Sarah's Books - Used & Rare

Bowie, Bowie, Bowie. The last post prompted several Bowie-related emails; one friend-in-books tells me about David Bowie coming into the Legendary Bookshop he worked at. Bodyguards with him. He bought a lot of books. The staff followed him around discreetly. Thanks for sharing. Thanks a lot. Really.

Re aging rock stars - we're all getting older together, aren't we? It actually makes me very happy to see people continuing to do their thing, whatever it is, at whatever age they happen to be. That pbs special last winter - I thought, Can I stand to watch it, will it make me feel old(er), seeing him old(er)? I gave in and was so glad, the show was incredible, and he still had every little thing he ever had way back when, but amplified, MORE, better. The look in his eye.

Enough, enough. I wish I had sixty-five extra bucks so I could join Bowienet and read his online journal, but I don't, so I can't. Rent day looms. Onward through The Reader's Encyclopedia:

vae victis! A Latin phrase meaning "woe to the vanquished!" It is ascribed to the Gaul Brennus, who conquered Rome in 390 B.C. (p.1161)

variorum. An edition with notes by different persons. A good example is the Variorum Shakespeare (1871-1930) edited originally by Horace Howard Furness. (p.1166)

Vedder, Elihu (1836-1923). American painter and illustrator. His best murals are in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. His best illustrations were done for an edition of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. (p.1168) (I mention this because I love a few paintings of his - often romantic symbolist works - one in particular in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts - but also because when I was in college I looked at a limited edition copy of his Rubáiyát, a large folio of original prints, and it was the first time I realized what the term rare book physically meant. The edition was stunning, and I sat there leafing through it, thinking, This is a book? What a splendid book! while a special collections librarian hovered over my shoulder. I still think about that fine edition, though I now own the regular trade edition.)

Vox Clamantis. A long poem in Latin, partly in allegory, by John Gower, written about 1382, dealing mainly with the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. The rebellious peasants are presented in terms of animals and monsters, including asses, oxen, dogs, and swine, who rise against the nobles, capture London, and are finally put down. This is all told vividly as a dream experienced by the poet; the remainder of the poem is concerned with a discussion of the evils and corruptions of society at the time, in which the faults and duties of the knights, the peasants, the craftsmen and merchants, the lawyers, and finally the King himself, are considered in turn. (p.1180) (Sounds like Animal Farm, in a way. Also sounds like times haven't changed much. Another interesting book to read from the Middle Ages!)

A few long entries of note, also: Venus, Paul Verlaine, and Voltaire. I am reaching the end of this book. I realize I know nothing, NOTHING.

In honor of the V entries, I must mention that I spent much of the weekend reading The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh (Penguin 1997). In a word, devastating. Devastating to finish, knowing what is coming when the writer of the letters of course does not. Near the end of his life: "I cannot help it that my pictures do not sell." (p.419) Jesus. I'm trying to get hold of a copy of Delacroix's Journal next - one of Van Gogh's favorite books. And Anne Truitt's third and last book. And pay the rent. Did I mention that already? Anyway, I've got to go. The mailman just came, bringing another package of booksellers' tickets from Don in California. This means the rest of my day is shot. This, however, is not a complaint! Far from it!