Inscriptions

A little hard to read, but these sorts of inscriptions make me sad. It says "Aug '96 To My Friend Joanna. Fondly, Anita." Found in The Fragrant Garden Planting Journal. What happened that Joanna got rid of the book? Were she and Anita not friends any more? Joanna might have passed since this was 25 years ago. I always want to know the story behind these things.

This story is 6 years old, so I’ll share it again.

I bought British Garden Flowers and Wild Flowers in Britain at a secondhand bookshop, and discovered that they were given by the same person.

One of the inscriptions:

"To dear Helen with love & best Christmas wishes from Ailsa. 1946. Miss Helen Yale Hough, Frostburg, M.D., USA / Ailsa Craig, Eastleigh, Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire (Scotland)"

The other says: "Gift of Ailsa Craig, Easter, 1948"

Google gives lots of interesting information. Ailsa Craig is a knobby uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland. It is also the name of an old variety of tomato and an onion. There is also an outboard motor named Ailsa Craig. And there is a tartan for Ailsa Craig.

Bridge of Allan is in central Scotland.

I googled Helen Yale Hough, and found she was a librarian at Frostburg State College. That information is in a document of the New York State Library concerning manuscripts and personal papers of her relative, Franklin Benjamin Hough; wikipedia describes him as

"a scientist, historian and the first chief of the United States Division of Forestry, the predecessor of the United States Forest Service. He was among the first to call attention to the depletion of forests in the U.S. and is sometimes called the "father of American forestry".

My theory is that these two women met and became friends during the War and shared a passion for gardens and flowers.

I've been slogging through this book for a long time and the end is nearly in sight. My copy is missing it's dust jacket and I'm not sure where I picked it up. Inside was below. Inquiring minds want to know if Julie and Pete broke up, just good friends, relatives or what. Edited to incorporate lesmel's suggestion.

>3 varielle: That's assuming they weren't siblings or cousins. Good friends could break up, I guess.

The Southwestern Expedition of Zebulon M. Pike is the 1925 Lakeside Classics edition. It includes a signature from Thomas E. Donnelley wishing the recipient the compliments of the season. He was president of R. R. Donnelley publishing at the time. Lakeside Classics reprinted forgotten American histories which were given every year to customers and employees of R. R. Donnelley as a Christmas gift. This copy was apparently gifted to Ralph Budd, a railroad executive. He regifted it in 1933 to Roe Emery who was a businessman involved in transportation and tourism. I'll post wiki links to their bios below. All of their descendants have flown pretty high.

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

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

Anyone read Arabic handwriting? I'm assuming the last line is the date, and the penultimate line is the author's name: أحلام بشارات

I sort books year round for an annual used book sale. Early in the new year, often get books with inscriptions along the lines of “Merry Christmas Uncle Jim—-I hope you'll enjoy this!” Book mark at page 16 or so.

I sometimes read deaccessioned library books that I've bought secondhand and I've noticed that there used to be a naughty custom of some library users initialling inside the front or back covers of books they've read, especially murder or romance genre novels from prolific authors, so they didn't accidentally borrow the same book twice.

For example, I'm currently reading Return Match, 1979, by Elizabeth Cadell (who wrote dozens of novels) which was deaccessioned from the Peterhead branch of the North East Scotland Library Service in 1987 despite having been borrowed at least 13 times in its last year of service and 12 times the previous year. The inside front cover has been initialed by ED and VG, and the inside back cover has been signed by someone whose initials have bled and a very emphatically encircled MR.

Was this only a UK custom or was it more widespread? Have you seen any especially interesting examples?

I've not seen it in library books in the states, though recycled college texts often have a whole roster of previous owners/readers.

>8 spiralsheep: Ive never seen it in library books, but I don’t typically read the stuff that some readers consume in great volume.
I used to mark the books that I was discarding so that I would refrain from buying them again at the next year’s used book sale.

>9 varielle: That's interesting. I don't recall the secondhand texts I've bought in the past ever having more than two previous owners written in the front. But I've never lived in a college town.

>10 2wonderY: Ha! Marking your own discards seems sensible.

I've never seen initialling in, for example, a science fiction or fantasy novel, but according to librarians I've spoken with it was common practice amongst romance and mystery readers. I suppose it would also help if one was borrowing books for a friend or neighbour.

>11 spiralsheep: Right. Those were the categories I thought readers might want to mark.

>11 spiralsheep: You don’t see it as much as you once did. Now college texts are revised every year or two to keep the money train going and students aren’t able to sell them back year after year as they once did.

I have acquired a 1964 paperback edition of Mission to Kala by Mongo Beti with a mildly diverting history recorded inside the front cover. Disregarding the marks where a small label was removed and two lines of roughly erased text, one pencil and one ink but both now illegible, leaves an owner's name, Roland Hindmarch, in blue ballpoint. Yes, I googled and, although it's a less common variation than R. Hindmarsh, it's not an unusual name in the uk. Underneath the name in what appears to be different handwriting (older style imo), in pencil and underlined, it asks: " perhaps in Y2? "

So, do we think student Hindmarch, perhaps in Year 2, mislaid his copy at school / college and a teacher was attempting to return it to him? Or do we think a teacher was noting down the possibility of setting the text for Year 2 to study? Or would y'all like to speculate another scenario?

Intriguing inscription by the author in A Lady of No Leisure: the Story of Marion, a Maid, published 1931.

"To Irving Somerfield who was once 'Lord Camborne' in public, Eric N. Simons, 24/6/31"

I wish people’s handwriting still looked like that.

>16 varielle: I might write my name in my books if my handwriting looked more like this:

"Anna Dilbo
Anno 1668 Den 24 octobre
in London"

Inscribed in Historie of the Holy Warre, 1651, with a Dutch style date.

In my copy of Country of the Thames, a walking tour guide published in 1948, I find this inscription:

June 1949

To Mrs. Edwin B. Yeich
In loving memory -
of
Those Wonderful Fruit Cakes,
Deviled Clams,
and Almost-English Tea!

Ron

When I searched the name, the only reference I found was to a professor of some sort who was born in 1897 in Reading, PA. This is from the 1940 census; and his wife's name is Mary G. and she’s the same age.

I can tell that Edwin is a scholar because he wrote about Jane Addams and also wrote some local history.
In addition, I found this 2009 entry in a hikers’ log designed to report on water availability and quality along the Appalachian Trail:

“I believe Yeich (Spring) may be a reference to Edwin B. Yeich, a BMECC member in the 1940s who wrote an article entitled The Blue Mountain Eagle Climbing Club and the Appalachian Trail published in the January 1945 issue of Berks Historical Review. Shelterbuilder may have further information since he is the first person I know to have used the name.”

So, a friendship between an Englander and an American, perhaps formed during the war years. Both referencing the pastime of hiking/walking in some fashion.

Edwin is closely connected with the history of Berks County, probably as a documenter. I haven’t found a photo of him, but he may have taught at Swarthmore College.

Inside a copy of The Littlest Guide

I was making sure I still have a copy of The Enchanted April after realizing I’d given my paperback copy to a daughter (which she has lost!)
I do have a modest hardcover from 1923.
The inscription says:
“From Agnes to Victoria, Christmas 1925”

But then I noticed the frontispiece color illustration
The view from Mrs. Wilkins’s bedroom, after a water-color drawing by the Hon. Lady Mallet

I’ll see if I can find a repro to post.

Yes!
But you will have to see it in this delightful blog
https://dewenaswindow.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-enchanted-april_1.html

Young Sailor’s Assistant in Practical Seamanship



Googling, I find a Stephen McCarthy was a Chief Boatswain on the USS Nina in 1906, and he is identified as back row, far right on the USS Chicago in 1903:



I like that the book was owned by Thomas Pease in the 40s. He is no relation that I know, but I have a collection of my husband’s family books tagged Engle-Pease.

ETA: This page seems to confirm this is Stephen’s book, as it ties him to Newport RI, though at an earlier date:
https://www.usnwcarchives.org/repositories/2/resources/14

Very cool. Thanks for sharing all that.

Many moons ago, as you can see by the date, I was at this reception for Irish poet Richard Murphy. I was newly married (ex long gone) and poor as a church mouse so could never have bought his book. I don’t know Al and Ann but was happy to find Murphy’s book The Price of Stone at a Habitat store. Charming man by the way.

I’m rummaging and shifting books today. It’s a procrastination activity.

I found this ownership stamp in my copy of The Deserted Village:



The Mountaineer Mining Mission was operated by the Presbyterian Church in Morgantown. They had several outposts. Rachel was a tiny mining town southwest of Morgantown in Marion County.
The Mission operated community buildings and a school for colored children as well; before they were allowed into the public schools. (Through the 1940s).

https://wvhistoryonview.org/?f%5Bcorporate_names_sim%5D%5B%5D=Mountaineer+Mining...

I recently finished Out of the Red, a collection of columns by the famous American sportswriter, Red Smith. I received the book, a first edition published in 1950, as an anniversary gift from my wife. Inside the front cover we find this clear inscription:



I think maybe it's Frank H. Schneider 2nd. If so, based on a very quick online look, possibly my book was originally purchased by (or given as a gift to) this gentleman:

https://www.outdoornews.com/2023/07/23/a-longtime-angling-advocate-minnesotas-fr...

The article says Mr. Schnieder passed away in 2005 at the age of 86, which would have made him 31 in 1950. He is the only Frank H. Schneider, Jr. (a.k.a. "2d") that I found. He was inducted into the Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame, and Red Smith did write fairly frequently about fly fishing (mostly making fun of himself for being so bad at it despite his love for the sport), so that might be a clue in the affirmative.


I will also include (the dates add up, though I don't see that middle initial as an E) this fellow, who I am adding here despite that pesky middle initial because he was born in Maplewood, NJ, where I lived from age 11 until I went away to college (returning for the first two summers to work in the Shop Rite Supermarket in South Orange):
https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/3461296/Frank-E-Schneider-Jr

I brought home a handful of very good books from a yard sale/estate sale this summer. At the library today, there were several old bindings that attracted me on the donated table. They all had labels inside with that address and naming George and Phyllis as the owners.

Inside Penrod Jashber, this inscription:
“To George, who can and does smile at the humor of youth, from Phyllis, who does likewise”

>25 rocketjk: Jr and II are not synonymous. A Frank H. Schneider Jr is the son of a Frank H. Schneider Sr. Frank H. Schneider II would be a grandson whose father was not named Frank H. Schneider.

>27 booksaplenty1949: OK, got it. But if I'm reading this right, the son of Frank, Jr. and the son of Frank II would both be Frank III assuming of course they were both also named Frank. Am I right, there?

>28 rocketjk: Yes.

I purchased this book used about a dozen years ago, and even though it is a 1997 book it still looks like new. Anyway, I pulled it out of the bookcase as a possible read for a WW2 reading challenge and when I looked inside I found this

I recently finished Selected Writings of Thomas De Quincey edited by Philip Van Doren Stern. My copy is a Modern Library Giant edition. In fact, my copy is a Modern Library First Edition, first published in 1949. (I don't know if any other edition of this collection was ever published.) On the first page inside the cover, I found this inscription:



Of course I ran an online search for Byron H. Knapp. The only link I could find for him is an obituary that is unfortunately behind a paywall, but we can discern that he was a professor at East Stroudsburg State College in Pennsylvania, and died in 1993 at the age of 66. So he was born in 1927, making him 31 when he bought the book I now own. However, I did find this obituary of his wife, Vertie, who outlived him by many years, in which we read that Byron was a biology professor, and also read about Vertie's quite interesting life:

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/east-stroudsburg-pa/vertie-knapp-1002...

So cool. Recently read my copy of A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, unopened since I purchased it at a used book sale way back in the last century, and discovered that it had been given in 1916 by a member of the class of that year at my undergraduate college to another member of that class and later semi-notable author, Philip Child. If I could figure out how to post pictures I could show you this “exciting” inscription. In any event I feel the book was excited to finally get off the shelf again.

>31 rocketjk: Follow-up: As a book-lover myself I found Vertie’s obit delightful.

>33 booksaplenty1949: Thanks! And, yes . . .

“I don’t think I am my books, but books are a part of me and I don’t want ever to be without them.”

https://pics.cdn.librarything.com//picsizes/16/47/16470847-r-h2400-w2400-pv25_63...;

Back in a mo with the pic. Based on the date I assume the tragic times referred to were 9/11.

Tips on how to make this smaller are appreciated.

If this shows up, I found a copy of Madeleine Albright's Prague Winter in an antique mall for $7.

>36 varielle: Hey! Very cool! Can you decipher the last word? Supporting what?

>37 2wonderY: We're not sure. Based on her handwriting it could be Nancy.