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Written by William Shakespeare, published in 1623. View all four folios at digital.lib.MiamiOH.edu/folios.
This vintage 1960s hardback children's book by Janosch makes a strong case against war. The story is about Bollerbam, a gunner and bodyguard of King Bimbam of Margarine. Bollerbam is the key combatant in an armed conflict until a peace-loving bird, failing to dissuade him, grants him the one wish... Janosch, born as Horst Eckert on 11 March 1931) is a German children's author and illustrator.
Martha Endell attempts to overhear Mr. Peggotty reading to David the letters from Em'ly, Mr. Peggotty's orphaned niece and David's childhood sweetheart. Em'ly was seduced by and ran away with the selfish James Steerforth, who later deserts her.
“David Copperfield” is one of Dickens’ most popular and critically acclaimed novels. The story follows David’s life from childhood to maturity and many of its elements follow events in Dickens’ own life, especially in the early chapters describing David’s provincial upbringing. The story is filled with vivid characters such as Uriah Heep, Mr. Micawber, the Pegottys, and eccentric Aunt Betsey and it ranks as the finest of Dickens’ works. “Of all my books,” Dickens wrote in the preface to the 1867 edition, “I like this the best… like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield.”
Publisher Bradbury & Evans first released the story in monthly parts from May, 1849 through November, 1850, and in book form in 1850. The text was embellished with full-page, black & white engravings by H. K. Browne (“Phiz”). Subscribers who wished a hardcover edition for their libraries would either purchase a copy from the publisher when available or have the serial parts bound into book form, often in leather.
“Captains Courageous” is a coming-of-age tale of fishing off the New England coast. It is the story of Harvey Cheyne, a spoiled rich kid, who stumbles overboard an ocean liner and is rescued by fisherman Manuel Fidello off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and brought aboard a small fishing boat. There he meets Disko Troop, captain of the fishing boat, who refuses to take the young man back to port but agrees to take him on as part of the crew against Harvey’s wishes. Over the course of the novel, Harvey befriends the captain’s son Dan and has some sense knocked into him. Dan helps the arrogant, overly pampered Harvey become a hard-working, self-reliant man at sea.
“Captains Courageous” is also an excellent portrayal of life in the Gloucester fishing fleet of Massachusetts, written while the newlywed Kipling lived in Vermont. Although Kipling lived in Vermont several years and was married to an American this is his only novel with entirely American settings, themes and major characters. The American edition of the book is dedicated to James Conland, M.D., of Brattleboro, Vermont. Dr. Conland had brought the Kiplings elder daughter into the world and had been a member of the Massachusetts fishing fleet. It is he who took Kipling to explore the wharves and quays of Boston and Gloucester.
Considered one of the great sea novels of the 19th century, “Captains Courageous” was made into an excellent Victor Fleming film in 1937 starring Freddie Bartholomew (Harvey Cheyne), Spencer Tracy (his rescuer Manuel Fidello),
Lionel Barrymore (Captain Disko Troop) and Mickey Rooney (Dan Troop).
Percival Lowell (1855-1916) was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars. In 1894, he chose Flagstaff, Arizona as the home of his new observatory, the now famous Lowell Observatory. For the next fifteen years, he studied Mars extensively, and made intricate drawings of the surface markings as he perceived them. He was particularly interested in the canals of Mars, as drawn by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who was director of the Milan Observatory. Lowell published his views in three books: “Mars” (1895), “Mars and Its Canals” (1906), and “Mars As the Abode of Life” (1908).
Lowell’s works include a full account of the “canals,” single and double, the “oases,” as he termed the dark spots at their intersections, and the varying visibility of both, depending partly on the Martian seasons. He theorized that an advanced but desperate culture had built the canals to tap Mars’ polar ice caps, the last source of water on an inexorably drying planet.
While this idea excited the public, the astronomical community was skeptical. Many astronomers could not see these markings, and few believed that they were as extensive as Lowell claimed. In 1909 the sixty-inch Mount Wilson Observatory telescope in Southern California allowed closer observation of the structures Lowell had interpreted as canals, and revealed irregular geological features, probably the result of natural erosion. The existence of canal-like features was definitely disproved in the 1960s by NASA’s Mariner missions. Today, the surface markings taken to be canals are regarded as an optical illusion.
Lowell's greatest contribution to planetary studies came during the last decade of his life, which he devoted to the search for Planet X, a hypothetical planet beyond Neptune. In 1930 Clyde Tombaugh, working at the Lowell Observatory, discovered Pluto near the location expected for Planet X. Partly in recognition of Lowell's efforts, a stylized P-L monogram – the first two letters of the new planet's name and also Lowell's initials – was chosen as Pluto's astronomical symbol.
Although Lowell's theories of the Martian canals are now discredited, his building of an observatory at the position where it would best function has been adopted as a principle for all observatories. He also established the program and an environment which made the discovery of Pluto by Clyde Tombaugh possible. Craters on the Moon and on Mars have been named after Percival Lowell. He has been described by other planetary scientists as "the most influential popularizer of planetary science in America before Carl Sagan". Lowell is buried on Mars Hill near his observatory. [Source: Wikipedia]
Mystery writer Sax Rohmer is best remembered for Dr. Fu Manchu but one of his greatest villains is featured in "Sinister Madonna." The novel is a masterpiece of the macabre and it stars Sumuru, a weirdly beautiful woman from the East who loves crime for its own sake and kills men as readily as she charms them.
Charming end papers of a 1940s first edition copy of "Stuart Little."
Stuart Little.
Written by E.B. White
Illustrated by Garth Williams
Published by Harper and Row; First Edition (1945)
A short-lived early 60's publisher, Europa published a series of sleaze paperbacks with fold-out covers. Only about a half-dozen books from this publisher are known. It should not be confused with Europa Editions founded in 2005.
"And a good south wind
sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day for food
or play,
Came to the mariner's
hollo!"
William Andrew Pogány (1882-1955) was born in Hungary, studied art in Budapest, and worked in Paris briefly before moving to London in 1905 where he worked as a book illustrator for ten years. He moved to New York in 1915 and had success as a book illustrator and designer of stage sets and hotel interiors. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is one of Pogany’s best-known books. It is a bold artistic experiment in unifying text and images. Every page is elaborately decorated in Pogany’s distinctive style, which attempts to create a printed version of a medieval illuminated manuscript. He was responsible for the beautiful calligraphic text, green and mauve page decorations and borders, and the many black and white drawings and tipped-in plates in full color.
"Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did
shrink;
Water, water, every where
Nor any drop to drink."
William Andrew Pogány (1882-1955) was born in Hungary, studied art in Budapest, and worked in Paris briefly before moving to London in 1905 where he worked as a book illustrator for ten years. He moved to New York in 1915 and had success as a book illustrator and designer of stage sets and hotel interiors. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is one of Pogany’s best-known books. It is a bold artistic experiment in unifying text and images. Every page is elaborately decorated in Pogany’s distinctive style, which attempts to create a printed version of a medieval illuminated manuscript. He was responsible for the beautiful calligraphic text, green and mauve page decorations and borders, and the many black and white drawings and tipped-in plates in full color.
"The pilot and the pilot's boy,
I heard them coming fast:
Dear Lord-in heaven! it was a joy
The dead men could not blast.
"I saw a third -- I heard his
voice:
It is the hermit good!
He singeth loud his godly hymns
That he makes in the wood.
He'll shrieve my soul, he'll
wash away
The Albatross's blood."
William Andrew Pogány (1882-1955) was born in Hungary, studied art in Budapest, and worked in Paris briefly before moving to London in 1905 where he worked as a book illustrator for ten years. He moved to New York in 1915 and had success as a book illustrator and designer of stage sets and hotel interiors. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is one of Pogany’s best-known books. It is a bold artistic experiment in unifying text and images. Every page is elaborately decorated in Pogany’s distinctive style, which attempts to create a printed version of a medieval illuminated manuscript. He was responsible for the beautiful calligraphic text, green and mauve page decorations and borders, and the many black and white drawings and tipped-in plates in full color.
From "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum. Art by W. W. Denslow. Chicago: Geo. M. Hill, 1900. 1st ed.
Few Americans are unfamiliar with this century-old children’s tale. A cyclone carries Dorothy from her home in Kansas into the magical Land of Oz where she meets the scarecrow, the tin woodman, and the cowardly lion. Their adventures looking for the Emerald City and the Wizard have become a permanent part of American popular culture. Baum’s work is illustrated by W. W. Denslow and features 24 inserted color plates and many black & white drawings. Denslow’s artwork was an obvious inspiration for the look and feel of the 1939 film starring Judy Garland as Dorothy.
From May through November 1864, 20-year-old Sergeant Major Robert H. Kellogg of the 16th Regiment Connecticut volunteers and most of his regiment were confined in Confederate prisons at Andersonville, Georgia and Florence, South Carolina. Upon entering the notorious Andersonville prison, Kellogg scribbled into his diary: “Our hearts failed us as we saw what used to be men now nothing but mere skeletons covered with filth & vermin.”
Robert Kellogg’s “Life and Death in Rebel Prisons” was published in 1865, right after the American Civil War while the horrors of that time were still fresh in the author’s memory. The book was based on his journal and the accounts of other Union Army prisoners. It details the harsh conditions and daily atrocities of life in Confederate prisons as well as some details of the war.
From the book "Peter and Wendy" by J. M. Barrie. London: Hodder & Stoughton, (1911). First edition. This is the first book that tells the story of Peter Pan, Wendy and their exploits in Neverland along with the now familiar cast of characters that includes Captain Hook, Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys and Tiger Lily.
Graham, the central character of the novel, awakens into a troubled world after a two-hundred year slumber, much like Rip Van Winkle. The compound interest on his bank accounts has made him the richest man in the world and a very powerful one indeed. A trust known as the White Council used Graham’s wealth to establish a vast political and economic world order, which is now much hated by the people. Word spreads that the fabled sleeper has awakened and the people demand to see him. The Council, which rules the world in his name, prefers that he remain out of the way and places him under house arrest. He is liberated by revolutionaries and he soon learns the ugly truth about this new world, which persuades him to take part in the revolution.
The novel has plenty of action which more than makes up for the author’s socialist inclinations. It has engine-driven “aeroplanes” with 600-foot wing spans and smaller, nimbler “aeropiles,” it has a revolution and a counter-revolution, and there are battles fought in the air for supremacy.
Shirley, James (1596-1666). The Opportunitie. A Comedy. London: Printed by Thomas Cotes for Andrew Crooke, [1640]. First Edition. Bloomington, Indiana, USA. Copyright 2023, James A. Glazier
Written by William Shakespeare, published in 1623. View all four folios at digital.lib.MiamiOH.edu/folios.
A wonderfully vibrant 1940s book cover.
"My Father's Dragon"
Written and illustrated by Ruth Gannett
Published by Random House - 1948 First edition
From "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum. Art by W. W. Denslow. Chicago: Geo. M. Hill, 1900. 1st ed.
Few Americans are unfamiliar with this century-old children’s tale. A cyclone carries Dorothy from her home in Kansas into the magical Land of Oz where she meets the scarecrow, the tin woodman, and the cowardly lion. Their adventures looking for the Emerald City and the Wizard have become a permanent part of American popular culture. Baum’s work is illustrated by W. W. Denslow and features 24 inserted color plates and many black & white drawings. Denslow’s artwork was an obvious inspiration for the look and feel of the 1939 film starring Judy Garland as Dorothy.
“The War in the Air” is a classic tale of a future war written by Wells in 1907 and serialized in The Pall Mall Magazine the following year. It is notable for its prophetic ideas —in this case, the use of aircraft in warfare and the coming of World War I.
“The basic assumption behind the plot is that immediately after the Wright Brothers's first successful flight in 1903, all of the world's major powers became aware of the decisive strategic importance of air power, and embarked on a secret arms race to develop this power (there is a reference to the Wright Brothers themselves disappearing from public view, having been recruited for a secret military project of the US Government – as were other aviation pioneers in their own respective countries). The general public is virtually unaware of this arms race, until it finally bursts out in a vastly destructive war which destroys civilization.” [Source: Wikipedia]
The novel's hero is Bert Smallways, a "forward-thinking young man" and a "kind of bicycle engineer.” By accident he is carried off in a balloon and shot down over Germany where he stumbles upon a German air fleet just as it is about to launch a surprise attack on the United States. Bert is taken along on the campaign and becomes a witness as the Germans obliterate an American naval fleet in the Atlantic and engage in the aerial bombardment and destruction of New York City. The Germans then build an airbase at Niagara Falls. China and Japan now join forces and attack the western coast of the USA with their own secretly-built flying machines. The Asians then attack the Germans and, soon, the entire world is caught up in this madness. So begins the collapse of civilization.
The Kidder Murder of 29 June 1867 refers to the killing of United States Second Lieutenant Lyman Kidder, along with an Indian scout and ten enlisted men in Sherman County, Kansas, near Goodland, by a Sioux and Cheyenne war party. It was during the period of the Indian Wars on the western plains.
In June 1867 Kidder and his men were ordered to take dispatches from General William Sherman to Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer, camped on the Republican River in Nebraska. Lt. Kidder's party reached the encampment, but prior to their arrival, Custer had become restless and moved his force to the south, then to the northwest. When Lt. Kidder discovered Custer's force had departed, he seemed to have thought Custer moved south to Fort Wallace. En route to Fort Wallace, Kidder and his troops were killed by a Sioux and Cheyenne war party.
When Custer sent troopers to search for Lt. Kidder's party, they found a dead army horse on the trail, then signs of a running battle for a few miles along Beaver Creek. On 12 July, Custer's scout Will Comstock found the mutilated bodies of the Kidder party north of Beaver Creek in northern Sherman County, Kansas.
In his book, “My Life on the Plains,” Custer described his arriving at the scene of the massacre in these words: "Each body was pierced by from 20 to 50 arrows, and the arrows were found as the savage demons had left them, bristling in the bodies."
In 1967 "The Friends of the Library of Goodland Kansas" erected an historic marker in honor of the soldiers and scout, on land owned by Kuhrt Farms. [Source: Wikipedia]
Robert Bonfils was the art director and cover artist for the San Diego-based Hamling Organization during the sixties and seventies and, for a decade, he worked exclusively for them. He produced some of his best covers during this period. The books were published under imprints such as Nightstand Books, Leisure Books, Adult Books, Candid Readers, Companion Books and other lines within the Hamling group. Before then, he produced book covers for the Chicago-based Merit Books and Newsstand Library and Las Vegas’ Playtime Books. He retired from doing cover art in the mid seventies, but he remained active as a painter of fine art in San Diego. Bonfils covers are now incredibly popular and sought after by book collectors, particularly fans of what is called “good girl art” (or GGA).
Title: end of a war
Author: Edward Loomis
copyright date: 1958
publisher: William Heinemann Ltd., London
edition / print date: first edition, 1958
genre: war / drama
This is the book that introduced readers to Norman Bates, his knife-wielding Mother and a horrifying shower scene at the Bates Motel. The story was adapted into Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film of the same name. Here is Hitchcock's take on that infamous shower scene:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VP5jEAP3K4
The Gauntlet Press published a 35th anniversary edition of the novel with Mother’s portrait on the cover:
www.flickr.com/photos/57440551@N03/16417285069/in/album-7...
Karel van Mander, Het Schilder-Boeck (Haarlem: Paschier van Wesbusch, 1604), first edition in two volumes with added illustrations, 21 x 16.7 x 5.8 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Karel van Mander, Het Schilder-Boeck (Haarlem: Paschier van Wesbusch, 1604), first edition in two volumes with added illustrations, 21 x 16.7 x 5.8 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
This fourth book in the Dune series takes place 3500 years after the events of the original trilogy (Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune). It tells the story of Leto, the son of Paul Atreides, savior of the planet Dune. Leto still lives but is no longer human. He has traded his humanity for virtual immortality by undergoing what will soon be a total transformation into the magnificent and enormous sandworm of Dune. He must live, for without his guidance the human race will surely go astray. Will his awesome sacrifice have been in vain?
Vol. III, Second Series, First edition.
Originally written as newspaper journalism, “Sketches by Boz” is the public record of Dickens’ apprenticeship. The 56 sketches concern London scenes and were originally published in various newspapers and other periodicals between 1833 and 1836, including the “Morning Chronicle,” the “Evening Chronicle,” the “Monthly Magazine,” the “Carlton Chronicle” and “Bell’s Life in London.” Fist published in book form in 1836, the whole work is divided into four sections: “Our Parish,” “Scenes,” “Characters,” and “Tales.” Dickens’ writings are enhanced by the regular inclusion of illustrations by George Cruikshank to highlight key scenes and characters.
"Who the dickens 'Boz' could be
Puzzled many a learned elf,
Till time unveiled the mystery,
And 'Boz' appeared as Dickens's self."
Dickens took the pseudonym from a nickname he had given his younger brother Augustus, whom he called "Moses" after a character in Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield. This, "being facetiously pronounced through the nose," became "Boses", which in turn was shortened to "Boz".
[Source: Wikipedia]
In the tradition of Arthur C. Clarke’s “Rendezvous with Rama,” and Larry Niven’s “Ringworld,” John Varley’s “Titan” is an astronomically huge wheel-shaped structure in orbit around the planet Saturn. Captain Cirocco “Rocky” Jones and her crew aboard the ship “Ringmaster” discover the awesome structure and, as they approach, they realize it is hollow and can only be an artifact of alien intelligence. Before they have a chance to establish orbit around it, it sends out tentacles, pulls the “Ringmaster” apart, and draws the crew deep inside its bowels. There they remain, isolated from one another, in a state of near-total sensory deprivation, while the alien intelligence works its mysteries on their minds.
After an unknown period of time, Rocky and her crew are disgorged into Titan’s incredible internal world – an organic fairyland which they share with centaurs, harpies, angels, mudfish, not-quite-kangaroos, whale-like things that sail through the sky and other products of some truly wild imagination. Though this world seems benign, almost a paradise, Rocky is too well trained to accept it at face value. She sets about to find her crew, re-establish her command, and find out what makes this place tick.
Karel van Mander, Het Schilder-Boeck (Haarlem: Paschier van Wesbusch, 1604), first edition in two volumes with added illustrations, 21 x 16.7 x 5.8 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Modern Magic by Professor Hoffmann (Angelo Lewis) was the first book in the English language to really explain how to perform feats of magic. The book contains advice on the appearance, dress and staging of a magician. It then goes on to describe many tricks with playing cards, coins, watches, rings, handkerchiefs, dominoes, dice, cups and balls, balls, hats and a large chapter of miscellaneous tricks, including magic with strings, gloves, eggs, rice and some utility devices. The penultimate chapter describes large stage illusions, and the final chapter contains advice on routining a magic show, and more advice on staging.
Written by William Shakespeare, published in 1623. View all four folios at digital.lib.MiamiOH.edu/folios.
Milwaukee-born author Jack Finney is best known for “The Body Snatchers,” a classic science fiction story and the basis for the 1956 movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and its remake in 1978 starring Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy and Jeff Goldblum.
Here is the pod-opening scene in the 1956 film:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLsjlmrQ6Mw
Here is the comparable scene in the 1978 remake:
In 1944 there appeared a book which quickly became the recognized source book in one of the most fascinating fields of human endeavor, Willy Ley's "Rockets." This original account went through three editions , and was followed by a revised and enlarged volume in 1947, "Rockets and Space Travel." It was further revised and enlarged in 1951 to include developments in rocket missiles for military uses and research purposes. That is the basis for the new title, "Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel."
Willy Ley (1906-1969) was a German-American science writer, spaceflight advocate, and historian of science who helped popularize rocketry, spaceflight, and natural history in both Germany and the United States. The crater Ley on the far side of the Moon is named in his honor. [Source: Wikipedia]
My brothers 2020 Ford Kuga ST-Line First Edition 2.5L Duratec PHEV (Plug in Petrol/Electric Hybrid) Crossover SUV during a plug in battery charge.
I had a brief test drive of this and to be honest, the technology and operation of this vehicle was a bit overwhelming.
www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/ford/kuga/first-drives/ford-...
www.autoexpress.co.uk/ford/kuga/352009/new-ford-kuga-phev...