December 2009

Poisonous Plants at Table, and Prudence: The Cautionary Tale of a Picky Eater
Chicago: Sherwin Beach Press, 2006
Printed by Bob McCamant, Carleton College Class of 1971
Gould Library Special Collections

You are cordially invited to the
Deadgustation Society's
Autumn Hunt Luncheon
Tomorrow Afternoon in the Cemetery
RSVP

Poisonous Plants represents the culmination of three tantalizing texts: Poisonous Plants in Field and Garden, by the Reverend Professor G. Henslow, and originally published in 1901, Poisonous Plants at Table, by the fictitious Dr. E. Coffin, irregular practitioner, and Prudence, written and illustrated by Audrey Niffenegger, renowned author of The Time Traveler's Wife. Niffenegger's ink drawings and watercolors appear interspersed throughout Prudence, bringing both the picky eater and the skeleton Messenger to splendid life against the backdrop of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. A glossary of poisonous plants, taken from Bentham's Handbook of British Flora and woodblocks by Walter Hood Fitch, adds an element of serious botanical intrigue to the book as a whole.

Poisonous Plants is, indeed, a captivating specimen that demonstrates Bob McCamant's dedication to preserving the art of the book. Read more about Poisonous Plants and other books by Sherwin Beach Press at: http://www.sherwinbeach.com/.

November 2009

Two Months: Being the Account of Life as a Prisoner of War by Horace Smith
Artist’s Book by Jeffrey W. Morin
Stevens Point, Wisconsin: Sailor Boy Press, 2002
Gould Library Special Collections

The images evoke wounds, scabs, pitiable scraps, and how these things become badges of honor.
-From the colophon, Jeffrey W. Morin

The text in this volume comes from the 1863 diary of Horace Smith, a Civil War soldier from Wisconsin who was held in a Confederate prison on Belle Island in Richmond, Virginia. Smith’s stark descriptions of cold, sickness, and near-constant hunger, though brief, evoke the hopelessness of life in the prison. To create this book, Morin transcribed Smith’s entries from September and October, then embellished the pages with smears and washes of color and bits of copper, bones and sandpaper.

October 2009

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851)
Woodcuts by Lynd Ward (1905-1985)
Frankenstein
Lakewood, Colorado, Centipede Press, 2006
Gould Library Special Collections

At first I started back, unable to believe that it was indeed I who was reflected in the mirror; and when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification. Alas! I did not yet entirely know the fatal effects of this miserable deformity.
The 64 woodcuts that illustrate this edition of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s haunting classic are by Lynd Ward, progenitor of the novel without words (or graphic novel). Originally produced for a 1936 edition of the text, Ward’s illustrations vividly evoke the misery and rage of Frankenstein’s monstrous creation.  

September 2009

Josh Neufeld (1967-  )
A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge
New York, Pantheon Books, 2009
Gould Library Collection

Having demonstrated his artistic skills as a long-time illustrator for Harvey Pekar's autobiographical saga, American Splendor, Josh Neufeld exercised his literary skills in Katrina Came Calling (2006). This self-published book, which preceded and inspired A.D., recorded Neufeld's experience as an American Red Cross volunteer in Biloxi, Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge was originally published as a serial graphic novel distributed online through Smith Magazine. The book recalls the hurricane that shook southeast Louisiana at the end of August 2005 through the true stories of seven local citizens. This visually stimulating account of the storm and its impact on New Orleans was published in a hardcover edition in 2009. 

July 2009

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)
Blood on the Dining-Room Floor
Banyan Press, New York, 1948
Gould Library Collection
Blood on the Dining-Room Floor was one of Gertrude Stein's only detective stories-- a genre which Stein herself loved. The book was written in 1933 but not published until 1948, two years after Stein's death. It was printed from manuscripts she had left to the library at Yale University. This numbered edition of Blood on the Dining-Room Floor was printed by the Banyan Press, a small press founded in 1946 by Claude Fredericks. Fredericks' printing philosophy was: "What makes good printing is a simplicity in design, consistency in execution, and a relentless solicitude for each and every detail."

June 2009

Plate XXXIV
Platanus nobilis Newb. John Strong Newberry (1822-1892)
U.S. Geological Survey Monographs Vol. XXXV:
The Later Extinct Flora of North America
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1898
Gould Library Government Documents Issued as the 35th volume in a series of U.S. Geological Survey monographs, The Later Extinct Floras of North America,  was a posthumous edition by geologist John Strong Newberry.  The book is an incomplete series of 68 of Newberry’s drawn plates of fossilized flora from the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods.  Newberry, a geologist, palaeontologist and explorer worked closely with the Smithsonian Institution as well as the Illinois, Ohio, and United States Geological Surveys.  He was also the first geologist to visit the Grand Canyon. The lithographs were created by the Thomas Sinclair and Son Lithography studio in Philadelphia.

May 2009

Jack Cole and Plastic Man
Forms Stretched to Their Limits
Art Spiegelman and Chip Kidd
San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2001

April 2009

Herbert George (H.G.) Wells (1866-1946)
The War of the Worlds
Illustrations by Joe Mugnaini
New York: Limited Editions Club, 1964
#29 of 1500
Gould Library Special Collections

March 2009

Broder
Paulette Myers-Rich and Anna Reckin










Minneapolis: Traffic Street Press, 1999   
Broder is a collaboration between visual artist Paulette Myers-Rich and poet Anna Reckin. Along with poems and images about stitching and lacework, the title features a proofreader's transpose mark in the word “Broder” to make “Border,” which plays on the French word to embroider. Myers-Rich is 2009’s Minnesota Book Artist Award winner.  The award, which is co-sponsored by the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and the Friends of the St. Paul Library, recognizes a Minnesota book artist for excellence throughout a body of work, as well as significant contributions to Minnesota’s book arts community.  Gould Library Special Collections houses several of Myers-Rich’s artist books.

February 2009

U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. Looking at our Homeless Veterans Programs: How Effective are They?: Hearing Before the Committee  on Veterans’ Affairs. 109th Cong., 2nd sess., March 16, 2006. Full text of the hearing can be found here U.S. Congress. Senate. Sheltering All Veterans Everywhere Act or SAVE Reauthorization Act of 2005. S.1180. 109th Cong., 1st sess. “Agenda: Veterans.” January 2009. http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/veterans/ (accessed February 3, 2009). White House Webpage

January 2009

The Marie Burroughs Art Portfolio of Stage Celebrities
Chicago; A.N. Marquis & Company, 1894
Gould Library Special Collections

Marie Burroughs, born Lillie Arrington, was a popular stage actress of the late 19th century.  Burroughs' Art Portfolio of Stage Celebrities aimed "to present, in one artistic and comprehensive collection, the portraits of the most noted dramatic, operatic and musical artists of the world."