Alain Locke's Bookplate

We recently acquired Alain Locke's personal copy of his incredibly influential 1925 book, The New Negro (New York: Charles and Albert Boni, 1925) which helped to galvanize the Harlem Renaissance. Winold Reiss's "book decorations and portraits," along with illustrations by Aaron Douglas, capture the cultural explosion of the time: inspired by African folk art, but very much American. Lest you forget its "newness" the book is dedicated "To the Younger Generation." The crowning touch for our copy is Locke's very cool (if somewhat over-the top) bookplate designed by Douglas.

We also have a slightly bruised copy of 1930 printing of James Weldon Johnson's God's Trombones (New York: Viking Press, 1927). The book is not all that rare, but the illustrations by Aaron Douglas put the book at risk in the open stacks.

To see The New Negro ask for Rare E185.82.L75 c.2. God's Trombones is Rare PS3519.O2625 G6 1927. 

Poyson and Malice

Though it was available in England in manuscript form prior to its first official English translation, Machiavelli's The Prince became officially available in 1640. Unfortunately for those who wanted to get ahead in politics, The Prince was almost immediately re-banned in 1643. This despite the introduction by the translator Edward Dacres in which he rather ambiguously extolls the virtues of the text.

This book carryes its poyson and malice in it; yet mee thinks the judicious peruser may honestly make use of it in the actions of his life, with advantage.

England was not the first to specifically bar the work as it had previously made the Index librorum prohibiturum, the Catholic Church's list of banned books. The cynical might say that the initial ban by the Church was not because it found the subject matter inherently heretical, but because Machiavelli's treatise urged a ruler to always consider the ruler's own self interest ahead of every other concern - which naturally posed a threat to the political might of the Church.

Our copy is well thumbed with numerous annotations in Latin and English in the margins by previous owners. The notations include many references to English history including one on Queen Elizabeth which appears next to an underlined passage that reads:

Afterwards ought hee encourage his Citizens... but rather provide rewards for those that shall set these matters afoot, or for any one else that shall in any way amplifie his City or State.

Though our copy is currently uncatalogued, you can ask for it by title and date (1640) and mention that it's part of the Hickmott uncatalogued material.

Novel and Extensive Machinery!

Our post last week about four hours of Hamlet in French reminded us of a previous post featuring Tempest playbills.  One of those deserves more attention: a breathtaking performance of Shakespeare from 1856.  The Tempest! Or--The Enchanted Island! was a musical rendition of Dryden's adaptation of Shakespeare's Tempest. This version was far more popular than Shakespeare's throughout the 19th century.

But this show was extra special. It was "Produced with UNRIVALLED MAGNIFICENCE" featuring 23,000 feet of moving canvas scenery. The actors were billed as coming from a "Talented Company," but the real action was behind them. A giant painted panorama scrolled across the back of the stage as the play progressed, showing views of the Prospero's cave by moonlight, the yellow sands, and the coast of the enchanted island with the storm-driven ship. It all ended with a Tableau and Finale by Ariel and the Sprites.

Sobering are the ticket details: a hefty $6.00 for a private box, $1.00 for the balcony, and $.50 for the Second Tier box "assigned for the use of Colored Persons."

See it by asking for Williams/Watson Playbill PR MA Bos-BoT2 f8560329

Fishing for a Title

Corey Ford was a prolific writer, humorist, and outdoorsman of the mid-twentieth century who is best remembered, among other things, for his regular contributions to Field & Stream and his naming of Eustace Tilley, the iconic dandy who regularly graces the cover of The New Yorker magazine. Ford, who was a Columbia University non-graduate, fell under New Hampshire's spell and moved to Hanover in 1952 where he became intimately involved with Dartmouth campus life. He was made an honorary member of the class of 1921, enjoyed friendships with Ellis Briggs 21 and other alumni, coached boxing and rugby, and inspired a generation of young men who passed through Dartmouth's hallowed halls.

In addition to his freelance articles for various publications like Vanity Fair and his numerous short stories, Ford also published over thirty books during his lifetime. One of these, Where the Sea Breaks its Back, was recently listed on author Brian Payton's Top Ten Books about Alaska. Here at Rauner, we have a variety of documents related to the creation of this text, including rough drafts, discarded notes and pages from early versions, and correspondence about what Ford should call the book.

Before finally settling upon Where the Sea Breaks its Back, Ford struggled to find a title for his story about the discovery of Alaska, based upon the diaries of a German doctor named Georg Wilhelm Steller. He came up with a short list of possible names himself, as seen here, and also solicited the advice of numerous people associated with Alaska, including his friend and Field & Stream editor Frank Dufresne, Alaskan Senator Ernest Gruening, and Alaskan Historical Museum curator E. L. Keithahn. The latter apparently provides the answer that Ford was searching for: less than a year later he is no longer referring to the text as "the Steller book," but instead by its published title, clearly drawn from Keithahn's reply.

Rauner holds the Corey Ford papers as well as the Stefansson Collection on Polar Exploration, which Ford relied upon when drafting Where the Sea Breaks its Back. To see the materials related to the creation of the novel, ask for ML-30, Box 14. To explore the Stefansson collection, visit our Finding Aids search page and use the keyword "Stefansson."

Hamlet for Francophiles

We have a lot of versions of Hamlet here: there is the First Folio version, two different 19th-century musical versions, Hamlet in miniature, a giant copy, the Lawrence Olivier movie script and Hamlet executed in woodblocks. It seems people will consume Hamlet in any way they can get it, but we were surprised to find this playbill in the collection. Hamlet performed at the Tremont Theatre in Boston in 1894 by a French touring company... in French by Alexander Dumas and Paul Meurice.

You have to wonder about that theater-going experience. According to one contemporary review from The Illustrated American, the play ran four hours and served primarily as a vehicle for M. Mounet-Sully's highly emotive over-the-top performance. Dumas and Meurice took considerable liberties with the story as well. The Illustrated American said, "The shell of the English play is here, the story is set forth, but its substance, no less than its sublimity, is entirely lost." But, if four hours of an actor crying and screaming through Hamlet in French for a Boston audience isn't sublime, I don't know what is.

See the program (with its advertisements for bicycles, ice cream, and corsets) by asking for Playbill PR-MA/Bos-Tre2/8940507.

If Men Were Horses...

John Galsworthy was an English novelist and playwright who won the 1932 Nobel Prize in Literature for The Forsyte Saga, a grouping of three novels and two shorter works about an upper-class British family who are from "new money." The series was published as individual works between 1906 and 1921 and then released as a combined novel in 1922. It has been adapted for television multiple times, most recently in 2002 starring Damian Lewis as Soames Forsyte.

In addition to his fiction, Galsworthy was an avid proponent of animal rights who used his fame as a novelist to attract attention to various campaigns against animal cruelty. Numerous animal rights pamphlets of the early 20th century contained a foreword by Galsworthy before delving into the horrors of animal abuse, as depicted in this photo from Docking and Nicking of Horses. Moreover, Galsworthy himself penned a variety of informational texts protecting all manner of animals, such as Horses in Mines or  Mr. Galsworthy's Appeal for Dogs.

One of the more arresting concepts that such publications employed was that of reverse anthropomorphism, wherein humans were portrayed as if they were animals being abused. Such representations still retain their emotive power even today, perhaps even more so than at the time of their publication because of the success of such campaigns in changing society's perception of animals and instilling a moral imperative to treat beasts with compassion and respect.

To see a 1922 first edition of The Forsyte Saga, ask at Rauner for Rare PZ 3 .G139 Fo2. Docking and Nicking of Horses can be retrieved for examination by asking for Rare HV4753 .E5. Finally, for Horses in Mines, look at Rare HV4755 .G3, and for Mr. Galsworthy's Appeal for Dogs, see Rare HV4746 .G3.

10 Let Uzbekistan

In 1934, Aleksandr Rodchenko turned his considerable talent to the production of a commemoration of ten years of Soviet rule of Uzbekistan. The resulting 10 Let Uzbekistan is a monument to Stalinist pride. In its original edition, Rodchenko's photographs and designs (including cut outs and acetate overlays) show the prosperity brought on by communism. The original edition bulges with images of bureaucrats.

But the book was followed immediately by one of Stalin's purges that reshaped the leadership of the region. Our edition or 10 Let Uzbekistan appears to be a subsequent printing because all of the bureaucrats killed and wiped from history have been cleanly excised.

The book is complemented in our collection by Ken Campbell's Ten Years of Uzbekistan: A Commoration (London: Ken Campbell, 1994). Campbell photographed Rodchenko's personal copy of the original printing in which Rodchenko had blackened out the faces of those purged. Campbell then printed the images with thick layers of ink making them heavy with the weight of history. In his hands the commemoration is not a celebration, but a somber exploration of oppression.

You can see them both by asking for Rare DK941.5 .D47 1934 and Presses C155cat.