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

[wildwose.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman, has come up multiple times recently in my life, and I think I will need to read some more of her work and that of Rev. Richard Price. He was her mentor and minister. I first encountered him through the Unitarian Universalist community, and then we are working our way through the David McCullough bio of John Adams, after watching the HBO series. John and Abigal sought a social refuge in the Unitarian Church of Price and Abigal wanted to meet and was inspired by Wollstonecraft's writing. Now you mention it. Excellent. The universe speaking to me.

I took up binding, and book construction a few years ago. Just simple stuff, working with craft materials, not high end, to learn construction techniques and understand one of my favorite things in life, books. I love well bound hard backs and hope to learn enough one day to repair some parts of my collection.