| Jean Webster July 24, 1876- June 11, 1916 |
| Daddy
Long Legs 1912 London: Hodder and Stoughton ~ NY: Century
Daddy-Long-Legs is the tale of Jerusha Abbott, the Oldest Orphan in the Orphanage, Who Had to Bear the Brunt of It, and her benefactor, Daddy-Long-Legs. Illustrated throughout the text by Webster with her charming and now famous childish black and white stick figure sketches. . Dear Enemy 1915 Century When Patty Went to College 1903 Century    Other:
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| Jean Webster: Although
two of Jean Webster’s books have remained in print since the beginning
of the century, Dear Enemy and Daddy Long-Legs, and the latter
has been translated to at least eighteen languages, the rest of her writings
have disappeared from view, unobtainable even in college or public libraries.
Oblivion may be a justifiable fate for many works, but in this case it
serves only to prove the obscurity into which the author of one of the
most famous children’s works even written has remained. Were Webster a
one-book-author with an undistinguished biography, this obscurity might
be justified, but the vibrancy of her other books and the paradigmatic
nature of her colorful life makes the lack of biographical attention at
best puzzling. The very nature of her initial family connections should
link her incontrovertibly to American literature. The grand-niece of Mark
Twain, with an incontestable hunger to imitate, contradict and surpass
the great author who was a major factor in her father’s suicide, Webster
would be interesting if her writings merely served to reflect her imitation
of, commentary on, deviation from and rebellion against Twain’s canonic
texts. The fact that she was a modern, liberated, educated and traveled
woman would, it would seem, automatically suggest the possibility of the
transformation of her books on the relationships between women and their
attempts to revise their relationships with men to documents of gender
subversion and canonic questioning. But the lack of available information
makes this kind of revisionism difficult, and even the books that are accessible
are just beginning to be examined and debated with any degree of seriousness,
as the bibliography at the end of this indicates. The following pages are
intended to provide the initial materials needed to open an inquiry into
the need for and value of basic research into the works of Jean Webster.
Born in Fredonia, New York, Alice Jean Webster grew up in the shadow of
a conflict of the two men who most influenced her life – her father, Charles
Webster, and her mother’s uncle, Samuel Clemens. Charles Webster – sensitive,
talented and eccentric -- had begun working for Mark Twain before the birth
of Jean as a kind of business manager or agent, but became a partner and
the front for Twain with Twain’s establishment of the Charles L. Webster
Publishing Company in 1884, causing the family to move from Fredonia, NY,
where Jean Webster was born, to Manhattan.
. . . .http://karenalkalay-gut.com/web.html . . . On September 7, 1915 Jean Webster married Glenn Ford McKinney following his divorce. On June 11 1916, at the height of her career, Webster died the morning after the birth of her daughter, apparently of childbirth fever. The irony of the woman whose last novel in particular deals with simple and practical human solutions to institutional dilemmas dying from a disease spread by the dirty hands of hospital obstetricians cannot be overemphasized. |
| Carolyn Wells 1862-1942 | ||
    The
Lover's Baedeker and Guide to Arcady. NY: Frederick A. Stokes Co. (1912).
Illustrations, front cover and dustjacket art by A. D. Blashfield and Maps
by George Hood. Fantasy title missed by Bleiler in the format of a 'Baedeker
Guide' for the "city of Arcady in the kingdom of Arcadia, which is inhabited
entirely by a strange but interesting race known as Lovers. After describing
how it is to be reached by the Joy Line across the Sea of Dreams in transports
of rapture, she tells of its topography, its climate, time, custom-house
regulations, flowers |
||
 
Carolyn Wells was born in Rahway, New Jersey, on June 18, 1862. She supplemented her formal education in public and private schools with an early-formed habit of voracious reading. After completing her schooling she worked as a librarian for the Rahway Library Association for some years. Her love of puzzles led to her first book, At the Sign of the Sphinx, a collection of charades, 1896. She followed with The Jingle Book, 1899, The Story of Betty, first of a series of novels for girls, 1899, and Idle Idyls, a book of verse for adults, 1900. From 1900 Wells gave herself entirely to literary work |
| Carveth Wells |
| Adventure! ~ 1931 ~ NY: The John Day Co.~ 338 pages ~ A book
of travels of the author, adventurer Wells, who roamed many countries of
the world.
Six Years in the Malay Jungle ~ 1925.~ Includes illustrations from photographs. 261 pages Wells was sent to the Malay Jungle for two years and ended up staying six. Fortunarely for Mr. Wells he had good powers of observation and many of the things he experienced he has related in this book.    
OTHER:
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Carveth Wells an explorer and world traveler as well as an author and radio commentator. One of the most famous lecturers on the "expedition circuit," his fame being eclipsed perhaps by only Richard Halliburton and Lowell Thomas. Wells was also a prolific writer, and in fact wrote a book about the filming of this Cudahay-Massee expedition to the Ruwenzori. 
Carveth Wells was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
and a member of the Circumnavigators, Adventurers and Explorers Clubs..
He was born in 1887. Before he was six he could knit, crochet, sew and
make baskets, while his hobby was breeding silk worms and white mice. After
receiving his classical eduation at St. Paul's School, he graduated from
London University and for a time practiced engineering. He then went on
to travel nearly every corner of the globe as a soldier, explorer, writer,
naturalist and railroad builder. He authored Years in the Malay Jungle,
In Coldest Africa, Let's Do The Mediterranean, and The Jungle Man
and His Animals. He also won a wide following with his radio broadcasts
and travel films.
|
| R. F. Wells (Reuben Field) |
| With Caesar's Legions: The adventures of two Roman youths in
the conquest of Gaul: 1923 Lonthrop, Lee & Shepard
the aimed at young school-boys reading Caesar's Commentaries.~ There
are seven inserted plates, action illustrations by noted illustrator Frank
T. Merrill. The novel is regarded a mionor classic of the Roman Age.
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| Morris R. Werner 1897-1981 |
| Barnum ~ 1923
The things that Barnum did were often so curious or incredible, and always picturesque, that the reader may lean toward doubting their accuracy. The author is not writing a romance and provides ample authority for every statement and anecdote included in this book. The bibliography at the end reveals the sources of information. Brigham Young ~ 1925 ~ NY: Harcourt, Brace and Co ~ Fully illustrated Includes Brigham Young and signature, Lucy Smith, Joseph Smith, The Three Witnesses, Emma Smith Brigham Young in Middle Age, Mormon Temples, Emigrant Train, SLC in 1853, Brigham Young's Wives, The Young Brothers, Parley P. Pratt, Heber C. Kimball, Jedediah M. Grant, Orson Pratt, Salt Lake Theater, SLC Temple, Brigham Young in His Last Years, and many more! Online eText Excerpt: http://olivercowdery.com/smithhome/1900s/1912Meyr.htm#1925-000  |
| Jonathan B. Westerfield |
| The Scientific Dream Book and Dictionary of Dream Symbols
NY: Brewer, Warren & Putnam, 1932
e-text |
| Stanley J. Weyman 1855 - 1929 |
  Under
the Red Robe:
A Romance: 1898 (copyright 1894) Longmans, Green & Co. 340 pages or
Methuen 1894
Contains a dozen full page illustrations by R. Caton Woodville or illustrated by Edmund J. Sullivan. G&D 1923 Photoplay edition illustrated with film stills from the version directed by Alan Crosland & starring John Charles Thomas as Gil de Berault & Robert B. Mantell as Cardinal Richelieu. Besides the 1923 film adaptation, an earlier silent version was done in 1915 & probably does not survive, & a fine talkie version was done in 1936 directed by Victor Sjostrom & starring Conrad Veidt as Gil de Berault & Raymond Massie as Cardinal Richelieu. It was dramatized for the stage in London, at the Haymarket, in 1896, & was produced as a New York musical in 1927. Rightly noted as "The author at his best" in A Guide to the Best Histroical Novels & Tales. It is a Dumas-esque swashbuckler of 1630s France, which a critic at the New York World thought the equal of Ivanhoe. The "red robe" aludes to Richelieu. The hero, de Berault, is a gentleman rogue who falls afoul of Richelieu & is given a choice between the Bastille or being sent on a secret mission against the Hapsburgs. Being a rogue his dubious mission seems a good one at first, but he falls in love with the sister of the man he is sent to betray & soon redeems himself valiantly. A rousing tale set largely in Bearn, & one of Weyman's finest. The London 1st edition is rather rare but there are many later printings. 1937 Film Adaptation: The great Swedish director Victor Sjostrom (billed here as "Seastrom") came out of semiretirement and ventured to England to direct UNDER THE RED ROBE. Handsomely mounted, with a strong cast, the film is set in France during the reign of Louis XIII. Gil de Berault (Veidt), a notorious gambler and duelist, finds himself facing the gallows. At the last moment he is offered a reprieve by Cardinal Richelieu (Massey) on the condition that he seek out and kill a duke suspected of being the leader of the antimonarchist Huguenots. Veidt agrees and finds himself accompanied in the venture by Massey's trusted assassin (Brent), who is assigned to make sure that Veidt does his job. Veidt traces the rebel leader to a castle and infiltrates his stronghold, only to fall in love with his prey's beautiful sister (Annabella). Veidt captures the duke, but rather than kill him or bring him back to Massey for execution, he lets the rebel escape to England. When Veidt returns to Massey and the king (Gardner), Louis praises him for the clever way he removed the threat to the crown. Angered, but forced to concur, Massey also congratulates Veidt. His neck out of the noose, Veidt returns to Annabella to renew their romance. While certainly not among Sjostrom's masterworks, UNDER THE RED ROBE is a fine costume adventure. Massey attacks his menacing role with relish, while Veidt, who was a bit too old for his part, rises to the occasion and pulls off the action scenes as well as the romance. French actress Annabella, who was treated as a national treasure by her countrymen following her performances in Rene Clair's LE MILLION (1931) and JULY 14TH (1933), left France for England to make this picture and two others. She then went to Hollywood, where she failed to duplicate her European success. Sjostrom directed no more films himself, but concentrated on acting and appeared in several movies, most notably giving a superb performance in Ingmar Bergman's WILD STRAWBERRIES (1957). Other:
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STANLEY JOHN WEYMAN "Prince of Romance" was the central figure of the Romantic Nineties' Golden Age of the Swashbuckler.He streamlined the best of Dumas & Scott bringing the genre to the height of perfection. Bio and Biblio Stanley John Weyman annotated bibliography Stanley John Weyman (pronounced Wyman) was the second of three sons born to solicitor Thomas Weyman and his wife Mary Maria Black on August 7, 1855, at 54 Broad Street, Ludlow, Shropshire. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School, Shrewsbury School (after age 16) and obtained a second class degree in Modern History at Christ Church, Oxford in 1877. As History Master at King's School, Chester, he served under his future brother-in-law, Rev'd. George Preston. In Ludlow in 1879 he read for the Bar and was called in 1881, to begin a disappointing law career with Weyman, Weyman and Weyman, the family law firm. He has been described as nervous, shy, short in height and a poor cross-examiner and was said to have angered a judge because of these shortcomings. It is to our blessing that Weyman's law career was unsatisfactory. As a result, he was able to devote his ample spare time to writing. James Payn, editor of Cornhill Magazine, encouraged him to tackle larger literary works. The House of the Wolf was serialized in the English Illustrated Magazine in 1888/89 and was published in 1890 after Weyman contacted literary agent, A. P. Watt. This first book received no less than six rejections by publishers. Two additional books, The New Rector and The Story of Francis Cludde, were published in 1891 and these allowed him to become a full-time novelist. Beginning his professional literary career in middle age, Weyman had a lifetime of experience to share including the insights gained from his extensive travels. On one notable vacation in the south of France in 1886, for a "weakness in the lungs" in the company of his younger brother Arthur, both were arrested as spies for sketching and crossing the border into Spain. They were detained for 24 hours until the British Ambassador helped them. Experiences such as these are reflected in his novels. Stanley Weyman was a man of few words but those that were given were meant to be savoured. As an author, he had an uncanny way of using precisely the correct phrase. With his eloquent and extraordinary use of language, he painted a vivid picture of life and human emotion. His work is finely honed by a razor sharp mind that combines the skill of a great storyteller and an Oxford scholar's love of history. Weyman's fame stands on the foundation of his historical, romantic fiction. The 15 novels written between 1890 and 1904 are set amidst the turmoil of 16th and 17th century France. Weyman was one of the first authors to 'cast the romance of adventure' in the historical framework. He was able to resurrect the great heroes and bring them to life by his loving hand. This author claimed: "The graves of our heroes--the real heroes--move us; the doors through which the famous dead have passed are sacred to us." Stanley Weyman regarded himself as fortunate that the timing of his early novels followed closely the popular historical fiction of Alexandre Dumas in France. Well known in its time was Under the Red Robe, an extremely popular novel with several stage productions and movies (1923 and 1937) to its credit. A duelist and gambler, Gil de Berault, is saved from the gallows by Cardinal Richelieu and sent on a mission to capture a Huguenot rebel causing trouble in the south of France. M. de Berault falls in love, becoming a victim in his own web of deceit and discovers that life without honor is death.Weyman was married to Charlotte Kate Eliza Panting, daughter of Rev'd. Richard Panting (former head of Shrewsbury School) on August 1st, 1895 at Great Fransham, Norfolk. They went to live at Plas Llanrhydd, also known as Llanrhydd Hall, built in 1620, near Ruthin, North Wales. Weyman is quoted as saying he was going to "grow books and cows, the former for profit and the latter for pleasure". True to his word, he wrote approximately 1000 words a day. After World War I, Stanley Weyman decided to come out of retirement and continue writing. In 1919 he tested public opinion by writing a book Madam Constantia under the pseudonym of Jefferson Carter. It was a success and confirmed his popularity. He continued his authorship under his own name. In the Weyman novels you will meet the man who lived and wrote about an honorable life, fully aware of the human pitfalls and weakness of man. He was the "Prince of Romance" that "never grew up" and he cherished his youthful imagination. His marvellous stories are "pleasant fables" that demonstrate how courage and love will triumph over adversity. Admired by renowned authors such as Stevenson, Wilde, and Rafael Sabatini, Stanley John Weyman is today a forgotten literary giant of the late 19th century. While for years his best-selling historical romances enchanted thousands of readers, today his books are mostly neglected. http://www.geocities.com/weymanforever/index1.html |
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AMELIA
EARHART and OTHERS. Program signed: "Amelia Earhart", "Osa Johnson", "Roy
Chapman Andrews" and "Carveth Wells", who has drawn an elephant, 4p, 5x6¾.
Earhart's signature is in ink, other signatures in pencil. Explorers Club,
Ladies Night, 1932 November 7. Picturing a drawing of Earhart with a kitten
on the cover. The program includes a biography of Earhart, in part: "First
woman to fly the Atlantic, as one of the crew of three on the FRIENDSHIP,
the tri-motor Fokker, in 1928. First woman to fly the Atlantic solo June,
1932. (Amelia Earhart and Lindbergh alone have made eastward solo flights
and Mollinson the Western flight) First woman to make a non-stop trans-continental
flight, September, 1932, which also set long distance flight record (2400
miles) for a woman. Time from Los Angeles to Newark about 19½ hours...."
Lightly creased and soiled. 1¼-inch horizontal tears at blank margins
of front and back cover have been repaired with tape. Overall, fine condition.
Accompanied by a tattered 4½x6 sheet, written in unknown hand by
someone present: "Amelia Earhart gave a kitten to the new Club house -
anointed (sic) its paws with oil 'to keep it from straying.' Got a bit
of oil on her beige dress and when she sat down, I heard her husband Putnam
chide her for it." Fragile, chipped and torn. AMELIA EARHART's husband
was GEORGE P. PUTNAM, whom she had married in 1931. In the 1930s, pilot-photographers
OSA JOHNSON and her husband Martin Johnson delighted audiences in theaters
with films of their aerial safaris throughout Africa and Borneo. Naturalist
and paleontologist ROY CHAPMAN ANDREWS, Chief of the Asiatic Exploration
Division of the American Museum of Natural History, was best known for
his discovery of previously unknown Asiatic fossils. CARVETH WELLS was
an explorer, world traveler, author and radio commentator. Two items.
The
Long Night: 1903 McClure Phillips, 1903. 15 stunning action-oriented
illustration plates by Solomon J. Solomon. A scarce, horrific supernatural
adventure set in Switzerland early in the 1600s at the time when D'Aubigny
attempted to take Geneva, disrupting a generally peaceful period. The treacerouis
syndic is bribed by the demonic Basterga's knowledge of the Elixer of Life.