I Discover "I Discover Columbus"

 

                I Discover Columbus … Robert E. Lawson

                     1941 (First Edition; library covered)

“A True Chronicle of the Great Admiral & his Finding of the New World, narrated by the Venerable Parrot Aurelio, who Shared in the Glorious Venture. Set Down and Illustrated by Robert Lawson”

“This Book is the Property of the Georgia State Board of Education and is Furnished to Okefenokee Regional Library. DISCARDED.”

The second of Lawson’s American histories as told through the eyes of an associated animal, this one is feigned to have been told to the author and illustrator while he was recuperating from a fever on the island of Santa Margarita in the Caribbean by the ancient and talkative parrot Aurelio.

Aurelio himself was born in Central America and was a brisk young sixty-five-year old when a hurricane blew him all the way to Spain. In his efforts to return he fortuitously meets Columbus (Don Cristobal Colon) and manipulates the grifting, drifting Genoese into getting the Spanish court into funding an expedition back to the parrot’s home with the hopes of great wealth.  

Aurelio has little good to say about Columbus himself, seeing him as a vain and ambitious man, dreaming of glory and given to seasickness when finally tricked on board for the expedition. Most of the parrot’s praises are reserved for Queen Isabella and for her maid Dona Maria Mercedes d’Acosta (an entirely imaginary character, as far as I can tell) who, in a romantic subplot, joins the journey in the guise of a cabin boy to be near her man, Don Manuel Nicosa (also a hero).

The journey ends when Aurelio is safe back at home, waving good-bye, Columbus, as the Admiral heads back to the Old World with a few handfuls of gold and pearls and the news of a New World to exploit. But the bird has been returned happily to his native land, and isn’t that what really matters? At least as far as Aurelio himself is concerned.

Just a note: although some species of parrot can live up to 100 years, Aurelio’s reputed age of 500 or so is pushing the envelope well into fantasy. But then so is a thinking parrot, I guess.

Some Shadowy Shadows from the Shadow Library

A few words of explanation. We never had the Tom and Jerry book, but it looms large in our memory. Mike had read it in 1st Grade (or perhaps his teacher had read it to the class) and he retold it to us later. He MAY have given us the impression that he was making it up; I recall I was a little surprised to find it in the class library next year.

"Bullwhip Griffin" is one of the more forgotten Disney live-action films; I got a copy of the book it was based on in 4th Grade, God knows how or why, and by middle school it was gone. 

I got "Adam of the Road" and "Otto of the Silver Hand" for the illustrations by Lawson and Pyle, then sold them when the pictures became readily available on the internet. I like Peter Ackroyd, but felt no need to keep these novels after I had read them.

And while I had no need for books to tell me the JW's were wrong, it helped for a while to have the facts at my fingertips. I couldn't find a picture of the cover of my copy of Ted Dencher's book. [But now I have. 6/2/23]

Back to School Specials

The Thirteen Clocks, by James Thurber. Illustrations by Marc Simony.

Another acquisition from the great San Antonio Library Sale. They seemed determined to get rid of any good books they still had, or maybe they had new copies. Anyway, I had read it in college and was as pleased as punch to find this copy. A poetic book, a fractured fairy tale, and has the Golux, the only Golux in the world, and his indescribable hat. This book is the obvious ancestor of Peter S. Beagle’s “The Last Unicorn”. A book, like the Golux’s hat, that is indescribable, a mixture of whimsy, horror (the scene where the ball comes bouncing down the staircase is somehow worse than anything I’ve ever read of in many a ‘scary’ book), and magic, and must be experienced to even begin to comprehend what it is. Its library binding somehow makes it an even more authentic experience. [Not my cover.]

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

Rivets and Sprockets, Written and Illustrated by Alexander Key.

A book I read in grade school and in the public library during the summer. There were two others in the series; the first was “Sprockets: A Little Robot”, and the third was “Bolts: A Robot Dog”. Sprockets is a factory mistake: a robot the size of a boy with a brain the size of a planet (a genuine Asimov Positronic Brain!). His little brother Sprockets had only a semi-positronic brain. Together they help Dr. Bailey and his son get to Mars to answer a mysterious signal before the evil scientist Professor Vladimir Katz can claim it for the Russian government. Looking now at the dilemma of a little metal boy in a world of humans, I wonder if my own character of Athenor might not have been influenced by stealth memories of Sprockets (who also wears clothes, not a robotic or brass homuncular trait). Had no idea until years later that this was the same Key who wrote the Witch Mountain books, or “The Golden Enemy”, a book we read in middle school. We didn’t really pay much attention to author’s names back then. This copy is from the great San Antonio Library sale.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Science Fiction. Series. Hardback.

The Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley. Illustrations by Roberta McDonald.

Junior Deluxe Edition. For years I avoided reading this book; illustrations and adaptations I’d seen of it seemed a little too frilly and twee to me. When I read Humphrey Carpenter’s synopsis and analysis in “Secret Gardens: The Golden Age of Children’s Literature”, however, I gave it a try and found it actually deserving of its classic status. It is the story of a poor chimney sweep named Tom who falls into a stream and drowns, becoming a Water-Baby in the process. He must undergo a Purgatorial, evolutionary process as he travels through the sea and grows wiser and kinder, eventually saving his cruel former master (who also has died) from the Back of Beyond. “And then, if my story is not true, something better is; and if I am not quite right, still you will be, as long as you stick to hard work and cold water. But remember always, as I told you at first, that this is all a fairy tale, and only fun and pretence: and, therefore, you are not to believe a word of it, even if it is true.”

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

The Peculiar Miss Pickett, by Nancy R. Julian. Illustrations by Donald E. Cooke.

Part of the “Nanny Invasion” of America after Mary Poppins, Miss Pickett was a babysitter with peculiarly powerful spectacles. I read it in 5^th Grade, I think, and what I remembered most about it was the gathering of bears that included the Big Bear, Ursa Major, with stars in its eyes. I didn’t find it all that impressive even then, except from a comparative literature point of view. I was developing an eye for sources and influences, or ‘copying’, as I called it then. Bought this ‘in memoriam’ years later. Besides, it’s a Scholastic. I find now it has a sequel, “Miss Pickett’s Secret”.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Children’s Fantasy. Softcover.

The Wizard in the Tree, by Lloyd Alexander. Illustrations by Laszlo Kubinyi.

The first Alexander I ever read, in Briesemeister. If I traveled back in time right now, I could locate its exact position on the shelves. The story of the kitchen maid Mallory, who discovers a wizard who has been caught in a tree since before the magic people left for Vale Innis, an age ago. As they seek to revive his rusty powers, the two get caught up in the machinations of the Dickensian Squire Scupnor, who thinks they have seen too much of his evil plans. An entertaining book that fed my want of wizards, with nice pencilly pictures. But it wasn’t quite “The Hobbit”. Hard to believe that I read this but not “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, though. A Dell Yearling.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Softcover.

The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander. Cover by Jean-Leon Huens.

Eight tales connected to the history of Prydain, explaining some background and mysteries about the characters and objects in the Chronicles. A Dell Yearling.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Short stories. Fantasy. Softcover.

Homer Price and Centerburg Tales: More Adventures of Homer Price, Written and Illustrated by Robert McCloskey.

Read these stories back in 4^th grade, and they are a slice of small-town Mayberry-esque Americana, An out of control donut machine, a musical mousetrap, mail-order seeds gone wild, an ear-worm song that takes over the town, a slick salesman selling an ‘invisible’ enhancer, all lead to adventure and mayhem. I love the picture of the musical mousetrap, a vehicle to lure away the mice rather than kill them. And we can all learn the lessons taught by buying Ever-So-Much-More-So. Got these copies of newer Scholastic reprints at Half-Price.

Ranking: Keepers.

File Code: Children’s Books. Americana. Softcovers.

The 13 Clocks, by James Thurber. Illustrated by Marc Simont. Introduction by Neil Gaiman.

A New York Review Children’s Classic Collection book, with their signature red spine binding. A new deluxe edition I had to have. See elsewhere in the Inventory for my review of the book.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

The Shy Stegosaurus of Indian Springs (Illustrated by Paul Galdone), and The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek (Illustrated by Hubert Buel, by Evelyn Sibley Lampman.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that all small children love dinosaurs. How much more can they love a dinosaur named George, the talking, peaceable last of the stegosaurus who has the chameleon-like ability to fade into the rocks and sand of the desert and thus evade detection. It’s no wonder he makes friends with the children who discover him and who then must keep his secret. I read the ‘Cricket Creek’ one back in McQueeney; I don’t believe they had a copy of the other one. When I saw these copies at the fabled San Antonio Library sale, I had to have them. They are bound in that old-fashioned school binding that somehow incorporate the cover picture into the boards; are they just bought that way or is there a process they can do? I think the ‘cricket’ in the title might have helped draw me. I always had a liking for crickets; they were harmless, easy to handle, and swarmed the school. Our grade school paper (a mimeograph) was even called “The Cricket Chirps”; its mascot was a cricket in a matador suit.

Ranking: Keepers.

File Code: Adventure. Children’s Book. Hardback.

Mr. Revere and I, and Captain Kidd’s Cat, Written and Illustrated by Robert Lawson.

Two fairly harshly used ex-library editions of Lawson’s books, one told by a horse and the other by a cat. Personally, I’d like to find a copy of “I Discover Columbus”, as told by his faithful parrot. More looks at history through the eyes of the animals who happened to be there. I read ‘Revere’ years ago in school, but still haven’t got around to ‘Cat’ yet.

Ranking: Essential. Essential. Keeper. In that order.

File Code: History. Beast Fable. Hardbacks.

Of Wizards, Dwarfs, Mice, Rabbits, and Little Green Men

A Book of Dwarfs, and A Book of Wizards, Edited by Ruth Manning-Sanders. Illustrations by Robin Jacques.

Collections of stories about wizards and dwarfs, two of my favorite fairy tale folks. The covers are photos of three-dimensional models by Brian Froud. I have these mostly for the illustrations, which are all very good. Manning-Sanders made many other fairy tale collections, many also illustrated by Jacques.

Ranking: Keepers.

File Code: Fairy Tales. Anthology. Softcover.

Matthew Looney and the Space Pirates, by Jerome Beatty, Jr. Illustrations by Gahan Wilson.

I enjoyed some of this series when I was in grade school but had almost completely forgotten about it when I ran across this volume. And I certainly didn’t know (at the time) who the great Gahan Wilson was. I hadn’t read this 1974 entry; maybe it wasn’t even written yet. “The Matthew Looney books chronicle the adventures of a brother and sister, Matthew and Maria Looney, who live in the town of Crater Plato, on the Moon. In Beatty's stories, the inhabitants of the Moon are a fully developed non-human civilization. Beatty's fictional Moon inhabitants are an indigenous species, living on the Moon without the assistance of spacesuits, "breathing" vacuum instead of air. A recurring theme in the books is Matthew's desire to know more about outer space, especially the Earth. At the beginning of the series, he looks up in the sky at the Earth and wonders if anyone is living on it.” – Wikipedia. Other books in the series include Matthew Looney's Voyage to the Earth (1961),  Matthew Looney's Invasion of the Earth (1965),  Matthew Looney in the Outback (1969), Maria Looney on the Red Planet (1977), Maria Looney and the Cosmic Circus (1978), and  Maria Looney and the Remarkable Robot (1978). I only read the first three when I was in school, for obvious reasons.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Science Fiction. Juvenile Series. Softcover.

Rabbit Hill and The Tough Winter, Written and Illustrated by Robert Lawson.

I loved these books when I was in McQueeney, the life of the animals (with some anthropomorphism), and the gentleness of the New Folks who come to live in the Big House on the hill. I love the cantankerous old Uncle Analdas and his suspicious old-fashioned ways, and Georgie’s sense of adventure. Rabbits (along with mice and little people) were the characters I most identified with, as they were as put-upon and looked down at as I felt myself to be, trying to make a life under the radar of the Big Folk. I love Lawson’s artwork; it is mid-century America incarnate.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Beast Fable. Novel. Softcovers.

Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin By His Good Mouse Amos. Discovered, Edited & Illustrated by Robert Lawson. (2 copies, a Hardback and a Softcover)

Sometimes when I get to a book like this I have to pause and ponder a while, because of its significance. I’m not sure if I saw the Disney cartoon on TV or read the book first; what I do know is that there was a version in the Disney “Storyland” book way back at the beginning. I first read the book itself at the Seguin Public Library during the summer reading program. There is so much here that was stuffed into my imagination trove. Mice again. Colonial America. Benjamin Franklin, that eccentric wizard of electricity. I liked that Lawson’s mice and rabbits were lanky, not balls of fur. The picture of Amos in his striped muffler, his little carpet bag and umbrella, the tricorne hats, were added to my trove. I first bought a Dell Yearling softcover, but have since found a good Hardback copy

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Beast Fable. Historical. Hard and soft cover editions.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. Illustrations by Erika Markling.

A Whitman book; we always called these ‘coffee-can’ books because you got them free with a can of coffee (in this case a 2 pound can of Folgers). Mom got us quite a few at the time. This copy is a replacement for our old original one that was read to rags, but it is of the same vintage. The illustrations are all in green, because of the Emerald City, I suppose. The Kalidahs, Winged Monkeys, Fighting Trees, and Hammerheads were all pretty intense monsters in this version. The first version we ever had of a book that had such an enormous impact on my imagination.

Ranking: Essential Nostalgia.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. Illustrations by Paul Granger.

A copy of the second version of the ‘Wizard’ that we ever had; this is the replacement for the Scholastic book I got in 4^th grade and which was read to rags too. I finally clipped the pictures out of that book to save them. Baum describes the Wicked Witch of the West as having only one eye; the artist interprets this by making her a cyclops. The Dorothy in the pictures is obviously influenced by the MGM movie.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Softcover.

The Marvelous Land of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. Illustrations by John R. Neill. Cover by Dom Lupo.

A Scholastic book. A replacement copy for the first book I ever stole. It was from Mrs. Harris’ 5^th Grade class library. In fact, I embezzled it rather than outright stole it. I checked it out, then hid it under the mattress of our bed and claimed I couldn’t find it. Mom had to eat the replacement cost (if any), as she had done for the honestly lost “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” the year before. A book thief already, and so young. But it was Oz! It was the only copy I’d ever seen, outside the double edition of ‘Wizard’ and ‘Land’ in the public library! It was an older Scholastic that hadn’t been offered in the Weekly Reader! I was, in some respects, a weaselly desperate little boy with no idea of how the book world worked in waves. I think that if Baum had understood that his translation of the stage tradition of having a girl dress up like a boy, then be revealed at the end, he might have been a little more careful about confusing children with Tip’s transformation into Ozma at the conclusion of the book.

Ranking: An Essential reminder of my childhood of crime.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Softcover.

Mr. Bass’s Planetoid, by Eleanor Cameron. Illustrations by Louis Darling.

Another in the Mushroom Planet series (for more on see elsewhere in this Inventory), this one an ex-library copy. Possibly from that San Antonio sale that yielded up such good results (in the 90’s, I believe). This was one of those juvenile science fiction series, like ‘Sprockets’ or ‘Matthew Looney’ that were so popular in the 50’s and 60’s. I remember reading them in the Summer Reading Program at the public library. The world is threatened by the experiments of the ambitious Prewytt Brumblydge, and the boys must use their home-built rocket to stop him before he ‘unravels’ the earth. [Not my cover, which is a plain library binding.]

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Science Fiction. Children’s Novel. Hardback.

Lawson and Leaf

Aesop’s Fables: A New Version Written by Munro Leaf, Illustrated by Robert Lawson (The Heritage Press 1942) This slipcase version of the classic stories comes from the same team that brought us “Ferdinand”, the bull who smelled the flowers. Got mostly for the Lawson artwork, which I’ve admired since grade school. The 81-year-old slipcase is showing a little wear, and it has a bookplate for ‘James W. Williamson’. Ranking: Expendable. File Code: Fables. Classic. Hardback.