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~ News from the Rare Books Department of Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

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Tag Archives: England

ذکری شکسپير

27 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Events

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Aḥmad Zakī Abū Shādī (1892-1955), Annie Bamford, Arab, Arabic, Arabic literature, beekeeping, Cathy Rockwell, Egypt, Egyptian, England, Khalil Mutran (1872-1949), London, Marriott Library, National Poetry Month, physician, poet, Poetry Society, quatrain, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, sonnet, Special Collections, United States, William Shakespeare

PJ7808-S5-D55-1926-portrait

“o Prince of Poetry”

Dhikrá Shaksipīr
Aḥmad Zakī Abū Shādī (1892-1955)
Egypt: al-Maṭbaʻah al-Salafīyah, 1926
First edition
PJ7808.S5 D55 1926

The Egyptian poet Aḥmad Zakī Abū Shādī was a man of many talents. Not only was he renowned as a poet and man of letters, he was also trained as a scientist and physician, and he was fascinated by beekeeping, founding professional beekeeping associations and publishing numerous works on the subject. Besides his native Egypt, he had connections to both England and the United States. He lived in England, where he earned his medical degree, from 1912-1922. In 1920, he married an Englishwoman, Annie Bamford, returning with her to Egypt 1922. Following her death in 1946 he emigrated to the United States, where he continued to be active in the fields of Arabic literature and beekeeping until his untimely death of a stroke in 1955. His private papers and many of his books are now housed in the Marriott Library Special Collections (Ahmed Zaki Abu Shadi papers, 1892-1955).

Among such books is “Dhikrá Shaksipīr,” whose title translates as “Remembrance of Shakespeare.” In his introduction, Abu Shadi explains that it is a collection of three poems that he composed at the invitation of the Poetry Society in London to celebrate the eventual reopening of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre that had burned down in 1926. He says that the Society had invited poets from around the world to participate in this. Based on the Society’s guidelines, the three poems are: A sonnet ; a quatrain suitable for posting on the wall of the Theatre ; and an unrestricted poem. This last one is a long ode in traditional Arabic poetic style in praise of Shakespeare.

In his introduction, Abu Shadi concludes with the statement that he is having this work privately published [in Egypt] to make it more accessible to the Arab reader. He laments that Arabic speakers who do not know English are missing out on Shakespearian literature, and he urges that they search out and read Arabic translations of Shakespeare’s works, and recommends in particular those done by the Egytian poet Khalil Mutran (1872-1949).

PJ7808-S5-D55-1926-title
PJ7808-S5-D55-1926-quatrain
“Diverse minds that tell of your guiding light humbly approached you, o Prince of Poetry
For the Theatre, despite its burning, due to your unique spirit remains a marvelous achievement for all eternity
Look, then, at the thousands gathered, whether in body or in spirit
They listen to great wisdome, sanctify8ing in you your genius; thus finding the good fortune of those who adore.”

Contribution and translation by Cathy Rockwell, Special Collections Middle East Cataloger

Shakespeare is coming! The First Folio will arrive at the City Library in October.

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A donation helps lift the fog — Thank you, Dr. Rubin!

03 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Donations

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American Indian, Arctic, aurora borealis, Back River, Canada, canoe, Dr. Ronald Rubin, England, expedition, Fort Resolution, geology, George Back, Great Fish River, Great Slave Lake, John Franklin, John Murray, John Ross, London, Maufelly, Montreal, Northwest Passage, Royal Geographical Society, Royal Navy, Spottiswoode, travel, travel narrative

Title Spread

“When the mind has been made up to encounter disasters and reverses, and has fixed a point as the zero of its scale, however for the time it may be depressed by doubts and difficulties, it will mount up again with the first gleam of hope for the future; but, in this instance, there was no expedient by which we could overcome the obstacles before us: every resource was exhausted, and it was vain to expect that any efforts, however strenuous, could avail against the close-wedged ice, and the constant fogs which enveloped every thing in impenetrable obscurity.”

Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition…
George Back (1796-1878)
London: A. Spottiswoode for John Murray, 1836
First edition, octavo

In 1833, George Back set out to find John Ross, who had departed in the summer of 1829 on an expedition to find the Northwest Passage. Ross had not been heard from since. Back, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, had sailed to the Arctic under John Franklin in 1819-22 and again in 1824-26. Back volunteered to lead his own expedition to find Ross.

While the Back expedition was en route, the Ross expedition arrived home in 1834. Back continued his expedition, traveling overland through central Canada from Montreal to Fort Resolution on the Great Slave Lake. The group of five, including an American Indian guide named Maufelly, used canoes to explore the Great Fish River, seeking and finding its source.

Back mapped the Arctic coast westwards, as they portaged around lakes, negotiated rapids, and made their way through dense forests. Upon his return, Back was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. The Great Fish River was renamed the Back River in his honor. In all, the expedition traveled nearly 7,500 miles, eventually making its way to the Arctic Coast before returning home to England.

Back documented his observations on geology, plant and animal life, the weather, (noting the aurora borealis in an appendix to this publication), and indigenous peoples; and added his own illustrations. In the year of its publication, Back traveled to the Arctic again. While Back was accused by some of being an ineffective leader, his writing was clear, detailed, even lyrical. His story is considered one of the finest travel narratives of the nineteenth century.

University of Utah copy gift of Dr. Ronald Rubin.

Camp
Falls
Map

 

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Book of the Week – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn…

01 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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American, banned, Chatto & Windus, England, Ernest Hemingway, first English edition, immorality, libraries, literature, London, Mark Twain, novels, pictorial cloth, profanity, publisher's advertisements, schools, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, United States

Adventures of Huckleberry FinnAdventures of Huckleberry Finn, frontispiece, title-pageAdventures of Huckleberry Finn, Ch XII

“I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: ‘All right, then, I’ll GO to hell.’”

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN…
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
London: Chatto & Windus, 1884
First English edition

Written over an eight year period, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was at first blasted by the critics for, among other things, “blood-curdling humor,” immorality, coarseness, and profanity. The story is still banned by libraries and schools in the United States. Nonetheless, it is one of the defining novels of American literature. Ernest Hemingway said of it, “All modern literature comes from [it]. It’s the best book we’ve had…There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.” It was published in England a few months before the American edition was published. Publisher’s advertisements in the back of this copy are dated October 1884. This copy is thread-sewn, one of two states of gatherings for the first English edition. Bound in original gilt-and black-stamped red pictorial cloth.

 

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Book of the Week – THE WORKS OF VIRGIL: CONTAINING HIS PASTORALS,…

22 Tuesday Sep 2015

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Aeneas, Aeneid, Alexander Pope, Antwerp, Augustus, coats of arms, Cologne, Earl of Arundel, England, English, engraved plates, engraving, etching, Frankfurt, Great Fire of 1666, illustration, Jacob Tonson, John Dryden, London, Marcellus, Matthaus Merian, Octavia, Parliament, pastorals, patronage, Prague, Prince of Wales, subscription, Thomas Howard, translation, verse, Virgil, Wenzal Hollar (1607-1677), William III


THE WORKS OF VIRGIL: CONTAINING HIS PASTORALS,…
London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1697
First edition
PA6807 .A1 D7 1697

Translated into English verse by John Dryden. Alexander Pope called Dryden’s translation “the most noble and spirited translation I know in any language.” The book was published by subscription, a method of publishing by which the subscriber’s patronage enabled the production of particularly lavish books. In all, one hundred and one persons subscribed. For five guineas they would each have a full-page illustration in their copy with their names and coat of arms. A second subscription list went out after Dryden had completed half the translation. These subscribers paid two guineas for their copy, which did not include plates dedicated to them. Two hundred and fifty copies were added for this list. Correspondence between Dryden and Jacob Tonson reveal several arguments during the publication process. One such quarrel evolved over the desire of Tonson to dedicate the book to William III and Dryden’s refusal to do so. Tonson made sure that the engravings were adapted so that Aeneas sported a hooked nose a la William. Illustrated with one hundred and one engraved plates by Wenzel Hollar (1607-1677) as well as an engraved title-page and a full-page engraving of Virgil reciting the Marcellus passage in Aeneid Bk VI to Augustus and Octavia. Hollar, born in Prague, studied engraving in Frankfurt in 1627 with publisher Matthaus Merian. In 1633, he was working in Cologne. Under the patronage of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, he moved to England in 1637, where he taught drawing to the Prince of Wales. He fought in the ranks of the King, was captured by Parliament and escaped to Antwerp in 1644. He returned to London in 1652, where he died in poverty. A master etcher he was recognized in his own time and to this day for his work, producing nearly three thousand plates, many of which illustrated books such as this. He is best known for his etchings of London after the Great Fire of 1666. He married and had a daughter, described by a contemporary as “one of the greatest beauties I have seen.” A son died in the plague. He had several children by a second wife. Bound in contemporary speckled calf, the spine tooled in gold.

alluNeedSingleLine

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Your Dissertation Here !

10 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Aldus Manutius, Basel, Bible, Byzantine, Cambridge, England, English, Erasmus, Froben, German, Greek, John Colet, Latin, Latin Vulgate, Martin Luther, New Testament, Nikolaus Gergel, Roman Catholic Church, Thomas More (1478-1535), University of Utah, Venice, Western European, William Tyndale

frontispiece

NOUUM TESTAMENTUM GRAECE
Argentorati : Apud Vuolfium Cephalaeum, 1524
BS1965 1524

First edition, first printing in octavo of the Erasmus New Testament in Greek. This edition, in its compact format, was much more affordable than Froben’s earlier editions, two facts that arguably gave Erasmus’ translation greater societal impact. The text closely follows the Nikolaus Gergel edition of 1521, the second edition of the Erasmus Greek New Testament.

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) took monastic vows at the age of twenty-five. An independent scholar, he spent time at Cambridge where he befriended John Colet (1467-1519) and Thomas More (1478-1535) during a time of great stress in the English Church. He spent three years in Venice working as an editor in the publishing house of Aldus Manutius (1449-1515). He later worked with printer Johannes Froben (1460-1527) in Basel.

Vvovlivs spreadBioE Toy Arioy Eyar spread

While in England, Erasmus began a systematic examination of available manuscript copies of the New Testament. His resulting Greek New Testament, with Latin in parallel column, was first published by Froben in 1516. The 1516 Greek-Latin New Testament was used as a primary source for Martin Luther’s translation of the New Testament into German (1522), and for William Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament into English (1526).

Although Erasmus was criticized by later scholars for not having used all available manuscript copies of the Greek New Testament and for not using Byzantine copies, his translation is noted as the first Western European attempt to find a truer translation of the New Testament than that of the fourth century Latin Vulgate, the translation used almost exclusively by the Roman Catholic Church. The translation re-introduced the study of Greek biblical manuscripts and other Greek works on the Bible into Western Europe.

Page3 Page28

Only ten copies of this edition and printing are listed in WorldCat. University of Utah copy has extensive marginalia in multiple contemporary or just post-contemporary hands (possibly four) throughout.

 

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Curiosity Killed the Cat

16 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Ben Jonson, Cambridge, Christmas, Church of England, E. Brewster, Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, England, English, Every Man in His Humour, G. Conyers, George Wither, H. Herringman, Henry Altemus, Horace, Innominate Press, James I, Kentucky, London, Louisville, M. Wotton, Much Ado About Nothing, Philadelphia, R. Chiswell, Robert Allot, T. Bassett, The New Inn, Thomas Cotes, Thomas Hodgkin, Trinity Hall, William Shakespeare


“Helter skelter, hang sorrow, care’ll kill a Cat, up-tails all, and a Louse for the Hangman.”

THE WORKS OF BEN JONSON WHICH WERE FORMERLY PRINTED IN TWO VOLUMES…
Ben Jonson (1573?-1637)
London: Printed by Thomas Hodgkin for H. Herringman, E. Brewster, T. Bassett, R. Chiswell, M. Wotton, G. Conyers, MDCXCII
Third folio

The Works of Ben Jonson was first published in 1616 in folio. It was reprinted in 1640. Both of these editions appeared in two volumes. This, the third folio, is the first Works to appear in one volume. The 1692 edition includes a comedy, “The New Inn,” appearing in the Works for the first time. Ben Jonson was a friend of William Shakespeare. In 1616, James I granted Jonson a pension, giving him a stature close to what might be termed the first Poet Laureate of England. That same year, the publication of his collected works, in folio format, helped elevate the acceptance of drama as literature. The 1692 folio contains Jonson’s plays and poetry, translations of Horace, and a collection of leges convivales, or rules of the house, used in the tavern where Jonson spent much time, this last also added to the Works for the first time. In the third folio, the “care’ll kill a Cat” line is in Act I, scene 4 of “Every Man in His Humour,” written in 1598. William Shakespeare acted in its first performance. The line in its earliest printed iteration uses the word “pox,” not “Louse.”


PR2751-A2-1632-pg-122

“What, courage man! what though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.”

[MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S COMEDIES, HISTORIES, AND TRAGEDIES: PUBLISHED…]
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
London: Printed by Tho. Cotes for Robert Allot, 1632
“The second impression”

About one year after Jonson wrote and produced “Every Man in His Humour,” William Shakespeare used a similar quote in his play, “Much Ado About Nothing.”



“Care killed the Cat. It is said that ‘a cat has nine lives,’ yet care would wear them all out.”

DICTIONARY OF PHRASE AND FABLE: GIVING THE DERIVATION, SOURCE, OR ORIGIN OF…
Ebenezer Cobham Brewer (1810-1897)
Philadelphia: Henry Altemus Co., 1898
New ed., rev., corrected, and enl., to which is added a concise bibliography of English literature
“Altemus edition”

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer attended Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he received his degree in law in 1835. He was ordained as a reverend in the Church of England in 1838. In 1856, he began putting together his “dictionary of phrase and fable.” Among many sources, he used correspondence with readers of his previous work, Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar (1841). Dictionary was first published in 1870, with a first revised edition in 1894. The work became so well-known that it is referred to simply as “Brewer.”

Since we are as curious as cats, here are a few more cat references from “Brewer:”

Cat I’ the Adage (The). The adage referred to is, the cat loves fish, but does not like to wet her paws.
– Letting I dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat I’ the adage
Shakespeare, Macbeth [Shakespeare, again!]

Cat Proverbs.
A cat has nine lives. A cat is more tenacious of life than other animals, because it generally lights upon its feet.


And one more makes nine:


A CHRISTMAS CAROL

George Wither
Louisville, KY: Innominate Press, 1971
PR2392 .C4 1971

Shakespeare is coming! The First Folio will arrive at the City Library in October.

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A Donation Makes Poly Poly’s

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by rarebooks in Donations

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agriculture, alphabet, Amsterdam, anatomy, Antonio Blado, Antwerp, architecture, astrology, astronomy, Barbara Chavira, Basel, Bible, Bonaventura Elzevir, bookbinders, booksellers, celibacy, censored, Christianity, Christopher Plantin, commerce, creation, Daniel Elzevir, Elizabeth Isengrin, England, English, engraved, Ethiopian Church, Europe, expurgated, fable, festivals, French, frontispiece, German, God, Greek, Hebrew, heresy, hunting, Index of Forbidden Books, indulgences, initials, Italian, italic, Judaism, King Arthur, Latin, law, Leonhart Fuchs, libraries, Louis Elzevir, Lucovico Arrighi, Lyons, magic, Martin Luther, mathematics, medicine, Michael Isengrin, minerology, monks, music, navigation, paganism, painting, pharmacology, physics, Polydore Vergil, Pope Gregory XIII, priest, printer, printing, Protestant, Rare Books Division, Reformation, religion, Roman, Roman Catholic Church, Rome, Salt Lake City Public Library, Shakespeare, Spanish, sports, theater, Thomas Guarin, Tournai, trade, typography, Utrecht, vellum, vignettes, weaponry, winemaking, writing

The Salt Lake City Public Library donated a sixteenth century book to the Rare Books Division, thanks to the well-trained eye of City Library staffer Barbara Chavira. Barbara worked part-time in the Rare Books Division for many years. Her passion for the art of books, in all forms and over the centuries, brought us this important and welcome addition to the rare book collections. Thank you, Barbara ! Thank you, City Library !

PA8585-V4-D4-1576-a4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POLYDORI VIRGILII VRBINATIS DE RERVM INVENTORIBVS…
Romae, apud haeredes antonij, Bladij, Impressores Camerales: Anno. M.D. LXXVI (1576)

Polydore Vergil (ca. 1470-1555), an Italian priest, spent much of his life in England. He is recognized for his history of England, a work that Shakespeare is known to have used as one of his sources. Vergil used critical analysis in his narration of historical events. His thesis that King Arthur was little more than fable, for instance, shocked contemporary readers.

It is his second published work, however, for which he was best known in his time. First printed in 1499, De rerum inventoribus (On Discovery), was a work unlike anything that had been published before. An inventory of historical “firsts,” it combined a wide array of subjects in an attempt to determine which individual or culture first invented things such as the alphabet, astronomy, magic, printing, libraries, hunting, festivals, writing, painting, weaponry and religion. Vergil culled much of his work from a wide range of ancient and contemporary writers. He focused on the genius of man in the origin or invention of all things – heretical thinking at the time.

In Book I he investigated the creation of the world, the origin of religion, the origin of the concepts of “god” and the word “God.” He suggested that much of Christianity had been adapted from Judaism or Roman paganism. Books II and III were studies of a wide-range of topics, mostly concerning the practical and mechanical arts including anatomy, astrology, law, medicine, commerce, mathematics, mineralogy, music, pharmacology, physics, trade, agriculture, architecture, sports, theater, navigation, and winemaking. The work was translated into French in 1521, German in 1537, English in 1546, and Spanish in 1551.

In 1521, more than two decades after he wrote the first three books, and at the dawn of Martin Luther’s protestant reformation, Vergil added five more books concentrating on Christianity. Vergil reworked his discussion of Christianity in deference to the Roman Catholic Church, which objected to Vergil’s reference to religion as a matter of scientific investigation. In spite of this concession, Vergil anticipated the scientific approach to religion that would become the norm a century later. The intended salve to the church failed when Vergil criticized monks, priestly celibacy, and indulgences. In 1564 the work was declared heretical and all editions were added to the Index of Forbidden Books. However, the work was so popular that two censored editions were printed after the ban.

This 1576 expurgated edition was sanctioned by Pope Gregory XIII in its front matter.

PA8585-V4-D4-1576-a2

PA8585-V4-D4-1570-CaGlorius

It is significant that this edition was printed by the heirs of Antonio Blado’s shop.

PA8585-V4-D4-1576-titlepage

PA8585-V4-D4-1576-regestvm

Blado worked in Rome from 1515 to 1567 as a printer in the service of the papacy. He was well-known for his scholarly works in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; and a 1549 document in Ethiopic type for the Ethiopian Church. Blado is also known for his use of an early italic type created by Ludovico Arrighi. The Rare Books Division holds five books printed by Antonio Blado.

This 1576 edition of Vergil joins an edition from 1570 and another from 1671, already in the rare book collections.

PA8585-V4-D4-1570-titlepagePA8585-V4-D4-1570-colophon

POLYDORI VERGILII VRBINATIS, DE RERUM INVENTORIBUS…
Polydore Vergil (1470? – 1555)
Basilea: 1570

Printer Thomas Guarin (1529-1592) was born in Tournai. He worked in Lyons as a bookseller, but by 1557 was in Basel, where he married Elizabeth Isengrin, the daughter of a printer. Guarin took over his father-in-law’s small press at Michael Isengrin’s death. Michael Isengrin had printed one of the many editions of De rerum inventoribus to be published in Vergil’s lifetime. Each of these editions contained significant variations. Isengrin printed Leonhart Fuchs’s sumptuous De Historia stirpivm. Along with the reprint of classical works, Guarin issued several editions of the Bible, published in both Latin and German, and one in Spanish. His printer’s device was a palm tree.

PA8585-V4-D4-1570-printersdevice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PA8585-V4-D4-1671-frontispiece

POLYDORI VERGILII URBINATIS, DE INVENTORIBUS RERUM…
Polydore Vergil (1470?-1555)
Amstelodami: apud Danielem Elzebirius, 1671

Daniel Elzevir came from a distinguished family of booksellers, bookbinders, printers and publishers. Louis Elzevir (1546-1617), a Protestant émigré, began the business in Antwerp in about 1565, after he left a job with Christopher Plantin’s print shop. The Elzevir enterprise became one of Europe’s largest printing houses. Louis’s sons expanded the business with branches in The Hague, Utrecht, and Amsterdam. The Amsterdam branch was established in 1638 by Louis III. His partner was Daniel Elzevir, son of Bonaventura Elzevir, son of Louis. Daniel continued the family reputation for fine typography and design work. This edition of De Rerum inventoribus also contains another of Vergil’s works, Prodigiis, written in 1526 but not printed until 1531. The engraved frontispiece for this edition includes the invention of printing as one of its main themes. Numerous carved initials and vignettes. Bound in contemporary vellum.

Shakespeare is coming! The First Folio will arrive at the City Library in October.

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Book of the Week – To Thee I Lift Up My Eyes

24 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, England, Paul Johnson

N7433.4-J664-T6-2002To Thee I Lift Up My Eyes
Paul Johnson
Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, England: P. Johnson, 2002
N7443.4 J664 T58 2002

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Book of the Week – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

08 Monday Sep 2014

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advertisements, American, bookstores, British, California, Canada, copyright, England, frontispiece, Hartford, London, manuscript, Mark Twain, piracy, prospectus, royalties, Samuel Clemens, San Francisco, subscription, Tom Sawyer, typewritten, United States, unpublished


The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Hartford, CT: American Pub. Co.; San Francisco, CA: A. Roman, 1876
First American edition, first printing
PS1306-A1-1876

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wrote three different versions of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer between 1872 and 1875 before it was first published in London in June, 1876.

Many American authors preferred to have their books published first in England, since that was the only way to secure British copyright. First printings in England, and then the United States, usually occurred only a couple of months apart. In the case of Tom Sawyer, the delay was longer, frustrating Twain. Too much of a delay often resulted in piracy, which is exactly what happened in the case of this work. At least one pirated edition surfaced in July in Canada.

Twain believed that the delay and the piracy caused him loss in royalties. Tom Sawyer was reviewed unfavorably in the London Examiner, the day it came out. A July review in the literary magazine, The Atheneaum, was more kindly.

In December 1876, Tom Sawyer was printed in the United States and sold by subscription only. This was a common method of book distribution in the United States during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Book agents would cross the country with a publisher’s prospectus, selling and placing orders for as yet unpublished titles. Once the title was released the books would be delivered directly to subscriber’s homes. Only later editions were available in bookstores.

Tom Sawyer was not an immediate success. The American publisher sold only 24,000 copies in its first year. The pirated edition was not the only reason for poor sales. One book agent in California complained that the story, at only 274 pages, was not long enough. Potential subscribers apparently felt the same way.

Twain typed the manuscript for Tom, and later claimed that it was the first typewritten manuscript. Historians, however, believe that this distinction goes to Twain’s Life on the Mississippi. The frontispiece of the first American edition was drawn by Twain. Publisher’s advertisements, dated Dec. 1, 1876 on two leaves in back.

 

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Book of the Week – An Alphabetical Compendium of Various Sects…

25 Monday Aug 2014

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bookselling, Boston, Edes, England, geography, Greek, Hannah Adams, Jewry, John Adams, Latin, logic, Massachusetts, religion, Shakers, Unitarian, United States


An Alphabetical Compendium of Various Sects…
Hannah Adams (1755-1831)
Boston: Printed by B. Edes & Sons, 1784
First edition
BL31 A3 1784

Hannah Adams was one of the first women in the United States to make a living as writer. Born in Massachusetts, Adams was a distant cousin of President John Adams and the daughter of a lifelong bibliophile called “Book” Adams, who failed an attempt at bookselling. Too frail to go to school, she was taught Latin, Greek, geography and logic along with theological students who boarded with her family.

One of the students introduced her to Broughton’s Dictionary of Religions, which led to her interest in writing on religion. At the age of seventeen, her father faced bankruptcy. Adams helped sustain the family by selling her lace and by teaching. The sale of her books added to her income.

Alphabetical Compendium was an important contribution to American religious literature. In her book, Adams (a Unitarian) represented denominations from the perspective of their adherents, without injecting her own opinions. It includes one of the earliest accounts of the Shakers and a description of contemporary Jewry. This work went through four editions in the United States, each under a different title, and was also published in England.

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