Uncovering Writing

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This looked like such a fun book when I stumbled upon it. I bought a University of Michigan Library scanned copy that was printed on demand. So, modern trade paperback format with the scanned pages of the original 1821 book. I love the look of the old fonts and page layouts, but I was able to be a little less gentle with it than I would if I had the original.

Some might find bibliographies boring or only useful when doing research. I enjoy them no matter what. But, Davis makes this a fun and quick read for a more general audience. He covered books from about 1430 up to 1809. Depending on the entry, he would talk about the book, its history, the author or some interesting, related tidbit. When possible, he lists sale prices of the book through time.

I learned some cool things, e.g. Shakespeare’s 3rd folio was seen then as more valuable than the 2nd, since the 2nd was riddled with problems. He had two neat things on Cervantes’s Don Quixote. First, contemporary (to Davis) critics highly valued the Motteux English translation, even though it’s in less favor today. And even in 1821, the beauty of Ibarra’s Don Quixote was beyond question. When discussing Knight’s Account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus (1786), he writes of Brydone’s thoughts on Catholics appropriating ancient myths and gods, and simply renaming them (p. 87-90). Fascinating.

The edition I bought also has his second Journey around the library, published in 1825. I’ll write a separate review for that one once I finish it.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a fantastic read, especially for those fond of old books and printing. How often do you get to follow a press from birth to death? Read about every piece that came from it? I’ve been fascinated with Horace Walpole and reading about his private press was just a blast.

I also liked a quote from Walpole upon hearing of the death of a close friend (the poet Thomas Gray): “Methinks as we grow old, our only business here is to adorn the graves of our friends, or to dig our own” (p. 52).

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a fun romp through the history of Horace Walpole’s library! I knew Walpole from his work The Castle of Otranto, the first gothic novel. I also have a strong passion for book porn, and this volume fit the bill.

This book is based on the 1957 Sandars Lectures by Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis, given at the University of Cambridge. The Readership in Bibliography is a fantastic idea, created with a £2,000 bequest from Samuel Sandars. He created an appointed position to Cambridge that funded a person to study bibliography and to deliver one or more lectures a year on “the subjects of Bibliography, Paleography, Typography, Bookbinding, Book Illustration, the science of Books and Manuscripts and the Arts relating thereto” (p. ix).

Lewis gave three lectures. The first focused on the books in Walpole’s library. What they were, where he got some of them and where they were physically placed within his library. The second lecture covered how Walpole read and used these books. The final lecture dealt with the 1842 sale of the library and what became of some of the volumes. This sounds like it could be boring or only for hardcore bibliophiles, but Lewis’s talks draw one in with anecdotes, contemporary gossip, links to history and persons, etc.

Speaking of the physical library, Lewis writes that “… books that have stood unmoved for years acquire a presumptive right to their place on the shelves, which their owner violates at his own peril” (p. 19). This is something I can relate to, although I don’t have quite the size of library that Walpole had. In my opinion, books must be more than pieces of art, they must be used. Walpole believed that, his was a working library. But, they are also living beings and they have their places where they, and we as readers, find them best suited to be.

In discussing the variety and specifics of the books that Walpole amassed, Lewis makes a great point: “Close as we may feel ourselves to be to the eighteenth century, merely reading the names of these books and authors, which were the standard works in all eighteenth-century libraries of any pretension, makes us realize how much we have not looked at that was common knowledge to the well-read man of that day” (p. 33). So many books have been lost, not physically, but to the tastes of readers and reviewers. Several of the volumes I have in my own library aren’t popularly read or even remembered. But, they were important at one time, or at least popular, and reading them now helps me to connect to the past. My understanding of the Gothic and Romantic movements has grown as I’ve slowly moved outside the modern canon of those genres.

As I said, Lewis throws little things into his lectures that make them fun. He notes the sleaziness of some booksellers, who soaked off prized Walpole book plates from poor condition books and attached them to other volumes to pass off as from his original library (p. 56). He also mentions how even though some books from the original library have been rebacked or rebound, some still have their press-marks (notation as to where they belonged physically in the library) and book plates underneath (p. 60). They may be lurking on a shelf near you.

I love that Lewis covers the “pedigree” of Walpole’s volumes, referred to as their provenance. How he acquired them, what he did with them and what became of them. Some books are valuable because they are rare or because they are extremely old. Others are valuable due to who owned them or their history. I like knowing that a book I have came from somewhere, whether that somewhere is considered important or not. It makes the volume more three-dimensional, more whole. From what Lewis writes, Walpole felt the same way, as do many collectors and bibliographers. Speaking of that, Lewis relates a fun history of two books that Walpole bought in the 1730s that were sold together, then separated and eventually brought back together at the time of the lectures, more than 200 years later (p. 63)!

Overall, a fantastically entertaining, informative and fun read. I highly recommend it.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a fun piece of book porn from 1898. This wonderful volume covers the rise of the book collector and the prices at which books have sold from the 17th century up until this edition was published. Wheatley chronicles the rise of the great private and public libraries and how they were built and sold. He has lots of anecdotes about sales, the rise of auctions and little tidbits about various famous, infamous or forgotten books. Well worth the time to peruse.

N.B. My edition was actually the Project Gutenberg one.

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The Pope’s Bookbinder: A Memoir by David Mason

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

After reading the Washington Post’s review of this book, I decided to get it from our local library. Flush with a gift card, I bought my own copy. I wish I had waited to get it from the library, and also wish that the library had lost it before I got to pick it up. I found that David Mason’s memoir had some very good advice and some fun stories, but these were outweighed by his arrogance, sexism and elitism. While reviewing my notes before writing this review, I felt a little bad at having given the book two stars. But, by the time I finished, I am happy with my choosing the “It’s ok” level.

To start with the positives, Mason absolutely nailed it with a quote from British novelist J. Cowper Powys: “Wisest are they who read old books– drink old wine– converse with old friends– and let the rest of the world go.” So true. Mason also has a special place in his heart for librarians, who started him on his path at a very young age. Also, as someone who has personally collected Modern Library editions, I was pleased that the first two books he bought with money he earned were Modern Library books. His memoir is filled with stories of his career, from a young reader, apprenticing in various bookstores, to finally owning his own stores. There are stories that make you smile, cry and laugh, sometimes all at the same time.

But then, many of the stories and his actions are replete with sexism, sleaziness, elitism and egotism. If I had to summarize his memoir in one sentence, it could be: ‘if everyone would just do as I say, all will be well.’ He mocks or deprecates anyone who doesn’t see things his way.

He refers to a woman’s place as being in the home, or at the minimum, doing all the household chores. He relates a story when he and a friend pulled into a self-serve gas station. Mason hadn’t learned to drive at the time and his friend asked if he knew how to work the pump. His reply: “No, I don’t, Reg. But we’re grown men, surely we can figure it out. I see women doing it all the time.” Seriously?

Turning to sleaze, he talks about how he’s had great finds. He haughtily told off a competitor how much money the competitor lost by marking a book Mason bought too low. He often finds books from friends, fellow booksellers and even a mentor that are priced far below their value. Instead of informing his friends, he buys them and then pats himself on the back. You could say that’s business, and he does, but, to me, it seems sleazy, especially to one’s friends or someone who taught you the business. He often says booksellers are a community and they need to help each other out. He seems to like that advice when they’re helping him, but it goes away when he wants to help himself.

At auctions, he said he decides what price a book lot will go for, even if he isn’t interested in it. “I cross out [from his notes] any book I don’t want at any price and, using my code, I note the minimum under which I will not allow anyone else to buy that lot.” He even says he has and will continue to drive up a price against a perceived enemy, just out of spite.

Mason writes that sometimes people store cash in books or use a bill as a bookmark. Mason has purchased libraries that have such books. In one instance, he bought the library of a deceased woman from her son. He despised this son, thinking him uncouth and not deserving of anything gained from the sale of the books. Interesting, Mason dissed this person’s appearance, after noting in previous chapters that he was thankful he wasn’t discriminated against as a young bookseller in jeans and sometimes ratty clothes. But, back to the story. Going through the books back at his shop, he found this woman’s stash of cash, $200 worth of it. Mason kept the money, justifying it by saying the son didn’t deserve it. Remember, this is a person he only met once.

In conclusion, I should say that the book read quickly and the topic was interesting. As a story teller, Mason succeeded. But as a human being, I couldn’t find him sympathetic.

Modern Book Collecting: A Basic Guide To All Aspects Of Book Collecting: What To Collect, Who To Buy From, Auctions, Bibliographies, Care, Fakes And Forgeries, … And More by Robert A. Wilson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A quick and fun read about modern book collecting. I know now that I’ll never be a hardcore collector but I learned some tips and tricks for collecting the few books that mean the most to me. Worth the read, especially for the 99¢ Kindle edition.