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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Celebrating Ronald Searle's Wicked World of Book Collecting

by Stephen J. Gertz

Ronald Searle was a great friend of rare books and the collecting world. We mourn his passing this week at age 91. 

The following originally appeared on Booktryst, October 26, 2010 in appreciation of the 21st birthday of his hilarious visual satire on trade terminology for describing a book's condition. The captions are his.

"Ever since as a child I lurked, lingered and slobbered in anticipation over the sixpenny book boxes of the Cambridge booksellers, I have never ceased to rummage wherever more than two books are brought together…

"As for catalogues: whenever I managed to beg, take, or even pinch one on my rounds, my weekend was made. I would spent it alone in my room, lost to the world over items of such unspeakable exoticism that if an armful of delights from the most perfumed local harem had been offered to this pimply teenager on a golden dish, they would barely have received a third glance…

"Thus the rot set in.

"Ten thousand bookshops and twenty thousand catalogues later, I lick my wounds, while all around me almost a half a kilometer of books now groan from lack of space" (Ronald Searle, Introduction to Slightly Foxed - but still desirable).

SEARLE, Ronald. Slightly Foxed -  But Still Desirable:
Ronald Searle's Wicked World of Book Collecting.
London: Souvenir Press, (September)1989.
First edition.

Happy belated 21st birthday to Slightly Foxed - but still desirable, cartoonist and illustrator Ronald Searle's satire on book collecting, specifically the condition terminology typically seen and understood by the Illuminati but Esperanto to those outside the trade or hobby; it looks like English, it reads like English, but it might as well be Martian.

A little dog-eared but otherwise acceptable copy.

Illustrated throughout with sixty-one full-page color drawings, it remains as fresh, charming, and delightfully irreverent as when originally published. In celebration of its coming of age, Booktryst presents a selection of its caricatures with the original captions.

A little thumbed, otherwise attractive copy.

A nice, bright set.

Cracked but holding.

Evidence of some insect damage.

Early manuscript notes.

Generally a little loose.

Leather labels and intricate decoration.

Lovingly thumbed by former owner.

Name on fly.

Slight splitting of paste-down.

Stitching a little loose.

Tail-edge shaved.

Somewhat spotted, but otherwise desirable.

Some worming of the epoch.

Some light surface abrasion.

Copies of the trade edition are currently selling for around $100. Copies of the signed limited edition  in fine condition, however, will set you back $1000.

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SEARLE, Ronald. Slightly Foxed - but still desirable. Ronald Searle's Wicked World of Book Collecting. London: Souvenir Press Ltd., 1989. Signed and limited edition of 150 copies. Quarto. 124 pp. Sixty-one color drawings. Blue leather. Spine lettered in gilt.

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Images courtesy of Ikahime at Flickr.
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Attack of the Kewpies, With Hankies

by Stephen J. Gertz

First edition of the first Kewpie book.

A simply miraculous copy of The Kewpies, Their Book (1913), the volume by Rose O'Neill (1874-1944) that introduced the precious characters to a wider world beyond that of the ladies magazine  audience that initially embraced them, has come to market.

In outstanding condition in the publisher's scarce original box, the book is enhanced by the presence of a set of three Kewpies handkerchiefs, rare in and of themselves and exceeding scarce in as-new condition, as here.

 

Rose O'Neill was one of the first, if not the first, American authors to exploit her creation to establish a strong, evergreen brand through licensing the Kewpie name and image to manufacturers. A merchandising phenomenon was born. Postcards, the stitched handkerchiefs seen here, cast-iron dime banks, jewelry, talcum powder dispensers, lamp bases - you name it - were among the many Kewpie-branded products that were available to fans young and old. By the 1920s the artist had licensed Kewpie dolls to be manufactured in Germany. The Kewpies endorsed products, too, amongst which was Hendler's Ice Cream of Baltimore, MD. Rose O'Neill was a shrewd businesswoman as well as a writer.

For the Kewpie cognoscenti, the Kewpiesta, an international convention of all things Kewpie,  is a part of Branson, Missouri's annual Ozark Mountain Spring celebration; the Ozarks were Rose O'Neill's retreat. Despite competition from  The Three Redneck Tenors  the Kewpiesta thrives.

The Three Redneck Tenors, or latter-day Kewpies meet the obesity epidemic.

The handkerchiefs included with the book are quite scarce; to have survived as new is a miracle. You know that children immediately used them for whatever purpose necessary until they were ultimately drafted into service as rags, if not soon delicately picked-up with thumb and index fingers, pinky extended, by Mom, who arms-length dropped them into the garbage can as if hazardous waste to become Kewpie hankies in landfill.

One hundred years after its introduction the Kewpie brand lives on. If no longer  a presence in   mainstream American popular culture, it remains so elsewhere in the world. As such, it enters a highly unusual corner of literary history.

Japan's favorite mayo.

The Kewpies, Their Book appears to be the first book to become a sandwich spread. It's Japan's favorite mayonnaise, The Kewpies, Their Mayo. It's a condiment so cute you'll gag. Napkin-handkerchiefs, alas, not included. Why Kewpies in Kyoto? Because Kewpies are Western forerunners of post-WWII Japanese  anime and manga, and fit perfectly into Japanese kawaii pop-culture where overpoweringly adorable cuteness is a highly valued aesthetic.

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O'NEILL, Rose. The Kewpies, Their Book. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, (1913). First edition of the first Kewpies book. Quarto. Tan pictorial cloth, stamped in dark brown and with an onlaid color pictorial paper cover label. Accompanied with three Kewpie handkerchiefs, silk-screened with color images of the Kewpies and their friends. Housed in the original pictorial publisher's box.

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Kewpies book images courtesy of The Literary Lion, currently offering this volume, with our thanks.

Image of The Three Redneck Tenors courtesy of TTRT.

Image of Japan's Kewpie mayonnaise courtesy of Come From China. Go figure.

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Mom Turns Tot Into Bookworm

by Stephen J. Gertz

“I felt like I was brain-dead when I was pregnant, but then
after giving birth my creativity just exploded for a while,”
said mom Adele Enersen.

When Adele Enerson, a 33-year old new mother from Helsinki Finland, noticed that her newborn daughter, Mila, slept like a bear in hibernation, she had a brainstorm. Using ad hoc props from around the house, she created stage-set tableaus, carefully placed Mila within them, and let her camera fly.

Mila in a forest. Mila as an astronaut in outer space. Mila as a butterfly. Hanging on a clothesline. Surfing. It goes on.

She created a blog for the pics, Mila's Daydreams. Two weeks later, she had one million visitors. Soon afterward, she had a book deal. Yesterday, January 3, 2012, her book, When My Baby Dreams, was released.

View a slide show of her work from MSNBC here (scroll down upon arrival).

Though she cannot yet talk, feed herself, or walk, Mila is currently reading Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Her book report is due in fifteen years. No excuses accepted.

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Thank you to MSNBC for the lead.

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An Illustrious Anonymous Author Unmasked

by Stephen J. Gertz

Preview

Anonymous is a perennially busy writer, with a list of books that could span the Equator with enough left over to tie a  sash knot with long tassels. Anonymous writers toil, of course, in anonymity, a sere environment sorely lacking in amity; it's a lonely place. Some authors prefer to write anonymously to protect their reputation in another genre of literature, or because their subject matter is too delicate to risk open attribution.

At this point you may be asking yourself, How can an author be illustrious and anonymous at the same time? I hadn't a clue, so I asked the Rare Book Guy (the Carnac the Magnificent of rare bookmen, Shell's Answer Man to the antiquarian book set), for insight. He held the question, inside an envelope formerly secured within a mayonnaise jar, to his forehead and, after communing with the occult, revealed the answer:

"In a sea of anonymity how can one anonymous author be distinguished from another anonymous author? By gilding the anonymous lily! After all, there's Anonymous and then there's ANONYMOUS. Thus, Anonymous becomes 'Illustrious Anonymous,' 'Best-Selling Anonymous,' 'Critically Acclaimed Anonymous,' etc. That way, the potential reader knows that this Anonymous ain't just another Anonymous from the neighborhood, and the publisher can sleep soundly knowing that sleight-of-hand  will tempt the gullible; Anonymous as sales ploy."

All well and good, RBG, but what about an author so obscure, so beyond recognition that when they look in the mirror even they don't know who they are? Why should a publisher risk money on a complete unknown when Anonymous has such a great track record? Pamela was anonymously published in its first edition of 1740 (dated 1741) and it did wonders for Samuel Richardson's career.

And so I imagine that, faced with Dark Masquerade - a potboiler about a "prominent criminal attorney, well versed in the art of fixing juries," who falls for a debutante that "daring young news photographer" Jimmy Cronin also has eyes for but when Butch and Larry McCabe, fraternal gangsters and disgruntled clients of our prominent criminal attorney, threaten the love triangle, and "an avalanche of masterfully portrayed incidents including a jail-break and the appearance of a mysterious nun on an ocean voyage" ensues - the editor and publisher of New York's Green Circle Books had to make an important decision.

(Your attention has likely been arrested by the sudden appearance of a seafaring nun of mystery and intrigue, and, presumably, a great set of sea-legs. Angel of Death or Angie Dickinson in bride of Christ drag? Or, a character out of Pirandello who accidentally walked into this plot in search of an author named Anonymous but, because the author  was anonymous and not in the phone book, she tramped the earth and sailed the seas an eternal vagabond).

Editor: It's a smash but for a story like this "by Mrs. H. H. Harris and Edward Doherty" doesn't grab. Too polite.

Publisher: Tell me about it. Who are they? Sound like high society yokels to me. "Mrs. H.H. Harris and Mr. Edward Doherty Are Pleased To Announce the Publication of Their New Novel. Tea and Scones Will Be Served Afterward at the Waldorf." I'm thinking pseudonym.

Editor: Whad'ya have in mind?

Publisher: Something punchy, urban, sharp, gritty. "Brick Wall." "Lance Boil." "Duke Street." "Dick Gunn." "Cotton Gin." No, forget "Cotton Gin." Too rural for this caper.

Editor: How 'bout, "Anonymous." 

Publisher: It's been done. 

Editor: I've got it. "Illustrious Anonymous!" 

Publisher: Hmmm. Mystery, prestige, strange oxymoron. It's magic! Could be Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Dreiser, the man in the moon! This is why I pay you the big bucks.

And so Mrs. H.H. Harris and Edward Doherty became the "Illustrious Anonymous Author" of Dark Masquerade.

Half of "Illustrious Anonymous Author" actually was somewhat illustrious.

Edward "Eddie" J.  Doherty (1890-1975) was a journalist ("The Star Reporter of America"), novelist (The Broadway Murders: A Night Club Mystery, NY: New York Crime Club/Doubleday, 1929),  and Hollywood writer best known for his screenplay, The Sullivans, which was nominated for 1944's Best Original Story Oscar™Academy Award. A Catholic, he became an ordained priest at age seventy-eight. It is unknown whether a mysterious nun on an ocean voyage was his muse.

Eddie Doherty.

My guess is that he - "a competitive professional, passionate lover, cosmopolitan traveller, enjoyer of the good things in life [who] left the Church in fury and pain but returned later in tears of joy" (Madonna House blurb for his autobiography) - was the pro that helped amateur Mrs. H.H. Harris write Dark Masquerade.

Virginia Stallard Harris was the wife of successful Fifth Avenue perfumer and Broadway investor, Herbert H. Harris (1898-1949), whose main claim to theater fame was that Arthur Miller's All My Sons (1947) was "Produced in Association With Herbert H. Harris," i.e. he was the play's financial angel. Dark Masquerade was, apparently, Mrs. Harris' one and only writing credit; I've found no records for her under her name or in variations. She is, however, to the best of my research, the only writer in the English language to ever be formally credited as "An Illustrious Anonymous Author," and so enters literary history as an illustrious anonymous footnote.

• • •

Apologies to the scions of Mrs. H.H. Harris, and Edward Doherty for ripping the veil of anonymity off their illustriously anonymous ancestors. It was a job no one cared about and didn't need to be done. As such, I'm a sap, gulled by the publisher's baloney. It's another bent feather in Booktryst's cap, in cahoots with the U.S. Catalog of Copyright Entries.

A few more words on Eddie Doherty, a very interesting character.

According to his New York Times obit (May 5, 1975), which described him as  "the star reporter straight out of the raffish, fast-talking 'Front Page' set that thrived on scandal...a chronicler of the Jazz Age," the Chicago Mirror declared him "America's Highest Paid Reporter." He earned his reputation as "an ace general assignment reporter" with his coverage of  Hollywood's Wallace Reid and Fatty Arbuckle scandals for the Chicago Tribune. He later moved to New York to join the staff of Liberty magazine. It is during this period that he likely collaborated with Mrs. Harris.  I suspect that Mr. Harris may have invested in his wife's ambition by hiring Doherty for the project.

The Times obit quotes one of his former editors: "'When he's good, he's very, very good. When he's bad, he's lousy.'"

He had studied for the priesthood but the death of his first wife in the flu epidemic of 1918 estranged him from the Church and God. He became a reporter. He ran wild. When his second wife died, c. 1939, he returned to the Roman Catholic faith.

At the time he became a Catholic priest he was married. He was ordained in Israel as a member of the Melkites, a Byzantine order (not tied to the Eastern Church) that recognizes the Pope in Rome as its sovereign but allows married men into the priesthood.

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[HARRIS, Mrs. H.H. and Edward Doherty]. An Illustrious Anonymous Author. Dark Masquerade. New York: Green Circle Books, 1936. First (only) edition. Octavo. 312 pages. Cloth, with dust jacket.

I've found little about Green Circle Books beyond that it was, apparently, an imprint of  former Macaulay executive and New York publisher, Lee Furman, who filed the copyright for Dark Masquerade on August 11, 1936. OCLC notes records for titles published by Green Circle 1936-1937, at which point it seems that the imprint dropped off Earth.

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Dark Masquerade image courtesy of ReadInk, currently offering this volume, with our thanks. Image of Eddie Doherty courtesy of Madonna House.

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Rocky and Bullwinkle's Rare Book Adventure

by Stephen J. Gertz

Bullwinkle: Hi-Ho culture fans! Today we journey into the fascinating world of rare books and book collecting.

Rocky: But Bullwinkle, you don't know anything about rare books.

Bullwinkle: Of course not. They're rare.

Rocky: So, how do you find them?

Bullwinkle: Watch me pull a rare book out of my hat.

Rocky: Not again...

Bullwinkle: Whoops, wrong hat.

Rocky: Or an angry first edition of Born Free.

Rocky: Why don't we go to a library to learn about rare books?

Bullwinkle: An excellent idea. Let's visit the library of a respected institution of higher learning.

Bullwinkle: Wossamotta U.

Rocky: I'm okay. But I'm worried about the cameraman.

Deep within the stacks of the Special Collections department of Frostbite Falls Library at Wossamotta U., Rocky and Bullwinkle consult with Lee Greenman, Library Director.

Rocky: Gee, Bullwinkle, Leonard da Vinci's Codex Leicester. I thought Bill Gates bought it in 1994 for $30,800,000. How did it get here?

Inside the fallout shelter beneath the rare book shop within the strip mall off the main drag of Hellhole Palms, California, the principals of Badenov Books ("If They're Badenov That's Good Enough For You") and their financial angel conspire.

Boris: Excellent news, Fearless Leader! We are now members of the ABAA.

Fearless Leader: The Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America? You fool! They're trustworthy,  ethical, and know what they're talking about.

Natasha: No, Fearless Leader, the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of Albania.

  
Fearless Leader: Excellent! Finally, partnership with a fraternal trade organization of  evil Balkan no-goodniks with close ties to the very top of government by mafia. Our plan to conquer the rare book world is nearly complete! Did you get the check from Wossamotta U. for the Codex Leicester?

Boris: Yes, Fearless Leader, paid in full.

Fearless Leader: Excellent!

Boris: $3,800.

  
Fearless Leader: You idiot! How did you manage to sell a $30,800,000 book for $3,800?

Boris: Easily?

Natasha: It is my fault, Fearless Leader.

Fearless Leader: What is your excuse?

Natasha: Trade discount.

Fearless Leader: Let me understand this, Fatale. We offered the book for $30,800,000 and you sold it to Lee Greenman at Wossamotta U. Library for $3,800. That's some discount.

Natasha: He was worth it.

Meanwhile, Bill Gates, wishing to keep the whole caper on the QT, has sent a secret agent to Frostbite Falls to crack the case, with orders to be discreet.

Dudley Do-Right: Come out! Come out! Come out, little Codex, wherever you are!

Rocky: Gee, Bullwinkle, should we tell him where it is?

Bullwinkle: That will only make it more difficult for him.

Rocky: Why are you lying down on the tracks?

Bullwinkle: I'm tracking down the Codex Leicester.

Rocky: But we already know where it is.

Bullwinkle: I thought this was the obligatory scene.

 Rocky: No, that's the "wrong hat" bit.

Nearby, in a cheap room at the El Pollo Loco Lodge, Frostbite Falls' fast-food motel Mexicano con carne, Boris and Natasha plan the next step in their dastardly scheme to rule the world of rare books.

Natasha: Boris, how will we get Lee Greenman to pay the $30,796,200 difference?

Boris: What's this "we" stuff?

Natasha: You don't mean...?

Boris: Try not to enjoy it.

Later that evening....

Natasha: My, what a large-paper edition you have, Master Lee. I pray the first issue won't be its last. How much do we owe you?

The next morning, our heroes brokered a deal between Bill Gates and Greenman, who, innocent  of  all wrongdoing had turned lily-white, for the return the Codex Leicester. Gates reimbursed Frostbite Falls Library at Wossamotta U. the $3,800 it spent for the book and put a little smooge in Rocky and Bullwinkle's pockets, or wherever our boys stash change for parking meters.

And so Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose saved the rare book world.

Rocky: Golly, Bullwinkle, collecting rare books is really fun and interesting.

Bullwinkle: It sure is, Rock. I've decided to become a book collector, myself.

Rocky: What kind of books will you collect?

Bullwinkle: The works of M.F.K. Fisher.

Rocky: What's your favorite Fisher book?

Bullwinkle: The Compleat Angler.

• • •

Mr. Peabody: Thus ends another chapter of Octave Uzanne's Annales littéraires des Bibliophiles Estimés, Moose et Squirrel. What did you learn, Sherman?

 

Sherman: That outside of a dog a book is a man's best friend?

Mr. Peabody: No, that outside of a man a book is a dog's best friend.

Sherman: What about inside?

Mr. Peabody: Down, boy; don't beg the punchline. Now, go do your homework.

Sherman: Okay, Mr. Peabody. Want me to show it to you when I'm finished?

Mr. Peabody: Please. I'm famished.

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Apologies, admiration, and respect to Jay Ward and Bill Scott, creator and writer of Rocky and Bullwinkle, an American animated childrens cartoon television show (1959-1964), that presumed kids were smart enough to "get" what was clearly aimed to adults, and for many youngsters, this writer included, was a formative source that fostered a love of language and its possibilities as a playground for tongue and quill.

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For the Groucho-impaired, "Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."
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