September 2021: The Roman Empire

The Roman Empire ruled the September 2021 meeting.  Covering large spans of both geography and time, the topic provided an opportunity to show a wide range of books, from classic texts to modern retellings.  From ancient Rome to medieval Britain to Reformation France, the books presented emphasized the influence of the Roman Empire and its continued impact following its decline.  Members offered works of mythology, theology, and history.  The books are arranged here in categories of primary texts, reference and nonfiction, and historical fiction and modern retellings.

Primary Texts

Ashen Sky

Gilman, Benedicte.  Ashen Sky: The Letters of Pliny the Younger on the Eruption of Vesuvius.  Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2007.  Illustrated by Barry Moser.  Gilman translates the two letters written by Pliny the Younger (61 – c. 113 CE), a lawyer and magistrate of Rome, to Cornelius Tacitus (c. 56 – c. 120 CE), a historian and politician, about the death of his uncle, Pliny the Elder (c. 23 – 79 CE), a philosopher and provincial governor, and about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.  Gilman also introduces the letters and provides information about the volcanic eruption, biographical sketches of the writer, recipient, and subject of the letters, and the history of the letters' survival.  Moser illustrates Pliny's descriptions in the letters with black-and-white relief engravings.

The City of God

Augustine, 354-430.  The City of God.  Translated by Marcus Dods.  New York: The Modern Library (Random House), 1977.  Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430 CE) wrote The City of God in response to allegations that Christianity was responsible for the decline and fall of Rome.  Theodosius I, emperor from 379 to 395 CE, issued the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 CE, which established Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire.  Thirty years later, in 410 CE, the sack of Rome by the Visigoths resulted in a backlash against Christianity by many Romans, who saw the city's fall as a punishment for abandoning the traditional Roman religion, paganism, in favor of the Catholicism of the Nicene Christians.  Augustine wrote The City of God arguing that Christianity was not responsible for the sack of Rome; instead, Christianity was responsible for the success of Rome.  It was written not only in response to the criticism of the pagans but also to console Christians during this stressful time.  Augustine claimed the book's message was primarily spiritual, not political, despite the context in which it was written.  He contended even if the earthy Empire was imperiled, the City of God would ultimately prevail; he asserted his focus was on the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, rather than the earthly politics of Rome. 

Written in Latin, Augustine completed De civitate Dei contra paganos (On the city of God against the pagans) in 426 CE, sixteen years after the sack of Rome.  The book was first translated into English by John Healey in 1610.  It was again translated by Marcus Dods (1834 – 1909), a biblical scholar and minister of the Free Church of Scotland, and first published in 1871; Dods credited George Wilson and J. J. Smith with translating some sections of the book.  Dod's translation was first republished by The Modern Library with a new introduction by Thomas Merton in 1950.  This copy is a reset issue of the 1950 edition, issued May 12, 1977. 

The History of the Kings of Britain

Geoffrey of Monmouth.  The History of the Kings of Britain.  London: Folio Society, 1984.  A pseudohistorical account of British history, Geoffrey's work chronicles the kings of the Britons over roughly two thousand years.  The work was widely popular and considered historically accurate well into the 17th Century.  Though its historical accuracy has been discounted, the work retains significance as medieval literature.  Written around 1136 and originally titled Historia regum Britanniae in Latin, the book contains the early known version of the King Lear story as well as early Arthurian legend.  Book Four of The History of the Kings of Britain covers the Roman rule of Britain beginning with the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar and ending with the death of Constantine.  While some of the events described by Geoffrey are corroborated by contemporary histories, many more accounts are outrageously inaccurate.

Douay-Rheims Roman Catholic version of the Bible, in
3 volumes: Old Testament, books 1 and 2; New Testament

Martin, Gregory.  The New Testament of Jesus Christ, Translated Faithfully into English out of the Authentical Latin.  Rhemes: John Fogny, 1582.  Roman Catholic Version, or Douay–Rheims Bible.  New Testament.

Martin, Gregory.  The Holie Bible, Faithfully Translated into English out of the Authentical Latin.  Doway: Laurence Kellam, 1609.  Roman Catholic Version, or Douay–Rheims Bible.  Old Testament, Volume One: Genesis through Job.

Martin, Gregory.  The Second Tome of the Holie Bible, Faithfully Translated into English out of the Authentical Latin.  Doway: Laurence Kellam, 1610.  Roman Catholic Version, or Douay–Rheims Bible.  Old Testament: Volume Two: Psalms through Malachi.

Title pages of the Douay-Rheims Roman Catholic version of the Bible

One of the most important and enduring actions by the Protestants at the beginning of the Reformation era was to translate the Bible into the language of the people so that they could read and interpret it for themselves.  The Roman Catholic Church for centuries had recognized the Latin Bible only as the true Word of God and left it to the clergy to interpret it to the people who were not able to read it for themselves.  When the Protestant reign of Queen Elizabeth was restored after the Roman Catholic tenure of "Bloody" Mary, a number of English Catholic leaders immigrated to France and established a seminary in the city of Rheims to educate their ministers to restore the Catholic Church in England after the Reformation antics were over.  

Amazingly, the Catholic leaders in Rheims received permission from the Pope to prepare a translation of the Latin Bible into English.  One of their professors, Gregory Martin, was authorized to do the translation, and the New Testament was completed in 1582, though the Old Testament was not published until 1609-10 after the seminary had moved to the city of Douai.

The Roman Catholic version never achieved the popular endorsement of the people.  The Catholics had been taught for centuries that the Latin Bible was the only true Scripture and would not consider an English translation, and the Protestants found amusement in many of the unusual renderings, once referring to it as "a translation in need of translation."  Consider this verse from the popular 23rd Psalm: "Thou hast fatted my head with oil, and my chalice inebriating, how goodly is it!"  

Psalm 23 (22 in the Roman Catholic version)

As in the Protestant Bible with its anti-Catholic annotations, the Rheims/Douai version was equally anti-Protestant: "One cannot serve God and mammon, Christ and Calvin, the true church and heretical conventicles."  Later editions made improvements over these first printings, especially the revision by Richard Challoner, but the Roman Catholic version never achieved the recognition and respect which the Protestant versions, particularly the Authorized "King James" Bible, enjoyed.

Reference and Nonfiction

Rome and The Roman Empire

Fowler, W. Warde.  Rome.  Second edition, revised by Martin Percival Charlesworth.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952.  Reprint.  Volume 42 of The Home University Library of Modern Knowledge.  Fowler offers an overview of the development and growth of the Roman Empire.  The majority of the work focuses on the Republic, the period in which Rome was led by a representative government; minor attention is given to the Principate, when the republic was transformed into an emperor-run government.  First published by Fowler in 1912, a second edition was revised by Charlesworth in 1947 for the Home University Library series.

Charlesworth, Martin Percival.  The Roman Empire.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1954.  Volume 219 of The Home University Library of Modern Knowledge.  Charlesworth describes the everyday life of Roman citizens in the first three centuries of the Empire, covering the reigns of Augustus through Constantine (27 BCE – 337 CE).  He depicts the living and work conditions, prevailing thoughts, and benefits and protections afforded by Roman citizenship.  Charlesworth argues life in imperial Rome was generally peaceful and stable during the first two centuries, but this standard of living waned in the third century, following the reign of Caracalla (198 – 217 CE).

The Home University Library of Modern Knowledge was a series of popular non-fiction books that ran to over 200 volumes. The first volume was published in 1911.  The series was bought out by Oxford University Press in 1928 and continued under that name until 1966.

Roman Britain

Richmond, Ian.  Roman Britain.  London: William Collins, 1947.  From the Britain in Pictures series (#113 of 126 titles), published from 1941 to 1948.  Richmond was an archaeologist and Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire at the University of Oxford.  He also held simultaneous posts at the British School at Rome, the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, and the Society of Antiquaries of London.  Using antiquities and artifacts excavated at archaeological sites in Britain, Roman Britain provides a history of Britain in the Roman period, focusing on the period 55 BCE to 449 CE.  Richmond's history is complemented by 8 color plates and 22 black-and white images, illustrations, and maps.  Richmond expanded this popular essay into a much larger book of the same title in 1955.

The Britain in Pictures series was published from 1941 to 1948, consisting of 126 printed titles (out of 132 intended books).  The purpose of the series was to tell a social history of Britain to instill a sense of pride in its citizens during and after World War II.  Seeking to maintain a sense of national identity, the series sought to celebrate Britain's contributions to the arts, sciences, industry, and culture.  Michael Carney, a bibliographer of the series, called it "the best kind of propaganda."  Many of the books were written by popular authors of the time including George Orwell, Cecil Beaton, Edith Sitwell, Graham Greene, John Betjeman, Vita Sackville-West, and Elizabeth Bowen.

Historical Fiction and Modern Retellings

I, Claudius

Graves, Robert.  I, Claudius.  New York: Random House, 1961.  Book Club edition.  First published in 1934, this historical novel is written in the form of an autobiography of the fourth Roman emperor, who ruled from 41 to 54 CE.  The novel tells the history of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, which consisted of the first five emperors of Rome: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero.  While a work of fiction, Graves draws from historical accounts of contemporaneous Roman historians Suetonius and Tacitus.  I, Claudius was followed by a sequel, Claudius the God, in 1935.  I, Claudius won the 1934 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.

The Dark Island

Treece, Henry.  The Dark Island.  New York: Random House, 1952.  First edition.  "A distinguished historical novel of the dawn of Britain," The Dark Island is part of the author's Celtic Tetralogy.  The story is set in first century Britain and situated in the time of Caratacus (c. 10 – c. 50 CE), a British chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe, who resisted the Roman conquest of Britain.  Treece's fictional story follows the context of the defeat of Caratacus by the Romans after the invasion.  Treece portrays Celtic Britain as a dark and violent world before the "civilizing" influence of Rome; the Romans, however, are not the heroes, as the theme of this story is the notion of holding on to ideals in the face of overwhelming forces.

Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes

Riordan, Rick.  Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes.  New York: Hyperion Publishing, 2015.  Illustrated by John Rocco.  Dubbed the "storyteller of the gods," Rick Riordan refreshingly retells the myths and legends of the ancient Greek gods and heroes.  Told in the voice of Percy Jackson, the author's modern fictional character and narrator, ancient Greek mythology is reimagined in the modern world.  The Greek gods, for example, live atop the Empire State Building but humans cannot see the additional floors.  Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes retells the legends of the Greek heroes Perseus, Psyche, Phaethon, Otrera, Daedalus, Theseus, Atalanta, Bellerophon, Cyrene, Orpheus, Hercules, and Jason.  This title is a companion to Percy Jackson's Greek Gods (2014), which similarly retells the myths of Zeus, Hestia, Demeter, Persephone, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Hephaestus, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, and Dionysus.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Ultimate Guide

Knight, Mary-Jane.  Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Ultimate Guide.  New York: Hyperion Publishing, 2009.  With trading cards (9 cards).  The Ultimate Guide is a novelty companion book to Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.  The handbook is a fully illustrated guide to the gods, heroes, and monsters of the Percy Jackson universe of Greek mythology.  The manual-style book features a flap enclosure with a magnetic clasp containing trading cards, diagrams, and maps.

The Ultimate Guide trading cards

August 2021: Temperance and Prohibition

Temperance and Prohibition served as the topic for the August 2021 meeting.  Members presented books both related to the Temperance Movement and written about or during Prohibition.  A driving force behind the Temperance Movement was a conservative Christian ideology devoted to moral reform, and several religious books—on both sides of the alcohol debate—were shown.  These texts relied heavily on Scripture to justify their positions on the consumption of alcohol.

While the Bible—or, more accurately, particular interpretations of the Bible—informed and influenced the Temperance movement, it is important to note that the temperance movement also influenced new, contemporary English translations of the Bible.  Several Bible translations which pay special attention to alcohol were shown.

Non-religious books, both in support and critical of temperance and Prohibition, were also shown, as were several more recent works of fiction set during the temperance movement or Prohibition.

Religious Books

Six Sermons on... Intemperance
Title pages of 2nd edition (left) and 10th edition (right)

Beecher, Lyman.  Six Sermons on the Nature, Occasions, Signs, Evils, and Remedy of Intemperance.  Boston: Printed by T. R. Marvin, 1827.  Second Edition (meaning printing).

Beecher, Lyman.  Six Sermons on the Nature, Occasions, Signs, Evils, and Remedy of Intemperance.  New York: American Tract Society, 1838.  Tenth Edition (meaning printing).

Six Sermons on the Nature, Occasions, Signs, Evils, and Remedy of Intemperance was one of the most influential religious tracts on temperance during the movement.  Beecher published the tract following the delivery of a series of sermons on the topic at his church in Litchfield, Connecticut, where public intoxication was a growing concern and where a formal meeting of the town's clergy, including Beecher, vowed to stand against it.  It was first published in 1826, privately printed by T. R. Marvin in Boston.  Copies of the sermons were sent throughout the country and were quickly reprinted by various tract societies.  The book was translated into several languages and became popular in Europe, also.  It remained constantly in print for nearly 50 years.

Lyman Beecher (1775 – 1863) was a prominent, influential Congregationalist pastor in Connecticut, where congregationalism was the established religion of the state.  During that time, Beecher publicly feuded with protestants, defending Puritan orthodoxy and the established state church.  Congregationalism was disestablished as the official church of the state of Connecticut in 1818, however, and Beecher countered that the disestablishment created a greater need for active and zealous clergy in society.  Beecher, therefore, embraced that which he once so vehemently opposed—protestant evangelicalism—citing its focus on moral reform.  It was during this time that Beecher became a leading voice of the temperance movement and wrote Six Sermons on... Intemperance.

Beecher fathered eleven children, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, the temperance writer, abolitionist, and author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

The Holy Bible Repudiates "Prohibition"

Brown, George G.  The Holy Bible Repudiates Prohibition. Compilation of All Verses Containing the Words "Wine" or "Strong Drink," Proving that the Scriptures Commend and Command the Temperate Use of Alcoholic Beverages.  Louisville, KY: George G. Brown, 1910.  In the preface, the author identifies as a Kentucky "whiskey merchant and manufacturer" and defends his Christian upbringing and devotion in regard to his chosen profession.  He then sets out to quote and comment on every verse in the Bible—220 in total—which contains the word "wine" or "strong drink."  He offers a commentary on each—sometimes as short as one sentence, others as long as several pages—usually in which he gives the context of the verse or an interpretation which tries to conform the passage to his thesis that Scripture does not prohibit the consumption of alcohol but rather commends and even commands it.  Brown conveniently omits other biblical passages which mention drinking or drunkenness—which he readily admits—because his argument is narrowly focused only on the references to "wine" and "strong drink."

In a 26-page essay titled "Reflections" following his evidence of the use of the words "wine" and "strong drink," Brown sets forth his argument against prohibition.  He begins with a premise that the duty of the church is to combat sin, while civil government is responsible for the regulation of society.  He then weaves a theological argument for free will with a political argument for freedom of religion to counter what he calls the "religious fanaticism" of the proponents of prohibition and their "false doctrine."  Civil government, Brown argues, must reject this religious fanaticism and continue to "guarantee to individuals the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," which includes the freedom to consume alcohol (in moderation).

Bibles

Many translations and interpretations of the Bible seek to address contemporary issues, and temperance is no exception.  Several translators sought to address alcohol consumption in their translations and interpreted select passages to conform to a temperance ideology.  A key passage which serves as a good test of a translator's intention is John 2.  The passage on the wedding at Cana tells the story of the first miracle performed by Jesus in John's account of Jesus's public ministry; this is the story in which Jesus turns water into wine.  How translators treat this passage—either in their translation of the text or in notes about the verse—is an indicator of their position.  For each of the Bibles presented, the translator's work on John 2 is highlighted.

Family Bible: The New Testament

Edwards, Justin.  Family Bible. The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. With Brief Notes and Instructions. Containing the References and Marginal Readings of the Polyglot Bible.  New York: American Tract Society, 1851.  Justin Edwards was born in 1787 in Westhampton, Massachusetts, ordained a minister in Boston in 1812, and in 1825 organized the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance.  He was honored with an honorary doctorate from Yale in 1827 and spent the rest of his life traveling and speaking against alcohol consumption.

Title page of Family Bible: The New Testament

In his notes on the wedding feast at Cana (John 2), he argues that after the water-pots were filled with water, instead of turning all the contents into wine, Jesus only turned the water taken out of the kegs into wine; he notes, "that which was drawn out was made wine, but whether that which remained was, we are not told."  He also notes that "good wine was that which was destitute of spirit," and "that the best wine is harmless; that the most useful, which has the least strength; and that the most wholesome, in which nothing was added to the juice of the grape.”

Notes on John 2

The Christian's Bible: New Testament

LeFevre, George Newton.  The Christian’s Bible. New Testament. A Translation from the Greek, Chiefly of the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus; These Being the Oldest and Most Complete MSS. of the New Testament. It Is Not Simply a Translation of Words, but Under the Guidance of the Holy Ghost. His Thoughts, as Recorded in Greek by His Specially Inspired Writers, Are Made Known unto Us. By a Servant of Christ.  Strasburg, PA: George N. LeFevre, 1929.  George LeFevre was born in Strasburg, Pennsylvania in 1850 and educated at the University of Lewisburg (later Bucknell University).  He was originally a lawyer but, disturbed by the dishonesty among lawyers, he left the profession.  LeFevre was a member of the Olivet Hard-Shell Baptist Church but finally left that church because the minister married a washerwoman instead of a society lady which disgraced the church.  Later he disinherited a daughter who became a missionary without his approval.  LeFevre never affiliated with another church but focused on his own translation of Scripture.  His translation of the New Testament was an "immersion" version (emphasizing that immersion was the only legitimate form of baptism).  He self-published his translation in a limited edition, and it was never reprinted.  LeFevre writes profusely in defense of his translation and how it is unique in rightly expressing what God has to say to us through Scripture.

Title page of The Christian's Bible: New Testament

In the Gospel of John, Chapter 2 (where the guests drank freely of the so-called "wine" at the Cana feast), LeFevre adds this colorful note:

This does not imply any intoxication, as some misinformed persons have supposed, any more than to say persons "drank freely" of lemonade.  The Greek word that specifically means an intoxicating wine or beverage is not used at all in connection with this miracle.  Christ here did instantly what he does in several months through His natural laws, made the healthful juice of the grape; or what He called "the fruit of the vine" when He instituted the Lord’s Supper; and what we today call – unfermented wine, which was the common drink of the Jews.  Intoxicating wine was considered spoiled wine, just as today when the housewife finds a jar of her canned fruit has fermented, she speaks of it as spoilt.

Notes on John 2

Copies of LeFevre’s New Testament are very rare, and this particular copy includes a hand-written letter from LeFevre to a churchman who had just purchased a copy, which was being sent by mail to him.    

 

The Holy Bible: A Purified Translation: The New Testament

Reynolds, Stephen Mills.  The Holy Bible: A Purified Translation: The New Testament.  Glenside, PA: Lorine L. Reynolds Foundation, 2000.  Stephen Mills Reynolds, the translator of this version of the New Testament, was born in 1909 in Ohio, educated at Miami University, Princeton University, and Columbia University, ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1934, and served as a chaplain in the U. S. Navy during World War II.  In many places, he translates the word “wine” as “grape juice.”

In the story of the Last Supper in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus takes the cup and says, “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”  An accompanying note states: “Jesus called the drink of the Last Supper ‘the fruit of the vine.’  This excluded alcoholic wine, which is not the fruit of the vine but rather the excretion of yeast, a microorganism that does not come directly from the vine.”

Notes on Matthew 26 (left) and John 2 (right)

The explanation of why Jesus performed the miracle of turning the water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana (John 2) is even more amusing.  Reynolds admits that Jesus did perform this particular miracle, but for a very interesting reason.  He says that Jesus only did this because his mother Mary was so insistent.  That was because at this time in her life Joseph had died, she had fallen on hard times and gone into the catering business.  She was catering the wedding feast and the fact that they ran out of wine was a bad reflection on her ability to perform her job.  He goes on to say that Mary never asked Jesus to perform this particular miracle again because she was afraid that “strong drink” would come between her and her place at the cross.  Sharing this story with some students at Columbia Theological Seminary, one of them commented, “Well, I guess after Cana, Mary only catered ‘immaculate receptions!’”

Non-religious Books

Inebriety: Its Source, Prevention, and Cure

Palmer, Charles Follen.  Inebriety: Its Source, Prevention, and Cure.  Philadelphia: The Union Press, 1907.  Eighth edition.  First published in 1896, Inebriety offered a comprehensive overview of the neurologic and psychiatric science of the time, using lay terms which were more accessible to a general readership.  Palmer couched neurological and psychiatric aspects of behavioral therapy into a paradigm of moral behavior; cognitive-behavioral techniques, for example, were described as "purging evil thoughts."  This moralistic language, combined with the readability of the text, made the book extremely popular with temperance adherents.  The book was regularly reviewed in religious publications, keeping it in demand.  By 1899, the book was already in its seventh edition, and had sold more than twenty-five thousand copies by the time of its eighth printing in 1907.  A popular feature of the book was a fold-out flow diagram visually depicting the characteristics and mental activity of inebriant (abnormal) behavior, titled "Diagram of the Moral Manifestations Resulting from the Normal and Abnormal Conditions of the Nervous-Mental Structure."

"Diagram of the Moral Manifestations Resulting from the Normal
and Abnormal Conditions of the Nervous-Mental Structure"

The Eighteenth Amendment

Murphy, David A.  The Eighteenth Amendment.  New York: Peter P. Mulligan, Inc., 1923.  Published a little over three years after the passage of the Volstead Act in July and the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment in December of 1919, The Eighteenth Amendment explores theories of how and why Prohibition became "the supreme law of the land" as Warren Harding declared.  Like many, if not most, Americans, Murphy was stunned not only by the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment but also by its rapid progression through the process.  He asks, "What happened in Congress and in the ratifying legislatures that 'this amazing invasion of our liberties' should fall upon a constitutionally free people?"

Murphy argues that Prohibition was neither the will of the people nor the desire of Congress.  He posits that someone or something drove Prohibition behind the scenes and questions whether the truth will ever be known.  He then works through a series of theories—both founded and unfounded—to examine the controversial amendment and to answer the question, "Who would benefit the most?"  Among the possible benefactors of Prohibition: soft drink makers!  Murphy speculates:

About the time Prohibition went into effect, ginger ale and other soft drink makers (some of them using the drug caffein in their mixtures) and distributors began heavy selling campaigns, engaging high-priced press agents just released from reform and similar drives and operating offices in Washington in proximity to the House of Congress and not far from the House and Senate buildings.

This copy is inscribed on the front free end paper, "with compliments of the author, D. Murphy."

Author's inscription

The Poisoner's Handbook

Blum, Deborah.  The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York.  New York: Penguin Press, 2010.  Deborah Blum is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and science writer.  In The Poisoner's Handbook, Blum chronicles the pioneering work of chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler in the 1920s as they begin a forensic study of poisons and toxins as murder weapons.  While they focus on mysterious deaths and murders, Norris and Gettler begin to see other, less insidious ways toxins unwittingly harm and kill people.  The effects of Prohibition are a case in point: Prohibition sparks a chemistry war between bootleggers and government chemists, resulting in cocktails becoming "a game of Russian roulette" in New York's speakeasies.  As a result of Norris's work, in 1927 he was elected chair of the advisory board of the Association Against Impure Liquor.

July 2021: Lost Manuscripts

Lost manuscripts proved to be a challenging topic for the July 2021 meeting, but the collectors met the challenge and pulled from their respective collections books which nearly did not come into print.  "Lost Manuscripts" was an abbreviated subject which more broadly included books which were almost never published because the manuscript may have been lost, forgotten, stolen, misplaced, burned, or otherwise put in jeopardy; fortunately, the manuscript was rediscovered, reclaimed, or rewritten.  The authors and titles ranged from the renowned to the obscure; some of the stories of peril were well known while others were quite unexpected.

Some of the books shown during the meeting fell rather neatly into a single risk category while others faced multiple risks of never being published.  Two of the manuscripts were tucked away and forgotten for some period; they were later rediscovered or reclaimed and ultimately published.  Three manuscripts were either burned—in whole or in part—or at least at imminent risk of being incinerated.  Two manuscripts fell into one of these previous groups, but remain unpublished; for that reason, they received their own category.  Finally—because bibliophiles enjoy books about books—two books formed a fourth category of books about lost books.

Forgotten Manuscripts

The Christian Psalter

Patullo, Margaret.  The Christian Psalter: A New Version of the Psalms of David, Calculated for All Denominations of Christians. Edinburgh: For the Author, 1828.  Margaret Patullo was a life-long Scots Presbyterian who lived in Perth, Scotland.  In her later years she began a practice of daily Bible devotions, which included an in-depth study of the Psalms.  She began composing metrical paraphrases of the Psalms in which she sought to incorporate New Testament theology into the Old Testament songs, hence The Christian Psalter.  Her hope was that her texts would find their way into worship.

Title page of The Christian Psalter

When she completed paraphrasing all 150 psalms in the mid-1820s, she took her manuscript to her minister and asked him to read through them and make suggestions for improvement.  As he read her Psalms, he realized that the poetry was not the best, and rather than confront her with his evaluation, he tucked the manuscript into a desk drawer in his office, hoping the elderly lady would forget about it.  After almost 4 years, she asked him to return her manuscript.  When he handed it to her he said, “I’m sorry, but there is nothing I can do to improve this,” meaning she needed to start over to make it acceptable.  She interpreted his criticism to mean her work was so good that even her Presbyterian pastor could not improve it.  Using some of her limited funds, she paid to have enough copies printed to give to her friends and stock the bookstores in Glasgow and Edinburgh.  As her friends began to read her poems, they questioned the quality of the poetry and, fearing a newspaper critic might get a copy and write a scathing review, they bought up every copy and destroyed them in an attempt to prevent her feelings from being hurt.

Psalm 84 from The Christian Psalter

Her Psalter was the first complete Book of Psalms to be composed by a woman, and Margaret went to her grave thinking that she had done an exceptional job of versifying the Psalms—so good that even her minister couldn’t improve them—and that all the printed copies sold out quickly in her native land.  Copies of her Psalter are very difficult to obtain today.

The Tenth Man

Greene, Graham.  The Tenth Man.  Original copy of unpublished manuscript, no date [1944].  Following the success of Paramount Pictures' adaptations of This Gun for Hire (1942) and Ministry of Fear (1944), Graham Greene signed a contract to write a screenplay for MGM Studios.  He wrote out a story he had been considering as early as 1937.  In 1944, he submitted a treatment entitled The Tenth Man.  MGM—most likely, Samuel Marx, the studio's Story Editor—did not like the story, or at least did not see it as a successful film, and decided not to produce it.

First and last pages of Greene's manuscript

The story lay forgotten in the archives of MGM Studios until it was found in 1984, forty years later.  Greene himself had forgotten the story, and upon being informed of the rediscovered manuscript thought, incorrectly, it might have been only a two- or three-page sketch.  It was, in fact, a full 101-page story.  MGM sold the story and serial rights for a substantial sum—and would also receive author's royalties—to Anthony Blond, a British writer who longed to become a publisher.  Blond courteously sent the manuscript to Greene to see if he might want to make any revisions; Greene, surprisingly, liked the story and chose to leave it as originally written.  Blond agreed to publish the book with Greene's regular publishers in part because he was not affiliated with a publishing house of his own.  The book was first published in 1985, less than a year after the story's discovery.

Sample pages showing hand corrections and typing into the margins 

This "original copy" of the MGM manuscript came from Samuel Marx, though its precise history is unknown.  Marx was the Story Editor at MGM under Irving Thalburg in the 1930s, and succeeded Thalburg after his death as a principal producer from the late 1930s to the 1950s, when he left MGM for Desilu Productions.  He oversaw the MGM story department when Greene's story was submitted, but his role in its 1984 rediscovery is uncertain.  This copy, though, was gifted in 1984 from Marx to a friend and colleague, as noted by a subsequent gift inscription dated the same year.

The Tenth Man, signed first edition

Greene, Graham.  The Tenth Man.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985.  First edition.  An introduction by the author recalls the story's history along with sketches of two other forgotten film ideas he wrote, "Jim Braddon and the War Criminal" and "Nobody to Blame."   This copy is signed by the author on the first preliminary page.

Burned Manuscripts

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Stevenson, Robert Louis.  Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1980.  Illustrated by Edward A. Wilson.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Weir of Hermiston

Stevenson, Robert Louis.  The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Weir of Hermiston.  London: The Folio Society, 2006.  Illustrated by Grahame Baker Smith.

An early story claimed Stevenson's wife burned the first draft manuscript of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde after reading it.  She may have scorched it critically, just not literally; Stevenson did that himself, and the story he originally conceived was reduced to a pile of ash.

Stevenson wrote the tale in 1885 from his seaside residence in Bournemouth, England, while confined to a bed with some form of hemorrhage.  His wife, Fanny, regularly read his drafts and offered written feedback in the margins, and her primary critique of this tale was that Stevenson has "missed the allegory."  She argued the tale was written as a story, not an allegory; the effect of the tale was an allegory of the duality of the two natures of humankind—good and evil—which reside within each of us in a continual struggle for dominance. 

Having reflected on his wife's critique, Stevenson tossed the manuscript onto the fire.  Stevenson's grandson, Lloyd Osbourne (who may or may not have inserted himself into this part of the story), recalled, "Imagine my feelings as we saw those precious pages wrinkling and blackening and turning into flames.”  Stevenson told Fanny he burned the manuscript so he could not be tempted to try to salvage it; burning it forced him to start anew and write the allegorical tale she advocated. 

Stevenson rewrote the tale in less than a week, about the same amount of time he took to write the first draft.  He then spent another six weeks refining the draft after completing the initial revision.  The book was first published by Longmans, Green & Co. in 1886.

C. S. Lewis's Lost Aeneid: Arms and the Exile

Reyes, A. T., ed.  C. S. Lewis's Lost Aeneid: Arms and the Exile.  New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011.  This bilingual edition of Virgil's The Aeneid presents the Latin text in parallel with C. S. Lewis's English translation of most of the epic poem.  Lewis began translating The Aeneid in 1935 and worked on it periodically throughout his life.  He delighted in reading his translation to his fellow Inklings, and the epic poem's influence is seen throughout both Lewis's published works and his personal letters.

In 1964, a year after Lewis's death, his brother, Warren, began cleaning out The Kilns, Lewis's home.  Warren sorted through his brother's papers and manuscripts and kept those he thought significant, and instructed Lewis's gardener, Fred Paxford, to burn the remaining papers in a bonfire.  Paxton bought a little time which allowed Walter Hooper, Lewis's former secretary and literary executor, to sort through the papers and salvage anything he considered important; Warren gave Hooper until the end of the day to carry away whatever he wanted.  Hooper claimed what he could, but most of the papers were ultimately destroyed in a bonfire which burned steadily for three days.

Hooper spent the next five decades slowly sorting through and organizing the materials he salvaged.  In the process, he found fragments of Lewis's Aeneid translation in various notebooks.  With the help of A. T. Reyes, a classic languages instructor and visiting scholar at Oxford University's Wolfson College, they pieced together a nearly complete translation.  If Lewis had fully completed his translation, the missing fragments were likely lost in the bonfire.  Lewis's lyrical translation of The Aeneid was first published by Yale University Press in 2019, edited by Reyes along with his introduction, glossary, commentary, and synopses of the missing sections.

The Crows of Pearblossom

Huxley, Aldous.  The Crows of Pearblossom.  New York: Random House, 1967.  The Crows of Pearblossom is the only children's story written by Huxley.  He wrote the story during the Christmas holiday in 1944 as a gift for his five-year-old niece, Olivia.  After Christmas, Olivia gave the manuscript back to her uncle with the request that he illustrate it.  Huxley returned home, where the manuscript lay unillustrated and forgotten until Huxley's home and all its contents—including his papers and manuscripts—were destroyed in the 1961 Bel Air Fire.  Huxley died two years later, in 1963.

Dedication page and history of the story

Fortunately, one copy of Olivia's Christmas present had been penned for her next-door neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Yost, whom Huxley mentions in the story.  Mr. Crow's friend, Old Man Owl, lives in "the tall poplar in Mr. Yost's garden."  At some point, either after the fire or after Huxley's death, the Yosts rediscovered the sole remaining manuscript of the story and returned it to Olivia.  It was first published shortly thereafter by Random House in 1967, with illustrations by Barbara Cooney.

Unpublished Manuscripts

Fairfax's Psalms

Fairfax, Thomas, Lord.  The Psalmes of King David Paraphrased into Verse Which May Be Song According to the Tunes Used in Churches, by the Right Honorable Tho. Lord Fairfax.  Manuscript in the hand of Lord Fairfax, 1669.  Thomas, Lord Fairfax was an unlikely writer of sacred verse, namely paraphrases of the Psalms.  He had served as Commander-in-Chief of the British military forces under King Charles the First and spoke in defense of the King before Parliament when Charles was executed in 1649.  After Oliver Cromwell instituted the Commonwealth, he was named Commander-in-Chief of the Commonwealth military.  He served in this position until he had a disagreement with Cromwell about making an aggressive move on a small town in Scotland, causing him to resign his position and retire to his family’s country estate, where he devoted the rest of his life to writing poems, primarily versions of the Psalms to be sung in worship.

Fairfax's title page, in his own hand

Over the next decade he wrote his poems, which were kept in a manuscript copy later acquired by the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.  In his last years, he took his rather messy manuscript and in 1669 completed a fresh manuscript of what he thought were his best works as a bequest to his family.  His refined manuscript, in his own hand, contained only his Psalm versions, but after his death before his family had his papers bound, one of his relatives wrote out his other poems to make the volume complete.  Since Lord Fairfax had written only on the front side of each page, his other poems were written on the verso.

Fairfax's poetry, copied (left) and psalms, in his own hand (right)

This unique volume eventually found its way into a shop in Manchester, England, which specialized in military memorabilia.  It owned the book for a number of years but apparently no one entering the store was interested in religious poetry, and no buyers searching for versions of the Psalms thought to enter a military store to browse!  It was discovered by a friend of the collector who called the collector about the book, negotiated a very fair price, and secured the purchase.

Fairfax's Psalm 23

Lord Fairfax’s poems have never been published, and along with the manuscript held at Oxford, this is the only copy of his works, written in his own hand 2 years before his death in 1671.

Tolkien's Lost Chaucer

Bowers, John M.  Tolkien's Lost Chaucer.  London: Oxford University Press, 2019.  Bowers reveals the story of Tolkien's unpublished Selections from Chaucer's Poetry and Prose, hidden in the Oxford University Press archives.  Bowers explores Tolkien's annotated proofs and accompanying notes and shows Chaucer's influence on Tolkien's work, especially The Lord of the Rings.

From 1922 to 1928, Tolkien vigorously worked on a commentary on the works of Geoffrey Chaucer for the Clarendon Press.  He wrote about 160 pages of commentary and was still not done with the project, but Clarendon Press wanted only about 20 pages of notes for a student edition.  Tolkien refused to cut any of the material he wrote, and he and the publisher found themselves at an impasse.  By 1951, Tolkien abandoned the project altogether; he boxed up everything he wrote and sent it all to Oxford University Press.  [Clarendon Press was once the name of Oxford University Press, which still uses the Clarendon imprint for select academic publications.]  Tolkien's incomplete Chaucer commentary sat forgotten in the OUP archives until 2012, when John Bowers inquired about it.

Bowers, a scholar of medieval English literature and a specialist in both Chaucer and Tolkien, found an obscure reference in a Tolkien bibliography to a letter to OUP in which he wrote, "I deeply regret the whole affair."  Bowers's sleuthing led him to contact the OUP archivist, who then found the long-forgotten box of materials.  While Tolkien's forgotten work was discovered in 2012, Bowers and OUP did not announce the find until Tolkien's Lost Chaucer was ready for publication in 2019.  Tolkien's commentary itself remains unpublished.

Books About Lost Manuscripts

Nonfiction

The Book of Lost Books

Kelly, Stuart.  The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You'll Never Read.  New York: Viking Press, 2005.  In this collection of 81 short essays, Kelly traces the stories of works of poetry and prose which have been completely lost, authored by some of history's most famous writers.  From the classic philosophers to the modern novelists, many of their works have been destroyed, misplaced, burned, left incomplete (often when the author died), or in some cases were simply never begun.

While most readers assess the history of literature through the books which have survived, Kelly considers the history of the loss of literature.  At age 15, he began compiling a list of lost books.  "From Shakespeare to Sylvia Plath, Homer to Hemingway, Dante to Ezra Pound, great writers had written works I could not possess," Kelly laments.  In The Book of Lost Books, he recounts the stories he has collected since his youth.

Fiction

The Shadow of the Wind

Zafón, Carlos Ruiz.  The Shadow of the Wind.  New York: The Penguin Press, 2001.  On a cold morning in 1945, an antiquarian book dealer takes his ten-year-old son, Daniel, to the Cemetery of Lost Books, a library of obscure and forgotten titles long out of print.  Allowed to select one book, Daniel chooses The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax.  After reading the mysterious tome, Daniel sets out to find other works by Carax only to discover that someone is seeking out and destroying every copy of every book written by the author.  Daniel may now possess the last Carax book in existence, and a shadowy figure who resembles a character in the book is out to destroy it, too.

June 2021: Books Published in the 1920s

The June 2021 meeting featured books published in the 1920s.  The decade was selected randomly.  It does, however, correspond with what many collectors consider the beginning of the era of modern first editions.  The modern books era does not have a universally agreed-upon beginning date; some collectors generally say, "the beginning of the 20th Century" while others say, "beginning in the late 19th Century."  Biblio.com, an international online marketplace for rare and collectible books, marks the start of modern firsts as 1919, corresponding with the end of WWI.  Using this reference point, the 1920s represents the first decade of the modern books era.

Selected books published in the 1920s are shown here in chronological order.

Glimpses of Authors

Ticknor, Caroline.  Glimpses of Authors.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1922.  Caroline Ticknor (1866 – 1937) was an author from Boston, best known for her biographies of American authors.  She was the granddaughter of William Ticknor, the founder of Ticknor & Fields publishing house.  She later became an editor of the International Library of Famous Literature. 

Sample page and illustration from Glimpses of Authors

Glimpses of Authors is a semi-autobiographical book as Ticknor used many of her own memories of authors visiting her grandparents and parents along with personal letters received from writers to weave together her own reflections with short biographies of authors such as William Makepeace Thackeray, Alfred Tennyson, Henry James, Eugene Field, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Edward Bellamy.

Oxford Poetry 1923

Thompson, David Cleghorn and F. W. Bateson, eds.  Oxford Poetry 1923.  Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1923.  First edition, in one printing of 1,500 copies.  An anthology of poetry written by students from the colleges of Oxford University.  This book is Graham Greene's first appearance in book form, published when he was nineteen years old.  Greene contributes two poems, "Stepping Stones" and "Apologia." 

Contributor signatures by Harold Acton, Graham Greene,
John Linnell, and David Cleghorn Thompson

This copy is singed on the front free end paper by three contributors—Harold Acton, Graham Greene, and John Linnell—and signed on the title page by co-editor and contributor David Cleghorn Thompson.  Acton, Greene, and Thompson all went on to have distinguished writing careers.  As this is Greene's first publication in book format, this would be his earliest author-signed book. 

Babbling April (dust jacket and cover)

Greene, Graham.  Babbling April.  Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1925.  Greene's first book, a poetry collection, is scarce as only one printing of 500 copies was produced.  Of the 500 copies, only 300 quires (unbound individual copies) were bound and issued.  The book reviewed poorly, and only 62 copies sold in the first year.  In 1934, the remaining 200 quires were withdrawn from the publisher's stock and scrapped.  Of the 300 copies issued, even fewer survive; Greene claimed he later bought and destroyed copies he came across in bookshops but stopped buying them when the price exceeded £1.

An American Tragedy

Dreiser, Theodore.  An American Tragedy.  London: Constable & Co. Ltd., 1926.  First published by Boni & Liveright in 1925 in two volumes; published here by Constable in one volume.  An American Tragedy is based on an actual crime when, in 1906, Grace Brown's body was found under a boat on Big Moose Lake in the Adirondack Mountains; her boyfriend was arrested the next day and later convicted of premeditated murder.  Dreiser used the same initials of the convicted murderer, Chester Gillette, for his character Clyde Griffiths.  Dreiser's method for selecting the character's name is a nod to details of the true crime case.  Gillette checked into a lodge in the Adirondacks that fateful weekend under a pseudonym with the same initials because his monogram was on his suitcase, and he did not want the proprietor of the lodge to become suspicious.  Dreiser's fictional story has been adapted for stage and film multiple times since publication. 

Dreiser began his writing career as a journalist, but once a novelist he often fought censorship due to his novels containing sexual promiscuity, like Sister Carrie (1900) and Jennie Gerhardt (1911).  In 1930, Dreiser was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature by Swedish author Anders Österling; he was passed over in favor of Sinclair Lewis.

The Man Within (1st English edition and 1st American edition)

Greene, Graham.  The Man Within.  London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1929.  First English edition.  One of only 2,500 copies of the first printing.

Greene, Graham.  The Man Within.  Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1929.  First American edition.

The Man Within was Greene's first published novel.  Greene was 24 years old and a sub-editor at The Times when the book was published.  Greene began working on The Man Within in 1926 while in the hospital recuperating from an appendicitis operation.  The book was an immediate success and reviewed well.  Though it was his first published novel, The Man Within was his third in order of composition.  His first attempt, written while a student at Oxford, was rejected by Heinemann and never published.  His second attempt was also rejected by Heinemann; originally titled The Episode, it was later published by Heinemann as Rumour at Nightfall (1931).

The Book of Common Prayer

Book of Common Prayer.  The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church According to the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.  Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David.  Boston: Daniel Berkeley Updike at the Merrymount Press, 1929.  Limited edition of 500 copies of the Standard Edition of the Book of Common Prayer, 1928.  In 1928, the Prayer Book Commission of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America asked Daniel Berkeley Updike, a typographer, printer, and graphic designer, to produce a new Prayer Book for the church.  The book was financed by J. Pierpont Morgan and completed in 1929.  In 1930, the 500 copies were distributed to the bishops and select leaders of the church.

Title page of The Book of Common Prayer

Daniel Berkeley Updike was an advertising manager and layout artist at Houghton, Mifflin, and Company and Riverside Press until 1892, when he began producing his own books.  His first freelance commission was the design of the 1892 Book of Common Prayer.  Updike used the proceeds to establish his own fine printing press, the Merrymount Press, in 1893.  The Merrymount Press produced a wide range of fine books for publishers, book clubs, churches, libraries, and institutions; its catalogue included printing the first edition of Edith Wharton's first book, The Greater Inclination (Scribner's, 1899), and eight titles for The Limited Editions Club between 1930 and 1942.  The 1929 Book of Common Prayer is considered Updike's finest work.