Instead of a Friday review, a Friday 'view' today -- a twelve-minute video describing the American Antiquarian Society: its collections, conservation processes, research projects. Watch for rare book dealer Bill Reese, historians David McCullough, Jill Lepore, and Nathaniel Philbrick, poet Honoree Jeffers, and lots of beautiful books and illustrations. And is that a cameo by our own Jeremy Dibbell?...



Our fall issue features an article on the AAS bicentennial and the current Grolier Club exhibit of AAS treasures, In Pursuit of a Vision.
huguette-clark_t479.jpgI've been thinking lately about Huguette Clark.  She died well over a year ago.  What's happening to her extensive doll collection, supposedly worth millions?  What about her rare books?

Some catch-up: Huguette Clark was a reclusive New York heiress who inherited a vast fortune from her father, William Andrews Clark, one of the richest (and most disliked) of the Gilded Age industrialists.  Clark was a socialite in the 1920s, before disappearing from the public eye after a failed marriage that ended in divorce in 1930.  (That divorce, incidentally, also produced the last known photograph of her, seen above).  Clark retreated into a grand old apartment on Fifth Avenue overlooking Central Park.  While she eventually purchased the entire 8th floor of that building, along with mansions in Santa Barbara and Connecticut, Clark moved permanently into a hospital about twenty years ago where she took a pseudonym and lived under the care of a private nurse.  Clark died at age 104 in March of 2011, leaving behind an estate worth about $500 million.

Clark, who said once that "wealth is a menace to happiness," used a slice of her fortune to amass an impressive doll collection.  She began collecting dolls when she was five, focusing in particular on historic French dolls.  Clark was born in Paris, spoke French fluently (apparently preferring it to English), and purchased most of her dolls from old French shops such as An Nain Bieu.  The dolls were housed in their own suite of rooms in one of her Fifth Avenue apartments.  The doll collection is supposedly worth millions today -- but nothing has been mentioned of it since the media blitz after Clark's passing last year.  Apparently, the collection passed to her nurse, Hadassha Peri, along with a decent sized chunk of her estate.  But what Peri did with the dolls remains a mystery.  The New York apartments (which, by the way, were supposedly like walking into a time-warp - check out their amazing floor plans here), have already been sold, so the dolls must have moved into a new home.  However, I have seen no mention of them in any auctions over the last year.  (Clark's jewelry collection, meanwhile, brought a cool $20 million at Christie's earlier this year).  So what has Peri done with them?  Does she intend to sell them -- donate them?  It sounds like a collection worthy of a museum, so it's a bit of a shame that they're just sitting somewhere out of commission, not being added to, not being sold, not being viewed.

All of this serves as a good reminder to us book collectors: include a provision in your will for your books.  Arrange for them to pass to someone interested in them, or have them donated to a library or sold at auction on behalf of your heirs.  It's so important to keep collections in the hands of appreciative audiences.

Clark, by the way, apparently owned a number of rare books in her time-warp apartments, although I can only find scant mention of them in the various newspaper articles about her death.  It appears that they will be moved to her Santa Barbara mansion, along with her very impressive art collection, as part of a soon-to-be-formed public museum under the direction of the newly created Bellosguardo Foundation.  What rare books she owned, however - along with so much else about the heiress - remains a mystery.

PH-Frankenstein.jpgEarlier today, an extraordinary copy of Frankenstein was unveiled at rare bookseller Peter Harrington's London gallery, and a full-color catalogue was issued to celebrate its return to the land of the living. Just two weeks ago, the rare book firm had announced an astonishing find: an inscribed first edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, "from the author" to Lord Byron. This presentation copy of an important book from one famous author to another bears witness to one of the most intriguing literary friendships -- as the legend goes, it was Byron who dared the teenaged Shelley to write a "ghost story." Peter Harrington's proprietor Pom Harrington said, "We don't always get the chance to celebrate the provenance or the history of the wonderful books we sell. So this is a wonderful opportunity to share this association copy and perhaps the most evocative presentation copy conceivable in all nineteenth-century literature with the world." The book, bound in contemporary calf and looking its age, was discovered by the twenty-something grandson of a late British politician who probably shelved it fifty years ago without a fuss.

Volume one alone (volumes two and three are missing) of Frankenstein, published in 1818, with Shelley's handwriting on a blank page preceding the half-title page, will remain on view at Harrington's until October 3. In an unconventional move, the bookseller is taking bids for the book -- only those in excess of £350,000 (about $567,000) will be entertained. 

Only one other copy of a signed Frankenstein first edition seems to have survived the nearly two hundred years since publication---and that is Shelley's own copy, which now resides at the Morgan Library in New York City.
 
Photo courtesy of Peter Harrington.

 
Our series profiling the next generation of antiquarian booksellers continues today with Laura Massey, an American working for Peter Harrington in London:

Laura4.jpgNP: What is your role at Peter Harrington?

LM: I started as the general cataloguer in 2009, and my job quickly expanded to include a variety of other responsibilities. I'm particularly interested in using the internet to make rare materials accessible and interesting to those who aren't specialists, which is why I started our blog and Twitter feed. I also love science, and my main goal is to specialise in that direction. I'm in the process of compiling my first catalogue, a selection of important 20th-century science books with a strong focus on a favourite subject-nuclear physics. I've always been interested in the ways that science and medicine are presented to the public, and I think that there's room in the book world for us to improve the ways that science books are catalogued.

NP: How did you get started in rare books?

LM: It really began with my parents. Both of them love books, especially my mom, who started reading to me as soon as I was born. My dad trained as a ceramic artist and was inspired by the Arts & Crafts movement and the Japanese philosophy of making everyday objects both beautiful and functional. So I grew up with not only an appreciation for literature, but for the book as a material object. I always loved the idea of working with rare books but, growing up in a small town, that world seemed so distant that I never considered it a serious career choice. After finishing my undergraduate degree I was living in Atlanta and having trouble finding a fulfilling career. I spent a lot of lazy summer afternoons in my local used and rare book shop, A Cappella, and it dawned on me one day that this was something I could really do. So I made a long-term plan: I read everything I could about book history and rare books, began volunteering at the shop (thanks Frank!), and started a blog so that I could connect with other rare book people. A few years later I entered the book history MA programme at the Institute of English Studies in London. I knew that, in addition to the amazing faculty and all the libraries I would have access to, I would also be in one of the world centres of the book trade, and hoped I might get my foot in the door with an internship or part-time job. As my course wound down I sent out a few CVs and was lucky enough to approach Peter Harrington just as the firm was looking for a full-time cataloguer.

NP: What do you love about the working in the trade?

LM: Having access to so much wonderful material and getting to work on something different every day. I also love writing and doing research, which is a huge component of my job.

NP: Favorite or most interesting book you've handled?

LM: At the moment I have two. The first is our Ars Moriendi block book leaf, which I've written about for the blog. I became fascinated by these during my master's degree because they're a sort of proto-printing technology, but they're rare and I never thought I would run across one outside of a special collections setting. The second is my first major book fair find, a copy of Alexander Fleming's Penicillin: Its Practical Application. It's not a scarce book, and this copy didn't look unusually inviting, but I picked it up because bacteriology is of particular interest to me. And it turned out to contain an uncommon presentation inscription to one of the contributors. A good lesson in rare book buying!

NP: So, this copy of Frankenstein is pretty awesome.  Tell us about your thoughts on it:

LM: It is! Mary Shelley and her mother Mary Wollstonecraft have long been feminist heroes of mine, and the relationship between the Shelleys and Byron is fascinating. But the book's sudden appearance is the most exciting part. I've worked with a lot of amazing objects since I joined the firm, but most of them already had an extensive provenance. It's truly rare for an item of this significance to appear out of the blue, and I feel privileged to be present at its reappearance.

[Note: This question was in reference to the copy of Frankenstein inscribed by Mary Shelley to Lord Byron which was recently acquired by Peter Harrington.  The book will be on display and viewable to the general public at the shop, 100 Fulham Road in Chelsea, London, from September 26 to October 3].

NP: What do you personally collect?

LM: Unfortunately, I'm more of an accumulator than a collector. I tend to buy objects that interest me personally, but without feeling the urge for comprehensive acquisition in any one field. What catches my eye could be a book one day, then a natural history specimen, bicycle poster, or piece of jewellery the next. That being said, I do have a wonderful collection of antique jelly moulds, all of them gifts from a friend.

NP: Do you want to open your own shop someday?

LM: Probably not. I'm really happy working in a large shop because of the opportunities it provides to learn from colleagues and to work on material that I would probably not see on my own. I'm also not keen on admin and bookkeeping, so consider it a reasonable trade-off not to be my own boss if I don't have to deal with any of that.

NP: Thoughts on the future of the trade?

LM: I feel very positive about it, and think that the e-book revolution will be beneficial to rare books in general. Instead of the massive, low-quality print runs of the last few decades we'll see small runs made to higher standards-books that look better, last longer, and are more collectible. Digital may be more convenient, but people still want the human touch a physical object provides. This is already apparent with other formats such as vinyl and film photography, which are seeing a renewal of interest.  At the same time, overall access to literature will increase. There's evidence that people with electronic readers consume more books because of the ease of access, and more book lovers means more collectors. Additionally, greater access to out-of-copyright works from Project Gutenberg and the like will encourage people to explore books they would not have been exposed to in the age of the chain store. It's a very exciting change to live through!

Coming up in just a couple of weeks--make your plans now, if you haven't--is the Oak Knoll Fest, a bi-annual celebration of book arts, fine press, and beautiful books held in and around Oak Knoll Books in New Castle, Delaware. This year's weekend-long event boasts a Friday symposium titled, "The Fine Book in the 21st Century -- Yes, It Will Survive!", that will explore the future of typography and fine printing. This event is currently full, but the rest of the weekend is booked with free lectures, exhibits, and sales.

On Saturday, Oct. 6, the Fest continues with a talk by book designer and calligrapher Jerry Kelly, followed by Daniel De Simone, curator of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection of the Library of Congress, who will discuss color printing in early books. The afternoon offers a fine press exhibition and sale, with exhibitors that include the Fine Press Book Association, Ladies of Letterpress, Russell Maret, Midnight Paper Sales (Gaylord Schanilec), Lead Graffiti, and many more (full list is here). On Sunday, you can head back to the fine press exhibition after Carol Grossman gives a talk on George Macy and the Limited Editions Club.

What a line-up! And did we mention that all weekend Oak Knoll holds its own shop sale, offering 20% off everything in the store? The Oak Knoll Fest only comes around once every two years, so if you can make the trip, carpe diem!     
Surrealism under Pressure
Reviewed by Edith Vandervoort


Those of us who are familiar with the Art Institute of Chicago may also know of its outstanding collection of Surrealist works, thanks to its notable exhibitions on the subject. Surrealism under Pressure 1938-1953 (Yale UP, 2012) is the catalogue that accompanied an exhibition of Jindrich Heisler's work at the AIC earlier this year.

Surrealism.jpgHeisler, who began his career as a poet, joined the Czechoslovak Surrealist Movement in 1938, a group comprised of former avant-gardists who influenced and helped him throughout his lifetime. With a fellow member, Toyen (Marie Cerminová) and other visual artists he produced several illustrated poetry books such as The Specters of the Desert (1939) and Only the Kestrels Piss Calmly on the Ten Commandments (1939), the latter originating during the suffocating existence of German occupation in Prague. The groundbreaking 1940 photobook, From the Strongholds of Sleep, innovative because it consists of photographs of text and images, is discussed in detail. Upon the publication of On the Needles of this Day (1941), Heisler, a Jew, goes into forced exile following a summons for deportation in the winter of 1941/42. Until the war's end he lives with Toyen, relatives, and fellow Surrealists, rarely going outdoors. During his years in exile he produces much of the work reproduced in this catalog. It is believed that none of the works created in hiding were ever exhibited in his lifetime. Significantly, and perhaps emphasizing the uncertainty of his existence, they are not dated and the titles were added posthumously by Toyen. After the war, Heisler returned to Prague, but because of the threat of a Communist takeover, relocated with Toyen to Paris in March 1947, where he enjoyed close contact with other Surrealists in preparation for the exhibition Le surréalisme en 1947. There he also founded the Surrealist magazine Néon, considered by Heisler as "an important expression of a theory of friendship and love." The difficulty of separating Surrealism from radical polemics soon became evident and the journal only lasted until March 1949. The artist died of a heart attack on January 3, 1953, a result of the long-term physical and psychological burden of the uncertain fate he had recently survived.

Surrealism under Pressure is comprised of several articles--writings, tributes, and academic articles on his poetry books--which are followed by photographs. Other sections categorize Heisler's artwork according to their subjects or the techniques he used. Many of them are photographs of dioramas using everyday objects or images altered by organic substances, such as fish bladders, and then photographed. It is evident that he was working with limited resources while in hiding. The book also contains a chronology of his work, a selected bibliography, and an index. It is a valuable resource for any scholar or art enthusiast.

--Edith Vandervoort is a freelance writer based in California.

A semi-regular series profiling new archives.

jc_peckham_peace_wall_003_0.jpgThis past August marked the anniversary of the London riots, the anniversary of a terrible time that saw pockets of the city razed, pillaged and plundered for reasons that still have not been adequately identified.

In the South-East district of Peckham, the damage was devastating and iconic: images of a flaming double-decker bus on the local high street became emblems of the destruction the rest of the city had sustained. 

The worst in a few brought out the best in the rest of communities all over London: the streets were cleaned, the broken glass and skeletal remains of burned out cars were cleared away early in early the morning after the riots, a massive effort organized almost entirely over Twitter. In Peckham, the boarded-up windows of a looted Poundland (the UK equivalent of a Dollar Store), went a step beyond utility: they became a public archive. Members of the local theatre, the Peckham Shed, started to stick post-it notes on the boards, decorating what they called the 'Why We Love Peckham Wall':

There was so much fear, anger and distress in the area in the aftermath of the rioting that we wanted to do something to remind people that lots of people really care about Peckham; that there are incredibly talented young people here and a vibrant and proud community which wants to come together to try to address the problems here. (Source)
Neighbors and passersby joined in, and soon the covered wall was featured as a zoomable, interactive images on The BBC: "Peckham isHome"; "CHANGE!"; "I feel at home here"; "PECKHAM LIVES", and "I love Peckham".

Luckily, the Peckham Shed also had it in mind to preserve the testimonies of locals with more than images - and thus an archive of just about the most ephemeral materials you can think of, Post-It Notes, was born.

Last month in remembrance of the riots the boards containing the post-its were exhibited outside the library in an area known as the Peckham Space.  And now, the Peckham Peace Wall has been installed, according to the Creative Review, it is based on 4,000 originals that have been digitally hand-traced and added to tiles for permanent display, designed by the local creative collective Garudio Studiage.

jc_peckham_peace_wall_009_0.jpgArchives are awfully elastic things: it's great that something like the Peckham Peace Wall, an archive from the ashes, serves all three purposes of serious commemoration, positive reinforcement, and the literal preservation of local color and local involvement. Let's hope to see more like it. 


papyrus.jpgA papyrus fragment with a mysterious provenance surfaced in the news on Tuesday when a Harvard scholar said its Coptic writing indicated Jesus had a wife.

The papyrus, dated to the fourth century, and written entirely in Coptic, contains the line "Jesus said to them, 'My wife...''  The discovery was made by Dr. Karen King of Harvard's Divinity School, an expert on early Coptic literature.  King revealed the papyrus fragment at a conference on Coptic studies in Rome this week.

The implications of the passage, if the fragment's authenticity is verified, are, of course, far reaching.

The provenance of the fragment, however, remains mysterious.  Dr. King received an e-mail from a private collector in 2010 who asked her to translate it.  The collector has declined to publicly reveal his name, nationality, or location.  Dr. King offered some limited details about the collector:  He collects Greek, Arabic, and Coptic papyri.  He purchased this particular fragment in a lot of papyri in 1997 from a German collector.  The papyri was accompanied by a letter in German referencing a now deceased German professor who claimed the papyrus fragment to be "the sole example" of a surviving text indicating Jesus had a wife.  The collector left the papyrus fragment with Dr. King in 2011 for translation and verification of authenticity. 

Thus far, the scholars who have seen the papyrus believe it is unlikely to be a forgery.  King, however, is eager for more scholars to weigh in.

The revelation of the papyrus resulted in a fury of news coverage, with major media outlets across the world reporting on it.  Old controversies about the historical Jesus and early Christianity shortly followed suit.

You can read more about the papyrus here, in an article from the New York Times.


One of the great challenges of book collecting is that it is often seen as an old boys' club. We published a short feature on 'young collectors' back in 2010, finding mainly that book collecting isn't dying, but young collectors are setting new paths in collecting. Still, it's no secret that many of those who attend book fairs have graying hair. I always thought that had more to do with disposable income than interest -- I was never a 'super reader' as a kid and my parents are not collectors, but I was very interested in books (the physical nature of them and collecting them) since at least my early teens. How do we harness interest among young people and keep the tradition of great collections going?

For the past few years, the ABAA has carried the torch by holding a National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest. Competitors from more than thirty colleges and universities enter the contest, and an awards ceremony is held for the winners at the Library of Congress every October. This year's winners were announced recently. First Prize: Jordan Haug, University of California San Diego, "Mormon Fundamentalism & Polygamy"; Second Prize: Jessica Anne Kahan, University of Michigan, "Romance Novels in DJ, 1925-1935??; Third Prize: Andrew Ferguson, University of Virginia, "Bibliography & Puzzle of R.A. Lafferty"; Essay Prize: Kevin Baggot Roberts, Johns Hopkins University, "Cheap Thrills: Sex in American Publishing, 1924-1970.?? Congrats to those young collectors!

Now, the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS) has announced a second venue for young collectors. The group is offering a $1,000 award for an original essay by a writer aged thirty or younger on any aspect of book or manuscript collecting by private collectors or institutions in the U.S. from 1940 to the present. Good news for collectors not currently in college, or enrolled in a college that does not have a formal book-collecting contest of its own.

In order to be considered for the FABS contest, each essay should run 3,000-4,000 words and be based on original source materials and documented by appropriate Chicago Style endnotes and citations. Submissions should be sent to the FABS newsletter editor, Scott Vile, at scott@ascensiuspress.com before the deadline of May 1, 2013. The winning essay will be published in the FABS newsletter.


English: Great Seal of the State of Georgia

English: Great Seal of the State of Georgia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


In a press release issued last Thursday, 13 September, Georgia's Secretary of State Brian Kemp announced that the state archives would close due to budget cuts. "After November 1st, the public will only be allowed to access the building by appointment; however, the number of appointments could be limited based on the schedule of the remaining employees." As of yesterday, 7 of the 10 staff members were given notice that they would lose their jobs at that time.

The Friends of Georgia's Archives and History are the best resource for updates but also the central HQ for activism & elegance on the subject. Their 'ACTION ALERT'  for advocating on behalf of archival access makes a clear case against Kemp's decision. Conveniently, ironically, we can organize the three main points of the Action Alert under Georgia's State Motto:

  1. WISDOM: Access to records now avoids even more expensive legal fees later.  It upsets the due process of law, since easy access to the documents held in the archive are a basic component of land claims, boundary disputes, utility right-of-way, claims against state agencies. On top of that the Secretary of State himself has noted that even limited access to the archives will still cost millions a year to rent.
  2. JUSTICE: According to State Law (Georgia Records Act, Title 50 Chapter 18 Article 4 section 70(b), whew) it is a legal right for individuals to have access to public records. Restricting hours to appointment only is completely "contrary to the practice of government transparency".
  3. MODERATION: The Secretary was required to decrease his annual spending by 3%. That 3% is the entirety of the Archives budget rather than a combination of cuts. There are many gruesome ways of visualizing this kind of economics: lopping off limbs rather than trimming the fat is one of them.

There has been an outcry from archivists and librarians from blog to shining blog, and the American Libraries Association has issued a press release condemning the closure:

"The Georgia Archives is a treasure trove of unique documents and official records. As one of the original 13 colonies, Georgia has a rich and colorful history. Events of historic importance continue to occur. The State of Georgia established the Archives to preserve the history of Georgia, and access to that resource is vitally important to the future of Georgia and its citizens."


There is a large spectrum of scholars who suffer from such a drastic action: historians of the South from Professor James C. Cobb of the University of Georgia, to local genealogy researches, historical re-enactment societies, and families interested in their own history. And lest we forget, 21 September is the Civil War Sesquicetennial.


Archives are an important component of civic life, counting forward from the records of Colonial American days which enrich our understanding of the past, to the present need for easy access to legal documents, court rulings, marriage certificates, mortgages and deeds. Between the two, this archive is in constant use.


The outer limits of the need for access to are no less vital. Rachel Maddow recently reported, for instance, on Jeff Thigpen's use of local archives in Greensboro, North Carolina to challenge potentially fraudulent signatures filed by banks and mortgage companies and used to take away homes from families during the housing crisis. Thigpen: "Public recording offices are part of our democracy in rule of law and the laws that govern them need to be respected". These are exactly the same documents that closing the Georgia archives would place under lock and key. Each document has a role to play in local culture and local administration, and in the extreme case of Greensboro and many other counties across the United States, in preserving local dignity.


Georgia would be the first state to close its archives, but seen in a more threatening light, it would be the first state to set the precedent that it is okay to close the archives, to deny citizens access to historical and legal documents. For this reason a petition at Change.org to the Governor of the state has collected over 13,000 signatures so far, and you can add yours here. You can also contact the Governor by e-mail.


UPDATE (20 September 2012):

The Clayton News Daily has reported that Governor Deal announced Wednesday evening that the archives would remain open for now, without providing further details as to how. The news was a surprise to protestors who had confronted the Governor with a print-out of the 13,000 strong petition against closure, as well as the Secretary of State himself:


Making a promise to keep the archives open is different from actually fulfilling that promise, however. Kemp said the funding issue still has to be addressed. He added the governor did not tell him about his pledge before it was made. Kemp's office oversees the archives operations.


"If he funds it to keep it open, that'd be great," said Kemp.


The secretary explained Deal would have to "tell me we weren't going to have to come up with a $733,000 cut" in order to fulfill the promise to keep the archives' doors open.


Nothing has been guaranteed. Watch this space for more information.