's-Paris in its Importants Livres, Livres Anciens, Livres d'Artistes & Manuscrits sale November 6, 2013. Autograph manuscript and letter material by Sade is extremely scarce and this letter, with its original envelope, is estimated to sell for €30,000 - 50,000 ($41,000 - $67,000; £27,000 - £45,000).

Dated October 1, 1806 and composed while he was confined in the asylum at Charenton, Sade provides details of his fortune prior to the Revolution, upon his release from the Bastille in 1789, and in the seventeen years since. He based his calculations of the period 1790-1806 from discussions with Constance Marie- Quesnet, his mistress since 1790 and the one who took care of his post-Bastille business affairs.

He accuses his ex-wife and children of embezzlement; they had accused Mlle Quesnet of same.

"A friendly and confidential agreement held between us last Friday at Mrs. Quesnet [ ... ] resulted in little recall. [4 following lines crossed out]. I hope it makes you feel that the truth must always produce a honest soul, and embrace you, Sade." Sade is especially concerned about the state of his properties; their value seems to have decreased.

"The said picture painted for the purpose of proving that it was not degraded during the sixteen years that Ms. Quesnet has been with me since I was called out of the Bastille, until the present time, and therefore, Madame de Sade was wrong when she said, 'I find it less real now than I found it then.'"

Following calculations on his rental income and certain properties -  "Location good Arles, Coste, Mazan, Saumane, and it was on that pay family debts, charges, fees, Corporate &c . &c" - he notes that yes, his business has been mismanaged but defends Ms. Quesnet. "The charge of embezzlement under Ms. Quesnet is calumnous and unfounded."

He explains that all losses are rather due to mismanagement by the "notary Momaï." 

Sade then ratchets up his chagrin. "What happened to 27,000 [francs]? What has become of them ? O you who would like to make this issue [ ... ] dare say, are you not ashamed? Know that your father was on a list [?] by an evil family." The 'list" in question was a lettre de cachet that his mother-in-law had issued against him.

Disappointed by the behavior of his family against him, he finished the recollection:

"[?] They are all well vexers I believe that the public was instructed [ ... ] he will yet one day [ ... ] but not [ ... ] the horrible vice that we can not exist or compel the soul of the one who gave life to my children or in the souls of those who received it. Sade."

This letter appears to be fresh in the marketplace, purchased by the present owner from a Sade descendant, hence the steep estimate which may very well be exceeded.

 Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis of Sade (1740-1814), spent thirty-two years of his life incarcerated for one reason or another - mistreating prostitutes, blasphemy, etc. In 1768, he was imprisoned for holding a woman against her will and sexually abusing her; his mother-in-law had turned him in to the authorities who issued an infamous lettre de cachet which sealed his fate for many years to come. In 1772, he was sentenced to death for the non-lethal poisoning of prostitutes and sodomy with his manservant. He fled to Italy with his wife's sister and the manservant. He was caught, however, and imprisoned but escaped and took it on the lam four months later.

He hid out in his chateau Lacoste, rejoining his wife, who became his accomplice in further sexual crimes. More sexual mistreatment of servants ensued and he was forced once again to flee to Italy, returning to France in 1776 and more of the same. Arrested again in 1778, he successfully appealed his death sentence but remained in jail under the lettre de cachet that his mother-in-law had sworn out on him ten years earlier. In 1784 he was transferred to the Bastille. On July 4, 1789 he was  transferred to the asylum at Charenton. His wife divorced him.

In 1801, Napoleon ordered the arrest of the anonymous author of Justine and Juliette, Sade's novels of virtue punished and vice rewarded. He was arrested and imprisoned without trial, first at the prison of Sainte-Pélagie and then, following allegations that he had tried to seduce young fellow prisoners there, in the fortress of Bicêtre. After intervention by his family, he was declared insane in 1803 and transferred once more to the asylum at Charenton. His ex-wife and children had agreed to pay his expenses. They were, evidently, siphoning off income from his estate, which by 1796 had already sunk into distress.

It's difficult to feel any sympathy for Sade yet in this letter we hear a broken sixty-six year old man at the end of his rope if not his life, and empathy is warranted if only enough to occupy the point of a needle; it was a rope he hung himself with. His wife and children may not have been the best that a husband and father could hope for but his wife and children had a husband and father you wouldn't wish on a dog.

Life With Father it wasn't.

If only reality television shows had existed at the time: reruns of To Hell With The Sades would still be in syndication today.

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*Apologies to Arthur Kopit.

Awkward translation of letter excerpts by the author.
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Image courtesy of Christie's, with our thanks.
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Beautifully Illustrated Erotic Manuscript Brings 10 x Estimate At Christie's

By Stephen J. Gertz

Das Buch der Venus vulgivaga, (The Book of Venus Vulvigaga) an illustrated erotic manuscript from c. 1910, was the headliner at Christie's Fine Books Sale on March 21, 2012.

Estimated to sell for £800 - £1,200 ($1,269 - $1,903), it fell under the hammer for £15,000 ($23,805, incl. premium), a startling result.

Attributed to Fridericus Styrus and extensively and richly illustrated with 165 gallant and erotic drawings in pen, ink, and watercolor, the quarto manuscript, with tentative place of origin Graz, Austria, is written in black ink in a neat cursive hand on 199 pages, and bound in contemporary quarter red morocco.

The text, with a deft, delicate touch, considers various and diverse erotic themes. Women's shoes and feet are fetishized; the female netherland is discussed with variations illustrated; and a cavalcade of copulation postures populate some of the leaves.

How does an auction item wind up exceeding its estimate by over a factor of ten?

"The estimate was always ‘come and get me’ but still: the market for quality filth seems strong," Sven Becker, Associate Director and Book Specialist at Christie's, told Booktryst.

And fresh, highly attractive, artful material, new to the marketplace, will always find a comfortable home.

The Newberry Library holds a similar, shorter manuscript in its Special Collections, 4th floor, call number VAULT Wing MS 138.

Christie's was kind to provide Booktryst with multiple images from Das Buch der Venus vulgivaga but, while quite artfully executed and quite charming, a few are so charming that I've  left them out of this report. My 85 yr old mother reads Booktryst and I'd like her to make to 86 without dying from charm.

The "Omnipotent Rose," above, with its sturdy stalk, is, amongst the explicit, original illustrations within the manuscript, probably the least objectionable to those of sensitive nature; perhaps a little worse for the "where in the world, Stephen," my mother will likely make it through without incident.
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Images courtesy of Christie's, with our thanks.
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Of related interest:

The Floating World of Japanese Erotica At Christie's.

The Celebrated Stable of Erotica Writers, Part I.

The Celebrated Stable of Erotica Writers, Part II: The Perp Walk.
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Unpublished Significant Early Tennessee Williams Poem Surfaces

by Stephen J. Gertz

Between the end of May and the beginning of September 1937, Tennessee Williams, 26 years old and a student at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote a startling prose poem, one never published and completely unknown to Williams scholars.

The piece, titled The Body Awaits, a monologue spoken by a bum in a St. Louis flophouse, appears to be related to Williams' fourth apprentice play, Fugitive Kind, also written in 1937 and occurring in a flophouse. It is unclear whether the piece was working preparation for Fugitive Kind, or, alternatively, grew out of it, Williams sensing something that he wanted to develop independently from the play.

The work is eerily prescient of his sad, later years. It begins:

I am tired. I am tired of speech and action. If you should meet me upon the street and still know me in spite of my present condition I would prefer that you passed me without salutation. Your face is unknown to me now. I do not remember your name. Maybe we drank together once or shared grub in a jungle of flop-house somehwehre [sic] in a different state or different city but that was a long time ago.

And ends, in this draft:

Death is the last convenience. Perhaps it will be a truck skidding close to a corner on which I stand. Accident or on purpose? Who cares! A step or two forwards or backwards and the whole thing's done. The body awaits identification at the city morgue. Will you perform a post-mortem? In the heart of me you will find a tiny handful of dust. Take it and blow it out upon the wind. Let the wind have it and it will find its way home.

In corrected typescripts of two different versions of Williams's working drafts, the earlier is typed on both sides of a single sheet, double and single-spaced in blocks of text on the first side, with several versions of some lines; on the reverse a portion is  double-spaced, with a line by line layout.

These two drafts contain about twenty-five words in Williams's hand in pencil.

The later version is double-spaced on four pages (including two drafts of the second page), and has thirty-four words and other corrections in pencil, by Williams. It's signed in type and dated June, 1937.

Thomas A. Goldwasser, of Goldwasser Rare Books, currently offering the typescript, said,  "It is particularly interesting to see the budding playwright experimenting with voices and phrases and trying to expand his imaginative world."

Williams typescript/manuscript material is extremely difficult to acquire. "Almost all such Williams  material is held by institutions, and rarely appears for sale," Goldwasser notes.

Here we have, pre-Tennessee, Thomas Lanier Williams III, unhappy in childhood, depressed in adolescence, and only two years after a nervous breakdown, contemplating, in his mid-twenties, a void in the heart, exhaustion with life, a turning within and away from the world, and an acceptance if not welcome of death.

It ends with what would become Williams signature language, a soft, stylized tongue never heard in real life, the song of a splendid bird with broken wing who sought compassion for all the injured and sung with a voice desperately seeking lyric poetry in a brutal prose world. In the beginning he saw his end with a yearning to return to the refinement that he never knew as a child yet mourned just the same, the Never-Neverland of a tortured Peter Pan from Mississippi who sought grace in all things but experienced its subversion by gross reality.  Tennessee Williams was Blanche DuBois. In The Body Awaits, Blanche lies with her brothers, the lost, helpless souls wounded beyond salvation.

"In the heart of me you will find a tiny handful of dust. Take it and blow it out upon the wind. Let the wind have it and it will find its way home."

The body awaits delivery to where the mind has already arrived, to that supernal place where nightmares subside, dreams are never disturbed, and the kindness of strangers is no stranger.
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Image courtesy of Thomas A. Goldwasser Rare Books, with our thanks.
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Thanks For the Memory of Pope What's His Name

by Stephen J. Gertz

"You will remember the popes."

"A world-famous memory expert who has trained countless industrialists, trade unionists, businessmen, professional men, salesmen and household pets to improve their memories, once said: 'I have lost count of how many industrialists, trades unionists, businessmen, professional men, salesmen and household pets I have trained to improve their memories.'

"He went on: 'Many people are embarrassed by a poor memory, and find difficulty in concentrating on what they are saying; whilst others are embarrassed by a poor memory, and find difficulty in concentrating on what they are saying. This often causes people to repeat themselves unnecessarily, and also to say the same thing more than once. 

"...This unfortunate affliction is known technically as amnesia, or memory loss. Amnesia - sometimes known as 'memory loss', or 'loss of memory' - can happen to many people, including world-famous memory experts, industrialists, trades unionists, businessmen, professional men, salesmen, household pets and world-famous memory experts'" (Memory Problems? Forget Them!).

In other words, if you want to recall the names of each of the 256 Popes, 33 AD through 1846, you will need help. 

It has arrived.

Sometime during 1846-1850, Count Stefano Orsetti, a nobleman of Lucca, Italy, set down, in a 3000-word manuscript, Formule Mnemoniche Per La Cronologia Dei Sommi Pontefici, a fascinating series of elaborate mnemonic systems in tabular form to remember each and every one of their names and more.

The first table has a numbered list of name, year of election and mnemonic. The table seems to include memory imagery.

It has an additional table with signifying words and linking memory images, eg Fuoco: inferno/Vesuvio.

The second table lists the papal names alphabetically with an accompanying homonym eg Benedetto VIII/Beva, Clemente III/Clima and so on.

The third table covers the papal names which do not have homonyms and a phonic equivalent is given, eg, Cornelio/Corna; Costantino/Costantinopoli.

The Orsetti, "the Paladins of Marila," were a noble family,  for centuries lords of Marila, a domain in Lucca, that passed into the family in the fourteenth century. By the nineteenth century, however, the family was on the verge of extinction, the sale of the Orsetti furniture by the last Count, Stefano, our memory expert, was a major event, and pieces from the collection are now in museums and private hands.

Aficionados of the Ars Memoria will recognize memory systems developed from the ancient world through the present to enable prodigious feats of memory, to facilitate the transmission of knowledge before the spread of literacy, to spread occult knowledge, for spiritual development, and rhetorical training. Most systems, as Count Orsetti's, use imagery and association within a novel, mental filing arrangement that is meaningful to the individual.

From the Rhetorica Ad Herrenium (formerly attributed to Cicero), and Giordano Bruno’s De Umbris Idearum to Tony Buzan’s mind mapping, there is a rich body of antiquarian and modern literature devoted to the development and practice of memory skills. If you're a student of the history and lore of the memory arts why aren't you collecting them?

Harry Lorayne

Amazing feats of memory have often been associated with the occult. Magician Harry Lorayne (b.1926) integrated memory tricks into his act and, ultimately, devoted himself to memory training. His The Memory Book (1974), written in collaboration with former basketball great turned memory maestro, Jerry Lucas, aka Doctor Memory, was a New York TImes best-seller.

In The Big Broadcast of 1938 Bob Hope introduced the song, Thanks for the Memory,  as a romantic duet guaranteed to kindle the flames of passion and stimulate papal memory:

Thanks for the memory
Of Gregory the Eight,
Oh wasn't he just great?
His papal bull for Third Crusade
A smash, top-drawer, first-rate.
Oh, thank you so much.

Thanks for the memory
Of Sixtus Number Five
No bandits left alive,
Of ecclesiastical, fantastical,
The papal bank did thrive.
Oh, thank you so much.

There are apocryphal verses for the other 258 popes through Pius XI (1922-1939) to help remember each one's name and what they did. But you'll need more than a mnemonic device to recall each non-existent stanza. Beyond Orsetti's Formule Mnemoniche Per La Cronologia Dei Sommi Pontefici perhaps a non-existent self-help book is in order.

Those interested in purchasing a copy of Memory Problems? Forget Them! may use the coupon below to order.

Rissoletine Enterprises, a dubious concern of doubtful character, may be a holding company for Paladins of Marila, a division of Orsetti International, a shell corporation ashore the Canary Islands. The scions of a distinguished Luccan family may have to earn a buck, landed gentry without the land and broke. Forget I said that.

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[Orsetti, Count Stefano]. Formule Mnemoniche Per La Cronologia Dei Sommi Pontefici.  [Lucca], 184- . Octavo (195 x145mm). 120 manuscript pp (42 completed; 72 blank). Contemporary half black cloth over marbled sides. Ownership inscription of [Conte] Stefano Orsetti.
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Those interested in collecting books on mnemonics should immediately acquire a copy of Morris N. Young's Bibliography of Memory (1961) as an important first step.
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Book images courtesy of Alastor Rare Books, currently offering this unique volume, with our thanks.

Image of Harry Lorayne from Harry Lorayne’s Close-Up Card Magic (New York: Louis Tannen, 1962).

Header image from Mars.

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The First and Most Important American Political Cartoon Comes to Auction

by Stephen J. Gertz

By Benjamin Franklin
From the Pennsylvania Gazette, May 9, 1754.

On May 9, 1754, the Pennsylvania Gazette, a newspaper published by Benjamin Franklin and the most successful in the American colonies, featured a cartoon by Franklin with accompanying text  by him that rallied the American colonies to unite and defend against the French in the looming French and Indian War. It was the first time that the colonies were asked to act as one.

That issue is among the rarest pieces of all early American history, the most ephemeral of ephemera. The only known surviving copy of that issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette lies in the Library of Congress. But another copy has surfaced and will be auctioned at Heritage Auctions Historical Manuscripts Signature® Auction September 12-14, 2011 in Beverly Hills, CA. It is estimated to sell for $100,000 - $200,000. There is no reserve. The estimate may be conservative. This is major, major offering, the only copy to ever come to auction and quite possibly the last.

The cartoon, Join, or Die, would, in 1765, be republished in the September 21st issue  (its only issue) of the Constitutional Courant as a clarion-call against the Stamp Act. calling for the unification of the colonies in their struggle for justice from Great Britain. In 1774 Paul Revere altered the cartoon to fit the masthead of the Massachusetts Spy.

"This rare and historic newspaper holds the earliest publication of the first and most celebrated editorial cartoon in American history," says Sandra Palomino, director of historical manuscripts at Heritage Auctions.

In the cartoon, the snake represents the the colonies, eight individual sections labeled with abbreviations for New York, New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vermont, North Carolina and South Carolina. There was, at the time, a long-held superstition (with roots in the legend of Osiris)  that held that a snake cut to pieces would come back to life if the pieces were put together before sunset. Separate, they are inert and impotent. United, they are active,  and powerful. Delaware and Georgia were omitted, for reasons that remain unclear.

The image, redrawn, was later co-opted by each side during the American Civil War.

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Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions, with our thanks.

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Very Early Bob Dylan Song Manuscripts Surface

by Stephen J. Gertz

Little Buddy (recto).
Hertzl Camp (Webster, WI), 1957.

Two scarce and very early Bob Dylan manuscripts of song lyrics have come to market.

Little Buddy, written for his summer camp's newspaper, the Hertzl Herald, in 1957 while Dylan, aged sixteen, was attending Hertzl Camp in Webster, Wisconsin, is the story of a boy and his dog. Buddy, alas, comes to a tragic end. The manuscript is signed, "Bobby Zimmerman."

Little Buddy (verso).

Little Buddy

Broken hearted and so sad
Big blue eyes all covered with tears
Was a picture of sorrow to see

Kneeling close to the side
Of his pal and only pride
A little lad, these words he told to me

He was such a lovely doggy
And to me he was such fun
But today as we played by the way

A drunken man got mad at him
Because he barked in joy
He beat him and he's dying here today

Will you call the doctor please
And tell him if he comes right now
He'll save my precious doggy here he lay

Then he left the fluffy head
But his little dog was dead
Just a shiver and he slowly passed away

He didn't know his dog had died
So I told him as he cried
Come with me son we'll get that doctor right away

But when I returned
He had his little pal upon his knee
And the teardrops, they were blinding his big blue eyes

Your [sic] too late sir my doggy's dead
And no one can save him now
But I'll meet my precious buddy up in the sky

By a tiny narrow grave
Where the willows sadly wave
Are the words so clear you're sure to find

Little Buddy Rest In Peace
God Will Watch You Thru The Years
Cause I Told You In My Dreams That You
Were Mine

Bobby
Zimmerman

As it turns out, however, the lyrics are not Bob Dylan's. Little Buddy was a slightly revised version of a song originally written by Canadian-born country-western star, Hank Snow, and first recorded by him in 1948 for the Canadian Bluebird label. The important thing to take from this is not that Dylan plagiarized but, rather, that teen-aged Bob Dylan was listening to country music and confounding expectations long before he was officially confounding expectations. Hell, Stanard Ridgway's Don't Box Me In (1983) could be his theme song, like Bob Hope's Thanks For the Memories or Jack Benny's Love in Bloom, though I don't think anyone has ever crooned it while in the shower or  housecleaning.

This Dylan manuscript first surfaced at Christie's on June 23, 2009. Estimated to sell for $10,000 - $15,000, the hammer fell at $12,500.

Man on the Street.
[In flight somewhere over America], 1961.

An early, if not the earliest, draft of Man on the Street, one of seventeen songs recorded at Dylan's first recording session, November 20, 1961, but unreleased, and then rerecorded as a demo for his then publisher, Leeds Music, on February 2, 1962, has also come to market. That demo recording remained buried treasure until October 2010, when it was included in  The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 (The Bookleg Series Vol. 9). 

The draft was written in-flight on TWA stationary.

Man in the Street (as recorded)

I'll sing you a song, ain't very long,
'Bout an old man who never done wrong.
How he died nobody can say,
They found him dead in the street one day.

Well, the crowd, they gathered one fine morn,
At the man whose clothes 'n' shoes were torn.
There on the sidewalk he did lay,
They stopped 'n' stared 'n' walked their way.

Well, the p'liceman come and he looked around,
"Get up, old man, or I'm a-takin' you down."
He jabbed him once with his billy club
And the old man then rolled off the curb.

Well, he jabbed him again and loudly said,
"Call the wagon; this man is dead."
The wagon come, they loaded him in,
I never saw the man again.

I've sung you my song, it ain't very long,
'Bout an old man who never done wrong.
How he died no one can say,
They found him dead in the street one day.

Dylan manuscript material is now exceedingly rare and precious. Most of what was available was vacuumed up by collector George Hecksher, who, in the late 1990s, gave them to the Morgan Library as a generous gift.

When Dylan manuscript material has appeared in the past it has been acquired at dear prices: A few scraps of Dylan's student  poetry sold at Christie's, November 22, 2005, for $78,000. On June 23, 2010 the manuscript lyrics for The Times They Are a-Changin' sold at Sotheby's for $422,500.

The Times They Are a-Changin'.
Image courtesy of Sotheby's.

In contrast, these two early items of manuscript Dylaniana are bargains.  Little Buddy is being offered  for $25,000,  Man on the Street, $35,000.

Both are currently offered by Biblioctopus.

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Images courtesy of Biblioctopus, except were noted, with our thanks.
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Jewel of Welsh Manuscripts Goes Digital

By Nancy Mattoon

Image of The King From
The Laws Of Hywel Dda Manuscript.
(Images Courtesy of National Library of Wales.)

A manuscript which has been called "one of the jewels of Welsh civilization" has been digitized for the first time by the National Library of Wales. The 14th century volume, known as The Laws of Hywel Dda, is one of the earliest records of a system of native Welsh law named after King Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good) whose reign began in approximately 920 A.D. Although the code was written prior to 950 A.D., there is no surviving manuscript dating earlier than the late 13th century.

Detail Depicting The Crime of Assault,
In This Case Hair Pulling.

The copy digitized in February 2010 is particularly rare, as unlike virtually all other Welsh manuscripts of this period, it is heavily illustrated. According to manuscripts librarian Dr. Maredudd ap Huw, "The monk who transcribed the text combined secular and devotional elements to 'decorate' his work, which makes it today one of our most interesting medieval manuscripts." This copy of the The Laws of Hywel Dda is also much larger than most other law books of the period, and was probably created for a library, rather than meant to be carried in the pocket of a lawyer. It was clearly made for a scholarly client, as it is written in Latin rather than in Welsh.

Detail Of A Hunting Dog,
A Valuable Commodity.

The Welsh library has speculated that this highly unusual volume may have been commissioned as a presentation copy of the Welsh laws for a foreign dignitary. The fact that it is written in Latin hints at an ecclesiastic end-user, rather than a lawyer, and very likely a non-Welshman. Textual evidence suggests that it was probably written in an ecclesiastical center located in south-west Wales. It is known that, by the beginning of the fourteenth century, the manuscript was at Saint Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. The evidence for this comes from one of two pastedowns preserved at the end of the volume. It is also thought that this was the copy of the Welsh laws consulted by John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1279-92, when he sent his letter to Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1282, denouncing the prince's morals and those of the Welsh people, and in which he makes two references to the Laws of Hywel Dda. Peckham had been sent to Wales as a mediator by English King Edward I, but instead his conservative nature caused him to offend the Welsh ruler, and his people, by declaring them "unchaste, idle, lazy, drunkards."

Another Highly Valued Animal, The Stallion.

The illustrations contained in the volume fall into two categories: those which portray the king, officials of his household, and other human figures; and those which depict birds, animals, and property of legal value. The representation of the king seems to be based upon a higher-quality archetype than the rest of the drawings, which lack sophistication. They are probably the work of the scribe, as they appear to have been drawn in the same kind of ink as the text. Apart from the black ink, he uses two main colors, green and red. The scribe's use of green rather than the more common blue used in the mid-thirteenth century, especially for the capital letters, is probably due to the limited number of inks available in Wales at the time.

Detail Of A Decorated Letter "C".

Cyfraith Hywel, the law of Hywel, was the name by which their native law was known to the Welsh in medieval times. The law of Hywel lost its primacy after the conquest of Wales by Edward I and the passing of the Statute of Wales in 1284, but it remained an important ingredient of the law administered in Wales until the Act of Union in 1536. The extent of its use is reflected by the survival of as many as forty law books dating from between 1284 and 1536. Hywel the Good died in 949 or 950. In the latter part of his peaceful reign he ruled over a greater part of Wales than any king before him, and almost any Welsh ruler after him.

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Passport To Paradise: The Egyptian Book Of The Dead

By Nancy Mattoon

Scene From: The Book of the Dead of Hunefer.
Egypt, c. 1280 BC
(All Images Courtesy of The British Museum)

For Christians, it involves you and Saint Peter meeting at the Pearly Gates, watching a This Is Your Life-style recap of your good and bad deeds, and checking the final tally to see if you fly on up to dreamland in a private jet or take a one-way ride to perdition on the next Greyhound. For Egyptians, getting to heaven was a little trickier. The dead were reanimated in a kind of underworld purgatory, and faced a series of tests to determine their fate in the great beyond. When taking a pop quiz with such high stakes, a cheat sheet always comes in handy. So, enterprising scribes came up with Spells of Coming (or Going) Forth By Day, better known as The Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Detail From: The Greenfield Papyrus.
Egypt, c.1025 BC

The Book of the Dead, or more accurately the papyrus scroll, was the ancient equivalent of that "Don't leave home without it," credit card. According to John H. Taylor, curator of the ancient Egyptian funerary collection at The British Museum, "It is a kind of a combination of a spell, a talisman and a passport, with some travel insurance thrown in too." The British Museum has one of the most comprehensive collections of Book of the Dead manuscripts on papyrus in the world, and is opening a major exhibit of the scrolls on November 4, 2010. The show, Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, will include the first ever public display of the Greenfield Papyrus in its entirety. This manuscript, acquired by the museum in 1910, is the longest known book of the dead in the world, measuring 37 meters in length or just over 40 yards.

Detail From: The Papyrus of Nedjmet.
Egypt, c.1070 BC

The papyri were made for well-to-do customers between 1500BC and 100BC. They were churned out by scribes, and were probably prefabricated as fill-in-the blank forms with the dearly departed's name written in at the point of purchase. A typical book cost half a year's wages, so the scroll was commissioned well in advance of the buyer's demise. Bargain basement scrolls were made with ink of any color, as long as it was black. Those with a bit more disposable income could spring for a scroll with red highlights, while the scrolls of ancient Egypt's high rollers were produced in glorious technicolor. Images decorating the text were de rigueur, and words took a backseat to art. The miniatures adorning the scrolls are flawless, while the accompanying text is filled with misspellings and omissions, and is sometimes even placed beneath the wrong image.

Detail From: The Greenfield Papyrus.
Egypt, c. 1025 BC

The majority of the papyri in the British Museum's collection were acquired in the 19th century and were part of the loot diplomats, aristocrats, and scholars brought back from sojourns in the Middle East. Back in the 1800's fragile papyri were pieced together on brown backing paper, framed under glass, and shown in public under direct sunlight. That proved to be a huge mistake. "Sadly, the pigments were not as stable as we thought," says curator Taylor. "The terracotta color has faded to a pale brown and the yellows have whitened. So we now have to be very, very careful about what we show." In preparation for this new exhibition, the backing paper has been carefully peeled away using water and tweezers, and the scrolls will be shown in a controlled environment with special lighting. Because of their fragility, it is extremely rare for these manuscripts to be displayed, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view them.

Detail From: The Greenfield Papyrus.
Egypt, c. 1025 BC

Besides the Greenfield papyrus, which is done in black and red ink, also on display will be images from two of the full color scrolls in the museum's collection, the Papyri of Ani and Hunefer. These include iconic images of the trials the ancient Egyptians faced on their journey through the underworld. Many of these works will look familiar, as they are frequently reproduced in contemporary books.

The Weighing Of The Heart By Anubis.
From: The Papyrus Ani,
Egypt, c. 1275 BC

One of the most famous scenes is the weighing of the heart. Here the departed is led to scales watched over by Anubis, and his heart is weighed against a feather. A wicked heart will outweigh the feather, and be eaten by the monstrous devourer, Ammit. A pure heart balances the scales perfectly, and allows the deceased to continue his journey. The optimal outcome of the journey was to reunite with one's dead ancestors in paradise. "The family unit was crucial," explains Taylor. "You cared for your dead family because they were still there, on the other side. They could communicate with you and had power over you. So people wrote letters to the dead asking things like, 'Why are you still punishing me?'" (Some things never change...)

The Weighing Of The Heart By Anubis.
From: The Greenfield Papyrus
Egypt, c.1025 BC

Taylor says research has shown that not all Egyptians believed in the power of The Book of the Dead. Some ancient skeptics saw this religious insurance policy as nothing more than a crass scam to make a fast buck. Some believed the scribes pandered to the superstitious by refusing to depict any bad fortune befalling the deceased. No unpleasant events are ever recorded in the scrolls, for fear merely writing them down might make them come to pass. And each scroll included a final spell potent enough to get any dead man past the Egyptian version of the TSA full body scan. This ultimate "get-out-of-jail-free card" concealed all of the traveller's sins from the gods by making him invisible. But skepticism lost out to prudence in the long run. For 4,000 years The Book of the Dead remained the cornerstone of the Egyptian religion. The vast majority of the ancients thought it was better to shell out six month's pay and be safe, rather than risking a hellish eternity being sorry.

Scene From: The Papyrus Of Nakht.
Egypt, c1350-1300 BC

The exhibition, Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, will continue through March 6, 2011 at the British Museum in London.
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Lost, Unpublished Dr. Seuss Manuscript Surfaces

by Stephen J. Gertz

Over forty years ago, Theodore S. Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, began work on a book. Per usual, he had assistants working with him, one of whom managed the project. For reasons noted below, he put the manuscript aside. Then, in 1983, he reconsidered it when his former employee sent it to him for a long-lost look.

It consists of nineteen handwritten and drawn pages, the first seven of which are completely in the hand of Dr. Seuss. The remaining pages are mostly written by an assistant with corrections and doodles by Dr. Seuss, some taped on. 

The text, written in Seussian prose, reads, in part:

"All Sorts of Sports. Shall I play checkers? golf? croquet? There are so many games there are to play. I could. / maybe.. / shall I.. There are so many many sorts. So many sorts of games + sports. What am I going to do today? There are so many games to play! I guess I won't. I'm all tired out. 100 GAMES & sports you can play. You can play checkers. You can play chess. Baseball. Football. Volleyball. Basketball. You can ski on snow. You can ski on water. And tiddle-de-winks. What am I going to do today. Well, that's a simple matter. Oh, that's easy. We could play. There are so many sports games to play. We could swim. I could play baseball...golf..or catch. Or I could play a tennis match. There are so many sports, let's see... I could bowl, jump hurdles, or water ski. I could blumf. Or blumf blumf blumf blumf blumf. Or blumf. Or blumf blumf blumf blumf blumf." 

On Geisel's letterhead.

The last page, marked page "6-7" by Dr. Seuss seems to be where the assistant took over, though Seuss adds corrections and doodles, as previously mentioned, some taped on.

The manuscript is accompanied by a Dr. Seuss TLs (typed letter, signed), autographed "Ted," regarding this unfinished book on Cat in the Hat Beginner Books letterhead dated July 11, 1983.

"Re your enclosed manuscript, I do indeed remember it. And my critique now is as same as then. What, in my opinion, is wrong with this story is that...despite the greatness of Pete as a stellar athlete hero...the negative image of him flubbing and unable to catch any ball at all will make him a schnook.

"This is not entirely apparent in the text, but when you picture these negative scenes in illustrations, you will find that negatives are always more memorable than positives. And I think the reader's reaction will be, 'What's the matter with this dope?' I may be wrong of course...so why not send it to Harper and Row who do very good brat books and several times have made best sellers out of properties that I've rejected."

In short, a schnook in a book is not a great hook.

The advice to submit the book to Harper and Row is somewhat sarcastic; after the success of The Cat in the Hat Random House set up Seuss with his own imprint, Beginner Books. in partnership with Random House publisher Bennett Cerf's wife, Phyllis Fraser Cerf, and Geisel's wife, Helen. Harper and Row slavishly tried  to goose the Seuss juice for their specially created imprint devoted to "brat books."

Readers of this letter may experience a bit of confusion over who actually wrote this manuscript. I called Nate D. Sanders Auctions - who is offering the manuscript - for clarification. Mr. Sanders replied:

"I obtained this from one of Seuss' past employees who was a writers assistant.  She was given the task of managing this  book  project.  The first few pages of  the manuscript  are entirely in Seuss's hand.  Later, the assistant took over.   When Seuss refers to the manuscript as the assistant's, he is referring to the fact that it was her project and that it was indeed hers not his and she took possession of it, not him."

This is an eye-popping find, a Seuss book in its earliest stage, rough Seuss draft, an abandoned project not only never before seen on the market but never before seen or heard of, period. 

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Images courtesy of Nate D. Sanders Auctions.
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