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Bononcini, Giovanni [1670 AD -1747 AD], Astartus an Opera as it was Perform'd at the Kings Theatre for the Royal Accademy. London: J. Walsh and J. Hare, [1721], First Edition, 2 leaves, 81 pages, engraved throughout, table of songs and advertisement. Size: folio (34.2 x 22.8cm). Condition: early inscription ("Giv'n to ye Musick-Club by Mr. Professor Goodson Aug: 30 1722") and stamp of 'Musical Society Oxford' to title, Dolmetsch Library stamp and pencil shelfmark ("II C 45") to verso of title, manuscript Dolmetsch Library label affixed to head of spine with translucent adhesive tape, old manuscript labels to upper cover ("21"; "915 V"), contemporary marbled boards, red morocco label gilt to upper cover ("Astartus"), with later endpapers (watermarked "1804"), cracked at lower hinge, old ink stains to outer edges, covers worn. RARE. The last copy we have traced at auction was sold at Sotheby’s on 9 December 1999 (lot 42). LITERATURE: RISM B 3557 and BB 3557; Smith and Humphries, no.191. A revised version of Bononcini's original opera of 1715 was premiered at the King's Theatre in London in November 1720. It was one of only two London operas for which Bononcini, Handel's great London rival, published the overture and arias.
The novelist Ernest Hemingway once remarked that “all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn,” and other writers such as poet T. S. Eliot and African American novelist Ralph Ellison have added their acclaim. Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Clemens, worked for eight years on the story of an outcast white boy, Huck, and his adult friend Jim, a runaway slave, who together flee Missouri on a raft down the Mississippi River in the 1840s. The book has been controversial since the day it was published, opinions ranging from “the book is a masterpiece” to the book is “trash and suitable only for the slums.” The free-spirited and not always truthful Huck narrates the colorful stories in the book in his own coarse and ungrammatical voice. He shows a lack of respect for religion and adult authority and repeatedly uses the “n” word. Some readers view the book as satire and consider it a powerful attack on racism. Others believe it contributes to a “racially hostile environment” and are offended by the language and the portrayal of the slave Jim. In spite of it all, Huck Finn remains the Great American Novel to the many people who have read it and loved it.
This is the first American edition of Doyle’s first Professor Challenger story in which an exploring party led by Challenger venture deep inside the South American jungle to a lost plateau where dinosaurs still reign. The movie “Jurassic Park” owes much to this novel. This edition features sixteen illustrations, five by Maple White and eleven by Joseph Clement Coll.
"First on the Moon" is the story of Apollo 11 and the personal experiences of the three astronauts who put man on the moon. The voyage begins with President Kennedy's pronouncement on May 25, 1961, that the United States would put man on the moon before the decade was out, and continues through the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.
This edition of the novel contains six color illustrations by Pamela Colman Smith. The book was first published in the US in 1966 under the title “The Garden of Evil” by Paperback Library. In 1988, it was adapted into a film by Ken Russell.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Q-PyZxZjw
“The Lair of the White Worm” was Bram Stoker’s twelfth and last novel, published a year before his death. The novel, along with “The Jewel of Seven Stars, is one of his most famous after “Dracula.” It is a horror story about a giant white worm that can transform itself into a woman. Partly based on the legend of the Lambton Worm from North East England, the White Worm in Stoker’s story is a large snake-like creature that dwells in a hole or pit and feeds on whatever is thrown to it. It is thought to reside in the house of Arabella March, a local lady and a suspect in numerous crimes that cannot be proven.
“The last man to go snatched up a child, and carried it off in front of him on his horse.”
“Tom Sawyer Abroad” features Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in a parody of adventure stories like those of Jules Verne. In the story, Tom, Huck, and Jim set sail to Africa in a futuristic hot air balloon, where they survive encounters with lions, robbers, and fleas to see some of the world’s greatest wonders, including the Pyramids and the Sphinx. The story is told using the first-person narrative voice of Huck Finn and is a sequel, set in the time following the title story of the Tom Sawyer series, “Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” [Source: Wikipedia]
Steel plate engraving of the British Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston (Henry Temple) 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 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.
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.
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.
On arriving at the agency at Pyramid Lake the Paiute furnished A’piatan a wagon and an Indian guide across the country to the home of Wovoka in the upper end of Mason valley. The next day he was admitted to his presence. The result was a complete disappointment. A single interview convinced him of the utter falsity of the pretensions of the messiah and the deceptive character of the hopes held out to the believers.
Saddened and disgusted, A’piatan did not stay, but started at once on his return home. On his way back he stopped at Bannock agency at Fort Hall, Idaho, and from there sent a letter to his people, stating briefly that he had seen the messiah and that the messiah was a fraud. This was the first intimation the Kiowa had received from an Indian source their hopes were not well grounded.
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)
“The Gift” was an annual literary anthology published in a gift book format for the years 1836, 1837, 1839, 1840, and 1842-1845. Each book was published by Carey & Hart of Philadelphia in the fall of the year prior to the date given in the title, so that The Gift for 1836 was actually issued in October of 1835. Five of the gift books include new tales by Edgar Allan Poe – “Manuscript Found in a Bottle” (1836), “William Wilson” (1840), “Eleonora” (1842), “The Pit and the Pendulum” (1843), and “The Purloined Letter” (1845).
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).
I am currently working on a replica of Shakespeare's 1623 folio. Bound in calf leather, the cover features a Cambridge panel design (in the style of Paul Tronson, Master Bookbinder) with hot blind tooling. The leather was hand-dyed using a combination of vegetable dyes, aniline dyes and tattoo inks. The text block was sewn on recessed cords with hand-wound headbands and laced-in covers. An oxford hollow with false raised bands was used for the spine.
See more projects here:
Credits: Project inspired by and created in the style of Master Bookbinder, Paul Tronson.
Being the worm today...
From: "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein
Published by Harper & Row- First Edition (1974)
The Strand became one of Great Britain's most prestigious fiction magazines, with the Holmes series its most popular feature. Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles” first appeared in the pages of The Strand as a nine-part series in the August, 1901 through the April, 1902 issues. This crime novel about a diabolical hound on Dartmoor is one of the UK's best loved novels and the top Sherlock Holmes story. George Newnes, publisher of The Strand, issued it in book form in August, 1902. The magazine version of the story featured sixty illustrations by the artist Sidney Paget, which were pared down to sixteen for the book. Sidney Paget is best known as the creator of the popular image of Sherlock Holmes which influenced interpretations of the detective in nearly all subsequent films, plays and books. In all, Paget illustrated one Holmes novel and 37 Holmes short stories.
Robert-Houdin (1805-1871), the Father of Modern Magic, was the son of a clockmaker and worked as a watchmaker before pursuing a career as a magician. He brought clockwork precision to his magical effects and electricity to the magic stage for the first time. He wore top hats and tails to lend authority to his work and was forced to reveal his tricks to authorities to avoid prosecution for witchcraft. Napoleon III allegedly sent him to Algiers in 1856 to outdo the miracles performed by religious leaders there. His magic tricks left the Arabs awestruck and thus kept France’s influence strong. He is best known for making orange trees grow before an audience’s eyes and suspending bodies in air. He published his autobiography, “The Memoirs of Robert-Houdin,” in 1859. [Source: www.biography.com/people/robert-houdin-9344559]
A Marine flyer since 1935, Colonel Gregory “Pappy” Boyington was encouraged to resign his commission to fly with the Flying Tigers in China. There he got credit for six Japanese planes. But when he applied for reinstatement in the Marine Corps, he found himself disgraced for “having left the Corps in time of national emergency.” For nearly three months he parked cars in a Seattle garage until, in desperation, he telegraphed an Under Secretary of the Navy. In a few days he was on the way to the South Pacific where he was given a squadron of misfits. These pilots, unwanted by other outfits, and led by the oldest active Marine fighter pilot, made one of the great records of the war. The heart of this book is the colorful story of Boyington’s Black Sheep Squadron.
“Pappy” Boyington was a wild, hard drinking, professional Marine flyer who was one of the most unconventional heroes of World War II. As wild and independent as he was, he was a competent leader of men and had no desire to change his ways. He had never let anyone kick him around, and he saw no reason why he should let the Japanese do so in the air or after he was taken prisoner.
Winner of a Congressional Medal of Honor and a Navy Cross for his achievements while leading the Black Sheep Squadron, “Pappy” Boyington had twenty months as a prisoner of the Japanese in which to gain emotional maturity and sobriety. He freely admitted that during the nearly two years he spent as a P.O.W. his health improved due to the enforced sobriety. He retired from the Marine Corps on August 1, 1947.
Many people know of Pappy Boyington from the mid-1970s television show Baa Baa Black Sheep, a drama about the Black Sheep squadron based very loosely on Boyington's memoir, with Boyington portrayed by Robert Conrad. Many of Boyington's men were irate over this show, charging it was mostly fiction and presented a glamorized portrayal of Boyington. Boyington himself often told interviewers and audiences that the television series was fiction and only loosely related to actual history. Here is a 1970’s interview with Boyington and the actor who portrayed him on television, Robert Conrad.
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]
“Oliver Twist” is Dickens’ second novel and it is full of greed, corruption and dark humor. Orphan Oliver Twist starts his life in a workhouse and is sold into an apprenticeship with an undertaker. He escapes from there and travels to London where he meets the Artful Dodger, a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets, which is led by the elderly criminal Fagin.
Dickens presents an unromantic portrayal of criminals and their sordid lives, as well as exposing the cruel treatment of the many orphans in London in the mid–nineteenth century. An early example of the social novel, Dickens satirizes the hypocrisies of his time, including child labor, the recruitment of children as criminals, and the presence of street children. The novel may have been inspired by the story of Robert Blincoe, an orphan whose account of working as a child laborer in a cotton mill was widely read in the 1830s. It is likely that Dickens's own youthful experiences contributed as well. “Oliver Twist” is a good example of Dickens’ belief that the novel should do more than merely entertain.
Oliver Twist has endured as one of the most compelling child protagonists in fiction. His story has been the subject of numerous adaptations, for various media, including a highly successful musical play, “Oliver!”, and the multiple Academy Award-winning 1968 motion picture. [Source: Wikipedia]
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VogHwP0C5VY
Unlike most of Dickens’ novels, “Oliver Twist” was not issued in monthly parts. It did appear in “Bentley’s Miscellany” magazine from February 1837 through April 1839, but the three volume book edition was published complete in November 1838. The book included 24 engravings by George Cruikshank and identified the author as “Boz.” Dickens decided that he would no longer be known as “Boz,” but his decision was too late for the earliest copies, those published between November 9 and 16, 1838.
Shipwrecked Englishman Edward Prendick meets Dr. Moreau’s Beast Folk, comprising Leopard-Man, Hyena-Swine, Satyr-Man, Fox-Bear Witch, Dog-Man, Ape-Man and the Sloth Creature. The novel has been the source for no less than six movies, including a version in 1977 with Burt Lancaster and Michael York and one in 1996 with Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer, David Thewlis and Ron Perlman. H. G. Wells in his 19th century novel anticipated the conversion of animals into human-like beings by way of vivisection. A little over a century later, the introduction of human DNA in an animal’s genetic code may be a feasible way of doing it, a scary possibility explored in the 1996 film.
Written by William Shakespeare, published in 1623. View all four folios at digital.lib.MiamiOH.edu/folios.
In H. K. Browne’s illustration, David seems cheerful enough riding on the top of the carriage on the journey from Canterbury to London. However, here is the textual passage on which the image is based:
“I have always considered this as the first fall I had in life. When I booked my place at the coach-office I had had "Box Seat" written against the entry, and had given the book-keeper half-a-crown. I was got up in a special great-coat and shawl, expressly to do honour to that distinguished eminence; had glorified myself upon it a good deal; and had felt that I was a credit to the coach. And here, in the very first stage, I was supplanted by a shabby man with a squint, who had no other merit than smelling like a livery- stables, and being able to walk across me, more like a fly than a human being, while the horses were at a canter!” [Page 201]
“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.
Andy is our final finalist for the September - November Issue coverstar for PS Mag due to launch mid September.
Written by William Shakespeare, published in 1623. View all four folios at digital.lib.MiamiOH.edu/folios.
Published by W. J. Johnston, New York.
Nikola Tesla (1856 – 1943) was a Serbian American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.
Tesla gained experience in telephony and electrical engineering before immigrating to the United States in 1884 to work for Thomas Edison in New York City. He soon struck out on his own with financial backers, setting up laboratories and companies to develop a range of electrical devices. His patented AC induction motor and transformer were licensed by George Westinghouse, who also hired Tesla for a short time as a consultant. His work in the formative years of electric power development was involved in a corporate alternating current/direct current "War of Currents" as well as various patent battles.
Tesla went on to pursue his ideas of wireless lighting and electricity distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs, and made early (1893) pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. He tried to put these ideas to practical use in his ill-fated attempt at intercontinental wireless transmission, which was his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project. In his lab he also conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wireless controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited.
Tesla was renowned for his achievements and showmanship, eventually earning him a reputation in popular culture as an archetypal "mad scientist". His patents earned him a considerable amount of money, much of which was used to finance his own projects with varying degrees of success. He lived most of his life in a series of New York hotels, through his retirement. He died on 7 January 1943. His work fell into relative obscurity after his death, but in 1960 the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the SI unit of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor. Tesla has experienced a resurgence in interest in popular culture since the 1990s. [Source: Wikipedia]
Battle of Cawnpore (Kanpur), a decisive battle of the Indian rebellion of 1857.
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 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.
This 1908 whodunit is the author’s first. Rachel is a middle-aged spinster who has had custody of her orphaned niece and nephew since they were children. Halsey and Gertrude are now 20 and 24, respectively, and they talk Rachel into renting a house in the country for the summer. The house they choose belonged to a bank defaulter who had hidden stolen securities in the walls.
The first night Rachel is there, there is a mysterious trespasser and something falls down the stairs in the middle of the night. After Halsey and Gertrude arrive on the second night, there is a murder, and Halsey and the friend he’s brought to stay disappear. Halsey returns a few days later, without his friend and without an explanation, but by then other strange goings-on have occurred to the dismay of the residents.
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.
Medical Instruments .
Copperplate engraving from the First Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, or Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences, founded in 1768 and printed in 1771. 3 Volumes, this is Volume 3.
The largest encyclopedia of general knowledge published to date, with contributions by leaders in their fields.
Printed for Bell and Macfarquhar, Edinburgh. Original half leather binding, 970 pages this volume. 26cm x 21cm.
My latest purchase, bought simply because I am really starting to explore Fred Allen, one of the best of the old time radio comedians. Now, largely forgotten, he seemed to be quite a force for 20 years or so. In searching for his books I found this one, which he wrote the intro to. H. Allen Smith seems to have been hugely popular during the war, a journalist whose anthology of writing - Low Man on A Totem Pole - gave him enough money to work the rest of his life on his own terms. At the moment discovering Fred Allen is work enough, but I will file H. Allen Smith as someone to explore at some future date.
The book collects two science fiction novels, “The Legion of Time” and “After World’s End,” which originally appeared in the magazines Astounding and Marvel Stories.
"I moved, and could not
feel my limbs:
I was so light -- almost
I thought that I had
died in sleep,
And was a blessed
ghost."
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.
Doctor Ox (French: Le Docteur Ox) is a collection of short stories by Jules Verne, the only collection of short stories published in his lifetime. It consists of four varied works by Verne:
1. "Une fantaisie du Docteur Ox" ("Dr. Ox's Experiment," 1872), illustrated by Lorenz Froelich. Dr. Ox runs a large-scale experiment on the effect of oxygen on plants, animals and humans. He secretly pumps higher levels of oxygen in a Flemish town which causes accelerated growth of plants and aggressiveness in animals and humans.
2. "Maître Zacharius" ("Master Zacharius," 1854), illustrated by Théophile Schuler. This is a Faustian tragedy about the clockmaker Master Zacharius whose overpowering pride leads to his downfall.
3. "Un drame dans les airs" ("A Drama in the Air," 1851), illustrated by Émile-Antoine Bayard. This short story foreshadows Verne’s first novel, “Five Weeks in a Balloon.” Just as the narrator starts the ascent of his balloon, a stranger jumps into its car. The unexpected passenger intends to take the balloon as high as it will go, even at the cost of his and the pilot’s life.
4. "Un hivernage dans les glaces" ("A Winter Amid the Ice," 1855), illustrated by Adrien Marie and Barbant. A search party heads North to find the crew of a missing ship and ends up fighting the bitter cold and trying to survive a bitter rivalry.
The collection also includes a preface by Pierre-Jules Hetzel and a story, "Quarantième ascension au mont Blanc" ("Fortieth Ascent of Mont Blanc"), written by Verne's brother Paul and illustrated by Edmond Yon.
“Tarzan and the Lost Empire,” the twelfth in the series of Tarzan books, was first published as a serial in Blue Book Magazine from October 1928 through February 1929. The story involves a lost remnant of the Roman Empire that Tarzan and a young German find hidden in the mountains of Africa. The book is notable for the introduction of Nkima, Tarzan’s monkey companion who appears in a number of later Tarzan stories. It also reintroduces Muviro, first seen in “Tarzan and the Golden Lion,” as sub-chief of Tarzan’s Waziri warriors.
“The Blue Poetry Book” was Andrew Lang's first and only “colored” book of poetry. It collects nearly 150 poems by masters such as Blake, Wordsworth, Scott, Longfellow, Burns, Byron, Shakespeare, Poe, Marlowe, Coleridge, Milton, Macaulay, among others. The poems are accompanied by 100 black and white illustrations by Henry J. Ford and Lancelot Speed.
Andrew Lang (1844 -1912) was a Scots poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales and for his twelve “colored” fairy books, published between 1889 and 1910. Each volume is distinguished by its own color, beginning with “The Blue Fairy Book” (1889) and ending with “The Lilac Fairy Book” (1910). In all, 437 tales from a broad range of cultures and countries are presented. The series was immensely popular, helped by Lang's reputation in folklore, and by the packaging device of the uniform books. The series proved of great influence in children's literature, increasing the popularity of fairy tales over tales of real life.
The Moonstone of the title is a diamond (not to be confused with the semi-precious moonstone gem). It gained its name from its association with the Hindu god of the moon, Chandra. Originally set in the forehead of a sacred statue of the god at Somnath, and later at Benares, it was said to be protected by hereditary guardians on the orders of Vishnu, and to wax and wane in brilliance along with the light of the moon.
Rachel Verinder, a young English woman, inherits a large Indian diamond on her eighteenth birthday. It is a legacy from her uncle, a corrupt British army officer who served in India. The diamond is of great religious significance as well as being extremely valuable, and three Hindu priests have dedicated their lives to recovering it. The story incorporates elements of the legendary origins of the Hope Diamond (or perhaps the Orloff Diamond). Rachel's eighteenth birthday is celebrated with a large party, whose guests include her cousin Franklin Blake. She wears the Moonstone on her dress that evening for all to see, including some Indian jugglers who have called at the house. Later that night, the diamond is stolen from Rachel's bedroom, and a period of turmoil, unhappiness, misunderstandings and ill-luck ensues. Told by a series of narratives from some of the main characters, the complex plot traces the subsequent efforts to explain the theft, identify the thief, trace the stone and recover it. [Source: Wikipedia]
No less an authority than T.S. Eliot called “The Moonstone "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels. (He must not have read Edgar Allan Poe.) The story was originally serialized in Charles Dickens' magazine “All the Year Round” between January and August 1868. “The Moonstone” and “The Woman in White” are considered Wilkie Collins' best novels.
Where Mars was observed during Winter, 1896-97.
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]
Doctor Ox (French: Le Docteur Ox) is a collection of short stories by Jules Verne, the only collection of short stories published in his lifetime. It consists of four varied works by Verne:
1. "Une fantaisie du Docteur Ox" ("Dr. Ox's Experiment," 1872), illustrated by Lorenz Froelich. Dr. Ox runs a large-scale experiment on the effect of oxygen on plants, animals and humans. He secretly pumps higher levels of oxygen in a Flemish town which causes accelerated growth of plants and aggressiveness in animals and humans.
2. "Maître Zacharius" ("Master Zacharius," 1854), illustrated by Théophile Schuler. This is a Faustian tragedy about the clockmaker Master Zacharius whose overpowering pride leads to his downfall.
3. "Un drame dans les airs" ("A Drama in the Air," 1851), illustrated by Émile-Antoine Bayard. This short story foreshadows Verne’s first novel, “Five Weeks in a Balloon.” Just as the narrator starts the ascent of his balloon, a stranger jumps into its car. The unexpected passenger intends to take the balloon as high as it will go, even at the cost of his and the pilot’s life.
4. "Un hivernage dans les glaces" ("A Winter Amid the Ice," 1855), illustrated by Adrien Marie and Barbant. A search party heads North to find the crew of a missing ship and ends up fighting the bitter cold and trying to survive a bitter rivalry.
The collection also includes a preface by Pierre-Jules Hetzel and a story, "Quarantième ascension au mont Blanc" ("Fortieth Ascent of Mont Blanc"), written by Verne's brother Paul and illustrated by Edmond Yon.
Vol. II, First 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.
This edition of the novel contains six color illustrations by Pamela Colman Smith. The book was first published in the US in 1966 under the title “The Garden of Evil” by Paperback Library. In 1988, it was adapted into a film by Ken Russell.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Q-PyZxZjw
“The Lair of the White Worm” was Bram Stoker’s twelfth and last novel, published a year before his death. The novel, along with “The Jewel of Seven Stars, is one of his most famous after “Dracula.” It is a horror story about a giant white worm that can transform itself into a woman. Partly based on the legend of the Lambton Worm from North East England, the White Worm in Stoker’s story is a large snake-like creature that dwells in a hole or pit and feeds on whatever is thrown to it. It is thought to reside in the house of Arabella March, a local lady and a suspect in numerous crimes that cannot be proven.
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.
Written by William Shakespeare, published in 1623. View all four folios at digital.lib.MiamiOH.edu/folios.