When you think of the name Evelyn Waugh, titles like Brideshead Revisited and A Handful of Dust probably come to mind. Waugh, an author known for his biting satire and meticulously written prose, was a prolific author of the 20th century. His novella “Scott-King’s Modern Europe” is a classic example of Waugh’s satirical work – complete with profound insights into (unfortunate) cultural decline, the crumbling of “traditional” values, and the occasional absurdity of modern life. Despite its brevity (the work is only 88 pages), this novella is an almost perfect example of Waugh’s trademark wit and language while offering sharp social commentary.
*
Set in post-World War II Europe, “Scott-King’s Modern Europe” follows (lo-and-behold) the character of Mr. Scott-King, a classics professor at an English public school, as he sets off on a cultural exchange program to the fictional European state of the “Modern European Republic”. At the beginning of the story, Scott-King shows reluctance to participate fully in the trip, feeling a dedication to preserving the traditions and manners of classical education in a progressively more and more modern, utilitarian world. However, as time passes and as Mr. Scott-King sees absurd bureaucratic nonsense and the inanity of this “Modern European Republic”, he finds himself staring straight into the harsh (yet at times comical) realities of the cultural and moral decline of his world.
Central in the novella is Waugh’s rather scathing critique of modernity and its impact on education, culture, and society in general. Comparing the polar opposites of the world of classical academia and the fairly soulless modern functional bureaucracy, Waugh found a way to reveal the occasionally empty promises of progress and pragmatism. The protagonist’s extreme commitment to the concepts of a classical education and tradition seem to be a rather uncomfortable reminder to value knowledge, tradition and manners in an age obsessed with the superficial, with expediency and convenience. Sound familiar to anyone else? Seems like a reminder we could all use today. And this was written in 1947… clearly it’s an enduring problem!
Throughout the book, Waugh’s writing is full of subtle irony and dark humor – classic hallmarks of his satires. The novella might be short, but don’t let that fool you. Waugh deftly handles themes of identity and disillusionment, not to mention the human battle between our idealistic and realistic feelings and desires. Mr. Scott-King himself is something of a tragicomic character, with a hint of the absurd yet heroic in his own way. He sticks to his principles, even to the detriment of his relationships with those around him. While coming across as a bit of a “stick-in-the-mud”, he also isn’t necessarily wrong in his breakdown of a modern, unfeeling society.
Despite being published almost eight decades ago, Waugh’s work remains almost remarkably relevant in his critique of contemporary society. Here in the 21st century, we struggle with similar issues! Perhaps we can all take a lesson from Waugh’s commentary and incorporate more traditions and values into our modern society.
So you think you scored with that signed Hemingway volume you bought on eBay? I mean, it came with a Certificate of Authenticity [COA], right? You may wish to rethink that position after reading my colleague’s Scott Brown exposé blog on “COAs”.
Enjoy, and as another ABAA colleague was wont to say, “Be careful out there”.
V.
******************
Why I Don’t Trust COAs
An exploration of the contradictions and conflicts of interest in the certificates of authenticity industry
MAR 4, 2024
Paying the Bills These rare-books newsletters are published in conjunction with my latest list of new arrivals, this time a group of modern first editions from Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and other writers. If you are a fan of Larry McMurtry, I have a number of signed items on eBay right now, with no reserve (I needed the space for the McMurtrys that will be on my next list).
Why I Don’t Trust Certificates of Authenticity and an Argument Why Maybe You Shouldn’t Either
I think Certificates of Authenticity (COAs)1 for autographs are bullshit, and here’s why:
If you can’t trust 100% of a company’s COAs, then you have to double check all of them. That means you are authenticating autographs on your own, so what do you need an authentication service for?
Thanks for reading Dispatches from the Rare Book Trade! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Subscribe
Currently, the largest and most respected autograph authentication service is probably PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator), a subsidiary of Collector’s Universe, a formerly public company that was taken private in a $700 $8502 million hedge fund deal.
Here’s an example of a famous autograph they authenticated:
I read this as “To Leslie and [?], the most beautiful reading is done between mother and daughter—…read on…. X [love, as in xoxoxo] D[ad].
This inscription is in an otherwise worthless, badly water damaged copy used book. The asking price from an eBay seller was $12,000.
The seller used PSA’s reputation to justify the price: “THIS HAS BEEN AUTHENTICATED BY A RECOGNIZED WORLD LEADER. It is beyond question.”
It’s just a father4 giving a copy of The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger to his wife and daughter to read together. It was kind of sweet, until PSA said it was a rare inscribed book by Salinger, one of the most reclusive and collectible authors of the 20th century.
PSA’s online confirmation of the autograph, downloaded on February 22, 2024
Apparently the person at PSA who authenticated the autograph read the signature as “J.D.”—at least that’s the most generous interpretation I can come up with.
Salinger tended to sign his name “J. D. Salinger” but people didn’t call him “J.D.” To those who knew him, he was Jerry. Assigning the autograph to Salinger fails on the basic facts, without even considering the handwriting.5
Back in December, I contacted PSA about this autograph and informed them that they had probably made a mistake. I exchanged several cordial emails with a customer service representative that went nowhere (the cert number was still showing as authentic the last time I checked it). I’d excerpt PSA’s emails but they come with threatening-sounding language about unauthorized quoting that I think is legal mumbo jumbo, but why chance it? I do wonder, though, what they have to hide.
Now you might think that PSA would be concerned about their liability if someone relied on their COA and paid $12,000 for this book, only to learn later that it wasn’t actually signed by Salinger.
Most members of the major bookselling associations (ABAA, IOBA) would feel this way because as long as we are in business, we have to offer money back guarantees to our customers if we sell something that turns out not to be authentic.
But it’s always good to read the fine print, especially when there’s a hedge fund involved looking to make a significant return on an $850 million investment. By my count, there are currently 18 itemized exceptions to the PSA “guarantee” totaling more than 1600 words (compared to 350 words for the guarantee itself).
Collectors and dealers relying on PSA’s autograph authentication services and COAs should pay attention to this part of the PSA “guarantee”:
“The Guarantee does not apply to the authenticity or grade assigned to any autograph, whether certified by a manufacturer or applied after its release.”
In short, PSA is happy to take your $100 to authenticate a J. D. Salinger autograph but they make no promises about whether their authentication opinion is actually right. Perhaps that’s why they didn’t bother to correct the apparently bogus Salinger I told them about. They got their money. For everyone else, it’s buyer beware.
This supposed Salinger autograph is by no means the only time PSA’s authenticators have made an egregious error.6 Here’s a sports card with a printed signature on the front that was encapsulated in an “authentic auto[graph]” plastic slab. To be fair, sometimes it can be hard to tell a printed signature from a real one (but, of course, that’s one of the reasons you might want to hire a professional autograph authenticator).
In this case, however, the back of this Justin Verlander card states twice that the autograph on the front is a reproduction, but PSA took the money and certified it, relying on the autograph exception on their guarantee not to take any responsibility for the error.
An illustration from screen captures showing a sports card that PSA authenticated as having a real autograph when the card itself says “it does not contain an original autograph.”
Collectors who value COAs from companies like PSA might brush off errors like these as the inevitable result of grading hundreds of thousands of autographs. A few errors are bound to creep in, they might say. But now that you’ve seen one bogus PSA “Salinger” autograph, would you trust their judgment on this one for $98,000? (permalink).
These errors aren’t errors of judgment made by someone trying to identify a real signature from a good forgery. The Salinger I reported to PSA and the printed Verlander autographs aren’t celebrity autographs at all. No company that professes to have expert authenticators should ever make this kind of mistake.
And I return to my original point. If you have to second guess any autographs, then all the COAs are effectively worthless because you still have to do your own authentication. COAs are also arguably counterproductive because they cause collectors and dealers to let their guard down and may make them more likely to accept a bad autograph with a COA than a bad autograph without one.
Autograph authentication is hard, particularly when someone is trying to evaluate a simple signature. There are lots of forgers at work; more now than ever before (user saveafricanow on eBay is my personal favorite, both for the volume of forgeries that they sell and for how truly awful all of the “signatures” are).
Even the world’s best handwriting experts will have a hard time identifying a good forgery, particularly when the handwriting example is very small, like the one, two, or three words of a person’s name.
I wondered who the autograph authenticators at PSA are, but of the nearly 800 employees on LinkedIn, none are obviously working on autograph authentication.7One authenticator I identified got her job following thirteen years working as a “Custom Logo Order Specialist” at Northern Safety and Industrial.
I don’t mean to pick on this employee, but getting good at authentication requires years of experience, none of which is particularly evident in the LinkedIn profiles of Collectors’ (the parent company of PSA) employees.
I searched Justia and found a single US court case where PSA’s opinion about authenticity was accepted by a court, and that was for a baseball card that had been touched up with paint, an objectively obvious alteration that was easily confirmed by other sports-card authenticators.
PSA is not the only autograph authentication company pumping out tens of thousands of COAs each year. Autograph authentication has become an industry with (at least) tens of millions of dollars of sales each year.
James Spence Authentication (JSA) is another autograph authentication firm popular with collectors (James Spence Jr, the founder, also founded PSA’s autograph authentication division. JSA’s COAs are now signed by James Spence III, who is taking over from his father).
While a much smaller company than PSA, JSA’s LinkedIn page at least has a few people identified as autograph authenticators. But as far as I can tell, neither PSA nor JSA obviously employ former law enforcement officers with experience with forgery, nor are any of their employees identified as belonging to the professional organization, the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners.
According to LinkedIn, one autograph authenticator came to JSA from SGC, a sports card grading company (recently acquired by the hedge-fund-owned parent company of PSA). I don’t want to pick on this fellow, either, but according to his resume he went from an entry-level position at SGC to “director of autograph authentication” in less than 18 months. His previous job, before he became an autograph authenticator? For eight years, he cleaned airplanes between flights for JetBlue.8
As for this employee’s success rate at authenticating autographs, he claims to be “able to achieve 99% accuracy.” Sounds pretty good, but that implies that at least one in every 100 SGC autograph authentication was wrong. As the lead authenticator, this expert said he “authenticated highly valued items autographed by superstars such as Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Wayne Gretzky.” Imagine: One year you are picking up pretzels off the floor of a budget airline and the next you are deciding which pieces of paper with “Babe Ruth” written on them are worth tens of thousands of dollars and which are worthless.
(Now that you know that one of JSA’s sports authenticators spent more time working with an airport ground crew than producing COAs, how confident are you in JSA’s authentication of this 5-figure Mickey Mantle autograph certified during his tenure?)
The resume of this expert perfectly captures the circular reasoning at the center of the whole industry of autograph authentication: “Working closely with some of the largest auction houses in the nation,” he writes, “I authored hundreds of LOA’s (Letters of Authenticity) for items which have sold at auction at significant prices.”
In other words, collectors pay large sums for authenticated items and then the authenticators argue that the large sums validate their authentications.
JSA is a prolific issuer of COAs for Stephen King signatures.
King has signed a lot of books over the years, including more than 50,000 signed, limited editions by my estimate.9 For many years, King also let collectors send in books to be signed, and he employed assistants who kept track of all the books and corralled the author into signing them. Despite the large number of real autographs in existence, a King signature often adds $1,000 or more to the price of a book.
In recent years, King has not gone on book tours, nor does he make many personal appearances, yet newly signed Stephen King books keep turning up.
I asked an advanced Stephen King collector about JSA’s COAs for Stephen King autographs. She responded, “Unfortunately it’s prevalent that JSA-authenticated Stephen King signed books are mostly fakes… Furthermore it is in the interest of unscrupulous sellers of fakes to get their copy ‘authenticated.’ ”
I did a bit of digging.
On January 4, 2024, some lucky person had six King books authenticated by JSA. The ink is still fresh and shiny, and yet they look like Stephen King signatures from ten years ago. Nevertheless, these autographs were issued certificates YY73722, –23, –24, –25, –26, and –27.10 Impressive!
Not nearly as impressive, however, as the run of 38 Stephen King autographs consecutively authenticated by JSA on or about December 6, 2023 (beginning with letter of authenticity no. YY65473 and ending with YY65511. You can easily check the adjacent certificates by simply changing the URL in your browser’s address bar).
A number of books from that amazing haul turned up in the eBay store A&E Sports hosted by the seller y2littlek. They recently sold a 9th printing of the Perennial Classics reprint of King’s classic On Writing for $1,499 (available new, not signed, on Amazon, for $17.49). That book came with JSA’s letter of authenticity no. YY65493.
These autographs bear only a passing resemblance to Stephen King’s current signature. JSA provided COAs for all of them. The certificate number is below each signature.
Several of these 38 autographs are very atypical of Stephen King. Even if they were real and signed under some extremely unusual circumstance, it’s hard to understand how JSA can authenticate them; at best an autograph expert should say their opinion is inconclusive. (This is another problem with the authentication business. They give refunds or credits if they can’t reach an opinion; absent scientific testing or detailed provenance research, a lot of autographs should come back inconclusive, but the COA mills don’t make any money if they say that.)
If someone handed in a stack of 38 books signed by Stephen King for evaluation, I think any professional autograph expert should be very skeptical. Of the thousands of Stephen King collectors out there, not very many have managed to acquire 38 signed trade (not limited) editions. How likely is it that a sports guy like y2littlek would turn up a world-class collection of books signed by Stephen King?
Herein lies another contradiction at the heart of autograph authentication—the firms and their customers both want the same thing: lots of real autographs. When a business that should be skeptical is dependent on giving the positive results their customers want, they have a conflict of interest. If JSA doesn’t return enough positive results, the customer can turn to PSA, or Beckett, or others. Collectors who buy autographs accompanied by COAs are not actually the authenticators’ customers, they just rely on the authenticators’ opinions. (It’s exactly the situation in this scene in The Big Short about how the rating agencies gave good marks to junk mortgage bonds, helping to perpetuate the banking crisis of 2008).
Like all businesses, PSA and JSA rely on large-volume customers to drive profits. Large-volume customers will switch services if they pay for too many autographs that come back as fake. JSA charges $50 for a Stephen King COA so a batch of 38 books means almost $2,000 in revenue; the eBay seller y2littlek has nearly 700 items listed that are accompanied by JSA COAs, which equals piles of money for JSA. This is exactly the sort of situation that can lead to errors in judgment. When their livelihood is at stake, even people with good intentions can be swayed to make decisions they might not normally make.
If you find my arguments compelling, a collector might reasonably ask what they should do if they want to collect signed books. Fundamentally, the desire for a COA reflects a keen wish for certainty. The COA companies feed this with their “letters of authenticity” and “certificate numbers,” while renouncing all guarantees in their fine print (JSA’s policies state, “JSA makes no warranty or representation and shall have no liability whatsoever to the customer for the opinion rendered by JSA on any submission.”) Certainty about autographs cannot be 100%. Even if you witness the autograph session, you can’t transfer that memory to anyone else. We are all stuck making our own judgment calls.
But here are a few guidelines:
Buy signed, limited editions. Sometimes they are fake, but not often.
Buy inscribed books, rather than simply signed books. This goes against the current collecting trend, but the more a forger has to write, the harder it is to make a convincing forgery (the exceptions are Ken Kesey and Hunter S. Thompson, whose autographs are almost a caricature to begin with).
Learn all you can about the signers you collect and the basics of forgery detection. Kenneth Rendell’s Forging History: The Detection of Fake Letters and Documents is a good start.
Buy more often from booksellers (like me, 🙂 who actually guarantee their autographs, as all members of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA), the Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA), and the Professional Autograph Dealers Association (PADA) must do. The guarantee is only good as long as the booksellers are members of the organization, but considering that the COA companies offer no guarantees, it’s a much better deal however long it lasts. To be fair, the ABAA is not filled with angels. There have been member dealers connected to forgery and theft, but as long as the dealers are members, they will take returns of inauthetic items sold by mistake, and both IOBA and the ABAA have ethics committees that will mediate between customers and dealers, services that none of the COA companies offer.
Many autograph authentication company’s issue letters of authenticity (LOAs), rather than certificates of authenticity (COAs), but collectors tend to call them COAs and I will too. James Spence Authentication (JSA), as an example, issues letters of authenticity that have unique certification numbers rather than letter numbers.
The deal for the company was so hot that the hedge fund and its investors had to pony up $850 million after originally agreeing to do the deal for $700 million. Lots of billionaire money is pouring into the collectibles industry. Collectors, the new parent company of PSA, has been on a buying spree, acquiring an auction house and another sports card grading company. The New York Times recently ran a story about the increasingly high-dollar competition for sports trading card companies [behind a paywall]. Billionaires have figured out that trading cards—which cost a few cents to manufacture—can be turned into tens of thousands of dollars by adding a fraction of a cent worth of ink from the pen of a star athlete. There may be no higher margin business. The authentication business, particularly certifying and encapsulating (slabbing) items, is also hugely lucrative, as the companies charge a percentage of the value of the object, which can be thousands of dollars per trading card, comic, and video game. Autographs are still charged only a flat rate because that’s how everyone does it. As soon as one of the firms changes to a percentage-of-value model for autographs, the others may well follow—it’s the same work, only it would be much more money.
If you go to JSA’s website to validate one of their COAs, the prompt offered is “Verify the validity of PSA & PSA/DNA certification numbers.” On the JSA site, visitors are invited to “Verify authenticity.”
Very few “celebrities” consider autograph collectors when signing items, which makes authentication inherently difficult. We all vary how we write all the time [I wrote about that here]. I found one example of Salinger signing a letter to a friend with his initials (which is a lot different from signing a book for a stranger) and “xx” for “love,” which is stylistically in the same ballpark as the Salinger book inscription I wrote about above.
As these initials suggest, Salinger was fond of printing rather than writing cursive. As he got older, his handwriting became a blend of printing and cursive, but I haven’t seen an example that is purely cursive like the book inscription attributed to him by PSA.
The same card collector on YouTube exposed faked signed Willie Mays cards which have problems with both the cards and the signatures, yet examples were certified by both PSA and CSG (also known as CGC—why so many three initial names in this field?). What his video also demonstrates is the amount of effort needed to closely compare authentic and forged items; signature authentication probably doesn’t cost enough to be done well by skilled (read: highly paid) professionals.
Searching Collectors’s (PSA’s parent company) LinkedIn page on March 2, 2024, for the term autograph turns up a person who lists their job title as “follower of Jesus Christ”, an “intermediate sales associate”, a “sales supervisor”, and one autograph “grader” (adjacent to authentication in the sports autograph field, related to how perfect the signature is on an artifact).
When I fly, I greatly appreciate the people who clean the planes between flights, especially when there’s a short turn-around time. I just don’t see how that prepares someone to separate real autographs from forgeries.
Stephen King has signed nearly 90 limited editions of his own books and probably as many anthologies. While some have small print runs, many were issued in hundreds and even as many as 2000 signed copies. That’s a lot of signatures.
JSA’s online certificate lookup provides limited information about the authenticated autograph. More information can be found on the LOAs themselves, including the date the item was submitted for authentication. I am assuming, I think reasonably, that consecutive LOA numbers, for items by the same signer, are highly likely to have been submitted by the same person.
This being his birth month, we couldn’t possibly let the month go by without a blog on our main man – Charles Dickens. Our Victorian celebrity gifted the world with timeless tales of love, loss, and, of course, the occasional ghostly visitation (what happy, holiday story would be the same without one?). Did you know though, that when it came to his adventures touring in America, Charles was full of wit and humor… and dismay, at our strange American customs? If not, buckle up – you’re in for a ride! (Yet another American idiom he probably would have hated!)
First on Dickens’ list of American annoyances was the peculiar trait of what he called “Yankee Doodle Dandies” – who chewed tobacco with (apparently) all the grace of a cow chewing cud. Dickens was disgusted at the sight of fully grown men spitting wads of brown gunk on the sidewalks like it was going out of fashion. He wrote about this disturbing habit, “One wonders if they mistake the streets for spittoons or simply enjoy adding a dash of rustic charm to the pavements.” Honestly? Yuck – he’s not wrong.
Dickens also couldn’t help but poke fun at what he perceived as a showy nature of American hospitality. “In England we’re content with a pot of tea and a biscuit, but in America, one must navigate a veritable maze of gilded mirrors and chandeliers just to find the water closet!” How difficult it must have been for him, trying to find his way through lavish mazes of American excess! (I have seen Downton Abbey… who is he calling excessive?!)
And of course, one can not forget Dickens’ abhorrence for general American cuisine! The man who wrote descriptions of an amazing amount of delectable Christmas feasts found himself absolutely disconcerted by our culinary creations. From “chili con carne” (delicious – did he even try it?) to an apparently confounding combination of turkey and cranberry sauce, Dickens found his stomach not in agreement with American cooking. Not to mention our sheer nerve: “One can only wonder at the audacity of a nation that serves pie without custard!”
*
Despite all of his reservations at our strange customs and interesting inventions (I would consider turkey with cranberry sauce an invention, after all), Dickens nevertheless had moments of true admiration for the people of the United States. He appeared impressed by the spirit of democracy that seemed openly expected and understood by all the people he met here on his travels, and he found the general optimism of our nation delightful. I suppose his final conclusion was that “America may be a land of eccentricities and culinary calamities, but it is also a land of opportunity and innovation – a place where even the most unlikely of dreams can take flight.” Hear, hear!
In the enchanted world of children’s literature, a few household names stand out to the average reader. Not many of them evoke the same sense of nostalgia and peace in us as A. A. Milne – the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh. On this the anniversary of his death, we wanted to take a look at what made Pooh, the endearing inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood, and A. A. Milne unique, and how he crafted stories that continue to this day to captivate generations both young and old.
Born on January 18, 1882, Alan Alexander Milne lived a relatively peaceful childhood. He was brought up in London, attended the small independent school his father ran (fun fact: at one point H.G. Wells was one of Milne’s teachers!), and then went on to the Westminster School and to Trinity College, Cambridge where he received a B.A. in Mathematics. He was a talented cricket player and played on a couple different teams, one of which was the Allahakbarries, Peter Pan author J. M. Barrie’s cricket team (along with teammates such as Arthur Conan Doyle and P.G. Wodehouse). To say that Milne was privileged and knew all the right people to join the literary scene was an understatement!
After his graduation, Milne wrote humorous essays and articles for Punch magazine. While working for Punch, he published 18 plays and three novels, all of which were well received (even if they did not achieve the literary acclaim that Pooh did, years later). In 1913 he married, and in 1920 his son, Christopher Robin, was born. Milne served in both WWI and later WWII, and considered himself a very proud Englishman.
After a successful career as a playwright and humorist, Milne turned to his son Christopher Robin for inspiration in his next work. Not yet called “Pooh”, Christopher Robin’s bear first appeared in Milne’s poem “Teddy Bear” in Punch magazine in 1924. He then appeared on Christmas Eve in 1925, in the London Evening News in a short story. Winnie-the-Pooh, however, made headlines in the first book about him, published in 1926, when Christopher Robin was six years old. Two years later, Milne published The House at Pooh Corner, the second book set in the Hundred Acre Wood. Throughout this time, Milne continued working on other things, and even published four plays in these “Pooh” years.
Both Milne and Christopher Robin’s relationship with Winnie-the-Pooh was strained. During his childhood years, they enjoyed a close personal relationship. However, soon A. A. Milne found himself disappointed that his childish work was overshadowing the multitude of other works he had created over the years. He hated the constant demand for more Pooh stories, and he wished to be taken more seriously as an author than he felt he was. On Christopher Robin’s part, he was relentlessly bullied at school for being the Christopher Robin, and ended up resenting his father for trapping him forever in association with the popular children’s story. We like to think that this bit of Pooh’s history reminds us that art and life aren’t always two completely separate things.
That being said, how has Pooh pulled on our heartstrings the way he has, for almost a hundred years now? We believe that the simplicity and innocence of the Hundred Acre Wood, which is an idyllic place in and of itself, serves as a safe refuge for us, even in our imaginations. The gentle humor and (often pretty profound) wisdom of the books invites all ages to enjoy them. Pooh himself reminds us of the joy of simple pleasures – from a jar full of honey to a day out with a good friend.
As we celebrate the life and legacy of A. A. Milne and Winnie-the-Pooh, we are reminded in an often chaotic and uncertain world to cherish moments of joy, embrace our sense of childish wonder, and hold fast to our friendships – for these are the things that will sustain us through rough times.
As the year 2024 begins, and many of us find ourselves trying to decide if this is finally the year that we are going to establish the perfect morning routine, devote our time to charity work or actually join that gym that stares us down on our way home every day, we think it’s time to take a step back and form more realistic (not to mention more calming) New Years Resolutions. So instead of buckling up to hear what society believes you ought to be doing, pour yourself a tea or a glass of wine, and let’s discuss how we can make 2024 a comfy cozy reading year instead.
1. For the love of whatever you believe in, put your phones down! All our phones seem to do these days is remind us of everything we don’t have and aren’t doing with our lives. I know it’s the toughest ask (which is why we put it first), but if we all were to take a little break from our excessive scrolling, perhaps we’d finally tackle that overly large to-be-read pile next to our beds, and feel better about ourselves before we fall asleep. The only understandable part would be if you’re an e-reader and read books on your phones. That being said, most e-readers are probably not reading our antiquarian bookstore blog!
2. Start a book club. I know, I know, I know… don’t get your pants in a twist. I don’t mean one where you are hosting ten friends once a month and having to set up an instagrammable charcuterie board (which you won’t be doing, because of the break from social media, right?). For all we care, set up the book club with your dog. Your sister. Your partner. It doesn’t have to be an endeavor to be valid! Even just setting aside one night a month to solely discuss a book with your partner or friend at dinner works! Perhaps it will keep you both accountable for reading, even if it is one chapter at a time.
3. Mix it up! Expand your horizons. You may not be a big poetry person… or perhaps you just haven’t found the right poet to read, yet! Pick one book this year that is out of your comfort zone, not something you typically find interesting. And try it. Perhaps it will remind you why you detest sci-fi thrillers. Perhaps you’ll be pleasantly surprised! Do your research and find a book whose subject matter doesn’t make you want to throw it out of a window right off the bat and try something new. No matter how it ends up, you’ll be glad you did. (Or you’ll send us an angry email. Which, to be honest, might be kind of cathartic and you’ll thank us all the same!)
4. Try a blind book draw. A new fad which we’re sure many of you have seen, is where the covers of books (which do influence us, make no mistake) in bookstores and the like are actually wrapped up, with only a description of the plot to nab our attention. Try it! You don’t even need a bookstore to do so. Grab a book-loving friend, privately pick out some titles for each other, and only tell the choosing person the different plots in your own words. Buy or send the books you each choose to each other!
5. Last but not least… just read. Even if it’s one page a day, one page a week. Don’t get caught up in our crazy world so much that you lose the time, ability or interest in reading. Keep your brain active with a book – not just a news headline. You’ll thank us later. 🙂
We thought we’d start off a very autumnal month like November with an in-depth look at an author read country-wide… oftentimes in the fall school semester for required High School reading! Stephen Crane, the author of The Red Badge of Courage, continues to captivate readers of all ages, all over the country. Published in 1895, this novel doesn’t only have an engrossing (according to my sophomore year lit teacher) narrative, but it truly is an in-depth exploration of human nature, war… and an “American” experience. On this here his birthday, let’s remember what Crane did for American literature!
Before we dive into the The Red Badge of Courage, we should understand the literary movements of the time that helped shape Crane’s writing into what we see today. The late 19th century, when Crane was writing, witnessed both movements of Realism and Naturalism. Both literary trends sought to show life as it truly was… sans the idealization or romanticism of previous movements.
*
Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage uses realism and naturalism to show the raw, gritty reality of war. Through the eyes of Henry Fleming, a young soldier who dreams of glory but is suddenly faced with fear and confusion on the battlefield, Crane paints a pretty vivid picture of the uncertainty, fear and coldness of battle. Crane’s (almost ridiculous – oh, I’m sorry…. meticulous) attention to detail, his extremely vivid descriptions of battle, and his description of the emotional turmoil experienced by the protagonist Henry all contribute to the novel’s realism. For Crane, sugar-coating was simply not allowed!
One of the most striking characteristics of The Red Badge of Courage is Crane’s focus on the inner struggles of its protagonist. Crane goes deep into Henry Fleming’s psyche, offering readers a pretty remarkable ‘character study’. The novel watches the evolution of Henry, as he confronts fear, cowardice, and a desire for forgiveness. We get to see his journey from a self-doubting youth to a more adult, self-assured and introspective individual. During his transition, American high school students all around the country get a more comprehensive understanding of human nature.
*
In the world of American literature, Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage is considered a masterpiece of realism. Its enduring appeal lies in its (almost) too-descriptive depiction of the psychological and emotional struggles of a young Civil War soldier. Crane’s understanding of an “American experience”, coupled with his decided portrayal of war’s (extremely) harsh realities, truly fixed the novel’s place as an American classic.
Anne Rice, born Howard Allen Frances O’Brien (because her mother thought naming her “Howard” after her father would be an interesting thing to do) on October 4, 1941, was an iconic figure in the world of literature. Known primarily for her compelling (and sensual) books, Rice created a unique niche within the genres of gothic fiction and supernatural fantasy. Now that “spooky season” is truly upon us and we are desperate for thrilling reads, we honor her birthday today with a wish to explore her literary masterpieces!
*
Anne Rice was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her birthplace, a location steeped in history and the mysticism of the Deep South (as any who have visited the city will attest), would later serve as an influential setting for several of her novels. She became “Anne” when a nun asked her for her name at school, and being self conscious about being “Howard” (who knows why) said her name was “Anne” – a name she thought was pretty. Her early years were unfortunately marked by tragedy; she lost her mother to alcoholism in her teens and would later face her own health challenges. It was during these tumultuous years that she began to nurture her love for literature and storytelling, eventually earning herself a degree in political science from San Francisco State University.
Anne Rice’s true literary journey began in 1976 when she released her debut novel, Interview with the Vampire, to the world. Reeling from the early death of her daughter to cancer, Rice took a previously written short story and turned it into a work that captured the attention of the country. This novel, the start of her celebrated “The Vampire Chronicles” series, created a subgenre of gothic and vampire fiction that continues to captivate readers and interest writers to this day. Rice’s storytelling capabilities are evident from the first page of Interview with a Vampire – she drew her readers into a dark and seductive world where vampires exist not as monsters but as complicated and tormented “human” characters.
One thing that sets Rice apart from other writers of her time was her willingness to tackle more taboo subjects head-on. Her novels are confidently erotic (and occasionally explicit), pushing the boundaries of what is considered conventional, mainstream literature. Her fairly fearless exploration of sensuality, desire, and the general darker aspects of human nature have helped make her a household name. While Interview with a Vampire and “The Vampire Chronicles” may be her most famous works, Rice’s literary successes extend beyond her world of vampires alone. In The Witching Hour, she introduced her readers to the family of the Mayfair witches, with a saga of magic, family, and fate. She even published “The Songs of Seraphim” series – detailing layers of spirituality and focusing on angels, faith, and the battle between good and evil. The most controversial of her works must be “The Sleeping Beauty Quartet,” a series of erotic novels written under the pseudonym A.N. Roquelaure. These books focus on the world of BDSM and erotic fantasy, further pushing the envelope of what is considered “acceptable” in the world of literature. Her many different series showcase her versatility as a writer, transitioning her subject matter from vampires to witches to angels and erotica seamlessly, all while continuing to use her signature gothic style.
*
Anne Rice’s influence on literature and popular culture is undeniable. Her groundbreaking contributions to the vampire and erotic fiction genres paved the way for countless authors and even filmmakers to explore similar themes. For instance, Twilight‘s Stephanie Meyer counts Rice as a great influence! On the anniversary of her birthday, we appreciate her ability to create entire worlds far (yet close) to our own, her fearless exploration of taboo topics, and her knack for addressing pretty profound philosophical questions about life and morality all within a framework of supernatural fiction. To this day, she reminds us that literature will always have the power to both entertain and provoke.
