Kelmscott Bookshop Rare Books & Book Arts has published a new catalogue, Catalog 21. Artists' Books & Private Press, Literature, Books on Books, History and More! Kelmscott Bookshop, as you might expect from a bookseller named after William Morris' press, focuses mainly on the book arts. However, you will find a few items that fit in the “History and More” category. Those are the items you might not expect. Still, the catalogue mostly offers books with an artistic aspect to them. This is the place for those who collect in the book arts. These are a few selections.
There's something about railroads and trains that appeal to something deep inside us. Perhaps its the freedom to travel and explore, though its been years since they were the major source of travel. Do electric trains still appeal to today's youth as they did mine? We begin with a book that includes 21 railroad photos from Mexico from 1960-61. That was the era when American railroads were selling off their steam engines to Mexico as they replaced them with diesel. The book is Coal, Smoke & Steam: Ted Rose Mexico 1960/1961. It was published by Thomas Rose studio and created by Thomas Rose and Steve Albahari. Thomas Rose is photographer Ted Rose's brother. Thomas explains that his brother traveled to central Mexico to photograph the last working steam locomotives. Thomas selected 21 photographs taken in the evening or night for the density of black while also featuring the blur of smoke and steam. Steven Albahari wrote a poem while Thomas wrote about his brother's life. The work comes in a clamshell box with an image of coal on the inside cover. The 21 images are numbered but unbound. Published in 2023. Number 12 of 20 copies signed by Rose and Albahari. Item 105. Priced at $3,000.
This book is timely, though sadly for the wrong reason. The book by Emilee Taxman contains interviews with 18 transgender people. It records their answers to the question, “What was the defining moment of your transition?” Each interviewee is illustrated by a print of an original portrait drawn of them in ink and colored pencil by the artist. The title is Patchwork Voices, published in 2023. For some reason mysterious to me, transgender people of late have become the target of others who need someone to attack. Item 23. $200.
There are some books that don't readily lend themselves to the ebook format. Tunnel books are one such form. They are books with a hole in it that lets you see parts of succeeding pages. Item 14 is Blanket Bog by Alice Austin, published in 2023. This book displays a view from a drive along the west coast of County Mayo in Ireland. It opens with a herd of sheep crossing the road. As the viewer looks through the five panels, a view of the hillside and the peat, cut and stacked to dry, emerge. It is created from hand-cut linoleum prints. On the back is a poem by Austin about the bog. It is accompanied by a small pamphlet explaining the importance of the peat bogs to the local economy and how they are protected. It comes in a clamshell box. Item 14. $700.
Shakespeare may be better known for his human characters – MacBeth, Hamlet, Caesar – but non-human animals also played a role. They are featured in this book, The Birds and Beasts of Shakespeare. It is the work of Alan James Robinson and his Cheloniidae Press from 1990. Robinson was noted for his wood engravings of birds and animals. This book contains 54 engravings of these animals found in Shakespeare's plays and poems. Some of the animals are repeated as is the Bard himself, who is found in an etching and a wood engraving. The text comes from Arthur F. Kinney, a professor at the University of Massachusetts, a publisher and lecturer on the topic of Shakespeare. He explains the symbolism of these animals in Shakespeare's time. The book is accompanied by an additional 56 signed and numbered prints taken from the illustrations. Add to that an original watercolor of a Barnacle goose and the prospectus. It was bound in full rust morocco by Claudia Cohen and Sarah Creighton. Item 31. $5,800.
She became one of Hollywood's best draws in the 1930s before even reaching her tenth birthday. Shirley Temple was a film sensation at a time when Americans were looking for anything to cheer them up. It was the Depression era, soon to be replaced by war. Who wouldn't have wanted to leave it all behind for a trip on the Good Ship Lollipop? One of Temple's many devoted fans was one Lillian Lesperance, later Lillian Lesperance Lysengen, wife of a North Dakota International Harvester dealer. She kept a scrapbook devoted to her favorite star, 1938 Shirley Temple Scrap Book. It covers Temple from her birth to age 10, which she was in 1938. Kelmscott estimates there are around 1,000 images of the star. Many magazines and newspaper fell victim to a pair of scissors to make this possible. A few pages have been added at the end of the scrap book with pictures of Temple as a teenager, at her first marriage at age 17, and when she was appointed Ambassador to Ghana in 1974. Item 141. $600.
The Kelmscott Bookshop Rare Books may be reached at 410-235-6810 or info@kelmscottbookshop.com. Their website is www.kelmscottbookshop.com.
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