Sci-fi book cover: "Beyond the Stars"

I cannot resist vintage sci-fi and fantasy book covers, especially those from the 1950s through the early 1970s. I just love the artwork, and couldn't care less about the quality of the story, although most of them are, at the very least, fascinating as relics of their era.

• Title: Beyond the Stars
• Author: Ray Cummings (1887-1957)
• Cover artist: Jack Gaughan (1930-1985)
• Publisher: Ace (F-248)
• Cover price: 40 cents
• Year: 1963
• Pages: 160
• Format: Paperback
• First sentence: There is a saying in the Service that when Liner 40 N runs late the whole world waits.
• Last sentence: From that little earth I stormed forth in body, beyond the stars!
• Random sentence from middle: "When they discovered that, Leonard, the Einstein theories held good no longer."
• Back-cover blurb: "Is the entire universe just one of the atoms of some even greater cosmos? Such was the conception of one scientist — and his effort to prove this theory was to take a party of Americans on an expedition to a place that literally BEYOND THE STARS."
• Notes: The publication date of this novel is misleading. This story by Cummings was first published as a serial in three February 1928 issues of "Argosy All-Story Weekly." So this tale was coming directly on the heels of Robert Goddard's first liquid-fueled rocket and the introduction of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. ... Prolific author Cummings had a fascinating life that included serving as a personal assistant to Thomas Edison and writing Timely Comics stories about Captain America, the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner. He also might have originated the phrase "time is what keeps everything from happening at once." ... An extensive bibliography of Cummings' works, including those published under pen names, can be found at The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. ... The book is dedicated to Donald A. Wollheim, a key editor/publisher in mid-century science fiction. ... One of the things I love about Gaughan's illustration is the background; some of swirling clouds of cosmic gas seem to be snarling, wolf-like creatures.

Cool illustrations: The New Human Interest Library (Part 6)

This latest collection of illustrations from 1929's The New Human Interest Library comes from the section titled "Thrift." I present these images without any political commentary.

#LivingInATree
#SwissFamilyRobinson
#Debt
#Pirates
#GuyWithSwordThatIsPossiblyMetaphorical
#FairPay
#CollegeAffordability
#MotherGoose

I'm not sure whose initials those are in the bottom-right corner of the final illustration.

If you're growing weary of this style of illustration, you'll be happy to know this is the last post with them. Next time, we'll be moving into a section of the book titled "The Do-It-Yourself Book (Elementary Projects)."

Confusion over date of William Penn's 1682 arrival in Pennsylvania

This event cover was produced for "Pennsylvania Day" in 1933 and features a crude purple stamp of commonwealth founder William Penn. The envelope, with its October 24, 1933, postmark from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, marks the 251st anniversary of ... well, that's where it gets confusing.

I cannot find any modern references to a "Pennsylvania Day" on October 24. We do know that, generally, late October 1682 is when William Penn actually arrived in the Province of Pennsylvania, aka the Pennsylvania Colony. Here are some key dates:

• March 4, 1681: Pennsylvania Colony founded by William Penn, as dictated in a royal charter granted by King Charles II.
• July 15, 1682: One of William Penn's agents, William Markham, meets with members of the Lenape Indian tribe under a white oak tree in Graystones Forest (now Morrisville) to negotiate the first land-purchase survey in Pennsylvania.
• August 30, 1682: William Penn sets sail for America aboard the ship Welcome.
• October 27, 1682: William Penn lands in America at New Castle, Delaware.
• October 27, 1682: City of Philadelphia is founded by William Penn.
• October 28 or 29, 1682: William Penn "first lands" in Pennsylvania, at Upland.

Obviously, there remains some uncertainty about the exact dates when Penn landed in America and first set foot in certain areas. It all happened in the final week of October 1682, for sure. The creation of this envelope indicates that there was once a time when some believed that October 24 — their Pennsylvania Day — was a highly relevant date associated with Penn and Pennsylvania. The following appears in the Bulletin of Friends' Historical Association (Volume 21, Number 2, Autumn 1932):

"COMMEMORATION IN AND ABOUT PHILADELPHIA
OF THE TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST ARRIVAL
OF WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
ON OCTOBER 24, 1682
1682-1932Proclamations calling for the commemoration of this event were issued by the Mayor of Philadelphia and the Governors of Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey."

I do not know, however, if or when historians and officials gave up on the notion of October 24 being the proper anniversary date. Even the stone monument erected at his landing site in 1882 states that the landing occurred on October 28/29. So I'm not sure what happened when they chose the earlier date in 1932. It's a History Mystery!

Other tidbits about this cover

• was addressed to Kenneth N. Rinker of Greensburg, Indiana.
• It used the three-cent stamp touting U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt's soon-to-be-unconstitutional National Recovery Administration.

Recent things to read for insights, enjoyment and relaxation

A 1924 poster advertising Rikola books, shared on the Facebook page of Dominique Poggi.

I've sorted this morning's set of links into thematic categories, so that you can pick and choose whatever strikes your fancy. Trigger warning: After the BOOKS illustration, you'll find the links to political stories. Maybe you come here to read anything but politics, which is fine. But they're there if you want them, hopefully to provide some insights.

Modern Life & Culture

• The Atlantic: "The Binge Breaker: Tristan Harris believes Silicon Valley is addicting us to our phones. He’s determined to make it stop." by Bianca Bosker
• Center for American Progress: "Workin’ 9 to 5: How School Schedules Make Life Harder for Working Parents" by Catherine Brown, Ulrich Boser, and Perpetual Baffour
• My Inside Voices: "Being Mr. Bucket" by Susan Jennings
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "Model train enthusiasts want to attract a younger fan base" by Maria Sciullo
• NPR: "Bees Added To U.S. Endangered Species List For 1st Time" by Merrit Kennedy
• The Washington Post: "The mystery of the ‘ghost trees’ may be solved" by Sarah Kaplan
• LancasterOnline: "Lancaster man, 75, dusts off childhood dream, hikes 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail" by Ad Crable

Books, Reading & Writing

• Los Angeles Times: "Shirley Jackson and her bewitching biography, 'A Rather Haunted Life'" by Scott Bradfield
• Los Angeles Review of Books: "On Samuel R. Delany’s 'Dark Reflections'" by Matthew Cheney
• Geeked Out Nation: "Chelsea Cain Left Twitter and This Is Absolutely Comics’ Problem" by Jess Camacho
• The New Yorker: "What Makes a Children's Book Good?" by Adam Gidwitz
• The Atlantic: "How to Write a History of Writing Software: Isaac Asimov, John Updike, and John Hersey changed their writing habits to adapt to word processors, according to the first literary historian of the technology" by Robinson Meyer
• Electric Lit: "The Strange Horrors of Robert Aickman: A master of unsettling tales is poised for a revival" by Matthew Cheney
• Vulture: "How Do You Capture the 1980s in Writing? Six Novelists Discuss Re-creating the Decade" by Miles Klee

Games We Play

• Paste: "Agamemnon is the New King of Short Two-Player Boardgames" by Keith Law
• FolkloreThursday.com: "The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland" by Edward Parnell

Cats

• 
  Atlas Obscura: "A Dearly Departed Istanbul Cat Gets a Commemorative Statue" by Sarah Laskow
• The Siberian Times: "Pallas's cats to get their own 'palace' in Siberian mountains: New plan to protect the world's fluffiest feline" by Olga Gertcyk

Halloween 2016 Wrapup

• Literary Hub: "Why We Love To Be Haunted" by Lyz Lenz
• The New York Times: "Boo? Halloween used to be about finding true love" by Niraj Chokshi
• The Guardian: "Which way for Witch City? Is Salem losing its spookiness?" by J.W. Ocker
• Atlas Obscura: "Protect Your Library the Medieval Way, With Horrifying Book Curses" by Sarah Laskow

Ephemera!

• The Washington Post: "From the attics and shoeboxes of Virginia, a trove of historical gold" by Gregory S. Schneider

Illustrator: Willard Frederic Elmes, ca. 1930-1939, shared by Dominique Poggi.

Politics and the election

• The Washington Post: "President-elect Donald Trump is about to learn the nation’s ‘deep secrets’" by Bob Woodward
• Los Angeles Times: "A primer on executive power: Trump can't end same-sex marriages, but he could speed up deportations" by David Lauter
• The New York Times: "Want to Know What America’s Thinking? Try Asking" by Public Editor Liz Spayd
• The Guardian: "What I learned after 100,000 miles on the road talking to Trump supporters" by Chris Arnade
• CBS News: "Steve Bannon and the alt-right: a primer" by Will Rahn
• Chicago Tribune: "What a Trump presidency might mean for transgender students in schools" by Duaa Eldeib
• The Guardian: "Trump's conflicts of interest take White House into uncharted territory" by Sam Thielman
• The New York Times: "Trump Wants to ‘Drain the Swamp,’ but Change Will Be Complex and Costly" by Michael D. Shear and Gardiner Harris
• Los Angeles Times: "How to weather the Trump administration: Head to the library" by David Kipen

Instagram image by me.

Cool illustrations: The New Human Interest Library (Part 5)

This illustration comes from a chapter of The New Human Interest Library titled "Sophy's Birthday Party (A Truthfulness Story)" and — because of the weird, weird way my brain works — when I first saw it, I thought of the Bell Witch legend. Yes, that early 19th century Tennessee tale of John Bell, Betsy Bell, Kate Batts, witchcraft and, perhaps, murder.

There are myriad versions of the Bell Witch story and the already-questionable narrative has been further muddied and augmented over the years by those seeking to turn it into a paranormal thriller with modern-day themes. But one of the small details I remembered is that, in the very early part of the haunting, there is a mysterious girl either sitting in a tree or swinging on a tree branch.

I believe this illustration is from the 1894 book An Authenticated History of the Bell Witch,
by Martin Van Buren Ingram.
The post "Who Haunted Betsy Bell?" on Victorian Gothic begins: "The visitations began with sightings of strange animals about the Bell homestead, and of a unknown girl in green swinging to the limb of a tall oak. Soon there came an unaccountable knocking about the door and exterior walls of the house, followed by scratching and gnawing sounds that searched from room to room."

Meanwhile, the 1997 novel The Bell Witch: An American Haunting, a fictionalized account by Brent Monahan, contains this short passage: "The stage had been set in Red River for a supernatural visitation by a series of strange events. First, a large black animal chanced into the area. Then a large, unknown type of bird. Finally, some girl in a green dress was seen by Betsy swinging from a tree, and she vanished. She might simply have been from a pioneer family passing through the area, pausing to water their horses in the Red River."

Sweet dreams!

Inscription: "He had my name, and I had his name."

Hats off to Joan, who discovered this amusing inscription inside a copy of the wonderfully titled Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch¹ while browsing through books recently at The York Emporium:

"From Wayne Bushey,
He gave it to me at our Sunday School party on December, 1965. I had his name and got him a Slinky. He had my name, and I had his name. We exchaned [sic] gifts."

The name of the person who wrote the red-ink inscription 51 years ago didn't put his or her name anywhere else in the book, so that part remains a mystery.

By the way, here's the last line of the book: "Looks like ever'thin' in the world comes right, if we jes' wait long enough!" That's perhaps some good, if slightly depressing, advice these days.

Footnote
1. It will likely be shelved alongside Nobody Plays with a Cabbage in Joan's cabbage section.

Eloquent words on the morning after

I'm not a very eloquent writer or communicator, especially during historic moments. But I have many friends who are incredibly eloquent. These days, their most passionate posts end up on social media. And that means their words won't last. They'll scroll away in 12 hours and be difficult to excavate for future generations. But the words are important. The passion is important.

I'm going to repost some of their morning thoughts and messages on this presidential election, in the hopes that it makes it just a tiny bit easier for these words to stand the test of time and be shared with future generations.

• After having my daily pep talk with the boys before dropping them off at school, I logged on here and was immediately struck by some commentary. From adults. I don't discuss my politics. Ever. And that's not going to change today. This will be the only message I post and I ask that you think before you post something about how we are treating one another.
  So, this feels a little necessary this morning ... What I shared with my boys:
  

  "Be kind to each other. There are people in your life today who will be devastatingly sad. There will be people who will be satisfied. Treat them all with grace. Treat them as you would like to be treated if you were in their shoes. We handle each other with love and respect. In this house and out."

  They are too little to understand some of this message, but you're not!!
  For better or worse, this is where we are. If your choice won, be a gracious winner and remember that for every one vote in one direction there was one in the other. And those people are hurting just like you would be. Their fear is real, just like yours would be. Their passion is palpable, just like yours would be. And their sadness might feel crippling - just like yours would be.
  If your choice lost, remember how you would feel if the situation was reversed and were being name called or treated with disdain/disgust. People voted how they felt they needed to for their families and their future. And that might not be what you determined was right for you. Or for this country. But that's how we are built.
  We don't always agree. But we can always choose love over hate. Let's practice that today and tomorrow. That's all we can do.
  — Chrissi
• Today, please, check in with your non-white friends, your non-Christian friends, your POC and LGBTQ+ friends. Let them know that you care, that you support them, and that you are a safe space. I don't really know what to say right now. I'm devastated. I have to raise my children during their formative years in this nation, so I'm girding my loins to be a badass bitch mother.
  — Megan
• I just wanted to share a quick moment that speaks to the humanity of people from last night's election.
  I stood on a ladder (yes, it's true) to take a photo of a line of voters that wrapped around a church twice. A line that resulted in people waiting over two hours to vote.
  A woman came out of the church after she voted with her son.
  His name is Noah.
  He has autism.
  Apparently, she was concerned that he would not be able to wait 2-3 hours in the dark.
  That the police lights and the noise from the crowd would overwhelm him.
  Due to the kindness of people. She was allowed to jump to the head of the line into that church and cast her vote. Here is a short video from my conversation with her.
  I would ask that, regardless of your feelings about yesterdays results, that comments are civil and decent. This was a moment of kindness and I'd like to keep it that way.
— Jason
• I'm choosing faith. Vibrant, bold, fierce faith that embodies what I know to be true--that kindness is powerful, that compassion is humanity, that love is a choice, that I don't know how to get to the happily ever after but that's how this ends. This election and its result shattered me. So I'm going to make a mosaic out of the best pieces.
— Beth
• Part of Byron's text to our beside-herself-sobbing daughter this morning:
  

  "My sweet Gracie,
  I feel so bad about the election, and I know you do too. Mommy and I were so excited for you to see a strong woman become our nation's leader, especially at this time in your life...
  Our nation has always favored white men in myriad ways, legally and culturally. The strength of our nation however is in the idea of equality and opportunity for all. These ideals are still strong. There are just many many white people who are angry that they are losing their privileged status. It is inevitable that whites lose this special status; no election can hold back the tide of change. This is a step backward in an otherwise forward trend.
  I love you so very much, please don't despair. America is better than this. We are experiencing the last furious screams of spoiled children who have been made to share their toys. Growing up is hard, even for a nation. I love you."

  — Jessica
• If you know me well, you know I don't really put my political views out there. Chalk it up to too many years of journalism training. Here's what I want you to take away from this post: Hope. It's a word I've seen over and over again this morning, from voters on all sides. With hope, anything is possible. Remember that.
  — Amy

If a Trump presidency is all it takes to make you give up on your hopes & dreams for your nation, then you don't want them enough.

— Hend Amry (@LibyaLiberty) November 9, 2016

The Day After: Sending postcards of peace, positivity & promise

Well ... this is a 24 hours that will be remembered and written about forever.

I'm pulled simultaneously this rainy morning between the desires to read everything, curate everything, save everything for history, hug my daughter when she gets up¹ ... and share messages of reassurance and hope.

I would really like to send out some Random Acts of Postcarding today. If you know someone who could use a smile, a message of hope and a bit of positivity, please send me an email — chrisottopa@gmail.com — with their snail-mail address (anywhere in the world). I'll get something out today.

We have to show that we're in this together and are there for each other. And we're not defined by our leaders. We are defined by how we treat each other, not just in America, but worldwide. On Monday, I received an email from a Russian citizen who was thanking me for the Postcrossing card that I recently sent her way. Her message:

"Many thanks for your wonderful card! No, it's not wonderful — it's amazing! And I also like the stamps (I read a lot about Lincoln) ... and I appreciate the way you wrote PEACE in Russian МИР!!! Thanks again from all Russian teachers for your warm words."

That's what matters. How we relate to each other. Send Ashar and I some mailing addresses, so we can spread some more tiny messages of peace during these uncertain times.

Footnote
1. Ashar and I were up past 3 a.m., EST, watching Chuck Todd, Savannah Guthrie, Lester Holt, Tom Brokaw and Richard Engel on NBC.