March 29, 2009

Ducroquet, Robert, et al.:
WALKING AND LIMPING, A STUDY OF NORMAL AND PATHOLOGICAL WALKING
J.B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1968.

Staggering info-graphics: the uneven gaits of paralytics, amputees, and other unfortunates expressed as tragic sequences of line art.

<-- plate 88, "Bilateral Ankylosis"

Chambers, I. Mench:
THE DEVIL OF TO-DAY, HIS PLAY BETWEEN THE FALSE AND THE GOOD
John C. Winston Co., Chicago, 1906.

Not properly a book at all, but rather the publisher's prospectus of a work to be sold on subscription by door-to-door evangelists; with many fire-and-brimstone illustrations, and 12 pages of blank order forms.

<-- front cover

n/a:
VISIT THE SOVIET UNION 1937
Intourist Ltd., London/Moscow, 1937.

How better to attract jaded Western tourists than with a travel brochure describing collective farms, hydroelectric power stations, and calisthenics programs for factory workers -- ?

<-- title page and foreword


Gillon, Edmund Vincent:
EARLY NEW ENGLAND GRAVESTONE RUBBINGS
Dover Publications, New York, 1966.

"As you are now, so once was I; as I am now, so you must be..."

<-- front cover


Benedict, Francis G.:
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF LARGE REPTILES
Asher & Co., Amsterdam, 1973.

Factors affecting the rectal temperature of snakes; gaseous metabolism and energy transformations of large alligators; heart rate of the tortoise; etc.

<-- figures 36 & 37 ["1931 Python"]


Haber, Heinz:
THE WALT DISNEY STORY OF OUR FRIEND THE ATOM
Dell Publishing, New York, 1960.

Disney's effort to calm the nerves of terrified Cold War schoolkids, written in a cheerful tone by an ex-Nazi who reinvented himself as a American pop-science writer.

<-- front cover