This post now resides on my other site 50 Watts:
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January 3, 2009
January 2, 2009
January 1, 2009
2009
E. McKnight Kauffer's cover for Gargantua and Pantagruel
by Rabelais (Modern Library, 1928)*
by Rabelais (Modern Library, 1928)*
What I hope to add to this site in 2009:
1. "Lions of Literature" column by Gilbert Alter-Gilbert. A-G. & I want to do these bi-weekly. [See the first column, on Leon Bloy.]
2. More interviews with A-G.
3. More guest posts from Cary Loren.
4. Guest post from Jacob McMurray of Payseur & Schmidt.
5. Der Orchideengarten scans. (Bound copy of 12 issues arrived -- unbelievably great.)
6. Graphic design scans (I'm slowly teaching myself the history of graphic design), including stuff from vintage copies of Gebrauchsgraphik (German magazine).
7. Andrew Mangravite interview/guest post. (I need to spend a lot of time in a university library to finish it... procrastinating.)
8. Collaborative posts with archivist/musician Brooke Sietinsons.
9. Overview of Bill Zavatsky's Sun (journal and small press), with his help.
10. Further exploration of "the world fantastic" (French sci-fi, Czech horror, Chinese weird tales, Peruvian gaslight, Scandinavian fantasy, Russian decadence, and on and on).
11. More Topor (and Gourmelin).
12. Posts about some strange women writers (Carrington, Kavan, Colquhoun).
13. Some type of project with Ben Waugh of the LibraryThing group Chapel of the Abyss.
14. Book giveaways like Giornale Nuovo used to do.
***
Accomplished from my 2008 list: Gilbert Alter-Gilbert interview; posts about obscure German Romantics; coverage of Jarry, Schwob, Cendrars, Walser, Cioran.
Everything else left unfinished! I should have consulted the list when the blog almost died (from March 20 to May 30 2008 I managed only 3 posts).
*American-born designer E. McKnight Kauffer lived and worked in the UK most of his life. Buy Mark Haworth-Booth's excellent E. McKnight Kauffer: A Designer and His Public.
I purchased this edition of Rabelais for Kauffer's great cover. The book doesn't list a translator, but the jacket tells us, "The Modern Library version, condensed by Professor Donald Douglas, is as faithful in spirit as it is intelligent in its selectiveness." In his intro, Douglas says he was forced by law to "cleanse Rabelais" and that it was ridiculous but necessary.
Anyway, I'm reading Burton Raffel's translation.
December 31, 2008
Remy de Gourmont book
I'm adding this cover because I think it's gorgeous. Here's wikipedia on Remy de Gourmont.
via Editions du Clown Lyrique