My Books in Afternoon Sun 2........ A Guide to Caper
The book sticking out is one of my favorites: A Guide to Caper by Thomas Bodkin (the author) & Denis Eden (the artist).
Here are favorite passages - from the introduction:
"When I was a young boy, about a year younger than you are now, I owned a PRECIOUS BOOK. For years it was my chief pleasure and joy, and might still be so had it not disappeared when I left home for school. I thought, and still think, that it was then stolen by some person of high taste and low character who had, perhaps, waited during years for such an opportunity. It has ,in all probability, fallen to pieces long ago; for it was worn and fragile when I last saw it. Yet, in my mind's eye, I can see it still, as exquisite and desirable as ever.
"It was bound in a red like the red of a new pillar-box or the best, fresh blood. 'Officer's Scarlet' was the name of the colour.
"On the cover sprawled splendid silvern letters, drunken yet majestic, that shouted 'Souvenir of ____' I forget the place. It was a spa, anyhow.... When you opened my book, which was fat, you were always astonished to find that it contained but a single page. What a page that was! In length, it stretched right from the schoolroom fireplace to well under the table opposite. It began the moment you opened the front cover and ended just inside the edge of the back. It needed some management, for it was prone to burst, like a ginger-beer from a bottle, and flow all over the place. But with a little coaxing it would fold up again, like an accordion or a concertina, and go back quietly into retirement....
"There was scarcely anything but pictures in my book, not a trace of a story, not a word of print beyond the short descriptions under each picture... printed in a beautiful kind of purple-brown ink, very dark, on shiny cream-coloured paper, and each picture had a bright red line around it....
"A special charm of these pictures was their delicious smell. I never come across pictures nowadays that smell like them. Sometimes it would be like warm milk just come from the cow. Another time it was like a Japanese card tray that stood on our hall table and gave out a beautiful perfume when you rubbed it hard. It would remind you of sealing wax or of varnish. On a very fine day all these smells would be deliciously mixed up together to make the special smell of the book...."
There's much, much more like this. It gets my sense of whimsy and wonder drooling. The author (referring to the illustrator as well) says "We call this book a Guide to Caper because we couldn't think of a better name; though we know it's not exactly a guide, because we can't quite explain how you get there."
In the manner of precious books and their worlds of lost yearning, there's this hint, at least, at how to really find your way...
"It would be pleasant enough to be locked up in Caper for a long time, but no fun at all to be locked out. So Eden has made an exact picture of the key which opens the gates, and it would be well for the intending traveler to Caper to get one of the kind made, in case he might have occasion to use it. The cost could not be more than three pence. The picture is on the title page...."
And there's testimony as to how someone actually did get there....
"Well, one fine day, as I was rather sad, thinking about my vanished book and about that mysterious lost town, I wandered down a little country track which got broader and broader, and smoother and smoother, all grass under foot and flowers of every sort on both sides, and twistier and twistier, and steeper and steeper, until I was running down it and couldn't stop myself. I did not want to stop myself - not a bit - I was eager to go on to the end of that astonishingly fine track. Occasionally at its corners I could see little dull, pebbly paths, leading up hill, very straight and narrow, and pointing along each one was a sign-post with the words 'THE RIGHT DIRECTION' printed on it in large letters. I never paid the least attention to them, for these little paths all looked most horribly dusty. In less than no time I came to the bottom of my road, and there opposite me I saw the Great Main Eastern Gate of the Town of Caper...."
A Guide to Caper by Thomas Bodkin and Denis Eden... If you ever run across a copy, maybe you'll find your way to Caper too... :)
For a look at an page of the book, click here.
My Books in Afternoon Sun 2........ A Guide to Caper
The book sticking out is one of my favorites: A Guide to Caper by Thomas Bodkin (the author) & Denis Eden (the artist).
Here are favorite passages - from the introduction:
"When I was a young boy, about a year younger than you are now, I owned a PRECIOUS BOOK. For years it was my chief pleasure and joy, and might still be so had it not disappeared when I left home for school. I thought, and still think, that it was then stolen by some person of high taste and low character who had, perhaps, waited during years for such an opportunity. It has ,in all probability, fallen to pieces long ago; for it was worn and fragile when I last saw it. Yet, in my mind's eye, I can see it still, as exquisite and desirable as ever.
"It was bound in a red like the red of a new pillar-box or the best, fresh blood. 'Officer's Scarlet' was the name of the colour.
"On the cover sprawled splendid silvern letters, drunken yet majestic, that shouted 'Souvenir of ____' I forget the place. It was a spa, anyhow.... When you opened my book, which was fat, you were always astonished to find that it contained but a single page. What a page that was! In length, it stretched right from the schoolroom fireplace to well under the table opposite. It began the moment you opened the front cover and ended just inside the edge of the back. It needed some management, for it was prone to burst, like a ginger-beer from a bottle, and flow all over the place. But with a little coaxing it would fold up again, like an accordion or a concertina, and go back quietly into retirement....
"There was scarcely anything but pictures in my book, not a trace of a story, not a word of print beyond the short descriptions under each picture... printed in a beautiful kind of purple-brown ink, very dark, on shiny cream-coloured paper, and each picture had a bright red line around it....
"A special charm of these pictures was their delicious smell. I never come across pictures nowadays that smell like them. Sometimes it would be like warm milk just come from the cow. Another time it was like a Japanese card tray that stood on our hall table and gave out a beautiful perfume when you rubbed it hard. It would remind you of sealing wax or of varnish. On a very fine day all these smells would be deliciously mixed up together to make the special smell of the book...."
There's much, much more like this. It gets my sense of whimsy and wonder drooling. The author (referring to the illustrator as well) says "We call this book a Guide to Caper because we couldn't think of a better name; though we know it's not exactly a guide, because we can't quite explain how you get there."
In the manner of precious books and their worlds of lost yearning, there's this hint, at least, at how to really find your way...
"It would be pleasant enough to be locked up in Caper for a long time, but no fun at all to be locked out. So Eden has made an exact picture of the key which opens the gates, and it would be well for the intending traveler to Caper to get one of the kind made, in case he might have occasion to use it. The cost could not be more than three pence. The picture is on the title page...."
And there's testimony as to how someone actually did get there....
"Well, one fine day, as I was rather sad, thinking about my vanished book and about that mysterious lost town, I wandered down a little country track which got broader and broader, and smoother and smoother, all grass under foot and flowers of every sort on both sides, and twistier and twistier, and steeper and steeper, until I was running down it and couldn't stop myself. I did not want to stop myself - not a bit - I was eager to go on to the end of that astonishingly fine track. Occasionally at its corners I could see little dull, pebbly paths, leading up hill, very straight and narrow, and pointing along each one was a sign-post with the words 'THE RIGHT DIRECTION' printed on it in large letters. I never paid the least attention to them, for these little paths all looked most horribly dusty. In less than no time I came to the bottom of my road, and there opposite me I saw the Great Main Eastern Gate of the Town of Caper...."
A Guide to Caper by Thomas Bodkin and Denis Eden... If you ever run across a copy, maybe you'll find your way to Caper too... :)
For a look at an page of the book, click here.