Fall 2015 Blog

Use this category tag on all blog posts for Fall 2015.

Booktraces Marginalia　M.I.A.

~ zimmerma3

Finding a book that has marginalia truly is a test to me. Trying to find the book isn’t impossible because there definitely are books that have marginalia. I went through many types of books on my search to find such old writing in the books. Even with the help of the people in the library I wasn’t lucky enough to find them. All I was able to find was very old but very interesting old books that were bound at the spine by leather. The books also had leather covers depending on the book. The books that i found with writing were most likely from the early 1920’s because they had Coppertone writing style.

The type of books I was searching out were books that had designs on the spine, leather bound, books falling apart at the spine and the books that looked like they had bridge formation on the spine which held the book together. I also checked books that seemed quite likely to be old like Shakespeare, old dictionaries, books on the middle ages, poetry and very old art books. The only writing I could find in the books from the 1800’s were not letters but symbols like brackets to point out certain facts in the book and I found check marks randomly written in the books. Even though I wasn’t lucky enough to find books that contained marginalia I still had a great time looking through american past time books and seeing how different the book quality they made the books as to now. I also learned that just because the book may look old on the outside doesn’t always mean that it will have writing inside of it. As they teach you in school, never judge a book by its cover. When I think about that quote I think to myself this couldn’t be truer.

Booktraces Marginalia – The English Novel

~ gleesonk1 ~ 1 Comment
In order to reach back and connect humanity to our past, it is important that we treasure not only the nostalgic aesthetic of certain time periods, but information and proof that lets us know that these people existed. Marginalia provides a look into certain individuals whose names were lost across history, and only exist in things such as signatures, annotations and drawings. As our society continues to fade out “marked up” literature in favor of that which is in more of a “mint condition,” we lose a particular value and charm that comes from the people who made the certain time period what it was.
As I searched the Sojourner Truth Library for these findings, I stumbled across a particular book called “The English Novel.” As a Creative Writing major, I know from first hand that it’s tradition to annotate in English textbooks and novels specifically, due to the importance of looking back into the text and relating particular pieces of information to what you could be writing and learning about. When I opened this book, I didn’t find any annotations inside the actual text – rather, I found a signature at the very beginning – in cursive ink, it reads:
“H.C. Martin
May 15 –
from H.N.M.”
I find it fascinating that this could have possibly been given as a gift. Who, or what, is H.N.M.? Was it a relative? Or could it have simply been the initials of a bookshop or company that H.C. Martin bought it from themself? I decided to research who H.C. Martin could have been, but was unable to find anything of substantial evidence. The information I found was a Ms. H.C. Martin. I find myself hoping that it was a woman, because it’s inspiring to know that there were women learning to educate themselves in a sexist society.
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~ crookr1

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Finding 19th century pieces of literature was a lot more difficult than I thought upon beginning this task. It took me a few days to find something, but then I came across Lady of the Tiger. The first seven pages involve multiple different types of marginalia ranging from underlining, to circling, to defining, and to annotating. For the purpose of the assignment I will be ignoring the marginalia written in ink because it does not date back pre-1923. On the first page there are quite a few notes in the margins and circled words with synonyms or definitions above them. The circled words with definitions beside them make me think that the reader could have been a student like me, or a non-native speaker who is simply trying to get more acquainted with the language. The reader also underlined important character traits and facts about events happening in the story rather than stylistic details. They might have been an amateur reader or perhaps knew exactly the information they needed for whatever the novel was being read for. For a collegiate level paper, a professor would be looking for more than just a summary of a novel, however. They would rather appreciate a paper geared toward how the author writes and how they portray the information underlined. So perhaps, if they were hypothetically a student, they would be at a lower level in their schooling than the college level. One note does however say “choice of language” on page 3 in regards to the first paragraph of that page. So the reader might have a higher set of critical and analytical skills than previously thought. Their thought process is really exposed though towards the middle of the same page when the reader talks of comparing and contrasting love and jealousy. The marginalia in the book I selected really gives us some insight into the mind of one individual of the Victorian Era.

 

Book Traces: Marginalia or Not?

~ delancem1 ~ 1 Comment

The assignment at hand was much easier said than done. After my first encounter at the library, I thought I’d hit the jackpot in no time. So much so that I decided to go rogue and hunt for a book in the stacks.

Walking in and out of the stacks felt almost like a maze, every aisle looked the same and you don’t know where you came from or how to find your way back to the particular aisle from which you came. It really is amazing the amount of books stacked into one floor. One thing I would like to say is the weird markers on each of the books didn’t make this feat all that much easier – to me it pretty much looked like ‘library speak’ for how to re-shelve returned books.

I went to the library three separate times to find the “perfect” example of marginalia (I am guilty of being a perfectionist), but to no avail. I hunted through the aisles, in search for all of the indicators of a Victorian book, and I was somewhat successful at this part of the deal. At first, I looked for rebounding, series & book size, the sewing of the pages to the actual cover, gold leafing – anything that would indicate to me, “this book is old”. What was troubling that the bounding technique (sewing of the pages to a cover that was just one cohesive cover) was used in several books dating long past 1923.

I found that a lot of the books that looked very worn were published mid-20th Century. But then I remembered other indicators which were ridges on the binding and cover style. I realized this when I had given up hope one time and was walking through the stacks and saw in the distance, a book with obvious ridging on the side.

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At that point I had become so desperate that I had literally gasped out loud. It was beautiful. I immediately attacked and went to open it, but again, no annotations.

After three separate searches through the library, I decided to stick with what I had originally found which is technically not marginalia, because it was done intentionally. It was a rebounded book entitled Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker, 1864. In it I found a four page letter that was a facsimile to match the handwriting of Parker. The letter was written in 1856. I think that this is very interesting, because why would anyone want to make an exact copy of someone else’s handwriting? I assume he had to be a pretty important person.

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I will probably be opening every Victorian book I spot in the library from here on, and hey, I might even find something worthwhile for Book Traces!

P.S.: I even found a series of books from the 17th Century with a very similar style to that of a 19th Century. They were the diaries of Samuel Pepys, and they contained news articles that were pasted to the books. I thought I’d include some pictures anyway.

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Book Traces: Penrod & Sam

~ Johanna Turano

After looking through much more then 20 books, I finally found an interesting yet slightly comical example of marginalia. The book I picked up was Penrod and Sam by Booth Tarkington. The book was published in 1916 by Doubleday Page & Co, located in New York City. Penrod and Sam is actually the sequel to Tarkington’s book Penrod, written in 1914 and there is another book named Penrod Jashber written in 1929 that is the final book and completes the series. These books provide comic sketches and the stories are about an 11-year-old boy named Penrod Schofield, growing up in a pre-World War 1 United States. The second book, Penrod and Sam explores Penrod’s friends and other minor characters. There have also been film adaptions, stage performances, and parodies based on the misadventures of Penrod and his friends.

What I found interesting about the marginalia I discovered, was that it wasn’t actually a message or a note of any kind, but instead a math problem. It looks as though the owner of the book was trying to figure out the length of a side of a scalene triangle. I’m not the best at math, so I’m assuming the person who owned this book is better considering it looks like they successfully solved the problem they were given. I also found this marginalia interesting because the book is about a pre-teen and his misadventures and the math problem being solved is a geometry problem, something we learn when we are only a bit older than the boy in the story. So, I thought it was a bit ironic that a kid might have been doing homework in a book about a kid doing anything but his homework.

I couldn’t find an actual name written on the book that could tell me who the owner was, but a possible nickname “Speedy S.” was written on the page as well. This leads me to believe that the book might have been owned or was being used by a kid around the age of the protagonist in the story.

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Book Traces Assignment

~ fiegeb1

In looking for Book Traces of previous readers of 19th century books in the library, I came up empty handed. Although I was unsuccessful, I did learn a lot through this assignment and have some guesses as to why I didn’t find any Book Traces in the library.

At first, I had high hopes for this assignment. I was really looking forward to finding old traces of writing in 1800’s books, it didn’t occur to me that people marked up their textbooks years ago too! Initially, I thought finding Book Traces would be an easy task, but as it turned out, it was far from it. One thing I did learn was that our own library was home to over 500,000 books! I imagined I would have no problem finding what I needed, until I learned that only 2,000 of these books were from the 19th century.

There were several reasons why I believe I didn’t find any Book Traces in our library. One of the biggest being the supply- with less than 1% of the books in the Sojourner Truth Library being from the 19th century, it seemed like finding a needle in a haystack. It was also discerning to find out that the library largely eliminates any book donations they get with writing in them. For the sake of Book Traces, I think it would be nice if in the future, our Library preserved and maintained Book Traces (so long as they didn’t infringe on the actual text of the book) and made an effort to have more 19th century books with Book Traces.

Another issue I had was finding appropriate 19th century books that would have writing in them. I searched through dozens of books, and I kept running into old Encyclopedia/ Textbooks, instead of any with literature or stories in them. Some titles included “Religious Science”, “Complete Works of Shakespeare” and so forth. To my surprise, not many old textbooks were marked in nearly as much as newer editions are today. My theory is that these old books were kept as sets, and remained untouched on shelves for much of their lives. I did try searching for keywords such as “journal” and “diary” to find some better material with a higher probability for booknotes, but still did not have any luck.

Although I was not successful this time around, I hope to have future encounters with Book Traces, and look forward to when I can find some Book Traces of my own!

A Holiday Greeting within The Encyclopaedia of Quotations

~ wynneb1

It had not been long before I discovered a book with marginalia in it. I opened the cover of The Encyclopaedia of Quotations (or rather the complete title: The Encyclopaedia of Quotations; A Treasury of Wisdom Wit Humor Proverbs Etc.) and found distinctive handwriting from the late 19th century. The book was rebound by the library, so I presumed it was authentic and there must be some significance to how much it had been used. Perhaps someone had cherished it enough to constantly fiddle at the cover, or it was simply a factor of old age.

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It was written by Adam Wooléyer and published in 1893 in Philadelphia. The cover page revealed beautiful handwriting, which I presume to be either Spencerian or Copperplate. Although it was the only marginalia revealed in the book, it was wonderful to find, and rather endearing. It reads,

“With Christmas Greetings

1902

G.W.C”

I can only assume this book was a gift from one person to another, presumably from a particular “G.W.C.” Based on the book’s title, I like to imagine the person it was gifted to had an adoration for quotations. I imagined this particular G.W.C. writing on a snowy December day to their dear friend with a merry smile upon their face. To my disappointment, there was no marginalia in the rest of the book (which was a fairly big book might I add). The pages were slightly yellowed, presumably from old age. Aside from that, the book was in fair shape without tears or stains.

Though I fell victim to romanticizing the story behind the inked script, I hadn’t discovered any more marginalia throughout my search. The other books I chose from were in similar condition as The Encyclopaedia of Quotations. I did find this assignment to be fascinating. I marveled at how authentic these books appeared on the shelves; their binding was just as captivating. It was equally amazing and puzzling to consider that they weren’t preserved or stored away somewhere. I found myself smiling when I was able to touch the cloth binding, marveling at the torn threads at the top while the pages inside were still perfectly in tact. I was in disbelief that I had access to books from the 18th-19th century that look like age-old relics.

You can view my Book Traces submission here.

Trace Inscription

~ keplingj1
Gift inscription
Book Trace

I have found traces throughout so many books at the library that I thought this would be a walk in the park, however, this task proved to be very difficult. I must have looked through a hundred books trying to find that distinctive script and paper. I realized that it really is unique to see how much better the materials, craftsmanship, and paper were from that time in history. You notice it after the first fifty books. The paper is still white and vibrant after a hundred years. I finally found what I was looking for in the PR section. Specifically, the Shakespeare stacks. There were quite a number of old books from the turn of the century, but alas, most had the distinctive mark of current times; bad penmanship and ballpoint pen.

In a copy of “Shakespeare: The Man And His Stage” I found a gift inscription that read:

To Barry Lufino,

Second of a great line

A souvenir

Theater Royal Huddersfield

July 16th 1923

From Alfie (illegible)

It was written in a cursive, flowing hand that one just does not see anymore. The ink was both thick and thin saying that I had struck Trace gold. I immediately did an internet search and found that someone had already found my trace. I ignored that and pushed on.

I found nothing on the two names in the inscription. It was a mystery of who these people were, but the book had come all the way from Northern England to our library over ninety years ago. I was able to dig up some information on the theater, however.  that the Theater Royal had burned down in 1880 and then rebuilt. It was a beautiful, massive, brick building that was demolished in 1961 for a garden market. Unfortunate, but the march of progress moves on and the invention and popularity of the moving pictures really did nothing for the theater.

I will keep my eye out while in the stacks from now on for traces from this time period. They are very distinctive and are completely unlike the handwriting of modern times. I found it fun to try to find these old traces of people that had come before me and look forward to finding more in the future.