August 3, 2008

Walker, Alexander, and Henry Howard (illus.):
BEAUTY; ILLUSTRATED CHIEFLY BY AN ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION OF BEAUTY IN WOMAN
Effingham Wilson, London, 1836.

A philosophy supported by 22 wistful engravings of female nudes: "Any sudden projection, any sharp angle, is in the highest degree contrary to the idea of beauty."

<-- frontis and title page


Childs, Leslie:
LAW FOR THE DENTIST
Dental Cosmos, Philadelphia, 1934.

Does the act of snapping off a hypodermic needle in a patient's jaw qualify as negligence?

<-- front cover

n/a:
RENT COLLECTION COURTYARD -- SCULPTURES OF OPPRESSION AND REVOLT
Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1968.

The depravities of capitalism, depicted as a lifesized socialist-realist diorama: "A mother is torn away from her baby so that Liu can indulge his special delight -- fresh human milk."

<-- front cover


Dibner, Bern:
MOVING THE OBELISKS
M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, 1970.

World's most gruesome hernia? Try hauling a 360-ton monolith of solid granite from Heliopolis to Rome, using nothing but muscle power...

<-- front cover


Marshall, Tim:
STORM CHASE MANUAL
Self-published, n.p., 1998.

Every nerdy meteorologist with a death wish keeps a copy in his glove compartment.

<-- front cover

Arnold, Levi M.; Anna A. MacDonald (ed.):
HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF ALL THINGS, INCLUDING THE HISTORY OF MAN, FROM HIS CREATION TO HIS FINALITY, BUT NOT TO HIS END
Reprint; Sananda & Sanat Kumara, Mt. Shasta, CA, [ca. 1970].

An ambitious but unconvincing text, purportedly acquired via divine revelation in 1851 by a foundry owner in Poughkeepsie, NY.

<-- front cover