The Past Revisited: Histories, Old Books, and Sequels

 

The Wizard of Oz: The Official 50^th Anniversary Pictorial History, by John Fricke, Jay Scarfone, and William Stillman. Introduction by Jack Haley, Jr.

“A commemorative volume offers the definitive pictorial history of one of the most popular movies of all time.” - Amazon. A big book, full of photos, art, toys, masks, commemorative items, in fact anything connected to the 1939 MGM movie. The history of the book, the making of the movie, its afterlife at matinees and on TV, and its cultural impact.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Pictorial History. Film. Hardback.

Advanced D&D Monster Manuel (4^th Edition), by Gary Gygax.

“An Illustrated Compendium of Monsters: Aerial Servant to Zombie.” Originally John’s and possibly still rightly so. I have it for the bestiary of it all. Despite the best efforts of friends and family to get me (a fantasy nut) to play D&D, I’ve never really gotten into it.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Bestiary. Gaming. Hardback.

Ghost Story, by Peter Straub.

The scariest novel I have ever read. I remember the first time I read it I was sleeping in the Green Room at Nanny’s, with its floating curtains and wall-size windows into the atrium and the night. I tried following Straub for a few years, but he never equaled this homage to the horror of Henry James and “The Turn of the Screw” and the New England tradition. “Ghost Story is a horror novel by American writer Peter Straub. It was published on January 1, 1979 by Coward, McCann and Geoghegan. The book was adapted into a film by the same name in 1981, minus the novel's fifth protagonist character, Lewis Benedikt. The novel was a watershed in Straub's career. Though his earlier books had achieved a limited amount of critical and commercial success, Ghost Story became a national bestseller and cemented the author's reputation.” – Wikipedia.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Horror. Novel. Hardback.

The Dracula Book of Great Vampire Stories, Edited with an Introduction by Leslie Shepard.

An anthology of many great early vampire tales, by Stoker, Le Fanu, Maupassant, Crawford, Benson, Blackwood, and others. We used to have a paperback of this that John and I contended over with for a while, but when I got this Hardback I conceded the other.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Anthology. Vampires. Hardback.

Escape from Hell, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

A sequel to Niven’s “Inferno”. “The novel continues the story of deceased science fiction writer Allen Carpenter in his quest to help other damned souls in Hell. Like the first book, “Escape from Hell” extensively references Dante's Inferno. Jerry Pournelle, one of the book's co-authors, described the book as "Dante meets Vatican II." Following events in the first novel, in which Carpenter learned that it is possible to leave Hell, Carpenter wants to help others in the way his benefactor helped him. Carpenter meets and travels through all the circles of the Hell described by Dante. He is accompanied in his travels by Sylvia Plath (whom he rescues from the Wood of the Suicides by burning her tree, causing her physical body to reform itself), attempting to understand the purpose of Hell and free many of the damned. Carpenter discovers that, apparently because he returned to Hell of his own free will to help others, he now possesses powers and abilities such as his mentor, Benito, also displayed. In the end, and partly as the consequence of some unusual changes to Hell itself, Carpenter not so much escapes as that he is shown the door for being a troublemaker.” – Wikipedia.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Bangsian Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

The Book of Sorrows, by Walter Wangerin, Jr.

Sequel to “The Book of the Dun Cow”. I wanted to like it, but I just couldn’t get into it. Maybe it was the weary setting back to square one, after the apocalyptic ending of the first book. I don’t know. Maybe the time wasn’t right: too late, or too soon. Maybe someday I’ll find my way in. There is another in the series, “The Third Book of the Dun Cow: Peace at Last” which I’ve never seen.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Beast Fable. Fantasy. Novel. Softcover.

Urshurak, by The Brothers Hildebrandt and Jerry Nichols.

When this came out in 1979, I wanted to like it. I liked fantasy. I liked the Hildebrandts. The pictures are great. The concept is alright, but the execution … their story-telling talent is as illustrators, and Nichols is not a good writer. I can’t look at this book without thinking of carrying it in Mrs. Hardcastle’s class and trying to show it off, while admitting that the writing was sub-par.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Softcover.

84, Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff.

“A  1970 book by Helene Hanff, later made into a stage play, television play, and film, about the twenty-year correspondence between the author and Frank Doel, chief buyer of Marks & Co antiquarian booksellers, located at the eponymous address in London, England. Hanff was in search of obscure classics and British literature titles that she had been unable to find in New York City when she noticed an ad in the Saturday Review of Literature. She first contacted the shop in 1949 and it fell to Doel to fulfil her requests. In time, a long-distance friendship developed between the two and between Hanff and other staff members, as well, with an exchange of Christmas packages, birthday gifts and food parcels to help with the post-World War II food shortages in Britain. Their letters included discussions about topics as diverse as the sermons of John Donne, how to make Yorkshire Pudding, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the coronation of Elizabeth II. Hanff postponed visiting her English friends until too late; Doel died in December 1968 from peritonitis from a burst appendix, and the bookshop eventually closed in December 1970. Hanff did finally visit Charing Cross Road and the empty shop in the summer of 1971.” Loved the movie, so got the book, and it is good as well. A Penguin.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Epistolary Novel. Softcover.

The Dwarf, by Par Lagerkvist.

Bought this book years ago at Yesterday’s Warehouse. “The dwarf is the narrator, obviously obsessed with writing down his experiences in a form of diary. Everything in the novel is described from his viewpoint, mostly in retrospect, ranging from a few hours or minutes to several weeks or months after the actual events. The dwarf is a profound misanthrope and generally embodies all things evil. He hates almost every person at the court except for the prince (who is the ruler of the city-state, rather king than prince), or rather aspects of him. He loves war, brutality and fixed positions. While almost all other characters of the novel develop during the chain of events, the dwarf does not change. He is still exactly the same character from the first to the last page. He is deeply religious, but his take on Christianity includes the belief in a non-forgiving God. He is impressed with Bernardo's science but soon repelled by its relentless search for truth. When the dwarf is ordered to assassinate a number of enemies of the prince using poisoned wine, he takes this opportunity to assassinate one of the prince's rivals, simply because the dwarf dislikes the rival and the rival is having an affair with the prince's wife. The novel ends with the dwarf being strapped in chains at the bottom of the royal castle, never to be released again. He is seemingly convicted for flogging the prince's wife to death in anger over her sins. However he takes this sentence lightly, since, as he says, "soon the prince will need his dwarf again." – Wikipedia.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Novel. Softcover.

Kingdoms of Elfin, by Sylvia Townsend Warner.

This book came out when I was in high school. It has one of those papery covers that is prone to disintegration, and there are specks on this forty-year-old volume that suggests the bugs might have been nibbling on it. “Elfindom is an aristocratic society, jealous of its privileges. The ruling classes engage in such pursuits as patronizing the arts or hunting with the Royal Pack of Werewolves, while the lower orders take pleasure in conducting brutal raiding parties into the world to torment mortals. The Kingdoms of Elfin are more diverse and widely scattered than is often thought; from the Welsh Elfins who, though constitutionally incapable of faith, remove mountains, and the elegant and witty French Court of Brocéliande where castration almost becomes a vogue, to the Kingdom of Zuy in the Low Countries, trafficking suppositories and religious pictures. Sylvia Townsend Warner's richly exuberant imagination combined with the calm precision of her language conjures up a sublunary realm that is entirely convincing.” – Goodreads. Her last book; she died the next year.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Short Stories. Fantasy. Softcover.

Tales from Watership Down, by Richard Adams.

Short stories that return to the world of Watership Down. Many old characters are revisited in new tales. I don’t know if it’s just my weary old brain, but I can’t get into a lot of these long-delayed returns; just can’t raise the enthusiasm. Yet, they are related to the old classics.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Short Stories. Beast Fable. Hardback.

Animal Farm, by George Orwell.

“Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. The book tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, however, the rebellion is betrayed, and the farm ends up in a state as bad as it was before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon. According to Orwell, the fable reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union.” – Wikipedia. There has been an animated movie, and a live action TV version, and I was even in a stage version in high school. [Not my cover, but of the vintage of this copy, which has a plain green cover with reddish letters.]

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Allegory/Satire. Novel. Hardback.

1975 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, by The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania.

They can try to re-write their history as much as they like, but I got the evidence! The year of (one of) their grand failures of the prophesied end. Actually has Mike’s and my “Speech Counsel” forms from the Theocratic Ministry School.

Ranking: Grim Reminder.

File Code: The Bulliest of Bull Bleep.

Notre Dame de Paris, by Victor Marie Hugo.

Number 12 in The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction. The longer version. I bought this at one of the last book sales of the old Seguin Public Library. It reminds me of the shorter, older, much battered version we’ve had for years, from which I read a passage in David Fleming’s class for a recitation (trying to be a smarty). We read that old book until the cloth cover was loose. I always identified both with Quasimodo and the alchemical, love-torn Claude Frollo.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Historical Novel. Hardback.

The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.

Bought at Yesterday’s Warehouse. “The Devil's Dictionary is a satirical dictionary written by American Civil War soldier, journalist, and writer Ambrose Bierce consisting of common words followed by humorous and satirical definitions. The lexicon was written over three decades as a series of installments for magazines and newspapers. Bierce's witty definitions were imitated and plagiarized for years before he gathered them into books, first as The Cynic's Word Book in 1906 and then in a more complete version as The Devil's Dictionary in 1911.” – Wikipedia. Cover shows slight damage.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Humor. Satire. Hardback.

Fifty-One Tales by Lord Dunsany.

“Fifty-One Tales is a collection of fantasy short stories by Irish writer Lord Dunsany, considered a major influence on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, Ursula K. Le Guin and others.” -Wikipedia. It was published in 1915; my copy is from 1917.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Short Stories. Hardback.

Poems Bewitched and Haunted, Selected and Edited by John Hollander.

Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets. Poems of witches, ghosts, haunted houses, and magic, perfect for Halloween and appropriately decorated with jack o’ lanterns on the cover. A nice little browser.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Poetry. Anthology. Supernatural. Hardback.

A Severe Mercy, and Under the Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken.

The first volume tells about Vanauken’s marriage with his wife Davy, how they set up their deep romantic love as a ‘shining barrier’ against the world. Then they found their developing Christian faith an invasion into what was becoming a selfish, enclosed world of their own, beautiful as it was. They had begun a correspondence with C. S. Lewis as they became Christians; the book contains ‘18 previously unpublished letters’ from him. The ‘severe mercy’ is the illness and death of Davy, removed before their love can become an idol between them and God. Their love then remains constant and true within the love of God, until they be reunited again. The second volume is about Vanauken working out his faith in a post-Davy, post-Lewis world, and “how he lost sight of his faith, became involved in the peace and civil rights movements, and gradually rediscovered his Christian beliefs” (- Amazon), eventually becoming a Catholic. The book also discusses his opinions on several social matters, including feminism as it was developing from a social justice into an angry and illogical political tool.

Ranking: Keepers.

File Code: Religion. Autobiography. Hardbacks.

All Over Creation

Charlotte’s Web, by E. B. White. Illustrations by Garth Williams. Of course, I don’t have to say much about the book; everybody has heard of it. The Hanna/Barbera movie version came out in 1973, when I was in grade school. A Sherman Brothers song. Voices from half the TV shows we’d watched and sound effects from the cartoons. The book is poetic and moving, and a gentle slice of progressive Americana. Ranking: Essential. File Code: Children’s Book. Classic. Paperback.

Stuart Little, by E. B. White. Illustrations by Garth Williams. I was more engaged with this book than I was with “Charlotte’s Web”, mainly because I always liked the fantasy of being a mouse or a tiny person myself, living with toys, driving in little vehicles, hiding from the big people … my shy, whimsical impulses were at odds with my gawky body. I wanted to avoid attention, I suppose. No wonder Hobbits appealed to me so much later. Anyway, I got this copy in grade school (Fourth Grade, I imagine), and its condition certainly shows its age. Ranking: Essential. File Code: Children’s Book. Classic. Paperback.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O’Brien. Illustrated by Zena Bernstein. Mrs. Bratton read this to us in Fourth Grade, then I read it myself in middle school. Adventures among the rodents again, with their secret life, here enhanced by scientific experiment, so it’s not just whimsy, it’s SCIENCE! Again, the fantasy of building a covert world away from the powers that be, escaping their death hassles, man, and making a Utopia where we can all live in peace. Ranking: Keeper. File Code: Children’s Classic. Paperback.

Barabbas; and The Sybil, by Par Lagerkvist. The author was a Nobel Prize Winner for Literature. I got these books long ago (junior year?) because they seemed to be on the fringes of my interests, historical, philosophical, religious. Haven’t brought myself to read them through yet; perhaps the time has come. Barabbas follows the man released instead of Jesus, of course (it was made into a movie with Anthony Quinn), and The Sybil is about the Wandering Jew, searching for answers. Ranking: After all this time? Probably Dispensable. File Code: Novels. Paperback.

Creation, by Gore Vidal. “A sweeping novel of politics, war, philosophy, and adventure–in a restored edition, featuring never-before-published material from Gore Vidal’s original manuscript–Creation offers a captivating grand tour of the ancient world. Cyrus Spitama, grandson of the prophet Zoroaster and lifelong friend of Xerxes, spent most of his life as Persian ambassador for the great king Darius. He traveled to India, where he discussed nirvana with Buddha, and to the warring states of Cathay, where he learned of Tao from Master Li and fished on the riverbank with Confucius. Now blind and aged in Athens–the Athens of Pericles, Sophocles, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Socrates–Cyrus recounts his days as he strives to resolve the fundamental questions that have guided his life’s journeys: how the universe was created, and why evil was created with good. In revisiting the fifth century B.C.–one of the most spectacular periods in history–Gore Vidal illuminates the ideas that have shaped civilizations for millennia.” – Amazon. This used copy has a badly cracked spine. In his novels of the ancient world, I always think Vidal is trying to be Robert Graves, with the whole “lost autobiographical manuscript” thing. Still, a good read, and nicely dramatized. Ranking: Keeper. File Code: Novel. Historical. Paperback.

Traditional British Ballads: A Selection, Edited by Bartlett Jere Whiting. Could this paperback actually be from 1955, the only date inside? Amazing. It is what it says on the label. Some marking inside; probably a college book. Ranking: Keeper. File Code: Poetry. Folk. Paperback.

The Portable Charles Lamb: Letters and Essays, Edited by James Mason Brown. A Viking Portable Library Book. I’ve liked the whimsical Lamb since reading his essay about roast pigs in high school. He seems the gentlest and the most humorous of the writers of the Romantic era, the most decent and the least stormy – I want to be his friend. His sentimentality is loving and never smarmy, his letters are a delight, and he himself seems wise, sad, and witty. His “took up arms against a sea of troubles” and gallantly opposed them. I’ve carried this book as a vade mecum several times on trips to the doctor. Some interior marks. Ranking: Essential. File Code: Letters. Essays. English Literature.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories, by Robert Louis Stevenson. A Penguin book. Bought it at Goodwill to have a copy of the tale in its own book, as it were, and a’cause of my Penguin mania. Dead cheap, too. Ranking: Keeper. File Code: Classic. Paperback. Horror? Mystery?

Extraterrestrial Visitations from Prehistoric Times to the Present, by Jacques Bergier. A purchase from the early 70’s, instigated by Mike but passed around by all us boys and much discussed. Bergier was a practiced purveyor of crackpot theories and jumped on the bandwagon of “Chariots of the Gods” and the UFO craze of the times. Our young minds feasted on the wonder and fear of it all and wove it into our lore and storytelling. I remember being afraid to go outside at night for dread of being taken by aliens, while at the same time marveling at ‘ancient mysteries’ and ‘secret histories’. My copy shows the wear and tear of 47 years and being passed around and nearly being read to rags. Ranking: Keeper. Artifact. File Code: Extraterrestrials. Crackpot Science. Paperback.

Monsters You Never Heard Of, by Daniel Cohen. Illustrated. Cryptozoology for kids. Along with Thomas G. Aylesworth and … there was a third guy, I think, but I can’t think of the name [am I thinking of Peter Haining?] … anyway, they were all purveyors of monsters and mayhem for kids and for those who were kids in critical thinking alike in the 1970’s. Anyway, it was all fun, and our way of distracting ourselves from the real horrors of life. Ranking: Keeper. File Code: Cryptozoology. Legend. Paperback.

Hostage to the Devil, by Malachi Martin. “A true, awesome account of the possession and exorcism of five living Americans – documented by a former Jesuit.” Dated from 1977, during the “Exorcist” craze. One of the most disturbing books I’ve ever read, perhaps because I’m inclined -not absolutely convinced, but sneakily inclined – to believe it’s true. I hesitate to re-read; it was so unsettling. Even if I simply scared myself because of my psychology, I don’t care to run the chance of doing it to myself again. “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” – C. S. Lewis. Cover somewhat scruffy. Ranking: Cursed object and forbidden item. File Code: Possession. Exorcism. Paperback.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, Complete and Updated. I have read this aloud, all 700 or so pages, a little bit a day, for over a year. Lays out in great detail and scholarship what Catholics believe. (2 copies) Ranking: Essential File Code: Religion. Catholicism. Paperback.