Your latest book purchases.

[Raphael]

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.

Wouldn't he be rather amazed and pleased at how much he is worth now!

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!

Ah to take the tardis back in time to nab one!

[Raphael]

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.

What did the author say on this? My mother tells me that some people have immunity to TB and some don’t. I found out that TB had been in my family and that none of us had immunity to it (hence needing the jabs against it after the BCG test) - so if I had lived in John’s time…

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.

That’s been a topic of discussion over here for the past four years or so now. There was a woman Diane Pretty who was wasting away from ME and wanted to have Euthanasia. It’s legal in Switzerland and some Brits go there but relatives who go with them can be prosecuted when they return. I for one agree with Euthanasia. I so could empathise with poor John when he wanted to take the Laudanum and Joseph took the bottle off him.

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).

I never thought of that before. They didn’t have much knowledge of medicinal plants in the 1800s as they had had in the Celtic and Saxon times. A lot of the folk herbal knowledge was handed down from women, who by the Catholic times were often suspected of witchcraft so much knowledge was lost. No disrespect to our Dr Junkets but I doubt he would have had as much knowledge as the early herb wives. I somehow cannot see John being silly enough to mess around with henbane! I think John was a natural mystic who didn’t need to take anything to get all dreamy.

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.

Well Laudanum was the drug of the way for all sorts of conditions- though when Brown found out he was using it he stopped. I wonder what the medicine was that he was given when he was ill before he left for Italy ? He mentions a medicine in one of his letters to Fanny and asked for her to excuse him on account of it- it seems to be affecting him.

[Saturn]

Just today got the two missing volumes of Stevem Runciman's definitive epic masterpiece History of the Crusades. I found the first volume in a second-hand bookshop some years ago and devoured it eagerly, and found today the two second volumes finally after many years:





So tell me what books have you all bought recently?

[Raphael]

Hope you enjoy your books Saturn! I went to the second hand book shop on Wed and got a Robert Burns poetry book from 1958 (Penguin) for 50p and Critics on Keats, readings in literary Criticism, 1967 for £1. It has a wonderful description of John by Joseph Severn in it.

[Raphael]

I have been to the second hand book shop and looked in the 10p box again and found 2 great music books for 10p each! One is from the 1930s and the other the 1940's. One is a book of musical terms/theory- very helpful for my piano/music studies.

The other is called Magic of Melody by John Murray Gibbon- it is quite a curious little book- you wouldn't find such today. The author has written lyrics to certain composers' musical compositions and written about the composers and the situations the compositions were written in. He has included my fave Frederic Chopin- others include Bach, Handel and Beethoven. Published in 1933 before pop music it is really a fascinating book and explores the link between composition and lyrics. There is an introduction by a Christopher Stone on the author, gramaphones and gramo- poems (whether they are low brow or not!) lol.

The author said: "Music is a language more subtle than any spoken language" in his discussion of music and lyrical forms- he goes into poetry and starts by looking at Wordsworth and our dear John Keats gets a mention and includes the Severn drawing of him in bed in Italy. The author goes into John's interest in music and the evenings spent at Novello's.
(I really identify with this as I recently wrote a short story inspired by Chopin's Raindrop Prelude for a short story competition- I wrote whilst listening to it)


The book has a quaint dedication on the frontispiece in capitals:

DEDICATED TO THE MACHINE AGE.

How things have changed since 1933!

[Ennis]

I've just purchased from online Keats's Paradise Lost. It's by an author (editor?) whose last name is Lau, and it's a copy of Keats's Paradise Lost (duh!), including HIS notes and other marginalia. The author offers her commentary on Keats's analyses. I wonder if it's a dissertation of some kind. Anyway, I paid more than I should have -- well, no, I didn't: I'll spend money I don't really have to expand by Keats library!! Especially if the work is unusual, or something I've not heard of.

[Raphael]

Wow, I'd love to read that Ennis! What kind of things did he write in it?

[Ennis]

Raphael,

Don't know yet, Raphael, I just ordered it. As soon as I can. I'll let you know.

Oh, in reference to one of your other posts: I found a first edition, Taylor and Hessey publication, of Keats 1820 Lamia volume online (last year, around Christmas time) for 35,000 American dollars!! That, needless to say, will always be my dream purchase -- unless I win the North Carolina lottery!!!

[Raphael]

Raphael,

Don't know yet, Raphael, I just ordered it. As soon as I can. I'll let you know.

Oh, in reference to one of your other posts: I found a first edition, Taylor and Hessey publication, of Keats 1820 Lamia volume online (last year, around Christmas time) for 35,000 American dollars!! That, needless to say, will always be my dream purchase -- unless I win the North Carolina lottery!!!

Worth every penny Ennis.
But one can dream....
If I won the lottery I would buy a first edition of his poems and an 1820's piano (a friend for my dear 1900 Piano). And I'd buy/rent an early 1800's house and fill it with 1800's furniture, have an open fire, candle light and lanterns (not use the electric lighting at night), 1800's pictures on the walls..one would walk in the house and think they had gone back in time (until they went in the bathroom, toilet and kitchen lol- but I would have one of those aga things in the kitchen- they are a bit 1800's...). And I've have a lap top which could be hidden in a cupboard when not in use ha ha.

[Ennis]

Ah, Raphael, A woman after my own heart!! Let me know when you're ready to do this -- I'll notify you as soon as I win that NCarolina 50+millon $$$s -- and off we go, prerferably as close to Hampstead as possible!! Hope you don't mind my dear brother coming along (Oh, to dream . . . !!). Just imagine what fun we shall all have: not having the worry of work, traipsing all over the eath (are those paths really as "numerous as" Fanny's "eyelashes"??), attending all the events sponsored by The House. Oh, well . . .

[Raphael]

Is your brother into the 1800s too?

[Ennis]

Raphael,

Oh, yeah!! he'll miss his computer, but he'll keep his alongside yours -- hidden in that cabinet of yours!!

[BrokenLyre]

You mention winning the lottery...I was just thinking today about the NY lottery as well. Sure would be nice to have the 1820 Lamia book. I have the 1921 copy - but the 1820 is a bit pricey!

[Raphael]

I think a lot of people would like to win the lottery right now Broken Lyre!!

[Malia]

It's strange to think that, back in the early days after Keats's death, the Lamia poems could be found in the penny "clear-out bin" at the bookseller's. Wish I could go back in time and buy one at that price!