Book Commentary
July 18, 2001
By Michael
Books keep coming in and going out (which is the whole idea, isn't it?) but if you're trying to keep tabs, thinking you've found something to tell other people about, as on this column, or even, ahem, put aside to be read real soon, I promise, and right back into the store in no time; well , no such luck. Like Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age or Keegan's The First World War. Sorry, they're both gone already. At least I did get around to reading the Stephenson.
There's a whole whack of the old Ballantine History of the Violent Century paperbacks, mostly on the Second World War. They've become more collectible in the last ten years or so, much to my surprise. These are in good to fine condition, and are selling for between eight and eighteen dollars each. I find them kinda weird, and compelling , in a horrible sort of way. Like viewing a fatal accident.
The surprise of the week has been a work by Maurice Sendak, on books and book illustration, titled Caldecott and Co. It seems mostly made up of columns and addresses Sendak has made over the years (seems, yes; do you think I have time to read all this stuff?)and has a nice cover illustration by the master himself. Books on books never last long in used book stores so I don't expect this one to be around long. Some chapters on Beatrix Potter and George Macdonald (maybe I can read that one during lunch), even one on Disney, of all people.
Jack Lindsay wrote a number of works on classical literature and civilization back in the mid to late last century. An Australian who moved to the U.K. in the 'Twenties, Lindsay is one of those rare birds, a readable academic. Helen of Troy is an unusual exploration of the many aspect of Helen in classical culture, and attractively illustrated with black and white line drawings.
I've always meant to read Lewis Mumford's The City in History. Yes, he's cranky and covers almost too much ground for a mere six hundred pages or so, but there's so many ideas just from browsing through the book, and it looks nice and grand and weighty sitting there on your shelf, even without a dustwrapper. Books do furnish a room. Now, if I can only find a hardcover copy of Traces on the Rhodian Shore.
I have a soft spot for travel books of any type, probably starting with Peter Fleming's News from Tartary. The travel bug is like malaria; you have it for life. The fellow who brought in Richard Gerlach's Pictures from Yemen didn't seem to think we would find anything about it, being printed in East Germany in the early sixties. Naaah. You would be surprised, I said. For once I didn't have to eat my words. What a pleasant book; attractive colour front cover, clear text, a section of colour photos and then the main body of the work, photography, in black and white, of a Yemen I suspect has long vanished.
Caldecott and Co.: notes on books & pictures, by Maurice Sendak. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. 1988. First Edition. $35.
Helen of Troy by Jack Lindsay. Constable, 1974. $20.
The City in History by Lewis Mumford. Harcourt Brace, 1961. $25.
Pictures from Yemen by Richard Gerlach. Editions Leipzig, no date. $80.