December 2020: Books Received as Gifts

As we approached the holiday season and its various gift giving traditions, Books Received as Gifts served as the topic for the December 2020 meeting.  One thing most book collectors seem to have in common, no matter how large their library, is a keen awareness of where, when and how they acquired each book and any significance that acquisition story may hold.  Gifted books hold special memories because of the importance of the occasion, the giver, the book itself, or, in many cases, all three. 

The order of this sampling of gifted books is chronological of the date of publication and is not an indication of the significance of the gift.  Each is special to the collector, which is why the collector selected it for this topic.

 

Title page of the 1611 King James Bible

Authorized Version.  The Holy Bible. Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: Newly Translated out of the Originall Tongues: and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised, by his Majesties Speciall Commandement. Appointed to Be Read in Churches.  London: Robert Barker, 1611.  The editio princeps of the King James Bible, commonly known as the “Authorized Version.”  This is a complete copy, with all the points of the first issue of the first edition.  It is known as the "Great 'He' Bible” because of the rendering of Ruth 3:15 (the later folio editions were known as "Great 'She' Bibles" because of the pronoun change in the text).  This translation of the Bible, completed and printed in 1611, has been called the most influential book in English history and theology, and the "noblest monument of English literature."

First page of the Gospel of Matthew and map insert

The collector recalls: “In 1970 I was entering graduate school, playing the organ for two congregations every Sunday, teaching organ under a Graduate Teaching Assistantship, and working in the Music Library.  The library received a number of catalogs from booksellers, but most of them went directly into the trash, where I salvaged them for my own interest.  One such catalog came from the Leamington Book Shop, which was owned by Sidney Hamer.  There were several very nice early English Bibles listed, and I was so impressed with Mr. Hamer's descriptions and historical notes that I took the time to write him a note introducing myself and my early interest in English Bibles.  He responded in a few days, telling me that he was a professional musician and that his wife taught organ at the local college.  He also enclosed a copy of the "Old Version" of the English Psalms printed in 1620.  We became close friends over the next few years, and he became my mentor in book collecting.  Not only did he teach me so much, but also made many purchases available to me which I could not have afforded at the time.  He died in the mid-70s, and his own collection of Bibles was scheduled for auction in 1976 at Swann Auction Galleries in New York.  His most memorable gift to me was the bequest of his fine copy of the 1611 first printing of the King James Bible, a copy of which I could never have acquired on my own.  It remains 45 years later as the cornerstone of my collection of English Bibles.”

Coat of arms of James I of England, present on a preliminary leaf of
some, but not all, copies of the first printing of the King James Bible.

1639 King James Bible

Authorized Version.  The Holy Bible Containing the Old Testament and the New.  London: Robert Barker, 1639.  An early printing of the King James Version of the Bible, by Robert Barker, a printer to James I of England.  In a contemporary, likely original, binding with a morocco leather label added later.  The Bible is bound in suede, not leather, which is unusual for bindings of the period.  The spine is sun-faded with the napped fibers having fallen off; the front and rear covers retain most of the suede finish.

Title pages of the 1639 King James Bible (left) and New Testament (right)

The collector recalls: “The Bible was a gift from a friend and fellow collector.  When he gave it to me, he quipped, ‘I don’t need it. I already have a first edition!’”  [See 1611 copy above!]

Moby-Dick

Melville, Herman.  Moby-Dick; or, The Whale.  New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851.  First American Edition in the original cloth binding.  In very solid, clean condition with no marks or foxing on the pages throughout the book; copies of this book normally have foxing.

Title page of Moby-Dick

The collector recalls: “My greatest book gift.  In 1978 my Dad purchased this copy of Moby-Dick from a rare book dealer in New England for $850 and said, ‘Don't tell your Mom.’  For 20 years we kept that secret between us, and he would pull the book out now and then so we could admire it.  Fast forward to Christmas 1998, when he gave the book to me.  I was overwhelmed to be the proud owner of a first edition Moby-Dick.  Dad unfortunately passed away the following year before Christmas.  So, I have kept and treasured the book now for over another 20 years and watched in amazement as the value has climbed to over $40,000.  The moral of this little story is to always buy and hold the very best items you can afford.  First importance, that which gives you great joy and pleasure and second, maybe, just maybe, great appreciation to boot.”

Ultima Thule, signed by Longfellow

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth.  Ultima Thule.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1880.  First American edition.  A collection of poems, sonnets, and folk songs on a variety of subjects and life experiences.  The title for the volume, Ultima Thule, comes from the title of one of Longfellow’s poems contained therein.  Thule, in ancient Greek and Roman literature was the farthest north known location.  Ultima Thule, in Latin, is “final Thule” and came to represent the farthest of far places; it has become a symbol in literature of immense remoteness not only geographically but also emotionally.  This copy is signed and dated on a tipped in sheet to the front free end paper.  The book was a holiday gift from a fellow collector.

Horton Hears a Who!

Dr. Seuss. [Theodor Seuss Geisel]  Horton Hears a Who!  New York: Random House, 1954.  Early printing of the first edition, with dust jacket points differing from the first printing.  This book is the second appearance of Horton the Elephant, following Horton Hatches the Egg.  Geisel wrote Horton Hears a Who! in 1953 following a visit to Japan.  Geisel harbored strong ani-Japanese sentiments during World War II, but his views changed dramatically during his visit when he saw how the Japanese people honored each other in their interactions.  He saw how they valued each person as being important, a theme he expressed in Horton Hears a Who! as “a person is a person, no matter how small.”  The book was a holiday gift from a fellow collector.

May We Borrow Your Husband?

Greene, Graham.  May We Borrow Your Husband? And Other Comedies of the Sexual Life.  London: The Bodley Head, 1967.  First edition.  A collection of twelve short stories written in 1966 in Greene’s two-room apartment over the port of Antibes during a time he describes as “a single mood of sad hilarity.”  In his memoir Ways of Escape, Greene concludes that his short stories all contain humor because they were written as a form of escape; the stories in this collection were “an escape in humor from the thought of death.”  The book was a gift from the collector’s now-spouse for their first Christmas together, four months after they met (28 years ago).

The New York Review Quiz Book, signed by Edward Gorey

New York Review of Books.  The New York Review Quiz Book.  New York: Crown Publishers, 1986.  Illustrated by Edward Gorey.  First edition, only printing.  The book contains quizzes, word puzzles, and trivia about literature, compiled by the editors of the New York Review of Books.  Gorey illustrates the cover and the chapter titles.  The book is a desirable collectible by both bibliophiles and Gorey fans.  This copy is signed by Edward Gorey on the title page, in his usual manner of striking through his printed name and signing below.  A last-minute substitution for another Gorey book with a less certain gift history, this book was a thank you gift from a fellow collector.

 

November 2020: Bibliomystery, Bibliofiction, and Bibliononfiction

Book collectors and bibliophiles tend to enjoy books about books, and not just bibliographies.  Nonfiction books about books may also include booksellers’ memoirs, collectors’ acquisition adventures, or librarians’ funny or cringe-worthy encounters, for example; bibliononfiction covers a spectrum of books about books.  Bibliofiction might encompass even more genres.  If a story takes place in a bookshop or a library, it likely counts.  If the central character is a bookseller, librarian, book collector, or even a publisher or editor, the story is likely bibliofiction.  And if a purloined manuscript or a rare first edition is a MacGuffin—an object, device, or event which serves as a trigger for the plot—then the story is definitely bibliofiction.  These stories, more often than not, tend to be mysteries; writers seem to enjoy making readers squirm when a book is stolen or a manuscript is believed to be destroyed in a fire.  Bibliomysteries range from gumshoe whodunits to decades- or centuries-old origin stories.

With all these options for bibliomystery, bibliofiction, and bibliononfiction—terms not found in any dictionary but perfectly recognizable by bibliophiles (which is in the dictionary)—they were a fun subject for the November 2020 meeting.

 

Bibliomystery

Ex-Libris

King, Ross.  Ex-Libris.  New York: Walker & Company, 2001.  Best known for his historical fiction, King takes the reader back to the turmoil of Seventeenth Century Europe, when an English bookseller is hired to track down a rare, missing manuscript in order to restore a great library disassembled during the war.  The story is told in two parallel narratives: the bookseller’s quest in the late 1600’s to recover the manuscript, and the destruction of Prague earlier in the century when books were taken from the library of a castle in an effort to preserve them.  The story traverses both time and geography as it weaves together the bookseller’s present and the manuscript’s past, and as it moves throughout Europe from Prague to London.  This copy is a first edition, signed and dated in the year of publication on the title page.

The Bookman's Promise

Dunning, John.  The Bookman’s Promise: A Cliff Janeway Novel.  New York: Scribner, 2004.  The third of the Cliff Janeway series, The Bookman’s Promise finds Janeway, a retired detective turned bookseller, the center of attention after he purchases a rare first edition of a book by the explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton.  The publicity from the sale at auction attracts an elder woman who claims the book was part of a collection scammed from her family by an unprincipled bookseller.  The old woman recounts her family’s connection to Burton and the book, going back to the pre-Civil War United States, where Burton and her grandfather explored the southern US.  Janeway promises the woman, now on her deathbed, he will find the rest of the family collection, missing now for eighty years.  This copy is a first edition, signed by the author on the title page.

 

The Bookman's Tale and First Impressions

Lovett, Charlie.  The Bookman’s Tale.  New York: Viking, 2013.  While reading up on Shakespeare forgeries, an antiquarian bookseller discovers a Victoria watercolor of a woman bearing an uncanny resemblance to his recently deceased wife.  His obsession with the portrait leads him on a search for the origin of the picture.  The clues lead him all the way back to Shakespeare’s time and information which may reveal the true identity of the Bard himself.

Lovett, Charlie.  First Impressions.  New York: Viking, 2014.  While working at a rare books shop in London, a Jane Austen enthusiast becomes intrigued when two customers in quick succession seek the same rare edition of a book.  Her curiosity leads her to the life of the author of the book and his connection to Jane Austen; and what she learns could ruin the reputation of her favorite writer.

 

Magpie Murders

Horowitz, Anthony.  Magpie Murders.  New York: Harper, 2017.  Editor Susan Ryland curls up with a glass of wine to read the latest manuscript of her bestselling author Alan Conway.  She gets engrossed in Conway’s detective Atticus Pünd mystery—which the reader gets to read along with her—only to discover it is incomplete.  When she is unable to contact Conway, she goes to his house to retrieve the remaining chapters only to discover Conway’s dead body.  Conway’s death is suspicious, and Ryland must solve the mystery of his murder in order to locate the missing ending of Conway’s manuscript.  Ryland must become her own detective and solve a murder so that the fictional detective Atticus Pünd can do the same.

 

Bibliofiction

Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop

Morley, Christopher.  Parnassus on Wheels.  New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1955.  Illustrated by Douglas Gorsline.  First published in 1917.  Morley’s first novel follows a travelling bookstore-wagon, the Parnassus on Wheels.  The Parnassus, named after Mount Parnassus, the home of the Muses in Greek mythology, is pulled by a horse named Pegasus and owned by bookseller Roger Mifflin.  In his travels, Mifflin meets brother and sister Andrew and Helen.  Helen buys the travelling bookstore not only to treat herself to what she believes to be an adventure but also to prevent her novice author brother from buying it first.

Morley, Christopher.  The Haunted Bookshop.  New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1955.  Illustrated by Douglas Gorsline.  First published in 1919.  Bookstore proprietor Roger Mifflin returns, now owning The Haunted Bookshop, a brick-and-mortar bookstore where strange—though not supernatural—events begin to take place, such as the disappearance and reappearance of a copy of Thomas Carlyle’s Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell.  Aubrey Gilbert, an acquaintance, becomes suspicious of Mifflin and the unusual events taking place in and near the bookstore.  Gilbert confronts Mifflin and the two men become convinced that someone else is behind the increasingly dangerous happenings and, together, they uncover an espionage ring and assassination plot against President Woodrow Wilson.  The story is full of allusions and references to well-known authors at the time—including Emerson, Thoreau, Shaw, Chesterton, Barrie, Conrad, Keats, and Dickinson—and their works.  Humorously, among the many book titles named by Morley in The Haunted Bookshop is his own Parnassus on Wheels.

The Forgers and The Forger's Daughter

Morrow, Bradford.  The Forgers.  New York: Mysterious Press, 2014.  Will, a literary forger, finds himself in an uncomfortable position following the death of a rare book collector who happens to be the brother of his girlfriend, Meghan.  After the police are unable to identify a suspect and the case goes cold, Will begins receiving mysterious and threatening letters written in the hand of deceased famous authors and containing information about the book collector’s death.  Fearing for their lives, Will and Meghan set out to make a new life for themselves, but can they escape the letter writer?  This copy is a signed limited edition of only 86 copies, signed by the author on the limitation page.

Morrow, Bradford.  The Forger’s Daughter.  New York: Mysterious Press, 2020.  Set twenty years after The Forger, Will, a now-reformed ex-forger, and his wife, Meghan, find themselves in trouble when Will is threatened and forced back into the dark world of literary forgery.  A former nemesis and fellow forger coerces Will into creating a forgery of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tamerlane, the rarest book in American literature.  To create the flawless forgery, Will must enlist the help of his oldest daughter, a talented artist.

The Forgers, signed limited edition

Autoboyography

Lauren, Christina.  Autoboyography.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017.  Christina Lauren is the pen name for the writing duo Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings.  Autoboyography is a story told in first-person narration by Tanner, a high school senior who takes a writing seminar in which the sole assignment is to write a full novel by the end of the semester.  The instructor brings in Sebastian, a former student whose own seminar novel from the previous year is now being published, as a mentor.  The relationship between Tanner and Sebastian grows beyond the classroom to the romantic, while Tanner is unable to put pen to paper and begin his novel.  He ultimately writes a thinly disguised story about his relationship with Sebastian, but as the semester draws to a close decides he would rather fail the course than turn in the book because it would out Sebastian and harm his debut book tour.  He gives a copy to Sebastian, however, who in turn hands in the assignment on his behalf.  Christina Lauren breaks the first-person narrative in the final chapters to reveal the story the reader has been reading thus far is, in fact, Tanner’s seminar novel, and to conclude the boys’ post-seminar story.

 

Bibliononfiction

Dukedom Large Enough

Randall, David A.  Dukedom Large Enough: Reminiscences of a Rare Book Dealer, 1929-1956.  New York: Random House, 1969.  As a book collector, bookseller, and librarian, Randall spent most of his life surrounded by books.  From 1935 to 1956, he was the head of Scribner’s rare book department.  He then became the Lilly Librarian at Indiana University when Josiah Lilly donated his collection to the university.  Randall also served as a professor of Bibliography at the university.  In Dukedom Large Enough, Randall reflects mostly on his time at Scribner’s rare book department, chronicling some of the fantastic material which passed through his hands, including the re-discovery and sale of the Schuckburgh copy of the Gutenberg Bible.

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Israel, Lee.  Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.  In this unapologetic memoir, Israel tells how she went from a published biographer to a forger of letters by literary giants such as Dorothy Parker, Noel Coward, and Lillian Hellman.  She describes how she “plummeted from best-sellerdom to welfare,” where she found herself selling a letter from a well-known author for much-needed cash.  The bookseller buying the letter commented that she would have paid more if the content of the letter had been better.  This prompted Israel to begin forging letters with humorous, scandalous, or consequential content.  Booksellers around the country soon grew suspicious of the Israel letters, and she was arrested by the FBI.  Israel does not defend her actions, but she does defend the quality of her forgeries, claiming they were the best writing she ever created.

Sample forged letters by Lee Israel

Somewhere between Bibliofiction and Bibliononfiction… and Bibliomystery?

Party: A Literary Nightmare

Lambeck, Frederick.  Party: A Literary Nightmare.  Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1936.  “This volume has been printed and bound at the Country Life Press, Garden City, New York, especially for the New York Times National Book Fair, Rockefeller Center, November, 1936.”

Party copyright and first page of story

The book opens with the narrator—presumably, Frederick Lambeck—recalling a dream in which he is invited to a party hosted by Doubleday Doran in conjunction with the 1936 New York Times National Book Fair.  The narrator attends the party and describes the guests and the goings on of the event, dropping the names of 262 authors within the 37-page short story.  During the party, the publisher’s colophon is stolen—it’s a dream so this doesn’t have to make sense—and the guests panic and then begin to whisper at who they suspect the culprit may be.  The story ends abruptly as the narrator awakens.

First pages of Doubleday Doran catalogue

The short story is immediately followed by a list of the “authors mentioned at the party and their books.”  The list is Doubleday Doran’s complete 1936 catalogue of books in print.  The volume—the short story and the catalogue—is a hardback bound book which was distributed from the Doubleday Doran booth to attendees of the 1936 New York Times National Book Fair.  The pastedown label on the front of the book is an invitation to a party, hosted by Doubleday Doran, at the Country Life Press in Garden City, Long Island, New York.  The invitation serves not only as a graphic for Lambeck’s name-dropping short story but also as an actual invitation to a real party hosted by the publisher.  It begs the question: how many attendees of the New York Times National Book Fair received the catalogue, figured it out, and attended the Doubleday Doran party?

October 2020: Books by Incarcerated and Institutionalized Authors

The October 2020 meeting showcased books by incarcerated, imprisoned, and institutionalized authors.  For some writers, their incarceration had nothing to do with their writing.  Some, however, were imprisoned for their writing, while others drew writing inspiration from their time behind bars.  Some wrote while they were incarcerated, while others penned memoirs after their release.  Persons who spent time confined to mental institutions were also included in this topic.

The authors whose works were presented included several famous and prolific writers; and, several members brought different titles by the same author.  Books by other not-so-famous writers of both fiction and nonfiction, including memoirs of their time of confinement, were also discussed.  In terms of being famous—or, in this case, infamous—Jack the Ripper appeared in our meeting.  If a prevailing theory as to the identity of Jack the Ripper is correct, then the man behind the murders printed a book shortly before his disappearance.  The subject matter makes the book all the more fascinating.  Jack’s rare book leads off our selections of books by incarcerated, imprisoned, and institutionalized authors.

 

Jack the Ripper [b. 1841]

The Patristic Gospels

D’Onston, Roslyn.  The Patristic Gospels: An English Version of the Holy Gospels as They Existed in the Second Century.  London: Grant Richards, 1904.  Roslyn D’Onston was the pen name for Robert Donston Stephenson (b. 1841), a military surgeon employed by the British government and living in the Whitechapel area of London in the 1880s. He was also a strong occult follower, though he developed an interest in the early versions of the Gospels in English and had his own translation, The Patristic Gospels, printed in a very limited edition in 1904. The last person ever to see Stephenson was the printer who personally delivered a copy of his book as soon as it came off the press.

Stephenson shared a home with Vittoria Cremers, who became more and more uncomfortable with their relationship over the years, becoming convinced that there was something evil about him. Around the year 1888 he contracted a venereal disease from a prostitute which caused him to be dismissed from his government position, and he combined his occult character with his rage and took out his revenge on five local prostitutes. Though he was arrested twice for the murders, he was never convicted.

In his book Jack the Ripper’s Black Magic Rituals (2002), Ivor Edwards presents substantial evidence that the killer was in truth Robert Donston Stephenson. The strongest evidence was the fact that the women had been virtually dissected by someone with remarkable surgical skills. After Stephenson had vanished in 1904, Cremers was cleaning out his room and found a chamber in the back of his closet where there were five scarves hidden which years before had become soaked in blood. The thought was that Stephenson wore the scarves when he committed the murders so that his shirts would not be ruined or bear evidence to his crimes.

Cover and title page of The Patristic Gospels

Since his Gospel translation was never published, copies of the original edition are exceedingly rare, but it has been reprinted in facsimile in recent years. This is a scarce copy of the 1904 first and only printing.

Jack the Ripper's Black Magic Rituals makes the case
for Robert Donston Stephenson being Jack the Ripper

Sir Thomas Malory [b. 1415]

Le Morte D'Authur in two volumes

Malory, Sir Thomas.  Le Morte D’Arthur.  2 vols.  Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1983.  Illustrated by Robert Gibbings.  Edition based on the Limited Editions Society edition of 1955.

Malory’s identity is not fully confirmed, but he was often referred to as a “knight’s prisoner” to distinguish him from other persons named Thomas Malory during the Fifteenth Century.  The designation may refer to a criminal career or his prisoner-of-war status during the War of the Roses, in which he supported both sides at different times.  Accused of many, mostly politically motivated crimes, Malory ended up serving a year in prison. He was pardoned upon the accession of Edward IV, but later changed his allegiance and plotted against Edward IV for which he was again imprisoned.  Unique in English history, so far as is known, he was excluded by name from two general pardons during the War of the Roses, in July 1468 and February 1470.

Oscar Wilde [b. 1854]

The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Wilde, Oscar.  The Ballad of Reading Gaol.  North Pomfret, Vermont: Trafalgar Square Publishing, 1998.  Illustrated by Garrick Palmer.

Oscar Wilde was charged with two counts of “homosexual offenses”—sodomy and gross indecency—in 1895.  He was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to the maximum of two years’ hard labor.  Wilde served time at three different prisons before being transferred to Reading Gaol in November 1895.  In 1896, a convicted murderer, Charles Thomas Woolridge, was transferred to Reading for execution; it was the first execution at Reading in eighteen years.  Wilde was serving time at Reading during the execution.  Upon Wilde’s release from hard labor, he moved to Paris where he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol, which narrates the execution of Woolridge.

Salome cover and title page signed by the illustrator

Wilde, Oscar.  Salome: A Tragedy in One Act.  Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2011.  Illustrated by Barry Moser.  This copy is signed by the illustrator.

The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray

Wilde, Oscar.  The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray.  Edited by Nicholas Frankel.  Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011.  The Picture of Dorian Gray was first published in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in the July 1890 issue.  Without Wilde’s knowledge, the story was heavily edited with a section of more than 500 words removed, fearing the story was indecent as originally submitted.  When it was first published in book form the following year, some of the deleted content was restored, but some material was still edited to tone down the homosexual content.  One hundred twenty years later, The Picture of Dorian Gray finally appeared for the first time in its full, unexpurgated version as originally written by Wilde; the previously unpublished material from Wilde’s typescript was authorized for publication by The Estate of Oscar Wilde.

Anton Boisen [b. 1876]

The Exploration of the Inner World, inscribed first edition

Boisen, Anton.  The Exploration of the Inner World.  Chicago: Willett, Clark & Company, 1936.  Anton Boisen was a pastor and hospital chaplain who was a pioneering figure in clinical pastoral education, an experience-learning-reflection model for educating ministers and chaplains in the art of pastoral care.  The foundations for Boisen’s reflective model of pastoral education were laid out in The Exploration of the Inner World, first published in 1936.  Boisen’s reflections were borne out of his own experience of mental illness, having committed himself to a mental hospital on several occasions following breakdowns after tragic moments in his professional and personal life, such as the death of his mother and the cancer diagnosis of the love of his life, Alice Batchelder.  Batchelder died in 1935, after which Boisen checked himself into the hospital.  Boisen completed and published the book the following year, dedicating it:

TO THE MEMORY OF A. L. B.

For her sake I undertook this adventure out of which this book has grown.  Her compassion upon a wretch in direst need, her wisdom and courage and unswerving fidelity have made possible the measure of success which may have been achieved. To her I dedicate it in the name of the Love which would surmount every barrier, and bridge every chasm and make sure the foundations of the universe.

The Exploration of the Inner World, inscribed association copy

A copy of the reprint edition of The Exploration of the Inner World: A Study of Mental Disorder and Religious Experience, published by Harper Torchbooks in 1962, is an association copy, inscribed by the author to Charles and Margaret Batchelder, the parents of Alice Batchelder.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn [b. 1918]

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander.  One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Translated by Ralph Parker.  New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1963.  First English language edition.  Solzhenitsyn, who served in the Red Army during World War II, was imprisoned by Josef Stain’s regime for criticizing Stalin in a private letter.  He was sentenced to eight years in a labor camp and then internally exiled in Russia.  Published in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was the only work Solzhenitsyn was allowed to publish in the Soviet Union.  The book's publication was an extraordinary event in Soviet literary history, since never before had an account of Stalinist repression been openly distributed.

 

Hayden Carruth [b. 1921]

The Bloomingdale Papers

Carruth, Hayden.  The Bloomingdale Papers.  Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1975.  Carruth was a poet and literary critic, publishing more than thirty books of poetry, four books of criticism, and one novel.  He was a leading figure in American poetry and received numerous poetry prizes and awards, including the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Carl Sandburg Award.  Carruth was institutionalized in 1953 for fifteen months at the Bloomingdale Psychiatric Institute in White Plains, New York, where he was treated for alcoholism, phobias, and anxieties.  He wrote The Bloomingdale Papers, a long poetic sequence which chronicled his days in the asylum.  The manuscript was thought to be lost until a friend, Albert Christ-Janer, found it in the 1970s.  Christ-Janer, an artist, designed the dust jacket for the book.  This copy is a hardback edition in the Christ-Janer dust jacket.  Hardback copies are scarce, as the paperback edition was released the same year.

Martin Luther King, Jr.  [b. 1929]

Why We Can't Wait

King, Martin Luther, Jr.  Why We Can’t Wait.  New York: Harper & Row, 1964.  The book chronicles the 1963 Birmingham Campaign and makes the argument that 1963 is the landmark year of the nonviolent civil rights movement against racial segregation in the United States.  Why We Can’t Wait contains the first appearance in book form of King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

On April 12, 1963, King—along with Ralph David Abernathy, Frederick Lee Shuttlesworth, and other marchers—was arrested and detained in the Birmingham jail for violating a blanket injunction against “parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing.”  That same day, a Birmingham newspaper published an open letter, “A Call for Unity,” penned by eight white Alabama clergy, which denounced King—unnamed but thinly veiled as the “outsider”—and his methods.  Using the margins of the newspaper and other scraps of paper supplied by a friendly black trusty, King penned his own open letter in response.  In the letter, King argues that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to engage in direct action now rather than waiting for justice to come eventually through legal actions in the courts.  The newspaper and scraps of writing were taken out of the jail by King’s lawyers; they were taken to the movement headquarters where others—like putting together a jigsaw puzzle—arranged the scraps of King’s writings into a coherent letter.  Though some excerpts were published in May 1963 without King’s consent, the full letter was first published as “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in June 1963 in the select magazines: Liberation, The Christian Century, and The New Leader.  The Letter then formed the basis for Why We Can’t Wait, published in July 1964.

 

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

King, Martin Luther, Jr.  The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.  Edited by Clayborne Carson.  New York: Warner Books, 1998.  The posthumously published book is a collection of King’s autobiographical writings arranged chronologically to tell his life story, as Coretta Scott King described it, in his own words.  It includes “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and situates the letter within a transformational year in King’s life: 1963, after the Albany Movement and the Birmingham Campaign, and before the March on Washington.  This presentation copy of The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. contains a gift inscription from Coretta Scott King to her friend John Cox.  Cox was a community organizer who helped Mrs. King form the Historic District Development Corporation to preserve the King family home, and who served as one of the founding board members of the King Center.

September 2020: Outdoor Living

Maybe it was the feeling of being cooped up for the last six months because of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Maybe it was the eager anticipation of the seasonal weather change.  Either way, someone suggested Outdoor Living as the topic for the September 2020 meeting.  Members showed both fiction and nonfiction books about a variety of aspects of outdoor living, ranging from recreational outdoor activities to living outdoors as a cultural lifestyle.  Highlights included works by a wildlife advocate and early influencer of the Scouting movement, and a culmination of fieldwork to study and document the customs, habits, and ways of life numerous tribes of Native Americans.

North American Indians

Catlin, George.  North American Indians.  Philadelphia: Leary, Stuart and Company, 1913.  Two volumes in original illustrated publisher's cloth binding with gilt decorations.  320 color plates in the two volumes.  Maps.  Originally published in 1844.  North American Indians is based on Catlin's travels among the Native Americans of North America where he lived with them and painted scenes from their daily lives.  He wanted to preserve their way of life and history before he knew they would forever be impacted by the westward expansion of the United States.  This is a very attractive set in great condition.

Title page and plate from North American Indians

Plates from North American Indians

Wild Animals at Home

Seton, Ernest Thompson.  Wild Animals at Home.  Garden City: Doubleday Page & Co., 1917.  First issued in 1913.  Seton was the Founder of Woodcraft Indians which became the Woodcraft League of America.  He knew and worked with Robert Baden-Powell, the founder and first Chief Scout of the worldwide Scout Movement.  Seton was a founding member of the Boy Scouts of America and its first Chief Scout.  His book The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians was the basis for Powell’s scouting guide, Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction and Good Citizenship.  Seton was a lifelong illustrator of wildlife, using his own drawings to illustrate his books Wild Animals at Home and Wild Animals I Have Known, among others.  Born in the UK, he died in New Mexico in 1946.  His daughter was novelist Anya Seton.

Robinson Crusoe

Defoe, Daniel.  The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner, as Related by Himself.  New York: McLoughlin Bros., c. 1920.  416 pages.  Illustrated with 120 plates (several Sepia) and black-and-white drawings by Walter Paget.  First published in 1719, originally titled, The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner… Written by Himself, the story was credited to its protagonist, Robinson Crusoe, as its author, leading many readers to believe it was an account of true incidents.  Stories of real-life castaways were frequent and popular in Defoe’s time, supporting the initial reception and popularity of Robinson Crusoe.

Robinson Crusoe illustrations by Walter Paget

Wilderness Challenge

National Geographic Society.  Wilderness Challenge.  Washington, DC: The National Geographic Society, 1980.  From the Books for World Explorers series.  Wilderness Challenge highlights locations and opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and kayaking and canoeing.  It features wilderness adventures such as climbing in the Rocky Mountains, kayaking New England rivers, horseback riding in the Canadian Rockies, learning wilderness skills in Hawaii, canoeing the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, winter camping in Minnesota, backpacking the Yellowstone Trail, and whitewater rafting the Grand Canyon.  All books in the Books for World Explorers series were written for pre-teen readers and included an activities and game booklet and a two-sided poster and game board.  This copy includes the booklet and poster.

Activity book and poster accompanying Wilderness Challenge

August 2020: Viruses and Pandemics

The topic for August 2020 was Viruses and Pandemics.  The topic was inspired by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the corresponding Covid-19 pandemic, but was selected in March before any shelter-in-place orders and restrictions on public gatherings (which has prevented the group from meeting at its usual location since April).  In the group’s first online meeting since the Covid pandemic began, works of fiction and nonfiction were presented, offering insight, criticism, and parallels to past pandemics.

Fiction

The Decameron

Boccaccio, Giovanni.  The Decameron.  Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1980.  Collector’s edition, bound in full leather.  Boccaccio completed The Decameron in 1353, following the Black Plague epidemic in Italy in 1348.  The book is structured as a frame story in which ten characters—seven young women and three young men—flee plague-ridden Florence for a secluded villa in the countryside.  During their ten-day isolation, each person tells a story every day related to a topic chosen by one of the characters.  The one hundred stories of The Decameron include tales of wit, tragedy, and the erotic.  In addition to the frame story, Boccaccio’s “Induction of the Author” (introduction) is considered an important medical piece as he describes the beginning of the illness/plague upon the citizens of his city.  Sixty percent of the population of Florence and its countryside died in the 1348 plague.  The Decameron was first published in English in 1886.

First appearance of "The Masque of the Red Death"

Poe, Edgar Allan.  “The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy.” Graham's Magazine Vol. 20 (May 1842).  Six issues of Graham’s Magazine, January through June 1842, bound together.  In the May 1842 number, the first printing of "The Masque of the Red Death" appeared.  This is a famous Poe short story about a horrific pandemic that was devastating the country.  A Poe scholar, M. C. Mabbott, wrote, "This masterpiece is unsurpassed, perhaps unequaled, among Poe's very short stories."  The most apocalyptic of Poe's tales, the story ends, "And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable domination over all". 

In its first appearance in 1842, Poe titled the story “The Mask of the Red Death: A Fantasy.”  Poe revised the story in 1845, published in the Broadway Journal, retitled as the now-standard “The Masque of the Red Death.”   While its first appearance in Graham’s Magazine was not illustrated, later publications in book form have generated iconic images of “The Masque of the Red Death,” including Harry Clarke’s 1919 engraving (shown here).

A Poe-related aside...

This collector, over more than 40 years, has assembled an important Edgar Allan Poe book collection (over 500 books) which includes many first editions from the 1830's and 1840's.  He has also assembled a large collection of signed American astronaut books from the 1960's through the present focusing on the first 45 American astronauts.  These two collections did not have much in common until one day he came across and was able to buy a letter linking the two. 

Letters to and from Neil Armstrong regarding Eldorado

An original letter from June 30, 1969, signed by Neil Armstrong on National Aeronautics and Space Administration letter head addressed to a Mr. Pearson.  Also included is a copy of a letter from Mr. Pearson to Neil Armstrong suggesting a name for the site of the first moon landing.  The suggestion was "Eldorado" from an Edgar Allan Poe poem.  Wisely NASA selected another name, the Sea of Tranquility.  Eldorado was a mythical, unattainable city of gold or ideal that many men spent their lives trying to find only to die trying.  This was not what NASA or Neil Armstrong had in mind.  Nevertheless, the letter is an important link between the collector's two main book collections.  Original signed Neil Armstrong letters are now extremely pricey especially with additional provenience material to support the authenticity.

Letter of Provenance and copy of Poe's Eldorado

Now back to viruses and pandemics...

Facing It

Reed, Paul.  Facing It.  San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1984.  Facing It is regarded as the first novel about HIV/AIDS.  In 1984, Armistead Maupin published Babycakes, the fourth books in his Tales of the City series, in which a character has AIDS; but Reed’s Facing It was the first novel focused solely on AIDS.  In the story, the main character’s health fails, and he is diagnosed with the new immune deficiency syndrome beginning to spread throughout the country.  Reed’s story follows the protagonist’s struggle to understand his illness and reconcile the conflicts it presents.  This copy is signed by the author on the title page.

 

Flight from Neveryon

Delany, Samuel R.  Flight from Neveryon.  New York: Bantam Books, 1985.  Delany’s fantasy Neveryon trilogy is considered the first work of fiction published by a major publisher to address HIV/AIDS.  The third tale of the Neveryon trilogy, “The Tale of Plagues and Carnivals” tells what happens when the virus attacks the fantasy land of Neveryon.  The purpose of a government, the author asserts, is to protect its citizens.  In Neveryon, the incompetence and apathy of the government fail to protect its people from a devastating infectious disease.  “The Tale of Plagues and Carnivals” is a not-so-veiled critique of New York City’s response to HIV/AIDS early in the pandemic and Mayor Ed Koch’s lackluster leadership during this time.

Medical Note to "The Tale of Plagues and Carnivals"

The story is followed by a Medical Note by the publisher.  The Medical Note conveys an overview of the medical knowledge of HIV/AIDS at the time and information on prevention.  The three-page note concludes with contact information for Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York and the number for the AIDS Hotline.  A publisher’s Medical Note such as this is rare, if not unprecedented, in literature.

 

Safestud

Exander, Max.  [Paul Reed]  Safestud: The Safesex Chronicles of Max Exander.  Boston: Alyson Publications, Inc., 1985.  Max Exander is a pseudonym for writer Paul Reed, under which he published erotic fiction.  As a gay writer living through and writing about the emergence of the AIDS pandemic, Reed saw an opportunity to use fiction as a means of educating readers on safer sex practices and helping to normalize the use of condoms and safer sex techniques.  Safestud was Reed’s first erotic fiction to prioritize safe sex in the encounters of his protagonist, Max Exander.  Reed therefore creates a new genre in literature—safe sex erotica—in this seminal work.  Safestud was the first of three novels in the Safesex Chronicles of Max Exander series.

Nonfiction

Epidemics of the Middle Ages

Hecker, Justus Friedrich Carl.  Epidemics of the Middle Ages.  London: Trubner & Co., 1859.  First translated from the German in 1846.  Second edition.  Bound in half leather with marbled boards. 360 pages.  In Epidemics of the Middle Ages, Hecker offers three treatises on different epidemics occurring in the Middle Ages: The Black Death (1346 to 1353); The Dancing Mania (various social outbreaks between the 14th and 17th centuries); and, The Sweating Sickness (five visitations between 1485 and 1551).  Hecker's work is of great importance to both the history of medicine and folklore.

 

And the Band Played On

Shilts, Randy.  And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic.  New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987.  An investigative journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle, Shilts wrote extensively about medical, social, and political aspects of the emerging disease affecting gay men, which came to be known as AIDS.  In And The Band Played On, Shilts set out to chronicle the discovery and spread of HIV/AIDS, with a well-documented critique of the incompetence and indifference on the part of government officials and elected leaders and the apathy toward those infected with, and affected by, the disease.  Shilts later explained the title of the book, And the Band Played On, as a more colorful way of saying “business as usual.”  The title conveys Shilts’s critique of how people responded to HIV/AIDS with an “ordinary pace to an extraordinary situation.”