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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

Poe's Armchair ?  ;-)  Books are easily authenticated, but how in the world 
did they authenticate the armchairm of a man who died drunk and penniless on 
a baltimore streetside?

Shape notes.  That's how Mother mabele taughter the Carter sisters to read 
music.....

Houdini, early magicians have monied cult followings. 

 I've talked my way into visiting a stack or two similar to what you describe.

  I owned a whole box of errol flynn's letter to (can't remember , now, 'sold 
them too d*man cheap, too).  

I have western ephemera that I've never seen anything else like ( insane 
asylum  admission papers from Oregon from 1890's --a man could lock up his 
wife or daughter for misbehavin  :-0 .  Pay-slip from turn of the centry 
nevada made out to chinamen signed (endorsed ) with an 'X". (they made them 
"print" their names in chinese characters, but then sign with an "X", like 
they were illiterate....  

Somewhere, I have an early 18th century handwritten will from New England,  
The man left his son land and animals.  Left his daughter bunch of animals; 
left his wife one pig, because she had left his bed xx years before.  What a 
hoot.  

I'll bet the curator that bought the poe chair  bought G. Washington's axe , 
too.  Of course the head had been replaced twice, and the handle, thrice .... 
  :-)  ....bobford

p.s. I always liked steinbeck.  I like the extra-wordy word pictures he 
sometimes used.   I'm trying to place that library -- but you've described 
east coast-- west coast


--- On Sun, 10/26/08, eureka AT hctc.net <eureka AT hctc.net> wrote:

> From: eureka AT hctc.net <eureka AT hctc.net>
> Subject: Re: [Homestead] Old books
> To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Sunday, October 26, 2008, 4:30 PM
> In my early life, during grad school, I worked for a rare 
> books library for a couple of years. It was a surreal 
> experience. During that time I helped catalog shaped note 
> hymnals, make archival copies of early jazz recordings, 
> and oddly, proofread LOC cards for the multitude versions 
> of Steinbeck books translated into Turkish. In those days, 
> as an insider, one was allowed to roam the stacks and 
> check out anything for perusal at one's desk. I saw a
> lot 
> of the medieval books with original bindings as you 
> describe. I read the handwritten notes in Houdini's 
> personal collection, held Ravel scores, touched Poe's 
> armchair, etc. I understand the stacks are now closed to 
> the librarians. What a pity, the adventure made up for the 
> exceedingly low wages.
> 
> --Sage
> 
> On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:15:04 -0400
>   "Don  Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>
> wrote:
> >> I do love the beauty in old volumes, the
> leather,the rag 
> >>paper, the copper
> >> engravings and chromolithograths.  But, the ideas
> -- I 
> >>can find , most ,
> >> now, on the internet .  The computer is cheap, and
> takes 
> >>little space.
> > 
> > I have several old books, mostly on the early design
> of 
> >the reaper and the
> > resulting fights over patents and estates.  They are 
> >great to read and the
> > information is often available only in those books.  I
> 
> >have an 1892 reprint
> > of an 1860s pamphlet that was used to show the
> inverter 
> >of the reaper was
> > Robert McCormick in the court case against Cyrus 
> >McCormick's estate.  I also
> > have an 1850s book on the Obed Hussey and Bell
> reapers. 
> > 
> > 
> > I also have some very early copies of both the
> "ABC and 
> >XYZ of beekeeping"
> > and "The hive and the Honey Bee". 
> Fascinating reading 
> >of the knowledge and
> > problems of beekeeping around WWI.  The sections on
> the 
> >legal problems of
> > bees and horses makes you realize that they had a 
> >different set of
> > challenges then.
> > 
> > I bought them many years ago and some have astounded
> me 
> >in their increase in
> > value.
> > 
> > Here in the trailer I have an 1897 copy of Ropp's 
> >Commercial Calculator.
> > http://www.nzeldes.com/HOC/RoppCalc.htm
> > 
> > While looking for information on the above book I 
> >discovered that Google has
> > copies of the American Bee Journal online.  This 1894 
> >issue gives away the
> > Ropp's as a premium and has an article on
> stingless bees 
> >from Costa Rica.
> > Interesting in light of the Africanized Honeybees from
> 
> >Brazil.
> > 
> >
> http://books.google.com/books?id=1WZaAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA578&lpg=PA578&dq=%22ropp%
> >
> 27s+commercial+calculator%22&source=bl&ots=7EPxJjpCl0&sig=wARkNQDr5g4T_AXRvP
> >
> _RI0rqWhA&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result#PPA29,M1
> > 
> > I have a friend who does high end book binding and 
> >restoration.  Every time
> > I go visit he digs out something for me to see.  One 
> >time he had a medieval
> > chained book.  Another time he had the complete set of
> 
> >photographs of the
> > front line in October of 1918.  He makes storage boxes
> 
> >for rare books and
> > one time he showed me a complete set of signed books
> by 
> >Ted Geisel.  Mr
> > Geisel rarely signed his books, these came from a 
> >neighbor of his in La
> > Jolla.
> > 
> > Don Bowen  KI6DIU
> >
> http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html
> > 
> > 
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