This broadside, printed with Jack Kerouac’s poem “A Pun for Al Gelpi,” was printed on a handpress here at Harvard by The Lowell-Adams House Printers in 1966. The poem, addressed to Lowell House resident tutor Al Gelpi, refers to a shared joke between Kerouac and Gelpi, explained in this negative print of the poem’s typescript:

One of the scarcest known Kerouac items, this is copy 17 of 100 printed, and is signed by Kerouac at the bottom. The block print was designed by Nicole Hollander.

The Lowell-Adams House Printers, a group of Harvard College students in the mid-1960s, printed poems by many writers, including Noel Coward, Adrienne Rich, and John Updike. A finding aid of their records, held at Houghton, may be viewed here.

*2007-822. Houghton Library, Harvard University. Images may not be reproduced without permission.

Bilingual poet Mary Custis Vezey (sometimes spelled Mariia Vizi, 1904-1994) was born in New York to a Russian mother and American father. Vezey grew up in St. Petersburg and Harbin, where Vezey’s father published an English-Russian newspaper. As an adult, Vezey lived in Shanghai, and eventually settled in San Francisco in 1973. Vezey published three books of poetry and left many unpublished works following her death at age 90.

Although Vezey has been called (by Olga Bakich, who edited Vezey’s collected works) “the most skilled poet in the group [of women writers in the Russian literary community in Harbin] in terms of her mastery of poetic form,” she still remains relatively unknown.

Vezey presented this copy of her poems to fellow Russian-American writer Margaret Zarudny Freema.

Pictured below is the book’s simple checkered-cloth cover, along with a translation into Russian of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem “I Shall Go Back”:

Pictured below are two of Vezey’s own poems, one in Russian, and one in English.

*2007-819. Houghton Library, Harvard University. Images may not be reproduced without permission.

Our new acquisition, MS Syriac 192, is a sixth manuscript from Audo’s hand, and the only one recorded in a western library. It was written out by him in 1848, after he had become patriarch. The manuscript is surprising in several respects. It contains a collection of hymns for the feast of Corpus Christi, a western Catholic feast that must have been quite new among the Chaldeans – a liturgical innovation, indeed, that someone with Audo’s reputation might have been expected to resist. The text of the hymns is in Arabic in Syriac letters (known as Karshuni). We know about a set of hymns for Corpus Christi by the 18th-century Syrian Catholic patriarch Mīkhāʾīl Jarwah, and probably that is what Audo has copied. But if so, he took it from a manuscript in the West Syriac script, and copied it into his own East Syriac script. Karshuni in the East Syriac script is very rare and must have looked strange to local readers, if there were any.

Pictured above is the last page of the manuscript, showing the end of the Arabic text and the colophon in Syriac naming the scribe as Yosip Audo Patriarch of Babel, and giving the date Mosul 21 May 1848. (Click on the image to see it in more detail.)

f MS Syriac 192. Purchased with the Daniel D. Chabris Book Fund and the Stanley Marcus Fund. Image may not be used without permission. This post was kindly contributed by Houghton manuscript cataloger Chip Coakley.

This “computer” is one of the earliest uses of the word to mean a calculating instrument, and not a person who calculates data. It was originally patented by Aaron Palmer in 1843, but was updated and improved by J.E. Fuller in 1847. (This model was printed from Palmer’s original plate, and measures 8.5 inches in diameter). The circular slide rule was meant quickly (thus the invocation of the word “telegraphic,” capitalizing on the popularity of that speedy new technology) to calculate square measures, cubic measures, timber, grain, and liquid measures, and interest rates from three to ten percent on a daily and monthly basis. A “Time Telegraph” on the reverse side can be used to calculate the number of days or weeks between any two dates.

To assist those who were wary of the new technology, the Computer was published with lengthy instructions on its use. It went through several editions, and accompanying manuals were printed in succeeding years. An 1852 English edition included a 45-verse poem with the set, attesting to the Computer’s popularity:

Progressive men of every nation,
To business in any station,
We bring a true good working scale,
A right good test - it cannot fail. […]

Six copies of this work have been
Ordered by England’s worthy Queen;
Orders for other six were sent
From British Houses of Parliament.

Now if only it could download music…

*2007-799. Purchased with the Will Andrewes Book Fund. Images may not be reproduced without permission.

A recent critical edition of Faustus, reviewed in February in the Times Literary Supplement, claims to have solved the mystery. In 1814, Coleridge was approached by Byron’s publisher, John Murray, to translate Faust. He worked at the translation for a little over a month, and then abandoned the project out of frustration. Following the publication of two very successful editions of the work in 1820, the editors surmise, Coleridge must have been inspired to take up the project again. The 1821 edition matches his poetic style very closely, however, it was published anonymously.

Soon after this review appeared in TLS, various reactions appeared from scholars arguing against the attribution, claiming it to be based too much on conjecture. (For more on the arguments of both sides, the “Friends of Coleridge” website has collected a list of reviews and responses to the new translation.) Dr. James Engell, Gurney Professor of English and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard, believes the following: “My opinion is that the verse in it–most of it though not perhaps all of it–is very likely [Coleridge’s], a strong attribution by Burwick and McKusick. The prose summaries of the untranslated parts are probably not by [Coleridge], nor the prose introduction, though he may have directed the prose introduction’s sense of delicate subjects, tastes of the two countries, etc.”

In the midst of this scholarly fervor, we acquired a copy of the contested 1821 translation. The edition includes twenty-six plates engraved by Henry Moses after Friedrich August Moritz Retzsch’s well-known ‘outlines’. (The idea for this edition in the first place came from the successful 1820 publication of the plates by themselves.)

f*EC8.C6795.821f. Purchased with the Norton Perkins Memorial Fund and the Amy Lowell Trust. Images may not be reproduced without permission.

This new four-page manuscript, most likely written ca. 1873, was probably sent to her friend and future editor Thomas Wentworth Higginson, whose wife, Mary Thacher Higginson, transcribed it (the transcription is now at the Boston Public Library in the Higginson Papers). Ralph Franklin believed that the original had been sent to Higginson along with a note and three other poems (see Fr 796); but the new autograph is on different paper (watermarked “A. Pirie and Sons 1871″) than the three still in the Higginson Papers (BPL MS Am 1093 (48), (40), and (50)). Higginson also refers to this poem in a letter to his co-editor Mabel Loomis Todd (1891 May 13); this, in combination with the transcript, makes it seem probable that the present manuscript was at one time in his possession.

But how did it leave his possession? The details of the manuscript’s provenance are not yet fully established, but it seems likely that Higginson gave it to Gretchen Osgood (Mrs. Fiske) Warren (1868-1961), whom he would have known through the Museum of Fine Arts. The present manuscript, reputedly from Mrs. Fiske Warren’s estate, appeared for sale at Skinner’s in Boston on 10 November 2001.

Houghton Library holds a variant of this poem, sent by Dickinson to her sister-in-law Susan (Houghton MS Am 1118.3 (356)), which begins “The Wind begun to knead the Grass.” Now possible to view the two side by side, the manuscripts bring home to students and experienced textual scholars alike the physicality of Dickinson’s continual reworking of her poems, and her distribution of them to her friends.

The poem was written on one piece of paper folded in half. The first image below shows pages 4 and 1, and the second image shows pages 2 and 3. (Click on the images twice to see more detail.)

This version of the poem reads:

The Wind begun to rock the Grass
With threatening Tunes and low –
He flung a Menace at the Earth –
A Menace at the Sky –

The Leaves unhooked themselves from Trees
And started all abroad –
The Dust did scoop itself like Hands
And throw away the Road -

The Wagons quickened on the streets -
The Thunder hurried slow –
The Lightning showed a yellow Beak -
And then a livid Claw –

The Birds put up the Bars to Nests –
The Cattle fled to Barns –
There came one drop of Giant Rain
And then as if the Hands

That held the Dams - had parted hold
The Waters Wrecked the Sky -
But overlooked My Father’s House –
Just quartering a Tree –

*2007M-74. © The President and Fellows of Harvard College. Purchased with the Dickinson Collection Fund. Images may not be reproduced without permission.

Cenit published works in thematic groups, such as Crítica Social, La Novela de la Guerra, La Novela Proletaria, Teatro Político, and Panorama Literario Español e Hispano-Americano. Cenit published translations of works by authors such as Sherwood Anderson, Hermann Hesse, Karl Marx, and Leon Trotsky, as well as original works by Spanish authors. Close attention was paid to the typography, format, and cover design of the books as well, to create a complete, artistic reading experience.

We recently acquired a collection of 68 Cenit publications, four of which are pictured below. All four covers were designed by Julio Puyol. Clockwise from left:

*2007C-47. C.F. Ramuz, Cumbres Espanto. 1930.
*2007C-26. Hermann Hesse, Demian. 1930.
*2007C-12. Ferreira de Castro, Emigrantes. 1930.
*2007C-13. Lion Fenchtwanger, La Duquesa Fea. 1931.

Cenit’s logo, printed in colors corresponding to the cover design on the back of each book, can be seen here:

*2007C-1 — *2007C-68. Purchased with the Bennett Hubbard Nash Fund, the Harmand Teplow Class of 1920 Fund, and the Andrew Preston Peabody Fund. Images may not be reproduced without permission.

Cozzens, who attended Harvard from 1922-1924, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1949 for Guard of Honor, inspired by his experiences during World War II. Cozzens wrote thirteen additional novels and numerous short stories.

The collection includes numerous editions of all of Cozzens’s works, including Guard of Honor and By Love Possessed. Pictured below are four different editions of Guard of Honor. Starting in the upper right corner, and going clockwise, these include: the 1998 Modern Library edition; an advance copy of the 1948 first American edition; a 1952 Permabooks paperback (priced at 35 cents!); and the 1949 first British edition of the novel. (Click on the image twice to enlarge it.)

Cozzens Papers, *2007M-69. Individual books will be in HOLLIS shortly. Purchased with funds from the Amy Lowell Trust. Image may not be reproduced without permission.

In the novel, a young artist falls in love with his seductive model, and ultimately is destroyed by her. Partly based on his own experiences, Daudet wrote it as a cautionary tale for his sons. He was already suffering from the effects of a syphilitic paralysis that would eventually kill him.

This edition, a beautiful example of late 19th-century English publishing, contains thirty wood engravings from designs by Louis Montegut.

*FC8.D2646.Eg886s. Purchased with the Roger Stoddard Book Fund. Images may not be reproduced without permission.

At the bottom of the page, the poet wrote, “Can’t the printers manage to put this song altogether. [sic] It looks very awkward thus divided - or at least to put the 1st stanza altogether before the eye?” He was referring to the last stanza on the page, a song that begins “What does the little birdie say,” and concluded with two lines on the next page. The printer must have paid attention, as the published version of the poem appears exactly as Tennyson requested (image from Google Books):

*2007M-64. Purchased with the Amy Lowell Fund. Houghton images may not be reproduced without permission.

Two recent acquisitions give Mailer a continuing presence at Harvard, and testify to his concern with literary technique, and his efforts to continually improve his own writing and that of others: the papers of Richard G. Hannum, and those of Carole Mallory.

Richard Hannum collaborated with Mailer on the 1986 off-Broadway play Strawhead, about Marilyn Monroe, based on Mailer’s Of Women and Their Elegance (1980). Mailer had had a huge success with his 1973 biography of Monroe, Marilyn: A Novel Biography, in which he stated that she was murdered by agents of the FBI and CIA who resented her supposed affair with Robert F. Kennedy. Hannum’s papers include his correspondence with Mailer, and drafts and final script for Strawhead. Pictured below is a page from Hannum and Mailer’s script for Strawhead, with Mailer’s handwritten notes (click on the image to enlarge it):

(Image © Richard G. Hannum and The Norman Mailer Estate.)

Carole Mallory began her career as a model, then turned actress, playing a Stepford wife along with Paula Prentiss, Katherine Ross, and Tina Louise in 1975. She met Norman Mailer in 1982, and he helped her to begin a career as a writer and journalist. She published a novel, Flash (1987) described by Gloria Steinem as “fast, smart, irresistible to read.” Her interviews—of Gore Vidal and Mailer; Mikhail Baryshnikov; and Warren Beatty, among others, appeared in Esquire, Elle, G.Q., Cosmopolitan, and others. The collection consists primarily of material relating to Norman Mailer, including correspondence, Mallory’s unpublished novel, heavily edited by Mailer, along with his edits to her interviews of him; transcripts and printed interviews of other notables; publishing contracts; and printed material. Pictured below is a page from an interview of Mailer conducted by Mallory in mid-1980s, with Mailer’s handwritten corrections (click to enlarge):

Both collections add to the wealth of material available for research and teaching about the writer’s craft: how writers develop their style and substance, often, as in these cases, through layers of revision. Mailer, in particular, thought of his writing as “a job. . .you have to work at it every day” and both of thrse collections testify that it was a job he took seriously, as evidenced in this selection, also from the Carole Mallory papers:

*b 2007M-59 and *2007M-63. © Carole Mallory, Richard Hannum, and the Norman Mailer Estate. Images may not be reproduced or quoted from without permission.

Gerasimov’s work often focuses on modernist topics, such as the melding of the industrial and artificial with the natural. Rather than denounce the new industrial age, Gerasimov seems to have wanted to reconcile both a simpler past and a progressive present.

Ėlektropoėma is a collection of Gerasimov’s poems published in Moscow in 1923. The work is bound in a colorful, decorative cloth:

The title page is characteristic of Russian avant-garde book design, which often included the use of red and black angular designs:

*RC9.G3125.923e. Purchased with the Bayard L. Kilgour, Jr. Fund for Russian Belles Lettres. Images may not be reproduced without permission.

The set, which arrived in its original box, includes forty hand-colored cards depicting men and women. The twenty cards picturing men each contain a member of a different profession and a rhyming, nineteenth-century, pick-up line. The cards featuring women contain various polite (and not-so-polite) rejections, along with a few acceptances. Presumably, players could match different cards to form various comic, romantic scenarios, thus practicing for their own courtships.

Included in the images below are examples of six different cards. (I’ve added some punctuation for clarification.)

Soldier: With sword, gorget, and sash, can you love Captain Flash?

Woman: Upon my word, you graceless Elf, I’ll keep that answer to myself.

Man: Reading improves the mind they say. Are you fond of Reading, pray?

Woman: How provoking you are thus to torment me so. But I’ll give you my answer - it is certainly No.

Man: The Bee is a pattern to all in this Life. Can you be a good & industrious Wife?

Woman: Well that’s very civil, I thank you for this. And I’ll be as civil; I answer Sir, Yes.

More playing cards can be found in the James Edward Whitney collection.

*EC8.A100.820p. Purchased with the Melvin R. Seiden Houghton Library Book Fund for Music. Images may not be reproduced without permission.

The book is block-printed in a Chinese colloquial dialect spoken in Ningbo, in the northeastern Zhejiang province. The Chinese has been transliterated into Roman characters, although the titled page is in both Chinese and Roman characters.

This copy is inscribed by Martin to the Rev. E. W. Syle, a pioneer in education for the blind in China and Japan.

The book also contains several folding woodcut maps, including this one (click on the map to see a larger image):

*2007-631. Purchased with the Sydney J. Watts Fund. Images may not be reproduced without permission.

The telegram reads: “The secretary of war requests that you come immediately to Washington for the purpose of making a medical examination of Payne the man who attempted to assassinate Sec. Seward please answer how soon you can start & reach this city. J A Hardie, Inspec. Genl. U.S.A.”

Dr. Gray was called in to examine Lewis Paine, who had been arrested for his involvement in the plot to assassinate President Lincoln. Paine (an alias of Lewis Powell, (1844-1865)) was in league with John Wilkes Booth and a group of other individuals, and had attempted to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward on April 14, 1865 (the same night Lincoln was shot). Powell was captured and imprisoned several days later.

John Purdue Gray (1825-1886) was one of the foremost forensic psychiatrists in the second half of the nineteenth century, and was involved in several notable murder trials where the mental stability of a defendant was in question. Gray was one of at least six physicians called to examine Powell when Powell’s attorney wished to use an insanity defense. The doctors could not find proof of any mental instability, and Powell was ultimately hanged for his part in the conspiracy.

This telegram is one item in a large collection of Lincolniana held at Houghton. Other items may be found by perusing Hollis, Harvard’s online library catalog.

*2007M-42. Purchased with the Bayard Livingston and Kate Gray Kilgour Fund. Image may not be reproduced without permission.