OT12: Vonnegut

One of my favourite authors of all time is Kurt Vonnegut and every year I reread at least two of his books – Slaughterhouse-Five in the spring and whatever catches my fancy in the summer. Why? Cause there is so much depth in his work that I get something new out of every reading. This summer I’m devoting some time to these two books:

Ten years apart.

Much like my obsession with Oscar Wilde, I’ve picked up almost every Vonnegut first printings I’ve found at The Monkey’s Paw. I’ve had these two for a while now, having picked them up a month apart last summer, but never had the time to read any non-Bibliomat books due to the reading experiment that engulfed my 2013.

The first book is the 1979 printing of Jailbird. I had read this one while in university, long before the name Kilgore Trout became familiar and remember liking it a lot back then. 

Something to be said about 70's design.

 

Wit.

Wisdom.

Should be interesting rereading it again after having ten years of life experience and a lot more understanding of political history.

The second book is Hocus Pocus, printed in 1990. Funny enough, I have never read this despite it being one of his few books that was published after I was born. Picked up for less than the Canadian cover price, it was steal.

This was an expensive book...

Agree to disagree.

One of my few buying regrets was not snapping up the first edition of Breakfast of Champions I saw on the shelf the very first time I stepped foot into the store. Thinking it would be there the next time I came back, I passed up on it only to find it gone when I returned the next day. So it goes.

S18: Jed – A story of Battle and Prison, of Peril and Escape

This week’s Biblio-Mat submission is a rare fiction novel, and an old one at that!

Title: Jed, A Story of Battle and Prison, of Peril and Escape

Submitted by: Mitch A.

Published in 1889, this story presumably takes place during the American Civil War as it has a subtitle of “A Boy’s Adventures in the Army of ’61-‘65”. Written by Warren Lee Goss, it’s a 404-pager that looks like it’s punctuated by black and white illustrations. 

Can’t tell if it was meant to be an adventure book for boys or if it was targeted towards adults but the sheer length of it and the author’s other books makes me think the latter.

OT11: The Monk and the Hangman’s Daughter

In honour of Germany winning the 2014 Fifa World Cup (despite me backing France), I’ve decided to break out one of the most amazing books I’ve ever picked up from The Monkey’s Paw – a rare translation of a German story.

Teutonic design.

A case to protect the case

Don't foresee a Disney adaptation coming anytime soon.

The Monk and the Hangman’s Daughter is an 1891 novella by German novelist Richard Voss. In 1892, it was translated by Adolphe De Castro who then contacted one of the most interesting literary giants to edit and adapt it – Ambrose Bierce. Ambrose Bierce ranks quite higher on the list of writers I revere. In addition to being a crazy literary critic, having a distinctively dark writing style, and authoring of the greatest short stories of all time, the guy up and disappeared without a trace one. No one knows what happened to him, only that he joined Pancho Villa’s army and apparently felt that that wasn’t interesting enough so he left for an unknown destination after. He was 71.

Five artists on one page.

This 1967 printing of The Monk and the Hangman’s Daughter is a private printing created with an extremely high attention to detail for The Limited Editions Club. Coming with a slipcover that fits into a slipcase, on the shelf it looks like a simple cardbound book. However, the actual book inside the casings is bound in burlap with embossed lettering and symbols.

This photo really doesn't do it justice.

People went into battle with less armour than this in those days.

While the book seems like an archival edition that you would expect to contain no-nonsense black and white text in minimalist fashion, as soon as you open it, you are blasted with an explosion of vivid colours. Containing seven watercolour illustrations by Michel Ciry, it is a gorgeous read through and through. 

Just like a storybook.

Pretty.

Begins well enough.

Minor setback, right?

Just like a German storybook, anyway. Spoiler alert.

It’s not often that one finds a book that engages the senses so well and I’m very fortunate to have snapped this up before someone else did. Apparently it belonged to a notable film/television personality but I can’t for the life of me remember who it was since I was too busy running my hands across the cover when Stephen was telling me about it. Burlap really does make an incredible binding.

S17: The Proterozoic in Canada

History books from the Biblio-Mat are often dry and textbook in nature. This week’s submission is no exception.

Book: The Proterozoic in Canada

Submitted by: Trevor S.

Published in 1957 by The Royal Society of Canada, it looks like a regal tome with a nice green binding bearing a seal. Inside, it looks like there’s a good amount of images to offset the text, which is probably a good thing as a book published in the 50’s delving into the details of earth circa two billion years ago needs all the help it can get (there were rocks… some water… more rocks…). 

At least there are maps, and who doesn’t like maps?

S16: Winner Take All

On the eve of Canada Day here’s a submission celebrating some of what makes this country awesome – vast swaths of wilderness to commune with nature.

Book: Winner Take All: The Trans-Canada Canoe Trail

Submitted by: Wesley Fok

Site: http://www.promisememayor.ca/

Written by David Lavender and published in 1977, this is one one of the books in the American Trails Series. A few blurbs from inside:

"First and last it was a commercial highway and in that respect unique in the English-speaking world. Commerce was not the whole of the story, however. Adventure, challenge, spaciousness, contact with the Indians among whom many of the men found enduring loves, the white immensity of winter, the flash of sunlit water across granite boulders--those things, too, were part of the lure.

Innocent in their greed, the trail's creators were the first despoilers of native life, both animal and Indian. But they were not aware of what they were doing--a doing that many of them cherished intensely. 'They pulled the wilderness round them like a cloak,' wrote historian Bernard De Voto; 'they wore its beauty like a crest.' "

                        --Prologue: A Long Trail Awinding

OT10: Alice in Wonderland

Recently I ran into a collector of Lewis Carroll’s works and was reminded of a couple books I picked up last year and really should have showcased them sooner.

Not a matched pair but close.

Just a pair of brothers in politics, right?

About this time last year The Monkey’s Paw threw an Alice in Wonderland themed tea party, complete with delicious Eat Me cookies and mysterious Drink Me elixirs (it was tequila. It’s always tequila…). Along with the food and dressing up, they also put up a table full of antiquarian and hard to find editions of Carroll’s works.

Apparently Carroll in Latin is still Carroll.

Coming in a bit late, I missed out on the Chinese copies and some Slavic ones with gorgeous watercolour plates but did manage to score these two Latin copies of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

Who doesn't like playing with text?

The useful languages.

Alice in Wonderland ranks quite high on the list of children’s books I grew up on, placing somewhere above Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and just under The Little Prince (both of which were also read to me in Chinese by my mother when I was a kid). Whenever I come across a unique or old edition I tend to snap it up and add it to my collection so when I saw these they were instant buys.

Almost a useful tutorial.

Poems are kind of easy when everything ends in o's and m's.

Who knows, one day I might want to learn Latin and children’s books are always handy for picking up a new language. There’s gotta be a market for people who know dead languages, right?

Goo Goo G'joob.

S15: A Manual of Engineering Drawing For Students and Draftsmen

As they say, you can’t win ‘em all. While this week’s Biblio-Mat book may not be the most exciting, but at least it's somewhat interesting (if you are into engineering drawings of sorts. There’s a niche for everything, right?). Always remember, though, things could be worse.

Book: A Manual of Engineering Drawing For Students and Draftsmen

Submitted by: Pat Healy

From Pat:

This tome by Thomas E. French was surprisingly dry. I know you can't judge a book by its cover, but you kinda can by its title. The full title when you open up the book is "A Manual of Engineering Drawing for Students and Draftsmen." Now maybe it's because I'm neither a student nor a draftsman, but I get the feeling that Mr. French was definitely not trying to rope anybody in who was outside of his target demographic.

I am torn about whether to leave this book in the drawer at my hotel room (the Gideons haven't gotten here yet to leave a Bible) or to bring it to my grandfather's grave (he was a draftsman of sorts). It's kinda heavy and as far as I know, dead people don't read, so I'm thinking I'll go with the former option. Or maybe I'll just read it and go to his gravesite and tell him what I've learned. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Here goes ... Commence reading!

Okay, "Preface to the Sixth Edition ... In the successive editions of this book the aim has been to keep abreast of modern engineering practice, adding new material in text and problems with each revision. Quoting from the previous preface, a course in drawing consists essentially of a series of problems given in connection with assigned study of ....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"