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Tag Archives: New York

The American Anti-Slavery Almanac for 1840, being bissextile or leap-year, and the 64th of American Independence, calculated for Boston…

15 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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almanac, America, American Anti-Slavery Society, Boston, branding, burning, charts, Congress, constitutions, dogs, eclipses, freedom, governments, guns, high tides, hunting, laws, liberty, lynching, New York, population, postage rates, republics, selling, slaves, statistics, tables, United States

E449-A516-1840-cover
“He is a traitor to his race, who does not feel that all within the circle of humanity are his brothers and sisters — that their wrongs are his wrongs, and that his cup is dashed with the bitterness which overflows from theirs. While a single human being, round the wide world, drags the chain or drops the tear of a slave, every other human being, whose heart has not turned to stone, will cry out against the wretch who riveted the one or wrings out the other.”

…

“This language of Congress is memorable, as it shows that the dignified and enlightened body, under whose auspices the liberties of America were achieved, still retained an undiminished respect for the great and eternal principles of FREEDOM….’For extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which form the basis on which these republics, their laws, and the constitutions are erected, to fix and establish those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments…'”

The American Anti-Slavery Almanac for 1840…
New York, NY & Boston, MA, 1839

This almanac presents the expected charts and tables, including lists of eclipses, high tides, population statistics of the United States, and postage rates. This practical matter is interspersed with texts detailing accounts of branding, hunting escaped slaves with dogs and and guns, selling a mother from her child, women being whipped in fields, lynching, burning alive and other atrocities perpetuated against the enslaved. The stories are illustrated with strikingly graphic images, one for each month plus one for the cover. Almanacs were read and used by a majority of literate American adults. The American Anti-Slavery Society began publishing these almanacs, in 1835, as a way of publicizing the horrors of slavery.

E449-A516-1840-pg11E449-A516-1840-pg13E449-A516-1840-pg15

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Book of the Week — McElligot’s Pool

26 Tuesday Dec 2017

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Angel Ferris Children's Reading Room, army, Caldecott Medal, Dr. Seuss, fish, Massachusetts, New York, Random House, Springfield, Superintendent of Parks, Theodore Geisel


“Oh, the sea is so full of a number of fish,
If a fellow is patient, he might get his wish!”

McElligot’s Pool
Dr. Seuss
New York: Random House, 1947
First edition

This is the first of Dr. Seuss’s books to be illustrated in full color. Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, dedicated this, his first book after leaving the Army and his fifth overall, to his father, the Superintendent of Parks in the Giesel’s hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts. The book garnered Seuss a nomination for the Caldecott Medal in 1948. Binding is variant b, with opened-mouth fish on front cover, lettering on spine and seven-line copyright statement. Rare Books copy inscribed by Dr. Seuss “For the Angel Ferris Children’s Reading Room with very Best Wishes.”

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Book of the Week — November: A Map

13 Monday Nov 2017

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Arches, Caliban Press, Canton, herbal, hortus siccus, Mark McMurray, New York, November, Velma Bolyard, Washington Hoe press


“this is how it is
longing sets in as days shorten
and nights, well,
nights shoulder their way
right into day.
it helps to have a sense of humor,
a big stack of cordwood,
skis waiting for snow,
a book and a chair,
some paper to draw on,
cloth to stitch
with thread:
threads to tie it all
together,
november.”

November: A Map
Velma Bolyard
Canton, New York: Caliban Press, 2015
N7433.4 B662 N6 2015

Artist’s statement from the colophon: “…I gathered flora from the bared down countryside. Using the fruits, nuts, seeds, flowers, leaves, twigs, fungi and metals: copper, aluminum, steel, iron, and the hard water from my well, I contact- or eco- printed them in my kitchen. The colors, patterns, resists and pigments are transferred to the paper by means of heat, water, and pressure after being bundled into a big pot and cooked. After, they are unbundled, rinsed, and pressed dry: alchemy. They are a hortus siccus, a dry garden, an herbal map of my home.”

One folded sheet presented in a windowed, sewn sleeve. Letterpress printed by Mark McMurray and Velma Bolyard on Arches using a 180-year-old Washington Hoe press. Edition of forty-one copies, signed and numbered by the artist and printer. Rare Books copy is no. 37.

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Book of the Week — Fairies I Have Met

16 Monday Oct 2017

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British, Edmund Dulac, Fairies, France, Japanese, John Lane, London, Mrs. Rodolph Stawell, New York, Outlook, Penelope, textile design, Toulouse

PZ8-S488-Fa-1907-Surprise
“She noticed that the girls and boys in the books were not altogether like the girls and boys who played with her in the Square and came to tea with her. The children in the books were wonderfully brave and clever; and when they were having their magnificent adventures they always did exactly the right thing at the right moment.”

FAIRIES I HAVE MET
Mrs. Rodolph Stawell
London; New York: John Lane, 1907?
First edition
PZ8 S488 Fa 1907

Mrs. Stawell wrote these tales for a little girl named Penelope. This book is illustrated with eight color plates by Edmund Dulac (1882-1953), one of the premier illustrators of the golden age of children’s book. Born in Toulouse, Dulac studied art in France. He became a British citizen in 1912. He is, perhaps, best known for his illustrations for Fairies. Reviewed in the British journal Outlook in November 1907, the reviewer focuses on the detailed and whimsical illustrations of bold design. Dulac took inspiration from textile design and Japanese prints to depict the vibrant stories.

PZ8-S488-Fa-1907

Recommended reading: For a modern-day, adult fairy tale, appropriately creepy to the season, we recommend The Changeling by Victor LaValle, in the Browsing Collection, PS3562 A8458 C48 2017

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Book of the Week — A New Hieroglyphical Bible, for the Amusement and Instruction of Children

31 Monday Jul 2017

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Alexander Anderson, America, American, Augsburg, Baltimore, Bible, children, Dutch, emblem books, English, French, hieroglyphical, Isaiah Thomas, New York, Samuel W. Wood & Co., Samuel Wood & Sons, wood engraving

BS560-H54-1818-pg32spread
“…so also can nothing be more unprofitable, than the too customary mode of charging the infant memory with verses, or even chapters of abstract doctrines, or passages, about the true meaning of which, schoolmen themselves have hitherto been divided in opinion.” — from the Preface

A New Hieroglyphical Bible, for the Amusement and Instruction of Children
Alexander Anderson (1775-1870)
New York: Published by Samuel Wood & Sons, And Samuel W. Wood & Co…Baltimore, 1818
BS560 H54 1818

Hieroglyphic Bibles were a natural development from emblem books, in which often complex visual images served as emblems for intellectual or aesthetic ideas presented as moral or religious lessons. The first one was published in Augsburg in 1687. French and Dutch editions followed in the eighteenth century. The first English edition appeared fairly late, but it was followed by at least thirteen other editions before the end of the eighteenth century. The first American hieroglyphic Bible was published in 1788 by Isaiah Thomas.

Alexander Anderson has been called the father of wood engraving in America, and was certainly one of its masters. His work included prints, almanacs, fiction, travel, children’s books, Bibles, religious tracts, medical texts, and broadsides.

BS560-H54-1818-title

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The Risk of Being Less Free

04 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Donations

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Alexander Hamilton, Articles of Confederation, Benjamin Warner, Charleston, Chief Justice of the United States, Constitution of the United States, Constitutional Convention, engravings, James Madison, John Jay, New York, New-York Packet, Philadelphia, portraits, President of the United States, Publius, Richmond, Ronald Rubin, Secretary of the Treasury, South Carolina, The Daily Advertiser, The Federalist, The Independent Journal, The New-York Journal, Virginia, war

JK154-1788-title
“The violent destruction of life and property incident to war, the continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, will compel nations the most attached to liberty to resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free.”
― Alexander Hamilton

The Federalist: A Collection of Essays…
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), James Madison (1751-1836), and John Jay (1745-1829)
New-York: Printed and sold by J. and A. M’Lean, no.41, Hanover-square, M,DCC,LXXXVIII (1788)
First edition
JK154 1788

Although written for the purpose of supporting New York state’s ratification of the Constitution of the United States, these essays were eventually published together as The Federalist and were soon recognized for their brilliant commentary on the new republican charter. The use of The Federalist as a tool for interpreting the Constitution began before it was officially ratified and has continued to the present day. The Federalist is the fundamental document left by the framers of the Constitution as a guide to their philosophy and intentions.

Alexander Hamilton was the principal force behind the pro-ratification pamphlets, enlisting fellow New Yorker John Jay and Virginian James Madison as coauthors of the essays. The individual responsible for each essay is not clear. The first essay by “Publius” (the pen name for all three authors) appeared in the 27 October 1787 issue of The Independent Journal, and all or some of the subsequent numbers were also printed in the New-York Packet, The Daily Advertiser, and The New-York Journal. The first thirty-six Federalist essays were collected and published by the M’Lean brothers in March 1788 and the final forty-nine, along with the text of the Constitution, followed in a second volume in May. The last eight essays were printed in book form before they appeared in newspapers. In all, the essays represent one of the most important American contributions to political theory.

The first edition of the collection was of five hundred copies, fifty of which were purchased by Hamilton and sent to Virginia. The sale of the others was poor. The publisher complained in October 1788, long after New York had ratified the Constitution, that they still had several hundred copies unsold.


The Federalist, On the New Constitution, Written in 1778, by Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Jay, and Mr. Madison
Philadelphia: Published by Benjamin Warner, No. 147, Market street, and sold at his stores, Richmond, Virginia, and Charleston, South Carolina, 1818
Fifth Edition
KF4515 F4 1818

Despite the poor sales of the first edition, The Federalist was published again and nearly continuously to the present day. The fifth edition of The Federalist contains an appendix of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution of the United States with Amendments, not found in the fourth edition. The Philadelphia imprint contains revisions by Madison, along with his claims of authorship of some of the essays previously attributed to Hamilton. This is the second single-volume edition printed, complete with full-page engraved portraits of Hamilton, Madison and Jay. It was published the same year as a Washington, D.C. imprint.

Federalist1818-JamesMadison

James Madison became the fourth President of the United States.

Federalist1818-AlexanderHamilton

Alexander Hamilton, who had represented New York at the Constitutional Convention, became the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury, holding the post until he resigned in 1795.

Federalist1818-JohnJay

John Jay became the first Chief Justice of the United States in 1789, stepping down in 1795 to become governor of New York, a post he held for two terms, until retiring in 1801.

Rare Books copy of fifth edition is gift of Dr. Ronald Rubin.

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Seven Pillars of Wisdom — The Book that inspired the movie that inspired the art

06 Tuesday Jun 2017

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A. W. Lawrence, Auda Abu Tayi, Burbank, Columbia Tristar Home Video, Damascus, Emir Abdullah, Feysal, Jidda, Lawrence of Arabia, motion picture, Mukheymer, Nawaf Shaalan, New York, Oxford, Saad el Sikeinj, Scott Beadles, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Shakir, T. E. Lawrence

DesertTriptych

photographs by Scott Beadles. Artist’s statement: “I recall a movie from memory, something I had seen in my childhood, the memory indefinite. My grandfather sat next to me and pointed out the boundaries of the revolt on the map above the sofa, it was always the centerpiece of his discourse. I remember a vacant climate, a vast expanse that even at such a young age was perceptibly inhospitable. The images of the desert have stuck with me, though muddled by time, the purity of the landscape perpetual. In the reconstruction of a past memory, I photographed what I remember through the distance of time. The intent was of the images, to encapsulate a feeling. Shapshots of the Arabian desert, barbarous and beautiful.”

“Some of the evil of my tale may have been inherent in our circumstances.”
— T. E. Lawrence

Seven Pillars of Wisdom
T. E. Lawrence (1888-1935)
Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1935
D568.4 L4 1935

History of the printing of Seven Pillars:

“Text I — ‘…I lost it.’

Text II — ‘…All but one page of this text was burned by me in 1922.’

D568.4-L4-1935-Camel

Privately Printed Texts
Oxford 1922
‘…eight copies were required. Five copies (bound in book form, for the convenience of those former members of the Hejaz Expeditionary Force who undertook to read it critically for me) have not yet (April 1927) been destroyed.’

Subscribers’ Text I. xii. 26
‘…Beginners in literature are inclined to fumble with a handful of adjectives round the outline of what they want to describe: but by 1924 I had learnt my first lesson in writing, and was often able to combine two or three of my 1921 phrases into one…The Seven Pillars was so printed and assembled that nobody but myself knew how many copies were produced. I propose to keep this knowledge to myself.’

D568.4-L4-1935-Damascus

Published Texts
New York Text
‘Ten copies are offered for sale, at a price high enough to prevent their ever being sold. No further issue of the Seven Pillars will be made in my lifetime.'”

–T. E. Lawrence

D568.4-L4-1935-Jidda

“To bring the information up to date, I add that the remaining copies of the Oxford printed Text of 1922 are still in existence, but will not be made public for at least ten years, and then only in a limited edition…The text of the present edition is identical with that of the thirty-guinea edition of 1926, except for the following omissions…necessary to save hurting the feelings of persons still living…” — A. W. Lawrence

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The movie that inspired the art.
Lawrence of Arabia
Burbank, CA: Columbia Tristar Home Video, 1002
PN1997 L38 2002 ARC

Originally produced as a motion picture in 1962. Directed by David Lean. Starring Alec Guinness, Anthony Quin, Jack Hawkins, Jose Ferrer, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy, Omar Sharif, Peter O’Toole. Music composed by Maurice Jarre. Lawrence of Arabia won the Academy Award for Best Picture, 1962.

And one more for good measure:

Z116-A3-R54-1985-Portrait
“He sat, fireless, in very cold weather, wearing a leather, wool-lined flying suit, with the fattest fountain pen I have ever seen — where he got it I don’t know — and wrote in a splendid great Kalamazoo notebook, leather bound and secured with a patent lock that delighted him.”

T. E. Lawrence, Book Designer: His Friendship with Vyvyan Richards
Vyvyan Richards
Wakefield, West Yorkshire: Fleece Press, 1985/86
Z1116 A3 R54 1985

Reprinted from T. E. Lawrence and His Friends edited by A. W. Lawrence, 1937. From the colophon: “…printed in an edition of 250 copies, on Velin Arches Blanc by Simon Lawrence, who also set the 14pt Caslon, at his Fleece Press…200 copies are bound in quarter cloth and Sage Reynolds paste paper over boards, & 50 are bound in quarter sheepskin parchment and paste paper, signed by Peter Reddick, who engraved the frontispiece portrait of T. E. Lawrence. The book was bound in Otley by Smith Settle…”

Z116-A3-R54-1985-Cover

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“The Books Opened My Eyes to New Possibilities:” A Visit From Utah State University Students

31 Friday Mar 2017

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accordion format, al-Mutanabbi Street, Anagram Press, Baghdad, Berkeley, book arts, Book Arts Guild, Book Arts Program Studio, bookseller, Cal Ling, calico, Chandler O'Leary, Christina Kemp, collage, Connecticut, consitiution, copper, Denisse Gackstetter, Diano Bertolo, Fingin Furi, Flying Fish Press, Gampi Smooth, Giovanni Forlino, glass negatives, Granary Books, handmade paper, Heather Weston, Hermetic Press, High Falls, Iraq, Japanese, Jessica Spring, Jim Machacek, John Yau, Julie Chen, Katsushika Hokusai, Kincami, Kristen Reyes, Kyoto, letterpress, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathon Rhea, Logan, London, Marriott Library, Matt Jones, Mauree Cummins, Max Gimblett, Mount Fuji, Mt. Rainier, New York, non-adhesive binding, Philip Galo, Philippine Banana Bark, photographs, photography, rare books, Revolutionary War, Rumi, Sarah Christianson, schizophrenia, Sibyl Rubottom, spiral bound, Springtide Press, Steve Clay, strait jacket, stratovolcano, Sunomi, Susan Mills, Tacobet, Tacoma, Tacoma Artists Initiative Program, Tacoma Arts Commission, Tahoma, Tairei, Tamashiki, Tao Te Ching, triptych, typography, United States, University of Puget Sound Collins Memorial Library, Utah State University, Washington, watercolor, Weir Farm, Wilton, woodblock prints, wrapper, Yuzen

P1060569

“It was nice being able to get lost in someone’s work and to look at books in a way that I never have before. Being able to actually hold and handle the books teaches us many things. ”

Early in the cold, wet month of February, students from Utah State University made the perilous journey from Logan to the Marriott Library to visit Rare Books. Professor Denisse Gackstetter brought her Introduction to Book Arts class for a tour of the Book Arts Program Studio, after which the students spent two hours looking at forty of our books.

Prof. Gackstetter asked her student’s to respond to their visit. Here is some of what they saw and what they had to say about it.

PS3575-A9-B66-2012-spread
THE BOOK OF THE ANONYMOUS
John Yau (b. 1950) and Max Gimblett (b. 1935)
New York: Granary Books, 2012
PS3575 A9 B66 2012

John Yau wrote this poem in 2009 in response to several translations of the “Tao Te Ching” given to him by Max Gimblett. In response to Yau’s manuscript, Gimblett created a series of more than one hundred drawings and collages incorporating rare and unusual handmade papers from around the world. This publication contains the twenty-four part poem and twelve of the illustrations. An original ink drawing by Gimblett in black ink on silver is on the cover of each copy. Produced by Diane Bertolo, Steve Clay [founder and owner of Granary Press] and Susan Mills. Typography is by Steve Clay, the binding by Susan Mills. Philip Galo letterpress printed the text and images on double leaves at the Hermetic Press. The collages incorporate gold-leaf, photography, photocopy and drawing. The collages were made at Max Gimblett’s studio with assistance from Matt Jones, Giovanni Forlino and Kristen Reyes. The papers used include Kincami black, Cal Ling autumn, Tamashiki orange, Kingin Furi tan, Sunomi silver, Sunomi kraft, Yuzen cream, Kyoto M25 white, Tairei #1 white, Philippine Banana Bark alabaster and Gampi Smooth 43. Bound in black board covers, open spine with exposed stitching, a non-adhesive binding. Folded and coupled, the pages are gathered together and sewn to cloth-backed boards. Housed in handmade silver cloth-covered clamshell box with spine label. Edition of thirty-three copies, signed by the poet and the artist.

“The Book of the Anonymous by John Yau made the greatest impression upon me. I remember specifically pondering how the images or lack thereof contributed to the concept. I was intrigued by the questions Yau asked the reader, and I was inspired to read more into them by the beautiful pages and illustrations. The form made me want to understand the content.”

“The paper has lots of fiber and shimmer in it. One of the pages has string in the paper. The contrast in texture is very dramatic.”

“I can’t remember the imagery or the poem in that book because the handmade papers are so beautiful I could not stop looking at them. The pages were assembled in an interesting way where the two sheets of paper would sort of pocket-fold into each other. This gave the pages a very thick and substantial feel when turning them.”


N7433.4-W467-B56-2000-WrapN7433.4-W467-B56-2000-spread
BINDING ANALYSIS: DOUBLE BIND
Heather Weston
London: Heather Weston, 2000
N7433.4 W467 B56 2000

Author and artist Heather Weston holds a degree in Book Arts and works in the mental health profession. She uses the book form to explore both emotional experience and psychological structure. In this context she explores the inextricable link between form and content. Here, book structure says something about the experience of schizophrenia that text alone could not. The book is double spiral bound at right and left edges with the pages splitting down the center. Four separate narratives – one pictorial, two textual, and one structural – unravel concurrently. A calico wrapper, with a padded but rigid back panel gives the floppy book the firm containment of a strait jacket.

“I thoroughly enjoyed Binding Analysis: Double Bind by Heather Weston. Weston uses French doors to present an analysis of a schizophrenia patient through the recordings of a medical care provider. I only became aware of the patient’s recorded words, on the backside of the structure, midway through the book. The form informed me about the concept.”


N7433.4-C853-G46-2003-cover
GHOST DIARY
Maureen Cummins
High Falls, NY: M. Cummins, 2003
N7433.4 C853 G46 2003

From the colophon: “…[B]ased on a handwritten letter discovered by the artist in the archive of Weir Farm in Wilton, Connecticut, during a residency in the spring of 2001. The letter was written in 1807 by a former Revolutionary War officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathon Rhea, to his children on the anniversary of his wife’s death. The [5] images that accompany the text are original vintage glass negatives that date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.” Glass panels hinged in accordion format. Issued in collapsible black box with a tie string. Edition of twenty-five copies. University of Utah copy is lettered and signed by the artist.

“It uses a simple accordion structure, but utilizes it in an inventive way. The panels are see-through which coincides with its subject matter. A wonderful example of form and content informing each other.”


N7433.4-O45-L63-2010
LOCAL CONDITIONS: ONE HUNDRED VIEWS OF MT.…
Chandler O’Leary
Tacoma, WA: Anagram Press, 2012?

From the colophon: “Illustrated, designed, printed and bound by Chandler O’Leary, through freak snowstorms, record heat, and a thousand gentle rains in Tacoma, Washington. Each of the book’s 120 image flats is illustrated and compiled from sketches, photographs and data collected in person, on location, from September 2008 to October 2010. All text and images were letterpress printed in Hokusai’s indigo ink, down the street at Springtide Press. Images and topographic map patterns are hand-drawn and water-colored. For making it possible to turn this crazy idea into an even crazier reality, many heartfelt thanks to [the Tailor*], Jessica Spring, [Zooey*], Sarah Christianson, the Tacoma Arts Commission, the University of Puget Sound Collins Memorial Library, and the Book Arts Guild. Thanks also to the weather, for always, despite a notorious reputation, seeming to hold just long enough for me to grab the camera and jump in the car. Produced with the support of a Tacoma Artists Initiative Program grant from the City of Tacoma Arts Commission…Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1759-1849) is perhaps best known for his seminal works, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji and One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji. The two series of woodblock prints, published from 1829 to circa 1847, depict the sacred peak within the context of landscapes and scenes of daily life. At the heart of the series is Hokusai’s own obsession with immortality, and his fascination with Fuji’s eternal presence. Therein lies the rub: Fuji is anything but eternal. Beyond the usual, abstract geologic transience of eroding rock and drifting continents, Fuji is an active stratovolcano. Its days – and those of the lives and lands at its base – are numbered. Here in Washington state, just forty miles southeast of my home, lies Fuji’s taller, more volatile, American twin. Variously named Tacobet, Tahoma, and Ti’Swaq’, amont others, by the region’s indigenous peoples, or simply “The Mountain” by contemporary locals – its most arbitrary…”

“What left the greatest impression on me was the box with different scenic areas layered upon one another. It made me want to go home and create one of my own. The intricate images mixed with the soft pastels are gorgeous. I think it is interesting that the viewer is able to arrange the book how they please. The book is really their own story to tell.”

“This book intrigued me. It is so different from a normal book, and so unconventional, it inspired me to think more outside the box.”

“I like the three-dimensional aspect.”

“This book has three drawers to pull out and a ton of different different pieces of scenery. I love how I could mix and match the different scenes. There were so many possibilities to create. I liked the facts that I learned about Mt. Rainier, as well. I could have read and played with this book for hours.”


N7433.4-C44-M46-2012-coverN7433.4-C44-M46-2012-open
MEMENTO
Julie Chen
Berkeley, CA: Flying Fish Press, 2012
N7433.4 C44 M46 2012

From the colophon: “The text that appears on the woven token in triptych was taken from the preambles to the constitutions of the United States and Iraq. The image that surrounds the token is of a bookseller’s stall on Al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad prior to the bombing in 2007, and is used by permission of the Al-Mutanabbi Street coalition.” Letterpress printed. Designed by Julie Chen. Copper locket fabricated by Christina Kemp, based on a design by Julie Chen. Edition of fifty copies. University of Utah copy is no. 43, signed by the artist.

“Blew my mind.”


N7433.4-R73-N49-2000-Open
NEW RULE: A POEM BY RUMI
Sibyl Rubottom and Jim Machacek
San Diego, CA: Bay Park Press, 2000
N7433.4 R73 N49 2000

A flecked, navy wrapper is folded in three, housing the primary sheet which is, in turn, folded into three, unequal sections. Letterpress from Bodoni and Times Roman on Fabriano Rosaspina Bianco and Fox River Confetti wrapper. Images created using polymer plates, monotypes, linocut, and screen printing. Edition of forty-five copies. University of Utah copy is no. 19.

“Looking at New Rule helped my own making for my next project. It is a good example of a poem in a book, without lots of pages, but with a creative structure. I like how it hides the colophon inside the back cover by folding inward.”


N7433.4-C414-C66-2013-spread
CONVERSION: (A CONVERSATION TOLD IN SYMBOLS)
Macy Chadwick
Portland, OR: In Cahoots Press, 2013
N7433.4 C414 C66 2013

A sequential, narrative story with abstract imagery and no text, a conversation using only symbols. From the artist’s website: “…a two-person conversation using a vocabulary of stencils and hand-drawn symbols shown in a key. What is said and what is thought, works spoken in a jumble without stopping, a rational response and an activated imagination are all carefully plotted and diagrammed. Two different communication styles clash, merge, and ultimately influence each other as one person finally speaks her mind.” Mulberry paper, Micron pens, book cloth, pochoir. Edition of five copies.

“This book was assembled very simply, hand drawn on a single sheet of mulberry paper and folded into a book with a thin book cloth cover. What really pulled me into this one was the concept behind it. The artist took the words out of a conversation and replaced them with symbols to show the structure of a conversation. It made me see that as an artist we don’t have to ‘write the story’ our viewers see, we can create a scaffolding of an idea that gets filled in with what the viewer has already experienced. It was very powerful. The book is a great vessel for this concept because it is such a personal experience turning the pages, touching the conversation with my own fingers. I learned a lot from that small book and from this whole experience.”

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Photographs of books by Scott Beadles.
Photographs of readers by Dennise Gackstetter. Thanks, Dennise!

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Book of the Week — The Farmer’s Diary, or, Beers’ Ontario Almanack, for the Year of our Lord 1824

20 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week — The Farmer’s Diary, or, Beers’ Ontario Almanack, for the Year of our Lord 1824

Tags

Albany, almanacs, American, Andrew Beers, attorney, Beers' Ontario Almanack, Canandaigua, diary, editor, farmers, James D. Bemis, Joseph Smith, New York, New York City, nineteenth century, Ontario County, Ontario Repository and Genesee Advertiser, polymath, spring, weather

AY256-N5-F26-1824-Title

“This month is generally ushered in with boisterous wind and nipping frosts. The hapless mariner beholds his vessel wrecked upon the very rocks which bind his much-loved home. Vegetation perishes through severe and untimely ires!; and deluging rains, descending with impetuous force crush the springing blade, and despoil the beauty of the gay parterre. Even thus do the rude passions of man’s soul break forth with resistless force at this unsettled period of existence, wrecking the fragile bark of youth. The tide of dissipation sweeps away the principles of virtue, which have not had time to take root, and every noble energy is blighted by the influence of bad example.”

Happy Spring!

The Farmer’s Diary, or, Beers’ Ontario Almanack, for the Year of our Lord 1824
Canandaigua, NY: Printed and sold, wholesale and retail, by J. D. Bemis, 1824
AY256 N5 F26

For all their necessity, American almanacs in the early nineteenth century assumed that most farmers understood, without printed confirmation, events such as the beginning of spring. Nonetheless, warnings such as the one above about the ravages of early spring weather, not to mention the unsettling effect it has on the “fragile bark of youth,” pervaded these sage documents. As evidenced here, spring fever was alive and well in 1824.

Attorney Andrew Beers acted as chief polymath for several almanacs in New York City before he moved to Albany in 1797. He began working with printers in western New York towns wanting to issue almanacs particular to their areas. Newspaperman and publisher James D. Bemis of Canandaigua, nine miles from the home of Joseph Smith, turned to Beers for help with astronomical, monetary and other calculations invaluable to local farmers and businessmen. Bemus was the editor of the Ontario Repository and Genesee Advertiser. Ontario County, New York was home to Joseph Smith and his family between 1816 and 1830.

AY256-N5-F26-1824-Signs

AY256-N5-F26-1824-backcover

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Book of the Week — Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant

20 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week — Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant

Tags

American Civil War, bankruptcy, cancer, Catholic, editor, Gertrude Stein, Jew, Julius Caesar, Mark Twain, memoirs, military, New York, peace, politics, President, Protestant, Samuel Clemens, stenographer, Ulysses S. Grant, Union, veterans, war, Webster

E672-G67-1885-v.1-portrait

“‘Let us have peace.’ The expressions of these kindly feelings were not restricted to a section of the country, nor to a division of the people. They came from individual citizens of all nationalieties; from all denominations — the Protestant, the Catholic, and the Jew; and from the various societies of the land — scientific, educational, religious, or otherwise. Politics did not enter into the matter at all.”

PERSONAL MEMOIRS OF U. S. GRANT
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885)
New York: C. L. Webster & Co., 1885-86
First edition
E672 G76 1885

An ineffectual, if not disastrous, president, ruined by bankruptcy after being defrauded of his estate, and dying of throat cancer, Ulysses S. Grant, Union hero of the American Civil War, agreed to publish his memoirs. He needed the money to try to secure an economically stable future for his family.

Samuel Clemens, whose pen name was Mark Twain, served as his editor. In the last month of his life, Grant struggled to dictate his notes to a stenographer and managed to finish his memoirs shortly before his death. For Clemens, witnessing the tenacity of the dying man, Grant became, once more, a heroic figure.

The memoirs focused almost entirely on the old general’s actions during the war. Still considered among the greatest of military memoirs, the two volume set became an immediate bestseller, praised for its high literary qualities. Grant’s style was straightforward and compelling. Clemens compared the book to Julius Caesar’s Commentaries. Gertrude Stein admired the book and said that she could not think of Grant without weeping.

His Memoirs were a financial and critical success. Thousands of war veterans and their families made a ready market for the book. Grant’s family, who received seventy-five percent of the royalties, quickly re-established their fortune, receiving nearly a half million dollars from the book.

E672-G76-1885-v.2-Portrait

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