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Posted in Rare Books on Sep 22nd, 2008
“We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident…” By 1820 the original Declaration of Independence showed serious signs of deterioration and wear from handling. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams commissioned William Stone to engrave an exact copy of the original onto a copper plate, and in 1823 Congress ordered 200 official copies printed on vellum. [...]
Posted in Rare Books on Sep 5th, 2008
“Their Destiny As A Race Is Sealed. They Will Soon Be Lost To Our Sight Forever” In 1822, Thomas McKenney, Superintendent of Indian Affairs under four presidents, commissioned artist Charles Bird King to paint the portraits of famous Indian leaders as they visited Washington. Over the course of 15 years dignitaries from more than a [...]
Posted in First Edition Books, Rare Books on Aug 25th, 2008
“For 160 Days We Marched Through The Forest” “Only a man of Stanley’s iron resolution and invincible resource could have carried through the awful marches and counter-marches in the tropical forests…” (DNB). Stanley had already successfully completed three major expeditions in Africa by the time he accepted what would prove to be his most ambitious [...]
Posted in First Edition Books, Rare Books on Aug 20th, 2008
“One Of The Classics Of Antarctic Literature” Cherry-Garrard served as assistant zoologist on Robert Scott’s tragic 1910-12 expedition to Antarctica. Dr. Wilson chose Bowers and Cherry-Garrard as his companions for a winter journey in 1911 to Cape Crozier to collect Emperor Penguin eggs. “On their return five weeks later Scott described their journey as ‘the [...]
Posted in Rare Books on Jul 25th, 2008
“A Human Panorama of Love, Courage, Cowardice… Deceit And Folly”: Boccaccio’s Decameron “Could there be stories without a moral, of human adventure and misadventure? The horrors of the plague provided Boccaccio with the incentive and the opportunity…Boccaccio creates a human panorama of love, courage, cowardice, wit, wisdom, deceit and folly… If he does not teach [...]
Posted in First Edition Books, Rare Books on Jul 11th, 2008
“Passages Of Unearthly Beauty” Joyce began writing Finnegans Wake in 1922, the same year Ulysses saw publication. Compared to that book, Finnegans Wake “took longer to write… was conceived and executed under a greater range of symbolic and mythic guidelines, was dictated to more famous amanuenses, among them Samuel Beckett, was used as a weapon [...]
Posted in First Edition Books, Rare Books on Jun 20th, 2008
“A Woman Must Have Money And A Room Of Her Own If She Is To Write Fiction” Based on two lectures she gave at a women’s college in Cambridge in 1928, Woolf’s foundational essay on women and writing has become a classic feminist text. “Her aim was to establish a woman’s tradition, recognizable by its [...]
Posted in Rare Books on Jun 8th, 2008
“Americans! In Your Congress At Philadelphia… You Laid Down The Fundamental Principles… Life, Liberty And Property” John Adams’ highly contested Discourses on Davila was prompted by Jefferson’s firm declaration of “his faith in reason and democracy… as the sufficiency of human reason for the care of human affairs.” Alarmed by the fresh violence of the [...]
Posted in Rare Books on May 18th, 2008
“First In The Hearts Of His Fellow Citizens” Washington’s life story is inextricably linked to that of the founding of the United States, and no man was better suited to the task of depicting the actions and character of the first President than Chief Justice John Marshall: as a personal friend, Marshall announced the President’s [...]
Posted in Rare Books on May 2nd, 2008
“A Bona-Fide English Hero” In August 1907, Ernest Shackleton, who had initially gained fame as a member of Scott’s 1901-02 expedition, left London as commander of his own expedition on board the Nimrod. He achieved worldwide acclaim for having reached within 97 miles of the South Pole, almost four years before Amundsen’s and Scott’s expeditions [...]