Spent the day at the Ottawa Antiquarian Book Fair, happily puddling through regimental histories, limited edition accounts of various polar expeditions, and Victorian herbals. Most fascinating, as always, were the pamphlets. Pamphleteers were the bloggers of their day, holding forth passionately on topics that ranged from “Wesleyan Cheese Makers of Suffolk County: A Narrative History” to “The Pope, Freemasonry and the Ku Klux Clan: A Call To Arms For all Right Thinking Men of Virtue”.
One title stuck with me all day, however. I spotted it when I entered the Congress Centre early his morning, and when I left at five, astonishingly, it was still there. I couldn’t believe it. After all, who could resist acquiring, for a mere $90.00., a pamplet entitled:
“Feeding Per Rectum, as practiced in the case of the late President James Garfield and Others”, by Dr. J.W. Bliss. Profusely Illustrated.
“Profusely Illustrated”. Oy.
The Fair runs until tomorrow evening, so you can probably race down, beat the crowd, and grab it before it gets snapped up.
I’ll be someone buys it. I had a wonderful book on herbal remedies that was a late 19th Century publication. I misplaced it somehow. I know it’s somewhere here in this jumbled heap of a house, but I can’t find it.