"Little Babs" by George Mitchell, 1919.
A short illustrated children's story about a little girl who wanted a friend, but had too much work to do, Babs meets a handful of fairies who cannot meet her request to be her playmate, but help her with her chores which allows her the free time to make a new friend.
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"Are you a Prince or a Sailor or a Soldier or a Clown or a Toyshop-boy, or a Baker's Boy?" asked Little Babs.
"No," said he, "I'm just a Chum."
"That's exactly what I want," said Little Babs, clapping her hands.
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BOOK ONEHUNDRED
"Pope's Poetical Works" edited by Adolphus William Ward, 1876.
Heavy, sturdy, with gorgeous typography and tiny font size, this is what an old book should look and feel like.
BOOK ONEHUNDREDANDONE
"The Basic Principle in Healing and Demonstration" by Christian D. Larson, 1940.
A 72-page booklet by the New Thought teacher and leader, this is marked up by my great-grandmother who wrote her name inside the front cover and dated it in 1944. No less than ten pages have been ear-marked.
BOOK ONEHUNDREDANDTWO
"The Man with the Hoe and Other Poems" by Edwin Markham, 1899.
Inside the front cover is an inscription "Affectionately, Kittie - Christmas 1903" and tucked two pages later is a small card reading "Merry Christmas - To Mrs Garver, from Kittie".
Abrose Bierce wrote of Markham, "It is long since I entertained a doubt of Edwin Markham's eventual primacy among contemporary poets."Vice-President Thomas Marshall said, "We who are standing here will pass into oblivion - we and all our works will vanish; but the name Edwin Markham will echo down the centuries."
"If you were to ask the first man you meet in the street who wrote 'Hamlet,' 'The Idyls of the King,' or 'The Man with the Hoe,' he would be most likely to know who wrote the hoe-poem." - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
I'm not sure if that last quote could be considered a reflection of the education of Seattle in the first few decades of the 20th Century, but certainly Marshall's words have some weight to them. Quick - without looking it up, which American President was Marshall Vice-President to?
That's what I thought...
BOOK ONEHUNDREDANDTHREE
"Seeds of Contemplation" by Thomas Merton, 1949.
Inside the front cover is written: "This book belongs to the Library of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepard" but also has a price of one dollar marked in pencil, so I'm assuming that this was bought, instead of stolen, from the Sisters.
The pages are pristine, but there is one bookmark between pages 164 and 165. It is a business card for a Laguna Beach eye physician and surgeon. On the back of the card is written the title and author of a book: 'The Phenomenon of Man' by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, "a Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of both Piltdown Man and Peking Man." (taken from wikipedia)
Thomas Merton was an American Catholic writer who wrote 70 books. He was a Trappist monk, later ordained to the priesthood.
BOOK ONEHUNDREDANDFOUR
"This Thing Called You" by Ernest Holmes, 1948.
Another book by the Religious Science founder, this one has a sticker inside the front cover of a snow scene and a book. I assume one is meant to write their name on the empty area of the sticker, but that space was intentionally left blank.
Between pages 44 and 45 is a folded up newspaper clipping from October 28th, 1946 showing the proposed Ridge Route Railway Tunnel underneath Tejon Pass, north of Los Angeles.
BOOK ONEHUNDREDANDFIVE
"Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant, 1874.
"Due to the unusual quality of the verse and Bryant's age when the poem was first published in 1817 by the North American Review, Richard Henry Dana, Sr., then associate editor at the Review, initially doubted its authenticity, saying to another editor, "No one, on this side of the Atlantic, is capable of writing such verses." Although Bryant wrote the bulk of the poem at age 17 (in 1811), he added the introductory and concluding lines 10 years later in 1821." (taken from wikipedia)
Inside the book is a folded up aged letter from someone named Adelaide. She addressed the letter "Hello, dear ones" so that doesn't help much with placing who any of the people involved are, but other names are mentioned. George appears to be her husband, and there are other family members named Charlene, Alvin, Rod and Aunt Margaret.
The letter mostly talks about Adelaide having an emotional breakdown, from having too much to deal with. The details are vague, but family members' health seems to be of great concern, among other worries.
Near the end of the letter is my favorite section:
"Alvin is dear -- and Aunt Margaret (26 years older than her husband) was as good as can be made. But she dressed the youngster in velvet suits and other such crap. Rod was adopted by them at birth -- the family story has it that he is the drunk uncle's natural son which probably is true. I've been asked lately and got right sharp about it -- what the hell difference does THAT make. Odd -- I just wrote you that I don't really like kids. And man, I've been fighting like a fired-up bantam rooster, over this one --- so what about all this nonsense and crap? He is a dear little boy who needs love like no other child I've ever seen. That love will come from somewhere -- might as well start here."
Incredible.
UPDATE 11-30-10: Adelaide was a friend of my grandmother's who lived in Texas. The two would correspond often with typed letters.
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