Books of Wonder

[ellenkushner]

 A wonderful visit today with Henry Wessells at James Cummins Booksellers on Madison Avenue, where he generously & affably showed my nephew, Theodora Goss, d_aulnoy , Kakaner and me some of the jewels of the collection, and taught us about cut and uncut pages and bound and unbound copies.  I read from first editions of Tristram Shandy, Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and Chesterton's [ETA:  my nephew informs me it is Lord Chesterfield I mean, and "not G. K. Chesterton"]  letters to his son - none of which I've ever read myself, not in any edition.  Now I want to read them all.  But I wonder if I'll find them as compelling in modern paperbacks?  They felt so dense and amusing and . . . real in their originals.  Plus, Chesterfield had some excellent advice on how a young man should get on when he first comes to town and tries to establish himself, which I read to nephew, hoping he'll find it of use as he is in precisely that situation.

A young Brit was also there, perusing the shelves for what turns out to be his collector's passion, pre-1830s colored prints.  As he was leaving, he turned to AJ & me and said, "If you're thinking of collecting I just want to tell you:  Do it.  It is one of the great pleasures of life."

Oh, dear.

Comments

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

Is Chesterton the one who warned about sex that 'the position is undignified, the pleasure transitory and the expenditure enormous'?