Book Commentary
August 18, 2001
By Michael
Well, we survived the heat wave but I think next year we will install some air-conditioning (albeit reluctantly). An entire set of Dickens came in, paperbacks published by Mandarin books and with introductions by Peter Ackroyd. No, wait a second, it looks like the intros are cribbed from Ackroyd's biography (of Dickens). Nice uniform editions, a classy white job with a small illustration in the corner by Pentagram.
Scott reminds me of the dozen or more Philip K. Dick paperbacks that have arrived, ranging in price from The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (fair: $5) to (fine: $30).
Being a reader as well as a collector of Patrick O'Brian, I was intrigued by this Cambridge hardcover: Select Naval Documents, covering a good range for such a slim volume (Henry VIII to Nelson). Ralegh on strategy, pay of officers in 1653, illustrations from the first pocket signal book, findings from the court-martial after the loss of the Royal George in 1782. Just the sort of thing to dip into over breakfast.
I read the first chapter to Steven Heighton's The Admen Move on Lhasa and was hooked. He's a poet, lives in Kingston, Scott says he's heard of him on the CBC. I'm concerned over our increasing preference for the virtual over the visceral (as I write this onto our website) and it would be real braincandy to see what somebody else, somebody better with words, for instance, has to say about it. And its one of those nice Anansi paperbacks.
The cooking section is filling up. I like to keep an eye on the mediterranean stuff, though I don't think anything will ever surpass the impact Pino Luongo's A Tuscan in the Kitchen, for me (what do you mean, it's my kitchen and I can do whatever I want?) . But Italian Regional Cooking, a Culinary Travelogue, well, it's a little light on the travel aspect but an interesting and handsome book all the same. I'm going to try that bread salad sometime.
The eccentricity of this column is The Secret Museum of Mankind, a reprint by Gibbs Smith of a 1941 five-volume work by Manhattan House. They're not even sure of the original publishing date. It's a vast collection of black and white photographs from all over the world, with captions such as "grace of poise and charm of feature distinguish this Arab maid, whose gala attire has been chosen with characteristic good taste." A wonderful and bizarre book.
A fair number of British history has come our way recently, books on Elizabeth I, Jan Morris' Folio Society edition of Pax Britannica, histories of Ireland. The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor and Stuart Britain came out in 1996, finely illustrated and the contributors range from Amy Louise Erickson (on Family, Household and Community) to Wallace McCaffrey ( on Politics in Age of Reformation). I already have a copy of this sucker so you can be assured I haven't borrowed it to check for typos.
Select Naval Documents edited by H. W. Hodges and E.A. Hughes. Cambridge University Press, 1927. $28
The Admen Move on Lhasa by Steven Heighton. Anansi 1997. $10.
Italian Regional Cookery, a Culinary Travelogue by Lotte Mendelsohn with original recipes by Bea Lazzaro. Font and Center, 1993. $12
Secret Museum of Mankind , forward by David Stiffler. Gibbs Smith, 1999. $20.
The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor and Stuart Britain, edited by John Morrill. Oxford University Press, 1996. $27