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SATNROSE’S BOOK QUIZ

SATNROSE’S BOOK QUIZ

2. What is the most valuable printed book?

Answer in invisible ink: 2. Was The Gutenberg Bible; now it is the Caxton Canterbury Tales

Note: I think a complete Gutenberg would beat the Canterbury if offered up to auction. However, the Caxton Canterbury is currently the most expensive printed book ever to change hands. 13 million? I forget.....
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Re: SATNROSE’S BOOK QUIZ

790

 

Answer:

 

tott.jpg

 

Published in 1900.

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bookthink - Thanks for the answer! Tales of the Ex-Tanks: A Book of Hard-Luck Stories by Clarence Louis Cullen. A collection of stories first published in the "New York Sun."

 

Speaking of the "New York Sun", I think that was the newspaper that was I sold long, long ago. A copy from 1898 had been among my grandather's things. It featured articles on the Spanish-American War. I could not figure out why that particular day's had been saved since it was not the date of his birth. The only think I could come up with after I sold the fragile newspaper was that maybe my great-grandfather had been in that war and that issue had something in it that the family wanted to save. In any case it sold to a person who was researching the Spanish-American war for a novel that he was writing. He told me that he was so glad to have it because the only accounts that he could find were of the New York Times and that the Sun would given another perspective than only one source.

 

sigmapsidelta - I spent too much time reseaching question 791 and came up with nada. It will be very interesting to find out the answer.

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# 791: New question posed by sigmapsidelta - "Who was the artist responsible for the illuminations in the earliest known separate English Book of Hours, presently housed in the British Museum?"

 

William de Brailes, I think.

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Current avatar: Actress Myrna Loy.
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@figtree3 wrote:

# 791: New question posed by sigmapsidelta - "Who was the artist responsible for the illuminations in the earliest known separate English Book of Hours, presently housed in the British Museum?"

 

William de Brailes, I think.


You appear to have sprung my trap.

 

It is known that there was a William de Brailes who flourished around 1230 to 1260, was resident in Cat Street, Oxford, was a clerk, probably in minor orders, had a wife named Celena, and is known to have had contact with illuminators. But there is also an apparent flat refusal to accept that that William de Brailes is the same person as the W. de Brailes known to have illuminated MS 49999. 

 

There's a character in Heinlein's 'Stranger in a Strange Land' who is a 'Witness' and, when asked what colour a wall was, answered, but flatly refused to speculate that the wall even had an other side, let alone what colour it might be, until she'd seen it herself.

 

Would seem the quandry will only be solved by the invention of the time machine, then someone from the British Museum's Rare Book department can go back and ask him.

 

Your answer, sir, qualifies as correct in my book.

 

.

 

 

 

A preoccupation with the next world is a clear indication of an inability to cope credibly with this one.
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Your answer, sir, qualifies as correct in my book.

 

Madam.

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Interesting story, Kathleen. My grandfather fought in that war. Speaking of newspapers, I'm neverending-ly thankful that there are now substantial digitized newspapers online They have a wealth of information that in print-only days was difficult - sometimes impossible - to access. BTW, G&D issued one other First Edition in 1900 >>>

 

tbhoj.jpg

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@bookthink wrote:

Your answer, sir, qualifies as correct in my book.

 

Madam.


Much apologisings. It was a 50/50 chance I'd get it right, and they seemed like good odds.

 

.

 

A preoccupation with the next world is a clear indication of an inability to cope credibly with this one.
.
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@sigmapsidelta wrote:

@bookthink wrote:

Your answer, sir, qualifies as correct in my book.

 

Madam.


Much apologisings. It was a 50/50 chance I'd get it right, and they seemed like good odds.

 

.

 


 

No apology necessary... we are all online, where it is not always easy to tell. I almost always use a female avatar photo on eBay to try to help with identification.

 

I'm glad that my answer sprung your trap... the story of the confusion is interesting. It did make me wonder, though... Did the springing of the  trap capture me, or did it release you to say something about the identification? Smiley Wink

 

Fig

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Current avatar: Actress Myrna Loy.
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sigmapsidelta - Very interesting question. One does wonder who the artists of illumnations were. While many will forever remain unknown by name, their brilliant artwork is their legacy that they once walked the earth. I like both the signed self-portrait he included in the Book of Hours and the way he worded it: "W de Brailes who painted me"


The debate if W is short for William or not made me wonder how many other names in England began a W during the 13th century? I would think there were not that many English names that started with W at that time. Also since Wm. is a common abbreviation for William, when did that come into use? One often sees William Shakespeare (1564–1616) abbreviated as Wm. which is what my grandfather used for his name as well as his son and grandson and Sir Thomas More is often seen as Thos. (1478–1535) which is what the modern day Maine furniture maker Thomas Moser uses. Well, I am sure the art historians and those knowledgable in medieval manuscripts and the Book of Hours have already researched the name and abbreviation aspect of it all.


William de Brailes owned property in Catte Street near the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, roughly on the site now occupied by the chapel of All Souls College, where various members of the book-trade lived.


William de Brailes (active c. 1230 – c. 1260)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_de_Brailes

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Bookthink/Craig - Sorry for the length of this. My curiosity took me on a number of highways and byways. If I had my choice between the Tales of the Ex-Tanks and Homer of Jim Town, I'd take Homer. When I read the author's foreward I figured that it was set in North Carolina given the mention of pines and also that Jim Town might be a real place, which it is.


"Jimtown is in the piney woods, where the air is soft and dry and balmy, and people live long. The Black Homer dwells there. If you should journey that way, you may find him at his cabin, or perhaps at work in the turpentine woods. Look him up, and it may be that he will tell you tales like these, if not some that will be still more startling, of the days his old mammy and Mahs McKeever were wont to remember, either personally or by proxy." -  The Author.


In the book The 4th North Carolina Cavalry in the Civil War (2003) Capt. Johnson's 'boys' stayed overnight in Jim Town and the author notes that the real name is Jamestown (google books) (Jamestown-Guilford County-2000 racial makeup of the town was 86.79% White, 7.97% African American). However, in an adjacent county is an unofficial Jim Town (West Southern Pines-Moore County). I've been tracing the troops movements (lol) and after their stay in Jim Town, they went to Greensboro. Jamestown is now considered a suburb of Greensboro. Among the original settlers to the former Jim Town (Jamestown) were PA Quaker families and the town was named after the father of one of the Quaker settlers. During the Civil War the Quakers attempted to remain neutral, however the Confederacy demanded that those who were able to make shoes, uniforms, or weapons continue to do so or pay heavy taxes. Records indicate Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his entourage passed through Jamestown during its hasty retreat to the South after the Civil War ended. This Jamestown was also a known "stop" along the Underground Railroad and several families were instrumental in assisting in emancipation efforts.


The unofficial Jim Town (West Southern Pines) is in what is known as the Sandhills and had been settled by Highland Scots (note the McKeever in the author's foreword) since the early 1700s. The sandy soil could not produce many crops except the sprawling forests of pine trees. “West” Southern Pines, one of the first incorporated African American towns in North Carolina, was annexed into the larger Southern Pines municipality in 1931 (2010 racial makeup of the town was 71.7% White, 24% African American). The West Southern Pines (Jim Town) once had a thriving business community and the businesses were owned by the people who lived in that segegated community. Without reading the Homer of Jim Town, I am guessing this is the Jimtown were Homer lived. In this interesting article about the unofficial Jim Town, the maker of the video, "Jim Town Revisited: Video Explores the Once and Future Businesses of West Southern Pines" says:


"Was "Jim Town" coined to honor prominent citizens James Buffet and James Henderson - or a racist allusion to segregation laws in force from 1876 until the Civil Rights Act of 1964?


"In my generation it was never legally Jim Town," Wade, 55, says. "West Southern Pines was a chartered (black) township," the first in North Carolina, one of a few on the East Coast. "But I wanted the community to know what we were called."


In 1923, West Southern Pines was incorporated with a mayor and town council, later a police force, jail, school, hospital, bank, credit union, doctor, dentist, recreation facilities and stores, which served a captive clientele, many lacking transportation.


However, according to the minutes of the Southern Pines Board of Town Commissioners, on Feb. 10, 1931, members proposed revocation of the charter. Reasons listed include: "Criminals from elsewhere drifting into WSP where they are protected from apprehension by a negro form of government." Also, "Danger from a health standpoint of an epidemic breaking out ... that would cause serious danger to Southern Pines as a resort ... that is dependent upon the negroes as servants." Lastly, "That the negroes were not capable of governing themselves ... and did not have sufficient funds to build streets and look after other civic needs ..." WSP residents protested to no avail. The state granted the request for revocation and annexation."

 

http://tinyurl.com/qh8my8j

 

So which Jim Town is Homer's?

 


And now back to our regular programming:

 


792. What was the first published poem by an African American man and what was his name?

 

 

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Phyllis Wheatley (1753-1784) has been celebrated as America’s first published African-American poet, but a slave named Jupiter Hammon may in fact have been published before her.

 

Jupiter Hammon’s first published work, an 88-line broadside, came out in Hartford, Connecticut in 1760—when Phillis was only 7 years old and 10 years before her first broadside publication, entitled “Elegy on the Death of Whitefield.”

 

Hammon's first poem, "An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ, with Penitential Cries" was published on December 25, 1760. His essay, “A Winter Piece,” was published the following year, and Hammon also dedicated a poem to Phyllis Wheatley in 1778.

 

Lifted almost entire from...

 

http://poetry.about.com/od/18thcpoets/a/hammon.htm

 

.

 

A preoccupation with the next world is a clear indication of an inability to cope credibly with this one.
.
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Interesting puzzle, Kathleen - and I have no idea which Jim Town it is. Perhaps some genealogical research into the name mentioned in the author's foreward would point the way - i.e., Mahs McKeever.

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sigmapsidelta - Congrats! You are correct. Jupiter Hammon is considered one of the founders of African-American literature. According to my info, eighteen years passed before his second work appeared in print, "An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley." Hammon, a devout Christian, saw Wheatley as having succumbed to pagan influences in her writing, and so the "Address" consisted of twenty-one rhyming quatrains, each accompanied by a related Bible verse, that he thought would compel Wheatley to return to a Christian path in life.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_Hammon


Bookthink/Craig - I had not thought of the genealogical aspect of it since I assumed the book was fiction and that the names in the Author's foreword would be fictitious. However, it is not uncommon for authors to use names in novels that are common to an area. I did read the first page of the first story which is about Mahs McKeever and I was correct that it is set in North Carolina. Slow going in the reading since it is written in the African American dialect. Mark Twain's use of dialects is a breeze in comparsion.

 

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'tis the season...

 

793. What was Charles Dickens's earliest piece of writing about Christmas and what was the year?

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793.  First if my wife finds I have any knowledge of Christmas, I will deny answering the question and blame the cat.

 

Charles Dickens’s first piece of writing about Christmas appeared under the title ‘Christmas festivities’ in Bell’s Life in London, a weekly newspaper, on 27 December 1835. It was republished as ‘A Christmas Dinner’ in Sketches by Boz just a few weeks later in February 1836. - See more at: http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/a-christmas-dinner-from-charles-dickenss-sketches-by-boz#sthash.Mx...

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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