Topkapi, Elephantine, Afghanistan and a little Yiddish Theater, to boot

The Montgomery County library system has two large “friends’” stores, one in a Rockville shopping center, and one in a large library in Wheaton.  The Rockville stores stocks mainly donated items, and the Wheaton store has both library de-accessions, and donations, generally of a lower grade.

I rarely find anything in Wheaton to buy, but on a recent trip found three softcover books, a little larger than normal size, in very good condition, that looked interesting and, it turns out, are uncommon.

“The Harem of the Topkapi Palace”, by Z. M. Durukan, published in 1973 is an illustrated 112 page book which discusses the entire history of the women’s building at Topkapi in Istanbul.  It should be both an excellent, detailed guide for the visitor, but it is also a very thorough room by room, sultan by sultan history of the Ottomon harem, which would be interesting to the academic, as well.

The second book is entitled “Elephantine: the Ancient Town”, published by the German Institute of Archeology in Cairo.  It is an equally detailed, and equally illustrated history of the Nile island with such a rich history, published in 1998.

The third is entitled “Letters from Afghanistan”, written by an American, Eloise Hanner, which is a compilation of letters written in 1971 by a Peace Corps volunteer to her mother back in Iowa.  This is Afghanistan prior to the Soviets, prior to the Taliban, and should make for interesting reading.  It was recently published, in 2003.

I also bought a hardcover book called Der Payatz, and subtitled “Around the World with Yiddish Theater”, written by the late Herman Yablokoff, actor, singer, director, producer.  Published in 1995, it is a handsome book, hard to find.  Our copy is inscribed by Yablokoff’s step daughter, Anita Willens, who owns the copywright to the material.

Handbook of Arabic Music

It is always interesting what sells.  It is often not the book signed by the famous author, but rather the hard to find, specialized book.

Tomorrow, we will ship out a copy of Handbook of Arabic Music written, and inscribed, by Afif Alvarez Bulos.  He wrote the book in 1971, in English for western readers, when he was the music critic of the Beirut Daily Star and an Associate Professor at Beirut College for Women.  He has also recorded much Lebanese folk music, including on Smithsonian Folkways records.

A couple of interesting thoughts:

“Arabic music reached a high degree of development before harmony and the present system of European notation were developed.  Arabic music developed rincipally along horizontal lines, emphasis being placed on rhythmical patterns and melodic embroidery, out of which were born the rhythmical modes.  Furthermore, Arabic music is modal music, the melody being constructed on a well-defined system of modes rather than scales.

“Except in polyphonic music, the development of European music has been mainly along vertical lines….in Arab music there is only one melodic line, layed by several instruments in unison or octaves.”

Also -

“It must be pointed also that the foundations of European music were laid, to a large extent, in the sanctity of the church, whereas Arabic music, worldly and diverting, flourished in the houses of the wealthy and the palaces of the caliphs.”

Important Books You Will Never Read: An American Tragedy

Let’s start (and for today, end) with Gunnar Myrdal’s An American Dilemma, published in 1944.  A 1024 pages of text, 120 pages of appendixes, a 36 page bibliography, 258 pages of footnotes, and a comprehensive index, all on the “Negro problem” by a Swedish sociologist and economist, sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation.  American democratic ideals vs. the reality of the treatment of the Negro.

“The rationalism and moralism which is the driving force behind social study, whether we admit it or not, is the faith that institutions can be improved and strengthened and that people are good enough to live a happier life.  With all we know today, there should be the possibility to build a nation and a world where people’s great propensities for sympathy and cooperation would not be thwarted.

“To find the practical formulas for this never-ending reconstruction of society is the supreme task of social science.  The world catastrophe [WW II} places tremendous difficulties in our way and may shake our confidence to the depths.  Yet we have today in social science a greater trust in the improvability of man and society than we have ever had since the Enlightenment”.

We have a first edition for sale, which is relatively hard to find in good condition.  If you are interested in buying an important book you probably won’t read, just let me know.

William Cobbett

Over the years, I have collected many Penguin paperbacks, mostly original English editions, some American, and all from pre-1961, when the format of the books changed.  The ones I have are the orange fictional books, the red travel books, the purple mysteries, the blue non-fictions, the green classics.  They obviously don’t have great value, especially since most are not in pristine condition.  I have about 400 of them, which I believe is about 1/3 of those issued, and I have never known how hard I should try to complete the collection.

I have also not thought about selling them, although if I am not still collecting them, why not?

I have just read William Cobbett by W. Baring Pemberton, a biography of the English journalist, reformer, and general thorn-in-the-side of those in power (whoever they may be).  Cobbett lived from 1763-1835.  He is not well remembered today.  Pemberton, who also wrote biographies of Lord Carteret and Lord North (and I am not sure who either of them are), is not well remembered, either.

This book is not unique, but is somewhat unusual in that it was written for Penguin, and apparently never published in any other edition.  And it is  not easy to find.  My copy is English; I don’t know that it was printed in an American edition, probably not.

And it is a very good book.  It is well written (not flowery, simply nicely straightforward) and Cobbett as it turns out himself is worth knowing about.  He was a type, today known as a contrarian.  He was a champion of the English peasant classes, an enemy of the industrialization and capitalism.  This made him, for his time, both a radical reformer, and a conservative.  His views were not consistent; he was never part of the majority; he had many, many followers, none of whom were in politics.

And the issues he dealt with including the effect of war on the economy, the effect of the national debt, monetary policy in general, free trade vs. protectionism, campaign finance, the difficulty of pushing reform amongst elected representatives who are beneficiaries of the status quo, etc.  So, the book is worth reading.

And it is hard to find.  There are only five copies in the US on sale through abebooks, and only about 40 more world wide.  Someone would probably want this book (even if he/she doesn’t know it).  It is sort of a marketing question in that respect, I guess.

I am not yet certain what I want to do with it.