00:00:14.040 - 00:00:43.220

Yeah, no. Yeah. Conversation from the University of Florida. The discussion of social, political, scientific and religious issues of the day. Your host is Michael V. Gannon, professor of history and ethics and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida.

00:00:45.340 - 00:01:14.600

Mm. Give you Hello, I'm Mike Cannon, and this is conversation. On this evening, we have brought our conversation cameras into the rare Books and manuscripts library on the campus of the University of Florida. That library is situated on the fifth floor of Library West. It's a carefully guarded facility, because within these walls we have some really remarkable treasures in the form of books and manuscripts.

00:01:15.040 - 00:01:36.400

And my guest on this particular program is Sydney Ives, the university librarian. Four rare books and manuscripts. Sydney welcomed the conversation. Thank you, my. I think I know what a rare book is. It's something like a rara avis rare bird that shows up in frequently, uh, what is a rare book, though in a more comprehensive sense.

00:01:36.410 - 00:01:57.630

Well, that's a hard question. There are different kinds of rarity. There is absolute rarity in the case, for example, of Robert Frost first book which he printed two copies and burned one. Then there is reality in the sense of demand exceeding supply. The most expensive book in the world.

00:01:57.630 - 00:02:21.990

It's the Gutenberg Bible, the first printing of the Bible. But at least 40 four copies are known, and recently another one turned up. So in that, furthermore, their books of the great reality, even books of which only one copy is known, which have no value because there is no demand for them.

00:02:22.170 - 00:02:43.040

Certain, uh, sermons that 17th century, for example, exists in one topic but are not collected. Materials aren't some books exceedingly rare for the reason that they were in great demand at the time of first publication. I think of pilgrims progress exactly. Yes, Popularity alone can make a book rare.

00:02:43.040 - 00:03:11.760

There are no known copies of I Think, the first through the 10th addition of Pilgrim's Progress. The 11th edition survives in, I Think, one incomplete copy that is an example rarity through attrition. That's also true of many Children's books, which tend to be you know, what Children are eaten up and otherwise to disappear.

00:03:11.770 - 00:03:48.540

So the police were just read so frequently that they were ruined, destroyed In fact, yes, they finally fell apart. By the way, this room in which were seated is called the Poetry Room. I understand. Why is that? We have a wonderful collection of modern British and American poet, and we keep printings after 1950 on the shelves here so that students can browse within the four walls can browse before 1950 that that material has become too valuable to leave out.

00:03:48.550 - 00:04:09.160

And that is in our lock, stat. Now you've had the goodness to produce some objects which are not for browsing some of the treasures which are kept under guard, and I thank you very much for bringing them out. Would you do as the kindness of showing these in order and in whatever order you choose?

00:04:10.340 - 00:04:42.350

Well, I thought I'd start by showing you some of the treasures in our American literature. Our most important collection is of, uh, the literature of New England authors, and I'll get to the reasons why a little further on what I'm holding here is the first addition of the first printing of the first American poetry.

00:04:43.110 - 00:05:14.700

And it's by the first American poet and Brad Street who, uh, this was published surreptitiously in London in 16 50. Mrs Bradstreet was the daughter of Thomas Dudley was the governor of Massachusetts and she was the wife of Simon Bradstreet. There was another governor of Massachusetts, and, uh, this This copy belonged early on to a collector named Sir Mark Masterman Sykes.

00:05:15.140 - 00:05:39.450

You could see his initials on the covers. And later it was in the famous Bridge Water Line Brewery and ultimately went to the Huntington Library in California, from which it was sold off as a duplicate. Very few libraries have copies. Harvard hasn't have copies of both the first English and the first American addition of Mrs Bradstreet's poetry.

00:05:39.730 - 00:06:17.460

This is the first American edition of 16 78 after her death with poems, additional poems from the From the first edition of London 16 50 These these books are the corners down of American Bella Tra and acceptably rare as they say. The next thing I will show you is Emerson jumping ahead in time.

00:06:18.910 - 00:06:46.290

This is known in the first printing as the conquered him. It's, um it was composed by Emerson to be read at the dedication of a memorial to the, uh, dead in the American Revolution. And it was. It was sung and UM 18 37 when that shaft was dedicated.

00:06:46.290 - 00:07:18.140

It's the famous point, beginning by the root bridge that arched the flood. Their flag to April's breeze unfurled here once the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world, which Robert Frost has characterized as the most important occasional poem in American literature. That's a very interesting copy, which belonged to Emerson, sister in law there, four other known of this first printing.

00:07:18.150 - 00:07:53.250

May I hold that while you get the next item? Sure, like you. The next piece is a Hawthorn manuscript of a very interesting short story, the Celestial Railroad. Going Back, Pilgrims Progress. It's kind of a pilgrim's progress brought up to date. The A party is journeying to the next world but may have abandoned pilgrims, staffs and burrows for a railroad.

00:07:53.740 - 00:08:19.050

And so they're rushing towards the next world. They're guided by a a jolly character named Mr Smooth It away. Uh, when they reached the river sticks, however, Mr Smooth It away vanishes in a clap of thunder, and they realized that there escort had been Satan himself.

00:08:20.140 - 00:08:50.910

Um, the books that I've been showing you came to the library when we acquired the Parkman. Dexter. How collections. We are now in the process of publishing catalogs of these collections. There are about 4000 manuscripts and first edition of New England literature. And these are the catalogs.

00:08:50.910 - 00:09:13.060

That is a portrait of Mr How could you say a little bit about him? Sydney who he was, how he happened to acquire this collection. Yes. He was an awful nice man. I knew him well. And in fact, I ghost wrote for him. A description of his collection was published in the Book Collector in 1960 three.

00:09:13.440 - 00:09:39.960

Um, he was a New England gentleman who was in the textile, right. He owns something called the Universal Winding Company at one point, and he had always been an ardent book collector. His father was a great book collector, And Mr Howard been very distressed when on his father's death, his library had been split up and amongst the heirs.

00:09:40.540 - 00:10:10.460

And so he expressly asked that his being kept intact, if possible, and he died shortly after I came here, and I was able to negotiate a deal for the line brewery through Mr Goodspeed, the Boston Book dealer? Yes, the dean of Americans Literature, Americana and the end of American literary booksellers.

00:10:10.940 - 00:10:34.540

Mr. Goodspeed did not only know Mr how all his life and had supplied many books for the for the collection. But he was also a very close personal friend, and we succeeded in raising by private subscription half the price of the line brother and the other half the university itself put up.

00:10:34.540 - 00:10:59.640

So it was acquired in that way. And this is the description of the thorough and the Emerson collections, which will be out before the end of this month. So these are page proofs of they are a publication that will appear shortly. This is the front of speech to the thorough.

00:10:59.890 - 00:11:30.630

It's the only known copy of a broadside advertising Burroughs family firm, which made, among other things, drawing pencils. It's quite a handsome piece of early typography as well. Of course, you see the several different That's yeah, typefaces that worked there. And there. There, Yes, there they are exceedingly diverse, and this is our first venture in color.

00:11:30.920 - 00:11:54.950

I think it's quite successful now. You have some photographs of the how collection being boxed for transport here to the University of Florida Library. I wonder if we could see those? Surely, um, the first. The first found out, you'll see, is of the house that are the main wing of Mr House House in Needham, Massachusetts.

00:11:55.340 - 00:12:15.950

It's a very old how it's an 18th century house. It's a very large house. The wing. You see, it's below the surface of the surrounding woods. I don't exactly know why. And I was told once from the back door you could walk from Needham to Providence, Rhode Island, without ever crossing a road.

00:12:16.300 - 00:12:53.660

So it's in some, uh huh, sort of virgin woods. The next one shows you Arnold Silverman, who is a oh, member of Mr Goodspeed Staff boxing books in Mr House Line Brewery. We sent them down by a special trucking firm, which, um, does transport mainly for museums, and all of the boxes were stamped and huge red letters salvage because we thought that would discourage curiosity.

00:12:53.660 - 00:13:14.100

Along the way, he came down with the truck driver, came with his wife so that that someone was always awake and in the truck, day and night until until it arrived. Um, the third picture is of the gardens. Mr How is a famous gardener? It was also a famous sailor.

00:13:14.100 - 00:13:38.380

He oh, swept up a great many trophies as a sailor and and as a gardener. He also was an art collector. It had, I recall, seeing a large Rubens hanging living room of that house. And this collection, I understand, is the equal of what what one would find at Harvard or the Barrett Collection.

00:13:38.460 - 00:14:03.090

Oh, absolutely. Um, of course, we have some things those collections haven't. And they had some things we haven't. For example, Mr Barrett has the only copy of Frost. First book. Nobody else can have it. Um, but we are. We are unequalled in some areas. For example, the extreme ephemera.

00:14:03.100 - 00:14:25.660

A poets like James Russell Lowell. We have many pieces of which only one copy is known. And the library was used extensively by the editor of the Great Bibliography of American Literature. Ah, there are many locations for the How library in that book, which is now in completed its seventh volume.

00:14:26.810 - 00:14:48.260

I wonder if, while we have the camera on some exhibit material, we could look at some letters that were addressed to Margery Cannon Rawlings. You have the comprehensive collection of Rawlings material here, and in that collection are some very interesting communications. I think the first one is a letter to her.

00:14:49.140 - 00:15:10.160

Um, the first one is a letter to her from, Well, the first. The first piece that we have on the on the camera camera is the her sketch for the yearling. She made up a series or she took. She made notes over a long period of time for the book.

00:15:11.040 - 00:15:43.650

It's, um I think they're called quarries. This is from the quarry for the yearling, and one of managed, similar sheets with her, um, scrawled notes. After that is beyond that is a letter to her from Ernest Hemingway talking about turkey hunting tuna fishing, and Maxwell Perkins, who edited both him and Mrs Rawlings.

00:15:43.780 - 00:16:10.780

And we have his signature on the second page, his signature on the second page. It's a typical I would say Hemingway letter. Um, the next piece is from F. Scott Fitzgerald again, a typical letter he spends most of the time discussing speakeasies, um, and signs it just Scott Just Scott.

00:16:10.790 - 00:16:41.460

Yeah, he also was one of Maxwell Perkins is offered Well, let's turn now to some more books. You have a copy of a torque LaMotta that I believe is quite old. Well, yes, it's rather interesting. It's on the title is they protest today, Papa, or the power of the Pope.

00:16:42.910 - 00:17:07.540

It begins with this quite nice, Woodcock. That would be a figure of Christ. The King, I believe, holding the orb and cross. Mm. And that's original. Is it? Well, yes, This is the printing of 14. 80 from Cologne. You can see it has rather nice ornament on the title page.

00:17:07.540 - 00:17:26.260

It's typical of the time when printed books were still meant to look like manuscripts. Uh, people haven't yet grasped the notion of printed books. So if it didn't look like a manuscript, it didn't sell. That, of course, also accounts for the beauty of the type and the way it fits together.

00:17:26.840 - 00:17:51.650

Many more, uh, designs for each type had to be made so that the letters would fit together in what looked like a manuscript flow or continuity. In other words, you'd have several different shapes to the letter A. So you'd use the one which would make it look as though it had been lettered by hand in relation to the letters before and after it.

00:17:51.950 - 00:18:21.300

Does that illumination continue in the body of the text? Not really, No. There's just a few little yeah, things for emphasis. What is the date and providence of this work? Well, this is 14. A hate, um, Cologne. Mhm. This is the color font in which the printer gives his name and the date and the place of printing Torquemada.

00:18:21.300 - 00:18:43.510

Of course. Um, I sort of put him in here because he was the first grand inquisitor appointed by Ferdinand and Isabella of Leon and Castile, who were, of course, Columbus's friends whom you know. Yes, I know. Well, that I personally know of them. I know. Yes, of course not.

00:18:43.520 - 00:19:21.810

They're all dead. Um, another thing I would like to show you before we leave Emerson forever is, um, somewhat obliquely. This is the second edition of Walt Whitman's leaves of grass. Emerson, of course, was one of the leaders of the transcendental movement and conquered. And Whitman was, ah, a kind of student of Emerson, and certainly leaves of grass was the most famous, the most important.

00:19:21.810 - 00:19:43.790

The most substantial work of all the transcendentalist. Uh, when he read it, Emerson became very enthusiastic and wrote to Walt Whitman. I greet you at the beginning of a great career. I don't know whether you can see it, but those words are stamped on the spine of the second edition of Beliefs of Graph.

00:19:43.910 - 00:20:10.670

They certainly are Summer W. Emerson. Yes, somewhat to Emerson's this mag, but it was the first blurb. The first blurb. This is a copy of the first edition of Leaves of Grass, a very lovely copy. It's a very hard book to find in good condition. We're very fortunate to have have this lot and again to repeat the date.

00:20:11.440 - 00:20:40.700

This is 18 55. The second edition is 18 56 another book we have that is extraordinary for its condition. The finest I've ever seen is a set of the seven volumes of the Apollo edition of Audubon's Birds of America. And this is extraordinary, not only because of its this is a publisher's binding.

00:20:40.750 - 00:21:04.450

It's not a privately done binding. It's extraordinary for the elaborate nous of the building and as well as, of course, the fineness of this Copy The prince, This is I don't know whether I can show this to you or not, it's a little difficult. This is the print of the Florida J.

00:21:05.340 - 00:21:35.390

There are many Florida birds in this, which is, I would think, the most beautiful book ever published in America. Now that's a reproduction. By what lithograph? No, it's not a reproduction. It is a separate, Uh, it's printing by totally different medium. The first, those great large things that most people think of when they think of the autobahn were engravings on copper plates made in Edinburgh in the 18 thirties.

00:21:35.840 - 00:22:05.670

There were 435 of them in between 18 40 18 40. For however, these lithographs were done. Um, for the what's called the Apollo edition. It's a completely different, um, set of plates, and furthermore, there are 500 of these is against the 4 35 in the in the English printing or in the English form of the of the book.

00:22:06.340 - 00:22:34.540

The color Blue is particularly bright. Is that a a characteristic of this type of reproduction? Well, it's not exactly it's not a reproduction. It's It's the original lithograph plate to which colour has been applied by hand. All right. This is how I understand this watercolor. Oh, that is watercolor over what would be a black and white, exactly over a lithograph plate.

00:22:35.260 - 00:22:59.680

Uh, probably applied to a stencil, but under the direction of autobahn himself who oversaw That is why reproductions of autobahn are never successful because the colors are never accurate. If Audubon supervised this work, I would assume not very many of these volumes were produced. No, they were limited in number, I think perhaps 300.

00:22:59.680 - 00:23:26.050

But I'm not. I don't really recall how many of them were, but there are very few in that condition. And of course a lot of them have been cut up for individual sales. People do frame them, but you should be careful to make a distinction between these original lithographs and reproductions, such as the beaming reproductions in the 18th of the lithographs.

00:23:27.240 - 00:23:58.060

This, um, represents a large collection in our stacks of books on English Landscape design, which is a special study of Professor Duckworth's. These are quite fascinating have done by Pumphrey Rampton, a specialist in English landscape art. And these are interesting because of these little before and after views.

00:24:00.740 - 00:24:22.560

Oh, so part of that pulls out. You see, this lifts up yes and shows you. But it was like after this is before, when it's all when it's trashed up with a lot of irrelevant outbuildings and so forth. And here Mr Rampton has converted it to this lovely sylvan scene.

00:24:23.640 - 00:24:51.770

We have a great deal of what I call the literature of seeds teach meaning residences. One comes across, uh, a set of 20 volumes by John Neil called views of being views of gentlemen's seats, which is unusual title it is, but it has a meeting very different from what we would lead to use of Gentleman's residence is what comes to mind.

00:24:52.640 - 00:25:16.820

Of course, this is again represents the specialty of a faculty member. The first edition up, Tristram Shandy, by Laurence Sterne, knew the Department of English has been producing the definitive edition of his works. That's right, and he's done the shandy but not yet has published. I think the annotations for it.

00:25:17.140 - 00:25:58.230

The first edition is rather interesting because after the first four volumes that come out, a great many forgeries appeared on the market, false continuations and piracy. So to guard against that, Laurence Sterne himself signed the fifth to seventh and the ninth volumes to authenticate them from then from then on, as you see here, yes, it's a Tristram, I suppose, is one of the most widely translated box than that of the 18th century.

00:25:58.230 - 00:26:25.680

It's in Japanese and Czech, Hungarian and so on. I think we have time for one more. What would you select? One more? God, Um, well, I will show you a piece of We have a very fine collection of modern printing. Modern fine printing. This is what's known as the Doves Bible.

00:26:25.680 - 00:27:00.170

It's the Bible printed by the doves press, and it's a It's a very fine example of modern typography. What typefaces that you know. It's the Bible typeface. In other words, it's unique typeface created just for this book. That's where it's distinction comes from. It also famous for one flaw and the type.

00:27:01.440 - 00:27:29.560

I don't think you can see it, but the flaw is the slant of the descend er in the UAE. It comes at a particularly awkward angle. Once you've seen it, you can't read a page of the Bible as well, because you always notices Sydney, This has been a wonderful experience for which I'm very grateful to be here with you in the poetry room of the rare Books and Manuscripts library, too.

00:27:30.140 - 00:28:23.670

Be able to see these marvellous examples of rarity in both published form and manuscript forum. I thank you very much for being with me. Is my guest on conversation. Thank family. I mean, no. Yeah, it's just