[JHRB News] Newsletter for July 20th, 2004
Joslin Hall Rare Books
office at joslinhall.com
Tue Jul 20 13:25:59 EDT 2004
SPEAKING OF BOOKS
_____________________________________
The Joslin Hall Rare Books Newsletter
July 20th, 2004
To read an illustrated version, go to
<http://www.joslinhall.com/speaking_current.htm>
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The Book Elves all stayed up late to watch the Red Sox games on the West
Coast this weekend (somehow they began and ended the weekend in the same
place in the standings -what's up with that?). When the Book Elves watch
late-night ball games there's usually lots of popcorn and soda cans flying
around, so Amy and I hightailed it up to Vermont, to stay a few nights at
the Seth Warner Inn in Manchester. <http://www.sethwarnerinn1.prodigybiz.com>
If you stay there ask Stasia, the owner, about picking blueberries and
raspberries (in season) or anything else going on in Manchester. She's also
glad to share from her store of knowledge about Vermont lore and history.
The Inn has wonderfully decorated rooms and great breakfasts, as well as a
long, painting-filled living room where you can sip wine (you can bring
your own and keep it in the fridge) and converse with your fellow
vacationers, play chess in the library, or relax on the deck in front of
the duck pond, before driving the five minutes into Manchester to explore
the many restaurants there.
If you visit, be sure and stop about a hundred yards down the road at
"Hildene", the former home of Robert Todd Lincoln, the only surviving son
of Abraham Lincoln. This estate and its gardens have been lovingly
restored, and is a wonderful place to spend a morning or afternoon
wandering around... . Right now they have a Civil War exhibit in place on
the 2nd floor which features the 5th Vermont Brigade. You can also see one
of Abraham Lincoln's few authenticated hats. This one has a small black,
silk ribbon around the base, which marks it as the one he wore when he gave
the Gettysburg Address. Hildene <http://www.hildene.org> will have a Civil
War encampment at the end of July and a Cavalry encampment at the beginning
of September, and the Seth Warner Inn is always open...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
NEW ON THE WEBSITE
Our Just Catalogued pages have just been updated.
<http://www.joslinhall.com/justcat.htm>
We have a good selection of books about antiques, including furniture,
silver, ceramics, fakes & forgery, and much more. There is also some
interesting Massachusetts-related history, including a nice 1912 study of
the April 19th battles in Lexington and Concord, and some Cambridge-related
items.
Other highlights include:
- An 1851 guide to Copp's Hill Burying Ground in Boston, and an 1839 guide
to Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mount Auburn is one
of the oldest garden cemeteries in America, and opened in 1831, just a few
years before this guidebook was published.
- An interesting copy of Brigham's classic work "Paul Revere's Engravings",
inscribed to Francis Henry Taylor, former Director of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art.
- A nicely bound set of John Addington Symonds translation of Benvenuto
Cellini's masterful autobiography. Cellini, the famous Florentine
goldsmith, was observant, shrewd, witty, bawdy, and vain, and his book
continues to shine and entertain centuries after he put pen to paper.
- The first German edition of Luke Vincent Lockwood's "Colonial Furniture
in America", an odd book for the furniture collector who has everything else.
- Several interesting books about early printing in Britain, including a
nice copy of Plomers' "Abstracts from the Wills of English Printers and
Stationers from 1492 to 1630", nicely bound by Zaehnsdorf.
- A lovely copy of the important 1924 Burlington Club exhibition of fakes
and forgeries.
- A nice copy of the 1948 Walpole Society Note Book, with sample paint
chips from historic Virginia houses.
... and much more!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
- - - - - FREE BOOKS - - - -
I found these in a box; I don't really want to sell them, but thought
someone might like to have them- a small group of pamphlets about Florida
and England- "British Pensacola 1763-1781" by Robert Rea (1974); "A Guide
to Florida's Museums" (1977); "Westminster Abbey" (1972); "King's Lynn
Regalia" (1977); "Looking at Lynn" (1979); and "An Introduction to the
Black Fens" by Mason (1973). If you would like these send us an email at
<office at joslinhall.com> with the subject line "England". We only have one
set of these, so we will randomly draw the name of one of you on Thursday
and send them out to the lucky winner!
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FEATURED ARTICLE
Still a Star after all these years...
The Magic of the Britannica 11
Among all my reference books, there is one standout, a star, a work that
retains its dusty luster and a fierce band of loyal adherents almost a
hundred years after it was published. This book is the so-called
"Britannica 11", or the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica,
published in 1910 and 1911. It is the ultimate encyclopedia, for once and
all time, and although it is nearly 100 years old, weighs about 75 pounds
and takes up nearly 3 feet of shelf space, its' owners are all swear they
would never dream of parting with their set...
Read more here - <http://www.joslinhall.com/britannica.htm>
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OUR CURRENT PRINTED CATALOG
"SUMMERTIME" Recent Acquisitions and other interesting books for Summer,
2004 features 263 books and is now available. Send us your mailing address
at <betty at joslinhall.com>if you would like a free copy.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
UPCOMING CATALOG
FAKES, FRAUDS & FORGERY - Our new catalog of fakes, frauds and forgeries
will be released later this Summer. This catalog will feature books on art
and antique fakes and fraud, as well as literary forgery, counterfeiting,
exploration hoaxes, nefarious imposters with devious intent, and much, much
more.
Send us your mailing address at <betty at joslinhall.com> if you would like a
free copy.
_____________________________________________
"According to the enlarged edition of his oeuvre catalogue,
Corot painted over two thousand pictures. Of these, more
than five thousand are in the United States."
-Frank Arnau, The Art of the Faker
_____________________________________________
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- - - - - FREE BOOK - - - -
Here's something fun- "The Investor's Guide to Undervalued Art & Antiques"
by Jim Powell, 1983. This is one of those "Alan the Airline pilot bought a
painting for $40 and sold it for $1000 and asked himself 'what am I flying
jumbo jets for?', and he became a successful art dealer." type
books. Well, yeah... sure he did. Still, these books are entertaining
reading, and it's always interesting to see what was being touted as
"Undervalued" in 1983 (brilliant cut glass, art pottery, 19th century
French bronzes and mission oak furniture, among others).
If you would like this, send us an email at <office at joslinhall.com> with
the subject line "Art". We only have one copy, so we will randomly draw
the name of one of you on Thursday and send it out to the lucky (?)
winner! And, if you end up making a million bucks from reading this, a
small gratuity would not be unappreciated...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
INTERNET NEWS
English Trade Directories on the Web? Yes! The University of Leicester
Digital Library of Historical Directories is a great new resource, and they
explain it better than I could-
"The University of Leicester's New Opportunities Fund project is creating a
digital library of eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century local
and trade directories from England and Wales. Directories of counties and
towns are among the most important sources for local and genealogical
studies. They include lists of names, addresses and occupations of the
inhabitants of the counties and towns they describe, and successive
editions reflect the changes in the localities over a period of time. High
quality digital reproductions of a large selection of these comparatively
rare books, previously only found in libraries and record offices, will be
freely available online to anyone with an Internet connection. This online
collection will bring together a greater number and range of directories
than any one repository could provide. There is also a powerful search
engine available so that names, occupations, addresses and other key words
or phrases can be located to their exact places on pages within the text."
Cool!
Their website is at <http://www.historicaldirectories.org>
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BOOK NEWS
As we approach the 150th anniversary of the publication of Henry David
Thoreau's "Walden" next month, a part of the historic original manuscript
has been put on display at the Thoreau Institute near Walden Pond in
Concord. The manuscript, along with most of Thoreau's papers, is owned by
the Huntington Library in California, but a portion of the 7th draft,
"Version G", was loaned to the Institute for the anniversary, and can be
seen at the Museum. Read the full story from the Boston Globe here-
<http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/07/20/for_lovers_of_w
alden_a_glimpse_of_the_artists_hand/>
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
- - - - - FREE BOOK - - - -
More Summer reading! "The Facts in the Case of E.A. Poe -A Novel" by
Andrew Sinclair (Holt: 1979). E.A. Pons lives a quiet life, working for a
New York publisher. But he is convinced that he is EdgarAllan Poe. He
looks like Poe, dresses like Poe, and knows Poe's works by
heart. Eventually his obsession reaches such proportions that he turns
for help to the only Manhattan psychiatrist who shares a name with Poe's
famous detective -Dupin. "Sinclair weaves a detective story in which
Pons/Poe is both the perpetrator and the victim, the stalker and the
stalked". If you would like this, send us an email at
<office at joslinhall.com> with the subject line "Poe". We only have one
copy, so we will randomly draw the name of one of you on Thursday and send
it out to the lucky winner!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
SUMMERTIME...
What's the link between food and books? Well, for one, most "foodies" get
almost as much pleasure reading about food as eating it. More than a fair
share of my bookie friends are also into food, and vice-versa. And I
suppose that many of us have at one time or another read during
meals... One Summertime food we touched on last week was corn, the first
corn of the season. Really good corn, fresh and cold from the field, is
one of the best foods around, but to get the most out of it, you need to
treat it with care.
First, corn should be kept cold, from the field to the boiling pot. When
it gets warm those sugars begin converting to starch, and the flavor
disappears. If you can, avoid supermarket corn (which has not usually been
kept cool), and go to a farmstand instead. If you live in the city as I
do, go to your weekely farmer's market. Go early. Find ears that are
still cool from the field. You do not need to spend a lot of time peeling
back the ears to look inside. Look for ears that are well formed, plump,
and have all brown tassles, and have no outward evidence of insect or borer
damage. If you do this, 99% of your ears will be just fine. Get them home
quickly, and put them in the refrigerator, and do not take them out again
until you are ready to boil them. Corn kept cool can easily last three or
four days. It's best on the first day, but it can last a bit longer. When
you shuck it, do not break the stem off at the ear. If you do that, what
do you then have to hold onto? Take a sharp knife and make a score around
the stem an inch or two from the ear, and snap it off at that point,
leaving a "handle". It makes eating much easier.
Plop the corn into boiling water and boil it for 3-5 minutes. Remove the
ears and cover them with a heavy towel to keep the heat in, and eat them
before they cool. The sweet, tender kernels will POP in your mouth. I
learned these rules from my great-grandfather and father up in New
Hampshire when I was no more than four. It's never too early to teach
young ones about the proper way to treat vegetables... various people have
suggested that I am somewhat obsessive on the subject of corn; the words
"fanatical" and "pedantic" have also been used, but that's always *before*
they taste it when done this way. Like the song says in "West Side Story"
- Keep Cool, Boy!
_________________________________
That's going to do it for today. I hope you find some interesting books on
our Just Catalogued pages, <http://www.joslinhall.com/justcat.htm> , and
now I have to go shuck corn...
-Forrest
JOSLIN HALL RARE BOOKS, ABAA
Fine books of the 16th-20th centuries
Post Office Box 516, Concord, Massachusetts 01742 USA
telephone (617) 492-5367
email <office at joslinhall.com>;
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