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The Reader and Collector, v. 2, issue 2, June 1941

Page 7

7.

OF BOOKS AND THINGS

     Well, let's get back to our browsing trip through the shelves of my "special" bookcase: looking for more examples of fantasy books in fine and de luxe editions. Leaving "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" we run rapidly over a three-volume set of Balzac's Droll Stories and a two-volume set of La Fontaine's Fables and come to one of the classics of scientific fiction. It is Erewhon, written by Samuel Butler. At various times Butler had written essays against Darwin, entitled "The World of the Unborn", "Darwin Among the Machines" and "The First Year." In 1872, Butler took these essays and developed them into a book which he called Erewhon. A sequel, "Erewhon Revisited" was published thirty years later. Incidently, Erewhon is not (as many readers have thought) the word "Nowhere" spelled backwards; it is really an anagram of "Nowhere".

     Erewhon was written in a satiric strain and describes a trip to a country where all things are the reverse of similar things in England. One idea, which Butler developed in the section called "The Book of Machines" is a favorite theme of the present-day crop of writers for the pulp magazines devoted to science fiction. The stories are built around Butler's idea that machines may inherit the life-force, propagate and put all humans "out-of-commission." The latest example with variations, is Ray Cummings' "The Robot God" in the July Weird Tales.

     Erewhon is essentially a book of criticism; one in which the criticism is done by means of direct comparison. Aldous Huxley wrote "Look here upon this picture, and on this' is what in effect Butler says to his readers. Against the image of the actual world which necessarily exists in every mind, he sets the image of another world and leaves us to note the differences between them and to draw the conclusions which the artfulness of presentation has rendered inevitable". Rockwell Kent, the illustrator of the book has kept to the spirit of Butler's satire in all of his 41 drawings. Ten if his illustrations are divided into two subjects; one part represents an illustration from the story; beneath it there is an inset of the same situation reversed, dating in the present time. There are, in addition, thirty one line drawings for chapter-opening decorations.

     The book was designed by Elmer Alder and is 5-7/8X9-1/2 inches. Every page was set in type by hand, in one of Claude Garamond's type. Incidently, Garamond was probably one of the best-known of all French letter cutters and at one time was royal letter cutter for Francois I, King of France. The binding of my copy is a pure, heavy silk of an ivory shade; with a design in a half dozen shades of blue.

     Next on the shelf is a delightful edition of one of America's best loved legends: Rip Van Winkle. It is one of the tales included in a collection of Washington Irving's stories originally called "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon Gent." Most of the Sketch Book is only of passing interest. Strangely enough, the three tales which have lived are those in the field of fantasy; The Spectre Bridegroom, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. The idea of a twenty-year sleep is not a new one; it is more or less universal, being found in various forms in many lands. Nowadays, in our scientific-fiction magazines the same idea is used - as suspended animation. Only the authors aren't quite as modest or conservative as Irving. Old Rip woke up after his twenty-year sleep in tattered clothes and a long beard. Our present-day heroes usually arrive on the scene, after being packed away for a couple of thousand years, hale, hearty and clean shaven.

Saving...

7. OF BOOKS AND THINGS Well, let's get back to our browsing trip through the shelves of my "special" bookcase: looking for more examples of fantasy books in fine and de luxe editions. Leaving "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" we run rapidly over a three-volume set of Balzac's Droll Stories and a two-volume set of La Fontaine's Fables and come to one of the classics of scientific fiction. It is Erewhon, written by Samuel Butler. At various times Butler had written essays against Darwin, entitled "The World of the Unborn", "Darwin Among the Machines" and "The First Year." In 1872, Butler took these essays and developed them into a book which he called Erewhon. A sequel, "Erewhon Revisited" was published thirty years later. Incidently, Erewhon is not (as many readers have thought) the word "Nowhere" spelled backwards; it is really an anagram of "Nowhere". Erewhon was written in a satiric strain and describes a trip to a country where all things are the reverse of similar things in England. One idea, which Butler developed in the section called "The Book of Machines" is a favorite theme of the present-day crop of writers for the pulp magazines devoted to science fiction. The stories are built around Butler's idea that machines may inherit the life-force, propagate and put all humans "out-of-commission." The latest example with variations, is Ray Cummings' "The Robot God" in the July Weird Tales. Erewhon is essentially a book of criticism; one in which the criticism is done by means of direct comparison. Aldous Huxley wrote "Look here upon this picture, and on this' is what in effect Butler says to his readers. Against the image of the actual world which necessarily exists in every mind, he sets the image of another world and leaves us to note the differences between them and to draw the conclusions which the artfulness of presentation has rendered inevitable". Rockwell Kent, the illustrator of the book has kept to the spirit of Butler's satire in all of his 41 drawings. Ten if his illustrations are divided into two subjects; one part represents an illustration from the story; beneath it there is an inset of the same situation reversed, dating in the present time. There are, in addition, thirty one line drawings for chapter-opening decorations. The book was designed by Elmer Alder and is 5-7/8X9-1/2 inches. Every page was set in type by hand, in one of Claude Garamond's type. Incidently, Garamond was probably one of the best-known of all French letter cutters and at one time was royal letter cutter for Francois I, King of France. The binding of my copy is a pure, heavy silk of an ivory shade; with a design in a half dozen shades of blue. Next on the shelf is a delightful edition of one of America's best loved legends: Rip Van Winkle. It is one of the tales included in a collection of Washington Irving's stories originally called "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon Gent." Most of the Sketch Book is only of passing interest. Strangely enough, the three tales which have lived are those in the field of fantasy; The Spectre Bridegroom, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. The idea of a twenty-year sleep is not a new one; it is more or less universal, being found in various forms in many lands. Nowadays, in our scientific-fiction magazines the same idea is used - as suspended animation. Only the authors aren't quite as modest or conservative as Irving. Old Rip woke up after his twenty-year sleep in tattered clothes and a long beard. Our present-day heroes usually arrive on the scene, after being packed away for a couple of thousand years, hale, hearty and clean shaven.