Author John Maxtone-Graham.
Safe Return Doubtful: The Heroic Age of Polar Exploration
Noted:
And:
Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Obit watch: July 8, 2015.
Wednesday, July 8th, 2015After action report: Spokane, WA.
Saturday, June 27th, 2015The Smith and Wesson Collector’s Association annual symposium was in Spokane this year.
Quote of the day.
Wednesday, June 24th, 2015I was proud of that first Sharps of mine…At first it used a 320-grain bullet, but I experimented with one a hundred grains heavier, and thereafter used the 420-grain projectile. It killed quicker. In making this change I didn’t sacrifice anything in velocity, because by then I had begun to use the English powder…and it added 10 to 30 percent efficiency to my shooting. After a year or two, having plenty of buffalo dollars in my jeans, I talked myself into believing I needed an extra rifle in reserve–so I bought two. [Emphasis added – DB] One was a .40-70-320–a light little gun for deer and antelope but too impotent for buff. The other was another .40-90-420. Both used bottle-necked cartridges; don’t ask me how I fell for that sort of thing after vowing I was off bottle-necks for life.
—buffalo hunter Frank Mayer, quoted in David Dary’s The Buffalo Book
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Seriously, it just tickles me to see the “well, I had some money, and I thought I needed a second one” justification being used as far back as the 1870s. Also, I love that throwaway line, “So I bought two,” and the “don’t ask me how I fell for that sort of thing”. I’m pretty sure anyone and everyone who’s a serious gun person and been around for a while is familiar with all of those.
(Heck, you’re welcome to name your favorite “don’t ask me how I fell for that”, “so I bought two”, or “well, I had some money…” justification in the comments.)
Incidentally, I was curious about the reference to “the English powder”. A quick Google search turned up what looks like an interesting ebook, though I haven’t had time to go through all of it yet: “A memoir on gunpowder” by John Braddock, published in 1832. This looks to be one of the earliest extant books on methods for making and testing gunpowder, and falls squarely into “quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore” territory.
Obit watch: June 24, 2015.
Wednesday, June 24th, 2015For the record: Don Featherstone.
Frances Kroll Ring has died at the age of 99. The significance of this is that she was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s personal secretary at the end of his life, while he was working on “The Last Tycoon”.
Quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore (#3 in a series).
Sunday, June 21st, 2015I’ve been taking a bit of a break from Half-Price recently.
It wasn’t just that I was trying to save money for my trip, though that was part of it. (And I hope to have the report up in the next few days.) It was also that I kept going and not coming out with anything I wanted. The few things I did find that I wanted were somewhat overpriced in my opinion.
So I bided my time. Mom wanted to go last week to sell some books at the South Half-Price, so we went. And the drought broke: I picked up a stack of African hunting books (Peter Capstick’s Africa: A Return To The Long Grass
(I miss Capstick. And yes, this does mean you will probably hear me ramble some more about Ruark. But not in this post.)
Emboldened by my recent success, I bopped over to the central Half-Price this afternoon. It isn’t a bad way to kill some time in an air-conditioned environment. And the latest entry in this series fell into my hands…
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Back when I was taking “Modern Revolutions” at St. Ed’s (and if you’re out there somewhere, Dr. Sanchez, I hope you’re having a wonderful life), I noticed that Kermit Roosevelt Jr. seemed to pop up in a lot of places in the Middle East during the 1950s. I believe I made the observation in class that someone really needed to write a good biography of Kim, especially now that a lot of older material has been declassified.
I actually got that wish late in 2013 (though the book was a Christmas 2014 present from my beloved and indulgent sister) with the publication of Hugh Wilford’s excellent book, America’s Great Game: The CIAs Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East
I wasn’t really aware, until I read Wilford’s book, that Archie was almost as deeply involved with the CIA and the Middle East as Kim was. So when I saw this on the shelf at Half-Price today, I pulled it down for a closer look.
It isn’t a great copy: Lawrence would probably turn his nose up at it, as the dust jacket has a few small tears and some shelf wear. I wouldn’t call it much better than “Good”, and you can get copies on Amazon in “Very Good” condition for $2.50 or so (plus shipping). I paid $10 plus tax for this one; I do believe it is a first printing from 1988, two years before Archie died. Maybe I am a sucker, but it has one thing going for it that the other copies don’t:
“For Douglas Brinkley–
With great admiration, a book I think you will enjoy – by someone I wish you could have met-
Fondly-
Lucky Roosevelt
Aug. 1997”
Lucky Roosevelt was Archie’s wife, to whom the book is dedicated.
It may not be much to other people, but it pushes a couple of my buttons. And I leave you with the quote of the day:
I have always found yogurt an excellent preventative against bacterial dysentery.
Now I’d like to find a copy of Kim’s book, Countercoup
Obit watch: June 18, 2015.
Thursday, June 18th, 2015Nelson Doubleday Jr., heir to the Doubleday publishing empire and former owner of the New York Mets.
I was going to let this go by, but there were a couple of things in the NYT obit that tickled my fancy:
Obit watch: June 11, 2015.
Thursday, June 11th, 2015It seems like all I’m doing this week is posting obituaries. I could do with a week where good people don’t die.
Ornette Coleman, noted jazz musician.
Christopher Lee: NYT. WP. A/V Club.
Not exactly an obit, but:
Edited to add: A/V Club obit for Ornette Coleman.
Lawrence challenged me to find some Coleman on YouTube that isn’t “unlistenable” (his word, not mine). I’ve never really acquired the ability to appreciate jazz, but I like this well enough.
Obit watch: June 9, 2015.
Tuesday, June 9th, 2015Vincent Bugliosi, former LA County deputy DA, the man who prosecuted Charles Manson, and co-author (with Curt Gentry) of Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
(I’m back home now and slowly dipping my toes into the water. After action report to come soon-ish.)
Everything that rises must get a stamp.
Tuesday, May 26th, 2015The Postal Service is issuing a Flannery O’Connor stamp.
To which I say, “Good.”
My relationship to O’Connor’s writing is a bit complicated. I had to read “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” when I was in school, and I hated it; it seemed like a collection of random cruelty with no point to it. But much later on in my life, something made me pick up The Complete Stories
But I still hate “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”.
Obit watch: May 6, 2015.
Wednesday, May 6th, 2015Former Speaker of the House and noted author (“Reflections of a Public Man”) Jim Wright.
Obit watch: May 4, 2015.
Monday, May 4th, 2015Frank Olivo died last Thursday at the age of 66.
Mr. Olivo’s claim to fame? He was the Santa Claus who got booed and hit with snowballs at an Eagles game in 1968.
(Hattip: Jimbo.)
I haven’t found an obit that I like yet, but various reliable sources are reporting the death of Grace Lee Whitney, also known as Yeoman Janice Rand on the original Star Trek.
(Edited to add: A/V Club. NYT.)
Finally, and most personally upsetting to me, Ruth Rendell passed away over the weekend.
I got into a conversation with Lawrence a while back about who I would put into the first rank of mystery writers: I need to write up that conversation at some point. Honestly, there are large gaps in my knowledge of Rendell – I haven’t read very much of Inspector Wexford, for example. But the Rendell I have read has made a huge impression on me: I think I would put her into that first rank, even with the gaps.
I want to specifically mention one book of Rendell’s that just blew me away when I read it, and which seems undeservedly obscure: A Judgement in Stone
Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write.
That is the first line of the novel. Rendell has just told you who the murderer was, who was killed, and even why the crime took place. What else is there to tell? She has literally spoiled the entire novel in the very first sentence.
Except she hasn’t. The rest of the novel explains how Eunice Parchman’s illiteracy and ignorance inevitably leads her to shotgun a happy family to death. It is like a train that you see coming, but can’t get out of the way of.
The world is a lesser place for Ms. Rendell’s passing.
Robert Conquest, call your office, please.
Thursday, April 30th, 2015
from Amazon.)Obit watch: April 14, 2015.
Tuesday, April 14th, 2015Günter Grass, noted German writer.
Somehow, I managed to miss his admission that he was an SS member during the war.
(Sorry for the radio silence the past few days. I’ve been on the road and just got home last night. More about this later.)
Obit watch: March 27, 2015.
Friday, March 27th, 2015This has been covered elsewhere, but I did want to highlight the NYT coverage of Richard III’s reburial.
I wish I could have been there.
Giggle. Snort.
…
I’m just going to leave these links here.
The Daughter of Time
Obit watch: March 23, 2015.
Monday, March 23rd, 2015Izola Ware Curry passed away on March 7th. This is slightly old news, but I’ve been waiting for a good link.
For those of you who are saying, “Who?”: Ms. Curry was the woman who stabbed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ms. Curry was found incompetent to stand trial and spent the rest of her life in a series of institutions.
Chinua Achebe, noted Nigerian author, has also passed away. Somewhere I have a copy of Things Fall Apart