Seattle has not disappointed. This morning I strolled down to the harbor and wandered through the sculpture park, and it was overcast and a bit blustery. Then about 2pm it started to drizzle...and kept it up for hours, with moments of actual rain in between. Lovely...except for the fact that books tend not to like getting wet. But that's what plastic's for -- to keep things dry. Now it's foggy and reminding me of London.
One great thing about book fairs like this is, you can usually find anything you want. And a bookseller I know has a copy of the 1866 edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" that was put out by Appleton Press. When John Tenniel made Lewis Carroll withdraw the first printing of "Alice...", as I understand it, the unbound sheets were sold to Appleton and the 1866 copyright was added. Lewis Carroll had a low opinion of children in the US due to his encounter with an American child a few years before, so he had no problem letting the second-rate printing come here.
He also gave the presentation copies he'd gotten back to a children's hospital, after removing his signature page. Those have turned up, on occasion, as well...but it's the 15 presentation copies he did not get back that are the "Alice '65."
The dealer let me look the book over, and to my eye the illustrations were clean and nice. But each artist is his own worst critic and the most demanding of people, so maybe it was just the awkward placement Tenniel didn't like.
Another great thing about this fair is, I get to see friends I haven't seen in a while. Catch up on life. Revisit past moments.
I need to make it clearer in A65 that Adam is a total book person who has friends in the field.
On another note, I don't like my workup for BC's new edition, at all. It looks like it's bondage porn. I think I'm going to aim for a picture of a baseball player of some sort. That ties it together much better.
One great thing about book fairs like this is, you can usually find anything you want. And a bookseller I know has a copy of the 1866 edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" that was put out by Appleton Press. When John Tenniel made Lewis Carroll withdraw the first printing of "Alice...", as I understand it, the unbound sheets were sold to Appleton and the 1866 copyright was added. Lewis Carroll had a low opinion of children in the US due to his encounter with an American child a few years before, so he had no problem letting the second-rate printing come here.
He also gave the presentation copies he'd gotten back to a children's hospital, after removing his signature page. Those have turned up, on occasion, as well...but it's the 15 presentation copies he did not get back that are the "Alice '65."
The dealer let me look the book over, and to my eye the illustrations were clean and nice. But each artist is his own worst critic and the most demanding of people, so maybe it was just the awkward placement Tenniel didn't like.
Another great thing about this fair is, I get to see friends I haven't seen in a while. Catch up on life. Revisit past moments.
I need to make it clearer in A65 that Adam is a total book person who has friends in the field.
On another note, I don't like my workup for BC's new edition, at all. It looks like it's bondage porn. I think I'm going to aim for a picture of a baseball player of some sort. That ties it together much better.
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