Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - December - 2006 Issue
Oddities and Eccentricities from Garrett Scott
Diagram of the Aldersonian-Mosaic view of the world.
For the scientific minded, there is One Hundred Proofs that the Earth is Not a Globe, by William Carpenter. Carpenter was a follower of Zetetic astronomy, which posits the earth is a flat disc, with the North Star located over its center, and a wall of ice surrounding its outer edge. Item 25, from 1885. $125. Rev. Christopher Alderson had some even more interesting theories in his The Aldersonian-Mosaic System of Creation... He credits Moses as being the source of his theories, but notes, "My own name I add because Moses must not be responsible for my errors..." Good thing, or poor Moses' reputation would have been destroyed. Among Alderson's beliefs was that the earth is enclosed in a glass sphere, the moon is inhabited, and the sun is actually electricity reacting with the atmosphere. Item 3. $325.
Charles Flota in 1939 published Our Flag and My Dog. Scott notes that this is not "a meditation on canine patriotism," but two separate poems. The latter is the more interesting, once delivered in a courtroom on behalf of Ellis Pyle, whose dog had been killed. In the dog's voice, Flota writes:
"To seek and chase and kill
Some poor man's hound at will.
And as you drove your car on me
I dodged but ah ‘twas done,
Your willful, wanton will had won -
You'd killed me."
Flota did the same to poetry.
Item 55. $20.
Garrett Scott, Bookseller, may be found online at www.GSBbooks.com, telephone 734-741-8605.
