Greetings, blogfloggers. I'm going to institute a new, semi-regular feature on this blog. Every couple weeks or so I'm going to present The Odd Volume, profiles of some of the more curious books on my shelf. The books may be "odd" for any number of reasons: their rarity, their obscure subject matter, their warm inscriptions, their physical features, their marginalia--whatever. It's all very subjective, obviously. Although I'm not a die-hard collector, I'm enough of a bibliophile that I've nosed out some pretty interesting books over the years. It's time I share my books and my stories. And so, to start things off, here's the first... The Collected Poems of Vachel Lindsay, Macmillan 1923. Reprinted 1927.
When I lived in Spokane, Washington (as an adult, 1989-1997), I'd frequently drive to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to George Nolan's bookshop. Sadly, George closed his shop a year or so ago, leaving North Idaho bereft of one of its best bookshops, but in his bookdealer years, George was a good buyer, with a keen eye for quality and variety. This book, The Collected Poems of Vachel Lindsay, must have been picked up at an estate sale or something similar, since it was accompanied on George's shelf by several other rather rare Lindsay volumes. Lindsay was an American poet and artist who flourished in the teens and twenties, and who actually lived in Spokane between 1924 and '29 (he moved back to his hometown of Springfield, Illinois, in '29, committing suicide there in '31). When Lindsay was in Spokane, he was a tireless promoter of the city and even, for a time, took up residency in one of the best suites in the famous Davenport Hotel, being touted by the local congnoscenti as Spokane's Poet Laureate. Later he moved to the Browne's Addition neighborhood, a leafy residential area just off city center, filled with historic mansions and beautiful vintage apartment buildings. Lindsay's house was at 2318 W Pacific Avenue (not terrible far, in fact, from my first Spokane apartment, also on Pacific). He lived next door to the house owned by the Hawes family (still standing and noted as the "Hawes House" on a plaque out front), and the book I bought from George Nolan carries this interesting inscription on the fly-leaf in Lindsay's own whirling handwriting : "To my dear friends and neighbors, 'The Hawses', Forgive my sins and be neighbors. With love Nicholas Vachel Lindsay". I have never been able to find out whether Lindsay's sins were of the general kind or if he were referring to something more specific; considering his colorful life, controversial reputation, and mental illness, they could be either. As for the Hawes family, I can find precious little about them, too-- in online searches, anyway. Perhaps a letter to a Spokane historical society will turn up something. For now, we'll just have to imagine for ourselves what Lindsay's sins might have been and whether or not the gift of this book managed to redeem him.
Here's the inscription. The loopty-loop handwriting was in keeping with his approach to illustration--wonderful, frenetic, fantasy images in pen and ink. This book is filled with them. I'm providing images of the book's cover art as well, just to give you a sense of his unique style
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Even though you have more books than you have shelf-space for, and you cannot bring yourself to get rid of the volumes that are piling up on the floor of your study, don't despair! Remember these five facts: (1) The Datsun Fairlady is perhaps the prettiest little roadster ever built. (2) The voice of Scoobie-Doo has come to be the default voice of all dogs (it's true!) (3) Spinal Tap's (or the Thamesmen's, excuse me) "Gimme Some Money" has been used in a TV ad for American Express. How many viewers (especially boomers) are aware that it's a fake hit from a fake group? (4) Delacroix fully embraced the use of photography as an alternative to prepatory sketches for paintings--in contrast to the purists around him who eshewed such "cheating". Good on him. (5) "Got down sat on a bench" and "Cheese and rice" serve as brilliant LDS alternatives to !#$%&* and *&%$#@!. As you can see below, we are trying keep "clean" around this place.
Ciao,
JBF
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