The Nankin Township Historical Society

To get any sort of information out of me you have to suffer the ignominy of ME. Which means you get the process with the product. I can't help it. This is why I can never get anything done! While I was on my Halloween kick (I'm not off it yet!) I requested a copy of this book The Sin-Eater's Hallowe'en by Francis Nielson from MELCat despite the bad reviews it received as a foolhardy polemic. Which was politics, at the time (1924), just as it is now and in time immemorial. Clee-shay (That's phonetics, not some haughty word to guess at)! So I requested it to scan for posterity's sake because I feel like that's my job since universities and institutions are corrupt and tyrannical. As soon as I received the book I noticed the two ex-libris bookplates and knew there was a reason for my request. Things will pursue you when you pursue them. Just don't do it with people. Run away as fast you can and you might be saved from them and yourself. But I digress. Be...

Finally, another local bookplate. This one courtesy of the free book shelves in the atrium at John King Books downtown. I spent $1.80 inside and found 5 free books with ex-libris bookplates outside, with only two being the same. Cool beans. This one dates to 1965 and is from Madonna College Library (now University) and was donated by Sister Many Theresilla. It was found in the book :The Word Dwells Among Us: A Forward to the Biblical Books by William E. Lynch, C. M. The stamp is an added bonus of the freebie.

Okay, you can all stop clamoring for another ex-libris bookplate. As if. This one is nice and dates to 1968 from the D. Leonard Corgan Library at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. I thought that the college was a lot older than it is but since it was founded in 1946 this actually turns out to be an earlier bookplate in its history. The book is Types of Jewish-Palestinian Piety from 70 B.C.E. to 70 C.E.: The Ancient Pious Men which is beyond my comprehension since I know nothing of the subject.

I realize that next-to-nobody gives a flip about my burgeoning bookplate collection but I have tunnel vision in regard to what other people want as far as historical context goes. My preference would be to feature only local Ex-Libris plates but I take what I can find. Half of what I do find comes from a free book trough at McKay's in Knoxville, Tennessee or from thrift stores when I'm down there visiting my daughter. This was another freebie with a very pertinent topic: Mex ico. Apparently, just as now, we were at political loggerheads with the Mexican government over trade in the 1910s-30s. Then, it was in concerns to seized American properties by the Mexican President Cardenas. While I don't know much about the political context of said dispute I would guess that the mention of Trotsky, Europe and even Hitler in some of the copious political cartoons suggests a socialist-communist bent to the rationale for expropriation. Regardless, the subject, content and bookplat...

Bear with me my excesses because at heart I am an ascetic. Just as some universities and institutions specialize in certain fields that have no pertinent connection to their curriculum at large so will I on a lesser scale of intelligence and breadth. Such is my passion for bookplates. Despite My Poor Relations having an illustrated cover and being from 1905 those are its only saving graces. The words are twaddle and its readership is even lighter in sheer mass. So I cling to the comfort of its bookplate. That being from The Tabard Inn Library which was a commercial for-profit enterprise that apparently lent out books. Ten thousand revolving bookcases were placed in various drug stores, hotels and even public libraries and rented for 5 cents each after an initial lifetime membership of $3 was purchased, though my ex-libris plate says $1.50. Which is apparently a latter day mechanism meant to stave off bankruptcy for the company. It did not succeed. After the demise of the enterprise th...

This is outside the Nankin scope but the brilliance of this antique text and the library plate and markings makes it note and blogworthy. The book, The Amateur Actor , by W. H. Venable was published by Wilson, Hinkle & Co. in 1874. I'm guessing that the checkout card at the back is not original since the book was published in 1874 and the first stamp is from 1900. Or it's merely a later edition. Since the building didn't open until 1884 it is obviously a mixture of both. The illustrations, despite being limited to a dozen or so, are quite excellent as well: The fact that this building still exists and is operating makes me want to drive it up to their steps, walk in and place it in some sort of glass casing and just walk out, never to return. But I still much prefer the postcard contemporary to the book and the lost era: I've located another plate here .

Bear with me on this post because I'm indulging in one of my obsessions that doesn't really pertain to Nankin but does concern the Detroit area. John King Books, like most reputable book stores, has free book racks in the atrium of their colossal warehouse. After I purchased my ephemera I partook of the offer to take as many free books as I wished. Within the books The King's Minion by Rafael Sabatini (1930) and Treading the Winepress by Ralph Connor (1925) was the book trade label "The Sign of the Mermaid".  Intrigued, I did some research. It traces to a bookshop at 1014 E. Jefferson Avenue of Detroit. The bookstore by that same name opened on October 26, 1926 and was operated by Doris McMillan Pittman (later Hoover), granddaughter of Senator James McMillan, in the converted home of her late grandfather. Detroit Free Press , October 22, 1925 Detroit Free Press , January 21, 1934 The store relocated to 17925 Kercheval Avenue, in Grosse Pointe in 1938. Detroi...