Arthur Schlesinger's Bookplate: The Whole Picture

I like a bookplate that tells a story. One that tells me what its owner is all about. The bookplate below does the trick. It belongs to the historian, Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr.(1888-1965). His bookplate is a panorama of life in America:

See the family of four standing on the hillside? They are about to embark on an American journey. The little boy points at the scene below. The mother looks back at us, as if to say, "Want to join us?"

The family of four looks down from the hillside. They see children playing jump rope and baseball in the yard of a schoolhouse. They see a Model T Ford parked against the trees. They see two cowboys conversing in a field. They see a wagon train on the trail that winds past an Indian village. They see a train traveling along in the distance on the outskirts of a town full of buildings, the tall steeple of a church its most prominent feature. Beyond and above the town, they see smoke billowing from the factory smokestacks of another generation of Americans. The smoke blows away from the densely populated residential community. And on the very top of the most distant hill, they see a metropolis. Flying over the skyscrapers, they see an airplane and a blimp. A beautiful picture of life in America, yes? But that is only half of the picture.

Last Friday, on a bookshelf in Dan Sheppard's CrackerHouse Books in Arcadia, Florida, I found a book whose spine read:


THE RISE OF THE CITY –– 1878-1898
SCHLESINGER


A HISTORY OF AMERICAN LIFE X

I pulled the book down from the shelf. The front cover read:

A HISTORY OF AMERICAN LIFE ARTHUR M. SCHLESINGER DIXON RYAN FOX EDITORS

I opened up the book and in my left hand, on the illustrated endpapers, I saw a familiar scene, only it was twice as long as I remembered it, and twice as beautiful:

Yes. The complete panorama of American Life. From the ships in the harbor, to the Pilgrims and the Indians, to the colonials embarking on a stagecoach, to the farmer plowing the field. And to Ben Franklin flying his kite high up in the American sky. My sky. Arthur Schlesinger's sky. Arthur Schlesinger's History of American Life from beginning to end.

Always Be On Time

In this New Year, I will strive to post at least one blog entry each month. This first title, "Always Be On Time," will be an appropriate reminder for me.

For My Sentimental Library Collection, I collect books formerly owned by authors, bibliophiles, and other famous people. I also want books written by or about them, bookplates if they have them, catalogues of their libraries if such were published, and autograph letters either to or from them. Usually, I look for books formerly owned by authors I collect, and then try to complete the cycle of acquiring bookplates, catalogues, and autograph letters. In one case, however, it was the bookplate that got me started first. And I didn't know the owner of the bookplate from Adam.

In 2004, I wrote an article for the now defunct online periodical, AB Bookman's Magazine. My article was titled "The Story of a Bookplate." If you haven't read this article before, you should read it now. It provides background information for this blog entry.

The bookplate was pasted on the inside cover of a pamphlet commemorating the Battle and Massacre of Wyoming, Pennsylvania, July 3, 1778. I don't remember exactly where I acquired the pamphlet; there were two commemorative pamphlets, but I gave one to "fellow" collector, Jan Clark. I may even have bought the pamphlets specifically because of the bookplate. I have done that in the past.

I kept track of the copies of Edward Martin's autobiography, Always Be On Time, available online, but was unwilling to pay $75 for a copy. But in June 2009, one of the booksellers had a 50% off sale, and you can guess what I bought.

Edward Martin inscribed this book "For David D. Fleming – A fine and loyal American – with appreciation – Edward Martin, 31 Dec 62."



Colonel Fleming underlined his own name in the text:

This book title is part of a motto Edward Martin's father practiced and preached: "Be on time, be loyal and speak the truth." Edward Martin lived by that motto himself, as a general, as a governor, as a senator, and as a man. I wish there were more politicians like him today. We need them.

Here is a picture of Private Martin:



Here is a picture of General Martin:



Here is a picture of Senator Martin.

I started reading Edward Martin's book soon after I acquired it in 2009, but somehow got sidetracked. I started reading it again this week.

Here are some more images from the book:

In all my twenty-three years in the military, I never witnessed a General marching with his troops. That is General Martin leading his troops in formation.



During his long military career, General Martin used several modes of transportation for moving his troops. From using carabaos (water buffalo) in the Philippines in 1899:



To using trucks along the Mexican border in 1916:





To using Wagon Trains – No, this is not the Wild West. It is a picture of the 110th Wagon Train at Camp Hancock, Georgia in 1917:

Why the sudden interest in Edward Martin? The last thing I bought in 2010, on December 31st no less, was a Typed Letter Signed (TLS) by Edward Martin. I acquired the letter from Linda Harris, an ebay seller from Spartanburg, S.C.

I don't believe there is a catalogue of Edward Martin 's library–a photo of his library will have to do.

I have, therefore, completed the cycle for My Sentimental Library!

Drumroll please!

A book from Edward Martin's library

His bookplate,

A book by and about him,

An autograph letter.

And a Happy New Year already!

A Cornerstone In American History

What does the book, Wee Macgreegor, have to do with American history? Nothing really, except that it belonged to a Scotsman named William A. Brodie (1841-1917) who, at the age of two, emigrated to America with his parents.

Unless you're from Geneseo, New York, you probably never heard of William A. Brodie. He was a Master Mason of the Great State of New York. He was also the mason who set the cornerstone of the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty.

To verify that this is the bookplate of the William A. Brodie who set the cornerstone, I also have a book formerly owned by his son, Warren J. Brodie, Geneseo, New York

He signed his name on the title page of his copy of the Book of Snobs.

Snapshots of Mary Hyde

In My Sentimental Library Collection, I have books written by and about the authors I collect. I have books they formerly owned. I have catalogues of their libraries, if ones were published. I have their bookplates, if they had ones. I have letters written to or from them. And, in the case of Mary Hyde, I have a few photos of her, and two newspaper articles about her.

To old friends of the Hydes, these images will bring back memories. To new friends, these images will provide glimpses into the life of Mary Hyde.

Mary Hyde

In Her Younger Days!

Just Beautiful!

Smoking!!

At the Typewriter!

At the Auction!

At the Signing of the Declaration of Independence!

On a Camel!

Bon Voyage!

I acquired these photos and newspaper articles from Gabriel Austin and Sally Bullard.

An Unexpected Find In Umatilla, Florida

Visiting antique shops has become one of my favorite pastimes. Almost every Friday, my wife and I, together with the Harrises, do our best to help the economy, visiting not only antique shops, but thrift shops and bookstores as well. Linda, my wife, looks for antique furniture, and Bing & Grondahl chinaware with the seagull pattern. Eve looks for trinket boxes. Tom looks for books and video tapes. I look for books. We all look for each other's things. I don't expect to find the kind of books I collect in the antique shops and thrift stores, but I enjoy looking.

Last Thursday and Friday, we visited the antique shops and bookstores in Jacksonville, Florida. On our way home Saturday, we visited the antique shops in Umatilla and Mount Dora. It was in the Umatilla Antique Markets & Bookstore that I found a rather choice item for My Sentimental Library Collection.

The Umatilla Antique Markets & Bookstore was really just one big antique store, with books in almost every corner. I guess the "bookstore" was located in the far right-hand corner, a bargain bookstore of over a thousand books. Hardbacks were a dollar, and paperbacks were fifty cents. Most of the books were modern first editions, arranged alphabetically by author. Nonfiction books were gathered on two bookcases in the middle, arranged in no particular order. In one of them, I found a copy of Samuel Johnson by W. Jackson Bate.

The dust jacket you see in the image above is not the dust jacket which accompanied the book. I swapped it with another copy in my library. The original dust jacket was badly torn. The book itself was not in pristine condition. The cover was heavily soiled along the top edges. Even though the endpapers were heavily annotated, as were some of the pages in the text block, I thought the book deserved a second look. Who knows? The owner could have been somebody important in the book world.

The previous owner signed his name in the book on the front pastedown, "Ex Libris, Sidney Something." I couldn't decipher the last name. But, judging from the annotations, the guy definitely got his money's worth out of reading the book.

I was pretty sure I already had a copy of the book; but Tom was willing to take the book off my hands if I did have a copy. Besides, the book would only cost me a dollar.

But the more I delved into the book, the more I realized it was a keeper. The owner of the book seemed to know the author --he called him Jack and asked him for advice on writing a speech on Samuel Johnson. The author replied, "read my book."

Read his book he did, making lots of notes about Johnson. My research later showed that the owner did give a speech on Johnson. On September 20, 1985, he was the speaker at the annual meeting of The Johnsonians at The Century Association in New York City. The Johnsonians met each year in September to celebrate Samuel Johnson's birthday, a celebration which Donald and Mary Hyde started in America in 1946.

On our way to the register, Tom found, tucked inside the pages of the book, what appeared to be a postcard with Samuel Johnson's portrait on the front of it.

When we got back to the van, I discovered that the author had inscribed the book on the title page:

Best wishes to Sidney,

from

Jack Bate

I also discovered that what Tom found wasn't a postcard after all, but a letter written by a prime player in the book world. I'll have more about this letter shortly. But first, I need to identify the owner of the book.

It didn't take long to find out who Sidney Something was. My research revealed that Sidney Ives was the owner of the book. Sidney Ives was the Librarian of Rare Books & Manuscripts at the University of Florida at Gainesville from 1980 until his retirement sometime in the late 1990s. Prior to that, he was the Acquisitions Bibliographer in the Houghton Library at Harvard University. Sidney Ives was no stranger to Samuel Johnson. He was a member of The Johnsonians. In 1966, he compiled the publication describing the exhibition of the Samuel Johnson Collection belonging to Mary Hyde and her recently deceased husband, Donald Hyde. Ives was no stranger to the Hydes either. He was the author of one of the essays in Eighteenth-Century Studies In Honor of Donald F. Hyde. Moreover, records of the Mary Hyde Eccles Papers at Harvard indicate that Ives corresponded regularly with Mary Hyde after he relocated to Florida.

Before I went to bed Saturday night, I had an inkling of who the letter writer, "M," was, but dismissed it as being too far-fetched. If it was who I was thinking of, "M" went to California in September, 1985 to give a speech before the Johnson Society of Southern California. And her second husband's name was David. I knew this because I collected books by and about her. I even had some of the books she formerly owned in my own library. If I was right, the letter writer, "M," was her ladyship herself, Mary Hyde.

At one-thirty in the morning, I was back in my library, comparing the handwriting of one of Mary Hyde's letters which I had in my library with the handwriting of the letter to Sidney Ives.

The "M" matched in both letters.

"Da vi d," with a sweeping flow of the "vi," separated from the "Da" and the "d," was written exactly the same way in both writing samples.

A number of letters were written exactly the same way in both letters.

Mary Hyde was the author of both letters.

Unbelievable! Only a Mary Hyde collector, or one who was familiar with her and her handwriting could have identified her as the writer of the letter to Sidney Ives.

And to think that I found it tucked in a book in an antique store in, of all places, Umatilla, Florida!