Edgar Allen Poe’s only novel, ‘The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket’, familiarly ‘Arthur Gordon Pym’, was a response to criticism of the unprofitability of his short stories. Poe, with some sarcasm, responded by putting his stamp on the popular American sea adventure. The novel is told from Pym’s perspective and Poe pretends to be only the editor of the manuscript. Pym’s adventure from Massachusetts to the South Pacific is a series of anxious sea tales including violent mutiny, shipwreck, swarming sharks, ghost ships, cunning savages and, of course, being buried alive.

In 1930, the Limited Editions Club published Pym with woodblock prints by commercial designer Rene Clarke. Most of the illustrations are adventure scenes including the gull flying over the shipwrecked Grampus with a man’s liver hanging from its beak as well as less atrocious moments.

But what’s most interesting are two portraits. The first is of the half-savage mutineer Dirk Peters, Pym’s sole companion at the mysterious ending.

Pym, or Poe, regarding Dirk Peters:

Two savages fell, and one, who was in the act of thrusting a spear into Peters, sprung to his feet without accomplishing his purpose. My companion being thus released, we had no further difficulty. He had his pistols also, but prudently declined using them, confiding in his great personal strength, which far exceeded that of any person I have ever known. Seizing a club from one of the savages who had fallen, he dashed out the brains of the three who remained, killing each instantaneously with a single blow of the weapon, and leaving us completely masters of the field.

Clarke’s portrait is truly of a mutineer capable of dashing out brains.

The other portrait is of Too-wit, the chief of the savages, who springs a night time attack on the Jane Guy after lulling the crewmen with kindness and grace.

This edition was come upon in the hard-cover classics corner of New York City’s Strand Bookstore, bursting with 19th Century American literature. 1500 copies of this edition were signed by the illustrator. Those copies fetch anywhere between $50 and $200 online. Unsigned but in impeccable condition (the pages are pristine and hardly dulled), this edition - for which $20 was paid - could go for $50 to $75. It will join other old books more valuable to the intellectually curious than the collector.

REFERENCE

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (Google Books)

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I began collecting political memorabilia in the last year. I got interested after Caitlin and I visited Roosevelt’s estate and presidential library in Hyde Park, where I bought a couple replica buttons for yucks. I also found an antique guide to collecting Roosevelt memorabilia on that same trip.

My interest was piqued, I joined ebay and had a full blown collection in just a couple months. After months of focusing on specific Presidents and filling in gaps and buying unique ones (I won’t say really old ones because I was always outbid on those.) I ended up with close to two hundred pieces. My collecting muscle was light years ahead of my collecting mind however. Around the holidays, I took a little break to learn more about the world of collecting political memorabilia.

I’ve been learning how to tell a fake from an original, learning the lingo, getting a better sense of asking prices and, of course, honing my eye for a real bargain. After months, I went back on ebay and bid on a couple pieces as a treat to myself after the holiday. It’s also a good set to introduce you to my collecting craziness.

Descriptions from top left clockwise:

Preparedness Peace Prosperity (Woodrow Wilson, no year yet) I like the wartime ‘Preparedness’ message. You can learn a lot about what messages were popular and the word choices are often very interesting. This one’s got no scratches. Color is sunbleached and the paper union tag is inside.

For Me and Mine (Woodrow Wilson, no year yet) That must have been a compelling message to family men. No scratches. Pretty sunbleached too.

Wilson (Woodrow Wilson, no year yet) The lip on the other side is warped a little. No scratches. Another faded one. I haven’t polked around online yet to learn what years these pins are from but they are a good foundation for my future Wilson collection.

Johnson Humphrey Vote Democratic (Lyndon Johnson - Hubert Humphrey 1964) This rectangular pin is called a tab. It is all one piece with a tab that can be bent back and pinched to your collar or lapel. It’s what museums sometimes give you at admission. Tabs (I wonder if I’ve made up this term on my own) are generally used at events and intended to be worn once. They’re just another cool way to add variety to your collection.

Johnson Humphrey 1964 (Lyndon Johnson - Hubert Humphrey 1964) In good shape. Not much to say about it except that I probably have more Johnson stuff than any other candidate.

Not a bad addition to my growing collection though I still have a lot to learn. Oh, and now that I’ve reigned in my ebay binging, getting buttons will be such a special occasion that I’ll have to write here.

PS - We got a new camera so expect the photo quality to get much better around here. Just not yet.

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Like most finds I’ll write about in this series: I wasn’t actually looking for it.

I was combing around ebay for the first time in months to score some political memorabilia. I decided to poke through the antique books section and came upon this. Charles Willson Peale: Artist and Patriot by Berta N. Briggs and I got it for about six dollars:

The cover is badly sun-bleached and in frail condition; I took good care of it on the way home and still managed to make a two-inch tear.

I got excited about this book because, as you may have gathered from this page, I’ve been deep into the American Revolution lately. One name that kept popping up for me in everything I’ve been reading and looking at online was Charles Willson Peale.

Just before the Battle of Trenton (Christmas 1776), Charles Willson Peale joined the Continental Army alongside another 1,000 men from Philadelphia. Peale is one of the most regarded portrait artists of the American Revolution and painted the likenesses of the Continental Army’s Who’s Who list.

I ordered this book hoping to get a look at some cool old prints of his portraits, maybe read a few pages for yucks and then toss it on the “I’ll Read it When I Retire” shelf.

But then I opened it…

Wow. That’s what the inside front cover of every book should look like. Maps. Little ships. Old timey font. (Not to mention the list price: $3.)

The title page has a silhouette, an American tradition. I hope to write more about the American silhouette soon as there’s a store just blocks from here that is floor to ceiling silhouettes.

And as a friend pointed out today: you know a book is old when the copyright page is that simple…

PS - My apologies for the gloomy pictures with stripes. I clearly need to get my act together when it comes to getting pictures. The iPhone camera just won’t cut it.

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One of the main objectives of this blog is to share things I find with you. As a modern anachronist, you must agree that there is nothing more fun than digging around through old things whether it be housewares or comic books. I started this blog with the assumption that a series called “Found” was the cornerstone. “Found” will come in many shapes and sizes here but it will always be where I highlight the books, antiques, collectibles and stuff that I find.

I will provide links where you can buy this stuff if possible.

I’m going to get us started with books because I just had a good run of books. I did a lot of holiday traveling this past week but, amidst all the packing, present-wrapping and rushing to train stations, I still made time for bookstores. (It helped that we missed our train and had an hour to kill in New Haven.)

Alexander Hamilton Consise Biography by Broadus Mitchell / Always wanted to read more about Hamilton and, since I’m on a Revolutionary War kick these days, it seemed like a good time to scoop up this handsome, good quality 1st edition(!) with the Plasti-Kleer cover.

Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography and Other Writings / My second junk paperback of this. I feel like I’ll really enjoy reading this one day. Why do I keep putting this one off?

Folk Painters of America by Robert Bishop / Just because. Most of the prints are B/W unfortunately but more Plasti-Kleer!

American Lion by Jon Meacham / Jon Meacham is, for me, intolerable. I really find him arrogant and obnoxious. But the subject matter of this book is irresistible: Andrew Jackson. I read Remini’s biography of Jackson in college and loved it. I hope to relive it but will Jon Meacham’s voice be in my head the whole time?

American Creation by Joseph Ellis / The ideas of the revolution and the Federalist period is what I really should be reading about. I’m reading this next. My friend Allen raves about it and I trust his judgment on this. I’m really looking forward to it.

Edgar Allen Poe’s Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym / Standard penguin paperback with an introduction by someone awesome and the token free short stories that are supposedly relevant. I had to get this because it’s appropriate to a - uh - art project that I’ve been working on. Okay! I’ve been role-playing the Lovecraft adventure, Beyond the Mountains of Madness, for over a year. Arthur Gordon Pym is tied into it.

The Agile Rabbit Book of Historical and Curious Maps / Doesn’t that title make you drool? The book lives up to its name. I had never heard of it before I found it displayed prominently at a Barnes and Noble. This is not a history of maps; it is a book for designers. The focus is on the aesthetic of maps. Bonus CD with high- and low-res versions of every map means I will likely be annoying with the maps in the next couple of months.

Check out this French-language map of the Pacific. Australia is New Holland. How cool; I had no idea.

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