Strange and Eccentric: American Books
From Garrett Scott, Bookseller
Some unusual American books from Garrett Scott, Bookseller.
By Michael Stillman
This month we review our first catalogue from Garrett Scott, Bookseller. Its title is "American Books," and it is one of the more interesting and entertaining rare book catalogues you will find. This is a collection of some of the most esoteric, eccentric, and downright strange books I've seen. Once you get past the first item, President John Adams' third State of the Union address, you will find a trove of oddities rarely found.
There are books of verse from 19th century amateur poets, people whose work could not be forgotten because few ever heard of them in the first place. Some of it is absolutely atrocious, but if there's one thing that's more entertaining to read than good poetry, it's bad poetry. There are many books and pamphlets in support of the temperance movement. We tend to forget the vehemence of support for prohibition of alcohol that existed in America for a century, until finally, the 18th Amendment took effect in 1920. This great victory turned into a practical disaster, and in 1933, the amendment was repealed. All of those years of work for the temperance movement proved to be for naught, but their often-shrill arguments are still interesting to hear today. Other publications in this catalogue cover religious issues of the time, "scientific" claims it's hard to believe sounded rational even in their day, and some of the paranoid fringe type of politics still heard outside the mainstream today. There is material here to start or build on many types of collections, and most will fit the means of the modest budgeted collector.
Jane Hudson; or, The Secret of Getting out in the World, of unknown author, published by the American Sunday-School Union in the 1850s, provides the heroine with this bit of motherly advice: "A woman may be very learned, very intelligent, very agreeable; but still, if she does not or will not attend to the sweeping, cleaning, darning, mending, &c. of her own family, she is as sadly out of the way, as glaringly deficient in all that would make her a truly complete and useful woman, as if she were dressed ever so richly, yet with holes in her elbows." I was going to show that to my wife, but I don't want to end up with holes in my head. Item 17. Priced at $50.
Dr. Winthrop Bowman presented this Lecture Delivered...May 11, 1882...Introducing his System of Respiration for the Development and Treatment of the Vital Organs of the Body. No question respiration is important for good health, but evidently the doctor had a particular method which could target specific organs for renewal, and purge the body of carbonic acid. I have a better suggestion for purging the body of carbonic acid. Stop drinking so much Coke. Item 27. $50.
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Strange and Eccentric: American Books
From Garrett Scott, Bookseller
Explosion at the bath School claimed 44 lives in 1927.
Here's another speech. This one from Rev. D.T. (Daniel Thompson) is called The Increase in Crime: An Address Delivered Before the "World-Wide Prayer Union," at Camp Hebron, Mass., August 11, 1886. He argues that such things as crime, mental illness, suicide and alcoholism foretell the second coming of Christ. Of course this didn't happen, and perhaps He stayed away for precisely these reasons. Item 189. $45.
Thomas Vaill was kind enough to offer us A Free and Independent Translation of the First and Fourth Books of the Aeneid of Virgil...in "Modern American" in 1870. Vaill was concerned with "trash" that was being taught in school in place of the classics, so he wanted to update them in a language more understandable to modern youth. An example is: "Says Aeneas: "I am your most obedient, / But to stay here don't seem to be expedient."" Maybe, but I think if Virgil had written in English, he would have known how to conjugate his verbs. Item 196. $85.
Not every item in this catalogue is fun. In 1927, there was a horror at a small town school in Michigan far worse than even Columbine. The book is The Bath School Disaster by M.J. Elsworth. This is a contemporary account by a neighbor of Andrew Kehoe, a former member of the local school board who committed this horrible atrocity on the community's schoolchildren. Kehoe's farm was being subject to foreclosure, and he placed much of the blame on school taxes. After serving several years on the school board himself, Kehoe had made a run for Town Clerk, but was defeated. Some attributed this to his inability to get along well with others in his previous position. Whatever the forces were which drew him to seek revenge for his problems against the whole community, Kehoe decided to load the school's basement with dynamite. On May 19, 1927, he first blew up his own home, killing his wife. He then went to the school, set off the dynamite, and killed 44 others, mostly children. Finally, he set off dynamite in his car, killing himself and three others nearby, including the Superintendent of Schools, whom he also disliked. While one wing of the school collapsed in the blast, it was later discovered that 400 pounds of dynamite had not exploded. Kehoe's intentions had been much worse than even these horrific results. For a thorough collection of resources about this tragedy, which would be pushed from the front pages a few days later by Lindberg's historic flight, see this website: http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~bauerle/disaster.htm. A few people who remember this tragedy survive today and a 75th anniversary memorial commemoration was held just two years ago. $150.
John Byers Wilson was a poet for the common man. In the preface to his 1911 Reminiscent Rhymes and Other Verse, he states that, "plain home-like words reveal some large truths - not the meaningless mysticisms of a Milton or Dante, the intangible dreams of a Poe, or the obscure fancies of a Browning." This is why, long after those other poets have been forgotten, John Byers Wilson remains a household name. Fortunately, Wilson had a day job. He was also a physician, so presumably he made a decent living. Item 209. $40.
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Strange and Eccentric: American Books
From Garrett Scott, Bookseller
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B.F. Woodcox was an Indiana poet who published his collection of poetry, Beyond the Store Light, for private circulation. However, on discovering how cheap it was to print additional copies, he upped the press run so the whole world could share. Many of his 1901 poems focus on issues of morality of women and inconsistent treatment of the missteps of women versus those of men. In one case he attacks the evils of the "deflourer." Well he should. Now she'll never bake again. Item 213. $45.
Ernest Davis was a motorman/poet from Los Angeles around 1913. His book's title, Dreaming on a Trolley Car, is a bit scary. Motormen should be awake while driving their trolleys. Alas, Davis was a romantic. Among his verses he penned "A motorman was dreaming, / One night at Mesa Drive, / He loved a lovely maiden, / The sweetest girl alive." At least there's no indication that Davis thought himself a greater poet than Milton or Poe. Item 60. $75. In case you think this might not be popular, Davis' work made it to a second printing, and that is available too. Item 61. $50.
If this type of poetry is too soft for you, there's always Drops of Blood / Prison Verse by Royall Douglass. "No. 19173" San Quentin, published in 1911. Douglass covers such topics as the despair of imprisonment and capital punishment. It's not clear whether he was imprisoned for writing bad poetry or other reasons. Item 62. $100.
Joseph Lemuel Chester was a respected American genealogist, residing in London from 1858 until his death in 1882. He published several genealogical books, helped found a genealogical society, and corresponded with Charles Darwin about the latter's family history. However, he had a career before crossing over (the Atlantic), writing poetry and music under pennames such as Julian Cramer, and writing the bizarre A Preliminary Treatise on the Law of Repulsion, as a Universal Law of Nature...in 1853. In it Chester points out "we profess to have attacked and vanquished sundry notions manifestly conceived in error, and which have been sustained so long only by that mental obstinacy which ever clings to 'received opinion.'" Among the old beliefs held to by mental obstinacy Chester vanquishes are Newton's theories, the concept of geological stratification, and "proves" there is a uniform temperature for all of the planets and that Mercury and Jupiter have the same mass. It is amazing what we can learn when we stop being so obstinate. Item 40. $125.
J.W. Shiveley of Saratoga, New York, was a courageous political crusader, who printed this broadside in time for the 1884 presidential election: That Same Old Serpent, Old Satan, the Devil, the Great Red Dragon! The Wonderful Beast with Seven Heads and Ten Horns! In it he attacks the established political parties, or the "Gigantic European and American God and Moral, Old Monopoly, Steal Rings and Whiskey, Star Route Sneak Thief Steal Rings." Wasn't that the platform Ross Perot ran on? I don't know about you, but I believe they still control the government. Shiveley supported the candidacy of "darling sweet Belva Ann Lockwood." She was not successful, though she did collect 4,149 votes (about 4,870,000 fewer than Grover Cleveland). In fairness to Lockwood, she was a serious campaigner for women's rights, helping bring about equal pay for equal work in government jobs, and was the first woman lawyer admitted to practice before the Supreme Court. In other words, unlike Shiveley, she still had all her marbles. Item 168. $350.
Garrett Scott, Bookseller, is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, may be found on the internet at www.GSBbooks, and reached by phone at 734-741-8605.
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