Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - December - 2006 Issue

Oddities and Eccentricities from Garrett Scott

Diagram of the Aldersonian-Mosaic view of the world.

Diagram of the Aldersonian-Mosaic view of the world.


For the scientific minded, there is One Hundred Proofs that the Earth is Not a Globe, by William Carpenter. Carpenter was a follower of Zetetic astronomy, which posits the earth is a flat disc, with the North Star located over its center, and a wall of ice surrounding its outer edge. Item 25, from 1885. $125. Rev. Christopher Alderson had some even more interesting theories in his The Aldersonian-Mosaic System of Creation... He credits Moses as being the source of his theories, but notes, "My own name I add because Moses must not be responsible for my errors..." Good thing, or poor Moses' reputation would have been destroyed. Among Alderson's beliefs was that the earth is enclosed in a glass sphere, the moon is inhabited, and the sun is actually electricity reacting with the atmosphere. Item 3. $325.

Charles Flota in 1939 published Our Flag and My Dog. Scott notes that this is not "a meditation on canine patriotism," but two separate poems. The latter is the more interesting, once delivered in a courtroom on behalf of Ellis Pyle, whose dog had been killed. In the dog's voice, Flota writes:

"To seek and chase and kill
Some poor man's hound at will.
And as you drove your car on me
I dodged but ah ‘twas done,
Your willful, wanton will had won -
You'd killed me."

Flota did the same to poetry.

Item 55. $20.

Garrett Scott, Bookseller, may be found online at www.GSBbooks.com, telephone 734-741-8605.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: William Shakespeare.
    The Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare, 1960. 7,210 USD
    Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens.
    A Christmas Carol, First Edition, 1843. 17,500 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Golding.
    Lord of the Flies, First Edition, 1954. 5,400 USD
    Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: Lewis Carroll.
    Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Inscribed First Edition, 1872. 25,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien.
    The Hobbit, First Edition, 1937. 12,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: John Milton.
    Paradise Lost, 1759. 5,400 USD

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