ShakespearesTremor.jpgSo Shakespeare was obsessed with syphilis, does that mean he had it? How was Nathaniel Hawthorne's Yankee diet related to his mysterious death? Did Jack London overdose, or commit suicide? John Ross, M.D., takes up these questions and other medical matters related to famous writers in his recent Shakespeare's Tremor and Orwell's Cough (St. Martin's Press, $24.99).

In this immensely readable and enjoyable book, Dr. Ross culls each author's symptoms from contemporary source material and attempts to diagnose his or her likely ailment. This book grew out of an article on syphilis he originally published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Because Ross is a real M.D.--a physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School--the urge to scoff at his multiple diagnoses of Asperger Syndrome is (mostly) quelled.

There are chapters on Milton, Melville, and Swift, all of which will cause readers to gasp and chuckle in turn, as Dr. Ross provides a light history of the medicines and treatments they endured. I guarantee that the opening paragraphs of the chapter on James Joyce and his "irrigation" treatments for gonorrhea will make readers squirm in their seat.

Tuberculosis picked off the five Bronte children one by one, a sad story with many dimensions deftly explained by Dr. Ross. Unfortunately the Bronte sisters are the only women under examination here -- what does Dr. Ross make of Jane Austen's death? Last year, a British crime novelist claimed that Austen was poisoned, although she is commonly thought to have had Addison's disease. Ross does discuss arsenic in a chapter on William Butler Yeats, saying that arsenic therapy was long used for many disorders, but that the "effective dose is very close to the amount needed to cause harm." Arsenic treatments were also used on Jack London for his many maladies, but that wasn't what killed him in the end.

Intrigued? Read an excerpt.
480px-Ann_Patchett_2012_Shankbone.JPGSome readers may recall that bestselling author Ann Patchett (State of Wonder, Bel Canto) opened up a bookshop last year in her hometown, Nashville, Tennessee.  At the time she worried she was "opening an ice shop in the age of Fridgidaire," but felt compelled to replace the hole in her community from the 2010 closing of a local bookshop chain.  Her store, Parnassus Books, is now approaching its one year anniversary and is "thriving" according to a recent profile of Patchett and her bookshop in The Courier-Journal.

Instead of attempting to compete with the "superstores" of Barnes and Noble, which average 26,000 square feet, Patchett opened a smaller, community-focused bookshop in a strip mall a few miles from downtown.  Parnassus books only occupies 3,150 feet but put down a healthy 2 million in sales last year.

Patchett has a business partner to manage the daily operation of the store but stops by and plays "literary matchmaker" every other day in between writing sessions.

Of course, it helps Parnassus that Patchett is a renowned author able to draw national press coverage, but she is really only a representative of a wider trend in independent bookselling. The head of the American Bookselling Association said that in the past three years more independent bookshops have opened than closed.

Let's hope that encouraging trend continues.

[Images of Patchett from Wikipedia]



On December 4, an incredible collection of rare dictionaries, valued at close to $1 million, goes on the block at Bonhams in New York City. The two hundred lots of lexicography comprised the collection of Thomas Malin Rodgers, Jr., who passed away earlier this year. From sixteenth-century B.C. cuneiform tablet (estimated at $1,500-2,500) to James Caulfield's Blackguardiana: or, A Dictionary of Rogues, Bawds, Pimps, Whores, Pickpockets, Shoplifters..., circa 1793 (est. at  $3,000-5,000), this collection is extensive and impressive. The great printers of history--Aldus Manutius, Anton Koberger, Robert Estienne--are all represented. Here are some more highlights:

Papias 1006.jpgPerhaps one of the most striking items in the sale is this late thirteenth-century Italian manuscript of Papias the Grammarian's dictionary, the only Papias manuscript on the market since 1903 (est. $25,000-$35,000). Papias is credited with creating the first modern dictionary, seven hundred years before Samuel Johnson.

Roget 1150.jpgAnother incredible (fascinating, unbelievable, or extraordinary...) lot is an autograph manuscript titled "Arrangement of Knowledge" by Peter Mark Roget of Thesaurus fame (est. $6,000-8,000). Dating from 1799-1803, Bonhams states that the 48-page manuscript "appears to be unpublished."

Webster 1172.jpgOf course, what would an auction of dictionaries be without Webster? On offer is an autograph manuscript in Webster's hand for the first edition of his American Dictionary, published in 1828 (est. $8,000-10,000). The page features definitions for twelve B words. A printed first edition is also available in the auction, estimated at $7,000-10,000.

And, if you are as perturbed by the recent Oxford English Dictionary scandal as many in the literary world, give a thought to the first edition issued in 132 parts from 1884 to 1933 (estimate $2,500-3,500).

Images courtesy of Bonhams. 

Earlier this month, an antiquarian bookshop in Toronto unveiled "The Biblio-Mat," a gorgeous vending machine containing antiquarian books.  The Biblio-Mat rests in a corner of the bookshop where it awaits customers to try their luck by inserting $2.00 into the machine.  It then dispenses a random antiquarian book.

The machine was conceived by builder Craig Small for The Monkey's Paw as an alternative to the usual sidewalk discount bin.  The books offered up by the Biblio-mat vary widely in content and format.  The machine inspires repeat visits by encouraging you to "collect all 112 million titles."

While it's nice to see a book vending machine in action again, some readers may recall that book vending machines have been around since the 1940s. Here is an excellent photograph from Life magazine in 1949 depicting the "Book-o-Mat."

bookomat.jpgAround the same time the "Penguincubator" was installed on Charing Cross Road in London.  This machine only dispensed books published by Penguin:


cubator.jpg
But the winner, in terms of vintage, is this photograph from a 1947 copy of Popular Science.  This machine held 150 books available at 25 cents a pop.

47oldbookmachine.jpgCheck out this great Pinterest board by Suzi Holler for more images of book vending machines, including some in use today by libraries.

Anyone know of any other vintage book vending machines? 




 

 
 
 
DSCF2911.3081042_std.JPGHow do we get American children interested in books? The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress has a winning idea -- Letters About Literature, a program that asks young readers to read a book and then write a letter to its author describing how the book changed their lives. It encourages "reflective writing," and students across the country have responded with entries on racism, bullying, and war. Last year's winners wrote letters to George Orwell, Mark Doty, and Tim O'Brien.

This annual program for children in grades 4-10 focuses on literacy, the primary mission of the Center for the Book. Over five hundred entries have already been received, and the deadline for this year's contest is January 11, 2013.

At the first International Summit for the Book at the Library of Congress next month, the renowned collector of historic documents, David M. Rubenstein, will talk about the literacy awards project and its part in the conference. It goes without saying that we (readers, book lovers, book collectors) are all in this together, and forwarding the mission of literacy is a worthy cause.

Image above: One of the many pieces of "envelope art" received at the Library of Congress during the LAL contest. 

Massacre_of_the_Vaudois_of_Merindol.jpgThe Toronto Star reported Thursday that a history professor at the University of Alberta uncovered an exceedingly rare 15th treatise on the evils of witchcraft in the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library.  The professor, Dr. Andrew Gow, first found Invectives Against the Sect of Waldensians in 2005 while scouring the library for new teaching material. Last month, a rare book expert from the Netherlands arrived at the University to conduct a thorough investigation of the book.  The expert's conclusion: Alberta's copy may be the original Invectives, upon which the three other known copies were based. 

Invectives Against the Sect of Waldensians was likely written in 1465 by a French monk in Burgundy. The book's title is a reference to the Waldensian heresy, which was active in medieval France, until it was viciously and repeatedly suppressed by Catholic authorities. In addition to its Waldensian claims, Invectives instructs witch-hunters on how to identify the many signs and varieties of witchcraft. To that end, Invectives was successful - terribly successful - as it contributed to the atrocities of the witchcraft purges over the following 200 years.  Invectives also laid some of the foundation for the modern conception of witchcraft by describing bubbling cauldrons, flying on broomsticks, cursing crops, and so on.

The path traveled by the book from 15th century France to 21st century Alberta remains mysterious.  Dr. Gow suspects the book was housed in an English monastery until the Reformation when it was transferred to private hands.  But the facts are sparse: two members of the British Parliament inscribed their ownership signatures to the front endpapers in the 18th century. The book was donated to the University of Alberta in 1988 by the book collector John Lunn. 

But what happened in between remains an open question.

[Image of a Waldensian massacre from Wikipedia]





Abraham Lincoln never seems to go out of fashion as a collectible. And now, with the big Lincoln film enthralling audiences everywhere, I wondered about its effect on Lincoln-related rare books, documents, and autographs.

M. Sylvia Castle at the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago, told me interest has picked up. "We have seen an uptick in Lincoln biographies and signatures sales especially. The photographs we produce are selling very well, and we have new visitors to the shop almost daily."  

Seth Kaller of Seth Kaller, Inc., who deals in historic documents from White Plains, New York, said that while he hasn't seen an additional activity yet, he expects increased public attention. "To be prepared, we've put together a special online-only catalog, Collecting Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address," which launched on Monday. Items in the catalogue include books, letters, broadsides, and newspapers, and range in price from $250 to $250,000.

Lincoln-Kaller.jpgAn engraving by Alexander Hay Ritchie commemorates the moment Lincoln first presented the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. From Seth Kaller's Lincoln catalogue, $4,500

Read more about Lincoln's story in documents and rare newspapers on Seth Kaller's blog.

Lincoln lovers may also be interested to know that a Swann Galleries sale of autographs on Nov. 29 includes two pieces related to the sixteenth president: an autograph endorsement signed A. Lincoln on the back page of an 1861 letter to Attorney General Edward Bates (est. $4,000-6,000) and another autograph endorsement signed A. Lincoln, from 1863 (est. $4,000-6,000). The sale includes quite a bit of presidential material.
Our series profiling the next generation of antiquarian booksellers continues today with Stefania Pandakovic, a junior specialist in the books and manuscripts department at Christie's in London.

Stefaniac Pandakovic.jpgNP: What is your role at Christie's?

SP: I am a Junior Specialist in the Books and Manuscripts department; my speciality is printed books, with a particular eye on Italian pieces, as well as Italian clients. I often organize Valuation Days in Milan and Rome where collectors bring their books to be valued. One of the things I enjoy the most about my job is the chance to combine the study of the books with the opportunity to meet interesting collectors from different backgrounds and visit amazing places and libraries.
 
NP: How did you get started in rare books?

SP: As I always tell people it was the books that called me, not the other way around. I had just started my MA in Venice on Italian XVI century paintings when I received a call from Sotheby's Milan asking me to do an internship in their Books, Drawings and Prints department. I will always remember my first day of work: everyone was called into a meeting and I was left in the office with a pile of what I remember calling dusty books to collate. At that time I was even unaware of the meaning of the word collating, but I was keen to make a first move into the business. I got home that evening and decided I never wanted to work with books again. A few years later I was working full time in the London Books and Manuscript department of Christie's.... something must have changed my mind!
 
NP: What is your favourite rare book that you've handled?

SP: Difficult to say; I love XVI century Italian books, especially the ones with engravings of architecture, science and technology. I also enjoy the books that had a huge impact in the history of the world: Dante, Galileo, Darwin, Kafka, Freud - just to mention a few coming up for sale in the next few days.
I did fall in love with a collection of fantastic books from the Pillone Library in Belluno last year. Seeing the fore-edges painted by Cesare Vecellio, cousin of my favourite artist Tiziano, was special: it created a bridge between my passion for Italian paintings and my knowledge of books.
 
NP: What do you personally collect?

SP: I personally collect contemporary art, mainly prints: it all started with a Chinese sculpture I bought in Shanghai some years ago. I am now a very proud owner of a Michelangelo Pistoletto and a [very] small Gerhard Richter. I have some first editions too and I recently bought three lovely XVIII century maps of Venice and Corfu. As you may well know apartments in London are very small and I will soon have to find another hobby, or a larger place.
 
NP: What do you love about working for an auction house?

SP: The main thing I love about Christie's is that you get to see the best art objects in the world. In my case, I feel proud to handle and study so many nice books every day. I also love the thrill of the auction and the various different tasks I get to work on during the year: business getting, researching, cataloguing, selling etc.
 
NP: Any thoughts to share on the future of rare books and auction houses?

SP: Things change very rapidly in current times and the main auction houses have to move quickly to follow the trends. During the last 4 years, since I joined Christie's, the strategies have changed, the market is different and the clients are looking for new things. It is very important to keep up with the fashions and the new technologies, I believe Christie's is doing it very well by offering a number of new tools such as the online auctions and the Ipad applications. If we manage to balance well between being innovative and maintaining the traditions (client service and competence) I think there will be successful times ahead besides the general crisis the world's facing right now.

The same could be said for the rare books market: collectors are probably some of the most conservative in the art market, but the ability to involve new potential buyers is what will eventually determine those who will succeed and those who won't. One of our personal most innovative achievements here in the Books Department was selling an Apple 1 in 2010! There is a lot of space for new ideas, we just have to find them and be the first to do so.
 
NP: Any upcoming auctions you're particularly excited about?

SP: Of course, there are two in particular: an amazing auction at Christie's King Street on November 21 where you can find some fantastic illuminated manuscripts and leaves, an amazing group of autograph letters and documents including a musical manuscript by Beethoven and an original typescript by Kafka. Among the printed books I catalogued there is a first edition of the Hypnerotomachia Polipjhili by Francesco Colonna (lot 101), a beautiful Dante from 1502 in a contemporary Venetian binding (lot 104), a great book on perspective that was only ever offered twice at auction (lot 112) and a Cellarius/Doppelmayer with fantastic contemporary hand-colouring (lot 139).

If you want an advice I would also suggest keeping an eye on our South Kensington auction. On offer there are some amazing London maps (lots 201-205), various Kirchers (lots 153-155, 197-199 and 238) and a collection of European avant-garde together with Catalan and South American literature (lots 308-384). And as I always say at the end of my emails: don't hesitate to contact me for any further assistance!


There are at least two exhibits on view in Boston that bibliophiles should not miss if they have the opportunity to poke around town before, after, and between book fairs. One is at Harvard's Houghton Library: From Austen to Zola: Amy Lowell as a Collector. "Lowell was one of the few women competing in the male-dominated world of collecting," according to the exhibit's curators. But she did win big -- scoring thousands of rare books and manuscripts, including love letters from John Keats to Fanny Brawne, manuscripts by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, and a sketch by Michelangelo on the back of a work order from 1523.

Lowell reading.jpg.
Amy Lowell seated, holding a book.
Photo credit line: Amy Lowell. Marceau, Boston, photographer. Undated. MS Lowell 62 (3). Houghton Library, Harvard University

If your interests turn more toward eye-popping visuals, get over to the Boston Athenaeum, where Chromo-Mania! Chromolithography in Boston, 1840-1910 is still on. Showing off a selection of more than sixty works, the exhibit explores the beauty of the chromolithography that appeared in everyday life: periodicals, sheet music, advertisements, and art reproductions.

Rapid Transit-Chromo.jpg
Dominick I. Drummond (ca. 1830-1899) and C. Frank King (Printing attributed to Charles H. Crosby & Company), "Rapid Transit. Save Time & Distance. Take the Hoosac Tunnel Route, 1877." Chromolithographic advertisement. 29 ¾ x 23 ¾ inches (sheet). Boston Athenæum.
If you came of age in the 90s, you probably played the video game Myst.  Myst's immersive first-person gameplay was a seminal achievement in the history of video games. The New York Times hailed Myst as evidence that video games could be elevated into art.

In the game, you play a mysterious stranger who opens a book and is teleported to the eerie, deserted island of Myst.  As you explore the island you uncover other books, called "linking books," which in turn transport you to other worlds.

A superfan of the series in Australia, Mike Ando, decided to build a real-life linking book.  Over the course of six years, he transformed an antiquarian book into a functioning computer which lets you play Myst on an embedded touch screen.  It's an amazing achievement:

mystbook_open.jpgAndo first had to source a copy of the book used by Cyan (the software company behind Myst) as a "texture reference" when developing the game.  Ando found out that particular book was a bound copy of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume LIV, Issue 312, December 1876 - May 1877.

So Ando found a copy of the same Harper's, bound in a similar fashion.  (In his research, Ando uncovered at least 14 variant bindings for this book, which makes sense, of course, as many of the Harper runs would have been custom-bound by period collectors).  Ando had the book repaired and custom embossed with the word MYST on both the front cover and spine in 24 carat gold.

mystbook_front.jpgHe then completely destroyed its interior, replacing it with a custom-built desktop computer and a 5-inch touch-screen.  He loaded the computer with Myst and its various sequels.

mystbook_insides.jpgAnd voila!  A real-life linking book was created:



Ando has this truly rare book for sale on his website for $15,625.  I applaud his enormous effort, even if it resulted in the death (or transformation) of an antiquarian book.  In particular, I'm thrilled by Ando's perfectionist attention to detail.  The end product is truly awesome:

mystbook_library.jpg