• This is the kind of day where I appreciate the Calendar section of the LA Times. Instead of the usual speculation as to why the movie box office is slumping, there was a well-written article on Grove Press's new 5-volume Centenary Editon of Samuel Beckett's works. Tim Rutten, a times staff writer I'd like to read more of, wrote a perceptive and helpful article on the edition that actually includes comments on the design of the books; something usually left out of many book reviews. He points out that the edition is not the complete works, but it contains everything that is essential in Beckett's works. With the possible exception of his novel "Watt", I think he's right.


    The overall series editor is Paul Auster, but each volume has it's own seperate editor. The first two volumes cover the novels and are edited by Coim Toibin and Salman Rushdie. The Grove/Atlantic website doesn't list the contents, but I sure hope it includes Beckett's first novel, Murphy, which is an absolute knee-slapper he wrote while starving in London. To stay warm, he'd hang out in the movie theatres and was especially enamoured of Buster Keaton. You could probably say that Murphy was an extended fantasy of Beckett's where he imagines himself as a kind of Keaton character pulled off of the screen and given Beckett's troubles. I recommend this novel all the time to people at the bookstore and they come back raving about how good it is. In many ways (and as Tim Rutten points out), Beckett was a master of the novel as well as of the stage. I'd go further and say that he was a better novelist. The novel allows Beckett to speak directly to the reader, whereas his plays have to be understood through the medium of the actors, directors and designers who produce it. The novels (with the exception of Watt) are so well-written and bittersweet that I found myself enjoying them more than the various performances of the plays I'd seen. Beckett always wrote for himself. Watching his plays in the theatre (especially a good production) I've grown frustrated with the audiences who inevitably end up laughing and tittering because they can't quite figure out what's going on when it's perfectly obvious. Reading the novels you have the luxury of losing a dull audience and listening to Beckett directly. I'm a snob, but it's the truth.

    The other three volumes are; Vol. 3, Dramatic works (Edited by Edward Albee); Vol. 4, Poems, Short Fiction and Criticism (Edited by J. M. Coetze); Vol 5, "Waiting for Godot" (bilingual edition, but no editor listed). Albee is not my first choice for editing the dramatic works. Pinter would have been better since he had an ongoing relationship with Beckett and used to submit the manuscript for all of his plays to Beckett who would make comments in a red pencil. I wonder if Pinter was asked to do the editing, but because of ill health, declined. Coetze is a wonderful choice for the short fiction, poetry and essays. I've long admired his work and look forward to reading his introductory essay.

    Norman Dubie, the great unknown American Poet, once taught a class at Arizona State and I took it. He was a nut, but a brilliant nut. During an office visit, I asked him about Samuel Beckett and he told me that Beckett scared him. When I asked him why he said, "death, death, death...I won't be able to understand him until I'm an old man". Well, that's probably true for Mr. Dubie, but I started reading Beckett in my teens. I'm reasonably sure I understand him (although the novel Watt is still a puzzler), but perhaps a deeper understanding will come when I'm in my sixties.

    On second thought, no, I don't think so. I'm going to buy this new set and read him all over again. Beckett is the most important writer of the 20the century. This set is a perfect way to discover him, or, re-discover as the case may be.

    PS I went into the camp of the enemy and snuck a peek at the new editions (which are all on the shelves) and the design is, well...good. No dust-jacket, but with an embossed image on dark blue covers. It looks rather like a school book. Beckett would have liked that, I think. The font and layout are very nice. These books will be easy to read. What I don't get is why the colors are so muted. This seems to be the cliche notion of Beckett as somber and grim. Where the truth is: he is somber and grim, but he's also damn funny, strange and marvelous. There is no sense of fun in this design, whereas there is an enormous sense of fun in Beckett's works.

    Quick note on the novel "Watt": Beckett wrote this novel during the occupation (as I recall from Deidre Bair's bio of Beckett - still the best, in my opinion and to hell with amazon.com reviewers) to try to keep himself sane in an insane time. The books style and content reflect this preoccupation with detail. It's an amazing, unreadable book that reads like the journal of a mental patient trying to describe his/her daily life. At one point in the book the narrator comes into the master's bedroom and for almost four pages he describes the various ways the furniture could be re-arranged; all in puns. For example, the headboard could be placed on it's back while the sideboard could be placed on it's head....(get the idea?). I suppose it should be included in his selected works, but be warned reader; you venture onto thorny ground. Even the title is a joke: What? Watt?


  • Amazingly, we have gotten the stolen "Men Without Women" first edition back, slightly damaged, but with a $100 tucked in the book to pay for the damage. I'm still reeling from the chain of events of the last two days.

    Here is what happened;

    Friday, Gloria and Lisa both had the idea that we should look on Ebay to see if anyone might be trying to sell the stolen first edition of "Men Withought Women" by Ernest Hemingway that I mention was stolen on Iliad Bookshop's opening day. Sure enough, there was a copy up at a starting bid of $1,499 with a description that almost matched our ABE (advanced book exchange) description where we had the book for sale. Only a few small words were changed. When we looked closely at the picture that accompanied the auction, we realized it was the same picture we used at ABE only cropped and brightened up, probably in Photoshop. After checking the seller (who was located in Texas), I remembered that one of the men who spent time in the rare book section where the Hemingway was located, mentioned he was from out of town and would be leaving in a day or two.

    We decided to file a police report and then contact Ebay. We should have already filed a report, but that's another story. Dan was all for contacting the person on Ebay directly with a basic statement that we know the book was stolen from our store, we have a witness (which wasn't really true) and that if he didn't return the book, we'd contact the FBI. Dan also worded it so that if the book was returned there'd be no questions asked.

    Both Lisa and I thought this was tipping our hand too soon, but Dan had had experiences with the police before and was not confident that they'd do anything. Lisa sent the carefully worded statement to the person on Ebay and I wrote out a statement for Dan to take to the police tomorrow.

    At around 9pm this evening Dan called us at home to tell us that he had the Hemingway back in his possession. He told us that someone had called the bookstore and told him to go out to the postal box on the side of our building and look inside. The person apparently hung up before Dan could say anything else. Dan went outside and, incredibly, the "Men Without Women" copy was inside, along with a $100 bill and a short note indicating the money was to cover the cost of the damage to the dust jacket (there was a small tear on the rear cover that wasn't there before).

    When Dan called us, we immediately checked the Ebay auction and it was still up for sale. However, I've just paused in writing..(there it was)...and the auction has been removed. Isn't this the strangest turn of events? Apparently, there must have been two people; one was the person with the book here in Los Angeles, and another with the Ebay auction in Texas. The Los Angeles person must have had a change of heart when he was contacted by the Texas person and decided to return the book. Ebay may have contacted him at the same time our email arrived. Dan was right: the best approach was a direct one.

    I had suspected that the theft was one of opportunity. The "my God, no one is looking, I could steel this book" kind of thing that could tempt just about anyone. This person just succumbed to the temptation. They must have been carrying a load of guilt to return the book so soon after our contacting him. It's also possible that the threat implied in Dan's email may have simply scared him. I'm voting for the first explanation, since the person left a $100 bill in the book as well as returning it. All I can say is, "Thank you for returning the book. You did the right thing!"

    So, now our store opening was a complete success and, incredible as it seems, we had a $4,000 book returned by the person who stole it.

    Yay! Oh, Frabjus Day!

  • A little over two weeks ago, the Iliad Bookshop (where I work) began moving its 100,000+ stock of books to a new location about a mile away. I worked for 131 hours alongside volunteers and co-workers to get the new store opened by April 1st. Today, I am writing to you having survived the Great Iliad Bookshop Migration. We managed to get all of the books, the store fixtures, the bookshelves, supplies, statues, plants, files, computers, lumber, couches, coffee tables, rugs, posters, signs and front counters to the new store and arrange them so we could open this last Saturday, April 1st. Of course, we were all exhausted and bruised, but we opened the new doors to a rush of people and did booming business all day Saturday. I've finally managed to get enough sleep to sit down and write about it. I've also created a Flickr.com account that has about 3 dozen photographs arranged chronologically, so you can get a visual idea of what it was like. This event was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done physically. I was worried about my back most of all, but despite a day that was touch and go, I came through it weakened, but proud of what we had accomplished. What follows is a short description of how we went about moving an entire bookstore.

    But first a little background: The Iliad Bookshop had been at the same location for over 18 years. The reason we decided to move was because our landlord (Lord Voldemort) decided to take advantage of the crazy real estate market in California and at the end of our recent five year lease decided to raise our rent over 70%. This was the final straw for our owner, Dan, who has had to deal with the impecunities of Lord Voldemort for years and years. Dan went out and found a building that was the right size and a good location (and with room to grow) and be bought it. The financing took a long time to get put into place, so we were delayed in moving and ended up having only two weeks to move the entire store.

    After talking over the logistics a bit, we bought 1,200 book boxes from a local box store. Dan went to the new store location and began to break down walls and get the space ready for the parquet floor he was going to put in. The new location is 8,000 square feet, but the space we were moving into is only 3,000 sqft. There are two other businesses who occupy the additional 5,000 sqft. When their leases expire in the next couple years, we will take over the space and expand our new store to triple its size. This was one of the things that made the building so attractive. But for the present, we had to break down what was an old television studio, put up a new wall and get the floors ready to be covered. Dan took about a month to get the job done, a frustrating job since we discovered all kinds of problems with the electrical, plumbing and support beams in the building that had to be fixed before we could move in. Dan was working 12 to 16 hour days long before we even began to move the store. I don't know how he did it.




    Back at the old store, we had spent several months weeding out books we didn't want to move by putting them in the various free boxes out in front of the store and by culling the stock for our sale tables. This involved going through every section in the store and pulling books that had been there for years and re-pricing them to the sale tables. After storing the huge pallets of flat, empty boxes in our back rooms, I began to label every shelf in the store with a number system that would enable us to re-shelve the books in the new store in alphabetical order. In some of the pictures you'll see yellow post-it notes with numbers on them. These were the numbers that were copied to the boxes when they were packed so we could know what books were inside each box. In general, this system worked well and we were able to re-shelve efficiently. However, a problem we did not foresee was that some sections did not go into the same bookcases, since Dan had to mix and match at the new store to fit the space. Of course, the Art section was one of these and I spent most of a very tiring day with volunteer Dave sorting through every single book (Dave ended up doing most of the section and told me he never wanted to handle a book by Picasso every again).

    We began packing on March 16th. Fortunately, we had almost 10 volunteers (to whom we gave bookstore credit for hours worked) who dove right in and got us off to a fine start. We moved all of the paperbacks first and managed to get everything packed in one day, along with most of the shelving (we moved the empty bookcases whole). I think we packed and moved something like 30,000 paperbacks in one day. Bob, the king of paperbacks, and Dan went to work at the new store and got the first rows of shelving up and we began to re-shelve the next day.


    Slowly, very slowly, we began to work through each section in the store. We reserved the paperback room, which was cleared now, as the storage room for the new boxes as they were packed. Stupidly, I didn't pay attention and group all of the boxes by sections in the first few days, so many subject sections got mixed up (something that made for a lot of extra work sorting them out at the new store). Once I realized my mistake, we got the sections together and it was much easier to reshelve at the new store. The pattern became: packing books at the old store, loading up the big rented truck with about 100 boxes stacked three high (they fit perfectly on to a hand truck this way), move them to the new store and dump them in a clear area. We did this pretty much strait through the first week until we had about half of the books out of the old store.

    Then we ran into a snag; Dan wasn't able to get new shelves up fast enough for us to put books on them. So, we all had to go to the new store and shelve like crazy while Dan worked on getting the shelved together. At first I didn't realize why Dan was slow, but then I remembered he had to cut off the top shelf of every bookcase because the ceiling at the new store was 2 feet lower than the one at the old store. That and the fact that many of the shelves had to be re-backed and braced together, slowed our boxing and moving for several days.




    Lisa drove the 16 foot, 6-wheeler truck with a liftgate every day and she did a great job. We kept joking about her being the "Large Marge" character from the Pee Wee film. You can see her in the photo-set looking tough behind the wheel. Backing into the backdoor's of each store was a real bear and there were some nail-biting moments, but Lisa got the hang of it and eventually it became a piece of cake, except for the

    "    DAY FROM HELL".

    .....The Day From Hell.....

    Let me tell you about the "DAY FROM HELL". Dan managed to catch up with us and we were able to go back to the bookstore to pack the the last sections. We were making good progress when it started to rain. The volunteers had thinned out and we only had two left (thank you, JB and Dave!) and we had to get about 500 boxes of books to the new store in the rain. We managed to park the truck close to the back door and rig a kind of tent to keep most of the rain off of the books, but as the day progressed all of the floors got wet and there was water everywhere (I was soaked all day). On top of that we were moving the heaviest boxes, the Art books, some of which weighed up to 60lbs each. I had a terrible scare when the end of my shoe got caught between the liftgate of the truck and the edge of the truck bed. The liftgate operator wasn't paying attention and I stared in horror as the end of my shoe got crushed. Thank God, I wore shoes that I had bought from the Thrift store and that were slightly too large for me, because there was lots of space at the end of the shoe and the liftgate just missed my toe. I had dodged a bullet that time. I continued on as if nothing had happened. It was only later, in bed, that I realized how close I had come to disaster. Another awful moment in the "DAY FROM HELL".

    By this time we had made three trips and came back for a fourth when some guy came into the store and claimed that our truck had hit his car. After looking at his car (which looked like it had been hit by someone), listening to his contradictory story, and looking at our truck (which had no marks on it whatsoever), we told him we didn't think we hit him. He started arguing with us and blah blah blah. Well, this went round and round for an hour while most of us kept on loading up boxes. Eventually, Dan came over and we exchanged driver information and decided to leave it to the insurance company to sort out. Lisa was upset and didn't want to drive the truck for the rest of the day. We managed to get one last load during very heavy rain, over to the new store where we were all so tired we were just going to leave the books in the truck and unload them the next day. But Dan was worried the truck might leak, so (all of us groaning simultaneously) we unloaded the heavy, heavy, wet boxes. I think we went home at around 8pm after a 10-hour day lifting boxes. Thankfully, that was the ..

    .....end of the "DAY FROM HELL".....
    The next day was much better (apparently, Librus, the Greek god of books, decided to spare us this day) and we managed to speed up our loading and get some more volunteer help. Moving the large fixtures (the front counter and the sale tables) turned out to be much easier than we thought it was going to be and we got them all loaded and moved in one day. By the 10th, however, my back started to give me trouble and I had to stop frequently to rest. I think all of us paced ourselves very well for this huge job. Every night I'd have a hot bath to sooth my muscles and I'd take a Motrin twice a day for pain. Our volunteer, JB, was a demon with work though. Man, this guy would stay for another three hours after Lisa and I would leave! I asked him where he got the energy and he just smiled at me mumbling something about energy drinks. Lisa tells me that he told her he drank a concoction of orange juice, mountain dew and coke every morning. He called it his "jet fuel".




    Despite the wear on our bodies of moving almost 4,000 boxes of books, we got everything out of the old store. The weather cleared and we spent most of the last few days shelving and cleaning the new store for last Saturday's opening. Dan found that he had run out of shelving and so we weren't able to get Science, Nature, Erotica, Counter Culture, Cookbooks and a few other sections up onto shelves. But we got about 90% and when the doors opened people were very pleased. Of course, one of the first customers asked for the Cookbook section and I had to give her the sad news that all of the books were still in boxes (she didn't like that sound of that from the sour look she gave me). Dan plans to get the new shelves up within a week or two. He makes them from scratch; stains and waxes them so they look very nice.

    We were not without some problems, however; several sections had very curious alphabetization and some books were in completely the wrong sections. We also lost our two large couches (no room) which was disappointing to some customers. We plan on adding chairs to make up for some of the loss of comfort. We also had big problems with SBC over our DSL line. Eventually, we just fired them after one bureaucratic foul-up after another. Our Credit Card terminal had to be upgraded which took many calls on the phone late into the night. But the opening went very well. The store, while not complete, looks beautiful. The parquet floors are simply wonderful. Gloria is almost through with her magic bathroom. My friend Skip, the jazz guitar genius, remarked that he had played on stages that were smaller than our bathroom. I love it. If you make it to 5400 Cahuenga in North Hollywood, you must use our new bathroom and tre cool toilet. Our plumber, Jason, told us, "I love this toilet". Oh, and the great books.

    The only real downer for the whole experience was the theft of a very expensive Hemingway first edition from our rare bookshelves on opening day. We separated all of the rare books, but weren't able to get everything behind glass and locked. Someone took advantage of this and slipped away with a $4,000 book. We were all depressed about it for a day or two; and we're taking extra precautions now, so it won't happen again.

    So, that's the story of the Great Iliad Bookshop Migration. We are slowly getting back into shape. The store looks wonderful. We are buying books again and the rhythms of our store are starting to become familiar again. I'm heaving a big sigh.....Aaaaahhhhhhhhhh.......

    Thanks to Janet, Dave, JB, and all of the others for your help. We could not have gotten our store moved without your help. And thank you, Dan and Gloria, for having the courage to take such a huge risk and for all of your hours of hard work. I'm proud to work for you. And thanks to Loki, for making it fun to work (stop biting my shoes...down, Loki, down!)




    If you happen to be in Los Angeles, come on by our new bookstore in North Hollywood. Loki would like to see your shoes and I'd like to show you around our new store.

    Iliad Bookshop
    5400 Cahuenga
    North Hollywood, CA. 91601
    818-509-2665
    Mon-Sat, 10am to 10pm; Sun, 12pm to 6pm






  • "The Zapruder Film: Reframing JFK's Assassination"
    by David R. Wrone
    Published by the University Press of Kentucky, 2003.
    368 pages with notes, select bibliography and index. ISBN: 0-7006-1291-2

    I was watching "And Now Miguel" (the B&W 1953 version) in the grade school auditorium with my elementary school Unit 1 classmates and my much beloved teacher, Mrs. Nyman (my first teacher crush). This was about the third time we had seen this film, but I liked it anyway. Somehow just being in the dark in a quiet room and looking a big images on a screen was relaxing to me. Around the time where Miguel was writing poetry for school and sneaking it behind his fathers back (a part which always thrilled me), I noticed a disturbance in the auditorium; some sort of murmur was in crowd, primarily amongst the teachers. A few minutes later I noticed Mrs. Nyman was crying which completely ripped me out of the film dream and scared the hell out of me. I mean, she never cried. I was terrified. The film continued until its end (I think) and we were all taken back to our rooms where I was told that someone was killed; someone important. I didn't care about that, I was more interested in Mrs. Nyman. We were sent home early and I walked home from school very nervous and worried. Later that evening I was glued to the TV set because it told me about life and helped me figure out what was going on (my mother and father certainly were little help) and Walter Cronkite explained it all to me. He said that the president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, had been shot and killed that day in Dallas, Texas. Then I remember a real nice picture of the president flashed on the screen. I must have thought that John F. Kennedy was Mrs. Nyman's husband or something because I couldn't quite figure out why she was so upset. I promised myself I'd find out what happened and tell Mrs. Nyman about it.

    This review is for you, Mrs. Nyman, wherever you are.

    While I'm not JFK assassination buff, or whatever you call them, from that first night after his death, I've been following the whirling theories surrounding his murder. I don't read every book that comes out, but I try to stay up to date and usually pick one or two a year to read. This year I picked David R. Wrone's book on the Zapruder film because I wanted to know more about that famous film and the man who shot it, Abraham Zapruder. Mr. Wrone is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point and has taught courses on the assassination for many years there. I'd never heard of him before this book, but the world of JFK assassination experts is very large and varied (to say the least) so it's not suprising.

    The Zapruder film is really two books. One of the books I enjoyed a great deal, it followed Abraham Zapruder from when he arrives at his office near Dealy Plaza (he'd forgotten his famous camera and upon the urging of his secretary went back home to pick it up) to when the U.S Goverment decides to purchase the film from Zapruder's heirs (but not the copyright). The story Mr. Wrone tells is fascinating and full of suprises, even to someone who knows a great deal about events surrounding the assassination. However, the second book that Mr. Wrone manages to slip into his Zapruder film history is much less interesting. It is a book about the JFK assassination and who got it right and who got it wrong amongst the theorists and historians. In other words, it's axe grinding and nit picking. To his credit, the author makes case after case against the official Warren Commission report and this is interesting to some degree, but when he shifts into the, "and when Anthony Summers concludes that the coffins were switched on the plane, he erroneously...blah blah blah, Mr. Wrone". I'm sorry, but my eyes glaze over and my mind tries to stay focused on endless balls of detail that are impossible to keep juggling. He should have written his explication of the JFK assassination as a seperate book, which would have cut the Zapruder film book in half and made it much more manageable and easy to follow.

    Now, make no mistake, Mr. Wrone is a very good writer. He does not have any of the stiffness and obtuseness that kill so many books written by academics. Even his complex sections are written as well as you can write this kind of "historiography". But the Zapruder book-within-a-book is the best part and Mr. Wrone makes some telling points about the film as it relates to the assassination and about it's mis-handling.

    Not many people remember that the film was sold to Time-Life within days of the assassination for $50,000 dollars. Time-Life came back to Zapruder a few days later and paid him another $100,000 for the print rights to the film (the second fee was for film rights). One fact I was amazed to discover was that out of fear for an anti-semitic backlash (Zapruder was Jewish), he donated the first payment of $25,000 to the widow of officer Tippet (the Dallas cop Oswald was supposed to have slain). After the assinatation and during the huge confusion that followed, Zapruder was smart enought to keep the film from being taken by thuggish cops who showed up at his business soon after the murder of Kennedy; document the entire process of having the film developed and copied, and make three copies of the film for the authorities (two copies went to Washington). The original film was given to Time-Life and sent to their plant in Illinois where they stopped the presses in order to get the pictures into their next issue. Here is where the history of the film goes kablooey. Apparently, the original film was given to an inexperienced film clerk who broke the film while processing it for duplication. He made a rough splice right at the point where Kennedy goes behind the sign. For years this was part of the "proof" given for the film being tampered with and the whole authenticity of the Zapruder film being called into question. Mr. Wrone puts all of this nonsense to rest with carefully documented evidence that proves the clerk simply made a mistake.

    The author follows the film through it's copies, it's eventual sale back to the Zapruder family for $1 (what a bargain), the huge copyright issues involved, the massive duplication of the film and it's sale on the black market, the first public showing on some sort of Geraldo Rivera show (I had forgotten that bit. Do a google search and you'll come up with this show), the Warren Commission's mis-use of the film to establish when how many shots where fired and when, the digitizing of the film and finally the US Government's purchase of the film for the Kennedy Assassination Archives. The main point Mr. Wrone emphases over and over is that the film is evidence in what was probably the most important murder case of the 20th Century and should not have been allowed to be owned or controlled by a large corporation. He maintains that the U.S. Government should have confiscated the film early in the investigation of Kennedy's murder and have safegarded it for the future. As it was the Warren Commission never got to see the original film, only copies and blow ups. I agree with him, despite the private ownership issues, because this situation is a special case. But because the Warren Commission was really only interested in proving there was only one assassin (they wanted to prevent a possible war with the Soviet Union if it was determined that there was a conspiracy) they "whitewashed" the investigation and didn't consider confiscating the Zapruder film.

    I could go on, but it would spoil this interesting book for you. Suffice to say, this book is not for beginners. There are other, better books for that (try Anthony Summer's book "Conspiracy" (although Mr. Wrone would roll his eyes at this suggestion) and definitely watch two excellent documentary films on the subject:
    Image of an Assassination: A New Look at the Zapruder Film" which features the complete process of digitizing the film and of the subsequent versions created with reduced shake and including the image captured betweent he sprockets (don't ask me to explain this). Also, "JFK Assassination Films: The Case for Conspiracty" by Robert J. Groden is a fascinating, if slightly biased, version of not only the Zapruder film but of the many, many other photos and films taken that day. Mr. Wrone's extensive notes and essay-type bibliography are a very well done and, if you are interested, prove to be rewarding if you want to journey around in world of the JFK Assassination History. He lists web pages, videos and many interesting books (some are hard to find and expensive, though). If you buy this book, definitely spend time in back of the book where you can gather the fruits of Mr. Wrone's excellent research.

    In the end, all you can really do is cry like Mrs. Nyman did on that terrible day. We can never really know for sure what happend. But, like David R. Wrone, I believe that the Zapruder film is the best evidence we have for concluding that the Kennedy assassination was a conspiracy. Mr. Wrone lays it all out for you in this flawed, but provocative work of history.
  • I had never heard of "fore-edge paintings" until one night at the bookstore where I work, Dan, the owner, showed me an antique book he had just purchased, and by sliding the page ends on an angle there was a seemingly hidden painting actually painted on the page ends. He said he collected books with fore-edge paintings, but that they were hard to come by. Ever since then I've been interested in the topic and have recently come across some good sites with all kinds of interesting images of fore-edge paintings and their history.

    Apparently, fore-edge painting is as old as the 10th century and usually come in two types. One type is painted right on the page ends and can be seen when the book is in its normal state. The other (the one Dan showed me) is a hidden painting that can only be revealed when the pages are slightly fanned out. Also, you can have a double fore-edged painting that is revealed when you fan the pages one way and then another. And finally there is a triple fore-edge painting that comes when the page ends arent gilded or marbled. Here is an example of a simple fore-edge painting on an antiquarian book:




    Initially, these paintings were simple floral patterns or manor seals. Somewhere in the 18th century the paintings became landscapes; a tradition which continues to the present day. Several museums have had shows which featured fore-edge paintings. I'd love to go to one. I think it would be fascinating to see several examples from different centuries all gathered in one place.

    Wouldn't it be great if we could do this with regular trade editions? Why doesn't Steve Erickson or James Carrol work out something with their publisher to do a hidden fore-edge painting on one of their new books? Something that is a clue in the plot, or a symbol for the theme of the novel? Too bad that this wonderful technique is confined to mostly antiquarian books and collectors. I truly believe that if I hadn't become an actor, I would be creating fore-edge paintings and fancy bindings for books. I think they are wonderful, beautiful works of art.
  • I don't go to the library enough. Strange to hear that coming from me, a booklover, but it's true.

    This last sunday, I went with my partner, Lisa Morton, to the downtown central branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. I was enthralled. Of course, I have been to this branch many times since it re-opened in 2001 (and re-named after then L.A. mayor Richard Riordan), but this visit was different. I felt like I was seeing this great library for the first time.

    Originally constructed in 1926, the Riordan library is the third largest library in the U.S. It was designed in a mock Egyptian style by architect Bertram Goodhue and then re-designed in a Mission Style after a terrible arson fire in 1986 (the largest library fire in U.S. history). The expanded and re-designed Central library opened in 1991 with 71 Branch Libraries throughout Los Angeles County. I was fortunate enough to visit the library during a six-month stay in Los Angeles back in 1983. I used to have breakfast at The Pantry (one of L.A's oldest deli style restaurants) and then walk to the library where I would spend most of the day wandering among the stacks and reading. I remember the old library fondly: wonderful light and space; comfortable chairs; quiet. You could feel the history of downtown Los Angeles in the building.

    But the new library is much better. The design is modern and up to date, while still keeping that sense of openness, quiet and light. This new version simply invites you to sit down and read. Everywhere you look there is a comfortable reading nook. The chairs are wonderful green leather and shaped perfectly for reading. Study carols, tables with soft light, nooks and crannies fill the structure.

    Lisa and I spent most of our time on the bottom floor in the History sections where she researched background information for her first novel "Netherworld". The staff were uniformly helpful. There were tours of the library going on at the time, some in Spanish. There were many people using the computer terminals and searching through the stacks. I found myself looking for interesting book titles and came across two books on the famous Zapruder film of the Kennedy Assassination that I took home. I was tempted to ask to look at some of the antique maps housed in large cases near us, but it was Sunday and I didn't want the staff to have to go to all that trouble. When it came time to leave, I was disappointed. It's too bad they don't have cots for people like me who want to stay at the library overnight.

    While searching in the open stacks, Lisa found an amazing old book, "Treaty Ports of China and Japan" by Wm Fred. Mayers, N.B.Dennys and Chas. King., London, Trubner and Co. 1867. She has her lead heroine visiting Shanghai around this time and wanted to gather details that her heroine might notice. This book had been rebound in a library binding, but was in excellent shape. There were several color maps of China and various cities, plus one large map that was damaged. She took notes and decided to check the internet for a copy she could buy for herself. Much to our surprise, this book is exceedingly rare and the sole copy we found online was going for over $2,000. I think we'll print out our info and head back to the library soon to let them know they've got to pull this book from the general stacks and put it in their rare book room.

    I love the new Riordan library and with the subway an easy walk away, I can go down there just about any Sunday. I think I'll get back into the habit of breakfast and the library. This time I'll be going with my gal, Lisa. I can't wait to go back.
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