Bibliophemera

  An elephant in a book shop? And of course it's reading a book. This image accompanies a fable by John Gay (1685-1732) for the book, Fables by the Late Mr. Gay, (London, Hitch, Hawk & Tonson). The 3.5 X 5.25-inch copperplate engraving was created for the publication by an artist known only as Wilson after the original illustration by William Kent. It depicts an Indian elephant and a bookseller in a well-appointed book shop. The elephant reads a book positioned on a lectern as the bookseller turns the pages. Below is the fable: The Elephant and the Bookseller Fable X     The man who, with undaunted toils,     Sails unknown seas to unknown soils,     With various wonders feasts his sight:     What stranger wonders does he write!     We read, and in description view     Creatures which Adam never knew:     For, when we risk no contradiction, ...

  This oversized postcard announcement for a book shop appearance by African American author J. California Cooper was mailed on January 5 th , 1991 and got to me via Madison, Wisconsin, and who knows where else, in 2025. On Juneteenth appropriately enough—the holiday that commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States. Also appropriately enough, the book that the author was reading passages from and signing for customers was set during times of slavery and the Civil War. From the ad on the postcard: “J. California Cooper’s novel, FAMILY, tells the story of four generations of an African-American family whose emotional and spiritual center is Always, a young woman born into slavery. Her mother Clora narrates a tale set in the years just before and after the Civil War. It is a tale in which racism is replaces slavery and humankind continues to suffer from its mental chains. But Always sets into motion two ironic plans to ensure the deliverance of her children. And with h...

This slim catalogue of books from a private collection was published by the Walden Book Shop in Chicago sometime during the Great Depression if I'm reading the references correctly in the introduction to the catalogue, signed A Busted Bibliophile (with apologies to A.E.N). A.E.N. is Alfred Edward Newton (1864-1940), prolific bibliophile from Philadelphia and author of books about books and book collecting. "A Busted Bibliophile" refers to George H. Sargent's "A Busted Bibliophile and His Books: Being a most Delectable History of the Diverting Adventures of that Renowned Book Collector A. Edward Newton of Doylesford in Pennsylvania, Esquire." The Walden Book Shop was owned by a co-operative started by novelist and short story writer Sherwood Anderson as the Chicago Co-Operative Bookstores Company. The Waldenbooks chain in later decades had no relationship to the Chicago co-op. By 1932, in the throes of the Great Depression, the book shop in the Michigan Squar...

This small sample book, 2.5 X 3.5 inches, has seven examples of the buckram cloth produced at the Norwood, Massachusetts mill, which became popular for library binding and rebinding. The Democrat Printing Co. in Madison, Wisconsin is named on the front cover as a vendor of the product, circa early decades of the 20th century. The Holliston Mills story, dating back to the 1890s, is found here at the Norwood Historical Society: https://norwoodhistoricalsociety.org/holliston-mills.../

  Charles Keller Reed (1851-1921) immersed himself in nature from an early age. This led to work in taxidermy, which encouraged his interest in ornithology, natural history, and art. He later wrote, edited, and published books about birds, many of which were illustrated by his son, Chester Albert Reed. I wonder if Chester illustrated the stationery for his father's business correspondence. A site devoted Chester A. Reed, offers a well-researched article by Michel Chevalier on Chester K. Reed's fascinating life and work with ornithology and books. https://chester-reed.org/.../charles-k-reed-businessmant.../ Boost post Like Comment Send Share

This is the bookplate for Clare Ryan Talbot (1899-1981), an avid collector of bookplates, who devoted her professional life to collecting, appraising, selling, writing, and researching bookplates. She also ventured into allied enterprises with bookselling, antiques, and publishing—each incorporating bookplates into the mix. This bookplate was reserved for her books about California only, as she noted in pencil on the back of the bookplate. Below that note, she also translated the Spanish above the illustration on the front, “La Candela del Señor” to “Candles of the Lord.” Her bookplate was engraved by James Elwood Webb (1884-1940), a Los Angeles artist and owner of an engraving and stationery shop, who painted in addition to designing and engraving bookplates. Interestingly, another Californian, Margaret Ely Webb (1877–1965) has been linked with James Webb as the designer of a bookplate residing in a collection at Kent State University’s Special Collections and Archives Library (...