The most worthless book of a bygone day is a record worthy of preservation. Like a telescopic star, its obscurity may render in unavailable for most purposes; but it serves, in hands which know how to use it, to determine the places of more important bodies - De Morgan.
Between 1840 and 1869 Augustus De Morgan, a Professor of Mathematics at the new University of London, wrote over a thousand book reviews for The Athenaeum, a leading literary weekly published in London. He accomplished that in just 26 years since there was a five year gap in 1850 though 1854 when, due to a disagreement with the editor, no reviews were published. The reviews ranged from detailed multipage discussions to one-liners.
The listing of De Morgan's reviews, arranged chronologically, lists the 1,003 reviews attributed to him, and contains links, when available, to the full text, online, of the page in the each issue of the Athenaeum where the review occurred, and links to the full text of the book being reviewed, at the British Library and/or the Hathi Trust. Not all books could be found online, and not very issue of the Athenaeum could be located, but in the majority of cases they are, and it becomes a simple matter to read the original review and then examine the original edition of the book under review....more...
I recently had the good fortune to stumble across a copy of Augustus De Morgan's A Budget of Paradoxes in a used bookstore in Belfast, Maine. It was in a shelf of "History of Ideas" books (a volume of essays by A. O. Lovejoy, usually considered the founder of that discipline, was next to it ). I knew just enough about De Morgan to know he was a mathematician, ...more... August 3, 2018
Something different: a lecture series from the University of California, on ancient Greece and Rome. Its a pretty remarkable series; it began in 1921 and nearly half of the titles are still in print. I own a few and wanted an aid to help me pick out and purchase other titles in the series. April 24, 2018
The Sather LecturesA list of the twenty-odd titles published by Cresset Press in their Cresset Library series in the forties into the sixties - an attractive and interesting selection of historical reprints. April 1, 2018
A checklist of the Cresset Library seriesA checklist of books published in the Bohn's Antiquarian Library series between 1847 and 1913. Each entry is accompanied by a link to the full text of the publication (at the Hathi Trust) as well as links to author biographies and searches of used book sites. March 2018
A checklist of Bohn's Antiquarian LibraryMilitary memoirs are a long-time interest of mine, dating back to reading Goodbye to All That decades ago. I recently stumbled across an interesting top-ten type list for Military Memoirs. Most such things are just so much click-bait, but this was quite good: Andrew Sharples' top 10 war memoirs from the Guardian newspaper in 2015. It was extremely nice to see some books I am not familiar with: The Junior Officers’ Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey, for example, and I will definitely check out out a number of the books that are new to me. The one selection from the Peninsular War is perfectly reasonable, though I prefer the memoirs that are a bit more colorful, such as Adventures With the Connaught Rangers or Adventures in the Rifle Brigade. The Guardian is an excellent newspaper: support it. February 2018
The initial group covers selected items published by Dover in Mystery & Detection, Science Fiction, Fantasy & Supernatural Fiction, and classic accounts of Exploration. Books covered go back to the fifties of the last century; many are still in print.
Checklists of selected Dover reprintsA listing of around 40 vintage thrillers published in the 1980's. Sapper, Dornford Yates, Geoffrey Household, John Buchan and others. Very British. First posted January 17, 2018.
The Classic Thrillers SeriesFirst up is a bibliography I put together more than a decade ago for the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal. I found it fascinating because it was the first prolonged military conflict with a large number of literate participants who later wrote about it. There are links to various bookselling sites, to Worldcat (when I have located a catalog entry), and I have begun to add links to full text when available, at Project Gutenberg and the Hathi Trust.
A list of books relating to the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal 1808-1814Authors
Augustus De MorganPeninsula War
Introduction Memoirs General History Studies FictionSeries
Bohn's Antiquarian Library Bohn's Classical Library The Classic Thrillers Series The Cresset LibraryDover Publications
Introduction Fantasy & Science Fiction Mystery, Detection & Supernatural Travel & ExplorationLecture Series
Sather Lectures