Book of the Week — Prayers Written at Vailima

03 Monday Dec 2018

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Allwyn O'Mara, Bembo, Bonnie Thompson Norman, California, Catherine Kanner, Fanny Stevenson, french-fold, Hiromi-Sansui, letterpress, linoleum cuts, Pacific Palisades, poet, prayer, Robert Louis Stevenson, Samoa, Scottish, The Melville Press, The Windowpane Press, Vailima

“Deliver us from fear and favor; from mean hopes and cheap pleasures. Have mercy on each in his deficiency; let him not be cast down; support the stumbling on the way, and give at last rest to the weary.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

Prayers Written at Vailima
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
Pacific Palisades, CA: The Melville Press, 1999
PR5488 P75 1999

In 1889, Robert Louis Stevenson moved his family to Vailima in the South Sea island of Samoa. The Scottish novelist and poet was in failing health. His doctors hoped that a change in climate would help. Stevenson believed in the power of prayer and composed many of his own. He held evening prayer services in his home, attended by his family members and his Samoan servants. The Samoans had a strong tradition of closing each day with prayer and hymns.

Stevenson lived for another four years, dying on December 3^rd. In 1910, Fanny Stevenson had her husband’s prayers published as an ornate gift book, to which she added her own introduction. There is a morning prayer and two evening prayers, a prayer for time and a prayer for rain, a prayer for separation, a prayer for friends and a prayer for family, a prayer for Sunday, a prayer for self-blame and a prayer for self-forgetfulness, and a prayer for joy.

In this edition, both book and jacket have a delicate, handmade quality that reflects the subject matter of native prayers in a far corner of the world. Designed by Catherine Kanner, with her linoleum cuts used directly to print the many illustrations. The text was composed using handset Bembo types and printed letterpress by Bonnie Thompson Norman of The Windowpane Press. The paper used is natural white Hiromi-Sansui paper in the 24 gsm weight, in French-folded signatures. The binding design is a collaboration between the book’s designer and Allwyn O’Mara, the binder.

Edition of two hundred numbered copies. Rare Books copy is no. 95, signed by the designer.

Books of the week — T. B. H. and Fanny Stenhouse

11 Monday Apr 2016

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anti-Mormon, Appleton, Brigham Young, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, convert, excommunicated, Fanny Warn Stenhouse, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Hartford, Italy, Joseph Smith, Lausanne, Lorenzo Snow, Missionary, New York, newspaper, polygamous, pro-Mormon, Russell Brothers, Salt Lake City, Scottish, Swiss Mission, T.B.H. Stenhouse, Thomas Stenhouse, Utah Territory, Worthington

“There is a power in combined enlightened sentiment and sympathy before which every form of injustice and cruelty must finally go down.” – Harriett Beecher Stowe, 1874

LES MORMONS (SAINTS DES DERNIERS-JOURS) ET LEUR…
Thomas Brown Holmes Stenhouse (1825-1882)
Lausanne: Imprimerie Larpin et Coendoz, 1854
First edition
BX8635 S74 1854

T. B. H. Stenhouse was a Scottish convert, one time missionary companion to Lorenzo Snow in Italy, and first Mission President over the Swiss Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While serving in this position he edited the Latter-day Saints periodical, Le Reflecteur and published Les Mormon et Leurs Ennemis, written for the purpose of defending the LDS faith against anti-Mormon arguments popular at the time. In 1855 Stenhouse and his wife, Fanny Warn, emigrated to Utah Territory and settled in Salt Lake City. Stenhouse became the editor of the Salt Lake Telegraph, a pro-Mormon newspaper. In 1862, Stenhouse took a polygamous wife. Fanny Stenhouse objected. In 1870, Thomas and Fanny Stenhouse acted on growing disaffection with the church, Thomas having become particularly uneasy with Brigham Young’s heavy hand in the daily lives of the of the Saints. Thomas and Fanny left the church and were then excommunicated. In 1873 Stenhouse wrote The Rocky Mountain Saints: A Full and Complete History of the Mormons, an expose against the church. This work became a standard for anti-Mormon attacks on Joseph Smith.

“It was worse than civil war, worse than a war of races; it was religious hate! It was fed by fanaticism on both sides.”

THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAINTS…
T. B. H. Stenhouse 91825-1882)
New York: D. Appleton and company, 1873
First edition
BX8611 S76 1873

“I had had it all fully explained to me, and I thoroughly understood the beauties of the system in the sight of the Elders…but it is miserable work to try to convince others of a thing that you yourself detest.”

A LADY’S LIFE AMONG THE MORMONS
Mrs. T. B. H. Stenhouse (1829-1904)
New York: Russell Brothers, Publishers, 1872
First edition
BX8645 S74 1872

Fanny Stenhouse wrote her own story of disenfranchisement in A Lady’s Life Among the Mormons (1872). The book was reprinted as Tell It All: A Woman’s Life in Polygamy (1874), with a preface by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

“But darker days – days of severer trial were creeping slowly near me…Now the dark shadow of an accursed thing was looming in the distance, but approaching surely if slowly.”

TELL IT ALL: THE STORY OF A LIFE’S EXPERIENCE IN…
Mrs. T. B. H. Stenhouse (1829-1904)
Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1874
First edition
BX8645 S74 1874

Love-Letter

14 Sunday Feb 2016

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Dante Gabriel Rossetti, endpapers, F. S. Ellis, floral gilt designs, gilt, inscribed, John Skelton, London, poems, presentation copy, Scottish, University of Utah

“The smooth black stream that makes thy whiteness fair, —
Sweet fluttering sheet…”
– from “The Love-Letter”

POEMS
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
London: F. S. Ellis, 1870
First edition, first issue binding
PS5240 A1 1870

University of Utah copy presentation copy inscribed to John Skelton and dated April of 1870. Skelton was a Scottish author and friend of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. This is one of only a few copies personally inscribed to Rossetti’s close friends. Original green cloth boards with gilt title to spine and floral gilt designs by the author on spine and boards. The motif is continued on the endpapers.

Frederick Stewart Buchanan, in memorium

05 Friday Feb 2016

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ballads, booklet, chapbooks, chapmen, Falkirk, Frederick Stewart Buchanan, Glascow, itinerant, Johnston, merchants, needles, peddled, rare books, Robert Burns, Robertson, Scotland, Scottish, Special Collections, The Constant Shepherd, The Duke of Gordon's Daughters, thread, University of Utah, wrappers

“Farewel, my friends! farewel, my foes!
My peace with these, my love with those:
The bursting tears my heart declare-
Farewel, the bonie banks of Ayr!”
— Robert Burns, 1786

The staff of the Rare Books Department extends its heartfelt condolences to the family of Frederick S. Buchanan (1931-2016). Professor Buchanan was a friend of the department and of Special Collections through his donation of much wonderful material, including these scarce Scottish chapbooks. Rare Books remembers, with gratitude, years of Professor Buchanan’s kind, quiet, patient and friendly support. Thank you, Dr. Buchanan. Memory eternal!

THE DUKE OF GORDON’S THREE DAUGHTERS
Glascow: Printed by J. & M. Robertson, 1808
PR8624 A2 D84 1808

THREE EXCELLENT NEW SONGS
Falkirk: Printed by T. Johnston, 1809
PR8624 A2 T47 1809

THE CONSTANT SHEPHERD
Falkirk: Printed & Sold by T. Johnston, 1810
PR8624 A2 C66 1810

“Chapbooks” are so-called because they were sold by “chapmen,”– itinerant merchants who mostly peddled small portable items such as needles, thread, scissors, eyeglasses, and cloth. Along with these practical items, they often also sold ballads. At first, these ballads were usually sold as single sheets. In Scotland, beginning around 1720, the ballads took shape as a small, multi-paged booklet and sold for about a halfpenny. Larger prose texts were also sold for about a penny. Chapbooks were sold without wrappers, or protective coverings, but were made well enough for frequent handling. Although Scottish chapbooks surviving from this period are not uncommon, these three are among the most rare. The Duke of Gordon’s Daughters was a particular favorite in its time. Many of the ballads in The Constant Shepherd were well known. This chapbook, however, also contains ballads of a particularly topical and timely nature. These more ephemeral ballads were often only printed in one edition. University of Utah copies gift of Frederick S. Buchanan.

OPEN BOOK

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

Tag Archives: Scottish

Book of the Week — Prayers Written at Vailima

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Books of the week — T. B. H. and Fanny Stenhouse

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Love-Letter

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Frederick Stewart Buchanan, in memorium

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