Lux Mentis, Lux Orbis...rare books, random musings

David Wolfe is fishing for a big one....

2009-07-06T13:51:00.003-05:00

This is the most recent work by David Wolfe, of Wolfe Editions fame. He is one of the best letterpress guys I know and I never cease to be surprised by what he creates. I love that he does not limit himself to presswork.

David took a class at Haystack and, because he is wildly more talented than I (or, most likely, you), this is the result. As I say, he never ceases to amaze me. Let me know if you can't live

without it...

Specifications:

Hook: hand forged 3/4 inch steel stock

Tag: aluminum wire and red copper wire, veiled with copper covered steel welding wire

Butt: copper pot scrubber

Body: aluminum tape,

Rib: aluminum wire,

Wing: steel, brass, brass rivets

Throat: steel wire

Topping: copper covered iron welding wire

Head: steel wire

Size: 21" x 15" x 3"

Weight: 9 lbs.

On Presidents and Editing the Bible...

2009-06-30T09:42:00.002-05:00

Imagine, for a moment, if news broke that Barack Obama had cut up a Bible, separating it into "diamonds" to be distinguished from the rest of the "dunghill". I am guessing that the media's collective head would explode, as would any number of politicians, Rep & Dem alike.

A President did this very thing, however...drafter of the Declaration of Independence and our third President, Thomas Jefferson. The 46 page book "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth", generally referred to as the Jefferson Bible, was based on his lifetime of research, contemplation and inquiry. He sums up his efforts in an 1813 letter to John Adams:

In extracting the pure principles which he taught, we should have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms, as instruments of riches and power to themselves. We must dismiss the Platonists and Plotinists, the Stagyrites and Gamalielites, the Eclectics, the Gnostics and Scholastics, their essences and emanations, their logos and demiurges, aeons and daemons, male and female, with a long train of … or, shall I say at once, of nonsense. We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus, paring off the amphibologisms into which they have been led, by forgetting often, or not understanding, what had fallen from him, by giving their own misconceptions as his dicta, and expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood themselves. There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. I have performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently his, and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill. The result is an octavo of forty-six pages, of pure and unsophisticated doctrines.

While it has been written about in main-stream media and was once ordered printed by Congress and distributed to all members (in 1904, what fun it would be to do that again), it remains relatively little known and seldom discussed. This is, I think a great shame, as his issues then are every bit as relevant now...perhaps more so, as we seem to be in a period where one can not discuss such things (at least not rationally). One either believes lock, stock, and barrel or does not believe at all. Anyone who might wish to discuss something between those two points gets shouted down by one or both of the extremes. Such is discourse at the start of the 21st century.

In an 1803 letter to Benjamin Rush, Jefferson said that his edited version sought to determine whether the ethical teachings of Jesus could be separated from that which was attached to "Christianity" over the centuries. He wrote, "To the corruption of Christianity I am indeed opposed, but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself."

Such contemplation was of importance to Jefferson, whose Statute for Religious Freedom (and its embodied Separation of Church and State) was one of only three achievements he instructed to be included in his epitaph. We are reduced now to breathless (and/or incorrect) articles on which church the president "pick" and why he has not yet done so.

It is a sad commentary that men (and women) of conscience are not able to discuss such matters, reducing the debate to rabble-rousers on both sides. Yeats, of course, was right, "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity." It is, none-the-less, a shame.

If you would like to read it, GoogleBooks iteration is what you would expect, but this version allows easy side-by-side comparisons of Jefferson's edits against the KJV.

Alternatively, there is Robert Heinlein, "Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything."

"Christians" seek damages for exposure to a book...and the right to burn it...

2009-06-30T08:21:00.002-05:00

I wish I could make things like this up. T. Gerristen (who I would love even if she were she not a friend) has just posted a great piece at Murderati on book banning efforts. Her post revolves around efforts in Wisconsin to ban/burn "Baby Be-Bop":

Robert C. Braun of the Christian Civil Liberties Union (CCLU) distributed at the meeting copies of a claim for damages he and three other plaintiffs filed April 28 with the city; the complainants seek the right to publicly burn or destroy by another means the library’s copy of Baby Be-Bop. The claim also demands $120,000 in compensatory damages ($30,000 per plaintiff) for being exposed to the book in a library display, and the resignation of West Bend Mayor Kristine Deiss for “allow[ing] this book to be viewed by the public."

Terry offers a nice overview of small-mindedness and error of such efforts...taking particular note of the fact that such efforts nearly always fail and generally serve the opposite effect, that is, peaking interesting and increasing sales of the subject books. She closes with a plea:

So please, ban my books. I want to join that lofty pantheon of authors that includes Alexie and Sendak and Twain and Vonnegut. My books have plenty to offend everyone. There's adulterous sex and graphic violence, foul language and disturbing perversions. So go ahead, ban me!

For those who do not have it bookmarked, here is the ALA's site for all things banning and bookish.

Personally, I think I am going to sue those who seek to ban books for emotional distress. I wonder if I could have them burned... Enough daydreaming, back to cataloguing books. Happy Tuesday.

RBMS09: Seas of Change: Navigating the Cultural and Institutional Contexts of Special Collections

2009-06-23T22:21:00.001-05:00

What follows is a quick overview of our first trip to the annual "Preconference" event held by the Rare Book and Manuscript Section (RBMS) of the American Library Association (ALA). It was a very interesting week. The event was extremely well run, especially given the numbers involved (368 attendees, 450 total with speakers and booksellers).

I drove down Saturday with Thing 1 and 2, leveraging the drive with some educational bonus stops. We spent Sunday in Philly, visiting Declaration House, the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin's printing press and, best of all, a good long tour of The Rosenbach Museum. We left Philly and headed down to Annapolis for a night with my in-laws.

Monday found us in Washington, DC. I met with a client early in the morning (and sold the entire box I brought down for review) and then we were off to the museums. The boys had a great time at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museum. We did a bit of vehicular site seeing on the way out of town and headed to Charlottesville to settle in for the week.

Tuesday started with a wonderful seminar by Dan Gregory and sponsored by the Southeast Chapter of the ABAA. He tried very hard to instill in attendees the usefulness and value of taking pictures of books and how to do so with a minimum of errors. Lorne Bair co-ordinated this seminar and the following tour of the Small Special Collections. Set-up for the next day's "Bookseller Showcase" began at 4pm and before we knew it, we were done and ready for the main event.

We decided some time ago to stay on UVA campus. With the four of us (Suzanne flew in Thursday morning), the dorms offered a rather nice, very inexpensive (and air-conditioned) option. We had an entire quad to ourselves, everyone their own bed and a private bath. One of the great surprises was the water pressure in the Peters building...stunningly good. All UVA based events were only a building or two away. It turned out to be a very nice choice and we were all very pleased with it.

The Bookseller's Showcase ran from 9am to 730pm...a very long day. The boys were remarkable all day. T1 was very pleased with himself. He picked out a wonderful "Bloomsday" tshirt at the Rosenbach with a sketch of Joyce on the front and "Read" "Joyce" in his glasses. It looked very good under his blazer. T2 was, if possible, even more pleased with himself, as this was the first time he was able to wear his "real" bowtie (black with skull and cross bones)...even his older brother admitted that he looked very cool. They spent the day at the edge of the booth playing with their DSs and politely answering questions posted by bemused librarians.

This was a great event for us. We sold some good things, which was nice...but really it was all about meeting and learning about Special Collections librarians. We are still young and foolish enough that we know far less than we should and this was a great way to meet a lot of great librarians in one convenient (and lovely) site. I had signed up for the entire seminar, in part as there were some interesting seminar/speaker/events and in part as it offered a longer time with this interesting group of bibliophiles.

There were some really fun/interesting moments. Marvin Taylor (NYU's Fales Library) was so pleased to discover I had a copy of Your House is Mine that he held not one but two impromptu walkthroughs of each print, offering context and background on the pieces and the artist(s). He uses the book in courses at NYU. I love the book...Marvin loves it even more and it was such a treat to turn the pages and listen.

Also at the Showcase, a person entered and very politely told me that they were really just looking, as they were only seeking early Italian travel books and I wouldn't have anything for her. When I told her I had a nice copy of the very scarce "The Italian Sketchbook", her first response was "no you don't". This was and especially fun sale because, in addition to putting a scarce book in the hands of the "right" owner, the *only* reason I had brought the book (of exceedingly narrow appeal) is that it had "fit" a void in one of my cases and had been added for that specific purpose. Sometimes things just work out as they should.

The Preconference itself was very interesting and well run (details here). Of particular interest was an afternoon session of 3 seminars, each with three very young Spec. Coll. librarians presenting papers. As one who spends a lot of time thinking about and working with young collectors, it was great having an opportunity to listen to a few such professionals.

Another highlight, personally, was listening to Sarah Thomas wrap up the event. She is, for those who might not know, is the American Spec. Coll. librarian (last of Cornell) who is now the head of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, a double first (first American, first woman to head the Library). She was brilliant and funny and it was a great end to the formal Preconference.

Saturday night capped the week with a wonderful, if somber, event: Terry Belanger's Farewell event. Terry founded the Rare Book School (based at UVA) and, after 26 years as Director, is stepping down. There was a tribute, where many who know and love Terry spoke followed by a very nice reception. The tribute was wrapped up by RBS's newly anointed Director, Michael Suarez (ex of Fordham and Oxford). It was one of the best written, best presented and funniest toasts I have heard in a long time. I regret I did not record it (Jesuits are just better at such things than most *g*). RBS is, it appears, in very good hands. This is good, as both Suzanne and I will be back in C'ville soon for RBS classes and we look forward to taking many more in years to come.

We drove back in a more more direct fashion. We had planned to take two days, but after getting up to Philly early and touring Independence Hall and the exceptional Mutter Museum, we found that we were really ready to sleep in our own bed and made it home just before midnight on Sunday. It was a very long, intense and very interesting week. The boys were wonderful. We met a lot of great people and really look forward to next year.

Ulysses meets Twitter...

2009-06-23T19:44:00.003-05:00

Two lovers of Joyce's brilliant Ulysses have taken chapter 10, "Wandering Rocks" and adapted it to Twitter. They chose the chapter because it follows 19 Dubliners going about their daily activities.

...have dubbed their performance "Twittering Rocks," a play on the chapter's title that could also mean Twittering is awesome. They have registered 54 of the novel's key characters as Twitter users, and Bogost built a software program that tweets their first-person utterances at the correct moments in the chapter.

See, e.g. http://twitter.com/leopoldbloom; http://twitter.com/StephenDedalus

Quick & Curious Observation

2009-06-20T06:47:00.002-05:00

I've noticed, here at RBMS, that heads of Special Collections tend to
be rather advanced in years or quite young (with many exceptions). I am
curious, however, if there might not be a soft trend where Boards/
Selection Comm. actively seeking 'the next generation' and effectively
skipping a generation of librarians from these roles... Thoughts??? [edited to correct iphone typos...]

Day 2 at RBMS [or] Omnivora-Goddess of Special Collections

2009-06-18T22:13:00.000-05:00

Another great day at RBMS. Interesting conversations,fun people and
best of all (for me) Suzanne arrived. Life is always better when Suz
is near.

Highlight was a wonderful tour of the Small Special Collections
Library. More pictures later

Bookseller Showcase at RBMS09

2009-06-17T22:58:00.000-05:00

What a great day. Theboys and I arrived a bit before 9am in the
pouring rain. The day got steadily better.

The boys were simply outstanding. T1 in his 'Read Joyce' tshirt and
sport coal and T2 in his skulls & crossed bones bowtie (a real one, as
he is pleased to point out)...liked great and behaved better. 13 hours
of extreme goodness is truly above the call.

Met a number of wonderful librarians...saw old friends..,sold some
good books and generally had a great time.

Exhausted. Must to bed be I.

Happy Bloomsday: Rare recording of James Joyce reading

2009-06-16T05:49:00.000-05:00

Boing Boing

Rare recording of James Joyce reading; Happy Bloomsday!

05:03 AM

Original Article
Generated by iNews for iPhone/iPod Touch

NEWS SUMMARY:

Happy Bloomsday! Here's a rare reading of James Joyce performing his own work; as John Naughton notes, "When I first heard it I was astonished to find that he had a broad Irish-country accent. I had always imagined him speaking as a 'Dub' -- i.e. with the accent of most of the street characters in Ulysses."

James Joyce MP3

James Joyce MP3 (mirror)

(via Memex 1.1)

(Image: Revolutionary Joyce Better Contrast.jpg, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

Warm regards,

/ijk

Ian J. Kahn

Lux Mentis, Booksellers

207.329.1469

Member-ABAA/ILAB

Sent from my iPhone

DC to C'ville: RBMS09 continued...

2009-06-15T20:41:00.000-05:00

3 boys loose in DC. Limited time, so we focus on 2 museums and some
vehicular sightseeing.

Started the day with a quick client meeting. Brought a full box for
review and left with none...a nice way to start the day. We then
parked and headed to the Museum of Natural History (photo). Spent
several hours there and then hit the Air & Space Museum. T1&T2 were
remarkalby engaged and good throughout. [many more photos at http://www.facebook.com/iankahn
]

Headed south before rush hour. Nice relaxing evening in C'ville before
the chaos of the next several days.

RBMS Roadtrip underway...

2009-06-14T22:52:00.001-05:00

Things 1 & 2 and I left Sat. and made my sister's my bedtime (dinner
at Rein's en route). Sister et al in Maine, so we had the house to
ourselves. Left for Philly in the morn...after hiding to traditional
Fresh Trout (should be relatively easy to find when they return in a
week or so...)

Philly was great, though we really needed much more time (we are
planning another assault next Sunday). We started at Declaration
House, then the Liberty Bell and Franklin Court.

Lunch was great. The boys had never had Philly Cheese Steaks. We
scoped out what appeared to be the best street vendor on Independance
Square and were not disappointed. T1 deemed it "the best sandwich I've
ever had" & T2 quickly concurred. As luck would have it, there was a
pretty great gay pride/rights parade through the middle on
Independence Square...fun to watch and a good stepping off point to
talk with the boys (as were the handful of intensely hateful
protesters).

We then headed over to the Rosenbach Museum (see image). We were given
a private tour that was the best I've had. The boys were amazing (as
they were all day). They asked great questions and correctly answered
all that our guide threw at them (including several tricky ones). We
picked up a bit of Bloomsday material and headed to the out-laws home
in Annapolis. DC tomorrow.

More thieves benefiting from ebay...

2009-06-10T11:55:00.003-05:00

These thieves are apparently not even bothering to be sneaky (or careful)...just ripping out the textblocks and leaving the debris in dark corners of the library. Annoyed by title, as they are not really vandals, they are thieves. I wager you can (or could have) found the stolen plates on ebay. I wonder how many loose plates sold on ebay are *not* stolen...very few these days, I wager.

10 Best Bookshops in the World...

2009-06-09T09:04:00.004-05:00

The Independent has just posted a list of the 10 "Best Bookshops in the World. There is a brief description of each (all not, not antiquarian). It is quite a list and I must admit to having only set foot in two. All are now added to my "future places to travel" list.

[Updated to fix link]

Great moments in the defense of freedom of speech...

2009-06-08T11:47:00.003-05:00

If you have not seen this, or do not remember it, take the time to watch it again. Frank Zappa defending the First Amendment, specifically rock lyrics, against the narrow minds of Lofton, Braden and Novak. 1986 to 2009...one step forward, three back.

Would a Wordle, by any other name, smell as sweet...

2009-06-06T08:59:00.002-05:00

This is E. A. Poe's, The Raven as a word cloud via Wordle. I am not certain how utilitarian it is, but it makes really pretty pictures from text. Very cool.

Because things are not busy/complex enough...

2009-06-04T07:16:00.002-05:00

We woke this morning, at approximately 3am, to the sound of heavy rain. Startlingly, it did not seem to be coming from the open window next to the bed, but within the house. It is interesting how quickly we went from "deep sleep" to "wildly awake". It turns out the toilet tank on the third floor spontaneously split down the side last night.

The good news is that we had just made it home after being gone for 4 days and it just as easily could have happened on Friday and we'd have arrived home to a catastrophic problem. One has to take one's silver linings where one can...

The bad news is that we have major water damage down three stories (third floor to the basement). It appears we are going to lose part of the second floor bathroom ceiling. There is a great deal of wet horsehair plaster and streaking on several walls where water ran between the floors. We lost a bit of ceiling in the basement, too.

I was *very* lucky as to my shelved books. I lost a set of Little Journeys in limp leather and about a dozen or so other books. However, the water really just ran down one section of the one of the shelving walls and I try not to let things actually touch the wall (something that no book will do in the future). Given that there are about 1500 books on the shelves on the first floor under the natural failure path for water, I am actually very pleased. It could have been so much worse.

That said, the front of the house smells like wet plaster, we have at least one wall that will need to be heavily repaired and probably two ceiling areas. The plumber has already been here and capped the line until we replace the toilet. The insurance human is due soon. Chaos reigns supreme. So much to do already. Urgh.

Cambridge incunabula collection going online...

2009-06-04T07:01:00.002-05:00

A remarkable collection of incunabula is being digitized and coming online from Cambridge University Library.

Very few records of the Library's 4,650 treasures are currently in its online catalogue, which means that they are often invisible to scholars and students - both in Cambridge and around the world.

It is told that their copy of the Gutenberg Bible arrived on morning in 1930 when a man stepped out of a taxi and told the library he had a bible he would like to give them...

Can't wait to see the results of this project.

Teaser...

2009-06-03T13:30:00.001-05:00

Recognize the document or handwriting? Doesn't count if you are one of
the few who've seen it...

Seriously bad blogger...

2009-06-03T13:09:00.002-05:00

I have been far too busy of late, it seems, to have time to post more than 140 characters. Quite pathetic. I've had several things arrive that have taken a great deal of research and cataloguing time. Partially drafted posts notwithstanding, I apologize, loyal readers. As I now have a dozen emails along the lines of "are you dead or just lazy?", I thought I should throw up a missive.

Substantive posting will recommence momentarily. Also embarking on long travel jaunt with Thing 1 and Thing 2 with a heavy biblio/museum component. Should be highly entertaining for me and properly torturous for the boys. More to follow....really...

Apple says no to Proj. Gut. app because the db includes..

2009-05-22T14:05:00.004-05:00

the Kama Sutra. It appears Wired broke the story about this inexplicable denial. The app, Eucalyptus, was created by Project Gutenberg and therein rest the "problem". The app does not come with any books, you search PG's database and download whatever you want to read.

Among PG's vast db of public domain books is the Kama Sutra, and Apple claims this work, first compiled in the second century CE contains "inappropriate sexual content" [N.B. I assume the PG version is the 1883 "Burton" edition and not the recent 2002 "scholarly translation"].

The interesting issue here is that Apple is precluding it NOT for something "in it", but something obtainable *through* it. Doesn't this mean that Google and all other "search-y" apps need to be blocked as they can "find" dirty text and pictures??? It appears that PG has coded a filter to protect iPhone users from the Kama Sutra and hopes to get the app approved....at least those who don't know how to use Google...or Safari. Oh, wait....hmmm. [Thnx to @ncacensorship]

Censorship, Stupidity, Viruses and Immune Systems...

2009-05-18T23:13:00.004-05:00

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."—Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas," The One Un-American Act." Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.

There has been an annoying spat of censorship events at various schools recently. The most recent was twitted about by He With His Finger On The Pulse Of All Things Biblio, M. Lieberman of BookPatrol. The story revolves around a teen poetry anthology (POETRY...being read by TEENS. Holy crap) called Paint Me Like I Am:

Paint Me Like I Am is a collection of poems by teens who have taken part in writing programs run by a national nonprofit organization called WritersCorps. To read the words of these young people is to hear the diverse voices of teenagers everywhere.

Unfortunately, "[t]o read the words of these young people" has apparently offended ONE mother of a teen who complained of the Superintendent of the Vineland, NJ school her son attends. Sup. Charles Ottinger read the offending poem and said "in no way, shape or form" should the book be allowed on school shelves. The principle did an interesting, though also egregious, thing in that rather than complying with the Super's order to pull the book, he TORE OUT THE TWO PAGES that contained the offending poem so the rest of the book could be shelved for student use. [Side note, while I appreciate the Solomonetic approach of splitting the proverbial book...tearing pages out is a rather lame solution. You are *still* censoring the book *AND* you have mutilated the book itself.] The poem, which I have tragically failed to find in full online, is apparently laden with "bad words" and written from the point of view of a drunken abusive step-father...arguably not a "happy, shiny people" piece.

I am tired of the Lowest Common Denominator being allowed to define and direct our schools and libraries (and government, but that is another rant). One person complains about a given book [or books] and FAR too many schools/libraries are willing to just roll over and pull the material. Sometimes it is because the administrator is of an equally small mind but more often than not, I wager, it is because it is just not seen as a fight worth having. I suggest that it is a fight worth having...to fail in this fight is to guarantee the ascendance of mediocrity and the rule of the narrowest mind.

Children do not need to be protected from challenging material, they need *context*. They do not need to be told they are not able/old enough/mature enough to read certain things, they need the intellectual guidance to *understand* the material as written. To refuse the exposure doesn't "protect" a child, it denies from the child a necessary skillset for adult life...the ability to read, absorb, contemplate and embody challenging ideas...in all their forms.

A virus analogy is quite apt. It is well established that our over-use of certain antibiotics in children has lead to not only to the evolution of drug-resistant bugs but, far more dangerous, the impairment of kids/young adults immune systems to be able to fight common bugs. Kids *need* to get sick...because it is by exposure/illness that the body builds antibodies to fight future infections. We make kids *more* susceptible to *serious* illness by denying them the ability to get sick now and again and, thereby, allowing them to build up antibodies.

Reading...the exposure to the ideas embodied in books...works on the mind in much the same way. The more you read, the greater your ability to comprehend complex/difficult/challenging material in all forms. Context is the critical variable...obviously there is a burden put upon parents (and teacher, etc) to help kids understand the things they read, *especially* when that material upsets or troubles them. But is is through that process of getting upset and resolving those feelings that a child *learns*. Denying children challenging material is simply to deny them the ability to learn.

Children are not infants. They do not need to be protected from the likes of the Brothers Grimm; the racism of Huckleberry Finn or the violence of Lord of the Flies or the language in Of Mice and Men. They need context. They need to be able to read these things and talk about them...with parents, teachers and peers. They embody the things they read and it makes them stronger...and smarter...and able to process bigger, more complex challenges down the road.

Treating kids like they need to be protected from any thought or idea that might challenge/offend/frighten them serves *no* purpose but to impair their ability to rationally analyze the data that bombards them every day. Dumbing down our books and, worse, dumbing down our libraries does nothing but dumb down our children. They deserve better. They *need* better.

At a time when the world is becoming more complex and arguably more dangerous, there are far too many people doing all they can to impair the next generation's ability to analyze and rationalize. Dogmatically held positions are held sacrosanct and those that dare challenge them with logical analysis are dismissed as "elitist". We need kids to read more...to be exposed to more...to build up the intellectual capacity to combat the myopic worldview that is becoming far too prevalent.

It's 215am...I am confident I should read the above and edit out 1/2 or so...but I wont. I'm tired. It is all Brian Cassidy's fault, for telling me to blog my rant after I had twitted about it. If you are interested, see the ALA's Censorship in the Schools resources and definitely bookmark Blogging Censorship. In the end, I'm with Oscar Wilde:

There is no such thing as a moral book or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.

Selling off Spec. Coll. books for fundraising. Many moving parts...

2009-05-14T10:39:00.002-05:00

Two of my favorite bibli-bloggers have posted on the recent USF sale of material from their collection. PhiloBiblos and BookPatrol have written well crafted articles on the issues, with notable differences...both should be read.

I've nothing to add as to facts and the over-arching issues. Personally, I think such sales are likely to be short-sighted solutions to much deeper issues and are unlikely to serve a useful long-term goals. That said, such efforts can certainly raise considerable sums and one has to think that such efforts are not pursued lightly. But then, broader issues sometimes fall to the wayside.

The most famous of these revolves around the Bodeian's First Folio. It entered the library in 1623 and was sold to a local Oxford bookseller in 1663-4 as part of a small collection of "superfluous library books sold by order of the Curators" for £24. "Superfluous" because the Bodleian had purchased a Second Folio, thought to be "better" and thus, the first was just taking up space. Sir. W. Osler spearheaded the campaign around the turn of the 20th century, to bring the Bodleian's copy back to the library (to the tune of approx. £3000).

I am not certain there *is* a right answer. There are a variety of issues in play and the balance can very greatly. In the end, it is hard to argue that having things come back to the market...to enter private collections and/or other special collections...is not good for the book trade as a whole. The next several months should be interesting....

Reread by accident, repeatedly... (and you?)

2009-05-13T13:35:00.002-05:00

I have a question for you: What book (or books) have you rereadby accident? That is, what have you reread only because you did not remember reading it in the first place? On a related note, how many times have you done such a thing?

I do this a fair bit, as I read *very* quickly and will often am about half-way through before it dawns on me that I've read it before...by which point I figure I should just go ahead and finish it. My record is Robert Heinlein's, Friday. I have reread it 3 times by accident [and once on purpose].

I read it as a teenager when it was released in 1982. I was in a airport several years later and saw a copy as a massmarket paperback. I read the back, it sounded good (and range no bells), so I picked it up. Several hours into the trip, I realized I had read it but zipped through to the end. About a decade later, I saw a "new" trade paperback edition (again in an airport) of a book called "Friday". It range a vague bell, but when I read the description, it didn't resonate. Again, somewhere over the midwest, I realized I had read it...and realized I had done this before .

Finally, I was picking up some trip reading (there is, undoubtedly, a theme here with my lowered focus at/around flying) at a used bookshop and saw a 20th anniv. edition (or some such thing) for a book called "Friday" that range a vague bell...but not enough that I did not stand there and think, "how could I have missed this, it is right up my alley and I've read so much bloody Heinlein". Again, well into the flight before I realized that this was the same tale that had hooked me repeatedly.

I reread it in the last year or so...this time on purpose. That one doesn't count. Can you beat that number? I've read Friday 5 times....only twice on purpose. Sad. Very sad.

Bibliomania, concealed books, the most fun I've had in a long time

2009-05-09T19:23:00.004-05:00

I have spent the last several weeks working on a project that has been remarkably interesting. The collector was a bibliomanic, in the classic sense. He was a historian, an archivist and a passionate book collector. He also evolved into an obsessive collector.

The house has approximately 200 linear feet of bookshelves. Using the traditional average of 10/linear foot, there should be about 2000 books or so in the house. Except there were not...there were more...lots and lots more.

After retirement, he began began as series of remodeling and/or cabinetmaking projects. He was quite good. His wife knew he was an avid

collector. Perhaps a bit too avid, but she limited him to his library and his bedroom and one or two other limited areas.

What his wife never knew, until very recently, is that...when she was out...he filled the knee-walls on the third floor with carefully packed boxes of books. He filled more than one concealed room in the basement with carefully packed boxes of books. Best of all, he built concealed places into several places in the house to hide his gems.

All told, it appears there were at least 15,000 books and very likely +/-20,000 in the house. That is, about 10 to 1 what one would expect to find. His family remains baffled as to when and how he

managed to get all these books into the house...how he managed to bring in the dozens and dozens of packing crates into which he packed his books...how no one knew.

The pictures show two of the spaces. The first is a hinged door, built into the side of a vent baffle under bookcases in his office. There is a magnet closure that keeps the door shut tight. The space behind it is about 6 inches high, 12 inches deep and about 2.5 feet deep.

The other three pictures show my favorite (thus far). When you remove the bottom drawer of the built in china cabinet he built approximately 25 years ago, you discover a solid base. The base

plates have no movement and appear to be nailed down. It is only when you carefully remove the little spacer between the two plates (seen in the second and third image on the front plate) that the plates can be effortlessly removed. It is simple and elegant and created a cavernous space behind the baseboard.

There have been some great books, though the signal to noise ratio is definitely high. More than anything, however, it has just been wonderful to spend time exploring this collector's life, habits and passion. It has been an adventure I will never forget and has given me a slew of stories I'll be telling...well...forever. Still a ways to go with this, though the heavy lifting is done. I'll be posting in a bit about a few of the things that were part of the collection. I have had *way* too much fun. [N.B. I secured express permission from the family to post about this adventure.]

The Bodleian Bans Stepladders...

2009-05-08T17:33:00.002-05:00

From the "I really hope this is a joke" file: Due to safety concerns, Oxford has banned stepladders at the Bodleian Library. This, while relatively silly on its face, is made truly bizarre with the apparent decision "refusing to move the books from their 'original historic location'".

As a result, much of what is out of reach is...well...out of reach. Students are, according to the article, being forced to go elsewhere to secure working copies.

Stepladders have been in use at the Bodleian for the last 400 years or so...any statistics on injuries and, dare I say it, deaths???