Another sideways photo from the phone. I’m not sure why it does that…
“William Mortensen, a Revival” – far too FEW plates of his work in this, the only collection published in decades. I’ve waited to buy it for some time, but that meant the expectations were high. There are some nice images, including a beautiful full color image of “The Tantric Sorcerer” from the 1930s. But then they take up a whole second page with his black and white version! Also, the fact that most of the writing is obsessed with gossiping about his sexual life and the “homoeroticism” of his work makes me think they’re really trying to appease the gays that run the art world. Yeah, enough of that.
“The Tyranny of Liberalism” by James Kalb. He’s a contributor to AltRight (that’s how I know his work). I’m having a hard time getting into this one, to be honest. I want to give it another whack at some point.
“The Myth of Male Power” by William P. Farrell. I’ve seen this so many times on The Spearhead, when I saw a used copy I picked it up. His talk at CATO is good. There’s one quote that echos something that I’ve been screaming for years: “It would be hard to find a single example in history in which a group that cast more than 50 percent of the vote got away with calling itself the victim.
“The Master Magicians” by Walter Gibson – Prestidigitation, not thaumaturgy. Bought it used, blind. Might be good, might not get to it.
“Not So Deep as a Well” by Dorothy Parker – a poorly kept copy of this collection of poems. I love that there is a page between the table of contents and the poems that has a large decorative element and the words “ENOUGH ROPE”. I have very few volumes of poetry, but I like DP. I’ll set it in the bathroom. There was a bookplate in this copy that has since been (almost entirely) removed. I’m torn about bookplates. I love the idea of an ex libris, and own a book about them, but it would just seem ridiculous to have my own made to paste into my own ragtag collection. When books were rarer, it made more sense, it seems. When you built a library of hardbound books, instead of a mishmash of mass-market paperbacks, trade paperbacks, oversized low-brow art books, etc.
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