Your latest book purchases.

[Saturn]

Currently devouring:



Been looking for this since I watched the TV series, and the book is very fine indeed.

[zebluepenguin]

What is it about?

[Malia]

Oh the John Adams TV miniseries! That was good. I've heard the book is fabulous! What an interesting and complex character John Adams is.

[Aquarius]

I just bought this:



It's a 1899 1st edition (Cambridge Edition) published by Houghton Mifflin and co.

I'm new to Keats, and have had my library's copy of his Complete Works for over two months now, so I have to return it. I decided to buy a compilation of his works for myself, and hope to add more to my own library.

I was also looking online for his published work and found his first edition books from 1818 and 1820 are going for around 14,000 dollars for a single book. WOW.

[Saturn]

Oh that's a very fine looking edition you have there, hope ypu enjoy it. I'm not surprised first editions of Keats are that price, they are few and far between.

[Malia]

I just plunked down money I don't have for two more additions to my ever-growing Keats collection.

I saw that the author of this book/essay "The Dying Keats: A Case for Euthanasia?" (it's only 56 pgs. long) is giving a talk at Keats House and the subject matter fascinates me:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4 ... SS500_.jpg


And I also bought a used copy of the latest audio production of Keats's letters and Poems "Realms of Gold" to put on my I-Pod for my journey to Britain next month.

[BrokenLyre]

Excellent choices. I don't know the first one you mentioned, but I do have the CD "Realms of Gold." I really like this one. Hope you do too. Thanks for the link Malia.

[Malia]

I was also looking online for his published work and found his first edition books from 1818 and 1820 are going for around 14,000 dollars for a single book. WOW.

Hard to imagine that, back in the years just after his death, Keats's poems could be found in the "bargain bin" at the bookseller's. They couldn't *give* his poems away!

I hope you have fun starting and expanding your Keats collection, Aquarius. I started my collection when I was 15 or 16 and it has grown to about 30-35 volumes (not to mention a few other items such as posters, one of which hangs above my small bookcase that houses my Keats collection) and some audio copies of his poems/letters.

[Saturn]

Bought myself this yesterday:

[Malia]

Excellent choices. I don't know the first one you mentioned

BrokenLyre, "The Dying Keats" is a very recent publication (just came out last month!). I'd read on the Keats House website that the author was going to do a lecture based on the book about how some physical trait Keats inherited from his father could have contributed to both their early deaths. This intrigued me (while also awakening my inner skeptic) so I thought I'd go ahead and read his thesis on the matter
Still haven't received the book, but I expect it will be a quick read as it is less than 100 pgs. I'll try to give a review once I've read it.

[BrokenLyre]

Thanks Malia! I will look for it. I probably should read the books I have now in my collection. Problem is, so little time to read with my job, family - the angst of middle class! I do appreciate the heads up - now I have a Christmas wish.

[Aquarius]

So, I bought the Maurice Buxton Forman edition of The Letters. It was only about $40 including shipping since it was a fourth edition print from 1952.

In two weeks I have spent about $200 on books! This just means everything else is less of a priority in my budget. It's not practical, but oh well.

I bought "The Complete Poems of E.E. Cummngs" and the "Complete Poems of Emily Dickenson", as well as some Keats books.

I have way too many books. What's more, I have moved 3 times in the last year, and have had to move my precious books with me. Lord, it can be a pain, but my books are my most precious belongings.

Oh, on a side note, have any of you read "Posthumous Keats"? I'm waiting for it to go to paperback, and have heard good things about it.

And Malia, I have looked for posters of Keats, but I find that the portraits of him that are popular (Severn's portraits) are not to my liking. I would love to have a good poster of Keats' life mask.

[Malia]

I know where you're coming from, Aquarius. I could so easily spend hundreds of dollars on books--that is one of the reason I have to limit my time browsing on Amazon.com. It is just too dangerous to visit often!

Speaking of Amazon book purchases, one such purchase was a copy of Posthumous Keats! I devoured that book back in April or May; it is an interesting and, I think, worthwhile addition to a Keats collection. It's the study of Keats's fame (how various people have seen his fame) written in a circular style, so different points in his life are touched on several times from several different "directions". It is in many ways the meditation of a poet on a poet. I wouldn't recommend it for people who are *very* new to Keats (i.e. have only read the Wikipedia bio and read an Ode or two), but for any Keatsian who's read at least one of the cannon biographies, and most of Keats's poems and letters, it is a great read. It has been a while since I last looked at the book, so I can't give any detailed review. Suffice it to say, I think it is worth the purchase, especially if you're getting it in paperback; only the hardback was available when I bought it.

I agree with you about Severn's portraits of Keats. They don't capture Keats's intensity or strength of body (or character) very well. The one exception I would make is the deathbed sketch. While not a portrait per se, it intimately captures Keats in such a vulnerable, human moment. It seems so much more authentic than Severn's other renderings because it wasn't done to display in a gallery or sell or to keep up Keats's posthumous fame. . .it was simply a sketch to keep Severn awake. It is perhaps Severn's least self-consciously drawn portrait, and therefore the most authentic.

As far as the picture I would like to have in poster form--I'd say far and away my favorite is the Haydon sketch done for Christ's Entry into Jeruselem. Keats looks like an energetic young man with a sense of strength and vitality about him--not at all like the Severn portraits that try so hard to capture in him what the great poet "should" look like. In addition, his mouth (showing his protruding upper lip, which was a hallmark of his features) has a sense of energy and urgency about it--but not flying out in all directions; it is a honed and purposeful energy. This sense of controlled energy reaches his eyes, which contain a steady, intelligent gaze of the like that certainly would attract others to want to know more about him. It is an expression that is thankfully lacking in the dreamy, dewey-eyed sentimentality that Severn seemed to think a Poet would possess. In the Haydon sketch, I can see both the practical, detail-minded medical student and the visionary poet. I see a man at the beginning of a journey--going down a road he chose, himself, to travel. The look in his eyes very much reminds me of On First Looking into Chapman's Homer; Keats the poet is not gazing unfocused and half in dream, he's much more like an explorer who has just spotted a new world that he is about to name.

[Malia]

Thanks Malia! I will look for it. I probably should read the books I have now in my collection. Problem is, so little time to read with my job, family - the angst of middle class! I do appreciate the heads up - now I have a Christmas wish.

BrokenLyre, I read the book (which is actually just a bound essay) and I think that you might want to skip this one. It was an interesting read--for the most part--but basically, in 40-some pages (not including end notes), all the author wants to say is that British physicians need to explore giving better palliative care to their dying patients. He uses Keats primarily as an example of how withholding palliative care can cause excruciating and unnecessary suffering.

The author brings up a few interesting tidbits--some of them just questions that really can't be proved or disproved. One such question was whether or not Keats, who had a great understanding of medicinal plants (and often refers to them in his poems) ever used any of them to help "induce the muse" (so to speak). He considers the times Keats used Opium, but certainly doesn't make any kind of claim that Keats was a drug addict or actually used drugs to help him write.

Anyway, this essay would be nice to have in an extensive Keats library that contains everything from cannon to the most obscure Keats-related texts (i.e. kind of like the library I've been creating! ) but it is most definitely *not* worth the money I paid for it. I am embarrassed to state that I paid $20 for it; that is the reason I limit my Amazon.com time--I simply lose my head at that place I'd say, it's worth $5, so wait for it to go on clearance

[BrokenLyre]

Well, you just saved my Christmas money Malia! Good advice and well stated as usual.

As for Aquarius' book buying, I too have spent my fair share on eBay, Amazon etc... for Keats books. Although I have purchased Keats books (and yes, have them all cataloged) over a 12 year period, it still adds up! Appreciate the fact that I am not the only one who does this!