Miscellaneous Acquisitions from Garrett Scott, Bookseller

Here is some very useful advice: How to Live Forever. As author Harry Gaze succinctly explains, "Eternal Sexation, Conception, Birth and Death, perfectly blended, constitute a Fountain of Life, and if you will consciously bathe therein, you will unfailingly express Immortal Youth." Makes sense to me. Gaze was a follower of the New Thought movement, which, among its beliefs, is that of spiritual or mental healing. Gaze believed that you could keep your body young by visualizing it as staying young, or something like that. Reportedly, he looked far younger than his years, and believed quite literally in the possibility of eternal life. Offered is an obscure, early edition (1900) of Gaze's work. This leads us to the question of whether Gaze was right. He would be at least 130 years old now. Is Harry Gaze still alive? I don't know. I haven't found any obituaries for him, though I haven't found any news more recent than the 1920s concerning the man either. I am doubtful. Item 23. $225.

Now here is one of the more clever inventions to help piano players whose family can't stand to listen to the racket as they attempt to learn how to play. You know the problem - "Children who have no sensitiveness, and grumble-proof adults bent on their own improvement regardless of other people's discomfiture, may blunder away, and ding-dong unceasingly in spite of all complaints and remonstrances… " William Stokes devised a way to enable these people to practice without disturbing others: Stokes's Memory-Aiding Keyboard, Piano, Organ, and Harmonium… What Stokes invented was a large, foldout full size printed keyboard. You could bang on the keys of this paper keyboard all day without making a sound. What's less clear is how you could actually learn to play, or know when you made a mistake, when playing his silent "keyboard." Offered is a third edition (this thing must have been popular) from 1884. Item 54. $450.

We need to mention at least one serious book, so here it is: A New and Complete System of Arithmetic, Composed for the Use of Citizens of the United States. This is a first edition of what was only the third book presented for a U.S. copyright, and America's first math book. Author Nicolas Pike even managed to get an endorsement of his book from George Washington, though Washington's support may have been based more on the concept of teaching math to American students than any particular familiarity with Pike's book. Nonetheless, it was an important primer for American schoolchildren for quite a long time. Item 49. $300.

Garrett Scott, Bookseller may be reached at 734-741-8605 or garrett@bibliophagist.com.