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Monthly Archives: October 2016

On Jon’s Desk: Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus — a spooky reminder of the price of over-ambition

31 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by Jonathan Bingham in Book of the Week, On Jon's Desk

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19th Century Literature, Ambition, Brothers Grimm, Creature, Frankenstein, Frankestein Castle, Galvanism, Germany, Gersheim, Johann Conrad Dippel, Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Monster, Murder, North Pole, Percy Shelley, re-animation, Scientific Discovery, Spooky, Switzerland, Theodor von Holst, Victor Frankenstein

pr5397-f7-1831-frontis-right

1831 edition illustrations by Theodor von Holst

“The day of my departure at length arrived.”

Title: Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus

Author: Mary W. Shelley

The National Library (Third) Edition; First Illustrated Edition

Published: London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831

Pages: 200; Introduction and Preface included.

Call Number: PR5397 F7 1831

pr5397-f7-1831-title

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley wrote the majority of Frankenstein during the summer of 1816 while vacationing in Switzerland with friends, her future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley among them, and completed the work in 1817. She was twenty years old when the story was first published in 1818. The story received very mixed reviews. Shelley revised it (to make it more conservative) for the third edition. She also included an extended introduction, in which she described how she came to write it:

“In the summer of 1816, we visited Switzerland, and became neighbors of Lord Byron. … But it proved a wet, ungenial summer, and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house. Some volumes of ghost stories, translated from the German into French, fell into our hands. … “We will each write a ghost story,” said Lord Byron; and his proposition was acceded to.” (Introduction, pages vii – viii)

She went on to describe a conversation between Lord Byron and Percy Shelley concerning galvanism (the contraction of the muscle when stimulated by electric current), during which the question arose as to whether a creature might “be manufactured, brought together, and endued with vital warmth” (Introduction, page x) through this process. Her participation in this discussion led to a sleepless night and acted as the catalyst for the creation of her shocking story.

"Night waned upon this talk, and even the witching hour had gone by, before we retired to rest. ... behold the horrid thing stands at his bedside, opening his cutrains, and looking on him wsith yellow, watery, but speculative eyes." - Mary Shelley, Introduction, Pages X & XI

“Night waned upon this talk, and even the witching hour had gone by, before we retired to rest.” – Mary Shelley, Introduction, Page X

One other probable source for the foundation of Mary Shelley’s story exists. Traveling along Germany’s Rhine River in 1814, she stopped at the city of Gersheim. Ten miles from this city was Frankenstein Castle, where two centuries earlier an alchemist had engaged in experiments and allegedly exhumed bodies to use for conducting medical research. It is possible that Mary Shelley had heard the tale told by the Brothers Grimm about the alchemist Johann Conrad Dippel’s accidental creation of a monster when one of the bodies under study re-animated after being struck by lightning. Despite Shelley’s stay in Gersheim, a link between her story and this tale has not conclusively been made.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the story of a young, ambitious scientist, named Victor Frankenstein, who discovers a technique to impart life to non-living matter. Using large body parts, due to the difficulty of manipulating small ones, Victor creates an eight foot tall monster with yellow eyes and skin that barely conceals the blood veins beneath. The young scientist is severely disappointed with his creation’s grotesqueness and abandons it, causing it to suffer torment and ridicule.

pr5397-f7-1831-frontis-left

After some months the creature finds the scientist in the mountains, where he has fled out of guilt, and begs his creator to take him in. Victor refuses and the creature is subjected to rejection at every turn. The creature swears vengeance on his creator for bringing him into a world that hates him and returns to the Frankenstein family estate, where he murders the scientist’s brother. The creature again confronts the scientist and demands that he return to his research and produce a wife for it. Victor Frankenstein, afraid for the safety of his family and friends, agrees, but after commencing the work becomes increasingly concerned the creature will spawn a new race of monsters if its wish is fulfilled. The scientist reverses his decision and destroys his own work.

Shortly thereafter Victor marries and the creature murders his new wife. Victor chases the creature to the North Pole, where he is found by a crew of explorers. Dying of hypothermia, Victor relates his tragic story to the crew’s Captain. After Victor dies the Captain sees the creature on the ship, mourning the death of his creator. The creature tells the Captain that Victor’s death has not brought him peace, rather it has left him completely alone. The creature then vows to commit suicide so that no one will ever know of its existence. The Captain watches as the creature drifts away on an ice raft, never to be seen again.

In Frankenstein, Victor obsesses over creating life in an unnatural way. He lets his desire to push scientific boundaries cloud his ability to make a responsible decision concerning his work. This ultimately leads to terrible consequences for Victor and his family. As Victor dies from his over-exposure to the harsh environment of the North Pole, he warns the Captain against over-ambition. This warning plays a role in the Captain’s decision to not continue his scientific expedition and possibly saves the lives of him and his crew.

Victor’s ambition and poor decisions concerning his work lead to the murder of multiple people he loves and then finally to his own premature death. The creature commits these crimes as a way to punish Victor, much like a child lacking attention will resort to lashing out in negative ways to force an interaction with a parent. The story evolves from one of scientific discovery to one of horror only after Victor rejects the creature.

Victor’s creation repeatedly reaches out to him and is continuously rejected. The creature understands that it is the ability to form a connection with another that makes one human. He tries to blackmail Victor into creating a wife and, in that way, fulfill this need. Again Victor denies it of the one thing that would make it human, continuing its neglect and alienation. The reader must contemplate how differently the story may have ended if Victor had formed a loving connection with the creature quickly after bringing it to life. It is spooky to consider in what ways our ambition may block the forming of these vital connections. To what level are we Victor and to what level are we the creation?

Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

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Book of the Week — The Temperamental Rose

24 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Arches Cover, Arthur Rimbaud, Barbara Hodgson, BFK Rives, Black Stone Press, British Columbia, Claudia Cohen, color wheels, colors, Da Vinci, Daler-Rowney, David Clifford, Francoise Giovannangeli, Heavenly Monkey Editions, Holbein, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Kroma, letterpress, M.-E. Chevreul, Monotype Fournier, pigments, polymer plates, Seattle, Vancouver, watercolors, Winsor & Newton

n7433-4-h625-t4-2007-covern7433-4-h625-t4-2007-title

A Black, E white, I red, U green, O blue: vowels,
I will someday speak of your unseen births:
A, black corset bristling with glittering flies
That buzz around cruel smells,

Gulfs of shadow; E, innocent vapours and tents,
Lances of proud glaciers, white kings, frissons of an inflorescence;
I, crimsons, spit blood, laughter of lovely lips
In anger or drunken penitence;

U, cycles, divine thrill of a viridian sea,
Peace of pastures sprinkled with animals, peace of wrinkles
Imprinted on broad, thoughtful brows of alchemy;

O, Supreme Clarion full of strange strident cries,
Silence traversed by Worlds and Angels:
—O Omega, violet ray of Her Eyes!

— Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891)

n7433-4-h625-t4-2007-goethe

The Temperamental Rose: And Other Ways of Seeing Colour
Barbara Hodgson & Claudia Cohen
Vancouver, British Columbia: Heavenly Monkey Editions, 2007
N7433.4 H625 T4 2007

From the Heavenly Monkey website: “A collaboration between author and book designer Barbara Hodgson, and bookbinder Claudia Cohen. The Tempermental Rose & Other Ways Seeing Colour was borne during the collaborators’ first meeting, in the summer of 2006, when they discovered mutual passions for color wheels and other systems for charting and codifying colors. Inspired by centuries of color studies, including those of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and M.-E. Chevreul, the authors reproduce existing color wheels as well as create new and fanciful ways of seeing color. An introductory essay discusses the history of color, and each of the charts is accompanied by explanatory text.”

From the colophon: “This book was designed and set in digital Monotype Fournier by Barbara Hodgson. Francoise Giovannangeli edited it. It was printed letterpress from polymer plates by David Clifford at Black Stone Press, Vancouver, on Arches Cover and BFK Rives. The watercolours used in the charts are from Winsor & Newton, Daler-Rowney, Holbein and Da Vinci.” Edition of thirty numbered and five A.P. copies, each signed by the two authors. Each copy has been bound by Claudia Cohen in her Seattle studio. All hand colouring and other embellishments have been done by the authors. The six vials in each case contain fine artists’ pigments from Kroma, Vancouver.”

Black leather diaper-patterned embossed binding embellished with multi-colored geometric shapes on front and back boards. Spine is red leather with title embossed in gold. Issued in a clam-shell box.

University of Utah copy is no. 5, signed by the authors.

n7433-4-h625-t4-2007-ostwald

n7433-4-h625-t4-2007-euclid

n7433-4-h625-t4-2007-rauschenberg

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Book of the Week — Duet

17 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ 3 Comments

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"Your Cheatin' Heart", Acuff Rose Music, California, Daisy Dern, Fairfax, Hank Williams, Jungle Garden Press, Marie Dern, Mariken Panbloom, sonnet, William Shakespeare

n7433-4-d45-d84-1993-cover

n7433-4-d45-d84-1993-title

Past cure I am, now Reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are,
At random from the truth vainly expressed;
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
— William Shakespeare

Duet
Marie C. Dern
Fairfax, CA: Jungle Garden Press, 1993
N7433.4 D45 D84 1993

A book made for the artist’s daughter, Daisy, a country singer, who grew up on Hank Williams’ songs. Text is “Your Cheatin’ Heart” by Hank Williams and sonnet CXLVII by William Shakespeare. Music is hand drawn by Mariken Panbloom. Edition of three copies, as per agreement with Acuff Rose Music, holder of the copyright of the song. Rare Books copy is no. 2.

n7433-4-d45-d84-1993-cheatinheart

n7433-4-d45-d84-1993-franticmad

Shakespeare is here! The First Folio is at the City Library!

Happy Birthday, Marie!

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Book of the Week — Lexicon Tetraglotton…

10 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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alchemy, alphabet, anatomist, anatomy, architecture, Aristotle, Ben Jonson, Benjamin Franklin, cats, Charles, chemistry, clothing, dictionary, England, English, engraver, engraving, Europe, France, French, frontispiece, history, horsemanship, hunting, Italian, Italy, James Howell, Kenelm Digby, Kings, lexicography, lexicon, library, London, Machiavelli, Oxford, physician, political, Poor Richard's Almanac, proverbs, reference, Restoration, Samuel Thompson, Spain, Spanish, tracts, travel, trees, Wales, William Faithorne, William Harvey, women

lexicon-tetraglotton-frontis

lexicon-tetraglotton-title

“A catt may look on a king”

Lexicon Tetraglotton, an English-French-Italian-Spanish…
James Howell (1594? – 1666)
London: Printed by J.G. for Samuel Thompson, 1660
First and only edition

James Howell, born in Wales and educated at Oxford, began his literary career in 1640 with the political allegory, Dendrologia: Dodona’s Grove, or, The Vocall Forest, an account representing the history of England and Europe through the framework of a typology of trees. He continued to write political tracts throughout the 1640s and 1650s, drawing material from Aristotle, Machiavelli, and others. Howell befriended many literary figures, including Ben Jonson and Kenelm Digby. In 1620, he became ill and was treated by physician and anatomist William Harvey.

Howell wrote Instructions for Forreine Travel in 1642, a book of useful information about safe travel in France, Spain, and Italy. Traveling in his own country proved to be hazardous, however. On a visit to London early in 1643, he was arrested in his chambers and imprisoned for the next eight years. He spent this time writing. He was released from prison at the Restoration of Charles to the throne and in 1661 was made Historiographer Royal.

Howell was a master of modern romance languages. Lexicon is a dictionary but also contains epistles and poems on lexicography; characterizations of most letters of the alphabet; and vocabulary lists organized in 52 sections, such as anatomy, chemistry, alchemy, women’s clothing, horsemanship, hunting, architecture, and a library. Howell collected proverbs in English, Italian, Spanish and French which are added in Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Savves & Adages. Benjamin Franklin used this book as a reference for his own Poor Richard’s Almanac.

In the frontispiece, engraved by William Faithorne (1616-1691), four female figures, emblematic of England, France, Spain and Italy, stand among trees with a helmeted figure to the right standing guard. This copy contains a later state of the engraving with initials identifying the countries represented. Half-title and title-page in red and black. Rare Books copy gift of Anonymous, for whose generosity and friendship we are ever grateful.

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Edgar Allan Poe (Jan. 19, 1809-Oct. 7, 1849)

07 Friday Oct 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Alan James Robinson, Bruce Rogers, Centaur type, Cheloniidae Press, David Bourbeau, Easthampton, Edgar Allen Poe, etchings, Harold McGrath, Massachusetts, Raven, wood engravings

EApoe

“Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before”

THE RAVEN
Edgar Allan Poe (1909-1949)
Easthampton, MA: Cheloniidae Press, 1980

This is the first book from Alan James Robinson and his Cheloniidae Press. Text is hand-set and printed by Harold McGrath in Bruce Rogers’ 24pt. Centaur type in red and black ink. Illustrated with five etchings and two wood engravings by Alan James Robinson, who printed the etchings. Each plate is titled and signed by the artist. Laid in artists’ proof of the “Crow Quill” on the title-page and proof of the “Raven” that appears on the colophon. Bound by David Bourbeau in a specially painted dark grey paper over boards: Bird wings in black with red highlights on spine extending to front and rear panels. Housed in black cloth clamshell. Signed by the artist.

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Book of the Week — Empire Builders

03 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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accordion fold, Anagram Press, Carol Inderieden, Chandler O'Leary, desert, elephant, handbound, illusion, mirage

n7433-4-i52-e47-2015-libertyspread

“We have all our elephants to see.”

Empire Builders
Carol Inderieden and Chandler O’Leary
Tacoma, WA: Anagram Press, 2015
N7433.4 I52 E47 2015

From the authors’ essay: “To see the elephant was to embark on a quest for riches and prosperity…The elephant is an illusion, an impossible promise like a desert mirage that disappears as one moves closer.”

Digitally printed and handbound. Edition of fifty copies. Rare Books copy is no. 25, signed by the authors.

n7433-4-i52-e47-mapspread

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