Naomh Pádraig (387-493).Saint Patrick banished snakes from Ireland. Fortunately, he allowed bookworms to stick around.Oh, Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling From Jimmy Joyce to William Butler Yeats...Beginning today, March 17, 2010 - St. Patrick's Day - Irish bookhounds and hounds of rare Irish books, art, and eiriana - or simply those blessed with the luck o' the Irish - can get a sneak-peek at a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow when Bloomsbury - New York previews The Irish Sale, to be held next Tuesday, March 23, 2010, presumably to allow hangovers ample time...
The Largest Vintage Paperback Book Fair in the World
Yesterday, I catalogued the Macclesfield copy of the important and highly significant third edition (1617) of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, published in the Dutch Republic, a Protestant country, a year after papal censors had added the book to the Index Prohibitorum. This edition brought Copernicus’ heliocentric model of the heavens to a broad readership. It's a very rare book.It’s tough to catalog while in the midst of a swoon.Next Sunday, March 21, 2010, I’ll be swooning all day at the 31st Annual Paperback Collectors Show and Sale here in Southern California.Tom Lesser is an attorney and one of the...
The Hands (and Notebooks and Little Black Book) of Henry Miller
Handprint of Henry Miller's right palm....A man of good taste, intellectual quality of mind, and the ability to translate his ideas into words and action...he has a broad-minded attitude toward people and situations...He has a quick wit, he likes being with people who have alert minds so there can be a stimulating exchange of ideas...In 1957, novelist Henry Miller made handprints of his right and left palms. In 1966, Miller sent the handprints, with instructions, to graphologist Dorothy Sara for analysis, the above quotation an excerpt from her report.The left hand of god.The prints are amongst 120 Miller-related items from...
Bambi’s Dark Secret
Note that the book is featured in the movie's poster,typical during Hollywood's Golden Age.Walt Disney may turn in his grave or thaw and drop deader if and when he learns that Bambi, the book he adapted to create the animation classic, was written by a man who is solidly credited as being the anonymous author of a celebrated and notorious work of German erotica.In 1906, an erotic memoir was privately published. Purportedly written by a Viennese prostitute at the end of her life, Josefine Mutzenbacher, oder Die Geschichte einer Wienerischen Dirne, it became a popular success; it is now a...
ReadInk Rare Books Proprietor Outs His Secret Job
Howard Prouty, home on the range at the Margaret Herrick Librarywhere he wrangles and corrals collections.Our friend and colleague, Howard Prouty, of ReadInk books, has had a day job for around twenty-five years, one that I presumed he wished to maintain a low profile about.A private man, he may be uneasy but a recent Oscar®-related newspaper feature discusses itToday, the Omaha World-Herald features a high profile feature about Howard and his job as acquisitions archivist at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' Margaret Herrick Library.As the story notes, "Prouty spends lots of time in dead people's homes, attics,...