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From the Book "John Lennon In His Own Write." New York: Simon & Schuster, 1964. First American edition.
Art by J. Allen St. John.
This is the fifth novel in the Tarzan series. Tarzan knows where the gold of fabled Atlantis is hidden and outlaws are determined to get their greedy hands on it.
Corinth was the first to publish the Phantom Detective in book form. The pulp hero actually debuted in February 1933 in "The Phantom Detective Magazine"and continued until 1953 for a total of 170 issues. Wealthy Richard Curtis Van Loan is secretly the Phantom Detective, respected crime-solver and master of disguise and escape, along with his sidekick, Chip Dorian. The Phantom was the obvious inspiration for Batman (who first appeared in May 1939) and, like Batman, the Phantom had a Bat-Signal, a red beacon on the roof of the Clarion building.
Here is a look at the Phantom Detective in an original magazine appearance:
www.flickr.com/photos/57440551@N03/13986873238/in/set-721...
This final collection of the miscellaneous writings of H. P. Lovecraft contains over a dozen poems, the provocative and controversial title essay, "Something About Cats," pieces from Lovecraft's little-known magazine, "The Conservative," the burlesque, "The Battle that Ended the Century," and notes for such famous stories as "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," "At the Mountains of Madness," and "The Shadow Out of Time."
In addition, around half dozen stories by other hands, in which Lovecraft took part, either by revision or suggestion, are included. Among them are "The Invisible Monster," by Sonia H. Greene; "Satan's Servants," by Robert Bloch; "The Last Test" and "The Electric Executioner," by Adolphe de Castro; and "The Horror in the Burying-Ground," by Hazel Heald.
Finally, friends of Lovecraft have contributed to this volume certain studies and appreciations, such as the memoirs by Rheinhart Kleiner and Samuel Loveman; the remembrance by Sonia H. Davis, who was for some years the wife of H. P. Lovecraft; the addenda to "H. P. L.: A Memoir," by August Derleth; a portrait of Lovecraft as few people knew him, by E. Hoffmann Price; Fritz Leiber, Jr.'s study of Lovecraft's work; and poems in tribute by Vincent Starrett and August Derleth.
Martha Endell, Em'ly's friend, blames herself for Em'ly's running away. Martha looks wild as she stands muttering to herself. She screams and babbles: she compares herself to the river, which starts clean but then flows into the dirty city. David and Mr. Peggotty wait for Martha to calm down.
“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.
Written by William Shakespeare, published in 1623. View all four folios at digital.lib.MiamiOH.edu/folios.
Best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory and one of the most influential figures in human history, Charles Darwin established that all species of life on earth descended over time from common ancestors through a process that he called natural selection. Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book “On the Origin of Species.”
Darwin’s second book on evolutionary theory, “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex,” was published in 1871. In this work Darwin applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of biological adaptation distinct from, yet interconnected with, natural selection. The book discusses many related issues, including evolutionary psychology, evolutionary ethics, differences between human races, differences between sexes, the dominant role of women in choosing mating partners, and the relevance of evolutionary theory to society. [Source: Wikipedia]
This book presents the librettos of the final two operas in Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle accompanied by 31 color plates by Arthur Rackham. “Siegfried” is the third of the four operas that constitute Wagner’s “The Ring of the Nibelung.” “The Twilight of the Gods” is the final opera in the Ring. They were first performed together as part of the complete Ring Cycle on August 14, 1876 at Wagner’s Bayreuth Festival. The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and The Song of the Nibelungs, an epic German poem that tells the story of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife’s revenge.
The first two operas in Wagner’s Ring, “The Rhinegold” and “The Valkyrie,” were published in a separate volume in 1910 and were also illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
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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.
“The Chimes” is Dickens’ second Christmas book, the first being “A Christmas Carol.” It continues his social commentaries on the poor. Structured similarly to “A Christmas Carol,” the main character, Trotty, witnesses an alternative future through a series of visions and ultimately is given a second chance to put things right. “The Chimes” was a bestseller in its day, but has since been eclipsed by “A Christmas Carol.” “The Chimes” is illustrated with thirteen engravings by artists John Leech, John Tenniel, Richard Doyle, Daniel Maclise and Clarkson Stanfield.
In all, Dickens wrote five Christmas books: “A Christmas Carol” (1843), “The Chimes” (though dated 1845 it was released in December 1844), “The Cricket on the Hearth” (1845), “The Battle of Life” (1846), and “The Haunted Man” (1848).
The plot of the novel follows the life of Nell Trent and her grandfather, both residents of The Old Curiosity Shop in London.
The Old Curiosity Shop was one of two novels (the other being Barnaby Rudge) which Dickens published along with short stories in his weekly serial Master Humphrey's Clock, which lasted from 1840 to 1841. It was so popular that New York readers stormed the wharf when the ship bearing the final installment arrived in 1841. The Old Curiosity Shop was printed in book form in 1841. [Source: Wikipedia]
Woodcut from The Illustrated News of the World – First Edition 1858.
‘The Illustrated News of the World and National Portrait Gallery of Eminent Personages’ was a new publication with numerous large woodcuts to illustrate local and world events, and also featuring a number of fine steel engravings of eminent persons. A competitor to the existing illustrated magazines:- The Illustrated London News and Punch Magazine .
Published by Illustrated News of the World, The Strand, London. Annual bound collection, red cloth boards 338 pages 42cm x 29cm.
The author supplies a pictorial history of this classic fantasy magazine. Weird Tales was the first and most famous of the fantasy magazines, with its first issue in March 1923. This is a fine selection of its famous front covers, mostly in duotone, some in full color. Many well-known illustrators contributed to these covers, including Margaret Brundage, Virgil Finlay, Hannes Bok and Frank Kelly Freas.
This book was one of the first color editions and the last Brer Rabbit collection published during the lifetime of the author, Georgia native Joel Chandler Harris (1845-1908). Raised in poverty, Harris was an apprentice to a Southern newspaper as a teenager and he made friends with plantation slaves who passed along their stories. Harris hoped that the charming illustrations and his use of dialect in retelling these old black legends would “suggest a certain picturesque sensitiveness – a curious exaltation of mind and temperament (of the black man).”
The characters of Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit are best known from the classic 1946 Disney movie, “Song of the South.” Here is a memorable scene in that movie:
“Uncle Remus” is a collection of animal stories, songs, and folklore from African-Americans in the South. Uncle Remus is a former slave who serves as a storytelling device, passing on the folktales to children gathered around him. Br’er Rabbit is the main character of the stories, a likable character, prone to tricks and trouble-making, who is often opposed by Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear.
The stories have inspired at least three feature films. The first and best known is Walt Disney’s “Song of the South,” released in 1946. The film combined live action with animation and it starred James Baskett, a vaudeville and radio actor, as the unforgettable Uncle Remus. The film's depiction of black former slaves, and of race relations in Reconstruction-Era Georgia, has been controversial since its original release, with a number of critics – at the time of its release and in later decades – describing it as racist. Consequently it has never been released in its entirety on home video in the United States. [Source: Wikipedia]
Who can possibly forget this song from the film:
The Illustrated News of the World – First Edition 1858.
‘The Illustrated News of the World and National Portrait Gallery of Eminent Personages’ was a new publication with the strong visual emphasis of numerous large woodcuts to illustrate local and world events, and also featuring a number of fine steel engravings of eminent persons. The publishers stated their hopes that the publication would match or supplement the existing illustrated magazines:- The Illustrated London News and Punch Magazine .
Published by Illustrated News of the World, The Strand, London. Annual bound collection, red cloth boards 338 pages 42cm x 29cm.
Ex-libris bookplate of Toxteth Park Library.
"In Darkest Africa (1890) is Henry M. Stanley’s own account of his last adventure on the African continent. At the turn of that century, the interior of the African continent was largely unknown to the American and European public. With the accounts of great explorers like Stanley, readers became thrilled by stories of African expeditions and longed to follow in the footsteps of these explorers. In 1888, Stanley led an expedition to come to the aid of Mehmed Emin Pasha. The two volumes that compose 'In Darkest Africa; or, The Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of Equatoria' are his account of what happened." [www.biblio.com/in-darkest-africa-by-stanley-henry-m/work/...]
The Lavalite World, the fifth book in Farmer's World of Tiers series, is a world of slow but constant change. Here mountains rise from plains, or sink into rifts; new oceans form as vast hollows collapse and seas rush in. There is only one escape from this world where the very landscape moves. The one gateway to other universes is in the palace of the Lord Urthona. Paul Janus Finnegan -- also known as Kickaha -- must reach it if he is to survive. And he must do so despite the Lords Urthona and Red Orc, the hired thug McKay, flesh-eating vegetation on the run, beasts of prey, and planetary pseudopods.
In the Spotlight : Volkswagen Milestones
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February 2021
With sales of about 200 million copies, “A Tale of Two Cities” is the biggest selling novel in history. It began as weekly installments from April 30, 1859 to November 26, 1859 in Dickens’ literary periodical titled “All the Year Round.” It depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the French revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same period.
Chapman & Hall published the novel in 8 monthly parts (July – December 1859) and in book form that same year and commissioned Hablot K. Browne [Phiz] to create full page illustrations for the story. It was the last of Dickens’ books to be illustrated by Hablot K. Browne.
“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).
Writer Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985) is credited with more than 200 stories, his most famous being “More Than Human” which won the 1954 International Fantasy Award. He ghost-wrote an Ellery Queen mystery novel in 1963, “The Player on the Other Side,” which was critically acclaimed. He also wrote the screenplays for two popular Star Trek episodes, “Shore Leave” (1966) and “Amok Time” (1967). In 1951, Sturgeon coined what is now known as Sturgeon's Law: "Ninety percent of [science fiction] is crud, but then, ninety percent of everything is crud."
Theodore Sturgeon vividly recalled being in the same room with L. Ron Hubbard, when Hubbard became testy with someone there and retorted, "Y'know, we're all wasting our time writing this hack science fiction! You wanta make real money, you gotta start a religion!" Hubbard, who was then a science fiction writer, later founded the Church of Scientology. [Source: Wikipedia]
And here's the 'desk crew', at least for now. All the first-editions, one of each character. Still not decided over who goes and who stays, but these are definitely not going anywhere. What can I say, I'm sentimental !
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.
Mark Twain penned the following inscription on the inside front cover: “Dear Mrs. Doubleday: This book has wandered into my hands, & as it is too delicate & pretty for a person like me, & just right for a person like you, I wish to beg you to take it. With the affectionate regards of a long-time friend – to wit S. L. Clemens. New York, Xmas 1906.”
The recipient was undoubtedly the naturalist Neltje Doubleday, the wife of his good friend the publisher Frank N. Doubleday. Merle Johnson, in his “A Bibliography of the Works of Mark Twain,” states that this book was “published anonymously August 20, 1906… for the author…Copies of the work were distributed privately to the author’s personal friends and public acknowledgement of authorship was withheld until after his death.”
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]
Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is set during the Spanish civil war and tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain. The setting of the story is less important than Hemingway's treatment of the themes of love, death, honor and commitment.
Guarini, Giovanni Battista [1538 AD – 1612 AD], Il Pastor Fido The Faithfull Sheperd, IL/ PASTOR FIDO,/ The faithfull Shepherd./ A PASTORALL/ Written in Italian by BAPTISTA/ GUARINI, a Knight/ of ITALIE./ And now Newly Translated out of/ the ORIGINALL./[Printer’s device]/ LONDON,/ Printed by R. Raworth, M DC XLVII. . London, R. Raworth, MDCXLVII (1647), first edition of this translation.
The image is from the 14th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1892-93, by J. W. Powell, Director, Part 2. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1896. The description which follows summarizes the detailed information accompanying the image in the report.
Short Bull was active in the Ghost Dance religious movement of 1890, and had traveled with fellow Lakota Kicking Bear to visit the movement's leader, Wovoka. The two were instrumental in bringing the movement to the Lakota living on reservations in South Dakota.
On the last day of October, 1890, Short Bull gave an address to a large gathering of Indians near Pine Ridge, in which he said that as the whites were interfering so much in the religious affairs of the Indians he would advance the time for the great change and make it nearer, even within the next month. He urged them all to gather in one place and prepare for the coming messiah, and told them they must dance even though troops should surround them, as the guns of the soldiers would be rendered harmless and the white race itself would soon be annihilated.
Following the murder of Sitting Bull on December 15, 1890, Short Bull was imprisoned at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. On his release in 1891, Short Bull joined Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, and made several trips to Europe with the show. Short Bull died in 1923 on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
This British edition contains 220 Illustrations by Dan Beard.and preceded the American edition by a few days. It is Mark Twain’s time travel novel. In it, Yankee engineer Hank Morgan from Connecticut is accidentally transported back in time to medieval England and the court of King Arthur. Hank fools the inhabitants of that time into thinking he is a magician—and soon uses his Yankee ingenuity and knowledge of modern technology to become a "magician" in earnest, stunning the English with such feats as demolition and fireworks. He attempts to modernize the society, but in the end he is unable to prevent the death of Arthur and a censure against him by the Catholic Church, which grows fearful of his power.
Twain wrote the book as a satire of romantic notions of chivalry after being inspired by a dream in which he was a knight himself, and severely inconvenienced by the weight and cumbersome nature of his armor. [Source: Wikipedia]
Hollywood put its own spin on the story with a 1949 musical comedy starring Bing Crosby, Rhonda Fleming, William Bendix and Sir Cedric Hardwicke.
Mughal Emperor's tomb in Delhi.
The Illustrated News of the World – First Edition 1858.
‘The Illustrated News of the World and National Portrait Gallery of Eminent Personages’ was a new publication with the strong visual emphasis of numerous large woodcuts to illustrate local and world events, and also featuring a number of fine steel engravings of eminent persons. A competitor to the existing illustrated magazines:- The Illustrated London News and Punch Magazine .
Published by Illustrated News of the World, The Strand, London. Annual bound collection, red cloth boards 338 pages 42cm x 29cm.
More on Humayaon's Tomb (Humayun) here:
Home of Lord John Russell. The Illustrated News of the World – First Edition 1858.
‘The Illustrated News of the World and National Portrait Gallery of Eminent Personages’ was a new publication with the strong visual emphasis of numerous large woodcuts to illustrate local and world events, and also featuring a number of fine steel engravings of eminent persons. A competitor to the existing illustrated magazines:- The Illustrated London News and Punch Magazine .
Published by Illustrated News of the World, The Strand, London. Annual bound collection, red cloth boards 338 pages 42cm x 29cm.
From the book "Uncle Remus: His Songs & His Sayings" by Joel Chandler Harris. NY: D. Appleton, 1881. 1st Edition
“Uncle Remus” is a collection of animal stories, songs, and folklore from African-Americans in the South. Uncle Remus is a former slave who serves as a storytelling device, passing on the folktales to children gathered around him. Br’er Rabbit is the main character of the stories, a likable character, prone to tricks and trouble-making, who is often opposed by Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear.
The stories have inspired at least three feature films. The first and best known is Walt Disney’s “Song of the South,” released in 1946. The film combined live action with animation and it starred James Baskett, a vaudeville and radio actor, as the unforgettable Uncle Remus. The film's depiction of black former slaves, and of race relations in Reconstruction-Era Georgia, has been controversial since its original release, with a number of critics – at the time of its release and in later decades – describing it as racist. Consequently it has never been released in its entirety on home video in the United States. [Source: Wikipedia]
Who can possibly forget this song from the film:
Written by William Shakespeare, published in 1623. View all four folios at digital.lib.MiamiOH.edu/folios.
Wernher von Braun (1912–1977) was one of the most important rocket developers and champions of space exploration during the period between the 1930s and the 1970s. As a youth he became enamored with the possibilities of space exploration by reading the science fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and from the science fact writings of Hermann Oberth, whose 1923 classic study, Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (By Rocket to Space), prompted young von Braun to master calculus and trigonometry so he could understand the physics of rocketry. From his teenage years, von Braun had held a keen interest in space flight, becoming involved in the German rocket society, Verein fur Raumschiffarht (VfR), as early as 1929. As a means of furthering his desire to build large and capable rockets, in 1932 he went to work for the German army to develop ballistic missiles. While engaged in this work, von Braun received a Ph.D. in physics on July 27, 1934.
Von Braun is well known as the leader of what has been called the “rocket team” which developed the V–2 ballistic missile for the Nazis during World War II. The V–2s were manufactured at a forced labor factory called Mittelwerk. Scholars are still reassessing his role in these controversial activities. Before the Allied capture of the V–2 rocket complex, von Braun engineered the surrender of 500 of his top rocket scientists, along with plans and test vehicles, to the Americans.
In 1960, his rocket development center near Huntsville, Alabama transferred from the Army to the newly established NASA and received a mandate to build the giant Saturn rockets. Accordingly, von Braun became director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the superbooster that would propel Americans to the Moon.
Von Braun also became one of the most prominent spokesmen of space exploration in the United States during the 1950s. In 1970, NASA leadership asked von Braun to move to Washington, D.C., to head up the strategic planning effort for the agency. He left his home in Huntsville, Ala., but in 1972 he decided to retire from NASA and work for Fairchild Industries of Germantown, Md. He died in Alexandria, Va., on June 16, 1977. [Source: Marshall Space Flight Center at history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/bio.html]
From the book "The Phantom of the Opera" by Gaston Leroux. New York: Bobbs-Merrill Co., (1911). 1st American ed. The book is illustrated with a color frontispiece and four double-page color illustrations by Andre Castaigne (1861-1929).