“Legitimate Contender For World’s Most Expensive Book” ?(Twelfth edition)“Hiya kids, hiya, hiya, hiya!”Froggy, the croaking - and long-croaked - gremlin, has risen from the graveyard of 50s television to pluck his magic twanger once more and bedevil a hapless victim. This time, a deluded "rare book dealer" is his prey.Who’s the poor sap? Why it’s Milliondollarauctions123, aka Ebay’s most egregious example of sub-amateur rare bookseller, who declares, after stating his headline above:“Far more important than $30.8 million Codex Leicester.”A page from daVinci's Codex LeicesterThe book in question? Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of Seapower Upon History 1660-1783. What’s the asking...
Scotland’s Library Highlights Highland’s Historic Homicides
Victorian Artist James Hamilton's Romantic Depiction of The Massacre of GlencoeThe National Library of Scotland has chosen as the centerpiece of an exhibit of "nine cultural treasures" one of the most infamous documents in the country's history: the 1692 government order commanding the notorious Massacre of Glencoe. The chilling contents of this death warrant stand as a horrific example of state sanctioned murder.The Official Order For The Massacre (see full text below.)In August of 1691 the English crown ordered the chiefs of all Scottish clans to take an oath of allegiance to William III by year's end. This proclamation reflected...
Book Patrol’s Top Books about Books for 2009
Welcome to Book Patrol's inaugural list of our favorite books about books of the year. The list is in no particular order; for all of them are worth a read, and as you will see, in the year the e-book took off, books about books were very much alive.The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Controlby Ted Striphas. Columbia University PressThis is a book for both the student of deep book history and for the casual book culture enthusiast. Striphas shows us how despite the enormous pressures currently facing the book it continues to play a...
The Lowest Entry-Level Job In Hollywood, Part Two
I Should Have Stayed Home by Horace McCoy. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1938.I Should Have Stayed Home is one of the great, if largely unknown, Hollywood novels. Written by Horace McCoy (1897-1955), author of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1933), it is the tale of young Ralph Carson, a wanna-be from Georgia who comes to Hollywood to be discovered. The title of the book sums up the results of his effort. It’s a message that should be plastered on all Hollywood city limit signs, in L.A. bus depots, train stations and airports.Ralph and his girl, Mona, another hopeful, wind up...
Comedian Patrick Borelli looks at that bottom of the book design barrel
On Nov. 18th comedian Patrick Borelli will be at the UCB Theatre in New York to perform “You Should Judge a Book By Its Cover” where Borelli looks at 30 of the wackiest book covers that he has encountered.Part of the show includes a video interview with Steven Heller, Rodrigo Corral and Chip Kidd, three of today's leading book designers. In this clip from the video the three designers briefly discuss the importance of book design then delve into some of Borelli's picks. Deservedly, the much talked about, Cooking With Pooh, leads off the discussion.Thanks to The Second Pass for...