Entries from May 2008 ↓

“He Giveth His Beloved Sleep”, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Illustrated by Miss L. B. Humphrey, engraved by Andrew. Published 1882, ©1880.

One of my oldest clearances — it took a while for us to figure out that the best way to present this heavily illustrated book is the simplest way: as illustrations.

Bookp(h)ile

Graded Memory Selections, by SD Waterman, et al. Published 1903.

Bookp(h)ile

The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, Volume 23, Issue 6.

The last one of this volume. It took a very long time — January’s issue was posted in September 2006; June’s just this month. I think I’ve got to get faster at producing them, because I’ll never get through 60 volumes at this rate…

Volume Bookp(h)ile

The Ranger Boys and the Border Smugglers, by Claude A. Labelle. Published 1922.

Thanks to Anonymous for post-processing this project!

Bookp(h)ile

A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays, by Willa Cather.

This is a “Made for PG” collection of newspaper and magazine stories, reviews and essays. You can see some of the early development of Cather’s style, and follow her move from Nebraska to New York.

• Part I: Stories
  • Peter
  • On the Divide
  • Eric Hermannson’s Soul
  • The Sentimentality of William Tavener
  • The Namesake
  • The Enchanted Bluff
  • The Joy of Nelly Deane
  • The Bohemian Girl
  • Consequences
  • The Bookkeeper’s Wife
  • Ardessa
  • Her Boss
• Part II: Reviews And Essays
  • Mark Twain
  • William Dean Howells
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Walt Whitman
  • Henry James
  • Harold Frederic
  • Kate Chopin
  • Stephen Crane
  • Frank Norris
  • When I Knew Stephen Crane
  • On the Art of Fiction

Heart Utterances at Various Periods of a Chequered Life., by Eliza Paul Kirkbride Gurney. “Not Published” after 1875.

I’ve seen “Printed for the Author” on title pages before, but seeing “Not Published” on this one was a first.

The “preface” is rather appropriate:

In this book I have scribbled some innocent rhymes,
In various moods, and at different times;
Some grave and some cheerful, some merry, some sad,
Though none may be good, there are none very bad.

Typical of mid-19th century (written from 1811 to 1875) self-published poetry, this is full of “Bereavement” poems and “Bible story” poems. What is surprising to me is there are few (dare I say no?) poems specifically about Mrs Gurney’s husband or any children, nor any youthful “friends forever” verses. It could well be that Mrs Gurney wanted only to commemorate her “serious” poems, or she did write about such things but couched them in religious tones.

Fairy Tales of the Slav Peasants and Herdsmen, by Alexander Chodźko. Published 1896.

A heavily-illustrated (some of the borders are very intricate) book of fairy tales of Eastern Europe. Some of them will sound familiar (”Kinkach Martinko”). And remember: always be nice to talking animals.

Bookp(h)ile

A Chosen Few Short Stories, by Frank R. Stockton. Published 1895.

A sampling of Stockton’s stories:

• A Tale of Negative Gravity
• Asaph
• “His Wife’s Deceased Sister”
• The Lady, or the Tiger?
• The Remarkable Wreck of the “Thomas Hyke”
• Old Pipes and the Dryad
• The Transferred Ghost
• “The Philosophy of Relative Existences”
• A Piece of Red Calico