From the readers: Long's Park mile marker, skeleton bookplate and more

Time for another round of reader comments. Thank you to everyone who continues to read Papergreat, whether it's the new posts or delving deep into the archives.

"Suzi and the Milestone" — helping to market Stel-Mar postcards: Cory Van Brookhoven, who writes the From Brunnerville to Broad Street blog about the history of Lititz, Pennsylvania, comments: "Yes an authentic Turnpike marker that was once next to Long’s Park in Lancaster, PA. It’s been MIA for decades."

Oh wow! I used to to drive past Long's Park every day on the way to work. And I saw a performance of Twelfth Night there that used No Doubt's "Just a Girl," circa 1996. I wonder what happened to the marker. Is it in someone's basement?

Cathy's Little Free Libraries in Globe, Arizona: The Family and Friends of Cathy Sanchez-Cañez write: "Thank you so much for featuring our Little Free Libraries in your blog. Since Cathy’s passing, six years ago, we have helped circulate over 12,000 books into the region, including Teacher From Heaven. We appreciate the shoutout, and the effort to keep Cathy’s legacy alive."

You're very welcome. It's a truly wonderful set of LFLs.

Ephemera I wish I still had: Christopher (not me) writes: "Somewhere in storage, I have a self-published book by an unhinged HVAC tech from Milwaukee who claimed that Jesus Christ was part of a 'woodworking and carpentry sex cult.' I treasure it."

I couldn't find any online trace of a book that fits Christopher's description. But there is the (slightly) more mainstream 1970 book titled The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, by John Allegro, which, according to Wikipedia, "argues that Christianity and other religions originated from ancient fertility cults involving psychoactive mushroom rituals, claiming Jesus was a mythological figure created under the influence of psychoactive substances."

That sounds exactly like the kind of book that would have been published in 1970.

RIP Art Bell, of the Kingdom of Nye: Anonymous writes: "He was the best!"

What are the odds Bell discussed The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross at some point? Or might that have been more of a Long John Nebel thing?

Box of Dennison DeLuxe Gummed Reinforcements: Anonymous writes: "I've been using an old box of De Luxe O gummed reinforcements for about 15 years to reinforce my government three-month calendar display. I believe I have enough until I retire. Just got curious and looked them up. Found your article. Thanks!" 

Sorting out the tiny drawers: I had asked, "How often does one truly need a thumb tack or rubber band in the course of a workweek?" And Anonymous replies: "But how much time does one spend looking for one when one really needs one and doesn't have a place to keep them?"

Which is why we have tiny drawers! And why (ahem) some folks still have Dennison DeLuxe Gummed Reinforcements.

1924 advertisement: "Heaney's Great Milk Can Escape": Anonymous writes: "Did Heaney charge for the secret of how to escape after you'd bought the can, perhaps?"

I'm guessing the $30 covered the construction of the milk and the accompanying directions on its use, which would indeed be the closely guarded secret. And once you bought someone else's secret, there was an incredibly strong honor system not to tell others. You don't want to anger magicians.

Old bookplate featuring a beard-grabbing skeleton: Robin Heisley Helfers writes: "Virginia (Mimi) and Ed were my Great Aunt & Uncle on my father's side of the family. My Grandmother was Effie Mason Heisley. Both sisters were accomplished artists! I'm thrilled to find this unusual example of Aunt Mimi's talent!"

I'm glad I could help in a small way to keep the memory of Virginia Mason Gifford (Aunt Mimi) alive! That's what Papergreat is all about.

Cheerful Card Company can help you earn extra money for the holidays: Anonymous writes: "I worked summers with a group of college kids in the White Plains, N.Y., post office in 1958-60 shipping boxes of their Christmas cards all across the US. That's all we did all day long, loading boxes into dusty canvas mail sacks. By Labor Day, we were in great shape to head back to college."

Excommunicated! A family story (maybe) about Communion cups: Unknown writes: "Do records of the First Reformed Church of Easton or Dr. Kieffer still exist? If they do they should have Mr. Otto's address somewhere in them."

Great question, and that's something I should have mentioned. Yes, church records would be the very best starting place in the next stage of investigating this historical incident. And maybe there's even an official document of excommunication and/or papers regarding the Communion cup issue. And there are a lot of news articles and website that discuss Kieffer, given that he was a noteworthy author, but I'm not sure much of it would contain clues regarding this mystery. The more I've thought about this, by the way, the more I think it's most likely that the John B. Otto who was temporarily excommunicated was the 57-year-old single alderman, and not my great-great-grandfather. Which doesn't make the story any less compelling. It just means my family was not involved. 

Bookplate inside 1949's "The West of England"

I suspect this was a fairly common bookplate template that was available for easy personalization in the mid-20th century. In fact, I'm half-surprised I haven't already featured this bookshelf-themed style in a previous post. 

I did find one other example of this bookplate in a 2017 post on Philatelic Literature & Research. Perhaps a bookplate aficionado out there knows what company printed these.

This bookplate was affixed over the map that appears on the inside front cover of The West of England, a 1949 history book written by Ruth Manning-Sanders. (That was during her short but prolific non-fiction phase, when she also wrote Swan of Denmark: The Story of Hans Christian Andersen; Seaside England; The River Dart; and The English Circus. All five of those titles were published between 1949 and 1952 and, yes, we should be humbled by that level of productivity.)

So, all we know is that this was from the library of "The Schiffers," which won't be nearly enough to pinpoint their identity. Here's a closer look at the bookplate illustration:

Stay-at-home shelfie #59

A miscellaneous collection of older volumes here. The super-skinny hardcovers are part of the American Library Association's Reading with a Purpose series from the 1920s and 1930s.¹ Their original provenance was the Drexel Institute of Art, Science, and Industry library. I got them a few years ago during the (lamentable) closeout sale of Canaday's Book Barn in Carlisle. You can see one of the old Drexel bookplates at right. Titles include Biology, English History, Invention and Society, The United States in Recent Times, George Washington, Americans from Abroad, The Europe of our Day and 1931's The Pacific Area in International Relations, which contains this nugget:

"The diplomatic history of the Far East in recent years has in fact been largely concerned with the problem of keeping such demands as Japan made in 1915 within reasonable bounds and maintaining on the one hand the territorial integrity of China, and on the other the right of all foreign powers to trade on equal terms in the Chinese market, while at the same time giving China an opportunity to set her house in order and free herself from restrictions on her sovereignty."

Moving along, other eclectic titles include Principles of Clothing Selection (May 2018 post), Choosing an Occupation, Airways, and The Nürnberg Stove, which was featured way back in 2013.

1953's The First Book of Space Travel, written and illustrated by Jeanne Bendick, is as fabulous as it looks. Also on this shelf is my great-grandmother's 1904 book on George Washington, with its protective cover.

Footnote
1. For more on this series, check out these two articles by Salvatore De Sando:

• Publications: Reading with a Purpose, Numbers 1 to 15
• Publications: Reading with a Purpose, Numbers 16 to 29

Fantasy-themed bookplate inside "Shardik" paperback

This bookplate, replete with unicorns, faeries and elves, appears on the inside front cover of the 1976 Avon paperback edition of Shardik. It shows that the book once belonged to Deborah Frownfelter. I think it's possible⁠ ⁠— likely, even ⁠— that Deborah blacked out the original owner's name and then wrote her own name in silver ink atop the black. In that case, she would have just "inherited" the bookplate. According to Ye Olde Internet, this bookplate was produced by Antioch, one of the biggest names in that niche market. I wrote about another one of their bookplates in October 2018.

Richard Adams' Shardik, published in 1974, was his second novel after his amazing debut, Watership Down. Shardik didn't get nearly as much acclaim as Adams' first novel, and the reviews of the 600-plus page book were decidedly mixed.

Even this 2018 five-star review on Goodreads says the book is tough going: "It’s dense, philosophical, poetic, and sometimes reads like scripture. It took me a long time to get through, putting it down and picking it up again often. But it is also insanely ambitious, successful, and deeply beautiful. It’s a difficult read because it’s pace is almost real-time, but the level of detail in every aspect of it is impressive. It’s epic fantasy that reads like religious history. If you’ve got the inclination to stick with it, it’s rewarding."

Those most common rating on Goodreads is three stars. A 2013 reviewer there wrote: "This was a very thorough novel, though I had trouble keeping pace with it because of some of the absurdly long descriptive paragraphs. Adams is an amazing storyteller and his exploration of the human mind and religious reaction to a prophecied return are commendable. I simply found it difficult to follow along after a while because the paragraphs got so absurdly long sometimes (there was one paragraph that spanned three pages) and often the bigger paragraphs were largely descriptive of the milieu."

One can wonder if Deborah even read or finished the book after annexing the nameplate. An examination of the spine creases and interior pages would seem to indicate that the answer is no.

Peering at (literal) scary book from Germany in 1920

This hardcover book was published in Munich [Muenchen], Germany, in 1920 by Georg Mueller. The title is Das unheimliche Buch, which literally, and wonderfully, translates to The Scary Book. (Or The Eerie Book in some translations.)

Of course, the rest of it's in German, too, so there's not a whole lot I can tell y'all without spending a month on Google Translate. But I do know some things. It's a collection of supernatural stories, as compiled by editor Felix Schloemp (1884-1916). The illustrations were done by Alfred Rubin.

Some of the stories included are by Heinrich Mann, Frédéric Boutet, Gustav Meyrink, Edgar Allan Poe, J.P. Jacobsen, and E.T.A. Hoffmann.

And it features a foreword by Karl Hans Strobl (1877-1946), who wrote horror and fantasy stories, but whose awful existence was defined by being a member of the Nazi Party, an anti-Semite and a voluminous producer of Nazi propaganda. So screw him and his foreword. And also screw the story he contributed to this book.

Das unheimliche Buch was first published in 1914, two years before Schloemp's death. I have seen references to other editions. By 1938, Das unheimliche Buch was on the list of "harmful and unwanted literature" and would have been subject to Nazi book burnings.

Here's a look the bookplate on the inside front cover...

And here are two of Alfred Rubin's illustrations...

Margaret E. Riedel's embossed book stamp

On one of my visits to The York Emporium, I noticed that several of the vintage hardcovers featured the same embossed book stamp. These books included Larry McMurthy's The Last Picture Show and Alvin Toffler's The Third Wave. (Two very different books, indeed.)

The circular stamp is roughly the size of the U.S. half dollar. It has the large letters MER in the middle and written around the edges of the outer circle is LIBRARY OF MARGARET E. RIEDEL. Here's an image that I manipulated greatly in Pixlr, in order to make it more discernible.

On the two aforementioned books, someone ⁠— presumably Margaret ⁠— left notes about when she read them:

M.E. Riedel
Read July of "72"

M.E. Riedel
Read July of "80"

The embossed stamp is an interesting way to mark book ownership. It's certainly much less common than an inscription or a bookplate. It's probably less common than personalized stamps, too. (I've started using a personalized purple stamp for my book collection; maybe someone will write about mine in 2069.)

I'm sure some of Riedel's books remain sprinkled throughout The York Emporium. But who was she? And how did her books get there? The name isn't as uncommon as you might think. I found references in Illinois, Wisconsin, Maryland and Wisconsin, among other locations.

But the best guess is that this book belonged to Margaret E. Burkins Riedel, who was born and died and Dallastown, York County, Pennsylvania. It makes sense that her books would have eventually ended up at The York Emporium. She lived from 1926 to 1994 and died at age 68 (younger than my mother was when she died). Her husband, who never remarried, died in February 2015.

According to her obituary, "she was a regional manager and demonstrator for 30 years for Sara Coventry Jewelry Corp. She was a member of Christ Lutheran Church in Dallastown and the American Legion Post 605 Ladies Auxiliary in Dallastown."

I hope she would be happy to know that her books are still in circulation a quarter century after her death.

Bookplate inside "The Cannoneers Have Hairy Ears"

This colorful 2¾-inch-wide bookplate, with an indecipherable name scrawled on it, appears on the inside front cover of the 1927 hardcover The Cannoneers Have Hairy Ears, which was published by J.H. Sears & Company.

Despite the odd title, this is a serious book. It's a diary — from August through November 1918 — of a U.S. artillery soldier on the front lines in France during the First World War. It was published anonymously, but the author was South Dakota native Robert J. Casey (1890-1962). This is the book's "dedication":

TO ANYBODY
If I should become a casualty, please see that this book is mailed to my wife — address on inside front cover.

Here's an excerpt from Casey's journal, just one of many harrowing and horrific moments in the campaign:

"Duff was getting ready to to go bed when he noticed a kitchen belonging to an outfit of 75s to the right of us, turning off the road near him. He stepped over to promote a bite of food and thereby saved his life.

"He had gone perhaps a hundred meters when a shell hit on the crest behind him. He could hear the spent fragments whining about his ears. Almost immediately came a second shot in the same place — then two more in quick succession.

"The first shell of the second salvo dropped in front of the medical wagon. The second was a direct hit. Duff went back to his former headquarters only long enough to find a blanket. He slept for the rest of the night at the edge of the ditch in the lee of a dead horse."

The book is roundly praise by modern readers. Here are some snippets from Amazon reviewers:

• "a detailed, and often graphic, picture of what it was like to be an Artilleryman in an AEF Field Artillery Unit."
• "uncommonly good narrative of our participation in WW1."
• "As a reader you quickly understand that the American artillery was a priority target of the Germans. The use of gas is told in detail and its effects."
• "there is little political comment or overall battle strategy. Just the details of one mans experience. Has a sense of humour but doesn't shrink from the horrors or the stupities or the sheer chance of who gets wounded or killed."

From the readers: In which Phyllis gets a lot of web traffic

The March 11 Papergreat post "Lamenting what we'll never know about Phyllis J. Stalnaker Harris" has been getting a lot of traffic in the past week, with more than 4,500 pageviews. Most of it — no surprise, I reckon — is from the same kind of Reddit and Twitter posts that inspired me to write about her in the first place.

There have also been some very kind comments left by readers on Phyllis' post:

• Joan, of Ask Joan fame, writes: "I'm glad you tell stories."
• Ingrid Medova writes: "Yes, sad there is not enough respect for this woman."
• Unknown writes: "It does look like she is about to smile in her mugshot."
• Tami writes: "Rest In Peace dear lady."
• Mr Smith writes: "Highlighted by Reddit, given flesh by you. Thank you."
• Siobhan writes: "Her photo was posted this morning on Pictures in History. Thank you for adding to her story."
• Unknown writes: "Thank you for making her something more than a Facebook post that says 'Weed head, tramp.'"

Saturday's postcard: Driving through a redwood: Wendyvee of the awesome Roadside Wonders and possibly the forthcoming memoir Grand Auto Adventures in Brooklyn writes: "There used to be a photo of my grandparents and their car with a Giant Redwood ... lost to the sands of time apparently."

Soviet-era magazine cartoons: Joan writes: "I want a T-shirt of that hedgehog."

Plenty of projects in Pack-o-Fun: Rushd Lady, who is involved with a number of blogs, writes: "I grew up to recycling crafts featured in the Pack-o-Fun and Workbasket magazines. You wouldn't happen to know where Edna or John Clapper were buried do you? I'm a member of Find-a-Grave and I have a 'Creatives' virtual cemetery I would love to add them to."

Alas, I do not know where those two individuals are buried.

Fairy tale food & drink of Ruth Manning-Sanders: Joan writes: "I most enjoy 'wine in a sack.' But also radishes. And cabbage."

Bookplate inside "The Angry Planet": "Mark Felt," Stealth Research Assistant and Executive Vice President in Charge of Ephemera Reunions, writes: "Dr. Sally's youngest daughter, Lesa Lillibridge of Kent, Ohio, would be proud of the posting of her father's bookplate. Bless Dr. Sally's memory."

The Moorestown Mall and its questionable Monkey Cage: Wendyvee, commenting on Facebook, writes: "My college roomie had memories of them from when she was really little. I think that they had ducks in the 'mall fountains' too."

1970s gang graffiti inside a 1928 book of plays: Stewart lil writes: "Is this for sale by any chance?"

I'm not sure if I still have it! This post was way back in 2012, another lifetime ago. The days of keeping everything I've posted passed a long time ago. With nearly 3,000 posts, you just can't keep it all. But this was was unique enough that there's at least a chance I still have it ... somewhere.

Hans Gerhard Sørensen's cover art for "A Brief History of Norway": Unknown writes: "Looking for a list of Hans Gerhard Sorensen's prints and value so I know how to insure them."

Alas, I believe you would need to an expert for that. I am clearly just a generalist and amateur.

* * *
Bonus: Spam comment of the month

On "Old business card for Hayes Flying Service":

"Would you choose a pun-filled name for your business? Are puns effective in attracting consumers to your brand? We look at how puns can actually be beneficial clicking here your business and brand, and how it can build your consumer base through the power of humour!"

Regarding Estella Canziani

Way back around Thanksgiving — more than four months ago! — I wrote: "I have posts about Estella Canziani, Phyllis Stalnaker, Florence Darlington, Loren E. Trueblood and Margaret Lynch Capone that I'd like to get cleared off the decks, so stay tuned for those."

Well, I've taken care of Stalnaker, Darlington and Capone. So that leaves Canziani and Trueblood. The latter, a potentially fascinating tale, still requires some research that I haven't gotten to yet.

But today's a good day to say a little about Estella Canziani. I can never quite remember the path that led me to certain discoveries online, but I believe this September 2018 tweet was primarily responsible for piquing my curiosity...

Probably the best thing about the internet has been discovering the work of women artists who have previously been banished from mainstream culture yet produced beautiful work, Estella Canziani (1887-1964) being one of them. pic.twitter.com/CZLmNdjb3T

— Nina Antonia (@NinaAntonia13) September 22, 2018

The tweet was accompany by this image of a bookplate...

Canziani has a short biography on Wikipedia, which states the she had the ultra-cool resume of British portrait and landscape painter, interior decorator, travel writer, and folklorist. She was a Quaker and member of the SPCA who authored three books: Costumes, Traditions and Songs of Savoy (1911), Piedmont (1913) and Through the Apennines and the Lands of the Abruzzi (1928).

The Wikipedia entry also highlights another of her amazing bookplates...

By Published by A Fowler, Kansas City, MO - The Bookplate Annual for 1921 (free pdf from archive.org), Public Domain, Link

On The Library Time Machine, Dave Walker wrote a pair of terrific, image-filled posts about Canziani in January 2016. I direct you to those (Part 1, Part 2) to learn more about her life. I especially loved this passage by Walker:

"In 1967, shortly after her death a newspaper described her as the Bird Lady, an eccentric old woman still wearing the fashions of her youth and the house as a shambles infested by birds and other small animals. It seems a shame that people are often judged by how they were (or might have been) at the end of their lives. When a life is finished we are free to look at the whole story, see the whole pattern and pick the greatest hits. No doubt the house in Palace Green was a bit of a mess but you could also choose to view it as a collection of wonders, mundane and exotic and a kind of wonderland. A lively little girl grew up to be a talented artist. She filled the house with mementos of her life and travels. Given her interest in folklore and fairies and the proximity of faery-infested Kensington Gardens you could imagine her house as a gateway into a world of wonders."

Book cover: "Kemlo and the Sky Horse"

• Title: Kemlo and the Sky Horse
• Author: E.C. Eliott, which was one of the many, many pen names of Reginald Alec Martin (1908-1971)
• Illustrator: A. Bruce Cornwell (1920-2012). There's an excellent post about Cornwell on the Bear Alley blog.
• Series: This is book #3 of 15 in the Kemlo series, which was published between 1954 and 1963. Some of the other titles are amazing:
  
  • Kemlo and the Crazy Planet (1954)
  • Kemlo and the Zones of Silence (1954)
  • Kemlo and the Martian Ghosts (1955)
  • Kemlo and the Space Lanes (1955)
  • Kemlo and the Craters of the Moon (1955)
  • Kemlo and the Star Men (1955)
  • Kemlo and the Gravity Rays (1956)
  • Kemlo and the End of Time (1957)
  • Kemlo and the Purple Dawn (1957)
  • Kemlo and the Zombie Men (1958)
  • Kemlo and the Space Men (1959)
  • Kemlo and the Satellite Builders (1960)
  • Kemlo and the Space Invaders (1961)
  • Kemlo and the Masters of Space (1963)
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd.
• Publication year: 1954
• Pages: 189
• Format: Hardcover
• Dust jacket excerpt: "Kemlo, captain of Space Scouts, and his young friend Krillie receive a visit from two Earth children, Dane and Lesa, Krillie's cousins. Lesa is quite prepared to be thrilled by all she sees on Satellite Belt K, but Dane sneers at everything — especially at the mechanical horse in the games-room. He boasts of his own prowess with real horses, and is overheard by their science engineering master from Earth, who determines to teach him a lesson and at the same time to evolve, with the help of Kemlo and the other troop leaders, a new mechanical wonder, a New World Pegasus, a horse that can gallop in Space. ..."
• Provenance: See below.
• First sentence: 'Well, aren't you excited about them coming?' Krinsetta asked crossly.
• Last sentence: Perhaps it wasn't so silly after all.
• Random sentence from the middle #1: We can have fun in a space scooter being bounced about on the spumewaves of a space ship on its way to one of the planets.
• Spumewaves? Don't look at me.
• Random sentence from the middle #2: Two more days passed before the next passenger ship arrived, bringing the first supplies of cowboy suits.
• Goodreads rating: 4.40 stars (out of 5.0)
• Review: I can't find any reviews of Kemlo and the Sky Horse online. I can't even find much about the Kemlo series in general. But there were plenty of fans, of course, for a series to run through 15 books. Writing of the first book in the series, Tim stated the following on Goodreads last year: "I recall pulling out every one of the Kemlo books from our local library in Lincoln. I must have enjoyed it — I kept coming back for more. I can't remember anything about it, but it certainly held the attention of one fifteen year-old some 55 years ago." Meanwhile, you can see the vibrant covers of all 15 books in the series on Austin Tate's Blog.

But wait, there's more

This copy of Kemlo and the Sky Horse was once a Methodist Sunday School "third prize" awarded to someone whose name appears to be Len Wishart.

And here's Cornwell's dandy frontispiece for this book...

Bookplate inside "The Angry Planet"

This lovely bookplate, with a tree's roots wrapped firmly around a book, appears inside a copy of The Angry Planet, written by John Keir Cross and published in 1946 by Coward-McCann. I'll be referring back to this book in a future post, because its illustrator is Robin Jacques.

Jacques (1920-1995) was renowned for his illustrations for Ruth Manning-Sanders' fairy tale collections, but I plan to write about some of the other amazing work he did during his career. So you'll be seeing more from The Angry Planet.

But today I just wanted to share this bookplate, which states PRESENTED TO, thus making it a bookplate that was specifically for gift-giving. You can see some more beautiful bookplates featuring trees in this Pinterest collection curated by Henk Weltje. I especially love those for Anna Baumgärtner and Pierre E. Apse.

As you can see, this volume was presented to Jon and Lydia Sally. Dr. Jon H. Sally died last October at the age of 83. According to his obituary, his many accomplishments and interests included:

• "After Kent State, he attended the Philadelphia School of Osteopathic Medicine where he graduated with his degree as a Doctor of Osteopathic medicine."
• "He believed in education and commitment to the community as shown by his mentoring of many future doctors, nurse-practitioners and nurses and staff which trained with him thru their practice during his long career."
• "Dear to his heart was a plaque given to him by Child Health Services of Portage County symbolizing the 'Doctor Mother' that Dr. Sally was to the children of Portage County."
• "In addition to medicine, Jon had a fervent passion for art. Among other disciplines, he was a prolific sculptor, carver, pencil artist, and painter."

In fact, Dr. Sally had his own art exhibition in 2005, getting the opportunity to display that side of his interests. His biography for that exhibition states, in part:

"His interest in art began in Miss Hutt's grade school class. The young artist had his own ideas and was unable to follow the teacher's vision of how one should color. Consequently, he spent most of his second grade with his head down on the desk, as punishment for his failure to conform. ... During his years at college and medical school, creating art became an outlet for releving stress. ... Now that he has retired, he continues to take pleasure in painting. He also does wood carving and portraiture, but painting is his first love and greatest pleasure."

Book cover and other goodies: "Too Busy to Die"

• Title: Too Busy to Die
• Author: H.W. Roden (1895-1963)
• Cover illustrator: It's signed "Hoffman," but I couldn't find anything further
• Publisher: William Morrow and Company (Morrow Mystery)
• Original price: $2
• Publication date: 1944
• Pages: 216
• Format: Hardcover
• Provenance: Eva and Bub [Bob?] Sheppard of Hanover, Pennsylvania (per bookplate below). Later shelved at The York Emporium.
• Dust jacket blurb: "The little man who called himself Harold Rodkins was so inconspicuous against the splendor of the new office that Johnny Knight's first impulse was to tell him to get out. Two thousand smackers appeared in the nick of time, effectively killing the impulse."
• First sentence: The man put the final flourishes to the sign on the glass door of my new office and we both stepped back to admire his handiwork.
• Last sentence: Whereupon we both collapsed quietly on the floor alongside of Pat and Homer, and the four of us slept peacefully awaiting the arrival of the police.
• Random sentence from middle: For a guy who was still in his pajamas and bathrobe, I'd had quite a morning.
• Original Kirkus review: "Slicked down toughie involving Johnny Knight, Public Relations Counsel, and Sid Ames, private eye, on a case of murder in triplicate, blackmail, and thieves falling out over a packet of diamonds. Top tempo and some pretty fine lowdown lingo in the genre."
• Commentary from elsewhere #1: On The Thrilling Detective Web Site, Kevin Burton Smith writes: "SID AMES is a rye-swilling New York City gumshoe with a distaste for the cops and a rather unusual occasional sidekick, public relations consultant JOHNNY KNIGHT, who 'knows all the angles and rarely misses a trick,' and might have served as the brains of the bunch — if only he had been any smarter than Sid. He wasn't. ... Sid (and Johnny) appeared in four novels in the 40's, all of which were eventually published by Dell — including a couple of Mapbacks with spectacular covers."
• Commentary from elsewhere #2: On Mystery*File, Steve discusses the plot and writing in this excerpt from an extended review: "Knight feels obligated to find the man’s killer. This is one of those typically 1940s wacky type of screwloose capers, complete with a beautiful blonde, a pint-sized bombshell named Patricia Rodkins who is not only deeply involved in the case but who also goes completely gaga over Knight at first glance, reason unknown but Johnny does not mind. ... With the body found on page 189, however, there are no more jokes. Things get serious and quite a bit darker in tone, and in spite of the relative loony atmosphere at the beginning, you begin to wonder if the mystery could possibly have a well-explained, coherent ending. It doesn't."

But wait, there's more!

Here's the back cover of the dust jacket, which is filled with tiny illustrations and describes author Roden as follows: "President, American Home Foods, Inc., and Clapp's Baby Foods; Chairman of the Board of G. Washington Coffee Refining Company; and member of the Board of Directors of the Association of National Advertisers, the War Advertising Council, and the Grocery Manufacturers of America."

And here's the aforementioned bookplate, featuring mouse, book and candle.

Bookplate and newspaper clipping inside a Nostradamus book

This beautiful bookplate, measuring three inches across, appears on the inside front cover of a Modern Library edition (#81) of Oracles of Nostradamus, by Charles A. Ward. This book was first published in the early 1940s. This appears to be a later edition. The dust jacket references Modern Library volumes costing $1.25 as of April 15, 1947.

Crist is a common name in southcentral Pennsylvania, so, while I found some possibilities, I would need more information to fully determine which Ruth Crist owned this book. I can tell you, though, that the illustration on the bookplate is a wood engraving by American artist Lynd Ward (1905-1985).

The cover text pitches the book about "prophet" Michel de Nostredame (1503-1566) as follows:

"Nostradamus, Europe's greatest prophet, foresaw three centuries ago events which history has confirmed with uncannny frequency. His 'prophetic centuries' forecast the fall of Paris, war in the air, the invasion of Britain. Read the fateful happenings predicted tomorrow for Europe and America by the sixteenth-century soothsayer whom Hitler relies upon today."

The endless interpretations of Nostradamus and his quatrains are, of course, ridiculous. But it's not hard to see why his prophecies have fascinated folks, especially in the 20th century, when it seemed as if The End of the World was around every corner. I first encountered him via the 1981 "documentary" The Man Who Saw Tomorrow, featuring Orson Welles. I remember watching it a few times on either HBO or Spotlight, when we were living on Willow Street in Montoursville. As an 11- or 12-year-old, I was fascinated by the supernatural-seeming angle and the fiery, horrifying visions of the future offered by the film, which preyed on both Cold War fears of nuclear annihilation and racist anti-Arab sentiment. It cast "The Middle East" as some strange land from which a devilish villain would start the gears of World War III into motion in the 1990s.

Another piece of Nostradamus ephemera is tucked away inside this book. It's an undated (but must be from the 1960s or later) newspaper clipping with the headline "Predictions by Nostradamus Have Been Coming True for 400 Years."

In the article, Paul Bannister — possibly this Paul Bannister — states that Nostradamus might have predicted an invasion from outer space and quotes author Stewart Robb: "It could be that 'the king of terror' will come from the planet Mars. I think the prediction also means that victory will be on the side of the right."

Of course, that's a different Orson Welles production: The War of the Worlds.

On the flip side of the Nostradamus clipping is an advertisement for a watch made from the John F. Kennedy half dollar, which was first minted in 1964.

Peering inside "Chaffers' Handbook to Hall Marks"

What am I doing with a copy of Chaffers' Handbook to Hall Marks on Gold & Silver Plate? Well, it was on deep discount at a bookstore closing, and it has some cool stuff inside. No other reasons needed!

The full title is the even more unwieldy Chaffers' Handbook to Hall Marks on Gold & Silver Plate of Great Britain and Ireland. It was first published in 1897 and this is the revised ninth edition from 1966. As you can see from the cover, William Chaffers' late 19th century reference book has been "entirely re-written, corrected and revised" by Cyril G. Bunt.¹ So it should probably be Chaffers' and Bunt's Entirely New Spiffy Handbook to Hall Marks on Gold & Silver Plate of Great Britain and Ireland. ("Spiffy" optional, I guess.)

The interesting things inside this book are (1) a bookplate for Norman P. Pinto on the inside front cover and (2) a letter from when this book was gifted to Pinto in 1966. Here they are:

The letter was from Professor A.J. Murphy at The College of Aeronautics in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, England.² The college, which was established in 1946, is now called Cranfield University, and it's testing drones for the European Union. Murphy's letter to Pinto is dated "8·x11·66" or "8·y11·66" depending how you read that letter in front of 11. I know that British dates are typically day/month/year, so this is from November 8, 1966. But I don't know what the letter means.

The letter states:

Dear Mr. Pinto,
I thought you might find this little book useful in your quest for old English silver.
With all good wishes.
Yours sincerely
A.J. Murphy

Mr. Norman P. Pinto
Beryllium Corporation
Reading Pa. U.S.A.

So, we know that Pinto was in Pennsylvania at this point and was part of Beryllium Corporation. Going back to much earlier in Pinto's life, I found this news item in the September 10, 1938, edition of The Boston Globe:

"Norman P. Pinto, son of Mr. and Mrs. Alvar M. Pinto, 76 Chandler st., and Robert C. Evans, son of Mrs. Dorothy C. Evans, 109 Claremont av., have been awarded freshman competitive scholarships by Massachusetts Institute of Technology."

A biographical note in the June 1966 edition of the journal Nuclear Applications has this to say about Pinto:

"Norman P. Pinto, Vice President of The Beryllium Corporation, graduated from MIT and has been active in the beryllium field since 1943. He conducted research on the fundamentals of beryllium powder metallurgy and later managed a major beryllium refinery and production plant. Currently, he is responsible for research and development of beryllium and beryllium alloys. He has contributed significantly to the literature on beryllium metallurgy."

Indeed, I found Pinto's name attached to such articles as "The warm pressing of beryllium powder," "The control of atmospheric beryllium in a metallurgical laboratory," and "High-purity beryllium powder components."

It appears that Pinto died in Massachusetts in 1993, at age 73.

Footnotes
1. Bunt was also the author of 1950's The Horn of Ulf, which is about ... the Horn of Ulf.
2. Just north of Cranfield is a hamlet named Bourne End, which I'm pretty sure is the name of a Matt Damon movie.

Dust jacket and built-in bookplate from 1937 Van Loon book

Shown above is the somewhat-less-than-mint dust jacket for prolific author Hendrik Willem Van Loon's 1937 book Observations on the Mystery of Print and the Work of Johann Gutenberg. Given that the book is 81 years old, we can forgive some tanning and chipping on the jacket, I think.

The jacket illustration was also done by Van Loon. According to the flap: "The Jacket depicting the Book Fair of 1537 in any mediaeval town, was printed in two colors by Mortimer & Walling, New York, from plates by Chromatic Photo Engraving Co., New York." The book was printed especially for The New York Times National Book Fair. Van Loon ends with this paragraph:

It may take courage to restate this truth in the the midst of the turmoil of today. Wherefore we should proclaim it from the top of the Rockefeller Center and should print it here in the biggest, boldest letters that are to be found in the upper case of the printers who are preparing this little book for you, summing it up in these few but all-important words:
THE FUTURE HAPPINESS OF THE
HUMAN RACE DEPENDS UPON JUST
ONE THING — INTERNATIONAL
CO-OPERATION

Here's an excerpt from Bruce Cline's review of the book on Goodreads:

"This thin volume is, of necessity, a short romp through the annals of the history of printing, reaching back to early China and the Mediterranean, and somewhat focusing on 16th century Europe, principally Holland and Germany. Van Loon delicately dispels the notion that Gutenberg invented movable type, but adds that the precise inventor(s) are unknown and unknowable."

Meanwhile, the book contains a nifty bookplate that has been printed onto the inside front cover:

While there is no specific credit, I'm guessing this illustration was also done by Van Loon.

The name written on the bookplate is Mary E. Tidd. I found multiple people with that name. One of the best possibilities might be the Mary who was from Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the Training School for Nurses of St. Joseph's Hospital in 1908.

Edward Gorey bookplate inside Budd Schulberg novel

This nifty old Edward Gorey bookplate is affixed to the inside front cover of a 1950 hardcover edition of Budd Schulberg's The Disenchanted.¹ The bookplate is copyright 1953 and thus is from the early period of Gorey's career, when he was about 28, and according to Wikipedia, living in Manhattan and working for the art department of Doubleday Anchor, illustrating book covers and sometimes adding interior illustrations.

These Gorey bookplates, from Antioch Publishing, are fairly collectible. This very afternoon, never-used originals are selling for $8.95 apiece on eBay. There's also — and this is the better deal — an eBay offer of the original box containing the Gorey bookplates, plus the last five bookplates, for $20 plus shipping.

As far of provenance of this bookplate, Thelma L. Kelley is a little too common of a name and not quite enough information to positively determine her identity. A quick Google search provided two reasonable possibilities right off the bat. Whoever is she was, though, she had great taste in bookplates.

To delve into previous posts about Gorey, start here.

Footnote
1. Of the novel, James Hartley has this to say on Goodreads: "This is a book that deserves to be called a classic. Hunt it out if you´ve never heard of it; if you have any interest in drunken writers, the history and workings of Hollywood, the reality of being a writer, the hangover of success, hangovers in generally, or simply working with someone who is impossible to work with."

Bookplate inside "The Thurber Carnival"

This three-inch-wide bookplate is affixed to the front endpapers (right side) of The Thurber Carnival, which features a popular collection of stories and drawings created by James Thurber between 1931 and 1945. This is the Modern Library hardcover (No. 85), which was published in 1957.

While the cover sketch is by Thurber himself, there is no credit for the rest of the design, including the colors and typography.

As for the ship-, globe- and book-themed bookplate, it appears that Edward S. Strauss is bit too generic of a name for us to get a firm foothold in any kind of search. There was an Edward S. Strauss who lived from 1864 to 1932 and is buried in Riverside, California. But he obviously died before this book was published. There are some other leads, but with nothing else to go on, there's probably no way of avoiding a wild-goose chase.

Clearly, this is why folks should put their city, date of birth, Social Security number and name of favorite childhood pet onto their bookplate.

From the readers: Mister Rogers, mock turkey, bookplates & more

Kicking things off for this edition of reader feedback is Laura, who emailed this Way-Wayback Machine question related to a June 2011 post:

"I have been searching for a couple of years now for the book Going to the Hospital from the Mister Rogers 'Let's Talk About It' series since I was a child. When I was four years old my kindergarten teacher gave me a copy before I had surgery and I loved it — I remember it being a great comfort to me. Now that I have children of my own, I'm dying to put it into their little library at our home but all I can find is another version with a different cover that appears to be nothing like the one I had as a child.

"I just came across a post on your blog in which you mentioned that you had found a copy of this book at a yard sale. This is going to be a long shot in so many ways (especially since the post was from 2011 — haha!) but do you by any chance still have it? It probably seems silly but for some reason that one book really had an impact and stuck with me over the years. I'm feeling very sorry lately that I don't have it anymore — especially since my husband downloaded every episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood for my children and they absolutely love it."

Laura, thanks for writing. I am sorry to say that I no longer have this Mister Rogers book. As you guessed, it did not survive the pruning and cleaning cycles of the past seven years. If I did still have it, I would happily send it to you. Few things please me more than to get a beloved book into the right hands. And I understand your passion for the specific edition that you remember from your childhood. I am the same way about certain books; it has to be the cover or edition that I remembered, to satisfy the nostalgia yearning and collecting desire. Good luck with your ongoing search. I am sure you will find it. I will keep my eyes open, too, and keep your email on file so that I can contact you if I come across anything.

Plucked from a yard sale, Part 1: Mister Rogers and How to Meet Men: Regarding that same 2011 post, Tom from Garage Sale Finds writes: "If you're going to write a book about meeting men, and using a pseudonym and that pseudonym's last name is 'Mann', you think she'd have gone with 'Anita' or 'Ivana' for a first name."

Saturday's postcard: Clara's rainy-day message from 1920: Wendyvee, who authors the delightful Roadside Wonders website, writes: "Bonus points for Wile E. Coyote reference. Also, my embarrassing fact of the day: I think that I was about 30 before I 'got' his name."

Cheerful Card Company can help you earn extra money for the holidays: Regarding the post that keeps getting great feedback, an anonymous reader writes: "66 seems to be the magical age. I'm 66 as well. I proudly sold not only greeting cards, I also sold flower and veggie seeds during the same years. Can't remember if both products were thru The Cheerful Card Company, but I do remember the experience. My first big sale was to our local bank. My mom took me to deposit my 'milk money' from school and l brought my case. The manager was so impressed with my cards and sales pitch that he purchased imprinted Christmas cards from me for 3 years. Because we were military we moved often. I sold cards and seeds until I was a freshman in high school. Wonderful memories of my customers and personal growth. Still have boxes of cards."

Old bookplate featuring a beard-grabbing skeleton: Scott Cranin of Ivy Ridge Books writes: "Just found another book with this bookplate and read your terrific research, thank you! The book is Andrew Lang's Custom and Myth, which certainly fits with the theme of the bookplate and the interests you mentioned in your piece."

Montoursville 2018: Otstonwakin, Madame Montour and modern times: Wendyvee writes: "Wow, I've fallen down the Madame Montour Google Rabbit Hole already."

A groovy response from the CEO of Whirley-DrinkWorks! Anonymous writes: "I have a USS JFK cv-67 plastic cup. Found on beach in Western Australia after massive beach erosion into sand dunes under 10 feet or more ... in good condition."

They don't make high schools like this any more: Wendyvee writes: "That looks like it was a great building. Sad that it's gone."

Lineup card of the day: Joan, who co-manages Pengins for Everyone while juggling a zillion other things, writes: "That definitely has a fraktur/hex sign vibe to it!"

Menus and recipes shared by Mrs. Anna B. Scott in 1936: The recipes, including the one for mock turkey, led to this three-way exchange:

• Wendyvee: That cover is EVERYTHING! Yes to the Chocolate Icebox cake but a great big NO to the Sardines!!
• Joan: Also not sure about mock turkey.
• Me: The mock turkey recipe itself sounds interesting, and pretty easy to make. No need to shape it into a bird, though.
• Wendyvee: Chris, Chris, Chris ... if you don't form it into the shape of a bird then it's just a Rice-Nut-Egg Blob. Tsssk, Tsssk.
• Me: Have you SEEN the shape of a Tofurky? Yummy blob for my tummy!

Board for Parker Brothers' 1936 version of the game Finance: Wendyvee writes: "These graphics are everything! This reminded me of my public speaking Prof in college. He loved to expound on the detailed history of Monopoly."

No doubt about these words: Our own Mark Felt writes: "What do you suppose the writer of this postcard meant by 'This pen stinks'? Was he referring to a tenement? Was it a religious epithet? Or just a writing utensil? We'll never know."

Touché, Mark. Touché

Montoursville 2018: My schools (Part 2): Wendyvee writes: "I remember those [Mr. Sketch] markers. ... For some time, I thought that I was a jinx. I was home sick (with the TV babysitting me) when Reagan, the Pope, and John Lennon were shot."

To be clear, Wendyvee is not linked to those assassinations and assassination attempts, nor are the Mr. Sketch markers.

An 1893 bookplate, the Chautauqua movement and a sad ending

This 125-year-old bookplate, 3¾ inches wide, appears on the inside front cover of Walks and Talks in the Geological Field, which was written by Alexander Winchell (1824-1891) and published in 1886 by Chautauqua Press.

Chautauqua¹ was, per Wikipedia, "an adult education movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries." Through the 1920s, there were gatherings throughout rural American that focused on culture, entertainment, religion and more. President Theodore Roosevelt said the Chautauqua movement was "the most American thing in America."

An excellent 1974 article by S.A. Schreiner Jr. in The New York Times details this history of the movement, straight through the early 1970s, and has this to say about Chautauqua Press:

"Thus was Chautauqua launched. And it grew apace. A systematic home study course, proved that the world was waiting for book clubs and correspondence courses. In less than seven years more than 100,000 people signed up for the home study and correspondence courses, and branches sprung up from Tokyo to London to Capetown. To meet the demand for books, a Chautauqua Press was set up, and by 1885 its catalogue listed 93 titles. As early as 1879, a Chautauqua Normal School of Languages was added to the Sunday School fare at the assembly grounds...

"By World War I, the press was gone, and the correspondence courses were retreating before a rising tide of competition from improved schools and bright commercial ventures. But the place called Chautauqua continued to grow."

* * *
Returning to the bookplate, here's the full text:

No. 54
LIBRARY OF
MYRON T. HAXTON
WINDFALL, PA.
Date, Dec. 4, 1893
Windfall — an awesome name — is these days just a tiny location in Granville Township, Bradford County.²

Haxton lived from 1871 to 1925, possibly residing his whole life in Bradford County, was a 32nd degree Mason and "traveling collector," and came to a sad end on his 54th birthday. This newspaper excerpt appears on his Find A Grave page:

Troy, Pa., March 15 [1925] – (Special to The Daily Review) – Slashing his throat with a razor, Myrton T. Haxton, justice of the peace of South Troy, inflicted fatal wounds today, his 54th birthday, and died at the home of his sister, Mrs. May Bruce, on Canton street here, at 7:45 tonight.

Mr. Haxton had been in ill health for months and had spent the past two weeks in the Gleason health resort at Elmira, N. Y. When he returned home Saturday night, however, he apparently was feeling fine, and declared to friends that he "hadn't felt better in a good while."

Mr. Haxton was staying with his sister, Mrs. Bruce. The family asked him to go for a ride this afternoon, but he said he thought he'd rather stay home and take a nap. When they returned they found the front door locked and Myrton Bruce, a nephew, went to the rear to get in, remarking that "Uncle Mert must have gone up home." Bruce called to his brother Roy and they found Mr. Haxton lying on his bed bleeding to death. That was about 3:30 or 3:45.

Dr. George Boyer was called and he quickly sewed up the wounds and stopped the bleeding. The right hand side of the neck was not cut deeply, but on the left side the small arteries were cut. Mr. Haxton rallied slightly, though he appeared in a daze. He said he was trying to shave and cut his throat.

Footnotes
1. Chautauqua itself is an undefined word from the now-extinct Erie language.
2. Other dandy place names in Bradford County include Apex, Armenia Mountain, Baldwinton, Dodgetown, Harkness, Hoblet, Lambs Lookout, Lix, Pail Factory, Phalanx and Roll-Way.