Mershon, Wm. B.:
RECOLLECTIONS OF MY FIFTY YEARS HUNTING AND FISHING
Stratford Co., Boston, 1923.

A lifetime of decimation with shotgun and fly-rod, and never a moment of moral reflection: "I think it was in the fall of 1886 that I killed the last wild turkey in Michigan..."

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Caprilli, Federico; Piero Santini (trans.):
THE CAPRILLI PAPERS: PRINCIPLES OF OUTDOOR EQUITATION
J.A. Allen & Co., London, 1967.

The writings and photo archive of an Italian cavalryman who, on the brink of the automobile age, revolutionized riding with his "forward seat" style (and later died by falling off his horse).

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Smith, William Wye:
THE NEW TESTAMENT IN BRAID SCOTS
Alexander Gardner, Paisley, 1901.

The gospels with a wee o' the Scottish burr: "Gie us ilka day oor needfu' fendin. And forgie us a' oor ill deeds, as we e'en forgie thae wha did us ill..."

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Senn, C. Herman:
THE ART OF THE TABLE
Ward, Lock & Co., London, 1923.

Not an art at all, but an inflexible set of formalities for serving nine-course meals to demanding socialites. Includes many diagrams of elaborate napkin-folding.

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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.

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[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.

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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.

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Suspiciously ambitious title lives up to its claim: an almost comprehensive catalogue of written historical references to the ethnobotany of Canada (plants eaten, smoked, used as medicines, etc.).

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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.

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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.

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[promotional brochure]
WORLD TRADE CENTER, NEW YORK: THE CLOSEST SOME OF US WILL EVER GET TO HEAVEN
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, [ca. 1982].

Foldout leaflet opens to more than 30 inches wide, to accommodate a dizzying observation deck photo panorama of New York -- a view nowadays attainable only from a helicopter.

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"Koresh" [pseud. Cyrus Teed]:
THE CELLULAR COSMOGONY, OR, THE EARTH A CONCAVE SPHERE
Guiding Star Publishing House, Chicago, 1899.

The inside-out doctrine of a Florida cult leader, who maintained that all terrestrial life actually occupies the inside of a hollow sphere; with elaborate geometric evidence to prove his point.

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Bled, C.E.:
UNDERSTANDING CHINA THROUGH CARTOONS
Canadian Society for a Better Understanding of China, Ottawa, 1985.

Even accompanied by translated captions and an earnest cultural analysis, these badly-drawn didactic cartoons (culled from Beijing's "People's Daily") come across as comically inscrutable.

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Crespo, Merlito S.:
THE PAPER AIR MACHINES
Dorrance Publishing, Pittsburgh, 1993.

Blueprints for air superiority on the playground: "It only takes one 8.5x11 sheet of paper to make an accurate copy of the latest military aircraft flying in the skies today."

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Scott, Claude L.:
THE SCIENCE OF PORNOGRAPHY, VOL. 2
Editions Erectus, [no place or date; ca. 1970].

A rigorous discipline, requiring the graphic portrayal of onanism, orgies, homosexuality, bestiality, and the "grotesque fringes" of sexual behavior. (We'd love to know what Vol. 1 covered.)

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Blunt, Wilfrid, and Will Carter:
ITALIC HANDWRITING
Newman Neame, London, 1954.

For connoisseurs of elegant form and decontextualized content, this collection reproduces 44 random excerpts of handwritten letters in italic script.

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Leathem, Harvey T. and Hugh Jones:
AUTO EROTIC DEVICES [SEX GADGETS]
Century Books, Cleveland, 1968.

A refreshingly clinical description of 56 masturbatory aids (many arcane), organized by erotic function.

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Sadler, William S. and Lena K. Sadler:
THE CAUSE AND CURE OF COLDS
American Publishers Corp., Chicago, 1938.

Emphasizes the basics of prevention: cold baths, saltwater gargle, regular bowel habits, etc.

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Zinkowski, Nicholas B.:
COMMERCIAL OIL-FIELD DIVING
Cornell Maritime Press, Cambridge, MD, 1971.

Mortal risk at 50 fathoms: "The bold diver who rushes into situations without sufficient forethought tends to have a short career."

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Axler, Bruce H.:
SHOWMANSHIP IN THE DINING ROOM
ITT Educational Publishing, Indianapolis, 1974.

Big displays of salad ingredients on ice; rolling cart service; beverage drama; carving for an audience; flambé...

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Shaftesbury, Edmund [pseud. Webster Edgerly]:
INSTANTANEOUS PERSONAL MAGNETISM
Ralston University Press, Meriden, CT, 1929.

Long-winded crypto-scientific sermons by a disagreeable self-improvement guru, who ultimately found success as a manufacturer of breakfast cereals.

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[Underground Space Center, University of Minnesota]:
EARTH SHELTERED HOUSING DESIGN
Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1979.

A handsome and confident technical resource for anyone planning a "below grade" home. (The finished examples look like basements without buildings on top.)

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[wine & liquor label album]:
"LABELS"
[blank journal, ca. 1970]

Remembrances of hangovers past: labels from over 100 sweet fizzy wines, flavored liqueurs, cheap gins, etc., lovingly pasted into an album. No text.

<-- "Crème de Menthe"

n/a:
SWIMMING IN NEW CHINA -- THE MASS WAY
People's Sports Publishing House, Peking, [ca. 1976].

In a reactionary's nightmare, the rivers, lakes, and canals become a human soup, filled with bobbing proles paddling furiously toward shore. Illustrated with photos.

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Smith, Wilbert B.; Timothy Green Beckley (ed.):
THE BOYS FROM TOPSIDE
Saucerian Books, Clarksburg, WV, 1969.

"One of the most interesting aspects of the study of flying saucers, beyond the realization that they are real and extraterrestrial, is their philosophy."

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[Charles Cluthe & Sons]:
CLUTHE'S ADVICE TO THE RUPTURED
Cluthe Rupture Institute, Bloomfield, NJ, 1912.

Rein in your hernia with a truss manufactured by the Cluthe family, and perhaps you'll join the satisfied customers whose testimonials occupy 23 pages of this hard-selling promotional book.

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Hennessey, James, and Victor Papanek:
NOMADIC FURNITURE
Pantheon Books, New York, 1973.

A sensible and eco-oriented guide to cheap, portable and build-it-yourself furnishings for students and other urban gypsies; includes a description of an entire secondhand bookshop built from fruit crates.

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n/a:
POULTRY PORTRAITS: No. 1, ENGLISH TYPES
Canadian Poultry Review, Toronto, [ca. 1898].

For the devoted chicken fancier, a portfolio of 12 large-format engravings (Hamburg Hen, Minorca Pullet, Black Hamburg Cock, etc.), suitable for framing.

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Jowett, George F.:
MOLDING A MIGHTY GRIP
Jowett Institute of Physical Culture, Philadelphia, 1930.

A strong-man program for those who wish to hoist a barrel of nails using only the tips of their fingers; to our satisfaction, the first exercise involves lifting a heavy book.

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Wilke, Arthur:
DIE ELEKTRIZITAT, IHRE ERZEUGUNG UND IHRE UNWENDUNG [etc.]
["Electricity, Its Production and Its Application..."]
Verlag Otto Spamer, Leipzig, 1895.

The romantic spirit of Imperial Germany expressed as an electrified technological utopia, with over 800 engravings, diagrams, and photos.

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Bozzini, Lidio (ed.):
ITALIAN PRODUCTION 1961
Unitalia Film, Rome, 1962.

Catalogue of 130 not-so-famous Italian movies from 1961, illustrated with select stills. Sultry eyebrows, well-groomed moustaches, and roman sandals much in evidence; text in English.

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Henry, Alfred J.:
LOSS OF LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES BY LIGHTNING
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (Weather Bureau), Washington, 1901.

"The greatest fatality from a single stroke occurred at Chicago, where 11 persons, huddled together in a zinc-lined shanty under a pier, met instant death."

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Rohleder, Hermann:
TEST TUBE BABIES
Panurge Press, New York, 1934.

Historical Development of Artificial Impregnation; Technique of the Operation; Best Method of Obtaining the Semen; Artificial Impregnation with the Semen of a Stranger; etc.

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n/a:
THE PUPPET IN YOUR COMMUNITY
Ontario Department of Education, [Toronto], 1953.

"Mr. Puppet will sing, dance and clown his way into the hearts of all who meet him. His antics will enliven any social gathering."

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["Diet Book"]
WALKER'S PEARL DIARY 1929
John Walker & Co., London, [1928].

A partly-used datebook, smaller than an arrowroot biscuit, in which an invalid has catalogued his bland meals; the inauspicious final entry (Aug. 3) reads, "Pain about 5:00 o'clock."

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Browne, D.J.:
THE FIELD BOOK OF AMERICAN MANURES; OR, THE AMERICAN MUCK BOOK [etc.]
C.M. Saxton & Co., New York, 1858.

Animal manures (including human "nightsoil"); liquid manures; vegetable compost; and, most intriguingly, "Gaseous and Imponderable Manures."

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Bliss, Charles [with Shirley McNaughton]:
THE BOOK TO THE FILM "MR. SYMBOL MAN"
Semantography-Blissymbolics, Sydney, 1976.

The life work of an optimist who believed he could save the world by creating a "universal" pictograph language, and who subsequently became the subject of a 1974 documentary.

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Heriot, Angus:
THE CASTRATI IN OPERA
John Calder Ltd., London, 1960.

"...strange creatures mutilated in the name of art, but sometimes reaping rewards more glittering than any other singers have achieved..."

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MacFadden, Bernarr:
HAIR CULTURE
Physical Culture Corp., New York, 1922.

A quack's theory on hair health, illustrated with dozens of faintly obscene photos of young models brushing, towelling, massaging, and tugging at their thick manes.

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Tabak, Aelene, and Rochelle Savetman:
CB HANDLES
Dell Publishing, New York, 1977.

Even if you're not a trucker, you can still use these as gmail addresses, pet names, or insulting nicknames for coworkers.

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Chekiang Fine Arts Institute Drawing Group, et al.:
TUNNEL WARFARE
Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1972.

Rendered glorious: In this ideological graphic novel, stoic Chinese peasants use Maoist guerrilla tactics to defeat their Japanese fascist oppressors.

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Asomugha, C.N.C.:
NIGERIAN SLANGS
Abic Publishers, Onitsha, Nigeria, 1981.

Champalm; magun; lookry; footreon; hole power; and hundreds of other "conventionally unacceptable words and phrases."

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Lassiter, Luther:
BILLIARDS FOR EVERYONE
Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1971.

Densely illustrated with time-stretching "continuous-sequence action photos" of ball trajectories -- like acid visuals in the rec room.

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[Greenfield, Jeff, et al.]:
JEFF GREENFIELD'S BOOK OF BOOKS
National Lampoon, New York, 1979.

Some would call it conceptual art: a digest of fake books, cruelly spoofing the covers and contents of 15 unfortunate genres.

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Wheeler, Russell C.:
AN ATLAS OF TOOTH FORM
4th Edition. W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia, 1969.

Perhaps one day denture carving will find acceptance in the pantheon of hobbies, alongside fly-tying and building model ships in bottles.

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Clark, Mary E., and Margery Closey Quigley:
ETIQUETTE EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW
The Parents' Institute, Inc., New York, 1939.

Here's why: "The doors of good society gradually close and the dinner and dance invitations are not sent to persons who do third-rate things."

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Svandrlik, Miloslav, and "Neprakta" (illus.):
PRAGUE GHOSTS
Pragopress, Praha, 1968.

The 45 individual ghosts known to haunt Prague neighborhoods are treated here not as malevolent ghouls, but as harmless urban eccentrics. Text in English.

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Cross, R.W. Jeremy L.:
THE TRUE MASONIC CHART, OR HIEROGLYPHIC MONITOR [etc.]
S.A. Rollo & Co., New York, 1859.

A practitioner's guide to Freemasonry, with 52 baffling engravings of emblems and graphic devices, intended to elucidate the brotherhood's occult iconography.

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Sorrows, Gene:
ALL ABOUT CARNIVALS
American Federation of Police, Miami, 1985.

Longtime carny turns snitch, reveals the secrets behind the sleazy swindles of the midway; very entertaining glossary also.

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n/a:
ILLUSTRATED PRICE CATALOGUE OF OLD BOOKS WANTED
American Book Mart, Chicago, 1937.

Apparently booksellers have always been generous: these folks would gladly offer you $3.50 for the original 1922 Paris edition of Joyce's "Ulysses."

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