Will The Real Rev.Thomas Scott Step Forward ?Bookplate Meeting in Boston

Vachel Lindsay illustrated many of his poems and created at least one bookplate, for his friend Clark Walker Cummings. The following is an excerpt from Lindsay's obituary: " The funeral services for Nicholas Lindsay were held at the First Christian Church on December 8, 1931 , at 3 p.m.. The Reverend Clark Walter Cummings officiated the funeral."

Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) the French poet,translator and literary critic is best known for Les Fleurs du mal. His bookplate is extremely rare.

Click On Image to Enlarge

One of the privileges of getting older is forgetfulness. I forget which of the 1960's American TV game shows used the line will the real--step forward. I think it was " What's My Line ". That was my inspiration for this week's title.

I received a group of English bookplates this morning and was struck by the powerful imagery used by Reverend Thomas Scott. My first reaction was ,this is a man who does not take any prisoners in combat. Who was he?

The name is fairly common and I know there was more than one Reverend Thomas Scott, so it is wishful thinking on my part that the Thomas Scott I am about to mention was ,in fact, the owner of the bookplate in question.

Thomas Scott (1747-1821) was a founding member of The Church Missionary Society.He was the Rector of Aston Sanford, and Buck .He published a six volume Bible commentary and his published works were read and used by president Thomas Jefferson. More detailed and illustrated information about him can be seen at

WWW.geocities.com/tib1846/bible13.htm

Someone out there knows if the bookplate was from the library of the same person I have written about. I could use your input.

NEWSWORTHY

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A new search engine which combines web, blog,video, and image selections in one simple package can be seen at http://www.searchmash.com/ I looked up bookplate and was impressed.

COME JOIN US IN BOSTON

The American Bookplate Society will sponsor a regional meeting/ seminar/ where ideas can be shared and duplicates exchanged. Jim Keenan will make a presentation about "Storage and Presentation" of collections.

The meeting will be on Saturday March 24Th and will be held from 10:30 to 1:30 at the Boston Public Library. More details will be posted as they are received, but mark your calendar.

If you are near Boston and have gotten addicted to this blog , come join us. There is no charge for the event and you do not have to be a member of the Bookplate Society to attend.

That's all for this week. The February fourth posting will be about bookplates used by science fiction writers , artists and collectors. I would be delighted to include your submissions. Please send them to bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

Poets, Science Fiction

If you search the Internet, you can probably find several "association copies" with Hart Crane's bookplate. A word of caution: After his death in 1932 Hart Crane's mother gave (or sold) some of his personal papers including a pile of Crane's bookplates to a bookseller in New York City. The dealer then pasted the bookplates in books chosen at random from his stock and misrepresented them as being from Crane's library. Not only was the dealer a crook , he was not too swift, as some of the bookplates were pasted in books published after Crane's death.

When rummaging through used and antiquarian book stores one of the first areas I go to is the poetry section. My observation has been that poetry readers, in general, tend to use bookplates more often than other readers. Poets also tend to use bookplates more often than other writers. Harold Witter Bynner (1881-1968) used at least two bookplates .

The image shown above has nothing to do with Sci-Fi or Poets, although the expression"Crow Not, Croak Not" is truly poetic .I am assuming this is either Canadian or English and it may be a printer's or booksellers label but really do not know for sure.The company it was designed for is B or E Rankin Ellis . Do any of you have additional information to share with us?

The universal (off the shelf) bookplate shown below was sold by the Antioch Bookplate Company in the early 1960's. The late Robert Anton Wilson was in their employ at that time. Click On Images To Enlarge

Last week, I mentioned that in February there will be a posting about the bookplates used by science fiction writers and collectors. If you use a science fiction bookplate please send a scan to bookplatemaven@hotmail.com

Ken Sanders , a rare book dealer in Salt Lake City Utah sent me the science fiction bookplate used by Elizabeth D. Pope. In his email he states that : " Betty or Elizabeth Pope attended many worldcons in her day, mainly in the 1950s through the 80s and the 90s and met and became friendly with numerous sci fi authors of the day.Through Brigham Young University she was able to arrange for many of them to come through and over the years accumulated a vast collection of f & sf books.I purchased approximately 2500 books from her collection ,out of more than 10,000 books."

Since one good turn deserves another, I have added a link to Ken Sander's web site. Just click on the orange words (Poets, Science Fiction) up on top and wait a few seconds for the Internet to do it's magic.