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Post by helrunar on Nov 27, 2022 18:54:10 GMT
Wonderful photos. Great to see Rainsborough and the Levellers remembered. Two centuries prior to Marx & Engels, Ltd.
cheers, Hel
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Post by dem bones on Feb 18, 2023 10:48:16 GMT
Bride of Dem Wonderful photos. Great to see Rainsborough and the Levellers remembered. Two centuries prior to Marx & Engels, Ltd. It's a cruel irony that the plaque hangs in a park/ graveyard almost directly opposite some of the Capital's most exclusive properties. Dame Helen Mirren's place is only 50 yards away. Many thanks to whoever donated this lovely 64-page booklet! Charles Dickens - The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Medway Council/ Wordsworth Editions, 2020) Introduction
Charles Dickens - The Mystery of Edwin Drood Jeremy Clarke - Dickens, Death and Drood Steve Nye - Victorians, Death and DickensBlurb: In 2020, Medway is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the death of Charles Dickens. This limited-edition re-issue of The Mystery of Edwin Drood has been published to mark the occasion and is presented in the same format as it would have been in April 1870, as the first instalment of a monthly part work, featuring chapters one to five of Dickens' dark unfinished novel.
The book includes the winning cover design by printmaker Neil Mattingly, as well as features, articles and prints created for the Dickens 150 Print Open Call exhibition at Rochester Art Gallery, as well as a range of new and original Victorian advertisements, just as the blue original would have had.
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Post by Knygathin on Jul 28, 2023 6:46:46 GMT
That's a good one. Reminds me of my day of yore when I worked in a book-shop in the end of the 70s. A good customer bought a set of language dictionaries. 12 volumes. Kind of the official German grammar. Problem was, some volumes were more often reprinted than others because some have fairly seldom needed topics. Vol.1 gets every few years an overhaul until today, it still is THE standard volume of grammar. The Picture-Lexikon which contains 30000 drawings of objects and how they are called - not so much. The guy was a precision engineer, and when he had the whole set he discovered that the spines were a bit uneven. 3 was some quarter of an inch lower than 4 and so on. And he wanted a set where you could put a bubble level on the books and everything was straight. For his eye the differences were huge, he couldn't get that these books were not produced for uniformity, thanks to different print years. He insisted on replacing those volumes which offended his sensibilities as a precision engineer. Of course it was impossible to order a set which was even. My collegues virtually fled when they saw him coming, I got the shitty end of the stick as an apprentice and had to politely listen to this nonsense and order the same volumes again and again. The boss humoured him for a couple of weeks, after that he grudgingly gave up.
I'm glad didn't have to deal with him for any longer than you did.
You have to feel sorry for people like him; I wonder which came first, the OCD or the choice of profession. My bookshelves would give him a heart attack; all different levels & even a few hardcovers with the spines facing the shelf ceiling so as to fit (shame on me). I am afraid you would have suffered some degree of nuisance dealing with me too. Here is the DEL REY three-volume hardcover collection of Conan, and the reason I did not buy it:
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Post by andydecker on Jul 28, 2023 7:47:13 GMT
Okay, that is just lousy and careless tradecraft. I wouldn't have bought these either. (Or I would, considering that one tends to buy those when they are released; but you could build some ramparts on your shelves with those, reinforcing the theme).
I guess this can happen today also, even if one would expect a bit more effort in the product considering the current prices for hardcovers - I just noticed that Harper Voyager wants 40 USD for a new fantasy anthology in hardcover.
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Post by Knygathin on Jul 28, 2023 8:03:49 GMT
I bought the trade paperbacks instead, they were of more even height.
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Post by Knygathin on Jul 28, 2023 9:18:54 GMT
Speaking of unusual bookcases, here is one courtesy of Graham "Ghastly" Ingels. Doesn't fit a lot of books, but a lovely piece of furniture. I wonder if he drew this from reality, or if it is just a fantasy.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 21, 2023 16:26:04 GMT
Happy 8th birthday, Wapping Little Free Library! Box now battered out of all recognition, but still hanging on. Thanks to whoever donated — Alan Cox - Odd and Unusual Bedfordshire (Bedfordshire County Council, 1982) John Johnson Introduction: There are always those fascinating oddities which are only known to a handful of locals: a quaint survival from the past perhaps, or an exuberant decorative detail; an eccentric structure put up at the whim of a rich patron, or something which has an unusual story attached to it. The rest of us have to discover such things by chance and even then we may not be aware of their true significance. For this reason the present publication offers a selection of what we have called "Odd and Unusual Bedfordshire" and gives, where possible, some details of the history or background of each item. While it is not intended primarily as a guide-book, readers may want to see for themselves many of the things mentioned, and to make this easier six-figure map references are given in brackets. Although almost all the items are visible from public roads or footpaths, a number stand on private property, and the rights of owners and occupiers should be respected. We have not included a contents page because we feel that readers may enjoy the surprise of discovering for themselves what is depicted in these pages. However, for guidance a map showing the places described is included. We hope that the things in this booklet will not be dismissed as little more than whimsical curiosities. In an increasingly stereotyped world their preservation is no longer a mere luxury - it has now become a necessity if some character and individuality is to be retained. Looking at them costs nothing at all, but repair and maintenance often costs a great deal of money; if we are happy to pay substantial entrance fees to visit country houses, should we not be equally prepared to contribute to the preservation of such things as dovecotes, lock-ups, or parish pumps? If we are not, they will become as extinct as the dinosaur or the dodo, and we shall have deprived future generations of the pleasures we ourselves have enjoyed. Slimline 28-page booklet, illustrated throughout by cover artist John Johnson. Includes brief entries on the grave of the unknown murder victim in Tilsworth churchyard; the haunted Swiss garden of Old Warden; the Devil's Toenail, Marstson Moretaine; the forsaken graves by the roadside at Keyside Road, Riseley; the healing waters of the Holy Well, Stevington; the Ampthill obelisk; the lure of Luton (a hexagonal Victorian letter box); glorious Dunstable, etc. Only disappointment: note on Clophill neglects to mention the 'satanic' desecration of Jenny Humberstone's grave in St. Mary's churchyard during the big freeze of 1963.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 11, 2023 11:00:52 GMT
Another Little Free Library treasure. Francesca Beauman - Shapely Ankle Preferr'd: A History of the Lonely Hearts Ad 1695-2010 (Chatto & Windus, 2011) Introduction
Nine Days Wonder and Laughter A Want of Acquaintance A Feeling Heart Sighs and Lamentations Enterprizing Enamorates A Private Gentleman Puffs for Adventurers The Tomfoolery of Silly Girls A true Comrade and Friend Electric Evenings
Notes and Further Reading IndexBlurb: What do women look for in a man? And what do men look for in a woman? And how and why has this changed over the centuries? Every week thousands of people advertise for love either in newspapers, magazines or online. But if you think this is a modern phenomenon, think again — the ads have been running for over three hundred years. In 1695, a popular London pamphlet published the brave plea of a young gentleman who 'would willingly Match himself to some Good Young Gentlewoman, that has a Fortune of £3000 or thereabouts'. This was just the beginning. In the 1730s, papers carried ads in which income or respectability were the most desired qualities, though some asked for a 'shapely ankle' or a 'non-dancer'. By 1900 twenty-five British newspapers were dedicated solely to matrimonial ads. Shapely Ankle Preferr'd tells the story of ads of all kinds — from aristocrats and MPs, bus conductors and nurses, country squires and city swells, and even from a man who had lost a leg 'due to the kick of an Ostrich, in the East Indies'. The reasons why they advertise are familiar: the size of the city makes it hard to meet people; they're busy at work; they've just returned from abroad. Loneliness is not new. The surprising views of Lord Byron, Charlotte Brontë and George Orwell are revealed, and every ad is a snapshot of its age, from the criminal scams of the 1890s to the sad appeals of widows after the Second World War. In this fascinating book Francesca Beauman uses newly uncovered evidence to answer crucial questions about how humans choose their mates. The result is a startling history of dating, marriage and society over three centuries — hilarious and heartbreaking by turn. A first cursory flick through reveals that Chapter six is devoted in its entirety to William Corder, Maria Marten and the Murder in the Red Barn, which placed the lonely hearts advertisement under the public spotlight as never before, the murderer having successfully advertised for a wife or relocating to Grove House, Brentford, following he and Maria's "marriage". Later in the book, via The Times of 14 November 1837, an account of an allegedly hilarious prank played upon one poor fellow by Harrow School pupils who lured the victim to St. Mary's churchyard to hold a tryst with his comely bride-to-be. We now have a "The Cable Street Sharing Library," too, at the Library Place entrance to St. George in the East churchyard, set directly opposite the mural commemorating the Battle of Cable Street. As a special treat, above is my superb photo of same.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 12, 2023 0:30:37 GMT
Interesting find. There's a kind of sub-sub-genre of mystery-adventure-horror telly series with episodes that involve computerized dating services from the late Sixties and Seventies. My favorite is probably "Spell of Evil" from the Brian Clemens Thriller series of circa 1973 with Diane Cilento as a memorably voluptuous, cloyingly caring "match" with a truly remarkable sideline in, er, special skills of a sorcerous nature. The whole computer dating service thing is merely incidental there. I believe these services still exist now in the form of "apps" run by various agencies.
Hel.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 21, 2024 18:44:10 GMT
In the unlikely event of their reading this, thank you to whoever donated — Peter Norden - Salon Kitty (Coronet 1977) Blurb: SALON KITTY — A sophisticated sensual world of seduction, unequalled by any other brothel in Nazi Germany.
MADAM KITTY — Her hostesses were SS agents posing as prostitutes, trained in all the techniques of titillation, who saw — and recorded — their lovers, Germany's senior officials and foreign visitors, at their most vulnerable ....
SALON KITTY — Where gloss and luxury hid the shocking truth.
Translated by J. Maxwell-Brownjohn
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