A Coupon for You

Here is a coupon code good for $5 off any order of $30 or more placed on our website:  brillig9679

We have recently added a good number of art exhibition catalogs to our inventory, as well as a number of vintage children's books.

My favorite recent children's book added to our shop is The Snail Who Ran  written and illustrated with beautiful black and white illustrations by Dorothy P. Lathrop. The story of a snail, a mouse, and an eft who are granted wishes by a fairy in the night.

Color frontispiece of this wonderful 1934 children's book.

Gender in the 80's

This week we take a look at 2 books from late-20th century America.

 

You're Either One or the Other, by Joy Wilt (Word, Inc., Waco, TX, 1980), would certainly never pass muster in 2016, when you are not necessarily one or the other.  But the book is politically correct according to the lights of the time.

 It does not go so far as to suggest that boys can try on their mothers' clothing (see cover), but it does suggest that while some boys enjoy driving nails, others enjoy thinking about having babies (vicariously, of course).

 As for women's issues, though the drawing illustrating a girl's development shows her going from cheerleader through graduate to leather-booted shopper, she can also decide to surprise her husband by taking faulty electronics in to the repair shop.

The Assertive Librarian, by Janette S. Caputo (Oryx Press, Phoenix, AZ, 1984), also dates itself by its title.  "Assertive" would hardly be part of a job description in today's library environments.

 

This book is curious because it is 242 pages long, includes detailed analyses of eyebrow positions as indicators of mood, and seems like a general guide to functioning in a work setting.  And yet, every so often the word "librarian" makes its appearance, suggesting a very specific, not to say narrow, targeted reading audience. 

The author is careful to point out that assertiveness is not to be confused with aggression, and avoids using any pronouns that would assign a gender to the assertive librarian in question.

Coming up: Bodily Secretion Books, alternativley styled BS Books or TMI Books.

Moomin Madness

Moomins are not as well-known in the United States as they are in Europe, but the albino trolls are stepping up their world-wide quest for domination of the child mind-- and the alternative adult mind too.  Moomins are the invention of Swedish-speaking Finnish authoress and artist Tove Jansson (1914-2001).  To your correspondent they look like unarticulated relatives of the Michelin Man (1894), or bestial cousins to the Pillsbury Doughboy (1965).  Others have compared them to upright hippopotami. 

Moomins came to fruition in 1945 when they appeared in the first of the Moomin books, The Moomins and the Great Flood.  You know you've arrived when you have your own theme park, and Moomin World is giving Disney a run for its money in Finland, with a satellite slated to open next year in Japan, where Moomins are wildly popular.  Hello Kitty, watch your back!

Jansson was the child of artists and led a bohemian life even by Scandinavian standards of her time, eventually partnering with another woman, artist Tuulikki Pietilä.  The moomins share Jansson's predilection for living close to nature and prizing tolerance as a virtue.

There are nine moomin books, the last having been published in 1970.  Original editions with their charming illustrations are now prized by collectors.  Get yours while they last.  Tie-in merchandise sold separately.

Books are Wild Things

 The following is an excerpt from the current issue of Harper's Magazine:

From an interview with children’s book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, by British journalist Emma Brockes, published in the November/December 2012 issue of The Believer. Sendak, whose many works include Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen, died in Connecticut last May.

Brockes: What do you think of e-books?

Sendak: I hate them. It’s like making believe there’s another kind of sex. There isn’t another kind of sex. There isn’t another kind of book. A book is a book is a book. I know that’s terribly old-fashioned. I’m old, and when I’m gone they’ll probably try to make my books on all these things, but I’m going to fight it like hell. I can’t believe I’ve turned into a typical old man. I can’t believe it. I was young just minutes ago.

Brockes: Is the problem with e-books partly a problem of color?

Sendak: Yes. Picture books depend on color, largely. And they haven’t perfected the color in those machines. But it’s not that. It’s giving up a form that is so beautiful. A book is really like a lover. It arranges itself in your life in a way that is beautiful. Even as a kid, my sister, who was the eldest, brought books home for me, and I think I spent more time sniffing and touching them than reading. I just remember the joy of the book, the beauty of the binding. The smelling of the interior. Happy.

Vintage Holiday Books

We have some very cool vintage holiday sheet music and books for sale.  I love the bright colors, especially the blue in this book:

This one has bright, full page colorful illustrations by Swedish-American illustrator Gustaf Tenggren, known for his Arthur Rackham influenced fairy-tale style.  With simplified piano arrangements by Inez Bertail.  44 pages.  Some of the songs included:  Silent Night; It Came Upon a Midnight Clear; O Little Town of Bethlehem; Hark!  The Herald Angels Sing.

Some more holiday items can be found here.