Encountering the Evil Librarian
Many (not all) were by little-known writers and critics of the 1890s-1920s. I knew of George Moore, of course, and also recognized the seagoing novelist William McFee, because I had been given one of his tramp-steamer novels, In the First Watch (1946), as a kid. Here was a book of his magazine pieces, Swallowing the Anchor (1925).
And the rest of my finds:
• Pierre and His People: Tales of the Far North (1894) by a Canadian, Gilbert Parker, who turns out to have been a British propagandist, working in secret to bring the United States into World War One.
• Avowals (1919) by George Moore, the Irish novelist and poet.
• Light Freights (1901) by W.W. Jacobs, best known for one of the most chilling short stories of all time, "The Monkey's Paw," but chiefly a writer of sea stories.
• The Phantom Future (1897), by Henry Seton Merriman, which Wikipedia says was the pen name of one Hugh Scott, a popular novelist at the turn of the last century.
One box also held a six-volume collection of the poems of Algernon Swinburne, the Decadent and somewhat small-p pagan poet of the Victorian era.
But someone had already spoken for them: the very Catholic Irish-American literature professor, a great admirer of Cardinal Newman, etc. Given Swinburne's heretical and fairly erotic writing -- lots of sex and death -- you might say he was an original Goth -- is this a window into Professor X's secret kinky side?
Labels: Writing
5 Comments:
For seagoing accounts, have you read Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana? It is all true, very interesting, and actually did a lot of good in improving working conditions for the sailors of his time. Dana is a distant relation of mine and I'm quite proud of him!
I read it as a kid, yes. I am sure that I would get more out of it now. But I'll never forget the candle-eating Russian sailors.
Perhaps you can borrow them from Professor X...?
All sounds fun.
well, I should've known I'd get typecast! but what you said about Dr. ----- is more libelous. what can I say, those books had NEVER circulated....
Dear Anonymous 4:12 p.m.,
I don't think Prof. X reads blogs. As I recall, it was a big deal when he accepted a computer in his office. But I am sure he could come up with a witty retort.
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