Gatsby Girls

By Rebecca Rego Barry
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F. Scott Fitzgerald's first eight short stories, originally published in The Saturday Evening Post, are out in a new edition (print or digital), complete with the original illustrations, cover art, reproductions of the Post pages, and an introduction by the Post's historian, Jeff Nilsson. 


On sale May 7, Gatsby Girls is a collection of Fitzgerald's 'flapper stories,' e.g., "Myrna Meets His Family," "Bernice Bobs Her Hair," and "Popular Girl I." All were published between 1920 and 1922, before his Great Gatsby appeared in 1925.  


"By the time he published The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald was already one of the best known authors in America thanks to The Saturday Evening Post," said  Nilsson. "Through a span of 17 years the magazine published 68 of his short stories, and with 2.5 million subscribers, the Post brought Fitzgerald into the living rooms of Americans who might never have encountered his novels."  


The new edition of Fitzgerald's early stories is a collaboration between The Saturday Evening Post, SD Entertainment, and BroadLit. With the much-anticipated film of The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, about to smash the box office, what better time to turn your gimlet eye on the stories and the art that not only preceded it but offers literary and cultural context for the novel that is considered Fitzgerald's most famous. 


May 6, 2013 8:24 AM

A Feline Fantasy Returns to Print

By Barbara Basbanes Richter

"The Abandoned," by Paul Gallico; The New York Review of Books, $15.95, 312 pages, ages 8-12. 

 

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            While trying to save a stray cat from certain death, eight-year old Peter is struck by a coal truck and thrown to the side of the road.  During the resulting coma he is magically turned into a fluffy white cat. Unrecognized by Nanny, (the boy's parents are apathetic and generally uninvolved in his upbringing) he is chased from home.  A fellow stray named Jennie helps Peter navigate the rough and violent London streets in this classic adventure/fantasy novel originally published in 1950.


           This book is catnip to those who adore cats. Yet for those who may not be of the feline persuasion, it's a worthy read nonetheless.  It's easy to see why J.K. Rowling is a fan of Gallico's skill at intertwining magic with reality, and some sections of the book recall scenes from the various Harry Potter books. 


            The undercurrent of disappointment and unhappiness makes this a captivating story for adolescent readers as well as older readers looking for a whimsical tale filled with exploits and bravery.  The Abandoned also chronicles the daily struggle of a city stray, from participating in catfights to finding cozy spots to spend the night.  


            Last published in the United States in 1991, The Abandoned is now being republished by the New York Review of Books. According to Bookfinder.com, this work has been one of the most sought-after out of print titles in the United States for the past three years.  This edition is bound in striking red cloth and the cover is graced with a beautiful Palmer Brown watercolor of two cats sitting in a shipyard.  


             In addition to writing children's books, Gallico (1897-1976) was a sport's columnist for the New York Daily News and short story writer.  Some of his works were adapted to film, most notably The Poseidon Adventure in 1972.   

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photo credit Carl van Vechten

May 3, 2013 9:58 AM

Spare Rib Resumes Publication

By Nate Pedersen
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One of the defining voices of the "second wave" of feminism was the radical magazine Spare Rib.  The British publication was an offshoot of the feminist movement of the late 1960s.  It began publication in 1972, under the leadership of Rosie Boycott and Marsha Rowe, becoming a defining voice of radical feminism for the next ten years before it began to gradually fade from relevance.  It ceased publication in 1993.

News surfaced earlier this week that Spare Rib is being resurrected by the noted British journalist Charlotte Raven.  Initially, Raven intends the new Spare Rib to be an online-only publication, but she has hopes of returning it to print in the future.

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During its heyday, Spare Rib invited controversy with its radical content which sought to "investigate and present alternative gender roles for women for virgin, wife, or mother."  The British paper agent chain, WH Smith, refused to stock copies.  The magazine still managed to sell approximately 20,000 copies per month, an impressive number for a collectively run magazine with an underground ethic.

Today, original issues of Spare Rib are sought by collectors for their bold covers in addition to their content.  The magazine purposefully subverted the glossy covers of women's magazines of the day, favoring a look that resembled the vibrant underground press scene of the 1960s.  It will be interesting to see if the re-vamped Spare Rib will follow a similar aesthetic.

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May 2, 2013 1:30 AM

Literary Cleveland, in Pictures

By Rebecca Rego Barry
Nick Basbanes recently took a trip to Cleveland, Ohio, for which he wrote a column in our current issue. He visited two of the city's premiere booksellers, Paul L. Csank, owner of Peter Keisogloff Rare Books, Inc., and John T. Zubal, founder in 1961 of Zubal Books, while in town. Here's what he saw. 

DSCN3456.jpgJohn T. Zubal, founder of Zubal Books, a sprawling operation on the west side of the city that specializes in used and antiquarian titles and occupies close to 200,000 square feet of space in several industrial buildings.


DSCN3437.jpgSome of the 14,000 wooden pear boxes used for shelving in Zubal Books.

DSCN3424.jpgNick writes, "While their business has moved decidedly to the Internet ... there remain some charming throwbacks to the good old days, most notably the vintage wooden fruit boxes that John Zubal bought by the hundreds to use as stacked shelving."

DSCN3451.jpgA 100,000-square-foot building formerly used by Hostess bakeries to make Twinkies is now filled with secondhand books.

DSCN3463.jpgPaul Csank, owner of Peter Keisogloff Inc., with a recent arrival.

DSCN3460.jpgThis had just arrived at Peter Keisogloff Inc. during Nick's visit: a fifteenth-century liturgical manuscript on vellum from Italy known as an antiphonary, a large folio bound spectacularly in contemporary brown morocco, with large brass bosses and hinges on the cover and spine.

 DSCN3473.jpgA very pretty binding -- from the stock at Peter Keisogloff, Inc.  "I am especially partial to the book beautiful," Paul told Nick.

All photos © Nicholas A. Basbanes. Not be used without permission.

May 1, 2013 8:05 AM

Lambeth Palace Recovers Stolen Rare Books

By Nate Pedersen
In 1975, the librarian at Lambeth Palace (the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury) noticed there were gaps in the library's holdings.  He concluded that roughly 60 volumes were missing, including an early edition of Shakespeare, and several important works related to exploration and discovery such as Bry's America. The theft was reported to the police, who investigated the trail, but came up empty-handed.  Nothing more was heard about the case for nearly 40 years.

Then, in February of 2011, the books were discovered hidden away in a London attic.  The thief, who had just passed away, left a full confession with his solicitor and included directions to the attic where he hid the books.  In effect, the thief willed the stolen books back to the library.  When investigators entered the attic, however, they found many more books than the 60 originally thought missing. In the end, the final number of stolen volumes was closer to 1,400.  

The library revealed the news to the British press on Monday, after having spent the past two years conducting restoration work on the books.  Many of them were damaged by the thief, who had attempted to remove ownership markings.  Despite his efforts to obscure the provenance of the books, the thief does not appear to have sold any of them.  

While details of the theft remain unclear, it appears the thief had some sort of connection with the library at Lambeth Palace.

April 30, 2013 12:15 AM

Sea Monsters and Old Maps

By Rebecca Rego Barry
Sea Monsters cover low res.jpgThere are few things quite so charming as the images of sea monsters that turn up on old maps -- personal favorite: the map of Iceland surrounded by sea monsters done by Abraham Ortelius in 1585. What's charming to me, however, was terrifying to sailors for centuries.

Now those sea monsters are getting some deserved scholarly attention, thanks to Chet Van Duzer, an invited research scholar at the John Carter Brown Library and soon-to-be research curator in the geography & maps division at the Library of Congress. His new book, Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps (British Library/U. of Chicago Press, $35), is illustrated with 147 color images. Van Duzer analyzes the most important examples of this decorative cartography from the tenth century to the end of the sixteenth, examining each mapmaker's sources and influences.

Van Duzer is also the co-author of last year's Seeing the World Anew: The Radical Vision of Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 & 1516 World Maps.

April 29, 2013 8:27 AM

Have Popup, Will Travel

By Barbara Basbanes Richter
Rome : A 3-D Keepsake Cityscape, by Kristyna Litten, Paper Engineering by Gus Clarke ; Candlewick Press,  $8.99, 15 pages, all ages.

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ROME: A 3D KEEPSAKE CITYSCAPE. Illustrations copyright © 2012 by Kristyna Litten. Text copyright © 2012 by Walker Books Ltd. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA on behalf of Walker Books, London.


The Keepsake Cityscape series began in 2011 with a miniature foldout guidebook to New York City. The series has since expanded to include popular destinations such as Paris, London, and Washington, D.C. Each volume is presented in a lovely little slipcase.


The most recent publication shares the pleasures of strolling through Rome, from visiting the Villa Borghese to exploring the inner workings of the Colliseum. Author-illustrator Kristyna Litten skillfully renders twelve of the Eternal City's attractions with lively and bright mixed media illustrations. 


Although these books are marketed to children, I've been collecting them from the start. They are a unique travel companion, and are small enough to tuck away in a luggage side pocket.  Most volumes have been written and illustrated by different authors, which makes these more interesting than the average mass-produced tourist novelty.  And for less than ten dollars, each of these pleated jewels can share their global tales on the same stretch of shelf.   

April 26, 2013 9:33 AM

Nine Salinger Letters Acquired by the Morgan

By Nate Pedersen
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Nine letters written by a young J. D. Salinger to a fellow aspiring writer in the early 1940s were recently acquired by the Morgan Library and Museum. The two year correspondence began in 1941 when Salinger was only 22 years old and experiencing his first brush with literary success with stories published in Esquire and Collier's and upcoming stories in The New Yorker. Salinger's early correspondent was Marjorie Sheard, a young Canadian woman who had read Salinger's first published stories and wrote to him seeking advice.

"Seems to me you have the instincts to avoid the usual Vassar-girl tripe," Salinger wrote to Sheard. "You can't go around buying Cadillacs on what the small mags pay, but that doesn't really matter, does it?"

Salinger's letters, which were shared with The New York TImes, contain tantalizing references to short stories that were either lost or never came to fruition.  Salinger was working on one story entitled Harry Jesus which he said would "doubtless tear the country's heart out, and return the thing a new and far richer organ."  The fate of the story remains unknown.

Marjorie Sheard, who is now 95 years old, saved the letters for 70 years in a shoe box in her closet.  She and her family recently made the decision to sell the letters in order to pay for the cost of her care.

The Morgan has declined to reveal the amount of money paid for the letters, which offer a rare glimpse into the early character of the notoriously reclusive Salinger.

April 25, 2013 12:39 AM

Botanica Magnifica in Miniature

By Rebecca Rego Barry
At $2.5 million, Jonathan Singer's Botanica Magnifica is considered the most expensive new book ever produced. Now, you can own one for $11.95.

Botanica.jpgThe hand-bound, double-elephant folio of flower photography was created in an edition of ten in 2008-2009 (we profiled Singer in our July/August 2008 issue). Last month, Abbeville Press published an unabridged, palm-sized "Tiny Folio" edition of Singer's masterwork. In 376 pages, there are 250 full-color photographs, with text describing each specimen's botany, geography, history, and conservation.

Singer was a New Jersey podiatrist with a great eye before his botanical photography became so popular. Using his Hasselblad camera, he began photographing rare and exotic plants. When a curator of botany at the Smithsonian saw some of Singer's images, he invited Singer to have a look at the museum's greenhouse. Singer ended up snapping 750 pictures there; he selected 250 to print and publish as Botanica Magnifica. Singer also recently published Fine Bonsai: Art & Nature.

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Primula auricle, from Botanica Magnifica

Incidentally, Abbeville Press has an impressive list of Tiny Folio editions of art/museum collections (e.g., Audubon's Birds of America, Morgan Library's Illuminated Manuscripts). Take a peek.

Images courtesy of Abbeville Press.

April 24, 2013 9:20 AM

Leopold Bloom Comes to Letterpress

By Nate Pedersen
A crowdfunding campaign is currently underway to create a limited edition letterpress book of quotes from Leopold Bloom, protagonist of Ulysses.  Entitled The Works of Master Poldy, Yes the book will be a collaborative, trans-Atlantic effort between Jamie Murphy, a Dublin based letterpress printer and designer, and Steve Cole, a Joyce fanatic in Baltimore.  The creators hope to release the book on June 16th, a date better known to Joyce fans as Bloomsday.

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Murphy and Cole previously collaborated on letterpress broadsides inspired by Ulysses, which are now sold out.  (Cole is also behind the multimedia LiberateUlysses project, which encourages multimedia engagement with Joyce's work). Their idea for "The Words of Master Poldy" came from the source itself. Toward the end of Joyce's masterpiece, Molly Bloom references assembling a book of quotes from her husband. She declares, "somebody ought to put him in the budget if I only could remember the one half of the things and write a book out of it the works of Master Poldy yes."  

Now that the Euoprean copyright on Joyce's published materials has expired, someone can.  Murphy and Cole plan to produce the entire book by hand, using a combination of metal and wood type with their letterpress.

The book will be officially published by The Salvage Press, a newly created entity by Murphy that has the goal of "preserving, promoting and pursuing excellence in design, typography and letterpress printing." The Works of Master Poldy, Yes will be its first publication.

If you pitch into the crowdfunding campaign, a variety of perks can be had at various contribution levels.  If you want the book itself, 280 euros will secure you one of the 100 being produced. 400 euros will buy you a deluxe edition, one of twelve, which will be hand bound in quarter leather with several hidden extras.  Other perks, for less money, include postcards, posters, and broadsides.

April 23, 2013 2:16 AM

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