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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.
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.
The Lancia Stratos HF (Tipo 829), widely and more simply known as Lancia Stratos, is a car made by Italian car manufacturer Lancia. The HF stands for High Fidelity. It was a very successful rally car, winning the World Rally Championship in 1974, 1975 and 1976.
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.
Wernher von Braun’s rocket team was one of the most influential technological forces in the 20th century. The von Braun team forever changed warfare with its 200-mile-range V-2 missile. Despite the constant allied bombing of Germany during World War II which cut supply lines and forced manufacturing operations underground, the scientists and engineers on von Braun’s team refined and developed their work to the point that, when they arranged their surrender to the Americans at the end of the war, von Braun announced that he had a rocket on the drawing board that could fly from Germany to New York. Little wonder, then, that the rivalry was so keen between the U.S., Russia and Britain to gain their services.
After World War II, von Braun’s rocket team created the first long-range ballistic missiles for the U.S. They worked on the Explorer program that resulted in the first American satellite to orbit the Earth. And within a decade they developed and built the huge 363-foot-tall Saturn rocket that sent man to the Moon.
The book “The Rocket Team” provides insight into the wartime growth of rocketry and tells how the men were brought to the U.S., and established first at White Sands, NM, and then at Hunstville, AL. Included, too, is a chapter on the development of post-war Soviet rocketry, based on the work of the members of the von Braun team who chose to go East instead of West.
The Mercury Seven were the group of seven Mercury astronauts selected by NASA on April 9, 1959. They are also referred to as the Original Seven or Astronaut Group 1. They piloted the manned spaceflights of the Mercury program from May 1961 to May 1963. These seven original American astronauts were Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper, and Deke Slayton. Alan Shepard was the second person and the first American to travel into space. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first person to travel into space.
The story of the macho, seat-of-the-pants approach to the space program of the Mercury astronauts and the equally fearless approach of test pilot Chuck Yeager was the basis of a book by Tom Wolfe (1979) and a movie by Philip Kaufman (1983). Both are titled “The Right Stuff.” Here is a link to the movie trailer:
Fifty years ago, "The Book" hit the stores and made quite a big
impression on young Americans, who hit the road in droves
trying to find the America that Jack described so well...
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.
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]
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.
Steel engraved portrait to celebrate the marriage of Princess Victoria, daughter of Queen Victoria, to Prince Frederick William of Prussia.
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. ‘Toxteth Park’ is a historic home built in 1829 in The Glebe, Sydney, Australia designed by the Colonial Architect, John Verge for the Australian lawyer and businessman, George Allen ( 1800-1877).
A history of ‘Toxteth Park’ is here:
“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.
“And all this time the lions and tigers was sorting out the clothes.”
“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]
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.
Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Treatise on Painting,” the most important treatise on art to be written during the Renaissance, was actually compiled by Francesco Melzi, one of Leonardo’s pupils, around 1540. It circulated widely, first in separate manuscripts and later in printed books, and for centuries it was thought to have been written by Leonardo himself. Artists, scientists, and scholars including Galileo, read it avidly as an authoritative record of Leonardo’s thoughts. In the 19th century, when the artist’s original notes became available, scholars realized that the text poorly reflected Leonardo’s sophisticated ideas. The text was very influential nonetheless. For better or worse, it was the primary source for disseminating Leonardo’s art theory in Renaissance and Baroque Europe, from the mid-sixteenth century to the early nineteenth century.
[Source: www.treatiseonpainting.org/]
Electric Drive
98° Motor Show Brussels
Autosalon Brussel
Salon de l'Auto Bruxelles
Brussels - Belgium
January 2020
Grass Stain Green Field Notes arrived just before the weekend. They're just as gorgeous in real life as they were in the photo - I love the coordinating green graph. Can't wait to finish my current FN to move on to this fresh baby.
Haggard blends Inca history and myth in this adventure tale. He explores the Inca myth surrounding the rise of one of the Americas greatest pre-Columbian leaders - Pachacuti. Today, Pachacuti is best known for one of the most recognizable icons in the world - Machu Picchu. "Virgin of the Sun" was published in 1922, a scant 11 years after explorer Hiram Bingham rediscovered the lost city nestled in the Peruvian mountains. Bingham hadn't yet connected Machu Picchu to Pachacuti, but myth had already surrounded the Inca ruler who is credited with expanding Inca rule to cover a huge swath of territory on South America's western coast.
Haggard's story unfolds as a "modern day" antique hound translates 400-year-old letters found in an ancient chest. The letters tell the tale of Hubert - a fisherman working and living in England. Following a few small adventures and misadventures, our hero, Hubert, meets and befriends a strange man from a foreign land. After Hubert's wife of less-than-24-hours commits suicide and Hubert kills her former lover, he and his friend, Kari, are off into the Atlantic Ocean. Kari acts as a physical and emotional guide to Hubert who's immediately declared a White God by the various natives they come across after finding landfall in South America.
In addition to the Victorian era-like romance that leads to his wife's death, Hubert also falls in love with a beautiful Indian princess, Quilla - daughter of the moon. Haggard uses this surprisingly touching romance to further Hubert and Kari's adventure. [Source: Jason Golomb at the Goodread website www.goodreads.com/book/show/6328821-the-virgin-of-the-sun]
Written by William Shakespeare, published in 1623. View all four folios at digital.lib.MiamiOH.edu/folios.
Set in London of 632 A.F. (“After Ford”), the novel portrays a futuristic society in which the individual is sacrificed for the state, science is used to control and subjugate, and all forms of art and history are outlawed. The novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, classical conditioning and psychological manipulation that combine profoundly to change society. Modern Library ranked “Brave New World” fifth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. [Source: Wikipedia]
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 is the remake of the 1956 film based on Jack Finney's classic science fiction story. Here is the pod-opening scene in the original film:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLsjlmrQ6Mw
Here is the comparable scene in the remake (1978):
“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.
"See! see! I cried, she
tacks no more!
Hither to work us weal;
Without a breeze, without
a tide,
She steadies with
upright keel!"
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.
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.
Studio Handbook -Lettering & Design, Samuel Welo, Copyright 1927 by Frederick J. Drake & Co. This approximately 5.25" x 7.5" book contains 232 pages and every single page is hand lettered by Mr. Welo. It contains scroll designs, panel designs, show card designs and of course alphabets, all hand rendered. Even the end papers containing publisher and printing particulars were done by hand. I have seen pictures of this and a later edition online and have never seen the gold leaf flying bird symbol on the front of the other books. Not sure if this was added later or if it is original. I highly recommend this book and am trying to get copies of Mr. Welo's other books.
Just Love Festival is back and better than ever! The first edition started and ended strong and we're looking forward to the next two. Check out highlights from Just Love Festival Edition 1 now!
justlovefestival.org
The plot of the book revolves around a group of radical pirates who seek the freedom to live under the articles set out by Captain James Mission. It imagines an alternate history in which Captain Mission’s 18th century anarchist colony called Libertatia lives on. His way of life is based on “The Articles,” a general freedom to live as one chooses, without prejudice. The novel is narrated from two different standpoints: one set in the 18th century which follows a group of pirate boys led by Noah Blake, who land in Panama to liberate it. The other is set in the late 20th century, and follows a detective tracing the disappearance of an adolescent boy. The cities of the title mimic and parody real places, and Burroughs makes references to the United States, Mexico, and Morocco.
“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).
"The Purloined Letter" is the third of Poe's three detective stories featuring the fictional C. Auguste Dupin, the other two being "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt." These stories are considered to be important early forerunners of the modern detective story.
The family of Darius at the feet of Alexander, after the Battle of Issus, taken from a painting by Paul Veronese.
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.
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]
I love this book so much I buy copies of it for friends whenever I see them. Not this copy, though -- it's a first edition paperback.
"John Evans" is a nom de plume for Howard Browne, a prolific mystery and science fiction writer who died a few years ago. He wrote for tv as well -- I caught a line from this book issuing from the lips of a bad guy on "77 Sunset Strip" one day; sure enough, Browne wrote the screenplay.
By the way: when the hell is Warner Brothers going to release "77 Sunset Strip" on dvd?
Written by William Shakespeare, published in 1623. View all four folios at digital.lib.MiamiOH.edu/folios.
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]
"Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea.
And never a saint took
pity on
My soul in agony."
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.
This novel focuses upon the conflict between two brothers whose family is torn apart by a Scottish uprising in 1745. The uprising had the aim of returning James VII of Scotland and the House of Stuart to the throne of Great Britain. One brother joins the uprising while the other joins the loyalists. The older brother, James Durie (Master of Ballantrae), joins the uprising and becomes the rebel, while his younger brother, Henry Durie, remains in support of King George II. The uprising fails and the Master is reported dead, but Henry soon learns that his brother is alive and sailing with pirates.
The novel was made into a 1953 film with Errol Flynn as the Master.
I am currently working on a replica of Shakespeare's 1623 folio. Although Shakespeare's works have been in print prior to the release of the first folio as individual plays, the 1623 publication is the first edition of the "complete" works of Shakespeare.
This replica is a rebinding of a 1947 facsimile, originally case bound in ugly whitish cloth, redone in hand dyed calf leather featuring a Cambridge panel and lined with marbled paper. The text block was resewn on recessed cords with the new cover boards laced in. Headbands were hand wound. An oxford hollow with false raised bands was used for the spine. The leather was dyed using a combination of vegetable dyes, aniline dyes and tattoo inks.
See more projects here:
As you can tell by the electrical transformer, vacuum tubes ("valves") and telegraph sounder in the background, I have other ongoing projects in the same shop. :)
Christine is the story of a vintage 1958 Plymouth Fury that is possessed by supernatural forces. John Carpenter directed the film adaptation of King’s book:
Originally serialized in Galaxy magazine between 1872-74, Custer’s autobiography of life as a cavalryman fighting Native-American tribes on the plains appeared in book form only two years before his last stand at Little Bighorn. Introduced by his sketch of the landscape and speculations on the history and nature of the “Indian,” Custer’s narrative begins with the expedition of Major-General Hancock in the spring of 1867 and ends with the Washita campaign on the frontiers of Kansas.
Vol. I, 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.