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Rare Book Monthly

Articles - July - 2020 Issue

J. Wilson Poucher and Paul Blue Quietly Nearby

J. Wilson Poucher used his days well

J. Wilson Poucher used his days well

Along a walk within the New Paltz Rural Cemetery on Plains Road at New Paltz there are hundreds, I suppose thousands, of stones, some almost 200 years old, randomly time-worn, others resistant, seemingly immune to weathering, determined to carry names and dates and associated relationships into the ages.  Each name has a story.  Many have slipped away, too often, whether their lives were short or glorious, lived alone or in company of family, eventually saw children, grandchildren, friends and neighbors laid down nearby.  Lives are complex but in their endings seem remarkably similar, invariably quiet and still.

 

In that place, once or twice a year, I stop by the monuments and markers of people I knew, whose stories were once in black and white, now greying away, the boy in the 5th or 6th grade who died of an accidental gunshot.  He was a solid kid he was, Paul Blue.  His story is of a life he didn’t live.

 

Nearby in an older section is another stone I know something about:  Poucher.  J Wilson Poucher, a substantial man in his life, 1859-1939.  How does one accomplish so much while another lived so briefly he never blew out the candles on his 12th birthday.  They were very different but both deserving.

 

Their paths crossing at a common place, in Ulster County at the intersection of chance and intention, in the mid-Hudson valley.

 

Paul was a New Paltz kid, a towhead, a future basketball or baseball player.  J. Wilson was an unusual intellect, a Columbia county native whose intelligence was early and often valued.  Teachers saw potential and let him into their schools and academies on reduced terms.  He was a star in the making and went on to Union College, thereafter going on to Albany Medical College where his judgment and steady hand set him apart as potentially a surgeon. 

 

Upon graduation he became a country doctor in April 1883 beginning at the lonely crossroads at Modena that runs east-west and north-south within the town of New Paltz.  He married a local girl that forever connected him to the place, although his life would be led on progressively larger stages.

 

He had a gift for languages and mastered German to be conversant on the emerging science of disease germs, sepsis, and antisepsis.  In 1885 he decamped to Germany to study at Heidelberg, later travelling extensively, and in time assisting many of the great European physicians. 

 

Back home in 1887 Poughkeepsie, facing the Illinois Mountain across the Hudson River, he established a surgical practice at fresh built Vassar Brothers Hospital and was appointed as surgical staff, becoming expert in a broad range of procedures, in time developing the appendectomy as a life-saving procedure.

 

When, in 1898, the Spanish American War began, he offered his services both to Washington and New York State and was commissioned First Lieutenant and Assistant Surgeon and ordered to New York City to assist for recruiting the 201st Regiment.  In time  it became his responsibility to manage 15 surgeons on staff, while what he most learned was to set standards and listen to diverse opinions.  On matters of life and death the definition of success was simply to bring comfort and save and extend life.  He was remarkable.

 

The war past and back home to Poughkeepsie, as surgery was increasingly understood, he then sought for greater complexity as a political being.  His battleground was the Poughkeepsie Common Council and found bribes as common as ticks, neither of which were to his liking.  When defeated he felt only relief.

 

Now a full-fledged success with a broad practice, he then returned to where his European studies were completed 20 years ago, traversing the Atlantic on the S. S. Rhyndam in late spring, to return on the Rotterdam, spending 90 days on the continent and expending a full quarter of his autobiographical account, Reminiscences, to convey his impression of Europe recovering and the feeling entre deux guerres.

 

For a man born in 1859 life expectancy was shy of 50, and as a doctor he knew more than he wanted about death, dissipation and disease.  He saw all that.  So at 65 he began his next career, embracing his intellectual passion; local history.  In medicine, he was methodical and in pursuit of history he would be equally determined and leave a distinguished body of research, continuing to publish into his last year, his works randomly appearing in the Rare Book Hub Transaction Database, as well on Biblio and Abe catch as catch can.

 

J.W. Poucher and Helen W. Reynolds.  Old Gravestones of Dutchess County.  1924

 

Stories of the Wild Flowers.  1931

 

J. W. Poucher B. J. Terwilliger.  Old Gravestones of Ulster County.  1931

 

Reminiscences.  Personal and Professional 1859-1939.  1939

 

And for Paul, a random shot ended his chance.  He was a classmate.  Were he with us today he’d be 74.  I remember and miss him.

 


Posted On: 2020-07-02 00:24
User Name: mairin

A nicely crafted and tender piece, Bruce. The nostalgia and sentiment work nicely in your remembrance of Paul Blue. I admire your continuing loyalty to your roots in New Paltz, New York ~ an essential part of your personal history. (One never forgets such ties.)

Maureen E. Mulvihill, Princeton Research Forum, NJ.
Guest Writer-Researcher, Rare Book Hub.
_____


Rare Book Monthly

  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800

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