October 10, 2010

Dahinden, Justus; Gerald Onn (trans.):
URBAN STRUCTURES FOR THE FUTURE.
Praeger Publishers, New York, 1972.

The architectural utopia of tomorrowland, vividly imagined but in most cases never built: domed habitats; plug-in cities; modular polyester pods; pneumatic clusters; artificial floating islands; etc. Thoroughly illustrated.

<-- front cover


Farnham, Albert B.:
HOME MANUFACTURE OF FURS AND SKINS
A.R. Harding, Columbus, OH, 1944.

All the ghoulish aspects of tanning and dressing animal hides, plus helpful advice on marketing the finished product.

<-- front cover


MacBeth, George:
PENGUIN BOOK OF SICK VERSE
Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1963.

Morbid obsessions, visions of despair, extravagant emotion, perverted action, sick jokes, and nightmares: an editorial conceit so compelling that the uneven quality of the anthologized poetry hardly matters.

<-- front cover


Hamilton, Alice:
MANITOBAN STAINED GLASS
University of Winnipeg Press, 1970.

The pious light of the northern prairies, filtering into a church or synagogue through multicoloured windows... it makes you feel kinda wistful, doesn't it?

<-- p. 209, "Boy Scout"

Richardson, W.T.:
HISTORIC PULASKI, BIRTHPLACE OF THE KU KLUX KLAN [etc.]
[Self-published, Lynnville, TN], 1913.

Uncommonly sinister: an unapologetic history of the Klan, published by its founding members in one of the most fanatical corners of the former Confederacy. Includes facsimile of the Klan's "cipher code," used for conspiratorial correspondence.

<-- copyright page & frontis photo

Heline, Corinne:
ESOTERIC MUSIC BASED ON THE MUSICAL SEERSHIP OF RICHARD WAGNER
New Age Press, Los Angeles, 1953.

Oh, that explains it. "Wagner was an emissary sent to earth from the great inner-plane Temple of Music. In that exalted center of learning, musical Initiates acquire sensitivity to hear the music of the spheres."

<-- front cover