Tidbits of Times Past

On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening, by Samuel Felton. Published 1830.

What an odd book. The title says exactly what it is, but yet it doesn’t. The author 1) makes a list of English authors who have written (or published) books about 2) gardens and gardening (including horticulture), lists them and discusses 3) portraits that have been made of them. These are not “word picture” portraits, but engravings of paintings, etc. that can be found in the various books. Oh, and 4) they were deceased at the time of writing.

Thanks to Anonymous for post-processing this project!

Bookp(h)ile

1. This Club shall be known as the Ignoramus Club of ——.

4. Every member shall be pledged not to read the latest book until people have stopped expecting it.

5. The Club shall have a Standing Committee that shall report at every meeting on New Things That People Do Not Need to Know.

6. It shall have a Public Library Committee, appointed every year, to look over the books in regular order and report on Old Things That People Do Not Need to Know. (Committee instructed to keep the library as small as possible.)

8. No member (vacations excepted) shall read any book that he would not read twice. In case he does, he shall be obliged to read it twice or pay a fine (three times the price of book, net).

11. The Club shall meet weekly.

12. Any person of suitable age shall be eligible for membership in the Club, who, after a written examination in his deficiencies, shall appear, in the opinion of the Examining Board, to have selected his ignorance thoughtfully, conscientiously, and for the protection of his mind.

13. All persons thus approved shall be voted upon at the next regular meeting of the Club—the vote to be taken by ballot (any candidate who has not read When Knighthood Was in Flower, or Audrey, or David Harum—by acclamation).

Perhaps I have quoted from the by-laws sufficiently to give an idea of the spirit and aim of the Club. I append the order of meeting:

1. Called to order.
2. Reports of Committees.
3. General Confession (what members have read during the week).
4. FINES.
5. Review: Books I Have Escaped.
6. Essay: Things Plato Did Not Need to Know.
7. Omniscience. Helpful Hints. Remedies.
8. The Description Evil; followed by an illustration.
9. Not Travelling on the Nile: By One Who Has Been There.
10. Our Village Street: Stereopticon.
11. What Not to Know about Birds.
12. Myself through an Opera-Glass.
13. Sonnet: Botany.
14. Essay: Proper Treatment of Paupers, Insane, and Instructive People.
15. The Fad for Facts.
16. How to Organise a Club against Clubs.
17. Paper: How to Humble Him Who Asks, “Have You Read—-?”
18. Essay, by youngest member: Infinity. An Appreciation.
19. Review: The Heavens in a Nutshell.
20. Review. Wild Animals I Do Not Want to Know.
21. Exercise in Silence. (Ten Minutes. Entire Club.)
22. Essay (Ten Minutes): Encyclopædia Britannica, Summary.
23. Exercise in Wondering about Something. (Selected. Ten Minutes. Entire Club.)
24. Debate: Which Is More Deadly–the Pen or the Sword?
25. Things Said To-Night That We Must Forget.
26. Adjournment. (Each member required to walk home alone looking at the stars.)

“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.

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

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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…

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

Thanks to Anonymous for post-processing this project!

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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.