October 25, 2009

Talmage, T. DeWitt:
SOCIAL DYNAMITE; OR, THE WICKEDNESS OF MODERN SOCIETY
C.R. Parish & Co., Philadelphia, 1888.

All the usual dangers, including High License; Fashion's Follies; Watering Places; Sequence of Evil Companions; Dark Deeds; etc. Illustrated with numerous engravings.

<-- front cover

[library record]
MY BOOK LIST
Boots Book-lovers' Library, [London, ca. 1935].

Snapshot of print culture at its zenith: a want-list, issued by a pharmacy chain that rented books to its customers, entirely filled in with the titles of popular novels.

<-- pp. 4-5

Skeaping, John:
HOW TO DRAW HORSES
The Studio, London, 1944.

To encourage real beginners, the author gently compares the ways that children and adults differ when observing and representing equine subjects.

<-- Figs. 2-3 [drawings by five-year-olds]


Erichsen-Brown, Charlotte:
USE OF PLANTS FOR THE PAST 500 YEARS
Breezy Creek Press, Aurora, ON, 1979.

Suspiciously ambitious title lives up to its claim: an almost comprehensive catalogue of written historical references to the ethnobotany of Canada (plants eaten, smoked, used as medicines, etc.).

<-- front cover


Burt, Olive Woolley:
AMERICAN MURDER BALLADS AND THEIR STORIES
Citadel Press, New York, 1964.

"Mother believed in rocking her babies to sleep, but she seldom chose conventional lullabies." Includes complete lyrics, historical origins, and some musical notation.

<-- front cover

Graumont, Raoul, and John Hensel:
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF KNOTS AND FANCY ROPE WORK
Cornell Maritime Press, New York, 1944.

With 332 plates depicting thousands of knotted ropes and strings -- some useful, some decorative, some seemingly created by spiders on LSD.

<-- frontis and title page