In this issue: Susan Glaspell <WAS: Today in History - July 1> Re: Confederate agents in Canada, 1860's Today in History - July 9 Maxfield Parrish Re: Maxfield Parrish Re: Borsos' _Grey Fox_: what sources? Re: Maxfield Parrish Re: Maxfield Parrish Lighthouse saved RE: Lighthouse saved Dictionaries Re: Dictionaries <FWD> Hagar of the Pawnshop Bill Miner Chat: Book question Re: Chat: Book question Re: Re: Chat: Book question Re: Chat: Book question Today in History - July 12 Re: Today in History - July 12 Chat: Book Question book question Re: Chat: Book Question Re: Re: Chat: Book Question RE: Chat: Book Question Re: Re: Chat: Book Question Re: Re: Chat: Book Question Re: Re: Chat: Book Question Re: Chat: Book Question -----------------------------THE POSTS----------------------------- Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 07:21:06 -0600 From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA Subject: Susan Glaspell <WAS: Today in History - July 1> Glaspell will appear in the fall line up of readings for her story "A jury of her peers" and the original version, the one-act play "Trifles". I would however like to find a copy of her one-acter "Suppressed desires". Stephen D mailto:Sdavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
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Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 10:11:38 -0600 From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA Subject: Re: Confederate agents in Canada, 1860's Here's a better URL for the Confederate page hosted by the National Library: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/confed/usconfe1.htm Stephen
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Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 12:36:32 -0600 From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org> Subject: Today in History - July 9 1815 Louis XVIII returns to Paris after Napoleon's defeat. 1859 Austria and France sign a truce at Villafranca. France receives Lombardy, Nice, and Savoy. 1863 Confederates in Port Hudson, Louisiana, surrender to Union forces. 1864 Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston retreats into Atlanta to avoid a flanking movement by Union General William T. Sherman. 1865 Four of the Lincoln assassination conspirators are executed in Washington, D.C. by hanging 1879 The first ship to use electric lights departs from San Francisco, California. 1905 Mutineers on the Russian battleship Potemkin surrender to Romanian authorities. Birthdays 1838 Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, designer and manufacturer of powered airships 1839 John D. Rockefeller, financier, philanthropist, and founder of Standard Oil 1907 George W. Romney, candidate for the Republican presidential nomination until he admitted that the military had "brainwashed" him about the Vietnam War 1908 Nelson Rockefeller, Vice President under Gerald Ford
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Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 14:49:01 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu> Subject: Maxfield Parrish This month's Smithsonian Magazine contains an article on, and a number of beautiful illustrations of, the work of American artist Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966). Parrish, called in the article "the master of make believe," created an idealized world that, when the mood strikes, is a pleasure to escape into. If you get the chance, take a look at the issue. A Parrish work, incidentally, provides for a strikingly colorful cover, a reminder that the artist was primarily an illustrator. Bob C. _________________________________________________ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Robert L. Champ rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity Whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things Philippians 4:8 rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net _________________________________________________ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 16:24:15 -0700 From: Patricia Teter <PTeter(at)getty.edu> Subject: Re: Maxfield Parrish If you are a Parrish fan, don't miss the Maxfield Parrish Retrospective Exhibition traveling to the following locations: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, June 19-Sept. 26, 1999 Currier Gallery of American Art, Manchester, NH., Nov 4, 1999-Jan. 15, 2000 U. of Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY., Feb 19-April 30, 2000 Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY., May 26-Aug. 6, 2000 best, Patricia
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Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 16:48:29 -0700 From: Patricia Teter <PTeter(at)getty.edu> Subject: Re: Borsos' _Grey Fox_: what sources? Stephen wrote: <<My introduction to Bill Miner was from a chapter in T.W. Paterson _Outlaws of western Canada_ (1977), tho Miner could easily have been mentioned elsewhere before this. ...>> Thanks for the background information, Stephen, and web sites. << I don't believe his end was ever established tho it seems quite likely that Miner died in captivity, and didn't escape to Europe as the movie likes to suggest.>> I like the movie version better! <g> It has been a number of years since I have seen the film, but if I remember correctly, the movie version has Miner and his lady booking passage on a liner to Europe? And... isn't this the film with the apple peeler? best, Patricia
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Date: Fri, 09 Jul 1999 10:45:54 -0500 From: ayc(at)ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Athan) Subject: Re: Maxfield Parrish Bob, Thanks for the note about the Smithsonian... I don't get it any more, but will look for this issue. I have a huge book that is a compendium of many of Parrish's works. I purchased it while living in San Francisco & at a time when I had next to no money, so had to save for weeks to afford the book. I was never sorry once I had it! My husband has heard me rant so many times about Parrish that now he will remark that our evening sky is 'Parrish blue'! If I could have an artist to paint my dream world, it would certainly be Parrish. Not only the blues, but the golds, the yellows, the greens...the depth and translucency of all his colors! Now if only a gallery somewhere in the midwest would host that retrospective exhibit... Athan ayc(at)uiuc.edu
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Date: Fri, 09 Jul 1999 09:21:24 -0700 From: Deborah McMillion Nering <deborah(at)gloaming.com> Subject: Re: Maxfield Parrish > A Parrish work, incidentally, provides for a strikingly colorful >cover, a reminder that the artist was primarily an illustrator. Interesting reading, Parrish is, especially his technique of essentially taking 'slides" and projecting them on his huge canvases and working directly from those. Also his relationship with Sue Lewin who is nearly everyone in his paintings. Nearly--but not all. He may have been an 'illustrator" but that doesn't mean he wasn't a 'fine' artist as well. Thanks for pointing out the magazine, too--I also used to get Smithsonian but not now (traded it for KMT). Deborah Deborah McMillion deborah(at)gloaming.com http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html
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Date: Fri, 09 Jul 1999 16:29:42 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu> Subject: Lighthouse saved The following article from the AP recounts how a Cape Hatteras lighthouse was saved from the ravages of the sea it was to guard ships against. Bob C. N.C. Lighthouse Safely at New Home By ESTES THOMPSON .c The Associated Press BUXTON, N.C. (July 9) - As people clapped and cheered, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse today slid onto the concrete pad where its caretakers hope it will stand tall for another century, a safe distance from the thundering Atlantic surf. The nation's tallest lighthouse glided over rails lubricated by soap to the spot where steel supports will prop it up and 140,000 bricks will form its foundation and base. Arrival time: 1:23 p.m. EDT. Jerry Matyiko of Expert House Movers of Virginia Beach, Va., exchanged high fives and handshakes with surveyor John Mayne when the 208-foot sentinel came to a stop. The move began June 17 from its previous home 150 feet from ocean. Distance covered totaled 2,899.57 feet. The National Park Service plans to relight the twin beacons, which were extinguished March 1 for the first time in 50 years, on Labor Day. The lighthouse is to reopen to visitors next Memorial Day. Throughout its $10 million move, the 129-year-old lighthouse continued to stir debate among visitors and residents over whether it should have been left to the perils of the eroding Atlantic shore. Like many of the 15,000 visitors who come each day to see the lighthouse, John Pfeiffer of Nazareth, Pa., said Thursday he was all for moving it. ''The technology is there to do it, so move it before the natural resources take it down,'' Pfeiffer said as he walked to see the lighthouse sitting atop a nest of steel beams. A local resident, Dave Dudley of Manteo, said the move was an amazing engineering feat, but ''they're messing with history.'' AP-NY-07-09-99 1353EDT _________________________________________________ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Robert L. Champ rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity Whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things Philippians 4:8 rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net _________________________________________________ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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Date: Fri, 09 Jul 1999 18:49:27 -0400 From: "James E. Kearman" <jkearman(at)mindspring.com> Subject: RE: Lighthouse saved Bob Champ wrote: > The following article from the AP recounts how a Cape Hatteras lighthouse > was saved from the ravages of the sea it was to guard ships against. > The URL below takes you to a National Park Service website devoted to the relocation of the lighthouse. If you have Quicktime or Shockwave installed, you can view computer animations illustrating the complicated engineering involved in the move. Cheers, Jim http://www.nps.gov/caha/lrp.htm
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Date: Sat, 10 Jul 1999 02:04:48 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu> Subject: Dictionaries This URL brings into one place a number of dictionaries, some of them highly specialized (for instance, one dictionary is devoted to poker terms). If you are a worker in the word field--and that field sometimes takes a heap of hoeing--you might want to take a look at http://www.onelook.com/ Bob C _________________________________________________ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Robert L. Champ rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity Whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things Philippians 4:8 rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net _________________________________________________ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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Date: Sat, 10 Jul 1999 02:07:23 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu> Subject: Re: Dictionaries >http://www.onelook.com/ Sorry, I forgot to add an important plug: one of the dictionaries is the fabulous _Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_. Bob C _________________________________________________ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Robert L. Champ rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity Whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things Philippians 4:8 rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net _________________________________________________ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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Date: Sat, 10 Jul 1999 14:33:02 -0600 From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA Subject: <FWD> Hagar of the Pawnshop from Chris W. Re: Hagar of the Pawnshop Hi! It's great to see Hagar of the Pawnshop on-line - it's been out of print for far too long! In answer to the question about "drain" this was Lambeth slang for an alcoholic drink - it's also used by Somerset Maugham in "Liza of Lambeth" which was written a few years later. All the best Chris =========================================== Chris Willis English Dept Birkbeck College Malet Street London WC1E 7HX 100415.1234(at)compuserve.com http://www.chriswillis.freeserve.co.uk ===========================================
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Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 00:53:59 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu> Subject: Bill Miner Thanks to Stephen for the URLs related to Borsos and Bill Miner. I saw "The Grey Fox" back in the 1980s while I was serving as a TA for a film instructor at University of Maryland. It's one of those fin de siecle Westerns that seemed to have had quite a run at one time. As such, it has a bittersweet feel to it, but the emphasis is definitely on the sweet with Robert Farnsworth playing Miner with all the considerable charm he is capable of mustering. (Why did Farnsworth never become a bigger star?) Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to rent it this week; but I might very well end up buying it in the near future--that is, if it's on video. I also pulled up a site, which I didn't see on Stephen's list, that shows a wanted poster of Miner. I've reproduced the copy below. It reveals that the real Miner, though still a "gentleman bandit," wasn't quite the gentleman Borsos's film leads us to believe he was. The URL is http://www.intergate.bc.ca/personal/dconrad/canadian.htm#billypic Bill Miner At 10:00 o'clock of an extemely rain Saturday night, September 10, 1904, at Ruskin, just west of Mission City in the Fraser River Valley of British Columbia, a Canadian Pacific Railway train was held up by the notorious Bill Miner gang comprised of Miner himself, Thomas "Shortie" Dunn and Lewis "Scottie" Colquhoun. This gang had boarded the tender of the engine at Mission City, crawled over the coal to hold up the Engineer and the Fireman. They ordered the crew to cut the train behind the express car and ten pull ahead and cut the engine off leaving the baggage, mail and express cars isolated. The train was spread over nearly three miles of track. A shipment of gold-dust valued at $6,000 from the Cariboo Gold Mines at Ashcroft, B.C., and $914.37 cash was taken by the robbers from the safe in the express car. The gang then boarded the engine and proceeded three miles further west to Whonnock, B.C. where they jumped off, ran down the bank to a hidden boat and rowed across the Fraser River, making good their escape on that particular occasion. At 11:55p.m. Tuesday, May 8, 1906, the CPR train "Imperial Limited" was held up at Ducks near Kamloops, B.C. by the Bill Miner gang. This robbery netted $15.50 cash but the gang passed up a bank currency shipment of $35,000. The gang escaped on horses but not more than a week later were surrounded near Douglas Lake in the Nicola Valley about thirty miles south of Kamloops by a patrol of the R.N.W.M.P. (Royal Northwest Mounted Police). In making the arrest, "Shortie" Dunn was wounded in the leg during an exchange of gunfire. Miner explained that the reason for holding up this particular train was that he had certain information to the effect that a shipment of $100,000, subscribed in Canada for the relief of San Francisco earthquake victims, was being forwarded in the express car. This shipment, incidentally, had moved the day previously. At their trail for train robbery, the gang was sentenced as follows: Miner and Dunn received life imprisonment and Colquhoun twenty-five years. Colquhoun died of tubedrculosis in New Westminster Penitentiary and his body was shipped to his home in Collingwood, Ontario for burial. Dunn served out his life sentence and finally drowned in a lake near Kamloops, B.C. Miner escaped from the penitentiary after serving one year of his sentence and eventually arrested at White Sulpher, Georgia, following the $60,000 holdup of a Southern Railway train at that point, on February 18, 1911. Miner received a twentyfive year sentence for his part in the offense. He escaped from the Milledgeville State Prison, Georgia, on October 18, 1911. He was recaptured and died in the State Prison in 1913, at the age of seventy years. Bob C. (who gives a raucus "Hurrah!" to the US Women's Soccer Team for their fine victory in the World Cup Championship. They're all champs.) _________________________________________________ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Robert L. Champ rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity Whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things Philippians 4:8 rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net _________________________________________________ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 20:41:59 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu> Subject: Chat: Book question Not long ago I bought a new copy of a book to replace an old one (James Wright's _Collected Poems_). The old copy, bought back in the '70s, has given me a great deal of pleasure over the years, and I am very fond of it. However, the book is falling apart. It is a paperback published by Wesleyan Press, and Wesleyan must have done a good job for it to survive so long. I tried to take as good care of it as possible, but what with moving and frequent readings, the binding has gone and the glue of the spine has lost any adhesive property it might have once had. This brings up a question that I'd like to pose to my fellow Gaslighters: how do you (or do you) dispose of books that, of no value in themselves (not a first edition or anything of that kind), have outlived their usefulness? Books that hold a sentimental value but that nothing will fix? I have other books in this condition, but this is the first time I've considered "burying" a book, so to speak. But I have no idea what to do about it. I can't bring myself simply to toss it in the waste-can. I couldn't bring myself to do that even if I hated a book. Has anybody considered this problem? Bob C. _________________________________________________ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Robert L. Champ rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity Whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things Philippians 4:8 rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net _________________________________________________ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 07:29:28 -0500 From: Brian McMillan <brianbks(at)netins.net> Subject: Re: Chat: Book question Bob, Have you considered having this or others like it rebound? Although I have not used their services, a bookbinder at: http://www.thebookbinder.com/home.html has examples of work, links, etc. online. However, these tend to be fairly expensive and therefore used for rare books, genealogies, etc. There are a few things you can try yourself, of course, like getting heavy duty tape (probably NOT the handy mans secret weapon duct tape)/book glue etc. from some place like Demco (online at: http://www.demco.com/ ), but if the book has gotten well mildewed or insect infested, my suggestion would be to toss it as these can spread to your other books. Brian McM >This brings up a question that I'd like to pose to my fellow >Gaslighters: how do you (or do you) dispose of books that, of no >value in themselves (not a first edition or anything of that kind), >have outlived their usefulness? Books that hold a sentimental value but >that nothing will fix? > >I have other books in this condition, but this is the first time I've >considered "burying" a book, so to speak. But I have no idea what to do >about it. I can't bring myself simply to toss it in the waste-can. I >couldn't bring myself to do that even if I hated a book. > >Has anybody considered this problem? > >Bob C. >_________________________________________________ >@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ > >Robert L. Champ >rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu >Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity > >Whatever things are pure, whatever things are >lovely, whatever things are of good report, if >there is any virtue and if there is anything >praiseworthy, meditate on these things > Philippians 4:8 > >rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net >_________________________________________________ >@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ >
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 08:50:20 -0400 (EDT) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Re: Chat: Book question I sympathize, Bob... Have a few of those myself. Yellowed transparent tape, sections falling out etc etc... So far I have simply kept them. But I guess we need the lesson of letting go... Hard to let go of old friends. condolences! phoebe Phoebe Wray zozie(at)aol.com
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 09:44:34 -0400 (EDT) From: Diane Trap <trap(at)mail.libs.uga.edu> Subject: Re: Chat: Book question > > This brings up a question that I'd like to pose to my fellow > Gaslighters: how do you (or do you) dispose of books that, of no > value in themselves (not a first edition or anything of that kind), > have outlived their usefulness? Books that hold a sentimental value but > that nothing will fix? > Battered books in the library where I work are kept in acid-free boxes to save them from wear and tear of life on the shelves. I think an archival storage company like Light Impressions might have them. Since you don't need to preserve the book for its content, what about reusing individual pages, maybe as mats for photographs, pages in a scrapbook, pieces of stationery, wrapping paper for very small gifts, origami, or bits of a collage? -----Diane Trap (feeling very Martha Stewart this morning) trap(at)mail.libs.uga.edu > > Bob C. >
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 10:16:44 -0600 From: Jerry Carlson <gmc(at)libra.pvh.org> Subject: Today in History - July 12 1806 Napoleon establishes the Confederation of the Rhine in Germany. 1864 President Abraham Lincoln becomes the first President to witness a land battle while in office as Union forces repel Jubal Early's attack just outside Washington, D.C. [According to accounts, at one point he was trying to get too good a view of the battle and a young captain yelled, "Get down, you damn fool!" A later President appointed Capt. Oliver Wendell Holmes as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.] Birthdays 1817 Henry Thoreau, essayist, naturalist and poet, author of Walden and Civil Disobedience 1908 Milton "Uncle Miltie" Berle, comedian, movie and television star 1917 Andrew Wyeth, American painter (Christina's World)
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 12:47:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Today in History - July 12 Another birthday: Kirsten Flagstad, the lovely Norwegian soprano... born 1895... best phoebe
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 15:54:25 -0500 From: rking(at)INDIAN.VINU.EDU Subject: Chat: Book Question Bob and others: I just threw my beloved copies of Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford and Donald Hall's Weather for Poetry (essays) in the trash and yes, it does seem like they should buried ceremoniously. Mine were casualties of the roof blowing off my shed during a bad storm and me not realizing it for some time. The books got mold and there is nothing one can do--they were just falling apart and I was afraid the mold would spread to other books. In the trash they went, mere material objects. (Still, it just didn't seem right.) I imagine any book you wanted to keep could just be taken to a bindery and repaired. Perhaps your local library where you teach would send them along with their regular monthly bindery order and you could pay something for them. We offer that service here to other departments and have been known to send along someone's family Bible for repair as well. Richard King rking(at)indian.vinu.edu
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 14:16:58 -0700 From: Deborah McMillion Nering <deborah(at)gloaming.com> Subject: book question If your community recycles at the very least you can recycle the paper in a paperback book that is worn out. A hardbound is more problematic if it has completely fallen apart but the pages can. I also liked the idea of using the paper as matts, etc. but don't use old sulfite paper on anything of value, especially anything of paper, or it will rot it as well. You could mount the pages on a piece of matt board and seal it in acrylic and that would keep it from hurting anything else. I have been using Biblio, ABE, etc. to slowly replace old paperbacks into decent harbounds, the ones I keep using over and over and over, into what they call reading copies, decent, clean hardbounds but aren't particularly rare or valuable. Just recently got a 1958 5th Galaxy Reader with some of my all time favorite classic scifi stories in a hardbound copy for $3. However, the original 1st edition paperback that I have that is completely fallen apart and yellowed I slipped into a ziplock and put it behind the books (lots of treasures behind my books!) so that I don't have to give it up either. Deborah Deborah McMillion deborah(at)gloaming.com http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 18:19:14 +0300 From: cbishop(at)interlog.com (Carroll Bishop) Subject: Re: Chat: Book Question Sounds to me like what we need here is a ritual for celebrating beloved old book friends (and those who created them). Carroll
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 19:10:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Re: Chat: Book Question In a message dated 7/12/99 10:28:04 PM, you wrote: <<Sounds to me like what we need here is a ritual for celebrating beloved old book friends (and those who created them). >> I'm with Carroll on this! A dear wise friend of mine once said, as a precious crystal heirloom crashed to the floor: we enjoyed it when we had it; now we don't have it any more. A bit harsh? But loving, nonetheless. But we should have incense, and drumming... or, no! no drumming. We should hum sad songs softly and sigh, and remember where we were when the book first came to hand. We could put snatches of poems or lines together into a mantra... If we bury them, we could start with Auden's: Earth, receive an honored guest... something to think about on a warm summer's eve. best wishes, phoebe Phoebe Wray zozie(at)aol.com
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 20:04:50 -0400 From: "James E. Kearman" <jkearman(at)mindspring.com> Subject: RE: Chat: Book Question I'll drink to that! The only time I ever did this was when Richard Brautigan killed himself. A kindred spirited friend and I had a wake of sorts and read favorite passages from his books until we couldn't see the pages anymore. Yeah, I know, but he brought me a lot of joy in my misspent youth. I still get a chuckle out of The Revenge of the Lawn. Bob, see if your library has the Boy Scout manual for the Bookbinding merit badge. Maybe you can save it. Cheers, Jim > > Sounds to me like what we need here is a ritual for celebrating > beloved old book friends (and those who created them). > > Carroll > >
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 22:15:33 +0300 From: cbishop(at)interlog.com (Carroll Bishop) Subject: Re: Re: Chat: Book Question >But we should have incense, and drumming... or, no! no drumming. We should >hum sad songs softly and sigh, and remember where we were when the book first >came to hand. We could put snatches of poems or lines together into a >mantra... If we bury them, we could start with Auden's: > >Earth, receive an honored guest... > >something to think about on a warm summer's eve. > >best wishes, Hi Phoebe. I think a rite not only for books that are falling to pieces and don't really want to become origami, but also books that we loaned and never saw again (and books we borrowed and the owners never saw again), and books our parents threw away or gave away without knowing how important they were to us and.... Oh why not drums? Sad songs and poems, certainly, maybe wisps of poems from forgotten books (or bits from the falling- apart books) or.... Books you never wrote, or wished you hadn't.... Poems about books (composed spontaneously in the style of any poet of your choice, including yourself.... And Celtic music, slow, a strathspey? -- with tin whistle and bodhran, and a spontaneous dirge of a dance, danced barefoot and with great passion, with a shawl over your hair and shoulders..... I love it. Let's name a day. Carroll
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 23:04:21 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu> Subject: Re: Re: Chat: Book Question I'd like to thank all those folks who have come up with such creative solutions to what is, obviously, a problem shared by many. I do believe I will follow Richard's advice and check to see if McKeldin Library at UMCP will send along books to the library's bindery. Failing that, I might well go to the neighborhood park and set up a funeral pyre. I don't know if I can think in terms of a rite at the moment A rite always seems to me to be a public act, whereas reading is one of the most private of activities. On the other hand, the author of this book is a poet and poetry does have a more communal feel about it than prose. The fellow who lives next to me is a drummer in a group of people who meet weekly just to beat drums. I can hear him, as he sits out in his yard, bonking steadily away on his own instrument by himself. Perhaps, if I am forced into giving up the spirit of this book, so to speak, I can ask him along. Bob C. _________________________________________________ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Robert L. Champ rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity Whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things Philippians 4:8 rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net _________________________________________________ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 23:23:28 -0400 From: Kay Douglas <gwshark(at)erols.com> Subject: Re: Re: Chat: Book Question >Oh why not drums? Sad songs and poems, certainly, maybe >wisps of poems from forgotten books (or bits from the falling- >apart books) or.... ontaneously in the style of >any poet of your choice, including yourself.... > >And Celtic music, slow, a strathspey? -- with tin whistle >and bodhran, and a spontaneous dirge of a dance, danced >barefoot and with great passion, with a shawl over your hair and shoulders..... Alternate suggestion: a funeral pyre atop a barge, set adrift on a calm lake some starlit night. We can all stand on shore with the glow of our torches reflected off the water, watching the beloved texts return to Valhalla. The Funeral March from Gotterdammerung can provide background music. No leaping into the flames, please.... Kay Douglas
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 23:41:23 -0400 From: "John D. Squires" <jdsbooks(at)ameritech.net> Subject: Re: Chat: Book Question Bob, Your original question was whether you should throw the book away. I can only say that someone once threw a book away which I found under rather fey circumstances, leading to a seemingly magical introduction to an odd author I would otherwise never have read. I will always treasure my memory of that discovery, and the full shelf of books it led me to. If the book gave you as much joy as I suspect, consider passing it on to someone who hasn't read it, or if you can think of no one specific, leave it somewhere it should be found. Consider passing the magic on. Best in haste, John Squires Robert Champ wrote: > I'd like to thank all those folks who have come up with such creative > solutions to what is, obviously, a problem shared by many. > > I do believe I will follow Richard's advice and check to see if McKeldin > Library at UMCP will send along books to the library's bindery. Failing > that, I might well go to the neighborhood park and set up a funeral pyre. > > I don't know if I can think in terms of a rite at the moment A rite > always seems to me to be a public act, whereas reading is one of the most > private of activities. On the other hand, the author of this book is a > poet and poetry does have a more communal feel about it than prose. > > The fellow who lives next to me is a drummer in a group of people who meet > weekly just to beat drums. I can hear him, as he sits out in his yard, > bonking steadily away on his own instrument by himself. Perhaps, if I am > forced into giving up the spirit of this book, so to speak, I can ask him > along. > > Bob C. > _________________________________________________ > @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ > > Robert L. Champ > rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu > Editor, teacher, anglophile, human curiosity > > Whatever things are pure, whatever things are > lovely, whatever things are of good report, if > there is any virtue and if there is anything > praiseworthy, meditate on these things > Philippians 4:8 > > rchamp7927(at)aol.com robertchamp(at)netscape.net > _________________________________________________ > @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ------------------------------ End of Gaslight Digest V1 #81 *****************************