Those wonderful books of the past...

[fajrdrako]

This week’s question is suggested by Island Editions:

Do you have a favourite book, now out of print, that you would like to see become available again? (I have several…)

My first thought was of books of my childhood. The first would be A Treasury of Great Poems, edited by Louis Untermeyer. Not actually intended for children, this book was given to my mother by her Sunday School class when she got married in 1944. She loved it, as did I. It had a friendly, clear introduction to each poet and each poem, and the poems were well chosen, and I got more of an education in poetry from this book than I ever did in high school or university English classes. It had in it poems that are still my favourites, like the wonderful translation Tennyson wrote of "The Battle of Brunanburh". Can't you just imagine how that burned its shield-wall into my adolescent imagination?

Then there is He Went With Christopher Columbus or any of the books by Louise Andrews Kent, whom I loved as a kid. I was mad over history. This book sent me into years of happy role-playing games as a stowaway or cabin boy/girl with Columbus. All the Kent books fanned my imagination and increased my love of history.

Likewise, Merrylips by Jean Marie Dix, a wonderful adventure about a little girl in the English Civil War.

So, dragging myself away from childhood reading - there's Edward, Edward or any of the novels of Lolah Burford. Historical novels with a psychological slant - themes of white slavery and abuse of aristocratic privilege.

O City of Byzantium by Niketas Choniates. It ought to be in print. It's a wonderful book. I can't think why it isn't. It ought to be a much-read classic. Likewise, I'd love to see L'histoire de guillaume le maréchal in print again - it was last published in Paris in the 1870s - but now that it's available online, my feelings aren't quite so urgent. I love electronic technology.

Because I like this topic, I asked this question of a couple of my friends. One said "Dickens' magazine 'Household Words'." Another cited the Pitman shorthand version of A Sign of Four. Another said, "The works of John Masefield" - which actually is in print, but (appallingly) not available in Canada, for copyright reasons.

There's also a Louis Untermeyer poem I've been looking for and not finding anywhere - I don't know if it's in print or not, and I can't remember the title of the book where I originally found it. It was something like The Oxford Book of Naughty Verse, and it was called something along the lines of, "To his right-beloved Shakespeare, from WH", and it begins: "Whenas (methinks that is a pretty way to start)...." and it ends:

In thy next poem, if thou wouldst give me joy,
Please make it clear I'm not that kind of boy?

Does this sound familiar to anyone here?

Comments

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

What's also odd about it is that people want their identities to be perceived as based on "victimhood".

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That doesn't seem odd to me. I's all part of the same legendary status and heroic journey. Past suffering, heroism in action, villains to oppose.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

It seems very odd to me to regard victimhood as a desirable state, something to be proud of. Reminds me of the peasant in Holy Grail: "Help! Help! I'm being oppressed! Come and see the violence inherent in the system!"

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Hee! Love Monty Python.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I think what's bizarre is that victimhood has come to be seen as morally "more pure", a status to be sought as desirable. Once you accept the label of 'victim', you don't need to take responsibility for anything. It's psychologically unhealthy on an individual or cultural level.