ANZAAB: Melbourne Antiquarian Book fair Malvern Town hall

 

ANZAAB (...or the Australian and New Zealand Association of Antiquarian Booksellers) had there 37th annual book fair this week, (Tues - Thurs) 23rd-25th November. Held in the beautiful Victorian two storey Malvern town hall, with its original vaulted ceiling and pendant lighting, the entrance to the fair was impressive, welcomed in by suave clad ushers and in the thick of it from the first step. Possibly being over thirty years younger then the average guest it is easy to get the feeling of an exposed knave at a masquerade   ball. However, part of the appeal of these events for me has always been the throb of the masses, the oscillations of the bookish introverts. Together we float around the great Malvern banquet hall, undulating throes of particular desire and whim. For him the 1875 Wisden, for her the personally signed Wodehouse first edition. We all have our vice and price. Not too many stalls down I bump into an old acquaintance, Stephen, a man of dry wit and solid advice he reminds me of the sentiment I entered the hall with as he tells me he is 'merely viewing with his hands buried deep in his pockets'. I sigh and agree, looking back to the cabinet with the $150,000 first ed. copy of Darwin's 'Origins of the Species', I remember how serious these events can be.

I amble along but there is a deep seeded knowledge that there will be certain bits and bobs on the forthcoming shelves that will appeal to me. Surely someone has brought along a collection of hardcover Blyton's Famous Five, and what about a lesser seen titled Verne, or UK first edition Tintins, surely someone has Eric Blair's signature...

 

These Famous Fives were presented by Hobart's Kookaburra Books (03) 62233251

The above map of the world was a 1936 (pre war) issue from a Japanese news company. It contains many interesting details from a blown up section detailing the ports at Hawaii and a precise number of Japanese in each country at the time of issue. It had been displayed by ACT booksellers Asia Bookroom. http://www.asiabookroom.com/

 Allen Lane's ever popular and always familiar orange and white stripped Penguins.

...and Beatrix

Tintin, UK 1st Editions.

Tolkein and C.S.Lewis

Sewing Seeds...Farming at Eton College

Virgil - The Georgics

Amongst the pomp and ceremony at top English boys school, Eton College, one can be made to, for more serious offences, chalk out the Georgics (more than 500 hexameters) by their House Masters or the Head Master. The giving of a Georgic is now extremely rare, but still occasionally occurs. Also on the theme of farming, suspension was known as 'rustication', derived from the latin 'rus' or countryside as the boys would be sent home.

The Georgics is a poem in four books, likely published in 29 BC.[1] It is the second major work by the Latin poet Virgil, following his Eclogues and preceding the Aeneid. It is a poem that draws on many prior sources and influenced many later authors from antiquity to the present. Scholars have often been at odds over how to read the work as a whole, and puzzled over such phrases as labor omnia vincit / improbus (1.145-146), which is not simply the platitude, "work conquers all," but "shameful work conquers all." As its name suggests (Georgica, from the Greek word georgein, 'to farm') the subject of the poem is agriculture; but far from being an example of peaceful rural poetry, it is a work characterized by tensions in both theme and purpose.

                                    

Screaming at walls : The intriguing appeal of Futuristic and Dystopian literature.

I would never say I was a fan of fantasy novels, but then there is Tolkein and Ursula Le Guin's novels. I do not get the fascination with sci/fi, but what about Jules Verne and HG Wells, arguably the fathers of the genre. It is easy to like the science fiction of these men, as we as a society, are catching up with moon rockets and submarines, computers, robots and lasers. It is not as hard to fathom such technologies, as I imagine it was, reading about these things at the dawn of the twentieth century. Remember that on Tuesday, 3 June 1952 Tintin walked on the moon, whereas NASA did not get Armstrong on it until July 20, 1969. So those reading the book before 'one small step' were reading 'fantasy', a man on the moon indeed! But underneath all of the gadgetry and one piece silver suits of the genre a desire to attatch a parable arose.

When Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World he claimed he was inspired by the H. G. Wells' utopian novel Men Like Gods, where a parallel world refers to earthlike days as 'days of confusion'. Wells' story an optimistic vision of the future gave Huxley the idea to write a parody . Contrary to the most popular optimist utopian novels of the time, Huxley sought to provide a frightening vision of the future. Interestingly enough, Wells had already put out, 'The Sleeper Awakes' (1899) some thirty three years earlier.

One name that springs to mind is George Orwell. The quintessential novels of dystopia 1984(1949) and Animal Farm(1945) were penned in the 1940's and warned of oligarchial collectivist societies and Stalinism. Much of the inspiration behind Orwell's ideas came from his experiences with governmental Myopia (short sightedness) internationally and his commitment to his democratic socialist ideals.



According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a "dystopia" is: "An imaginary place or condition in which everything is as bad as possible; opp. UTOPIA (cf. CACOTOPIA). So dystopian n., one who advocates or describes a dystopia; dystopian a., of or pertaining to a dystopia; dystopianism, dystopian quality or characteristics." The example of first usage given in the OED (1989 ed.), cites "1868" writing by John Stuart Mill: "1868 J. S. MILL in Hansard Commons 12 Mar. 1517/1 (the first known use of dystopian) is a speech given before the British House of Commons by Mill in 1868, in which Mill denounced the government's Irish land policy It is, perhaps, too complimentary to call them Utopians, they ought rather to be called dys-topians, or caco-topians. What is commonly called Utopian is something too good to be practicable; but what they appear to favour is too bad to be practicable."

For a list of further literature: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dystopian_literature

Kidnapped and the Psalm (35) of James of the Glens

Robert Louis Stevenson, amongst other things, was a brilliant purveyor of the Scottish aesthetic. No suprises he weaves a fact(ional) story into one of his best loved stories kidnapped. The novel deals with the ordeal of protagonist, David Balfour, who is accused of being an accomplice (in the post Jacobite uprising) Appin Murder, a real life murder. The characters in the novel of Alan Breck Stewart, Colin Roy Campbell, James Stewart, Cluny Macpherson and Robin Oig Macgregor are all real.

On 14 May 1752 Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure, known as "The Red Fox," the Government-appointed Factor to the forfeited estates of the Stewart Clan in North Argyll, Scotland, was shot in the back by a sniper in the wood of Lettermore. The search for the killer targeted the local Clan, the Jacobite Stewarts of Appin, who had recently suffered evictions on Campbell's orders. The chief suspect, Allan Stewart (or Alan Breck Stewart) having fled, James Stewart (also known as Seumas a' Ghlinne (James of the Glen) and brother of Ardsheil'), one of the last leaders of Stewarts, was arrested for the crime and tried for the murder. Although, it was clear at the trial that James was not directly involved in the assassination, he was found guilty "in airts and pairts" (as an accessory; an aider and abetter) by a jury consisting of a people from the locality where the crime occurred, including a number of jurors related to Clan Campbell. The presiding judge was Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, Chief of Clan Campbell. James was hanged on 8 November 1752 on a specially commissioned gibbet above the narrows at Ballachulish, now near the south entrance to the Ballachulish Bridge. He died protesting his innocence and recited the 35th Psalm before mounting the scaffold. To this day in the Highlands, it remains known as "The Psalm of James of the Glens."

Pslam 35, Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me. Take up shield and buckler; arise and come to my aid. Brandish spear and javelin against those who pursue me. Say to my soul, "I am your salvation." May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay…Ruthless witnesses come forward; they question me on things I know nothing about. They repay me evil for good and leave my soul forlorn… Rescue my life from their ravages, my precious life from these lions…They do not speak peaceably, but devise false accusations against those who live quietly in the land.

As part of the events to celebrate Edinburgh being named the first UNESCO City of Literature, three versions (tradition, children's version and graphic novel) of Stevenson's novel were made freely available, including being left on buses and in other public places, throughout February 2007. I highly recommend visiting the RL Stevenson museum in Edinburgh, it is located just off the Royal Mile, or if approaching from the 'new town' it is behind the National Gallery on Princess st.

http://www.robert-louis-stevenson.org/museums/106-the-writers-museum-edinburgh

Allahakbarries

A little whilst back I was doing some research into the Oxford Universities literatti and the strange links that
held this bastion of creative fellowship together. On fellowship, the example of 'The Inklings' comes to mind; Tolkein, Lewis and chums clashing tankards and tapping the dottle from their pipes in the Eagle and Child whilst whiling away the day with discourse on orcs and talking lions. But one of the strangest ties comes with JM Barrie (of Peter Pan fame) and his cricket team, the mighty Allahakbarries. About two weeks after reading a little bit about a sports team made up of the creators of Sherlock Holmes, Winnie the Pooh, Jeeves and Peter Pan I stumbled across a copy of Kevin Tefler's book Peter Pan's First XI (The Extraordinary Story of JM Barrie's Cricket Team). A chance occurance if ever there was.

From the book : The creator of Peter Pan, JM Barrie, was a hugely enthusiatic cricketer of very little talent. That didn't stop him from leading perhaps the most extraordinary and comical amateur cricket team ever to take the field. Some of the twentieth centuries most famous writers including arthur Conan Doyle, AA Milne, PG Wodehouse and Jerome K Jerome turned out for Barrie's team, the Allahakbarries. I have not yet read the book, but by all account, albeit far from a paragon tome of historical significance it provides a colouful glimpse of golden Edwardian summers and humerous annecdotes of a keen, cricket loving Scotsman.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jun/05/peter-pans-first-xi-review

York Book Fair September 10 - 11 2010

The York Book Fair



















History:

From modest beginning with just 20 exhibitors at the White Swan Inn in York in 1974, the York Book Fair has grown into the largest, and many say friendliest, rare, antiquarian and out-of-print book fair in the UK. Held over two days, 200 of the UK's leading booksellers offer for sale a breathtaking diversity of books, as well as maps & prints, ranging in price from just a few pounds up to tens of thousands of pounds.















I attended the book fair for the first time in 2009 and was amazed by the quantity and quality of the books, a large ammount of signed copies, 1st editions, rare and out of print stock. There were stalls from all over the UK and some from Europe. I found one particular German stall that was selling 1936 'Hitler-Games' Olympic programs signed by Leni Riefenstahl and beautiful journals from the 30's of a young girl with dress designs, photos, pressed flowers, ticket stubs and other paste - able habiliments.

Other highlights of the fair included beautiful children's book first editions, such as Tintin, The Hobbit and the Narnia Chronicles and many signed letters... also watching the OAP's getting ailse rage through the antiquarian tomes.





















www.yorkbookfair.com

A book about nothing...

The Diary of a Nobody, an English comic novel written by George Grossmith and his brother Weedon Grossmith with illustrations by Weedon, first appeared in the magazine Punch in 1888 – 89, and was printed in book form in 1892. It is considered a classic work of humour.

The diary is that of Mr. Charles Pooter, a city clerk of lower middle-class status but significant social aspirations, living in Upper Holloway. Other characters include his wife Carrie (Caroline), his son Lupin, his friends Mr Cummings and Mr Gowing, and Lupin's unsuitable fiancée, Daisy Mutlar. The humour derives from Pooter's unconscious gaffes and self-importance, as well as the snubs he receives from those he considers socially inferior, such as tradesmen. The book has spawned the word "Pooterish" to describe a tendency to take oneself excessively seriously.[1]

Pooter is mentioned in John Betjeman's poem about Wembley.

The book is quite easy to read for two reasons, one it deals with simplistic events in short bursts and secondly it is written as diary entries, dealing with the mundane existence of an Edwardian couple.