The Lewis and Clark Expedition was an expedition organized in 1803 by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the Louisiana Purchase and the upper reaches of the Missouri River system. President Thomas Jefferson appointed Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark to command the expedition. The two Captains met on the Ohio River and traveled westward, stopping at military posts along their route to enlist volunteers for the expedition. The group Lewis and Clark assembled consisted of twenty three soldiers, three interpreters, and an African American Slave. They spent their first winter (1803) in a camp on the Mississippi River, opposite the mouth of the Missouri River. At St. Louis sixteen more men were recruited, and the Lewis and Clark expedition officially started on May 14, 1804. After over five months of difficult travel the explorers had covered 1600 miles; later in October they established a winter camp near the site of present day Bismarck, North Dakota. Lewis and Clark left camp in April, 1805, and about two months later reached a point on the Missouri River near the site of present day Great Falls, Montana, some 500 miles further. The expedition spent nearly a month portaging around the falls and then proceeded to the triple fork of the Missouri River; The members of the expedition named the branches Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin. Paddling up the Jefferson, they reached the head of navigation on August 12, 1805. The Lewis and Clark expedition then left the river, obtained a guide and horses from Shoshone Indians, and proceeded overland through the Rocky Mountains until they reached the Clearwater River, a tributary of the Columbia River. The expedition then descended the Clearwater and Columbia Rivers by canoe, and reached the Pacific Ocean on November 15, 1805. The expedition spent a tough winter there in a camp fortified against Indian attack. The return journey was started on march 23, 1806, and the Lewis and Clark expedition reached St. Louis on September 23, 1806.
Thomas Jefferson's Lewis and Clark expedition is considered as one of the great feats of exploration. The expedition traveled approximately 8500 miles, much of it through unknown territory inhabited only by Native Indians who had never seen white people before. The government of President Thomas Jefferson awarded the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition with grants of land.
Thomas Jefferson leather bound books
Saturday, November 29, 2008
George Cruikshank
Illustrator George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank (1792-1876) was an English caricaturist and illustrator who was born in London. His father was the caricaturist and water color artist Isaac Cruikshank. George Cruikshank first attracted attention by his colored caricatures sometimes published individually or contributed to the Scourge and other satirical publications. George Cruikshank's subjects, always treated with sharp, satirical insight, ranged from great statesmen to cockneys and from churches to tavern brawls. George Cruikshank etched the illustration for the Humorist (1821), Von Chamisso's Peter Schlesmihl (1823), Grimm's German Popular Stories (1824), 14 volumes of Bently's Miscellany (including the famous etchings for Oliver Twist), and numerous other illustrations for Charles Dickens books. George Cruikshank also expressed his support for the anti alcohol movement in several series of illustrations, including The Bottle (1847), and The Drunkard's Children (1848, and in the painting The Worship of Bacchus (1862). George Cruikshank's older brother and sometimes collaborator, Isaac Robert Cruikshank, was a caricaturist and miniature painter who satirized social life in the London of the time.
George Cruikshanks book illustrations have developed a small group of followers, as is the case with the book illustrations of other artists such as Gustave Dore. This popularity of the book illustrations of artists like George Cruikshank and Gustave Dore resulted in greater values for antique leather bound editions containing their illustrations.
George Cruikshank (1792-1876) was an English caricaturist and illustrator who was born in London. His father was the caricaturist and water color artist Isaac Cruikshank. George Cruikshank first attracted attention by his colored caricatures sometimes published individually or contributed to the Scourge and other satirical publications. George Cruikshank's subjects, always treated with sharp, satirical insight, ranged from great statesmen to cockneys and from churches to tavern brawls. George Cruikshank etched the illustration for the Humorist (1821), Von Chamisso's Peter Schlesmihl (1823), Grimm's German Popular Stories (1824), 14 volumes of Bently's Miscellany (including the famous etchings for Oliver Twist), and numerous other illustrations for Charles Dickens books. George Cruikshank also expressed his support for the anti alcohol movement in several series of illustrations, including The Bottle (1847), and The Drunkard's Children (1848, and in the painting The Worship of Bacchus (1862). George Cruikshank's older brother and sometimes collaborator, Isaac Robert Cruikshank, was a caricaturist and miniature painter who satirized social life in the London of the time.
George Cruikshanks book illustrations have developed a small group of followers, as is the case with the book illustrations of other artists such as Gustave Dore. This popularity of the book illustrations of artists like George Cruikshank and Gustave Dore resulted in greater values for antique leather bound editions containing their illustrations.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Homer
About Homer
Homer was a traditional epic poet of ancient Greece between 1200 and 850 B.C. Seven ancient cities claimed Homer, but his birthplace, true identity, and age to which he lived are unknown. According to legend, Homer, assuming that he was one person, was a divinely inspired poet, blind, old, and poor, who made his living as an itinerant singer. Another tradition states that he competed in song with Hesoid.
Whatever Homer's tru identity, it is clear from his two epic masterpieces, the Iliad and the Odyssey, that Homer was not describing contemporary events, but was drawing upon historical material handed down from the Greek prehistoric period. Judging also from the skillful artistic construction of the two epics, he probably had access to an existing body of oral poetry. The perfected use of the hexameter is a further indication that this metrical form was the recognized medium for epic poetry, dating from an earlier period of Greek literature.
The first evidence of a writen text of Homer's Iliad and The Odyssey dates from the late 6Th century B.C., in Athens. In that city, every four years, both poems were recited at the Panathenea by professional rhapsodists, presumably from a written text, which may well have been prepared from other oral or written versions that existed at the time. The texts of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey as they are known today date from version assembled around 150 B.C. by the Alexandrian critic Aristarchus of Samothrace, which may or may not be identical with the text used earlier in Athens.
Homer's narrative of the siege and destruction of the city of Troy as presented in the Iliad is related to a real siege which took place about 1200 B.C. Soon after these events a large number of heroic songs or lays came into existence, forming the historical nucleus of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. However, it is impossible to determine which parts of Homer's poems are based on history and which is fiction and folklore, because so well are these elements in the artistic whole. Both Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are in the style of ancient oral poetry. The emphasis is placed on the major theme, flow of narrative, and especially on dramatic action; details are generic rather than particular. The language is rich, simple, and dignified, but the Homeric dialect is not any definite spoken speech of a specific place or time. It is rather a traditional dialect, mainly Ironic, though with a sparkling of Aeolic forms, as well as an element of very old Greek. In the main, too, the dialect of Homer is one molded by the needs of the dactylic hexameter.
Homer's characters such as Achilles, Hector, Nestor, Helen of Troy, Andromache, Penelope, and Odysseus are vivid personalities, and have remained as universal figures through the centuries to modern times. Homer's portrayals of the gods, such as Zeus, Apollo, Hera, Poseidon, and Athena became the ideal types for all later versions of these deities in poetry, paintings and sculpture. To the ancient Greeks Homer was the Bible and Shakespeare all in one; many cultivated Greeks knew the Iliad by heart. Even at the height of the Attic drama the Iliad and Odyssey were not overshadowed but were recited to large audiences. In modern times the books of Homer have influenced almost every school of Western poetry and literature.
The books known as the Homeric Poems are a large volume of epic poetry dealing with the sack of Troy and other aspects of the Trojan War. These books are not the works of Homer, but of other poets who wrote based on historic legends. Only fragments of the later epics still exist today.
Homer leather bound books
Homer was a traditional epic poet of ancient Greece between 1200 and 850 B.C. Seven ancient cities claimed Homer, but his birthplace, true identity, and age to which he lived are unknown. According to legend, Homer, assuming that he was one person, was a divinely inspired poet, blind, old, and poor, who made his living as an itinerant singer. Another tradition states that he competed in song with Hesoid.
Whatever Homer's tru identity, it is clear from his two epic masterpieces, the Iliad and the Odyssey, that Homer was not describing contemporary events, but was drawing upon historical material handed down from the Greek prehistoric period. Judging also from the skillful artistic construction of the two epics, he probably had access to an existing body of oral poetry. The perfected use of the hexameter is a further indication that this metrical form was the recognized medium for epic poetry, dating from an earlier period of Greek literature.
The first evidence of a writen text of Homer's Iliad and The Odyssey dates from the late 6Th century B.C., in Athens. In that city, every four years, both poems were recited at the Panathenea by professional rhapsodists, presumably from a written text, which may well have been prepared from other oral or written versions that existed at the time. The texts of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey as they are known today date from version assembled around 150 B.C. by the Alexandrian critic Aristarchus of Samothrace, which may or may not be identical with the text used earlier in Athens.
Homer's narrative of the siege and destruction of the city of Troy as presented in the Iliad is related to a real siege which took place about 1200 B.C. Soon after these events a large number of heroic songs or lays came into existence, forming the historical nucleus of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. However, it is impossible to determine which parts of Homer's poems are based on history and which is fiction and folklore, because so well are these elements in the artistic whole. Both Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are in the style of ancient oral poetry. The emphasis is placed on the major theme, flow of narrative, and especially on dramatic action; details are generic rather than particular. The language is rich, simple, and dignified, but the Homeric dialect is not any definite spoken speech of a specific place or time. It is rather a traditional dialect, mainly Ironic, though with a sparkling of Aeolic forms, as well as an element of very old Greek. In the main, too, the dialect of Homer is one molded by the needs of the dactylic hexameter.
Homer's characters such as Achilles, Hector, Nestor, Helen of Troy, Andromache, Penelope, and Odysseus are vivid personalities, and have remained as universal figures through the centuries to modern times. Homer's portrayals of the gods, such as Zeus, Apollo, Hera, Poseidon, and Athena became the ideal types for all later versions of these deities in poetry, paintings and sculpture. To the ancient Greeks Homer was the Bible and Shakespeare all in one; many cultivated Greeks knew the Iliad by heart. Even at the height of the Attic drama the Iliad and Odyssey were not overshadowed but were recited to large audiences. In modern times the books of Homer have influenced almost every school of Western poetry and literature.
The books known as the Homeric Poems are a large volume of epic poetry dealing with the sack of Troy and other aspects of the Trojan War. These books are not the works of Homer, but of other poets who wrote based on historic legends. Only fragments of the later epics still exist today.
Homer leather bound books
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Revolutionary American Literature
About Revolutionary and Post Revolutionary American Literature
Toward the end of the 18Th century notable personalities emerged in American literature amid the tumult of the American Revolution, particularly Thomas Paine, the propagandist, whose book Common Sense (1776) and The Crisis (1776-1783) awakened American enthusiasm for independence. However, Thomas Paine lost favor in America when he published in London The Age of Reason (1794-1796), which argued against Christianity as well as against atheism. Francis Hopkinson, musician, essayist, inventor, and rhymester, wrote The Battle of the Kegs (1778), a wartime satire once vastly admired; another important satire is John Turnbull's M'Fingal (1782). The most versatile and sensitive poet of revolutionary American literature was Philip Freneau, whose "The House of Night" (1779) is a powerful exercise in Gothic romanticism and whose lyrics, patriotic, romantic, elegiac, or democratic, can still be read with pleasure.
During President George Washington's administration a leading center of post revolutionary American literature was Hartford, where a group of young writers, including Timothy Dwight, Joel Barlow, and John Turnbull, became known as the Connecticut Wits. They wrote in many forms, including the epic, but only their lighter verse is still commonly read. Of more importance than their work is the emergence of the American novel, as exemplified by The Power of Sympathy (1789) by William Hill Brown and Modern Chivalry (1792-1815) by Hugh Henry Brackenridge. The first is a sentimental book; the other is a realistic and satirical account of frontier manners. Of greater value than the aforementioned books are the romances of Charles Brockden Brown, who had some European vogue. Of these, Wieland (1798), Arthur Mervyn (1799), and Edgar Huntly (1799) are the best, though they are strange compounds of Gothic terror, pseudo science, realism, and bluster.
Toward the end of the 18Th century notable personalities emerged in American literature amid the tumult of the American Revolution, particularly Thomas Paine, the propagandist, whose book Common Sense (1776) and The Crisis (1776-1783) awakened American enthusiasm for independence. However, Thomas Paine lost favor in America when he published in London The Age of Reason (1794-1796), which argued against Christianity as well as against atheism. Francis Hopkinson, musician, essayist, inventor, and rhymester, wrote The Battle of the Kegs (1778), a wartime satire once vastly admired; another important satire is John Turnbull's M'Fingal (1782). The most versatile and sensitive poet of revolutionary American literature was Philip Freneau, whose "The House of Night" (1779) is a powerful exercise in Gothic romanticism and whose lyrics, patriotic, romantic, elegiac, or democratic, can still be read with pleasure.
During President George Washington's administration a leading center of post revolutionary American literature was Hartford, where a group of young writers, including Timothy Dwight, Joel Barlow, and John Turnbull, became known as the Connecticut Wits. They wrote in many forms, including the epic, but only their lighter verse is still commonly read. Of more importance than their work is the emergence of the American novel, as exemplified by The Power of Sympathy (1789) by William Hill Brown and Modern Chivalry (1792-1815) by Hugh Henry Brackenridge. The first is a sentimental book; the other is a realistic and satirical account of frontier manners. Of greater value than the aforementioned books are the romances of Charles Brockden Brown, who had some European vogue. Of these, Wieland (1798), Arthur Mervyn (1799), and Edgar Huntly (1799) are the best, though they are strange compounds of Gothic terror, pseudo science, realism, and bluster.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Colonial American Literature
About Colonial American Literature
Colonial American literature began as an offshoot of English letters during the later Renaissance period and shared at its dawn some of the qualities of that cultural era. The first American Literature consisted of accounts of discoveries and explorations in the new world, and some of this literature displays the largeness of vision and vigor of style characteristic of Elizabethan literature. Such qualities appear in the books of Captain John Smith, the first great figure in American letters. His General Historic of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624) shares the enormous vitality of English prose in the epoch of the King James Bible.
This rich energy diminished as American Literature became involved in theology. The desire to provide a religious explanation for every event found eloquent expression in the early American literature of New England. Among the notable books in this vein are The History of Plymouth Plantation written by William Bradford, an early governor of Plymouth Colony, and first published in 1856; The History of New England by John Winthrop, first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, first published in relatively complete form in 1853; and Wonder Working Providences of Sion’s Saviour in New England (1654) by the American colonist Edward Johnson. In The New England Canaan (1637) Thomas Morton, a British adventurer in America, expounded the point of view of an early rebel against Puritanism. The vast theology book Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), subtitled “The Ecclesiastical History of New England”, bythe Puritan clergyman Cotton Mather is, in spite of its awkwardness and partisanship, a masterpiece of American religious scholarship and thought. Cotton Mather is the author of 444 published works; his father, Increase, also a clergyman, wrote about 102; and other theologians and polemicists in 17Th century New England, of which John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, and Thomas Shepard are examples, added to the immense output of religious American literature.
The modern reader often finds more interest, however, in the accounts of Indian wars and captivities. Notable among the former are narratives concerning the Pequot War, such as True Relation of the Late Battell Fought in New England (1638) by Philip Vincent, News from America (1638) by the English military adventurer John Underhill, and Brief History of the Pequot War by the English colonist John Mason. Among the many published reports of Indian captivities, perhaps the most celebrated is Narrative (1682) by the English colonist Mary Rowlandson.
Writing verse was an extremely popular and pious moralizing endeavor for many New England clergyman and laymen during the early American colonial period. The first book printed in the colonies was a hymnal, The Whole Book of Psalms Faithfully Translated into English Meter (1640), better known as The Bay Psalm Book, by New England clergyman Richard Mather, John Eliot, and Thomas Weld. The three most memorable colonial poets are Anne Bradstreet (The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, 1650); Edward Taylor, whose exceptionally fine Poetical Works, undiscovered until the 20Th century, first were published in 1939; and Michael Wigglesworth, whose poem The Day of Doom (1662), which once enjoyed great popularity, recounts the end of the world, in ballad meter, from a firmly Calvinistic Puritan viewpoint.
Meanwhile, colonies outside New England produced their share of early American literature, commonly of a less theological cast. George Alsop’s A Character of the Province of Maryland (1666) is still amusing, and so is Daniel Denton’s A Brief Description of New York (1670). Other early American literature writings are contained in the collection edited by Albert C. Myers, Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Jersey.
In its palmy days New England theology produced enormously vital prose, but its vitality in necessarily of principal to the religious historian. Though the clergyman Roger Williams is well known to students of American history as the founder of the colony of Rhode Island, few now read his books, such as the famous Bloudy Tennant of Persecution (1644), in which he attacked the Puritan clergyman John Cotton as one of the leaders who persecuted him intolerably, denied him freedom of speech, and banished him from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The name of the Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards is associated popularly with his sermon “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God” (1741), but what chiefly distinguishes Jonathan Edwards are the amazing subtlety of one of the best metaphysical minds in American literature and supple clarity of his writing in such books as A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising work of God (1737) and the Enquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of Freedom of the Will (1754). Freedom of the Will, the first book of a new edition of his books, appeared in 1957. The Journal of the Quaker preacher and reformer John Woolman, first printed first printed in his books (1774-1775), continues to have appeal. It is the finest expression of Quakerism in American literature.
Whereas the output of American literature in the 17Th century is essentially colonial, that of the 18Th century is essentially provincial. Interest moved from issues of theology and philosophy to more secular and practical problems. Two names commonly associated with provincial life illustrate the growing secularism of American literature. The first os “Colonel William Byrd, of Westover in Virginia” , whose History of the Dividing Line (published 1841) remains a humorous masterpiece, and whose Secret Diary (1841) and Another Secret Diary (1842) are comparable to the books of English Diarist Samual Pepys. The other greater name is Benjamin Franklin, whose masterly autobiography (which should be read in the “Parallel Text” edition of 1949) is a classic of not only American literature but world literature. Benjamin Franklin’s letters, his satires, his “bagatelles”, his almanacs, and his scientific books are the prose of a great citizen of the world over.
The brilliance of American literature and thought between the accession (1760) of King George III and creation (1789) of a United States Federal government is among wonders of intellectual history. Unfortunately American literature has not kept in print the documents of the great debate which led eventually to American independence, but the writings of American publicists and statesmen James Otis, Stephen Hopkins, Daniel Dulany, Jonathan Mayhew, John Dickinson, Jonathan Boutcher, Samuel Seabury, Joseph Galloway, and James Wilson deserve to be read, Moses Coit Tyler’s monumental Literary History of the American Revolution (1897) makes evident. Better known to the modern reader are the famous Federalist Papers of 1787-1788 by the statesmen John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton whose cogent defense of the new Constitution still constitutes one of the most persuasive and authoritative arguments for constitutionalism.
Though American literature did not achieve maturity in the 18Th century, its scope at least was widened. The first American newspaper, Public Occurrences, one edition of which appeared in Boston in 1690, was suppressed by colonial authorities for lacking a license. Fourteen years later John Campbell founded the Boston News Letter, the first continuously published American newspaper. The magazine first appeared in 1741, when Andrew Bradford founded in Philadelphia The American Magazine; or A Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies and Benjamin Franklin simultaneously established his General Magazine and Historical Chronicle, for All the British Plantations in America. A host of poets, essayists, and fiction writers wrote for these and later periodical, turning Americans into a magazine and newspaper reading society.
A number of great classic works of Colonial American literature have been published by modern leather bound publishers. Of the most notable are various books included in the Franklin Library’s 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature .
Colonial American literature began as an offshoot of English letters during the later Renaissance period and shared at its dawn some of the qualities of that cultural era. The first American Literature consisted of accounts of discoveries and explorations in the new world, and some of this literature displays the largeness of vision and vigor of style characteristic of Elizabethan literature. Such qualities appear in the books of Captain John Smith, the first great figure in American letters. His General Historic of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624) shares the enormous vitality of English prose in the epoch of the King James Bible.
This rich energy diminished as American Literature became involved in theology. The desire to provide a religious explanation for every event found eloquent expression in the early American literature of New England. Among the notable books in this vein are The History of Plymouth Plantation written by William Bradford, an early governor of Plymouth Colony, and first published in 1856; The History of New England by John Winthrop, first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, first published in relatively complete form in 1853; and Wonder Working Providences of Sion’s Saviour in New England (1654) by the American colonist Edward Johnson. In The New England Canaan (1637) Thomas Morton, a British adventurer in America, expounded the point of view of an early rebel against Puritanism. The vast theology book Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), subtitled “The Ecclesiastical History of New England”, bythe Puritan clergyman Cotton Mather is, in spite of its awkwardness and partisanship, a masterpiece of American religious scholarship and thought. Cotton Mather is the author of 444 published works; his father, Increase, also a clergyman, wrote about 102; and other theologians and polemicists in 17Th century New England, of which John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, and Thomas Shepard are examples, added to the immense output of religious American literature.
The modern reader often finds more interest, however, in the accounts of Indian wars and captivities. Notable among the former are narratives concerning the Pequot War, such as True Relation of the Late Battell Fought in New England (1638) by Philip Vincent, News from America (1638) by the English military adventurer John Underhill, and Brief History of the Pequot War by the English colonist John Mason. Among the many published reports of Indian captivities, perhaps the most celebrated is Narrative (1682) by the English colonist Mary Rowlandson.
Writing verse was an extremely popular and pious moralizing endeavor for many New England clergyman and laymen during the early American colonial period. The first book printed in the colonies was a hymnal, The Whole Book of Psalms Faithfully Translated into English Meter (1640), better known as The Bay Psalm Book, by New England clergyman Richard Mather, John Eliot, and Thomas Weld. The three most memorable colonial poets are Anne Bradstreet (The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, 1650); Edward Taylor, whose exceptionally fine Poetical Works, undiscovered until the 20Th century, first were published in 1939; and Michael Wigglesworth, whose poem The Day of Doom (1662), which once enjoyed great popularity, recounts the end of the world, in ballad meter, from a firmly Calvinistic Puritan viewpoint.
Meanwhile, colonies outside New England produced their share of early American literature, commonly of a less theological cast. George Alsop’s A Character of the Province of Maryland (1666) is still amusing, and so is Daniel Denton’s A Brief Description of New York (1670). Other early American literature writings are contained in the collection edited by Albert C. Myers, Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Jersey.
In its palmy days New England theology produced enormously vital prose, but its vitality in necessarily of principal to the religious historian. Though the clergyman Roger Williams is well known to students of American history as the founder of the colony of Rhode Island, few now read his books, such as the famous Bloudy Tennant of Persecution (1644), in which he attacked the Puritan clergyman John Cotton as one of the leaders who persecuted him intolerably, denied him freedom of speech, and banished him from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The name of the Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards is associated popularly with his sermon “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God” (1741), but what chiefly distinguishes Jonathan Edwards are the amazing subtlety of one of the best metaphysical minds in American literature and supple clarity of his writing in such books as A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising work of God (1737) and the Enquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of Freedom of the Will (1754). Freedom of the Will, the first book of a new edition of his books, appeared in 1957. The Journal of the Quaker preacher and reformer John Woolman, first printed first printed in his books (1774-1775), continues to have appeal. It is the finest expression of Quakerism in American literature.
Whereas the output of American literature in the 17Th century is essentially colonial, that of the 18Th century is essentially provincial. Interest moved from issues of theology and philosophy to more secular and practical problems. Two names commonly associated with provincial life illustrate the growing secularism of American literature. The first os “Colonel William Byrd, of Westover in Virginia” , whose History of the Dividing Line (published 1841) remains a humorous masterpiece, and whose Secret Diary (1841) and Another Secret Diary (1842) are comparable to the books of English Diarist Samual Pepys. The other greater name is Benjamin Franklin, whose masterly autobiography (which should be read in the “Parallel Text” edition of 1949) is a classic of not only American literature but world literature. Benjamin Franklin’s letters, his satires, his “bagatelles”, his almanacs, and his scientific books are the prose of a great citizen of the world over.
The brilliance of American literature and thought between the accession (1760) of King George III and creation (1789) of a United States Federal government is among wonders of intellectual history. Unfortunately American literature has not kept in print the documents of the great debate which led eventually to American independence, but the writings of American publicists and statesmen James Otis, Stephen Hopkins, Daniel Dulany, Jonathan Mayhew, John Dickinson, Jonathan Boutcher, Samuel Seabury, Joseph Galloway, and James Wilson deserve to be read, Moses Coit Tyler’s monumental Literary History of the American Revolution (1897) makes evident. Better known to the modern reader are the famous Federalist Papers of 1787-1788 by the statesmen John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton whose cogent defense of the new Constitution still constitutes one of the most persuasive and authoritative arguments for constitutionalism.
Though American literature did not achieve maturity in the 18Th century, its scope at least was widened. The first American newspaper, Public Occurrences, one edition of which appeared in Boston in 1690, was suppressed by colonial authorities for lacking a license. Fourteen years later John Campbell founded the Boston News Letter, the first continuously published American newspaper. The magazine first appeared in 1741, when Andrew Bradford founded in Philadelphia The American Magazine; or A Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies and Benjamin Franklin simultaneously established his General Magazine and Historical Chronicle, for All the British Plantations in America. A host of poets, essayists, and fiction writers wrote for these and later periodical, turning Americans into a magazine and newspaper reading society.
A number of great classic works of Colonial American literature have been published by modern leather bound publishers. Of the most notable are various books included in the Franklin Library’s 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature .
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
D H Lawrence
About D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930) was an English writer and poet who was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, and educated at the University College, Nottingham. In 1914 D. H. Lawrence married Frieda von Richthofen, sister of the German military aviator Baron Manfred von Richthofen. D. H. Lawrence was afflicted with Tuberculosis, and traveled abroad in search of a climate that might benefit his health. The impressions he gathered in Italy, Sardinia, Australia, Mexico, and New Mexico gave Lawrence material for travel books and backgrounds for some of his fiction.
D. H. Lawrence was one of the most important English writers of the first quarter of the 20Th century. D. H. Lawrence is noted particularly for his books and short stories dealing frankly with the sex relationship in its psychological and physical aspects. Lawrence was one of the earliest of modern English writers to employ the principals of psychoanalysis in fiction. Because of their outspokenness, several of D. H. Lawrence's books were suppressed in England and the United States, but in time the ban on the books was removed.
D. H. Lawrence's masterpiece is generally considered to be the book Sons and Lovers (1913), a profound and moving study of the relationship between mother and son. Others of his books are The White Peacock (1911), The Trespasser (1912), The Rainbow (1915), The Lost Girl (1920), Women in Love (1921), Aaron's Rod (1922), Kangaroo (1923), The Plumed Serpent (1926), Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), and The Virgin and the Gypsy (1930. D. H. Lawrence's books of verse include Look! We Have Come Through (1917), Amores, Birds, Beasts, and Flowers (1925), and a book of collected poems (1928). Miscellaneous books by D. H. Lawrence include Twilight in Italy (1916), Sea and Sardinia (1921), Mornings in Mexico (1927), Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious (1921), and Studies in Classical American Literature (1923).
D. H. Lawrence leather bound books
David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930) was an English writer and poet who was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, and educated at the University College, Nottingham. In 1914 D. H. Lawrence married Frieda von Richthofen, sister of the German military aviator Baron Manfred von Richthofen. D. H. Lawrence was afflicted with Tuberculosis, and traveled abroad in search of a climate that might benefit his health. The impressions he gathered in Italy, Sardinia, Australia, Mexico, and New Mexico gave Lawrence material for travel books and backgrounds for some of his fiction.
D. H. Lawrence was one of the most important English writers of the first quarter of the 20Th century. D. H. Lawrence is noted particularly for his books and short stories dealing frankly with the sex relationship in its psychological and physical aspects. Lawrence was one of the earliest of modern English writers to employ the principals of psychoanalysis in fiction. Because of their outspokenness, several of D. H. Lawrence's books were suppressed in England and the United States, but in time the ban on the books was removed.
D. H. Lawrence's masterpiece is generally considered to be the book Sons and Lovers (1913), a profound and moving study of the relationship between mother and son. Others of his books are The White Peacock (1911), The Trespasser (1912), The Rainbow (1915), The Lost Girl (1920), Women in Love (1921), Aaron's Rod (1922), Kangaroo (1923), The Plumed Serpent (1926), Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), and The Virgin and the Gypsy (1930. D. H. Lawrence's books of verse include Look! We Have Come Through (1917), Amores, Birds, Beasts, and Flowers (1925), and a book of collected poems (1928). Miscellaneous books by D. H. Lawrence include Twilight in Italy (1916), Sea and Sardinia (1921), Mornings in Mexico (1927), Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious (1921), and Studies in Classical American Literature (1923).
D. H. Lawrence leather bound books
Monday, November 24, 2008
Edgar Rice Burroughs
About Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) was an American writer who was born in Chicago and educated at the Harvard School, Chicago, Phillips Academy, Andover, and Michigan Military Academy. Edgar Rice Burroughs was a soldier, business executive, gold miner, cowboy, storekeeper, and police officer before turning to writing as a career. Edgar Rice Burroughs is mainly known as the creator of the fictional character Tarzan; his numerous adventure books with Tarzan as the principal character achieved widespread popularity, and many movies and television shows were based on the books and characters. Among Edgar Rice Burroughs' books are Tarzan of the Apes (1914), The Son of Tarzan (1917), The Gods of Mars (1918), Pirates of Venus (1934, Tarzan and the Forbidden City (1938), Tarzan the Magnificent (1939), The Land of Terror (1944), Liana of Gathol (1948) and countless more books. The Easton Press published a number of Edgar Rice Burroughs books as leather bound editions. They include At Earth's Core and Princess of Mars, a six volume collection of Tarzan Books, and a five volume collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars Tales.
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) was an American writer who was born in Chicago and educated at the Harvard School, Chicago, Phillips Academy, Andover, and Michigan Military Academy. Edgar Rice Burroughs was a soldier, business executive, gold miner, cowboy, storekeeper, and police officer before turning to writing as a career. Edgar Rice Burroughs is mainly known as the creator of the fictional character Tarzan; his numerous adventure books with Tarzan as the principal character achieved widespread popularity, and many movies and television shows were based on the books and characters. Among Edgar Rice Burroughs' books are Tarzan of the Apes (1914), The Son of Tarzan (1917), The Gods of Mars (1918), Pirates of Venus (1934, Tarzan and the Forbidden City (1938), Tarzan the Magnificent (1939), The Land of Terror (1944), Liana of Gathol (1948) and countless more books. The Easton Press published a number of Edgar Rice Burroughs books as leather bound editions. They include At Earth's Core and Princess of Mars, a six volume collection of Tarzan Books, and a five volume collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars Tales.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Ring Lardner
About Ring Lardner
Ringgold Wilmer Lardner (1885-1935) was an American short story writer who was born in Niles Michigan. From 1907 to 1919 Ring Lardner was a columnist and sports reporter on newspapers in Chicago, St. Louis, Boston, and New York City. Ring Lardner first attracted attention as a writer of fiction with a series of humorous magazine stories about a young baseball player trying to win a place on a professional baseball team. These short stories, written in the slangy language of baseball, were later published as a book under the title You Know me, Al; a Busher's Letters (1916). In a number of later books, including Treat 'Em Rough (1918)and the book The Big Town (1921), Ring Lardner depicted the life of ordinary Americans with satirical humor. In the books of the last decade of Ring Lardner's life, his humor become more disillusioned and bitter. Ring Lardner's tales of boxers, salesmen, theatrical people, and American song writers display his thorough knowledge of their characters and keen ear for the phraseology and accents of ordinary American speech. The first of Ring Lardner's books of mordant and realistic short stories was How to Write Short Stories (1924); other collections of short stories are What of It (1925), The Love Nest (1926), and The Round Up (1929), a collection of his short stories.
Rind Lardner also wrote an autobiography The Story of a Wonderful Man (1927); and, with playwright George S. Kaufman, June Moon (1929), a satirical play about American song writers.
The most notable leather bound Ring Lardner book is The Round Up which was published by the Franklin Library.
Ring Lardner leather bound books
Ringgold Wilmer Lardner (1885-1935) was an American short story writer who was born in Niles Michigan. From 1907 to 1919 Ring Lardner was a columnist and sports reporter on newspapers in Chicago, St. Louis, Boston, and New York City. Ring Lardner first attracted attention as a writer of fiction with a series of humorous magazine stories about a young baseball player trying to win a place on a professional baseball team. These short stories, written in the slangy language of baseball, were later published as a book under the title You Know me, Al; a Busher's Letters (1916). In a number of later books, including Treat 'Em Rough (1918)and the book The Big Town (1921), Ring Lardner depicted the life of ordinary Americans with satirical humor. In the books of the last decade of Ring Lardner's life, his humor become more disillusioned and bitter. Ring Lardner's tales of boxers, salesmen, theatrical people, and American song writers display his thorough knowledge of their characters and keen ear for the phraseology and accents of ordinary American speech. The first of Ring Lardner's books of mordant and realistic short stories was How to Write Short Stories (1924); other collections of short stories are What of It (1925), The Love Nest (1926), and The Round Up (1929), a collection of his short stories.
Rind Lardner also wrote an autobiography The Story of a Wonderful Man (1927); and, with playwright George S. Kaufman, June Moon (1929), a satirical play about American song writers.
The most notable leather bound Ring Lardner book is The Round Up which was published by the Franklin Library.
Ring Lardner leather bound books
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Franz Kafka
Author Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was an Austrian novelist, short story writer, and essayist, who was born in Prague, and educated at the German University of Prague. For most of Franz Kafka's life he was an Austrian civil service worker, and did his writing in the time left after his duties. Franz Kafka is considered one of the most significant European writers of the first quarter of the 20th century. The theme of Kafka's work is the frustration, bewilderment, and loneliness of modern man. Franz Kafka's heroes, oppressed by an inherent sense of guilt, find themselves in constant conflict with the incomprehensible laws of a vindictive God. Their efforts to understand the authorities by whom they are pursued and the laws by which they are judged are doomed to failure; yet Kafka also believed that something indestructible exists in man, and that he must live and fight against his incomprehensible fate. Franz Kafka stories are marked by an irrational and dreamlike quality. In philosophy his doctrine is akin to that of the Danish philosopher Soren Aabye Kierkegaard and to that of the 20th century French philosophical and literary movement existentialism. In literary technique Franz Kafka's books have the qualities of both expressionism and surrealism. The only books of Franz Kafka published during his lifetime are Contemplation (1913), a collection of his miscellaneous prose; several short stories: The Judgment (1913), The Metamorphosis (1916), and the volume of short stories A Country Doctor (1919); and a volume of miscellaneous prose, A Hunger Artist (1923).
Franz Kafka is best known for three unfinished novels edited by his friend the German writer Max Brod, and posthumously published in spite of Franz Kafka's order that the manuscripts were to be destroyed after his death. These books are The Trial (1924), The Castle (1926), and Amerika (1927). Max Brod also edited Franz Kafka's Collected Writings (1937).
Franz Kafka leather bound books
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was an Austrian novelist, short story writer, and essayist, who was born in Prague, and educated at the German University of Prague. For most of Franz Kafka's life he was an Austrian civil service worker, and did his writing in the time left after his duties. Franz Kafka is considered one of the most significant European writers of the first quarter of the 20th century. The theme of Kafka's work is the frustration, bewilderment, and loneliness of modern man. Franz Kafka's heroes, oppressed by an inherent sense of guilt, find themselves in constant conflict with the incomprehensible laws of a vindictive God. Their efforts to understand the authorities by whom they are pursued and the laws by which they are judged are doomed to failure; yet Kafka also believed that something indestructible exists in man, and that he must live and fight against his incomprehensible fate. Franz Kafka stories are marked by an irrational and dreamlike quality. In philosophy his doctrine is akin to that of the Danish philosopher Soren Aabye Kierkegaard and to that of the 20th century French philosophical and literary movement existentialism. In literary technique Franz Kafka's books have the qualities of both expressionism and surrealism. The only books of Franz Kafka published during his lifetime are Contemplation (1913), a collection of his miscellaneous prose; several short stories: The Judgment (1913), The Metamorphosis (1916), and the volume of short stories A Country Doctor (1919); and a volume of miscellaneous prose, A Hunger Artist (1923).
Franz Kafka is best known for three unfinished novels edited by his friend the German writer Max Brod, and posthumously published in spite of Franz Kafka's order that the manuscripts were to be destroyed after his death. These books are The Trial (1924), The Castle (1926), and Amerika (1927). Max Brod also edited Franz Kafka's Collected Writings (1937).
Franz Kafka leather bound books
Friday, November 21, 2008
Iliad by Homer
Homer's Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem by the Greek poet Homer, recounting the siege and destruction of Troy during the Trojan War, around 1200 B.C. The Iliad is regarded by literary historians as the first great Greek poetic work in Greek literature, and has been considered for generations as one of the great supreme masterpieces of world literature. Especially notable in the Iliad are the heroic action, the dramatic emotional crises engendered by by the clashing personalities of the Iliad's characters, and the imaginative beauty of it's language. The exact date that the Iliad was written is uncertain, however it is believed by some to have been written in the 10th century B.C. The first text of the Iliad is known to have appeared in the 6th century B.C. in Athens, where it was recited at the annual festival of Panathenea by Professional Rhapsodists. This mystery is famous as part of the Homeric Question which involves the question of the true identity of Homer.
The text of the Iliad as it exists today dates from written around 150 B.C. in Alexandria, and is divided into the twenty four books of the Iliad.
Homer leather bound books
The Iliad is an epic poem by the Greek poet Homer, recounting the siege and destruction of Troy during the Trojan War, around 1200 B.C. The Iliad is regarded by literary historians as the first great Greek poetic work in Greek literature, and has been considered for generations as one of the great supreme masterpieces of world literature. Especially notable in the Iliad are the heroic action, the dramatic emotional crises engendered by by the clashing personalities of the Iliad's characters, and the imaginative beauty of it's language. The exact date that the Iliad was written is uncertain, however it is believed by some to have been written in the 10th century B.C. The first text of the Iliad is known to have appeared in the 6th century B.C. in Athens, where it was recited at the annual festival of Panathenea by Professional Rhapsodists. This mystery is famous as part of the Homeric Question which involves the question of the true identity of Homer.
The text of the Iliad as it exists today dates from written around 150 B.C. in Alexandria, and is divided into the twenty four books of the Iliad.
Homer leather bound books
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Sir Edmund Hillary
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary
Edmund Hillary was a New Zealand apiarist and mountain climber, who was born in Auckland, and educated at Auckland Grammar School. During World War Two he served in the New Zealand Air Force.
An experienced skier and mountaineer, Edmund Hillary participated in expeditions to the Himalaya in 1951 and 1952. Edmund Hillary joined the British Mt. Everest Expedition of 1953 as one of the chief climbers. Together with the Nepalese Sherpa mountain climber Tensing Norgay, Edmund Hillary reached the summit of Mt. Everest on May 29, 1953. Later that year Edmund Hillary was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain for his achievement. Beginning in late 1956 Hillary headed the New Zealand party of the British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, an expedition organized in connection with the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958. Edmund Hillary subsequently led several Himalaya expeditions. Sir Edmund Hillary is the author of a number of books including High Adventure and View from the Summit, both were published as signed editions by the Easton Press. Among his other books are East of Everest, No Latitude for Error and High in the Thin Cold Air.
Sir Edmund Hillary leather bound books
Edmund Hillary was a New Zealand apiarist and mountain climber, who was born in Auckland, and educated at Auckland Grammar School. During World War Two he served in the New Zealand Air Force.
An experienced skier and mountaineer, Edmund Hillary participated in expeditions to the Himalaya in 1951 and 1952. Edmund Hillary joined the British Mt. Everest Expedition of 1953 as one of the chief climbers. Together with the Nepalese Sherpa mountain climber Tensing Norgay, Edmund Hillary reached the summit of Mt. Everest on May 29, 1953. Later that year Edmund Hillary was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain for his achievement. Beginning in late 1956 Hillary headed the New Zealand party of the British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, an expedition organized in connection with the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958. Edmund Hillary subsequently led several Himalaya expeditions. Sir Edmund Hillary is the author of a number of books including High Adventure and View from the Summit, both were published as signed editions by the Easton Press. Among his other books are East of Everest, No Latitude for Error and High in the Thin Cold Air.
Sir Edmund Hillary leather bound books
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Gustave Dore
Gustave Dore illustrations in leather bound books
Gustave(Paul)Dore,(1833-83), was a French illustrator and painter, born in Strasbourg. Gustave Dore was a precocious artist; at the age of fifteen he was regularly employed as an illustrator for the periodical Journal pour Rire. Gustave Dore is best known for his book illustrations, which are characterized by dramatic action against weird and gloomy backgrounds; the drawing, due to its insufficient training, is often faulty. The book illustrations of Gustave Dore has developed a strong following as can be seen with other book illustrators such as George Cruickshank. Among the books which Gustave Dore illustrated were editions of the works of Rabelais (1854), Balzac’s Contes Drolatiques (1856), Dante’s Inferno (1861), Cervantes, Don Quixote (1863), La Fontaine's Fables (1866), John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1866), Arista’s Orlando Furioso (1880), and Poe’s Raven (1883). Among his paintings are "Battle of the Alma" (1855), "Paolo et Francesca da Rimini' (1863), and "Neophyte" (1868).
A number of leather bound books have been published with illustrations from Gustave Dore. Some of the most notable modern leather bound books are the Franklin Library's Paradise Lost by John Milton and Don Quixote and the two voluume edition of Gargantua & Pantagruel published as part of the 25th Anniversary edition of the Great Books of the Western World.
Gustave(Paul)Dore,(1833-83), was a French illustrator and painter, born in Strasbourg. Gustave Dore was a precocious artist; at the age of fifteen he was regularly employed as an illustrator for the periodical Journal pour Rire. Gustave Dore is best known for his book illustrations, which are characterized by dramatic action against weird and gloomy backgrounds; the drawing, due to its insufficient training, is often faulty. The book illustrations of Gustave Dore has developed a strong following as can be seen with other book illustrators such as George Cruickshank. Among the books which Gustave Dore illustrated were editions of the works of Rabelais (1854), Balzac’s Contes Drolatiques (1856), Dante’s Inferno (1861), Cervantes, Don Quixote (1863), La Fontaine's Fables (1866), John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1866), Arista’s Orlando Furioso (1880), and Poe’s Raven (1883). Among his paintings are "Battle of the Alma" (1855), "Paolo et Francesca da Rimini' (1863), and "Neophyte" (1868).
A number of leather bound books have been published with illustrations from Gustave Dore. Some of the most notable modern leather bound books are the Franklin Library's Paradise Lost by John Milton and Don Quixote and the two voluume edition of Gargantua & Pantagruel published as part of the 25th Anniversary edition of the Great Books of the Western World.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Doris Kearns Goodwin - Lincoln Book
In response to the two questions we have received about a leather bound edition of Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about Abraham Lincoln, that was referred to by President Elect Barack Obama, the answer in yes the Easton Press published a signed first edition of Team of Rivals. In addition to Team of Rivals, the Easton Press also published Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream by Doris Kearns Goodwin. This book was published as part of the Library of Presidents and was not signed by Doris Kearns Goodwin. The Library of Presidents does not however include any President Abraham Lincoln books by her. The Franklin Library did not publish any books by Doris Kearns Goodwin. For more information on the Doris Kearns Goodwin books referred to please visit our pages listed below.
Signed Doris Kearns Goodwin Leather Bound Books
Leather Bound President Lyndon Johnson Books
Signed Doris Kearns Goodwin Leather Bound Books
Leather Bound President Lyndon Johnson Books
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Michael Crichton
In Memory of Michael Crichton a great American Author October 23, 1942 - November 4, 2008.
We at Leather Bound Treasure are deeply saddened by news of Michael Crichton's passing. Michael Crichton was one of America's great modern authors, best known for works like Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain. Crichton had a number of books published by the Franklin Library including Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Congo, Disclosure, Rising Sun, Travels and Air Frame. The Easton Press published Michael Crichton's famous book The Andromeda Strain. We will never know what other classic books Michael Crichton would have given us if he had more time!
Michael Crichton leather bound books
We at Leather Bound Treasure are deeply saddened by news of Michael Crichton's passing. Michael Crichton was one of America's great modern authors, best known for works like Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain. Crichton had a number of books published by the Franklin Library including Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Congo, Disclosure, Rising Sun, Travels and Air Frame. The Easton Press published Michael Crichton's famous book The Andromeda Strain. We will never know what other classic books Michael Crichton would have given us if he had more time!
Michael Crichton leather bound books
Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie - Master of Mystery
Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie was an English author who was born in Torguay, of an American father and an English mother. Agatha Christie was a prolific writer of detective fiction and the creator of fictional detective, Hercule Poirot. Among Agatha Christie’s detective stories are Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), Thirteen at Dinner (1933), Murder in the Calais Coach (1934), Mystery of the Blue Train (1935), Hercule Poirot (1936), Murder in Mesopotania (1936), And Then There Were None (1939), Triple Treat (1943), Death Comes at the End (1944), Remembered Death (1945), There is a Tide (1948), Mrs. McGivney’s Dead (1952), Pocket Full of Rye (1954), What Mrs. Mcgillicuddy Saw (1957), Cat Among the Pigeons (1959), The Pale Horse (1961), and A Caribbean Mystery (1965). Agatha Christie’s several plays include Witness for the Prosecution, produced in 1953. In 1956 Agatha Christie was made a commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Agatha Christie leather bound books
Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie was an English author who was born in Torguay, of an American father and an English mother. Agatha Christie was a prolific writer of detective fiction and the creator of fictional detective, Hercule Poirot. Among Agatha Christie’s detective stories are Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), Thirteen at Dinner (1933), Murder in the Calais Coach (1934), Mystery of the Blue Train (1935), Hercule Poirot (1936), Murder in Mesopotania (1936), And Then There Were None (1939), Triple Treat (1943), Death Comes at the End (1944), Remembered Death (1945), There is a Tide (1948), Mrs. McGivney’s Dead (1952), Pocket Full of Rye (1954), What Mrs. Mcgillicuddy Saw (1957), Cat Among the Pigeons (1959), The Pale Horse (1961), and A Caribbean Mystery (1965). Agatha Christie’s several plays include Witness for the Prosecution, produced in 1953. In 1956 Agatha Christie was made a commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Agatha Christie leather bound books
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
President Barack Obama
We at Leather Bound Treasure would like to congratulate President Elect Barack Obama and Vice President Elect Joe Biden on their victory tonight. Hopefully it won’t be long before a President Barack Obama book is added to the Easton Press Library of Presidents. For now you can make sure to add a signed Senator John McCain book to your library collection.
Again Congratulations to President Elect Barack Obama
Again Congratulations to President Elect Barack Obama
The Alexandrian Library
Famous Libraries - The Alexandrian Library
The Alexandrian Library was a famous ancient collection of books and manuscripts in Alexandria, Egypt. The library was founded by Ptolemy I Soter, King of Egypt, and expanded into the greatest collection of books in the ancient world by his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus early in the third century B.C. The scholars in charge included the best Alexandrian men of letters of the period. Zenodotus of Ephesus, whose specialty was the classification of poetry, was the first to hold the position of librarian. The poet Callimachus made the first general catalogue of books, and may also have been librarian. The two most noted librarians were Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace, both great grammarians and editors. In the time of Ptolemy II the main library, in the Alexandrian Museum, contained nearly 500,000 volumes, or rolls, and an annex in the Temple of Serapis contained some 43,000 volumes. Most of the writings of antiquity were preserved in these collections, from which copies were made and disseminated to private and public libraries in all parts of the civilized world.
It is largely through such copies that ancient works have survived to modern times, for the Alexandrian Library was partially or wholly destroyed on several occasions. In 47 B.C., during the civil war between the Roman statesman Gaius Julius Caesar and the followers of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, more familiarly known as Pompey the Great, Caesar was besieged in Alexandria; a fire swept the Egyptian fleet and spread to the docks, on which about 40,000 books were destroyed. A few years later the Roman statesman Marcus Antonius presented Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, with books from the library of the city of Pergamum, in Asia Minor, thus expanding the Alexandrian Library by about 200,000 volumes. The main library was burned in 272 A.D. by the Roman emperor Theodosius, a Christian movement against all centers of pagan culture resulted in the destruction of the Temple of Serapis in 391 A.D., where the main collection of books was then kept. Three centuries later, when Moslems under the caliph Omar captured Alexandria, they were said to have burned the library, but this tale is discredited by modern historians, who doubt that any considerable collection remained after the library's destruction during the time of Theodosius.
The Alexandrian Library was a famous ancient collection of books and manuscripts in Alexandria, Egypt. The library was founded by Ptolemy I Soter, King of Egypt, and expanded into the greatest collection of books in the ancient world by his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus early in the third century B.C. The scholars in charge included the best Alexandrian men of letters of the period. Zenodotus of Ephesus, whose specialty was the classification of poetry, was the first to hold the position of librarian. The poet Callimachus made the first general catalogue of books, and may also have been librarian. The two most noted librarians were Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace, both great grammarians and editors. In the time of Ptolemy II the main library, in the Alexandrian Museum, contained nearly 500,000 volumes, or rolls, and an annex in the Temple of Serapis contained some 43,000 volumes. Most of the writings of antiquity were preserved in these collections, from which copies were made and disseminated to private and public libraries in all parts of the civilized world.
It is largely through such copies that ancient works have survived to modern times, for the Alexandrian Library was partially or wholly destroyed on several occasions. In 47 B.C., during the civil war between the Roman statesman Gaius Julius Caesar and the followers of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, more familiarly known as Pompey the Great, Caesar was besieged in Alexandria; a fire swept the Egyptian fleet and spread to the docks, on which about 40,000 books were destroyed. A few years later the Roman statesman Marcus Antonius presented Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, with books from the library of the city of Pergamum, in Asia Minor, thus expanding the Alexandrian Library by about 200,000 volumes. The main library was burned in 272 A.D. by the Roman emperor Theodosius, a Christian movement against all centers of pagan culture resulted in the destruction of the Temple of Serapis in 391 A.D., where the main collection of books was then kept. Three centuries later, when Moslems under the caliph Omar captured Alexandria, they were said to have burned the library, but this tale is discredited by modern historians, who doubt that any considerable collection remained after the library's destruction during the time of Theodosius.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Bluebeard
The history of Bluebeard
Bluebeard is a fictitious protagonist of a tale found in the folklore and literature of many cultures. The best known version of Bluebeard appears in the book of fairy tales Contes de Ma Mere l'ore (1697) by French writer Charles Perrault. The Bluebeard of Perrault's tale is the Chavalier Raoul, and his surname refers to the color of his beard. His first six wives have mysteriously disappeared. A month after his marriage to a seventh wife, Fatima, Bluebeard departs on a journey. He leaves his wife the keys of his castle, but forbids her to enter one particular room. She disobeys, however, and finds in the forbidden room the bones of her predecessors. Bluebeard, discovering her disobedience, tells her she must die. Her two brothers arrive and kill Bluebeard just as he is about to cut off his wife's head. The Bluebeard in Perrault's version is believed to be based on the French nobleman Gilles de Rais, who was hanged for multiple murders in 1440.
The story of Bluebeard has also been the subject of a number of plays, including the plays Bluebeard, or, Female Curiosity by the English playwright George Colman, the younger, and Blaubart by the German author Ludwig Tieck; the comic opera Barbe-Bleue by the French composer Jacques Offenbach; the grand opera Ariane et Barbe Bleue by the French composer Paul Dukas; and the ballet Bluebeard by the Russian choreographer Michel Fokine, with a score consisting of selections from the music of Offenbach's opera.
Bluebeard is a fictitious protagonist of a tale found in the folklore and literature of many cultures. The best known version of Bluebeard appears in the book of fairy tales Contes de Ma Mere l'ore (1697) by French writer Charles Perrault. The Bluebeard of Perrault's tale is the Chavalier Raoul, and his surname refers to the color of his beard. His first six wives have mysteriously disappeared. A month after his marriage to a seventh wife, Fatima, Bluebeard departs on a journey. He leaves his wife the keys of his castle, but forbids her to enter one particular room. She disobeys, however, and finds in the forbidden room the bones of her predecessors. Bluebeard, discovering her disobedience, tells her she must die. Her two brothers arrive and kill Bluebeard just as he is about to cut off his wife's head. The Bluebeard in Perrault's version is believed to be based on the French nobleman Gilles de Rais, who was hanged for multiple murders in 1440.
The story of Bluebeard has also been the subject of a number of plays, including the plays Bluebeard, or, Female Curiosity by the English playwright George Colman, the younger, and Blaubart by the German author Ludwig Tieck; the comic opera Barbe-Bleue by the French composer Jacques Offenbach; the grand opera Ariane et Barbe Bleue by the French composer Paul Dukas; and the ballet Bluebeard by the Russian choreographer Michel Fokine, with a score consisting of selections from the music of Offenbach's opera.
The Bibliotheque National
Famous Libraries - The Bibliotheque National
The Bibliotheque National or French National Library, located in Paris and the largest library in France. It is world famous because it contains millions of printed books, in the order of 200,000 manuscripts, and over 5,000,000 prints and engravings. The two original chief sources of its origin were the Bibliotheque du Roi, which was founded in 1367 by King Charles V in the Louve, Paris, and the library of or the Orleans family at Blois. These libraries were united by Francis I at Fontainebleau, and were later transferred to the College de Clermont in Paris by Charles IX. The Bibliotheque National later moved to the Rue Richelieu
A decree of 1536 required that one copy of every printed work in France be filed in the library Bibliotheque National
The Bibliotheque National or French National Library, located in Paris and the largest library in France. It is world famous because it contains millions of printed books, in the order of 200,000 manuscripts, and over 5,000,000 prints and engravings. The two original chief sources of its origin were the Bibliotheque du Roi, which was founded in 1367 by King Charles V in the Louve, Paris, and the library of or the Orleans family at Blois. These libraries were united by Francis I at Fontainebleau, and were later transferred to the College de Clermont in Paris by Charles IX. The Bibliotheque National later moved to the Rue Richelieu
A decree of 1536 required that one copy of every printed work in France be filed in the library Bibliotheque National
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