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HALCYON THE NEWSLETTER OF THE FRIENDS OF THE THOMAS FISHER RARE BOOK LIBRAR Y ISSUE No. 48, December 2011 ISSN 0840–5565 In Memoriam Richard Gerald Landon 1942–2011 ‘It is a good thing to read books, and it need not be a bad thing to write them; but it is a pious thing to preserve those that have been sometime written: the collecting, and mending, and binding, and cataloguing of books are all means to such an end.’ From the preface by Frederick Locker-Lampson (1821–1895) of his The Rowfant Library : A Catalogue of the Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Drawings and Pictures. London: Quaritch, 1886. In thI s Issue Forty-three and Out | Manuscript Gifts in 2010 | Donors of Gifts-in-Kind to the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library 2010 | Ted Hughes and the Small Press | The Miraculous Survival of an Artistic Legacy: the Illustrated Pentateuch of Carol Deutsch | The First Nicholls Library Fellow | Events and Exhibitions 2 Forty-three and Out Luba Frastacky Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library he richness and variety of the it isn’t always about sitting behind a desk. We Pole, and two by Philippe Bauche of Siberia collections held by the Fisher Library thank Mrs. Elliott for filling in gaps in our and Kamtchatka from the eighteenth century. were greatly enhanced by the donations holdings of classical authors. Accompanying the maps was an 1808 edition of Tmade during 2010. On a hot July day last We have been collecting the works of John Cary’s New Universal Atlas w it h si x t y-t wo summer, Eva Stepanian, the Fisher Library’s George Bernard Shaw for so long and so hand-coloured maps and a nineteen volume graduate student assistant, and I made our way extensively that it is hard to believe there set of Histoire générale des voyages (Paris, 1746) out to Bloor West Village to meet Mrs. Myrna are editions that we do not yet have. The Last year our late Director, Richard Landon, Elliott, who wished to donate a collection of donation made by Mrs. Christine Bissell last came to the conclusion that he would never classical authors assembled by her late husband. December proved us wrong. Not only did the find the time to work on a Grant Allen She had previously sent our Assistant Director titles donated fill in gaps, but several were bibliography, and so turned over around two a meticulously written chronological list of presentation copies from the author himself; hundred titles by the author of such works as those items she felt would be of interest to one to his French translators, Augustin and The White Man’s Foot (1888); The Jaws of Death us. She was right, and so there we were to Henriette Hamon, another to an Alfred (1889) and the best selling The Woman who pack up a collection hidden in a closet and Freund “for Mrs. Walkley’s sake” with a long did (1895). Allen also wrote under two female in filing cabinet drawers on what turned out explanation in manuscript of the book’s origin pseudonyms, one of them being Olive Pratt to be the hottest day of the year. The earliest by Alfred B. Walkley and Shaw’s card tipped Rayner, author of the novella The Type-writer work was an edition of Sophocles, printed in in on the front flyleaf. In addition there was a Girl (1897). All will be added to the special Rome in 1542; the most recent, Marc-Antoine holograph letter from Adlai Estes Stevenson, to Grant Allen Collection. It is interesting to Muret’s Variarum lectionum XVII, printed in her late husband, Claude, the eighth president note that Allen also wrote on flowers and Halle between 1791 and 1828. Other authors of this University (1958–1971). It was a very perception in insects. Despite having being represented were Plautus, Thucydides, Terence, nice Christmas present! deeply influenced by the British psychologist, Horace and Socrates, to name but a few. But On the same wintery theme, Mr. Walter Herbert Spencer, Darwinian arguments why did they have to be produced in such large Keyser sent us a detailed list of polar maps replaced those of Spencer, thus providing a tomes, we muttered as we gingerly walked the that he was interested in donating and we were nice link to the Library’s extensive Darwin filled boxes down from the second floor and most interested in obtaining. The donation Collection. out to Eva’s car? Still, it provided this future includes an engraving by Willem Blaeu done Several issues ago, I wrote about a gentle- librarian with another aspect of librarianship; in 1635 showing the area below the North man who was always the first donor of the 3 opening pAge: Page from Historic, Military and Naval Anecdotes of Personal Valour … Terminating with the Battle of Waterloo (1819). THiS pAge: Covers from two Grant Allen novels, The Tents of Shem (1893) and Miss Cayley’s Adventures (1899). ye a r. M r. Joh n C a mbr id g e wou ld app e a r e ver y of the book’s publishing January and pull out a little treasure from a history. His lists are a battered briefcase; it was he who gave us the librarian’s and appraiser’s delightful book on the early game of tennis dream. He and Professor about which I wrote in a previous issue of John Slater will go down Halcyon, as well as many other items. I am in the annals of the Fisher pleased to report that the family tradition Library for their desire to continues; this year we received seven books make the Fisher Library from Mrs. Lys Cambridge Laurence in honour a centre of excellence for of her father, including a 1651 edition of the the history and study of famous Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes. philosophy. Mr. Michael Miller, who in 2008 gave A donor who wishes us a superb collection of books on Arctic to remain anonymous exploration, has chosen this year to give gave us several items of us a selection of his books on naval vessels importance, of which I will describe only a Last year Mr. David and Mrs. Jane Atkins and military history, many of them issued few. L’Imitation de Jesus Christ, the renowned allowed me to go through various bookcases in limited editions by the Marine Research work often attributed to the German-Dutch in their home, selecting titles to enhance our Society in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1920s. mystic Thomas à Kempis, is widely considered collections. Margaret Atwood ensured that we There was also a beautiful edition ofUniform to be one of the greatest manuals of Catholic hold a l l e d it ion s of her work s w here ver t he y a re of the Army of the United States (Philadelphia, devotion. We have been given a copy of the publ i s he d . Profe s s or D en n i s B a r te l s’ i ntere s t i n [1882]) and a splendid Historic, Military and Rouen, 1656 edition, versified by the famous non-Russian primers published in the former Naval Anecdotes of Personal Valour, Bravery seventeenth-century dramatist, Pierre Soviet Union found expression in his donation. and Particular Incidents which Occurred to the Corneille, which is considered to be the first Dr. Robert Brandeis strove to find even more Armies of Great Britain and her Allies in the complete edition (the earlier version of 1651 Penguin and Puffin imprints. Professor Hans Last Long-contested War, Terminating with the did not include the first twenty chapters). We de Groot and Dolores DelVecchio harvested Battle of Waterloo (London, [1819]). have located only one other copy in Canada. A various treasures from their collections. Mr. Ginutis Procuta, who has been work we were unable to locate in a Canadian Because Nicholas Ignatieff had to downsize honoured by his native Lithuania for his institution was Henri, duc d’Aumale’s La his library, we are the fortunate recipients extensive support of the library collections Bataille de Rocroy (Paris, 1890), which details of pre-revolutionary Russian materials. Mr. in Vilnius, has long since done the same for the events of 19 May 1643, when a small French Balfour Le Gresley completed our copy the Lithuanian holdings of both Robarts and force routed the Spanish Army of the North, of Jean-Denis Daule’s Nouveau recueil de the Fisher Library. For us, he always provides invading from Flanders. The Duke was the cantiques (Québec, 1819) by donating part e x ten sive note s on w hy a p a r t ic u l a r work ne e d s son of Louis-Philippe, King of the French, two. Professor Michael Millgate’s theatre to be housed in our library. This year’s gift who retired to England after the Revolution prog r a m me s were a dde d to t he Fi s her L ibr a r y ’s included works produced in displaced peoples’ of 1848 and busied himself with historical already extensive collection. Ken Popert filled camps in post-war Germany, literature issued and military studies. This work was issued i n g ap s i n ou r g ay m a g a z i ne c ol le c t ion. M ic h a h for the Lithuanian community in Chicago, in a very limited edition of 104 copies, ours Rynor contributed to making our Canadian and prose and poetry from pre-World War II being number seventy-five.