Life in late capitalism can be vexing, alienating, fragmenting, and otherwise frustrating. There are many wonderful things in my life, but I'm more likely to talk about what's bad rather than what's good. I'm going to try to post one good thing here each day, and if you would join in by adding a good thing from your day in the comments, I'd love it--I'd absolutely love it. --RR
8/5: susan's book
I'm not a book collector. Undeniably, I have a lot of books, but I don't buy them with an eye to building something coherent like "a collection." Today, though, I acquired a book that is the kind of thing collectors buy. I've been doing research on Hawthorne's Wonder Book for a number of years now, and I recently found a first edition for sale for an unbelievably low price. (Copies can be more than $5,000--and this copy was nowhere near that, not in the same ball-park nor a neighboring ball-park nor even a ball-park in a neighboring state.) So I ordered it, not knowing when I might find a similarly priced copy in the future and really feeling such affection for the Wonder Book that I wanted to have it in the form in which it first appeared to the world in 1851. It arrived today. The copy is in good shape, and it has a handwritten inscription: "Susan M. Dana. from her father. November 12th, 1851." Chris immediately went online to find out who this Susan M. Dana was, and he thinks he's found her family tree!
Now THAT'S a story!
ReplyDeleteWow! That is so cool. And now you are part of her literary family tree.
ReplyDeleteI do feel lucky that I can somehow know/know about the first owner. It makes it even more of a one-of-a-kind book to have on my shelf.
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