Bibliophemera

Here's an old billhead from 1887 for Cleveland, Ohio bookseller, Emil Jeschke. He was a dealer in German books and periodicals. As stated above the graphic in the upper-left corner, he regularly imported books on every German steamer: "Books for technical and artistical use." Speaking of "artistical," Jeschke employed a local engraving firm, Mugler Engraving Co., to create a fitting logo for his correspondence. The result, which is featured on this billhead, is a display of German books (authors Goethe and Schiller are indicated as is publisher Kosmos). Atop the stack of books is what appears to be a bust of Beethoven. This July 1st transaction appears to be for one of the periodicals Jeschke advertised - three current year issues of "Season" (May, June, July) at 30 cents each. "Season" may be an abbreviation of a title and from the English spelling, it does not appear to be a German language periodical. Emil's prof...

Bibliophile and antiquarian are but two words to describe Harry Falkenau (1864-1907) of Chicago. And he was quite accomplished at both, as well as oration, but his real passion was music. This 1903 postal card, however, introduced me to Harry the bookseller and his penchant for rare books as both collector and dealer. The postal card here served as a business communication, or receipt,  to Iowa College Library in Grinnell, Iowa, acknowledging receipt of payment for an unnamed book.  Falkenau gained some notoriety as a Cornell University student when he defended Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass against obscenity charges in 1882. A gifted orator, Falkenau was selected three years later to deliver a commencement speech at Cornell and Whitman surfaced again. His speech was titled, The Poetry of the Future as Foreshadowed in the Writings of Walt Whitman . He also composed music and played violin and pianoforte. He was a member of the Irving Literary Society (a regular ven...