A Collin’s Gem miniature edition of The Universe, a 4 ½ inch book about space by Pam Spence. It’s a great, I can easily imagine it being a full-size coffee table book. Plus, unlike most of my Collin’s Gem books, it’s not even a dictionary!
Tiny little book about Elvis, 2 ¼ inches tall. Published by Andrews McMeel in 1998. I do not know much about Elvis, except that he has many clones living in Vegas.
Edgar Allan Poe, America’s greatest gothic horror author. This 3 ¼ inch Running Press edition published in 2014 contains many short stories and poems, including “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Masque of the Red Death”.
It’s almost a week until Christmas! Here we have a cute little book of Christmas traditions published in 1996 by Rutledge Hill Press, 3 ¾ inches tall. ❄️☃️❄️
“The Recessional”, a book of poems by Rudyard Kipling, published by the Saalfield Publishing Co. It’s just over 3 inches tall, and it’s bound in so-called “ooze” leather, but I can’t figure out what year it’s from. It’s very neat and dainty, and apparently once belonged to Jeane E. Armstrong, whoever that was.
Well, you folks really seemed to like the post I made about Poe, so I thought I’d also share my other miniature books by Poe. These are visually less interesting, but they’re both great editions.
The 2003 Del Prado edition of The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Stories has 15 full short stories by Poe. It’s 2 ½ inches tall, 1 inch wide, and 640 pages long.
“The Gold Bug”, on the other hand, is a single short story put out by the Little Leather Library ca. 1930, 4 inches tall. The Little Leather Library put out over 100 short stories, poetry collections, and plays, but I have yet to find a complete list of everything they published. I do know they also have Poe’s “The Raven and Other Poems” and “Murders in the Rue Morgue”, though. This particular short story is actually not that spooky- it’s a treasure hunting story that introduces some basic elements of ciphers. Cool!
And for Halloween itself, let’s take a moment to appreciate the ever macabre Edgar Allan Poe!
A little Witches’ Spell Book from Running Press, 3 ¼ inches tall, published in 2013. It has a lovely velvety cover. Most of the spells, alas, seem dubious at best, but it’s probably better not to argue with witches this time of year.
The Selected Tales of E. T. A. Hoffmann, 2 ½ inches tall, published by Del Prado in 2003. E. T. A. Hoffman was an early German gothic fiction writer. Some of his stories would inspire the opera “The Tales of Hoffmann” by Jacques Offenbach. Two of those stories are included in this edition, “The Sand-Man” and “The Cremona Violin”, along with “The Deserted House” and “The History of Krakatuk”. Hoffmann is also know for writing “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”, on which Tchaikovsky’s ballet is based.
I just love the way my little wooden fellow’s poses came out here.
Vampires by Randy Burgess, 3 ¾ inches tall, published in 1996 by Ariel Books. This little book has lots to say about the lore of vampires, the origin of the story, their mythology and their modern(ish) representation. I wonder if a more recent edition of this book would have to cover Twilight? Scary thought!
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, 2 ½ incydent tall, published in 2003 by Del Prado. In this classic ghost story, a governess witnesses how her two wards are haunted by ghosts with vague but evil intents. For all that, not much really happens, and the action just sort of stops at the end without much explanation. I’m sure that’s part of the style, but it just felt kind of unresolved.
Now that I have read more James, I can confirm that it indeed is part of the style and that it’s actually pretty great!
I accidentally cut up a French Classic Erotic Novel
I like to make boxes out of old books. I started in high school, and these days I choose my books carefully: a good size hardcover, interesting look, and most importantly: the contents should be irrelevant. As far as “irrelevant books” goes, obviously I’m not chopping up books just based on personal taste: there are a lot of older books with good hardcovers that contain racism, so I pick those. (I have one I’m still working on called “The Gentle Americas” that glorifies colonization, so that shit is not needed.) I saw this gorgeous, somewhat smaller than usual, black hardcover with gold details, both on the outside and inside. And it was in French! (Now that I live in Australia, that is more of a novelty than growing up in Ontario, Canada). So a cool looking French book in Australia: meh, I’ll make it an even cooler box, no need to worry what it’s about.
Well, I’ve even taken a book binding course, so I made five signature of 8, and started sewing them together. It was when I was sewing the very middle signature, that the text finally jumped out at me:
Now, while I did nine years of French Immersion, there are some words they don’t teach you, that you have to learn yourself: fit éjaculer deux fois - ejaculated twice sondait l’anus - probed the anus
Aw man! What did I cut up??? Sadly, as it turns out, a French Classic. The book is (or was) Juliette, ou les Prospérités du Vice by the Marquis de Sade (first published 1801, my copy 1974). So. The deed was done. What could I do now??? Well, if you know me at all, you know I am very patient with precise, detail oriented creativity. I’ve gone through pages from an old book before, and re-contextualized the text: http://elijasaurus.tumblr.com/tagged/cut-and-paste-poetry-series So why not do the same? What a better way to unwind after a long day of bow tie making, pattern drafting, and gardening (one day I’ll have a job that pays me), then finding (and sometimes translating) old French erotica? It’s a great way to brush up on my French, and to learn some new words–more useful than Duolingo can provide.
I’ll definitely be compiling the found sentences/snippets into a zine, along with translations and a selection of “cut out and rearrange!” like a fridge magnet poetry set. Here’s some that’s I’ve come across (no pun intended, jk) so far:
Go ahead an type some of these into Google translate, it’s well worth it. I mean, who the fuck knows what Google analytics now thinks I’m up to, but whatever. (Also, after posting this I’m sure the amount of porn blogs/bots that follow me is going to skyrocket.)
