With part of her estate slated for auction next week, Simon had the opportunity to recall one of his mother's hobbies: collecting rare lottery tickets. "My mother, who had a keen design sense, also thought that many of the lottery ticket designs were quite striking, especially compared to today's flimsy computer-generated slips. For decades, lottery tickets were designed to look as respectable as currency, and included many of the same features," Simon wrote via email. "She enjoyed thumbing through the various tickets and finding out about their stories. She said that people shouldn't buy a lottery ticket because they expected to become millionaires: that (almost) never happens. They should buy one to help build something worthwhile. As she said, 'That way you always win.'"
On November 6, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers will offer several lots of historical Americana from Newman's collection, notably several lots of those antique lottery tickets. The oldest of the offerings are three exceptionally rare colonial lottery tickets signed by S. Watts from America's first lottery, a drawing held at Boston's Faneuil Hall in 1745. As a lot, it is expected to sell for $1,000-2,000. A grouping of later eighteenth-century tickets, including a 1762 New-York City-Hall lottery tickets, is likewise expected to realize $1,000-2,000. Another collection features eighteenth- and nineteenth-century tickets for lotteries relating to public works projects, for example eight 1781 Simsbury Bridge lottery tickets and an 1825 Providence and Worcester Road lottery ticket. Another lot features twenty-nine tickets related to the establishment of academic institutions (e.g., Rutgers, Dartmouth, William & Mary, and Harvard). The colorful tickets seen above are highlights of a selection of over 100 pieces of lottery ephemera, including two 1826 lottery tickets to raise funds for Thomas Jefferson, offered together for an estimated $1,000-2000.
Newman shared an interest in collecting historic Americana with her second husband, Ralph G. Newman, an author, editor, book dealer, board president of the Chicago Public Library, and friend to poets and presidents. He also founded Chicago's Abraham Lincoln Book Shop. They began acquiring their first tickets in the 1980s, said Simon. "Many states were debating the question of lotteries, and Ralph and my mother were delighted to discover that some of these debates were as old--in fact older--than the Constitution, and that many noted and worthy enterprises were built in part with proceeds from lotteries." Ralph Newman died in 1998.
Also featured in the sale are several other historic documents from Newman's collection, including a 1777 Journals of Congress, covering Sept. 5 1774 to Jan 1. 1776; an autographed note from James Monroe, and autograph signed letters by Horace Greeley, Andrew Carnegie, and Julia Grant (wife of Ulysses S.).
Images via Leslie Hindman.
© 2013 Thomas Docherty. Published in The Snatchabook by Sourcebooks. All Rights Reserved.
"The Snatchabook," by Helen Docherty, illustrated by Thomas Docherty; Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, $16.99, ages 3-6.
"In every house,
in every bed,
a bedtime book
was being read."
The story starts innocently enough; all the critters in the arboreal hamlet of Burrow Down complete their days with a delightful bedtime tale. All is well until an unwelcome stranger flies into town one night and steals the books quicker than a bolt of lightening. Who is the book thief? (Readers can rule out Stephen Blumberg.) After all the books disappear, a brave bunny named Eliza Brown is determined to catch the crook. Once collared, the aptly-named Snatchabook confesses his crimes, and Eliza decides to help the creature find redemption in a most appropriate and caring manner. Helen Docherty's jaunty rhymes keep pace with husband Thomas Docherty's loveable renditions of badgers, bunnies and porcupines. Children will love acting this book out - sometimes as the sneaky Snatchabook, other times as the wise Eliza Brown. While fun to read, The Snatchabook also teaches an important lesson about the power of reading to stir young minds.
© 2013 Thomas Docherty. Published in The Snatchabook by Sourcebooks. All Rights Reserved.
To celebrate the library's 50th anniversary this month, Yale University Press has published An Inspiration to All Who Enter: Fifty Works from Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (paperback, $25). Edited by Kathryn James, curator of early modern books and manuscripts at the Beinecke, the book also contains contributions by Raymond Clemens, Nancy Kuhl, George Miles, Kevin Repp, Edwin C. Schroeder, and Timothy Young. With full-color photography of these fifty incredible objects--the young John Hancock's penmanship workbook, Siegfried Sassoon's annotated first edition of Robert Graves' Goodbye to All That, and drafts and typescript of Langston Hughes' "Montage of a Dream Deferred," to name a few--this slim volume is eye candy for bibliophiles. There are brief notes for each entry, and one of the most enjoyable relates how the eminent bookseller William Reese sold one of the oldest maps of Mexico City to the library while still an undergraduate at Yale.
The Voynich Manuscript (seen above) is another one of the featured items -- in this book it is called one of the Beinecke's "most famous, even notorious" manuscripts. The indecipherable manuscript was presented to the library in 1969 by H.P. Kraus, and while it does have a long paper trail, it remains a mystery.
There are several images of Poe on exhibit -- an 1860s carte-de-visite long attributed (incorrectly) to Mathew Brady, a linocut portrait by Eduard Prüssen, and this "Ultima Thule" daguerreotype. If he looks more haggard and bereft than usual it is because he tried to commit suicide only four days prior. Another portrait, called the "Whitman" daguerrotype, is thought to have been taken a week after the "Ultima Thule," once Poe had a chance to recover.
In artifacts, a handwritten label fragment once affixed to Poe's coffin gave me the willies, for lack of a better phrase. The label was removed when his remains were transferred to a different graveyard.
But, to my mind, the manuscripts stole the show. Not only did Poe have beautiful handwriting, as evidenced in his June 9, 1849 letter to his editor asking for $10, he had an unusual way of collating them: he pasted individual sheets together to form long scrolls. One example, on exhibit for the first time in its original state, is the manuscript of "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fetner." Poe used sealing wax to affix the narrow sheets end to end. Though it got divided up later on, the scroll was reassembled in 2013. There are several scrolls on exhibit, and another from September 1849, just weeks before his death, is a cool example. On blue paper, Poe made a copy of his poem, "Ulalume," for Miss Susan Ingram. She wrote that he "made quite a scroll and [it] must have taken him a long time to write out. The ten stanzas were written on five large sheets of paper pasted together in the neatest possible way, end to end." Still another scroll, for "The Bells" (July 1849), has mysterious fire damage along one side.
Also, in terms of handwriting, you can see Poe using his natural hand for letters and a minuscule, roman script for fair copies of his literary works. This is most evident on his manuscript "Epimanes" from 1833, where he is writing out the text of the story and then writing a letter to Joseph T. and Edwin Buckingham on the same page.
His correspondence with Dickens and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, as well as the manuscripts, books, and ephemera by those he influenced, such as Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Stephen King, effectively brings Poe out of the shadows. If you are in New York City before the exhibit closes on January 26, 2014, you must check it out.
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Image: Studio of Samuel Masury and S. W. Hartshorn; Edwin Manchester, photographer; "Ultima Thule" daguerreotype portrait (contemporary copy) of Edgar Allan Poe, November 9, 1848; The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, MA 8658; Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1909. Credit: Graham S. Haber, Courtesy of the Morgan Library.
Halloween is still two weeks away, yet goblins, witches and faux headstones already claim valuable lawn space across the country. While the kids celebrate with silly tricks and sticky treats, why not indulge grown-ups this season with work by the marvelously gloomy Edward Gorey.
Located in the Flatiron neighborhood in Manhattan, B&B Rare Books is featuring three Gorey first editions; The Doubtful Guest, ($275) The Blue Aspic ($150) and The Loathsome Couple($100). All three are in fine to very good condition and none will break the bank.
Although these books aren't for the faint of heart - unwelcome visitors, death and destruction feature prominently throughout - perhaps the most ghoulish tale is The Loathsome Couple. It is considered a cult classic among Gorey collectors and tells such a shocking story that even the author acknowledged it as his most appalling. The murderous husband and wife couple is based on a real duo that perpetrated the chilling Moors Murders in England in the 1960's. Unlike in most Gorey tales, the characters in this book are caught and suitably punished.
Another way to celebrate Halloween would be to visit the Gorey House in Yarmouth Port on Cape Cod. Since the author's death in 2000, the home has been converted into a delightfully unique museum that chronicles the life, work and charitable endeavors of the master of macabre.
The Gorey House hasn't planned anything special for Halloween this year. (The House co-hosted a Dracula Blood Drive with the Cape Cod Hospital in 2006, but hasn't since then.) It is currently exhibiting original artwork from The Vinegar Works, Three Volumes of Moral Instruction.
Currently featured in the gift shop is a toy theater based on Gorey's drawings and sets for his award-winning Broadway production of Dracula. It retails at a reasonable $25.00.
Sadly, Ombledroom, the twenty-eight pound white cat who ruled the House and delighted visitors for twelve years, passed away last summer at the age of twelve. Visitors can pay tribute at to the feline's final resting place, which is situated under a Southern magnolia tree on a patch of lawn by the house. Happy Haunting!