THE KENTUCKY KERNEL, Wednesday, April

Americans Buy Very Few
Illuminated Manuscripts
Anthony Ilohson

PAGING
the AR TS

Copies Of Famed

An Authority
On Valuable Books
Ih

'Illuminations' Arc
In UK Library

By W. O. ROGERS

Illuminated
manuscripts are
those ornamented with beautiful
scripts and remarkable design. In
papyrus manuscripts, first letters
were ornamented, usually colored
red or blue, and later gold.
By 700 A.D., Irish manuscripts
were using lines, geometric figures,
and miniature forms of plants and
animals, sometimes surrounding a
page.
Still later handwritten manuscripts became brilliantly illuminated with their pictures larger,
and their surfaces brilliant with
gold leaves and brilliant color.
Many illuminated manuscripts
may be seen in the Public Library in New York City, and in
the Pierpoint Morgan Library.
The University Library has several reproductions of these famous illuminations, which may be
examined on request by classes
and by schools.

Associated Press Arts Editor
NEW YORK "Americans don't
buy so many illuminated manuscripts," says Anthony Hobson, of

1

Sotheby's, the London firm that
auctions books and paintings for
prices usually paid for yachts and
racing stables.
Hobson. one of the ancient
firm's eight directors, is a person-

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able book authority.
He has Just come to New York

for his fourth quick visit.
"You take the books. The interest of your individual American
in hooks Is traceable, I think, to
college English departments. We
just wander Into a bookstore and
Mart haphazard."
"There Is." he continued, "a fair
amount of chance in searching. A
man rang us from Lancaster; he
was leaving his house; he had
books, all rubbish, he said.
He sent them on, it looked in
fact like the most terrible collection of Victorian rubbish you can
imagine.
"There were about 150 books,
none sold for more than $100, with
one exception. It fetched $23,000.
It was 'Littleton's Tenures,' a legal
work, and In a contemporary binding with it a shortened version of
English statutes.
:'Its the only known book both
printed and bound. In 1481, by the
first or one of the first printers
in the city of London, John Lettou.
Hobson likes New York but finds
it fast and wearing, and who talks
fascinatingly about his business
in a sterling English accent so
authentic that Sotheby's Suthe-up-beethree syllables ought to
be able to auction it off, too.
A black-haireslender. World
War II veteran with a small neat
mustache, Hobson, whose father
also was in the firm, says knowledge is essential, but "a collector
just has to be bitten with it."
"Tastes in collections vary a
treat deal from country to country and from time to time. Before
the war, Regency furniture was
very cheap, now it's very hard to
jzed collections; now they tend to
pecialize. A man gets all of Hor- -

,4f
f

Authority On Rare Manuscripts
Anthony Hobson's firm makes money buying and auctioning old
books; he works for Sotheby's o f London, England.
ace Walpole; it's at Yale. Or some paintings by Salvator Rosa and
one may start on Gibbon, first Guido Reni, that you almost could
editions, his letters, books from his have ..given ..away ..before ..then,
library, letters that mention him.
fetched $10,000 apiece.
ago we
"Four or five years
"When George Bernard Shaw
handled the estate of Ashburnham left his London flat, he turned all
Place. There were three great col- his furniture over to us. It wasn't
lectors in the family, who bought up to our standard, but we did
Italians of one period or another sell his books.
and books. At the sale In 1953,
Among them was one of that
get."
first printing of T. E. Lawrence's
Once people made very general- - 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom,''

Popularizing Books

d,

'Imitation Of Life'
Has New Twist
By PHILIP COX

If I cried at movies, I would
have had a tearful time at Unir.
versal Interna tlonal's latest
Life."
"Imitation of
It is the familiar plot about the
fctress Laura (Lana Turner) who
came to the big city to be a star
and denies everything, Including
her lover Steve (John Gavin) In
her climb to the top.
But this story has a twist.
Laura's maid Annie (Juanita
Moore) is a Negro with a daughter
whose skin Is almost white, and
the maid Is willing to do almost
anything to pass herself off as
white, even deny her mother. "If
by accident we should ever pass
on the street, please don't recog-nix- e
tear-jerke-

me."

The two problems are alternately batted around, and then
a new problem appears when
Laura's daughter Susie (Sandra
Dee falls in love with Steve.
The producers have pulled every
trick in the book, right down to a
funeral' scene with Mahalla Jack-to- n
singing.
But in spite of 'the dated melodrama, the show is pulled out of
the fire by the fine performances,
especially on the part of Lana
Turner, who walls and bewails on
a level equal to her performance
in Peyton Place.
Gather up the bridge club and
go see the fun.

$1,500, or double
the usual amount, because Shaw
had written in it.
"Shaw was a tremendous Sotheby's fan. When he was old he had
delusions of bankruptcy, and he
discovered that If he wrote some
long inscription In a book he could
sell It for five times what he paid.
He was always writing people and
noting that if they were hard up,
they could sell his letter."
Hobson saidsjnere were many
fewer books coming on the market now than 30 years ago; that
however they bring higher prices;
and that more of them are sold
at auction than through dealers.
Though
in America many
go straight to libraries
collections
and universities, in Europe they
are more apt to be sold.

It fetched about

's,

Improves America

Publisher Believes
"Primarily because we are all
interested in books, and because
we feel strongly that any contribution to the popularizing of books
is a contribution to a better
America, we have formed this new
book publishing company," said
Art Linkletter, spokesman for
Bernard Geis Associates, starting
up now under the imprint: "Star
Press Books."
"The latest Gallup Poll showed
that only 17 per cent of our population was currently reading a
book, In contrast with 31 per cent
in Canada, 34 per cent In West
Germany and 55 per cent in England.
"Obviously, the time has come
to take the slogan 'Wake up and
ready!!' more seriously. Our group
is attempting to do something
about it."
The new company will publish
hard cover books at different
price ranges and in various ficcategories.
tion and
An arrangement has been made
with Random House for the distribution in the United States and
Canada of all Star Press Books.
Bernard Gels, former editor of
and, prior to that,
Prentice-Ha- ll
editor-ln-chland vice president
of Grosset & Dunlap, will serve as
editor and director of the new
company.
The initial Star Press Books list
will be brought out this fall.with
five or six titles scheduled for'pub-licatio- n
during the period between
late August and
In speaking of their arrangement for the distribution of Star
Press Books, Bennett Cerf, president of Random House, said:
"This Is going to be a year of
significant changes in the publishing picture. Dynamic new firms
will be started and a few tired
old ones may disappear, but I
would like to see any first list that
will come within a mile of matching this initial Star Press Books
array."
non-ficti-

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FICTION
"Dr. Zhivago," Pasternak.
"Exodus." Urls.
"The Ugly American," Lederer
& Burdick.
"Lolita," Nabokov.
"Dear and Glorious," Taylor
Caldwell.

NONFICTION
"Only In America," Golden.
"Mine Enemy Grows Older,"
King.
"What We Must Know About
Communism," Harry and Bonaro
Overstreet.
"Twixt Twelve and Twenty,"
Boone.

"Elizabeth The Great," Jenkins.

White Tries Solo

all-tim-

DENNIS
BOOK STORE

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ATTENTION
SENIORS!

on

INVITATIONS and

cf

mid-Novemb-

Current
Best Sellers

U.S.

NEW YORK (AP)
Jerry
production
Whyte, a long-tim- e
aide to hitmakers Richard Rod-ge- rs
and Oscar Hammerstein II,
is branching out on his own as
an impresario.
Whyte is planning "Hot Summer
Night" for Broadway, a drama by
Modern works are not such attractive buys and maybe never will Ted Willis previously exhibited in
be. "The Seven Pillars of Wis- London.
dom" brings a good price, so does
BAROQUE DEFINED
a "Gulliver's Travels" printed by
Three phases of French Baroque
London's Cressid Press.
The first 100 or so copies of include the early phase from 1643
French books, done on special to 1660 with bold Baroque scrolls,
paper and with distinctive bind- carouches, and garlands. Flowers
ing, also have a rare-boo- k
market were larger than those found in
nature.
value.
The middle phase, 1660 to 1683,
Sotheby's, called the oldest book symbolized
Louis XIV in the role
and art auction firm in the world, of Apollo, reflecting
the image in
was founded In 1744. It has
bursting sunrays introduced in
handled the libraries of Napoleon
and Talleyrand, and the posses- elaborate brocades. 1683 to 1715,
The third phase,
sions of many crowned heads. was
famous for the elaborate Lyon-nai- se
Last fall it auctioned off' 'seven
dee
paintings for the
high of sign. brocades, intricate floralwere
Exotic Oriental silks
$2,186,000.
made fashionable, brought about
through the arrival at Versailles of
a delegation sent by the King of
Silent Players
Siam.
(AP)
NEW YORK
Burt The curvilineal lines in textiles
Shevelove is a Broadway direc- were apparent, although they betor with a different sort of prob- come more pronounced in the Reg-en- ce
lem. His task is managing the
area with Rococo designs.
200
of
marionettes
activities
whclh Bil and Cora Baird
have cast in a limited Broadway Central Kentucky's Largest
USED BOOK STORE
run of "Davy Jones' Locker."
(Other Than Text)
"The fact they don't talk back
is perhaps an advantage," comments Shevelove of the puppets,
"but there is also a disadvantage.
When you ask them to let their
Near 3rd
laces light up, nothing happens." 257 N. Lime

'niiTrWtrn'riw.n

HH'iiVifh'ii

29, 1939- -5

CAPS and GOWNS

er.

GET YOURS NOW! AVOID THE RUSH!
y.

Campus Bbok Store
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