A Simple Twist of Fate

"A Simple Twist of Fate" Novel by Jan Ondřej Havlak, 1921, Krilovioc & Hrbski Vidavatel, Blansko, Moravia, Czechoslovakia, Hardcover, 508 pages, no graphics.
Mr. Havlak is an extremely talented writer, his book is imaginative and well written, interesting and beautiful ... for me, a very pleasant read. Strange novel that depicts, describes, documents and details a twelve hour period that starts one Wednesday evening at eight, part of the ongoing love story between Karla Kvitova, 21, a beautiful medical student and Horymir Klima, 27, a talented musician (saxophone player) from a wealthy local family. The unnamed location may be České Budějovice, on the Vltava. From the opening scene when "they sat together in the park" through their walk by the old canal, past the arcade all the way to a strange hotel where, later, Horymir wakes up and the room is bare, feeling the emptiness inside and hearing the clicking of the clock and then hunting Karla with the help of a blind man at the gate (holding a cup with a few coins), finally ending up at "the waterfront docks, where the sailors all come in", it is a great example of stream-of-consciousness writing, then, a new and revolutionary method of creation. The book ends just a couple of minutes shy of eight in the morning, on Thursday, when Cymbeline walks by with a parrot that talks and our hero concludes that all he experienced (or imagined) ought to be blamed on a simple twist of fate, one to which he could not relate. Yes.
I read and reviewed this volume as part me cataloguing and creating an inventory of the books found as part of the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first entry of this blog).

The Colours of Lennox

"The Colours of Lennox" novel by Ben McGrenatleyson, 1899, Cauldron Publishing, Printing and Issuing, Ayr, Scotland, Hardcover, 412 pages, one drawing. Great read, interesting story, well written will leave you wanting more from where this comes from.The hero of the story is Craig Coulton described as tall, with dark-red hair, of a strong and handsome figure with a permanent brooding look, a man of few words and firm beliefs. He has a small shop on Hunt Street in downtown Swindon,  where he makes, sales, cleans and mends gloves. Craig lives alone in the small apartment above the store, his only friends are the lads he has pints at night at the Thistle and Whistle, around the corner on Victoria Road. One day, a formidable lady of noble bearing and great poise walks into the shop asking for Rowan's Goatskin Gloves, "light burgundy or dark ocher, please!". The novel takes now a fantastic turn, Craig has a psychotic episode seeming to fly high above the North Wessex Downs searching for the meaning of life and stealing pens off other people's desks. When he comes to, he is alone in the shop holding a piece of white chalk, on the floor, in front of him, chalked in neat handwriting the words "Santiago Colors". Within two weeks Craig sells everything he owns and books passage to Chile. Once in Santiago de Chile, he leases a workshop in the Macul neighborhood and starts experimenting with pigments in chalk. In less than a year he opens a shop with the most exquisite colored chalk sticks anybody could have ever dreamed of and calls it "The Colours of Lennox". His commercial success brings fame and fortune and invitations to the noblest houses in town where he meets, courts and marries Maria Fernanda Lucia Esmeralda Conubles Flores Fernandez y Cocq. The novel ends with Craig sitting on the veranda of his hacienda listening to the Gramophone playing "The Bonnie Banks o'Loch Lomond" watching his three sons and two daughters drawing.

I read and reviewed this volume as part me cataloguing and creating an inventory of the books found as part of the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first entry of this blog).

It is Cold and I am Old

"It is Cold and I am Old" poetry by Yavana Kello, 1928, Krompton & Poe Printing, Murdo, South Dakota, Hardcover, 102 pages, foreword by Joe Bellnow.
According to the very friendly foreword to the book, this is the second volume of poetry Kello published. It turns out that Kello is twenty-three, of Scandinavian heritage, an heir to a scented soap and tooth-powder fortune and lives in a comfortable house in West-Fargo, Cass County, North Dakota. Kello is very unlikely to suffer of cold, hunger, thirst or old age ... so his poetry, although technically refined, neat and polished comes from a fake place. It appears that the author frequently stays out late into the night with friends drinking and having a great time and upon returning home, after a shower and a great breakfast of steak and eggs, takes his beautiful, young fiancee out for a drive in the hills and to have lunch at the country club. Mr. Kello's literary workday does not start until about four when he produces a couple of broken-heart and broken-dreams creations and then goes to the billiard room to relax.
All poems are written in very disciplined quatrains with an ABAB rhyme schema that makes them roll easily off the tongue and are very pleasant to the ear. After a while though, even the most enthusiastic reader finds they sound hollow and "hears vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme". I never found (not that I looked too hard) the first volume of Kello's poems and would not recommend his books to anybody anyway.

I read and reviewed this volume as part me cataloguing and creating an inventory of the books found as part of the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first entry of this blog).

Queen Laiya and the Circular Minute

"Queen Laiya and the Circular Minute" by Shivo Paliterri, in Italian, 1901, Casa Editirce Onero Belozzo, Catanzaro, Calabria, Hardcover, 644 pages, no graphics. This historical novel seems to be one of a series written by Paliterri, a baker by trade, autodidact historian and author by vocation.  The book deals with the last days of the last ruler of Batruria, Queen Laiya, from the moment the nine ships carrying Duke Moditereo's army land on the western shore, followed by the two battles (Batruria won the first, the second was undecided but horrifically cruel and bloody, both combatants losing upwards of half of their soldiers) until the capturing of the Queen betrayed by her own guard. The cause of the invasion was Agate, the curse and blessing of the kingdom that has the only known world deposit of indigo Agate of exceptional quality said to have mysterious and miraculous powers. Queen Laiya is a well-drawn character with actions of clear motivation, she is made on purpose attractive to the reader but so is, strangely, the Duke, her supposed antagonist. The main narrative is spiked with too many subplots (mostly romantic entanglements of some secondary characters) but remains a pleasant and entertaining read. The descriptions of Batrurian landscape, military equipment of that era and Agate mining and processing are fascinating. The reward for the treacherous captain of the Queens Guard was a wagon on which he could load as much Agate as it would hold with the condition to make it out of the kingdom by nightfall. Of course, in a totally predictable act of poetic justice, the captain falls to his death when the wagon proves to too heavy for the plank bridge he used as a shortcut to the border. His girlfriend, who travels with him,  clings to a rope and is rescued by a goat Sheppard who hears her screams (they later marry and have nine children of which one is the great-great-grandfather of the author).

I read and reviewed this volume as part me cataloguing and creating an inventory of the books found as part of the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first entry of this blog).

Free Tree and Other Stories

"Free Tree and Other Stories" by Aayram Kesh, in Pashto, 1901, Omaid Shah Publishing, Chora, Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan. Softcover, 86 pages, no graphics. The book is printed in obvious modest conditions: no frills, no thrills, very poor stock (pulp-like) but the twenty-eight short stories are excellent. Mr Kesh has a raw but profound talent, he is a sensitive writer with ideas and concepts that go way beyond any expectation. The stories are really short, the longest has four pages, and that shows the author making his point with a great economy of words and producing compact, hard-hitting, impressive prose. The dialogue is clipped, the descriptions are terse, the effect is astonishing. You can almost feel the harsh, cold wind of the northern plains around Mazar-i-Sharif, the constant struggle of men and beasts alike to carve out a living, the subdued violence of the deep burning pride and ferocity of passions that explains the Afghan victory in the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1839 - 1842. My favourite story is "Free Tree" that gives the name of this volume; it describes a knife fight in the family's backyard during which the older brother kills the younger brother over a previous conflict (not explained in the story). People stand silently by and let it all happen, strangely the reader is captured and mesmerized into understanding why nobody acts when they fight each other to death. The story ends with one brother limping away bleeding and the other just laying there, bleeding out in the dirt. I've never figured out the deal with the tree and why it was free but I felt it was important and it left a pale yellow taste in my mind.

I read and reviewed this volume as part me cataloguing and creating an inventory of the books found as part of the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first entry of this blog).

"Breasts and Navels of Japan"

"Breasts and Navels of Japan" by Kodai Yamada, in Japanese, 1924, Hattori Kenzo Shoten Publishing, Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, softcover, 436 pages, 208 black and white unaccredited photographs with numerous charts and graphs. Completely puzzling book, ostensibly a socio-anthropological study, in fact a bunch of pretentious nonsense. The author does not explain the scientific reason that set him out to determine if Japanese social trends are influenced by the shape and size of women's breasts or the shape of their umbilicus (navel). There are eleven chapters describing in detail how the data was collected and categorized. Yamada's conclusions are more like suppositions and his theories are more like presumptions, but they are elaborately and bombastically presented in the last chapter which is pure crap. The statistics show insignificant variations in breast size by geographical area, level of income, education and occupation none of which has any relationship to or influence on Ikigai (the Japanese way of life).The pictures of women's naked torsos are grainy, black and white and very clinical images that really made me sad. Notwithstanding this, the book sold exceedingly (and undeservedly) well: within the next few years there were five reprints of ever increasing runs.   

I read and reviewed this volume as part me cataloguing and creating an inventory of the books found as part of the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first entry of this blog).

"Monkeys in the Backyard"

"Monkeys in the Backyard" by Gillon Suarez, in Spanish, 1930, Reon Caballero Sándor Tabak Publicación, Ushuaia, Argentina, Hardcover, 302 pages, nine original unaccredited photographs. This is a fascinating book, about a troop of monkeys observed in the general vicinity of the author's house and specifically in his large and leafy backyard.  The monkey species is commonly known as Barbary Macaque (Macaca Sylvanus) and attracted the interest of the author/observer due to the peculiar role the males play. It seems that they are almost exclusively responsible for rearing the young, they raise all the tribe's infants. Noting that all males mate constantly with all females, Suarez, a dedicated Darwinian, draws the only logical conclusion: as the paternity is uncertain, the males care for all the young to ensure that their genetic material is safe (acting according to the principle of "preservation of the species"). Don't we all feed to "preserve of the individual" and fuck for the "preserve the species"? I was captivated, mesmerized and enthralled, so I decided to dig deeper. My research showed that Gillon Suarez was the heir to a rich jeweler family in Buenos Aires where he lived in a luxury highrise (no backyard) and that the Barbary Macaque is native to Northern Africa and not South America ... Gillon is a fraud but produces fascinating writings.

I read and reviewed this volume as part me cataloging and creating an inventory of book boxes during the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first entry of this blog).

Он лучше чем их (He is Better than Them)

"Он лучше чем их" ("He is Better then Them") novel by Grigoriy Grigorevich Golubov, in Russian, 1940, Rabak Publishing, Нижний Новгород, (Nizhny Novgorod Oblast), Russia, Hardcover, 256 pages, five drawings by author. This is a well written book, really enjoyable and utterly captivating. The story is simple: friends meet at a restaurant where guests can play while the house band takes breaks. There's always a table with five or six guys with guitar cases who sit around and talk and drink vodka ... at every break in the music one of them gets onto the stage and plays his guitar, never more than two pieces. When he is done the guys at the table either encourage the audience to shout "He is better then them!" or just keep talking and drinking. The mechanism of determining a winner is not explained but the outcome is never contested. At closing time, the amateur table pays, leaves a generous tip and all disappear into the night. As the ending was written strongly suggests there is no ending.

I did read this book for my activity of cataloguing and inventory of the book boxes during the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first blog entry here).

"Intelectualul lui Pește"

"Intelectualul lui Pește" (No reasonable English translation) by Grigoraș Tănăsoiu-Balj, in Romanian, 1938, Imprimeria Regală Șuțu-Puțu, Agnita, Sibiu County, Romania, Softcover, 124 pages, no illustrations. Pointless and boring, this book analyzes a phrase used often in Romanian to express sarcasm and disdain towards somebody who shows off their wisdom ... a vague English translation (minus the sarcasm and irony) would be pseudo-intellectual. This book shows that the expression originated in a typographical error: the first documented use of these words is found in an article written by Gheorghe Almaș in 1908 for the satirical literary magazine "Gogu Pintenogu" published in the city of Iași. Almaș wrote about a fellow novelist that he is rapacious like an intellectual wolf: "intelectual lupește" due to bad typesetting, it turned into "intelectualul lui pește" in English "a fish's intellectual" which makes zero sense but was, nevertheless, embraced and used. I had to read this book for my activity of cataloguing and inventory of the book boxes during the "The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation" (see first blog entry here) ... but nobody else should waste their time on it. 

On the True Basis of Relationships

"On the True Basis of Relationships" by Dr. Ossian Guldhavn Kieran Sørensen, in Danish, 1922, Gephardt Absom Forlag, Rosekilde, Denmark, Softcover, 348 pages, no illustrations. This book should have never seen the light of print, it consists of edited case notes on depression caused by relationships. Dr. Sørensen, a clinical psychiatrist who had over eight hundred registered patients, was a relative unknown until Monday, August 14th 1920 when soldiers of The Royal Danish Halberdiers Guard hacked him to death as he was running towards the Royal Princess Maria Frederika Carlotta with a shotgun. The doctor's heirs intended to cash in on the sudden fame and published the book. I found it interesting but frustrating as it consists of a thorough analysis that tries to determine the actual true basis of relationships. Boredom, frustration, love, hate, lust, curiosity, loneliness, hunger, thirst, greed, love of dogs, love of cats, odd mental state, consciousnesses, weltschmerz, experimentation, depravity, lack of self-control, herpetophobia, ophidiophobia, herpetophilia, partial or total loss of vision and/or sense of smell, melomania, alcoholism, fear of anything, fear of nothing, being in the army, playing cards, having strange passions, having curious collections, singing off key, kissing well, restlessness, catatonia, whistling in the dark, solving puzzles,  building model ships, shapely thighs, round shoulders, cooking Asian foods, driving too fast, eating spicy Italian, growing vegetables, picking flowers at night, Yoga, coloring between the lines, boxing, Thai Chi, planting rumors, grating horseradish, treasure hunting, praying, painting, polluting, voting, braying, peeling onions, protesting, trampling on dreams, somnambulism, listening to Bach's Chaconne, smelling flowers, pampering, trespassing, littering, loitering, breaking and entering, grabbing, catching and releasing, pleasing others, pulling pranks, bending rules, creating chaos out of order, keeping bees, superstition, ignorance, creepiness, poking fun, keeping track, having dreams, egomania, narcissism, mythomania, kleptomania, nymphomania, satyriasis and so on ... are all examined as possible or probable but none is eventually proven beyond robust scientific doubt to be it (thus causing me frustration).  

  

La Storia di Collezione Szücz

"La Vera Storia di Collezione Szücz" by Giovanni Moser, in Italian, 1908, Edizione Fratelli Fallamberti, Pieve di Cadore, Belluno, Italy, Softcover, 1128 pages, each item fully illustrated.

It is fully accepted by critics and public alike that Józef Szücz is the greatest Baritone ever to step on an opera stage. His voice, ambition and appetite for life are legendary as was the pay he demanded for his shows. Thus his retirement from singing at age 54, at the height o his glorious career, came to everybody as a major shock. He used his time, talent and money to assemble a most astonishing art collection. Signor Moser was a boyhood friend to the great singer and for many years, the curator, agent, accomplice, confidant and author of this catalogue. Far more interesting than the pieces themselves (although they are very professionally described, categorized, evaluated and photographed) are the background facts of their acquisition. It seems that the blazing ambition and stark ruthlessness that brought Szücz success and fame as a singer made him a completely unethical collector. Although the majority of his art was acquired legally at auctions or private sales, if the original owner refused to sell, Szücz and Moser did not shy back from breaking and entering and stealing or robbing. Moser relates with remarkable candor one of several cases when, one morning, after weeks of fruitless negotiation for "Warden in the Sun" by the great Australian landscape painter Clement Shapiro, Szücz came to see Karl Burda, Baron von Blinks, and hit him on the head with a heavy crystal ashtray. While the Baron was bleeding out on the carpet, he simply took the painting off the wall and walked out.

In a cunning (and eventually successful) attempt to protect the collection, the singer's legal team drew up a bulletproof donation undertaking in favour of the town of Békéscsaba where Szücz was born. The city was at that time part of the Hapsburg Empire, as was Lombardia and the city of Brescia, where he had his home. 852 objects were taken to the basement of a castle just outside Békéscsaba never to see the light of day again. We are thankful to Giovanni Moser for the opportunity.

Abendländliche Paradoxa

"Abendländliche Paradoxa" by Lorenz Maria von Schaffenburg, 1928, Ichtion Hellblau Verlag, Behren-Lübchin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, Hardcover, 128 pages, no graphics.

This is an extremely interesting book by the young (and at that time yet unknown) von Schaffenburg, who, of course, went on to write "Didokletionastatis Glomm" which made him famous, rich and led to his death in the duel against Horst von Schaffenburg (a distant cousin).

The book is divided in two fascinating parts: the gripping and compelling "Winning while Losing" and the captivating and intriguing "Losing while Winning".

The reader will become familiar with strategies, tactics, operations, processes and procedures of both these life-policies, schemes and transactions.

What nobody could foresee is the strong and mysterious influence this work would have many years later on the lyrics of Rod Stewart, Rita Pavone and Johnny Legend.

General Colin Hawk, a Biography

"General Colin Irving Hawk, a Life in Arms" by Loretta Corwoy, 1912, Pompston & Co, Aurora, Illinois, Softcover, 864 pages, 28 photographs, 18 black and white graphics.

Prof. Dr. Loretta Millicent Corwoy from the University of Augsburg (an der Lech) is the leading Authority on the Spanish - American War of 1898. This, ultimate biography of General Hawk, is a pearl, it should be the model for any biography ever conceived, designed and written, it's marvelous.  It reveals five major secret facts that explain baffling behavior and mystifying outcomes, puzzling twists and turns of action and incomprehensible statements made by some of the principals of the story. For instance, we learn (bewildered) that the actual root-cause of the war was not Cuban independence or American expansionism into the Pacific region, but the dispute over a sausage recipe. It was always suspected that General Hawk was gay and so all his aide-de-camp were stunningly good looking, we are informed, for the first time, that Melissa Cunard Hawk, wife to the general was in charge of picking them (this is how the Hawks managed a full dozen splendid offspring). We learn that Hawk's tactical masterstroke, the chart for the battle of Cavite, studied in all military academies from St. Cyr to Sandhurst, to West Point and Evelpidon was the result of a spilled glass of Madeira on a map and Hawk's drunken attempts to dry it (who subsequently fell asleep on the floor and his adjutant picked up what he thought was the battle plan and set it forth). President McKinley later created and awarded General Hawk the highest military decoration the US can award: the Golden Eagle Broom (only two more officers have that to this day). By page 750 or so, the reader is finally convinced that Hawk was a total cretin and the favorable outcome of the war was a combination of history moving that way and pure luck. A complete chapter is dedicated to the tragic death of Hawk (mauled to death and partially eaten by his nine Rottweilers whom only he was allowed to feed - and he forgot to do do so for a week as a result of deep drunken stupor). 

All-in-all a satisfying read and a splendidly published volume.

Herman Hook - Collected Poems

"Collected Poems, vol I" by Herman Hook, 1899, Éditions Pollimont & Fils, Quetigny, Côte-d'Or, Eastern France, Hardcover, 162 pages, 81 black and white graphics.
For the few who don't already know, Herman Hook is the name Mme. Pauline de Arajacque used to publish her love poems. A tall brunette with stunning deep blue eyes, she lived in the nearby town of Saint-Apollinaire (pop. 607) and wrote powerful poetry that so realistically described the torture of unrequited love, that dozens of young men and women committed suicide with her book in their hands. One late October night, authorities broke into her home, confiscated all her manuscripts and burned them together with all of her books they could lay their hands on. M. Pierre Montand, examining magistrate and M. Gustav d'Ichy, public prosecutor for Le Département Côte-d'Or, subsequently issued an order of indefinite involuntary confinement against Mme de Arajacque to Charenton (later of Marat/Sade fame) where finally she died in 1960 aged 86. Strangely, in the sixty-one years that poor Pauline spent in the lunatic asylum, forbidden access to pen and paper, there were no suicides among the inmates but twenty-eight pregnancies (all carried successfully to term).
The book I discovered in box #1 proved to be valuable due to rarity rather that literary quality (the last known copy that came up for auction in 2012, in Rotterdam went for eighteen thousand Euros).

A History of Cans

I have reviewed this book as part of my activity for the Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation, Read this First

"A History of Cans" by Hillary Kahn, 1902, Solloway & Co, Publishing, Pittsburgh, Hardcover, 202 pages, 18 full color illustrations.
Physically, a very beautiful book with an attractive green cover printed on heavy, luxurious, off-white heavy stock.
Content-wise, an extremely confusing and badly written dissertation on cans (origins, uses, classification and future of the can).
Looks good on the shelves but a waste of production effort ... Peter Solloway should have known better!  

       

The Evart-Gunn Publishing Company Book Salvage Operation

During my recent travels in the Michigan Upper Peninsula, when I stopped in Cadillac, Wexford County, Michigan, at a Bed and Breakfast just off Granite, I came upon a true treasure trove: three very large wooden boxes filled with books by a bunch of publishing houses from all over the world, members of something called the Association of Small International Book Editors (ASIBE). My host, who acquired the property just a few of months ago planning a killing on tourist rentals, was cleaning out the large, solid, wooden barn at the back of the plot where he found these crates and was seriously contemplating to throw them into the thrash/recycle bin. In an effort to salvage them I tempted him with a potential windfall saying that old books are often valuable and many people will pay good money for the right wares. I offered to produce an inventory and a catalog of their content and we agreed to share the proceeds he providing the books and I investing my skills, knowledge experience and labor. From his greed and my curiosity this strange and unusual endeavor was born.
As I progress in my travail, I will publish on the web this log (recte blog), for yous to enjoy the fruits of my toils. Each blog post represents a book and an entry in my catalog.
Documents found in one of the boxes showed provenance: everything came from the Evart-Gunn Publishing Inc. of Evart, about forty miles to the South of Cadillac, founded in 1876 by a certain Cpt. Jonathan Gunn. It seemed he was also a founding member of ASIBE having traveled to Rotterdam in May 1878 to the first (and only) ASIBE conference where/when said association was established. The charter, a copy of which I discovered in the files together with the minutes of the meeting, was simple, it listed all members and specified that each member is obliged to supply all other members with a copy of any book they publish. Indications were that this was the brainchild of M. H. Simionescu, owner and editor in chief of "Editura Prahova Nouă" of Comarnic, Romania.