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Tag Archives: San Francisco

Stop and Smell the Flowers

24 Thursday May 2018

Posted by scott beadles in Uncategorized

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Alaska, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Asia, Australia, Bill Edwardes, botany, climate, commerce, découpage, E. C. Alexander, endangered, English, Europe, flora, flower specimens, flowers, France, French, German, Germany, Hebrew, herbaria, Holy Land, International Pressed Flower Art Society, J. Willard Marriott Library, Japan, Jerusalem, Joyce Fenton, Lyuba Basin, May, Mexico, Middle East, nomenclature, olive wood, Oshibana, plant species, poppies, Pressed Flower Craft Guild, pressed flowers, repository, Russian, Ruth Miller Staats, Samurai, San Francisco, seeds, Silk Road, sunflowers, taxonomies, The Popular Bookstore, The University of Utah, tourism, United Kingdom, United States, Valdez, Valdez Museum Historical Archive, vegetation, Worldwide Pressed Flower Guide

“But I must gather knots of flowers and buds, and garlands gay;
For I’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be Queen o’ the May.”
–  Alfred Lord Tennyson, “The May Queen”

When was the last time you stopped to smell the flowers? I did it just two days ago, when the purple and white lilac bushes in front of my house produced such an aroma after the rain that I had to stop in my tracks to take it in. Some days I’ll pick the poppies and sunflowers that grow wild in the backyard and set them in a vase on the kitchen table, and if I’m feeling particularly extra, I will even go out and buy an arrangement to add some oomph to the room.

Although my allergies have been getting worse and worse every year, my enthusiasm for flora has yet to subside. I’ve been enjoying the slower campus days at The University of Utah, when I can wander around outside the library and take in all of the new blooms. I am always impressed with the assortment of flowers lining the pathways, some of which I recognize as native to the state, while others look unfamiliar, yet still alluring.


 

Natural Flowers of the Holy Land
Jerusalem, 1900s
QK 378 N37 1900z


We might find flowers attractive for a number of reasons ranging from color, shape, texture or smell, but did you know the craft of pressing flowers is actually an ancient art that dates back to 16thcentury? It is said that Samurai warriors in Japan once practiced this art, called Oshibana, as part of their discipline to promote patience and harmony with nature, as well as to enhance their powers of concentration.

The art of drawing with petals gradually spread from Asia to the Middle East along growing trade networks of the Silk Road. One outcome of this global commerce and tourism were elaborate souvenir books, popular in the late 19th century, Jerusalem. Different renditions of Flowers of the Holy Land combined photographs of holy sites in and around Jerusalem with pressed flowers gathered from those sites. These flowers were artistically formatted, bound between olive wood covers, and included translations from Hebrew into French, German, English and Russian, as they were sold to visitors coming from different parts of the world.


 

 

Flowers of the Holy Land
Jerusalem, 1900s
QK89 F56


Around the same time, botanists in Europe began systematically collecting and preserving flower specimens from all over the world. No longer a simple art form, the pressed plant books allowed scientists to study the flora of other countries and understand the variety of plant taxonomies, geographic distributions, and to develop an efficient and stable nomenclature. Furthermore, the books are able to preserve a record of change in vegetation over time for future scientists who are tracking changes in climate and human impact. Some books can even be viable repositories, holding seeds of extinct or endangered plant species. These specimen books, or herbaria, are not just pretty to look at for they contain crucial knowledge on every page.


 

A Collection of Wild Flower of California
E.C. Alexander
San Francisco: The Popular Bookstore, 1895
QK 89 A375


Anyone can gather flowers and create their own pressed flower book. Like Ruth Miller Staats, a resident of Valdez, Alaska who sold cards, artwork and booklets of pressed flowers to tourists during the 1930s and 1940s. Although Ruth had been paralyzed from the waist down following an airplane crash (she had sustained a double compound fracture of both legs, fracture of the pelvis, and a fractured lumbar vertebrae), her friends and neighbors gathered flowers for her to compile the pieces. Many of her items can now be found in the Valdez Museum Historical Archive.

Wild Flowers of Alaska
Ruth M. Staats
Valdez, Alaska, 1930s
QK 89 S73


The craft of pressing flowers can also extend beyond books. Petals and leaves can be applied to trays and other wood furnishings using the technique of découpage. Those who have a deep interest in the art can join the Pressed Flower Craft Guild, founded by Joyce Fenton and Bill Edwardes in 1983. Other organizations include the International Pressed Flower Art Society and the Worldwide Pressed Flower Guild, with members coming from countries such as Japan, Mexico, France, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom and United States.

So come by and smell the flowers and allow yourself to appreciate the little things in life. Reflect on what is beautiful, fragile and simple, such as this small collection of books.

~Contributed by Lyuba Basin, Rare Books

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We recommend — Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buffalo Venture

08 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Recommended Reading

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architect, Berlin, English, Ernst Wasmuth, Europe, European modernism, Frank Lloyd Wright, German, Jack Quinan, overlays, Pomegranate Communications, portfolio, prints, San Francisco, Special Collections, Taylor Wooley, United States, Wasmuth Portfolio


“Between 1906 and 1909 he designed more than one hundred buildings…But after he initiated an affair with one of his clients, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, he ended up abandoning his family and his practice in 1909. Cheney and Wright traveled to Europe, where the architect produced in 1910 a large portfolio of lithographs entitled Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe von Frank Lloyd Wright [Executed Buildings and Studies by Frank Lloyd Wright] for the German publisher Ernst Wasmuth. That elegant summation of his early architectural production significantly influenced the course of European Modernism…”

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buffalo Venture: From the Larkin Building to Broadacre City, A Catalogue of Buildings and Projects
Jack Quinan
San Francisco: Pomegranate Communications, Inc., 2012
NA737 W7 Q56 2012, General Collection, Level 2

Rare Books contributed several images to this book.

We invite you to Special Collections to look at:

Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe…
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)
Berlin: E. Wasmuth, 1910
NA737 W7 A28

The Wasmuth Portfolio was a collaborative effort between Ernst Wasmuth, a Berlin publisher and Frank Lloyd Wright. It was Wasmuth’s idea to publish a complete folio of Wright’s work to date. The project was completed during Wright’s first trip to Europe in 1909 and published in 1910-11. The collection of Wright’s houses and commercial buildings received far more attention and praise in Europe than in the United States. Contemporary architects called it “the most important book of the century.” The portfolio consists of one hundred and thirty-one prints and overlays with accompanying text in English and German. A letter from Frank Lloyd Wright to Taylor Wooley, dated 1911, suggests that six hundred and fifty copies were produced for this edition.

View a digital copy of our portfolio here.

See an article using our portfolio here.

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Book of the Week — The Emigrant’s Guide to Oregon and California

30 Monday Apr 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week, Donations, Recommended Reading

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California, California Trail, Cincinnati, Conclin, cookstove, Dan Rhoads, deserts, Donner-Reed Party, emigrants, entrepreneur, Fort Bernard, Fort Bridger, Fort Hall, Friends of the Library, grandmother, Great Salt Lake, guidebook, Humboldt River, Illinois, Indians, Jacob Donner, James Reed, Lansford Warren Hastings, Mexicans, Mexico, Michael Wallis, mountains, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, piano, real estate, Roman Catholic Church, San Francisco, Sierra Nevada, Springfield, Sutter's Fort, Truckee Lake, United States, Utah, Virginia Reed, Wasatch Mountains, Weber Canyon


“Remember, never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can.” — Virginia Reed

The Emigrant’s Guide to Oregon and California
Lansford Warren Hastings (1819-1870?)
Cincinnati: G. Conclin, 1845
F864 H345

On April 29, 1847 the nearly three month-long rescue of survivors of the now-infamous Donner-Reed Party ended. The last surviving member arrived at Sutter’s Fort more than a year after the original party had departed from Springfield, Illinois. The first of the lost souls, located near Truckee Lake in the Sierra Nevada, had been found on February 18. Dan Rhoads, one of the rescuers wrote, “They were gaunt with famine and I never can forget the horrible ghastly sight they presented. The first woman spoke in a hollow voice very much agitated and said ‘are you men from California or do you come from heaven?'”

To get from Illinois to California, the Donner-Reed party had relied, in part, on a bestselling book called The Emigrant’s Guide to Oregon and California. The author was Lansford Warren Hastings, a young real-estate entrepreneur from Ohio who had financial and political interests in California. Hastings, at age twenty-three, had made a trip west in 1842.

The book had almost no practical advice, in spite of the crowing in its preface of providing “a description of the different routes; and all necessary information relative to the equipment, supplies, and the method of traveling” with the caveat that “all excrescences have been cautiously lopped off, leaving scarcely any thing more than a mere collection of interesting, important and practical facts.”

To make up for the lack of “excrescences,” Hastings regaled the reader with lengthy and snarky anecdotes regarding “Californians,” gamblers and drunks all. “How different are the priests of California from those of the same denomination of christians in our own country?”

In his “guide” he depicted Indians as lazy and Mexicans as dishonest, blaming much of the latter on the priests of the Roman Catholic Church.

“At times, I sympathize with these unfortunate beings, but again, I frequently think, that perhaps, are thus ridden and restrained and if they are thus priest ridden, it is, no doubt, preferable, that they should retain their present riders. ”

As for Indians, Hastings’ wrote, with no irony, that they “in numerous instances, abandoned their old haunts, and re-established in other portions of the country, but for what cause, it is difficult to ascertain, with any degree of certainty, for the sites which have been thus abandoned, appear in many instances, to possess advantages much superior, to those which have been subsequently selected.”

Hastings’ “little work,” as he called it, was inspirational to those wishing to escape the crowded conditions and poor economy of the east and Midwest. Hastings’ book promoted the land and climate of California as ideal companions for hardworking “Americans.” His book was read by one of the drivers of the Donner family wagons. A copy of the book, owned by Jacob Donner, much-handled, was found in the saddlebag of one of the travelers.

Hastings’ guidebook had bad information and good.

Good: In Chapter XV Hastings discussed “The Equipment, Supplies, and the Method of Traveling.” First, “All persons, designing to travel by this route, should, invariably, equip themselves with a good gun.” (Indians and/or buffalo.) Second, “It would, perhaps, be advisable for emigrants, not to encumber themselves with any other, than those just enumerated; as it is impracticable for them, to take all the luxuries, to which they have been accustomed; and as it is found, by experience, that, when upon this kind of expedition, they are not desired, even by the most devoted epicurean.”

The Reed family brought with them an invalid grandmother, a piano and an iron cookstove.

Bad: Hastings, eager to sell land in California, encouraged travelers to forget about Oregon and make their way to California, suggesting a cutoff through the Wasatch Mountains, passing to the south of the Great Salt Lake and then across the salt flats to rejoin the California Trail at the Humboldt River. Hastings, who had not, in fact, traveled this route, was sure the shortcut would save travelers valuable time. The passage in Hastings’ guidebook was short and carried no description: “The most direct route, for the California emigrants, would be to leave the Oregon route, about two hundred miles east from Fort Hall; thence bearing west southwest to the Salt Lake; and thence continuing down to the bay of San Francisco, by the route just described.”

The Donner-Reed Party, stopping at Fort Bernard, were warned not to take the route. Still, they had been delayed for one reason or another almost from the start and needed to make up time. The shortcut would enable them to do so. A meeting with an emissary of Hastings, on his way back to Ohio, convinced the Donner-Reed Party even more of this need. In a letter, Hastings warned of the war between the United States and Mexico and advised travelers to take his shortcut of about two hundred miles, promising to meet the emigrants at Fort Bridger and to guide them over the deserts and mountains of his new route, crossing what would become the states of Utah and Nevada. It was a convincing proposal. Hastings never met them. The party found another guide to take them as far as the salt plain west of the Great Salt Lake. Again, others warned against taking this route.

At the mouth of the Weber Canyon the Donner party found a note from Hastings, now guiding another group, advising them that the canyon was impassable with wagons and offering to provide them with yet another route. The company waited while James Reed rode ahead to meet Hastings, who refused to act as guide but showed Reed a potential route to follow. No one in the party saw Hastings again, although they heard from him one more time in the form of a wind-ripped note that warned of two days and nights of hard driving across the desert to reach water. The company plodded on, ignoring a sentence buried only pages away from the cutoff passage in the Hasting guide: “…for, unless you pass over the mountains early in the fall, you are very liable to be detained, by impassable mountains of snow, until the next spring, or, perhaps, forever.”

Thank you, Friends of the Library, for your many gifts to Rare Books over the years, including this historic guide.

Recommended reading:
Wallis, Michael. The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2017
General Collection, Level 2
F868 N5 W36 2017

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Book of the week — John’s Rendezvous San Francisco Wine List

08 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Art Deco, cardstock, film industry, glassware, John Sobrato, John's Rendezvous, liquor, metallic copper paper wrappers, Prohibiion, restaurant, San Francisco, spiral bound, wine

Johns-Rendezvous-title

JOHN’S RENDEZVOUS SAN FRANCISCO WINE LIST
San Francisco, CA: 1940

Beverage list from “John’s Rendezvous,” a San Francisco restaurant opened by John Sobrato at 50 Osgood Place during the Prohibition. By the 1940s the restaurant had gained a reputation for its food and was considered by many the best restaurant in San Francisco. Among its many patrons were movie stars and giants of the film industry. After John’s death in 1953, his wife sold the restaurant.

This wine list was mailed to interested patrons at the height of the restaurant’s fame. Its style is representative of the late Art Deco period. Printed on cardstock, with foreword and tribute pages preceding six tabbed sections delineating the various liquor options served, including Mixed Drinks and Sweet Wines; California Wines, Imported Wines, Champagnes and Sparkling Wines; Cordials and After Dinner Drinks; and Mineral Waters, Ales & Beers. Each tabbed leaf is illustrated with an orange, brown, and cream silhouette of a semi-nude woman posing with a specific piece of appropriate glassware, followed by a price list of drink options. Each section has a paragraph or two about the type of wine or liquor. Spiral bound with metallic copper paper wrappers.

Johns-Rendezvous-forewardJohns-Rendezvous-winelist

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Book of the Week — The Democratic Book

25 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

administration, attorney, banking, Bay Area, book, cabinet, California Zephyr, Chicago, Constitution, convention, Democrat, democratic, Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, election, endpapers, first lady, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, funeral, Geneva Steel, gilt, Herbert Hoover, judge, morocco, platform, President, railroad, Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Republican, Rio Grande, San Francisco, silk, The Democratic National Convention, Third District Court, train, Utah, vista-dome cars, Wilson McCarthy

JK2313-1936-D38-frontisJK2313-1936-D38-signature

“Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1936

THE DEMOCRATIC BOOK, 1936
Philadelphia?, 1936?
JK2313 1936 D38 oversize

This book was given to delegates at the 1936 Democratic convention, held that year in Philadelphia. It contains information such as the party’s platform, election results, and statements from the President, his cabinet members, other important members of his administration, and the first lady.

This copy belonged to Wilson McCarthy (1884-1956), a judge who sat on Utah’s Third District Court in 1919. He left the bench a year later and earned a fortune as a private practice attorney. In 1926 he was elected to the Utah state senate. A lifelong Democrat, he was appointed by Republican President Herbert Hoover to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1932. A year later, he began a career in banking in San Francisco. In 1934, the RFC asked him to take control of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, which had just defaulted on a $10 million loan. It took McCarthy and others nearly two decades to rehabilitate the company. In 1937 alone, $18 million was pumped into the property.

Under McCarthy’s administration the Rio Grande built more than 1100 bridges and laid more than two million railroad ties. By the end of World War II, the railroad’s revenues had increased from $17 million to $75 million per year. During this time, McCarthy anchored the Rio Grande between Salt Lake City (his birthplace) and Denver. Freight time between these two points dropped from 54 hours to just under 24 hours. McCarthy, in conjunction with the Western Pacific Railroad began the “California Zephyr,” a luxury service between Chicago and the Bay Area. He also added the train’s signature vista-dome cars.

In addition to his turn-around of the fortunes of the railroad, McCarthy helped bring Geneva Steel to Utah. On the day of his funeral, every Rio Grande train stopped, their crews observing two minutes of silence.

This book was also published, with some variations, under the title The Democratic National Convention, 1936. The book contains dozens of contemporary advertisements, many in color. Illustrated with nineteen full-page portraits and dozens of in-text half-tones and illustrations, and a facsimile of the Constitution. Bound in full brown morocco gilt, watered silk endpapers, top edge gilt. Limited edition of unknown quantity. University of Utah copy is no. 1464, stamped in gilt “Wilson McCarthy” and signed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Gift of Wilson McCarthy.

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Book of the Week, after a conversation with a reader — Ka buke o na berita amen a kauoha

25 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Charles Rich, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, conversions, George Quayle Cannon, Hawai'i, Hawaiian, island, Jontana H. Napela, Ka Buke O Na Berita Amen A Kauoha, Maui, mission, Missionary, Mormon, San Francisco, Sandwich Islands, The Book of Mormon, William Farrer

“A eia kekahi, i kona heluhelu ana, ua hoopihaia oia me ka Uhane o ka Haku.”

BX8625-H3-1855-pg1

KA BUKE O NA BERITA AMEN A KAUOHA
San Francisco, 1855
First edition

The first missionary work in Hawai’i for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began in 1850, when Charles Rich called for the establishment of a mission on what was then known as the Sandwich Islands. Of the ten men that answered the call, five remained after several months. The first conversions came on the island of Maui on August 6, 1851. By 1854, more than four thousand native islanders had converted.

The Book of Mormon was translated into Hawaiian by Elders George Quayle Cannon, William Farrer, and Jonatana H. Napela, a Hawaiian native. It was published five years after the first Mormon missionaries arrived on the islands. Three thousand copies were printed in San Francisco, two hundred of these were bound. Nearly all of the copies were shipped to Hawai’i. Most of these were destroyed in a fire in 1868. An estimated 30 copies of the 1855 edition survive today.

 

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Exhibition — “Tunnel Vision”

01 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Physical Exhibitions

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accordion fold, Allison Milham, altar, bands, Berkeley, Book Arts Program, Book Arts Studio, California, City Center of San Francisco, cut-out, desert, envelope, fan-folds, Flying Fish Press, Gloria Morales, J. Willard Marriott Library, Julie Chen, Kathy Walkup, land art, Lois Morrison, Luise Poulton, Maryline Poole Adams, Mexican, miniature book, movable books, Nancy Holt, oil-cloth, paper hinges, peephole, photograph, Poole Press, pop-up, rare book collections, Rare Books Department, San Francisco, Scott Beadles, Sun Tunnels, The University of Utah, tunnel book, Utah, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Virgin, workshop

 

TUNNELVISION_slide

Tunnel Vision: A Selection of Tunnel, Pop-up and Movable Books from the Rare Books Department

Tunnel Vision features a selection of pieces from the rare book collections produced using various paper manipulations to create the illusion of depth — framing and narrowing the viewers’ perspective. This exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the Book Arts Program, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, and the Rare Books Department. It coincides with two events (see below) inspired by Nancy Holt’s famous land art piece, Sun Tunnels, located in Utah’s west desert.

March 23 through June 3, 2016
Level 1, J. Willard Marriott Library
The University of Utah
Co-curated by Luise Poulton and Allison Milham

DSCF8939
A Maze in Mystery: An Amazing Peep-Show
Maryline Poole Adams
Berkeley, CA: Poole Press, 1992
N7433.4 A23 M29 1992

Boards connected by fan-folds; views are through a door in the first board. Edition of one hundred copies. University of Utah copy is no. 22.

DSCF8923
The Gadarene Swine: Luke 8:26-33 & Later
Lois Morrison
Berkeley, CA: Flying Fish Press
N7433.4 M66 G3 1993

DSCF8931DSCF8932
Jardin de Guadalupe
Lois Morrison
San Francisco, CA: L. Morrison, 1994
N7433.4 M66 J37 1994

Paper cut-out see-through scene with accordion fold hinges on both sides and photograph of altar with Virgin at back. In oil-cloth envelope, fastened with ties. Edition of twenty-five copies. University of Utah copy is no. 19.

DSCF8947
Life Time
Julie Chen
Berkeley, CA: Flying Fish Press, 1996
N7433.4 C44 L54 1996

Miniature book enclosed in a decorated sea green paper box with a hinged window lid. Text printed on a series of eight concentric discs attached by paper hinges in an accordion-fold format designed to be read through a center hole when the construction is fully extended. Edition of one hundred copies, numbered and signed by the author. University of Utah copy is no. 15.]

DSCF8941
Ya Viene la Banda
Gloria Morales
San Francisco, CA: City College of San Francisco, 1998
N7433.4 M648 H47 1998

Tunnel book inspired by popular Mexican bands. Printed and bound by the author. Produced in Kathy Walkup’s Book Arts class at CCSF. Six leaves of color illustrations mounted with accordion-folded paper between boards, to be viewed through a peephole in the cover. One leaf of text laid-in. Edition of seven copies, numbered. University of Utah copy is no. 4.

Exhibition photographs by Scott Beadles

Sun Tunnels Educators’ Workshop and Family Day
April 23, 2016, 10am — 12pm
Free for teachers and their families (kids ages 5 and up)
The Book Arts Studio, J. Willard Marriott Library, Level 4

One of the most famous land art works in the world is right in our backyard! Nancy Holt’s iconic Sun Tunnels explores themes of light, perspective, time, space, geography, and more — perfect topics for interdisciplinary teaching. Bring your family and join the Utah Museum of Fine Arts for this hands-on workshop. Start the day together experiencing nature, then explore teaching through tunnel books while the family makes their own Sun Tunnels inspired art.

To register for this workshop contact: Allison Milham (Allison Milham @utah.edu) or schoolprogram@umfa.utah.edu

For more information visit umfa.utah.edu/teacherworkshops

ARTLandish: Sun Tunnels Community Meet-up
April 30, 2016, 1pm 00 4pm
Free and open to the public

Join the UMFA for a day of art and science at Sun Tunnels, the iconic land art by Nancy Holt in Utah’s west desert. UFMA members, families, teachers, and students of all ages are invited to explore the landscape, create art, and learn about the environment of the desert. Meet at site.

For driving directions visit: umfa.utah.edu/suntunnels_selfguide
For more information contact: virginia catherall@umfa.utah.edu

alluNeedSingleLine

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Book of the Week – Dancing with Amelia

09 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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accordion, airplane, Amelia Earhart, book, California, Charles Hobson, die cut, IRIS, laser cut, Lockheed Electra, mixed media drawings, Oakland, Pacific Editions, printmaking, San Francisco, The University of Utah, Todd Die, twin-engine

Dancing With Amelia coverDancing with Amelia Title-page spreadDancing with Amelia spread

DANCING WITH AMELIA
Charles Hobson (1943-)
San Francisco, CA: Pacific Editions, 2000
N7433.4 H62 D36 2000

Charles Hobson uses a variety of printmaking methods to construct images around historical and literary themes. The book is his primary format. Mixed media drawings scanned and printed as IRIS prints. Pages die cut by Todd Die, Oakland, California into an airplane shape based on the design of the twin-engine Lockheed Electra Amelia Earhart flew on her last flight. Accordion style binding with laser cut 8-ply illustrated cover. Edition of thirty-eight copies. University of Utah copy is no. 24, signed.

alluNeedSingleLine

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A Gift from the Past – A story from one of our readers

25 Friday Dec 2015

Posted by scott beadles in Uncategorized

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Albuquerque, American Legion, Amherst, attorney, bibliophile, Charles Scribner's Sons, childhood, Dallas, Depression, Dred Scott, Eugene Field, Fannie Smith, folk songs, fugitive slave, hero, initial, legends, Los Angeles, Luise Putcamp jr, lullabies, Massachusetts, Maxfield Parrish, migrant workers, Missouri, New York, newspaperman, Pecos, Placitas, poems, rare books, San Francisco, San Leandro, Sarmento, Texas

PS1667-P6-1904-pl28
Poems of Childhood
Eugene Field (1850-1895)
New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1904
PS1667 P6 1904

Newspaperman Eugene Field was born in Missouri. His father, an attorney, successfully defended Dred Scott, a fugitive slave. Field’s mother died when he was six. He and his younger brother grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, cared for by a paternal cousin. Field was the father of eight children. He worked for the St. Louis Evening Journal, St. Joseph Gazette, St. Louis Times-Journal, and the Kansas City Times. He wrote a column for the Chicago Morning News until his death. On the one hand a sharp satirist, on the other Field wrote sentimental verse. He is best known for “Little Boy Blue” (1888), a poem memorized by thousands of school children for many decades. He published several books of verse, some specifically about childhood. With Trumpet and Drum (1892), included “Wynken, Blynken and Nod” and lullabies, legends, and folk songs from different countries, a study of particular interest to him. Love-Songs of Childhood (1894) included “The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat.” Field, a bibliophile, collected rare and unusual books of beauty. He also made his own books, often rubricating the first initial of a poem with various color inks. Much of his published work was illustrated by Maxfield Parrish, including this popular collection of his poetry.

“A Gift From the Past”

Night was coming on.

The old car carrying the parents and their three stairstep children was headed south, down the highway from San Francisco. No destination. No money.

The year was 1933.

The hand-lettered sign stood in front of an orchard near San Leandro. Fruit Pickers Wanted. The dad pulled into the yard and knocked at the house door.

Three children? They’ll stay out of the way. There’s a house you can use.

We piled out of the car. With broom and mop and rags the parents soon had the corners of the two-room house swept, the worn linoleum clean, the gas-burner stove sanitary.

The mother told the orchard owner, Mr. Sarmento, that she had no money for food. He gave her an advance on fruit picker pay. She loaded up on staples. A roof! Food money! In an exuberance of relief, she made pies from peaches gleaned from beneath a nearby tree and gave one pie to the Sarmentos.

Migrant workers. Anglo braceros. 

After the fruit was picked, the Sarmentos found more work around the orchard for the parents. For the three kids, it was an idyllic time.

The oldest daughter spent much of it perched in a big old tree behind the Sarmento house, reading the few books salvaged in an earlier hegira from Los Angeles.

The big, beautiful books were presents from The Aunt Who Always Gave Books, Aunt Fannie Smith, in Dallas.One of them was the 1904 edition (still going in 1932) of Eugene Field’s Poems of Childhood with illustrations by Maxfield Parrish.
PS1667-P6-1904-frontis

Even at eight years old, this daughter knew that most of the poems were a mediocre mishmash. Mostly she immersed her mind in the Maxfield Parrish pictures that transported her so far from drab surroundings.

But there was an old faithful, “Just Fore Christmas.” How often she’d heard her Daddy Bill recite that!
“Father calls me William, sister calls me Will,
 “Mother calls me Willie but the fellers call me Bill.”
 
    PS1667-P6-1904-spread116-117
 
And she did memorize the lugubrious “Little Boy Blue.”

Over in Texas, the boy who would grow up to marry her would memorize it, too. He got an American Legion medal for making the best grades of any elementary school kid in Pecos. He blew the last lines in reciting “Little Boy Blue” but he was a hero, anyway.

The girl’s family left the Sarmento orchard behind and went on to other Depression Day adventures. Books and other treasures were left behind or lost in unpaid storage.

Fast forward to the late 1980’s, in Placitas.

From one of those bookfind places, the aging Depression child was able to buy, for $35, a battered copy of the memory-laden old book.

And this year, Scribner’s reissued Poems of Childhood. The Maxfield Parrish illustrations look true to the original.

Now the next generation (and the next) can wince at the poems and marvel at the illustrations.

Albuquerque, NM 1996
Luise Putcamp, jr.
PS1667-P6-1904-swing

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Another Book of the Week – AVVENTURE DELLA MIA VITA…

15 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Another Book of the Week – AVVENTURE DELLA MIA VITA…

Tags

American, Austria, Bologna, Brigham Young, California, cattle, consul, Corsica, Domenico Ballo, Florentine, Italian Consul General in San Francisco, John Taylor, King of Sardinia, Leonetto Cipriani (1812-1888), Marriott Library Advisory Board, Michael W. Homer, Mormon, On the Way to Somewhere Else, orchestra, politics, polygamy, rare books, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Theatre, San Francisco, settlers, Sicilian, The University of Utah Press, Zanichelli


AVVENTURE DELLA MIA VITA…
Leonetto Cipriani (1812-1888)
Bologna: N. Zanichelli editore, 1934
First edition
DG552.8 C56 M67 1934

In 1852, Leonetto Cipriani was appointed by the King of Sardinia as that country’s first consul in San Francisco. Cipriani, born into a Florentine family living in Corsica, fought against Austria in 1848 and was imprisoned and then exiled. After resigning as consul, he purchased cattle in the American mid-west with the intention of selling them in California. During his cattle drive, in 1852, six years after the Mormon settlers arrived, he passed through Salt Lake City. There, a converted Sicilian, Domenico Ballo, introduced Cipriani to John Taylor. Taylor introduced Cipriani to Brigham Young. In this book, Cipriani reminisces about the Salt Lake Theatre, where Ballo conducted the orchestra, and conversations with Taylor regarding polygamy and politics.

University of Utah copy gift of Michael W. Homer.

Read more about Leonetti Cipriani here, on the Italian Consul General in San Francisco’s blog. Read an abstract of his memoirs from On the Way to Somewhere Else, published by The University of Utah Press and edited by Michael W. Homer, member of the Marriott Library Advisory Board and ever-faithful friend of Rare Books.

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