Chaucer for Children

Mrs. H.R. Haweis - Chaucer for Children (1882)

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I'll admit I came to mock but this turns out to be not only a solid effort for what is attempted but a glimpse at different educational standards.  For one thing it has the Middle English text (slightly simplified and with a trot alongside but ME nonetheless) when today even our undergraduates aren't always given that.  (In fact at least two modern editions euphemistically say they're "original spelling".)  And Chaucer's other work gets shorted unlike here where there are samples.  Plus there's a pretty decent introduction though all in all it's still a children's textbook.

Theatrical and Circus Life

John Joseph Jennings - Theatrical and Circus Life; or, Secrets of the Stage, Green-Room and Sawdust Arena (1882)

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Maybe it's "circus" in the title but this overview ("history" doesn't seem quite appropriate for something so loosely structured) of theatrical performance from the Elizabethans forward is quite broad in its view and filled with gossip.  (And advice on how to avoid being scammed by can-can dancers if that's any help.)  Sections include "Actors Who Memorize Whole Newspapers", "How to Eat Fire", "Minnie Palmer's Artless Display of Underwear" and "The Big Hat Nuisance".  Where else will you find opera singer salaries alongside discussion of interviewing actors, how to train ballet dancers alongside the dangers of "mashers", John Wilkes Booth, acrobats, scenery painters, Asian theatre, David Garrick, advertising, what circuses do during the winter, tattooed twins and on and on.

Cliff Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe

Sabine Baring-Gould - Cliff Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe (1911)

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Sometimes I think this blog should just repost all of Baring-Gould and Andrew Lang and be done with it.  Certainly I never expected to find something like this which covers pretty much what it says from castles on the sides of cliffs to subterranean churches to cave oracles to robber's dens.  One early chapter about "wild" people is called "Modern Troglodytes".  As usual with Baring-Gould he can't resist any kind of odd story from anywhere in history whether it's some strange classical legend, a peculiar antiquarian find or an excerpt from Froissart (though his focus on Europe means he skips the incredible Mogao Caves along the Silk Road).

The Zoology of Captain Beechey's Voyage

Frederick William Beechey - The Zoology of Captain Beechey's Voyage (1839)

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Captain Beechey commanded a ship that explored part of the Pacific and the Bering Strait from 1825-28.  He wrote a book about that journey then a few years later appeared this catalog.  There aren't as many illustrations as I might like but what's there is quite nice.  A companion volume on botany was also released but only with uncolored line drawings (at least in the editions online).

Les monstres dans l'art

Edmond Valton - Les monstres dans l'art (1905)

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I can't claim discovering this one - that would be the nice people at the OBI Scrapbook Blog. But yeah it's pretty fantastic.  Even if you don't read French it's heavily illustrated; these images are only the tip of the iceberg des monstres.  As far as I can tell it's never been translated into English and not even reprinted (except for those shoddy public domain print-on-demand companies).

The author was almost certainly the obscure painter Eugene Edmond Valton (1836-1910) who seems to have done mainly portraits and landscapes though I've found so little information about him that could easily be wrong.  One database of French art museums only lists one work of his though I'm unclear how extensive the database is.  His few other writings include a book (pamphlet?) on drawing, which he taught, and a memorial piece on Seurat.

Allan Dwan (A Dossier)

David Phelps & Gina Telaroli (eds) - Allan Dwan (A Dossier) (2013)

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Director Allan Dwan was a touchstone for hardcore auteurists but hardly anybody else. Peter Bogdanovich, who did a book-length interview with Dwan, reportedly took Cybil Shepherd on a date to a Dwan retrospective and some of the Cahiers crowd adored his work.  This book (free to download) collects many essays covering all of Dwan's career and probably won't make you a fan (I've never seen anything in his films more than an assured craftsman) but is certainly interesting.  You can choose the book either with each essay in its original language or all in English.

Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx

Augustus Le Plongeon - Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx (1896)

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Hey, you got your Mayans in my Egyptians! No, you stuck your Egyptians with my Mayans! Yep this book floats an idea of Mayan-Egyptian contact that probably still has currency somewhere in the kook fringe.  Le Plongeon had a life that could fill an entertaining biography including a shipwreck, participating in the California gold rush, becoming involved in the early days of photography and then years of original field work on the Mayans.  He became fixed on the idea of New-Old World contact even to the extent of claiming Freemasonry derived from the Maya (and managing to stick Atlantis in there somewhere).  He and his wife made extensive photographic documentation of Mayan ruins that apparently still has value but also many errors in interpretation (including "Queen Moo" who resulted from mistranslation).  This book was self-published.