Evening star., 1936-02-09
For the Lovers
of Old Books
By Frederic J. Haskin.

and shop girls. There Is your statesman
who reads detective stories. There is your
scientist who pores over printed abstruse-
ness. But of all these readers, there Is
none who really knows books like the true
bibliophile who likes the very feel Of q
book He is the sort Of man who fingers
In the rain before secondhand book stalls
and will spend day standing on his feet
reading wanderingly through yellowed
folios.
Apparently there are enough such peo-
pie in this country of hourly editions Of
reading matter to organize the Facsimile
Text Society. AS one might expect, the
society has been launched under the
auspieces of q great university-Colum-
bia-and is devoted to the reproduction
in facsimile of famous and curious books
which have become a principal part Of
the heritage of the English speaking peo-
Pile. The work of the society is some
what reminiscent Of the work of Robert
Burton, the oxford don, who, in intervals
Of teaching, devoted his time to the as
sembling of that fabulous mass of fabu-
lous information which appears in his
Anatomy Of Melancholy" except that
Burton worked alone. Many masters
and scholars of Columbia are working
on the annexation and reproduction of
the old books being revived by the Fac
simile Text Society.
Not perhaps the most notable Of the
facsimiles being brought out by the So
ciety, but one Of peculiar interest TO
Americans, is a reproduction of Poems
on Several Occasions Written by a Gen.
tleman of Virginia" Who this gentleman
was is utterly unknown and 1t is doubtful
whether any one will ever discover in
view of the fact that Virginia gentlemen
of the period-1736-were much given to
writing poetry on occasions. The book
has special interest because it is believed
to have been the first book of lyric poetry
published in America, because, so far as
is known, there is but one copy Of the
original in existence, and because that
one copy, repoSing in the Boston Athe-
neum Library, bears on its title page the
unmistakable autograph of George WASH
ington. 1t is this copy which is being re-
produced by the society.
Another rare book being reproduced is
"The Defense Of Poesie, by Sir Philip Sid
ney, the favorite of Queen Elizabeth, the
great captain of Penshurst who fell fight
ing in Flanders and the knight to whom
SpenSer referred as Sweet Sidney. The
Ponsonby edition, a surviving copy Of
which is in the British Museum, is the
one being reproduced. 1t is dated 1895.
An item of especial rarity is the 1909
edition of Shakespeare's "Sonnets," which
also contains "a Lovers Complaint" An
other contemporary of the Elizabethan
scene represented in the list of the So
ciety'S plans for reproduction is Ben JON
son-"O, Rare Ben JonSoni" His Under
woods, in the 1910 edition, is the one fac
SMILED. Then there is reproduction Of
the great Donne's "Juvenilia," the 1888
edition, which contains many prose writ
ings of that English poet and divine. To
the same period belongs the "Amoretti
and Epithalamion" of Edmund Spenser,
the author of the "Faerie Queen" This
1895 edition contains SO sonnets and also
In Youth Before Waxed Old" and the
famous "Epithalamion.
A more modern work, and to this day
best seller in modern dress, is Oliver
Goldsmiths The Deserted Village
known to every American schoolchild
and long remembered. The society'S
reprint facsimile is of the ITO edition
now IN the Br1LlSn Museum.
The society has gone in rather heav-
lily for poetry, it seems. American coll
lectors will be interested especially in
a reproduction Of the 1881 edition OF the
poems of Edgar Allan Poe.
One can see Shelley plain in the fac
Simile reproduction of "Adonais" This
is an especially interesting edition which
is copied, for it is the one printed at
1SrvSv1 he
time. 1921. 1t was sent from there to
London for circulation and, Of course,
later English editions were issued. This
facsimile is from the British Museum
copy. Shelley cannot be mentioned
without introducing John Keats and here
is Keats, too, in facsimile. 1t is the 1917
edition of the poems which Is reproduced.
1t contains a dedication to Leigh Hunt.
Then there is reproduction Of little
book which appeared in 1888 and was
signed merely w. B. Those initials were
for William Blake, who subsequently was
to become one of the greater of English
poets and artists The poetical sketches
appearing in the work were written by
Blake between the ages of IL and 20.
To illustrate how thoroughly the work
of the society and the Columbia Uni
yerSity Press is being done, the facsimile
of the lyrical ballads of William Words
worth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
which is reproduced, copies the print
ing or binding mistakes which occurred
in the 1898 edition. Such volume has
the same collectors value that a mis-
printed postage stamp has for philatel-
lists. In this work page So appears twice.
And twice it will appear in the repro
duction.
An example of what milady of fashion
read in the eighteenth century can be
studied in the reproduction of The
Progress of Romance" by Clara Reeve,
the 1785 edition. In the same volume
appears "The History of Charoba, Queen
of Aegypt." In heavier, oh, much heav-
ier, vein is the "Enchiridon Ethicum" OF
Henry More. 1t says it is IAN account
of virtue" The original was written In
Latin and this 1890 edition is the trans
lation of Edward Southweu, completed
when he was but Is years old. Mem
bers of Congress might be interested In
"a Sermon Preached Before the House
of Commons at Westminster" by the
divine. Ralph Cudworth. The 1647 edi-
ton is the one reproduced. Or perhaps
they wouldn't.
lust as now there Is. from time to time,
agitation over the French war debt to
the United States, so century ago there
was agitation over debt of money
rsronce owed the United States. The