As it was my love of language, history and curiosities that led to my collecting the interesting tidbits in my work with card catalogs, I feel it's within the same vein to occasionally share an antique or marginal gem of the English tongue. Thus, I'll commence with this mouthful:
Iatromathematique / Iatromathematician: One of a school of physicians in 17th century Italy who hoped to cure ills of the body by attempting to greater understand it through the application of the laws of mathematics.
Unlike those sad tales you're accustomed to reading...
Published in 1924 New York, by Carl Van Vechten, "The Tattooed Countess: A Romantic Novel with A Happy Ending."
Perhaps a copy of this should be issued at birth to all citizens of Western Civilization...
By Oliver Spurgeon English and published in 1945 New York: "Emotional problems of living: avoiding the neurotic pattern."
Nope, they aren't pseudonyms...
Willy Rickmer Rickmers, Victor von Richter, and Oliver Onions (yes, pronounced just like the vegetable).
Willy Rickmers was an explorer (and son of shipbuilder Rickmer Clasen Rickmers); von Richter was a chemist; and Oliver Onions was born (the same year as Rickmers) George Oliver Onions -- a commercial artist who later became a prolific writer publishing under his middle and surname (even after legally changing his name to George Oliver in his mid-40's). A long-lived fellow, he died in his late 80's, in 1961, but his wife, fellow author Berta Ruck, won the race, dying at age 100 in 1978.
Willy Rickmers was an explorer (and son of shipbuilder Rickmer Clasen Rickmers); von Richter was a chemist; and Oliver Onions was born (the same year as Rickmers) George Oliver Onions -- a commercial artist who later became a prolific writer publishing under his middle and surname (even after legally changing his name to George Oliver in his mid-40's). A long-lived fellow, he died in his late 80's, in 1961, but his wife, fellow author Berta Ruck, won the race, dying at age 100 in 1978.
Umm... What was the question?
From 1960, a perplexing title: "Virdung's Keyed String-Instruments: Are Two Illustrations Plagued by An Engraver's Error? Or Did Virdung Mean Them So to Be?"
Friend of Coyne the banker and Baker the baker...
Published in 1964 by the University of Glasgow, Scotland, a book including some writings of a professor named John H. Teacher.
In case there happens to actually be a street vendor waiting with an 18th century edition, better exchange a few hundred greenbacks before you get there...
Presented "as it is acted in most families of distinction, throughout the kingdom," a mid-1700's farce, "Low Life Above Stairs." Its publishing information: "Printed and to be had in Winetavern-street at the corner of Cook-street."
Next time you're in Dublin, stop by and see if you can snag a copy 250 years later...
Check out the archway, cathedral, and ivy-covered wall southward on Winetavern.
 Harry Kernoff, “Winetavern Street, July Morning, Dublin,” 1940. |
Check out the archway, cathedral, and ivy-covered wall southward on Winetavern.
Depressives beware...
This tragic title was emailed to me at work one day by a coworker: Published in 1734, a satirical play written by Henry Carey under the cheerful pseudonym of Benjamin Bounce, Esq.: "The Tragedy of Chrononhotonthologos: Being the Most Tragical Tragedy That Ever Was Tragediz'd by Any Company of Tragedians."
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