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| Castilleja rhexifolia by Esther Reed |
Not altogether lost yet--more like in limbo. This rather gorgeous watercolor is one of dozens residing (today) on my desk at work. They deserve (and will certainly) get better treatment...but first I must mourn books that I have lost....
I know, with a library of around 5000 books I shouldn't be pained by the half dozen that got away--mostly due to my own stupidity. Eventually, who knows what will happen to my precious little library...I can imagine several scenarios:
1) If I died tomorrow, my children would inherit it (of course) and if they were smart they'd secrete the fifty or so books that have real value and sell them through Abebooks. I should do a list of these for them. And sell the rest to a book dealer for peanuts. A lifetime's book collecting might make some second hand book dealer a few thousand--or likely tens of thousands--of bucks. They deserve it for all the work!
2) If I live long and comfortably enough I might donate it to a worthy place. Not naming names--but I have a short list. A very short list.
3) If Social Security is gutted by the Billionaire bastards, I may have to sell them as well: how could 77 million fellow Americans be so mentally challenged? My one bitter consolation is that they are apt to suffer more over the next few years than those of us who voted blue.
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| Rhodiola rhodantha (left) and R. rosea var. integrifolia on the right |
By the way, Esther didn't use either of these names in labeling this watercolor. Getting back to my litany--SOMEone, and it had to be a "friend", stole my leather-bound volume of the complete works of Antonio Machado I purchased in Spain when I was 20 years old and treasured. Maybe they "borrowed it" (I don't think I would have leant it) and "forgot" to return it...either way, I hope they reside uncomfortably in Dante's ninth ring of hell alongside all the Cabinet Picks of the regime to come. I'm sorry to be so uncharitable in this Holiday season--but some things are beyond the pale of decency....
Here's the back of the second painting: it hints at the enormous effort and conscientious work Esther did to produce a book that died in the womb (so to speak). Although perhaps it will have a second life. By the way, I Googled her name: I don't believe she's alive. I can only imagine what she'd think that the home she lived in is valued by Zillow at $1.5 million dollars (I think she likely paid about 1% of that for it originally). Speak about beyond the pale...The world is seriously out of whack when property values explode like that in a lifetime--not to mention the sick body politic.
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| Copy of today's Zillow evaluation of Esther's former home |
More losses: I loaned a first edition William Robinson to Andy Knauer in the seventies. I am quite sure Andy is not alive--a man I liked very much and resent that when I think him I think of my book. Ditto the third volume (with the best of his poetry) of Kostas Varnalis--loaned to Pantelis (whom I've lost contact with including his surname). A beautifully bound trilogy is now incomplete--a precious gift to me from my late uncle Antoni Kornaraki when I was 17.
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| Hymenoxys grandiflora and Tetraneuris acaulis (var. caespitosa?) |
You should see the synonyms on the back of THIS painting...perhaps I should have scanned them...
In the spinning nearly infinite scope of the Multiverse, a few books lost (my list could have gone on) a few books that never found themselves a publisher (I know of a half dozen more just as sad as this one--don't get me started) are trifles. The Universe ignores the destruction of the Library of Alexandria by Caliph Omar in 640 A.D. or the Mongol destruction of Baghdad in 1258 which held literary treasures perhaps even exceeding Alexandria's (and incidentally marked the terminus of Muslim enlightenment).
At any rate a book, sitting on my desk which was entrusted to my brother-in-law possibly decades ago and passed on to me by his children is sitting on my desk for now.
Merry Christmas!
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