SPEAKING
of Books... SPEAKING
of Books...
The Joslin Hall Rare Books Newsletter
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October 27th, 2004
| Well, as you might expect, the Book Elves have been just about beside themselves while Curt Schilling and the rest of the Boston Red Sox wend their way through the playoffs and World Series. There have been long nights the last several weeks in the Cataloging Cave, and plenty of bleary, sleepy eyes each morning. So each morning we sweep up the popcorn and chip crumbs, tack the red-white-and-blue bunting back up, and stagger through another day as we prepare for the next game. I'm also getting some hot milk and brandy ready just in case the Sox win It All (or even, *shudder*, lose It All (gulp). Hysterical Book Elves are not a pretty sight... and we had a heckuva time replacing the chandelier after last season’s SuperDooperBowl victory party. |  |
- - - - - - - - - - NEW ON THE WEBSITE - - - - - - - - - -
Despite being sleep-deprived and emotionally drained by the BoSox epic saga, the Book Elves have managed to restock our Just Catalogued pages and post them on the website. We have a good selection of books about antiques, including furniture, folk art, silver, ceramics, glass, and a smattering of other interesting things.
Highlights include -
* George Munson Curtis's rare 1911 booklet on Connecticut Silversmiths, one of the earliest and rarest books on American silver marks.
* Helen Burr Smith's rare 1940s compilation of her silver articles for the New York Sun.
* an interesting 1897 silk trade directory.
* a very scarce 1955 exhibition catalog of New Jersey stoneware.
* a nicely leatherbound copy of Lubke's 1871 study of German ecclesiastical art of the Middle Ages.
* An elaborately-bound 1841 commemorative volume celebrating George Washington.
* The scarce memorial volume naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison published in honor of his wife.
... and much more!
- - - - - - - - - UPCOMING CATALOG - - - - - - - - -
Election Day is coming up and I know what you are all worrying about - not having reading material to get you "in the mood" next Tuesday. So we are trying to help with our new printed list-
AMERICANA A selection of books on Americana suggested by, or touching on (however tenuously), American politics, history, and other tidbits. We tried to have a bit of fun with this one, and subject headers include- Advice (Good), for Candidates- Congress, insulting members of- Personality Clashes, unfortunate outcomes of- Politicians, Two-Dimensionality of- Voters, Places there probably weren't any- |
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and so on... As an added incentive, if you call your order in on Election Day and tell us that you have voted we will give you a 20% "Good American Do Bee" discount. Doesn't matter who you vote for -Bush, Kerry, Cobb, Badnarik, Nader - you can even write in your Uncle Ralph from Tacoma if you want... This is a printed catalog, so please send us your mailing address to receive your free copy.
- - - - - - - - BOOK NEWS - - - - - - - -
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October 28th is English novelist Evelyn
Waugh's birthday. Perhaps best known for his famous "Brideshead Revisited",
Waugh’s relentless pen exposed the comic-tragic underbelly of the British Upper Class
and a multitude of other aspects of British life in the 1930s, such as public schools and
colonialism, in novels like "Vile Bodies", "Scoop", and "A
Handful of Dust". His travel books are also well worth reading, as is his penultimate
trilogy, “Men at Arms”, “Officers and Gentlemen”, and
“Unconditional Surrender”. And perhaps no writer has written about his own inner
demons with quite the self-deprecating wit that Waugh did in “The Ordeal of Gilbert
Pinfold”.
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| Waugh fans looking to buy themselves a
present to celebrate Waugh's birthday might consider Piers Court in Gloucestershire, the
ancient manor house Waugh and his 2nd wife Laura Herbert lived in from 1937 to 1956, which
has just come on the market. Listed at £2.75 million, Waugh wrote many novels,
including "Scoop" and "Men at Arms" in the library at the house,
although that room was dismantled and sent to an American museum several years ago.
Waugh's handwriting can still be seen on notes above some of the bins in the wine cellar. |
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You can make it a Waugh Weekend by going to see the new movie "Bright Young Things", an adaptation of his 1930 novel "Vile Bodies" which is getting good reviews, and features Dan Ackroyd, Peter O'Toole and Stockard Channing, among others...
One of the best Waugh websites, with much interesting information and also links to other sites, is “Doubting Hall”. Or you can get in on the ground floor, so to speak, of the newly forming “Evelyn Waugh Society” This international society is being formed “with the object of advancing research and interest in the life and works of Evelyn Waugh”, and they are accepting “Founding Member” memberships through April, 2005.
- - - - - - - UPCOMING CATALOG - - - - - - -
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FAKES, FRAUDS
& FORGERY Our new catalog of fakes, frauds and forgeries will be released later this Fall. 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 if you would like a free copy.
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"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
That's going to do it for today. I hope you find some interesting books on our Just Catalogued pages
. Now I have to go and buy more supplies for tonight’s game, and apparently if I don't buy the exact same brand of chips, soda and popcorn that we've been eating up till now, if the Sox lose it will be all my fault.
The pressure...
-Forrest
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