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Book of the Week — Queen Moo’s Talisman

22 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Africa, Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal, archaeologist, Asiatic, Atlantic, Augustus Le Plongeon, Brahma, British Isles, brooch, Buddha, cataclysms, Chichén Itzá, Cloverland Magazine, Codex Cortesianus, copperplate, cultural, Daily Mining Journal, dance, earthquake, Egypt, English, Flood, frescos, gold, Greece, Henry Dixon, Ida Simmons, immortality, India, inscriptions, island, jadeite, John Olof Viking, Khans, linguistic, macaw, manuscripts, Maya, Mayan, maypole, Mediterranean, Mexico, Michigan, mural, musci, New York, ocean, pastedown, Peru, Peter Eckler, photographer, Prince Chaacol, printer, prospectus, Queen Moo, Ramayana, rare books, reincarnation, serpent, Siam, songs, Swedish, talisman, The Word, Theosophical Publishing Company, Troano Codex, Uxmal, vocabulary, Yucatan


When grief shall rend thy heart, seek thine own soul;
Shut out life’s din, and find that sacred goal.

Queen Moo’s Talisman: The Fall of the Maya Empire
Alice Dixon Le Plongeon (1851-1910)
New York: Peter Eckler, Publisher, 1902
First edition

Alice Dixon Le Plongeon was an English photographer, amateur archaeologist, traveler, and author. She was the daughter of Henry Dixon, a copperplate printer and photographer.

She travelled with her husband, Augustus Le Plongeon, to Mexico in 1873. They were early excavators of the ancient Mayan sites of Chichén Itzá and Uxmal.

While studying the artifacts at Chichén Itzá, the Le Plongeon’s pieced together a narrative of Queen Moo (the Mayan word for “macaw”), an ancient Mayan ruler, and her brother and consort Prince Chaacmol (“powerful warrior”). In November 1875, they unearthed a large statue and other artifacts near the Platform of the Eagles and Jaguars at Chichén Itzá, including a piece of jadeite that Augustus had set in a gold brooch. Alice wore the talisman for the rest of her life.

A talisman I give thee — jadeite green,
‘Twill ever lend thee intuition keen,
Its wearer may with love herself surround,
For with attractive force it doth abound.
Would one deceive, and traitor prove to thee,
His mind with this thou wilt quite plainly see.
Thro’ centuries this talisman can bind
Two souls — desiring this, the way thou ‘lt find.
But keep it sacredly for thee alone;
If thou lose this a foe will seize thy throne.

Even though the archaeological community was not receptive to the Le Plongeons’ theories about Queen Moo, Alice publisher her epic poem. In the introduction, the author discusses the connections, linguistic and cultural, her husband, made between the Maya empire, Egypt, India, Buddha, Brahma, the Ramayana, the Mediterranean, Africa, Greece, Peru, Siam; and the maypole dance — practiced in the Yucatan and the British Isles.

Referring to the Troano Codex and the Codex Cortesianus, he connected the word “CAN,” “the generic word for serpent,” found inscribed in ancient Yucatan ruins with the Khans of Asiatic nations. Dr. Plongeon interpreted inscriptions in both manuscripts as the story of a great flood caused by an earthquake, submerging a “great island in the Atlantic ocean,” suggesting that the Troano Codex dates the disappearance of the island 8,060 years before the writing of the manuscript. “Judging from Egyptian records, the cataclysms must have occurred between ten and eleven thousand years ago.”

The publisher’s prospectus described the work as “a dramatic…account of events which caused the dismemberment of the Maya empire, according to Maya [manuscripts], mural inscriptions and frescos at Chichén in Yucatan. Interesting data are also given concerning ancient rites and religious ideas of the Mayas, their belief in the immortality of the soul, its reincarnation in human form, and its power to manifest, while disembodied, to those in the flesh.”

At the back of the book is included several songs with music, words by Alice Le Plongeon and accompaniment by Ida Simmons.

Rare Books copy is inscribed by John O. Viking, a correspondent of Alice Le Plongeon’s, on the front free flyleaf, “From/John O. Viking/Ishpeming, Mich./April 30th 08/To Sister Benediction/ 8/28, 1950.”

An autographed letter from the author to Viking dated June 22nd in the original mailing envelope and regarding the purchasing of copies of Queen Moo, some Mayan vocabulary, and a few printer’s errors in her book, A Dream of Atlantis, mounted on front pastedown; a typed letter signed by the author to John O. Viking dated May 6th, 1908 regarding the possible publication of A Dream of Atlantis in the magazine The Word also laid in at rear; typed letter signed by an associate of the Theosophical Publishing Company of New York dated August 25th, 1910 addressed to Viking and informing him of Alice Le Plongeon’s death in original mailing envelope affixed to the rear pastedown.

John Olof Viking (b. 1874) was a Swedish-born writer who settled in Michigan with his family in 1882. He worked as a staff writer for the American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal. His articles also appeared in other publications, including Cloverland Magazine and Daily Mining Journal.  

Frontispiece of the author with tissue guard captioned in red. Further illustrated with thirteen black-and-white numbered drawings and three headpieces. Title-page printed in red and black. Bound in publisher’s gray cloth lettered in gilt on front board and spine. Top edge gilt.

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We recommend — Book as Archive & Enclosure

04 Thursday Oct 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Recommended Workshop

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accordion, Alicia Bailey, Aurora, Book Arts Studio, butterflies, Chester A. Reed, collage, Colorado, copper foil, Denver, drop-spine box, envelopes, handwritten, Hedi Kyle, J. Willard Marriott Library, mica, moths, Penrose Special Collections, photographs, rare books, Ravenpress, Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers, Ruth Wheeler, seed, thread, tyvek, University of Denver


“…the continued existence of these birds in the form of skins, specimens and eggs at museums worldwide is perhaps indicative of a human tendency to preserve remains rather than…to protect life. I also considered that both impulses are as much a part of contemporary endeavor as statistic gathering.”

Extinct Extant
Alicia Bailey
Aurora, CO: Ravenpress, 2013
N7433.4 B265 E98 2013

From the artist’s statement: “Photographs of birds digitally printed, envelopes are hand printed, labels and spine text laser etched. Book based on an enhanced accordion binding structure designed by Hedi Kyle.” Issued in a drop-spine box with paper title label attached to the top and colophon attached to the bottom inside. Envelopes are attached to an accordion spine, forming eight leaves. The first envelope contains the preface and bibliographic information. The remaining seven envelopes contain single folios printed with information about an extinct species of bird, with a photograph of a specimen of that species laid in. A cropped image of each species is collaged to the back of each envelope. The name of each species is laser etched to the spine and back side of each envelope. Each envelope is a repurposed commercial negative envelope. Edition of eighteen copies plus two artist’s proofs, signed and numbered by the artist. Rare Books copy is no. 13.


Book as Archive & Enclosure
Alicia Bailey

Cosponsored by the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers and the Book Arts Program

October 26 & 27
Friday & Saturday, 10:00 – 5:00
Book Arts Studio, J. Willard Marriott Library

$185, register here

Alicia Bailey has developed various ways of adapting traditional binding and structures to create books designed to hold dimensional objects. In this workshop, participants create two books to showcase and house both dimensional objects and flat artifacts. With great flexibility at the spine and sturdy, rigid pages, these books work well when handled or displayed as traditional book forms or as sculptural objects. Bring personal images and artifacts to build enclosures that are sculptural narratives or archives of memory.

Alicia Bailey is a studio artist working across multiple disciplines. She has focused on book arts, box constructions and assemblage since the mid-nineties, producing artists’ books, sculptural books and limited-edition books that incorporate a broad range of methods and materials. She is particularly interested in box and bookworks that include elements beyond surface printed images and text; that move beyond traditional book forms and embrace presentation flexibility, innovative page folding tactics, rigid-page construction and use of alternative materials. Her work has been featured in dozens of solo and group exhibits throughout the world and is held in numerous public, private, and special collections. An archive of her work in the book arts is under development at Penrose Special Collections, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado.

Rare Books is pleased to support the Book Arts Program with its collections.



Animal Mineral vegetable Book #1
Alicia Bailey
Aurora, CO: A. Bailey, 2013
N7433.4 B22 A7 2013

Made with mica, copper foil, thread, tyvek with surface applied color, seed fluff, moths and butterflies.



Wildflower Identification
Alicia Bailey
Aurora, CO: Alicia Baileyu, 2013
N7433.4 B22 W5 2013

Texts from the handwritten notes of Ruth Wheeler. Photographs scanned from 1946 originals taken by Ruth Wheeler. Color reproductions from flower guide published in 1916 by Chester A. Reed.

— Photographs by Scott Beadles

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Banned! — Letters Concerning the English Nation

26 Wednesday Sep 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Alexander Pope, Amsterdam, Bastille, British, Drake Stillman, England, English, Enlightenment, France, Francis Bacon, French, French Parliament, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Italian, John Locke, John Lockman, John Milton, Jonathan Swift, letters, London, Pennsylvania, Quakers, rare books, Roman Catholic Church, tail pieces, University of Toronto, vignettes, Voltaire, William Bowyer, William Penn, William Shakespeare


“The great Freedom with which Mr. de Voltaire delivers himself in his various Observations, cannot give him any Apprehensions of their being less favourably receiv’d upon that Account, by a judicious People who abhor flattery. The English are pleas’d to have their Faults pointed out to them, because this shews at the same Time, that the Writer is able to distinguish their merit.”

Letters Concerning the English Nation…
Voltaire (1694-1778)
London: Printed for C. Davis…and A. Lyon…, 1733
First edition
PQ2086 L4 E5 1733

Voltaire (nee François-Marie Arouet) fled to England after arguing with powerful French political figures. During his exile, from 1726 to 1728, he learned English, reading the works of William Shakespeare, John Milton, Isaac Newton, and Francis Bacon; and met other British authors such as Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. The British embraced Voltaire as a victim of France’s political discrimination.

In Letters, Voltaire, with the works of John Locke and Enlightenment authors as his basis, wrote a slur against the French government and the French Roman Catholic Church, calling for political and religious reform. Letters was translated from French into English by John Lockman from a manuscript prepared by Voltaire.

Voltaire wrote about Isaac Newton and his theories in four of the letters. He told the story of the falling apple as the impetus for Newton’s theorem of the law of gravity, the first time this anecdote was told in print.


“…as he was walking one Day in his Garden, and saw some Fruits fall from a Tree, he fell into a profound Meditation on that Gravity, the Cause of which has so long been sought, but in vain, by all the Philosophers, whilst the Vulgar think there is nothing mysterious in it. He said to himself, that from what height soever, in our Hemisphre, those Bodies might descend…Why may not this Power which causes heavy Bodies to descend, and is the same without any sensible Diminution at the remostest Distance from the Center of the Earth, or on the Summits of the highest Mountains; Why, said Sir Isaac, may not this power extend as high as the Moon?”

Voltaire also wrote about William Penn and the founding of Pennsylvania as a haven for Quakers.


About this time arose the illustrious William Pen, who establish’d the power of the Quakers in America, and would have made them appear venerable in the eyes of the Europeans, were it possible for mankind to respect virtue, when reveal’d in a ridiculous light…Pen set sail for his new dominions with two ships freighted with Quakers, who follow’d his fortune. The country was then call’d Pensilvania from William Pen, who there founded Philadelphia, now the most flourishing city in that country.”

Letters was published in French in Amsterdam in 1734. It was immediately condemned by the French Parliament. Copies that made it into France were confiscated and burned. A warrant was issued for Voltaire’s arrest. The printer was imprisoned in the Bastille. At the same time, it was a bestseller in England, going through several more editions during the eighteenth century.

It is likely that this English edition was printed by William Bowyer (1699-1777), as the ornaments (the title vignette and tail-pieces) are those used in other of his imprints.

Rare Books copy has the bookplate of Drake Stillman (1910-1993), an emeritus professor of the history of science at the University of Toronto. He published many translations of the works of Galileo and other sixteenth century Italian scientists.

Recommended reading:
Galileo at Work: His Scientific Biography
Stillman Drake
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978
QB36 G2 D69, L1

Telescopes, Tides, and Tactics: A Galilean Dialogue about The Starry Messenger and Systems of the World
Stillman Drake
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983
QB41 G178 D7 1983, L1

Galileo: Pioneer Scientist
Stillman Drake
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990
QB36 G23 D67 1990, L1

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Michael R. Thompson, In Memoriam

11 Saturday Aug 2018

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ABAA, California, Carol Sandberg, Francis Bacon, J. Willard Marriott Library, John Windle, Los Angeles, Lou Weinstein, Michael R Thompson, Michael R. Thompson Rare Books, rare books


“We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand — and melting like a snowflake…” — Francis Bacon

Rare Books lost a dear friend.

Michael R. Thompson, owner of Michael R. Thompson Rare Books based in Los Angeles, California, died Friday evening. We will miss his friendship very much. Our heart goes out to his beloved daughter, grandchildren (“best grandkids in the world”), and family, and his faithful friend and business partner, Carol Sandberg.

Michael was a dedicated antiquarian whose passion for and knowledge of all things old books was legendary. His warmth, honesty, and generosity will never be forgotten.

Over many years, Michael provided the J. Willard Marriott Library’s rare book collections with innumerable treasures. Michael was a key player working with library staff in 1968, when the Marriott family bestowed a generous gift toward building a world-class rare book collection. Many of the science books we have featured on this blog are ours because of Michael’s hard work and enthusiasm for this project.

Michael had a keen capacity for listening to Marriott Library curators, finding gems that added breadth to our ability to offer topic-specific hands-on experiences for students, faculty and community members. From incunabula to science to fine press to women’s studies to artists’ books to book collecting to philosophy (his favorite) to seventeenth-century classics to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature, Michael provided depth to our collections. He was tenacious in representing not just ancient tomes but the work of some of the best presses today.

Michael delighted in hearing how the books he found for us were used and how thrilled our students were to hold these books. These books will be held by many hands to come and Michael’s legacy, whether those hands know it or not, will always be a part of that experience.

Michael was responsible for the donation of several key pieces to our collections. If you search “anonymous” in this blog, much of what you see is here because of him.

I learned a lot from Michael. He was a fount of knowledge without pretension, told great stories, had a terrific sense of humor, an infectious laugh, and kept me going when I felt discouraged. Michael was intrepid, both in selling books he knew we should have and in belief in life at its best. His friendship inspired me in all sorts of ways. I cherished his sympathetic ear and his kind, encouraging words, delivered in his gruff, gravelly voice.

Francis Bacon wrote, “There are two ways of spreading light..to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” Michael was both.

Memory eternal.

~~Luise Poulton, Managing Curator and Head of Department, Rare Books


Good books


Good cats: Peaches and Sam


Good friends: Michael Thompson, Lou Weinstein, Carol Sandberg, John Windle


Michael R. Thompson talks about bookselling in 2014.

From David Mason Books, August 14

A tribute to Michael from Bruce Whiteman, Clark Head Librarian Emeritus, UCLA, posted August 16th. 

From And Now We Are Five, August 25

From Tavistock Books, August 29

From Bruce McKinney, Rare Books Hub, September newsletter.

From Rollin Milroy, Heavenly Monkey, September 3, 2018.

Memorial Michael R. Thompson, Clarks Library Los Angeles
Michael’s memorial at the Clark Library, August 25, 2018

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KUED’s VERVE features Tryst Press

02 Thursday Aug 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Video

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1493, A. Dean Larsen Book Collecting Conference, Ashley Swansong, Brigham Young University, Cabeza de Vaca, Caslon Oldstyle, Garamond, Georgia Buchert, handmade paper, handset type, Haniel Long, Harmann Schedel, Harold B. Lee Library, India, J. Willard Marriott Library, Jerusalem, KUED, letterpress, Michael Wolgemut, Nicolas Cochin, Nuremberg Chronicle, olive wood, Provo, rare books, Rob Buchert, Special Collections, Tal Walton, The University of Utah, Tryst Press, VERVE, woodcut

“Its not just this linear experience of open the book and get to the end of the book. Its also a trans-generational experience…you can open a book that was printed in 1780 and somebody sprinkled it with camphor and you can smell the camphor. Its not just the words that relate you to the book. Its the physical action somebody took on that object that is also important.” — Rob Buchert, Tryst Press

KUED‘s online video series, VERVE, features Rob Buchert and Tryst Press in its latest episode of the season, “It’s All About the Book.” VERVE is produced by Ashley Swansong, a graduate of The University of Utah and past student employee of Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library.

Rare Books holds all Tryst Press productions. We chose these three as favorite examples of Tryst Press’s work of the book.


“Their eyes followed us every moment. I do not forget their eyes…”

Interlinear for Cabeza de Vaca
Haniel Long (1888-1956)
Provo, UT: Tryst Press, 1996
E125 N9 L62 1996 oversize

Illustrated by Tal Walton. Printed by Rob and Georgia Buchert on handmade paper from India with Caslon Oldstyle type. Edition of one hundred and fifty copies.



“Behold, for this last time have we nourished my vineyard. And thou beholdest that I have done according to my will and I have preserved the natural fruit, that it is good, even like as it was in the beginning. And blessed art thou, for because that ye have been diligent in laboring with me in my vineyard and have kept my commandments — and it hath brought unto me again the natural fruit, that my vineyard is no more corrupted and the bad is cast away — behold, ye shall have joy with me because of the fruit of my vineyard.”

The Allegory of the Olive Tree
Provo, UT: Tryst Press, 2006
BX8643 O44 A42 2006

Printed letterpress with handset Nicolas Cochin and Garamond types on paper hand made for this edition. Edition of fifty copies. Rare Books copy is no. 6, one of eight bound with olive wood boards.


Jerusalem (Hierosolima)
Provo, UT: Tryst Press, 2007
Z241 L5 S32 2007

“Oldest printed view of Jerusalem. Woodcut by the shop of Michael Wolgemut. From Liber cronicarum (Nuremberg Chronicle) by Hartmann Schedel, 1493. Printed at Tryst Press as a keepsake for attendees of A. Dean Larsen Book Collecting Conference, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, March 30, 2007.”

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A Patron’s Family History Research Sheds Light on 17th Century Printing

26 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Donations

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Benjamin Allen, Charles I, Charles II, Craig Dalley, Fifth Monarchist, Hannah Allen, Hannah Howse Allen Chapman, Hubble Space Telescope, J. Willard Marriott Library, John Cotton, John Lothrop, Livewell Chapman, London, Massachusetts, Matthew Symmons, Oliver Cromwell, Plano, Puritan, rare books, Special Collections, Special Collections Gallery, Texas, The Feminine Touch, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Thomas Howse


It is a matter of just displeasure to God, and sad grief of heart to the church, when civil states look at the estate of the church, as of little, or no concernment to themselves.

The bloudy tenent washed and made white in the bloud of the Lambe
John Cotton (1584-1652)
London: Printed by Matthew Symmons for Hannah Allen, at the Crowne in Popes Head-Alley, 1647
First edition
BV741 W58 C6

English Puritan preacher John Cotton fled to Boston, Massachusetts in 1633 to evade persecution by Anglican Church authorities. In the colony he became an advocate of decentralizing the church and allowing individual congregations to govern themselves. Cotton defended a rule that allowed only church members in good standing to vote and hold office in the colonial government and condemned the idea of democracy in which policy decisions were made in popular assemblies.

When Cotton arrived in Boston, Roger Williams was already in trouble with religious and political authorities. In 1635 he was convicted of heresy and spreading “new and dangerous ideas” and banished. Williams, supporter of religious freedom, separation of church and state; abolitionist; and ally to the American Indian, thought that the Puritans had not gone far enough in separating themselves from the beliefs and practices of the Church of England. Williams identified John Cotton with the Massachusetts Puritans and his tormentors, and his important tract on religious liberty, The Bloudy Tenent, was framed as a critique of Cotton. Cotton responded with his own Bloudy Tenent, a point-by-point rebuttal of Williams and a defense of the institution of the church. Cotton argued that the allowance of religious tolerance would give church members the sense that they could stray from a narrow path created by God.


And the Lord Jesus Christ himself (the God of Truth) who came into the world, that he might beare witnesse to the Truth, be pleased to beare witnesse from Heaven to his owne Truth and blast that peace (a fraudulent and false peace) which the Examiner proclaimeth to all the wayes of fashood in Religion, to Heresie in Doctrine, to Idolatry in worship, to blasphemy of the great Name of God, to Pollution, and prophanation of all his holy Ordinances. Amen, Even So, Come Lord Jesus

While visiting Special Collections from Plano, Texas in 2009, Craig Dalley perused The Feminine Touch, a Rare Books exhibition then installed in the Special Collections Gallery. In the exhibition was The Bloudy Tenent, a book he recognized as being printed by one of his distant ancestors. He published an article in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (Volume 170, Winter 2016), “Religious and Political Radicalism in London: The Family of Thomas Howse, with Massachusetts Connections, 1642-1665,” which includes a discussion of Hannah Howse Allen Chapman (ca. 1614-ca. 1665), a printer and the publisher of the above book. Last week, Mr. Dalley visited us again and graciously gave us a copy of this issue for our collection.

Hannah Howse’s first husband, Benjamin Allen (ca. 1596 – ca. 1646), had published at least two pamphlets along Puritan separatist lines. Hannah continued printing and publishing separatist material with her second husband, Livewell Chapman (ca. 1625 – ca. 1665).

In 1642, “Parliament declared a book published by Benjamin to be heretical and ordered it to be burned by the hangman. Benjamin died the following year, and Hannah ran the publishing business from his death until her remarriage in 1651. Hannah freed her apprentice, Livewell Chapman…in 1650 and married him by September 1651. During the five years that Hannah ran the business, she published at least fifty-four books and pamphlets and extended the business in a radical direction. Hannah’s second husband, Livewell Chapman, became the leading publisher of the radical Fifth Monarchist sect.”

Chapman was arrested several times for his publishing efforts. “…Livewell published so much anti-Cromwellian material that ‘his share of responsibility for the change of government [when Cromwell was deposed] may well have been considerable.'” In 1660, Livewell was accused of publishing treasonous books and imprisoned. His condition for release “included that he would not ‘att any time hereafter by or with the consent & privity of his Wife, or any other person whatsoever, print, publish, disperse, vend, or sell or cause to be printed, published, dispersed, vended or sold any unlicenced, treasonable, factious or seditious Booke or Pamphlet.'”

Printing and publishing was dangerous business. “Hannah and her husbands were considered to be radicals throughout their lives, regardless of who was at the helm of the government. They fared no better after the execution of Charles I than they had before the overthrow of the monarchy, or than they did after the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II.”

Mr. Dalley concludes, “Hannah Chapman…was a radical publisher whose husbands suffered continual legal troubles — before, during, and after the Protectorate — because of their publishing activities.” Amongst Mr. Dalley’s ancestors, he discovers “a circle of family and friends who were considered to be political and religious radicals.”

Mr. Dalley is an engineer who started his career working on the Hubble Space Telescope. He has researched John Lothrop, his London congregation, and allied families for about twenty years and is planning a book to document his Lothrop research.

Thank you, Mr. Dalley, for bringing life to this 371 year-old book.

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KUED’s VERVE features Rare Books in “Artists’ Books”

20 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Video

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accordion, acrylic paint, Alicia Bailey, Alise Alousi, altered books, American Southwest, American West, Arches 90 lb., artists' books, Barry McCallion, Basingwerk, BFK, binding, birch, blankets, bookseller, Bradypress, bullet, Canson, Carolyn Hull, Carrier Pigeon, chapbook, Chinese, CMC, collage, collector, Connecticut, Daniel Kelm, deceit, desert, East Hampton, embossed paper, enamel, feathers, felt tip marker, Ferrum Wheel Press, galley proofs, gelatin, gesso, goatskin, gold tooling, Goudy, Goudy Bold, Granary Books, graph paper, Graphite, handmade paper, Harvard, hatchet, hoax, ink, inkjet, James Turrell, Japanese, Jen Bervin, Joelle Webber, John Van Dyke, KUED, l;oop, Lake City, laserfoil, laserprinted, leather, leporello, letterpress, maps, metal, Middletown, mixed media, Mohawk Via, Nebraska, New York, New York City, Omaha, Owen Wister, paper-mache, pens, photograph, pigment, pistol, poem, Portland, rare books, Ravenpress, Richard de Bas, Rick Moody, rifle, Robin Price, Roden Crater, Rutgers University, Saint Armand, Santa Monica, shovel, silk, stones, suede, sumi, Thomas Ingmire, Timothy C. Ely, trains, VERVE, voyeurism, Walt Whitman, watercolor, Wave Books Poetry Bus Tour, wax, white-out correction, Wide Awake Garage, wooden nickel

“Artists’ books are…a blown-up conference of multiple elements.”

KUED‘s online video series, VERVE, features artist’s books from the rare book collections in “Artists’ Books,” episode 5, season 6, “Its All About the Book.”

Here are some of the pieces chosen by the Rare Books staff for this episode:


ARKA
Timothy C. Ely
Portland, OR: T. Ely, 1995
N7433.4 E35 A7 1995

The book is drawn on BFK gray paper that was brush-sized with gelatin and CMC, then under painted with CMC and acrylic paint. Other materials include ink, Graphite, and watercolor. Each folio is sewn onto four raised cords that, on completion of the sewing, were laced into birch plywood boards. The end bands are silk worked over cores of leather. The spine of the book is goatskin. The board pastedowns are painted paper. The boards have a small amount of gold tooling suggestive of one part of the history and technology of the art of binding. Otherwise the cover boards are painted. The book is contained in a wooden box.



Hunting the Burn
Alicia Bailey
Lake City, CO: Ravenpress, 1998
N7433.4 B22 H86 1998

Two-sided leporello with self in-folded covers and removable spines. One side is Carolyn Hull’s poem “Hunting the Burn,” laserprinted on Basingwerk, overcoated with wax and pigment; the other side is a panoramic painting by Alicia Bailey, digitally reworked and printed with color inkjet on Arches 90 lb. cover and overcoated with wax. Four of the twelve panels have hand-cut rectangular openings with mixed media insertions. Covers are black Canson with hand applied enamel. Title piece is laserfoil on black paper. Spine pieces are black embossed paper laminated to black Canson. The box is paper-mache, gesso and pigmented wax. Box top has metal mesh and hemp-wrapped, wax-covered bullet attached. Inside box are stones and feathers. Edition of twenty copies, signed by Alicia Bailey and Carolyn Hull. Rare Books copy is no. 10.



Surplus Value Books: Catalog Number 13
Rick Moody
Santa Monica, CA: Danger! Books, 2002
N7433.4 M644 S6 2002

Deluxe edition presented as a collector’s box, containing two pens, one felt tip marker, one white-out correction pen, one pencil, one wooden nickel, one photograph with loop, seven photographs of “original artwork for placement only,” and other items. Text is composed in the form of galley proofs. Upon removing the galley holding the text, the reader is presented with a removable panel resembling a hospital release checklist. Holes cut into this panel reveal the objects contained below. The collectible objects in the box act as literal illustrations to the story. The narrator of the story is a bookseller, collector, mental patient. The story is told through the description of books for sale in the bookseller’s catalog. Values are assigned to each item in the catalog according to the bookseller’s inherent personal desire for each item. Themes of value, voyeurism, and deceit are presented as a pathology of collecting through the multiple layering of information and the revealing of objects of desire that are contained in the collector’s box. This work was first published in offset. Collector’s box constructed by Daniel Kelm at Wide Awake Garage. Rare Books copy is lettered “H.”



43, According to Robin Price with Annotated…
Robin Price
Middletown, CT: Robin Price, 2007
N7433.4 P753 A15 2007

From the colophon: “Paper maps from locations along the 43rd parallel are bound in an accordion that structurally supports the main text, which is printed on graph paper and also hinged together as an accordion (opening to 20 ft.)…The unusual double-layer accordion, housed in a printed cloth-covered clamshell box, is co-designed and co-produced by Daniel Kelm at Wide Awake Garage…” Edition of eighty-six plus twelve deluxe copies. Rare books copy is no. 23.



The Desert: Further Studies in Natural Appearances
Jen Bervin
New York City: Granary Books, 2008
N7433.4 B47 D47 2008

An altered book is a form of mixed media artwork that takes a book from its original form into a different form, altering its meaning. The artist may take an old or new book and cut, tear, glue, burn, fold, paint, add collage, create pop-ups, rubber-stamp, drill, bolt or be-ribbon the book to create a new work that is the expression of the artist. In this case, it is the text that is altered — by sewing over certain passages and leaving others exposed. The text from which Jen Bervin’s poem emerges is The Desert, written by John Van Dyke (1856-1932), a professor of Art History at Rutgers University. Van Dyke, the author of several books on art theory of the Art-For-Art’s-Sake school, claimed to have spent three years in the American Southwest desert with only his fox terrier for company and a pony for transportation. According to Van Dyke, he carried with him a rifle, a pistol, a hatchet, a shovel, blankets, tin pans and cups, dried food and a gallon of water. His romantic rhapsody of this trip, published in 1901, was a big hit, extremely influential and remains in print. In fact, Van Dyke saw most of the great desert over which he swooned looking out the windows of trains on his way from one first-class hotel to another. The Desert, version 1901, is the fact-faulted, fantastic hoax of a well-bred, well-educated Easterner, in much the same way that Harvard-educated New Englander Owen Wister’s novel The Virginian (1902) is a glorification of an American West culture that didn’t exist. Prose poem adaptation with overlay of zig zag stitches in pale blue thread. Composed and sewn at James Turrell’s Roden Crater on the Wave Books Poetry Bus Tour in October, 2006. Housed in a hinged archival case. Issued in a wrapper of white muslim cloth and white felt stitched together with blue thread.



Justice: What is Justice?
Thomas Ingmire
T. Ingmire, 2009
N7433.4 I48 J87 2008

Handmade paper mounted over board, Chinese Sumi ink, wide-edged pen (Automatic pen), Japanese brush.



Tangent
Alise Alousi
Omaha, NE: Bradypress, 2011
PS3551 L665 T36 2011



The Latest Things in Kites
Christopher Fritton
Ferrum Wheel Press, 2014
PS3606 R58 L37 2014

Artist’s statement: “A chapbook produced for Carrier Pigeon magazine as as tip-in, The Latest Things in Kites borrows language and its title from a chapter in the book, Fun for Boys. The chapbook is a single-sheet, four-page fold-over with rounded corners and a small embroidery thread tail. Handset in 14pt Goudy Bold and 10pt Goudy with antique copper cuts on Mohawk Via vellum. Hand letterpressed.” Edition of 1200 copies.



Whitman Crosshatch
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
East Hampton, NY: 2015
PS3222 A7 2015

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Rare Books Exhibition — Paper is Fundamental

13 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Physical Exhibitions

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acid bisulfite, Arches, Asia, Barcham Green Hayle Mill, Cai Lun, cellulose, Charter Oak, China, England, Europe, France, Han dynasty, J. Willard Marriott Library, Jon Bingham, lignin, mouldmade, paper, pH neutral, printing, rare books, Special Collections Gallery, sulfite, The University of Utah, William Everson

“The most fundamental thing about a book is to find the right paper, because it’s the whole ground of the being of a book, and the quality of the paper is in some ways the most elusive…Critics of the book generally focus on the type and when people get into printing, the first thing they get into is type. They learn to recognize the different faces, and become pre-occupied with them. But the paper is more fundamental, because that is where the beauty begins, and in the end, that is all that beauty comes back to — the substance of the paper, the field on which the whole thing can act.” –William Everson (1912-1994), On Printing

Most people see and touch paper every day. Most of us know little about where the paper we use comes from.

Resuscitatio… (1670)
The paper for this book was made in Morlaix, south of Paris. The watermark is made up of a plain and simple monogram, “P.Huet.” Because of cheap labor, Morlaix paper was quite inexpensive and was imported from Brittany to England beginning about 1629 for many years with great regularity. The Huet’s, an astute family of papermakers, outlasted virtually all of their seventeenth-century competitors and continue to make paper today at Pontrieux (Cotes du Nord), east of Morlaix.

Paper is produced by pressing together the moist cellulose fibers of plant material, which is achieved through drawing sheets of the fibers from vats of pulp before pressing and drying them.


Love is Enough (1897)
At Kelmscott Press, William Morris used paper made by Joseph Batchelor. The paper cost two shillings per pound, which was about five or six times the cost of machine-made paper. Morris wrote, “I…considered it necessary that the paper should be hand-made, both for the sake of durability and appearance…the paper must be wholly of linen and must be quite ‘hard’, i.e. thoroughly well sized; and…though it must be ‘laid’ and not ‘wove’, the lines caused by the wires of the mould must not be too strong, so as to give a ribbed appearance. I found that on these points I was at one with the…papermakers of the fifteenth century; so I took as my model a Bolognese paper of about 1473. My friend Mr. Batchelor, of Little Chart, Kent, carried out my views very satisfactorily.” Batchelor made three types of papers for the Kelmscott Press, each named for their watermarks: “Flower” (also called “Primrose”), “Perch,” and “Apple.” Morris designed each of these watermarks.

Developed in China during the Han dynasty by a court official named Cai Lun, the invention of paper was a world-changing event that only seems magnificent in retrospect.


The Prologue to the Tales of Caunterbury (1898):
At the Ashendene Press, C. St. John Hornby, like William Morris, used paper made by Joseph Batchelor.

The use of paper spread slowly from Asia and did not reach Europe until the thirteenth century. Even after its arrival in Europe its use there caught on slowly.

The Nonnes Preestes Tale of the Cok and Hen (1902)
James Whatman the Elder (1702-1759), was an English papermaker who made revolutionary advances to the craft. He is noted as the inventor of wove paper. The earliest example of wove paper, bearing his watermark, appeared after 1740. The technique continued to be developed by his son, James Whatman the Younger (1741-1798). At a time when the craft was based in smaller paper mills, his innovations led to the large scale and widespread industrialization of paper manufacturing. The Whatmans held a part interest in the establishment at Turkey Mill, near Maidstone, after 1740, which was acquired through the elder Whatman’s marriage to Ann Harris. Paper bearing the Whatman’s mark was produced for fine press and artists’ books until 2002. The company later specialized in producing filter papers and is now owned by GE Healthcare. The last production at Maidstone was in 2014.

It was only with the development of printing with moveable type in the mid-fifteenth century that the collaboration of ink and paper launched European culture into modernity.

Paper is Fundamental
A Rare Books Exhibition
Special Collections Gallery, Level 4
J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah
July 13 through September 23

For more information, please contact Jon Bingham or Luise Poulton at 801-585-6168

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking (1988)
This paper is handmade Charter Oak from the Barcham Green Hayle Mill in England. The paper mill closed in 1987.

Curated by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator, with help from Luise Poulton, Managing Curator, and the Rare Books Department staff – without whose help this exhibition would not have been possible. Jon is also grateful to Emily Tipps and Crane Giamo for teaching him how to make paper in their Book Arts papermaking class.

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Rare Books welcomes NEH Summer Institute for College and University Teachers

22 Friday Jun 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Events

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16th Century, blog, clay tablets, collections, college, community outreach, coursework, digtital exhibitions, exhibitions, exploration, Italian Renaissance, lectures, library, museum, presentations, publications, rare books, Rare Books Department, Sumerian, travel, university


Rare Books welcomes participants of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute for College and University Teachers.

“The Book: Material Histories and Digital Futures” is hosted by Salt Lake Community College. Week One is being led by Nicole Howard and Johanna Drucker.

Today, participants take a field trip to Rare Books where they will have a hands-on opportunity to study pieces from our collections and learn how, for more than two decades, the Rare Books Department has used its collections to enhance college and university coursework; museum, library, and university exhibitions; and contribute to academic dialogue and community outreach through its presentations, exhibitions, digital exhibitions, lectures, conference papers, publications, and blog, Open Book.


From Sumerian clay tablets


to triumphs of Italian Renaissance printing and publishing


to accounts of exploration and travel


to first editions of Francis Bacon’s call for experimentation, empirical methodology, accurate observation and accumulation of reliable data


to the great 18th century French Enlightenment Encyclopedie, a vain attempt to collect all that data


to colonial American newspapers


to a now-obscure 19th century novel written by a Confederate politician


to an early 20th century fine press edition of Goethe’s Faust from a German press destroyed by Allied bombs during World War II


to a 21st century artists’ book of letters, poetry, essays, and pressed plants,

the rare book collections tell an infinite number of histories in a variety of ways, but always, the history of the “book.”

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Rare Books welcomes the Nahuatl Language and Culture Program, Latin American Studies, The University of Utah

21 Thursday Jun 2018

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archeology, Aztec, catechism, codex, digital exhibitions, drama, El Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, facsimiles, geography, grammar, history, IDIEZ, Latin American Studies, law, Mexico, Nahua, Nahuatl, Nahuatl Language and Culture Program, poetry, rare books, The University of Utah, United States

Rare Books welcomes participants of the Nahuatl Language and Culture Program, Latin American Studies, The University of Utah.

This program is in partnership with IDIEZ (El Instituto de Docencia e  Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, Mexico). The program offers the opportunity to study classical and modern forms of Nahuatl from beginning to advanced levels. The program is designed to develop language fluency and cultural wisdom. Students experience the continuity between past and present through the study of colonial and modern texts and conversation — investigating historical, economic, political and social aspects of Nahua civilization.

This year, twenty-eight high school, undergraduate, and graduate students from across the United States are attending the program, taught by native speaking scholars from Mexico.

Today, participants take a field trip to Rare Books where they will have a hands-on opportunity to study pre- and post-conquest Aztec codex facsimiles and 16th through 21st century first editions of grammar, law, catechism, drama, history, geography, archeology, and poetry documenting this ancient and extraordinary culture.

Descriptions and images of many of these pieces may be found in two of our digital exhibitions:

Viva Mexica Exhibition Thumbnail

Nahuatl Spoken Here 2013

Welcome, Nahuatl Language and Culture Program students and faculty!

 

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