August 4, 2006
from the bibliophile's file: my own dr. johnson
I would like to submit another piece of evidence, from my own life, that suggests a digital world need not mean the death of the book.
Last week I went online to order some used books. I need them for my reading list, for comps part 2, coming up sometime this fall. I'd already read these books, but I wanted my own copies (that I can annotate), and ones with a good critical apparatus (such as Oxford World Classics, and Penguin Classics), which were missing on my first reading.
I ordered them at Alibris.com, which is basically an online database of used-book stores, with many bookstores throughout the English-speaking world participating. So there's a wide selection, though the shipping is expensive, and shipping dates vary by country (from England, of course, takes longer, etc.).
Most of the books have arrived. One good thing about having the books shipped from different places is that they come separately, which means you get to open many packages of books! For me, always exciting, and worth the postage.
Yesterday James Boswell's Life of Johnson arrived.
This is a book every proto/pseudo/prospective English grad student should have. Especially a hard-back version, thought I didn't think I could afford it, because the Life of Johnson is a voluminous book (the full version, that is; there are many abridgements. Bibliophiles, DO NOT get an abridgement: some of the most interesting things about the book-qua-book are generally left out of the abridgements, such as Boswell's extensive and fascinating notes). But this one was only $6.95!
Yes, you read that right: a hard-bound version of a classic, in two volumes, at the low, low price of $6.95! I thought I might get a piece (or pieces) of crap, but it was worth the risk at that price.*
And it's not a piece (or pieces) of crap! It's a beautiful edition, with only a slightly cracked binding making it less than perfect. There is a gold-gilt cover! There is a dual-cover title page! There is also this little bonus for bibliophiles: the cover page is stamped by the original owner! That owner was a one Ilan Stavchansky (I'm guessing this came from an estate sale). He must have had an impressive library if he went to the trouble of getting one of those fancy stamps that creates an embossed image (he also stamped it--previously, I assume--with a cheaper ink stamp). This man loved books!
Granted, this edition does not fulfill my academic criteria in that there is an introduction, but it is a very dated one. And there are no editor notes, nor appendixes, etc. But it's my own Life of Johnson! I can make annotations (that is if the ghost of Ilan Stavchansky does not haunt me for doing so).
And I didn't even mention the plates! There are some beautiful engravings here, along with reproductions of etchings. Worth at least $6.95. And I think they're out of copyright, but I can't know for sure (without a little sleuthing, because the books bears no publication date).
I was so excited about the engravings that I immediately scanned a couple of them and (I'm giving it away here) Photoshoped them together (immediately below). They seemed to demand to go together, and suggested one of the many tete-a-tetes between Dr. Johnson is his assiduous disciple, James Boswell. I may use the images some day for the design when I create my database/XML version of this book!
*I am not unaware that this low, low price is not the greatest news for books in that it denotes the low status of books in general, and classics in particular. But there are plenty of more modern versions out there, it's not out-of-print, some book people are still making money on James Boswell and Dr. Johnson. So let's not worry too much.
Posted by jeb at August 4, 2006 4:10 PM | TrackBack