Inconspicuous, fragile, published sans fanfare, ignored by reviewers, its sales poor, had Tamerlane been Edgar Allan Poe’s only publication, a one-off chapbook of melancholy romantic verse, it would now be a mere bibliographical curiosity.  Instead—because its author went on to invent the modern detective story (think “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter”), revolutionize the Gothic genre with tales like “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” pen triumphs of supernatural horror like “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and write the classic macabre poem “The Raven,” which many of us tried to memorize as kids.  Tamerlane, for its now-insignificant deficiencies as a poem and a pamphlet, is of towering importance to Poe specialists and aficionados alike.  The Holy Grail of book collecting, Tamerlane is one of those books that—like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in the original boards, which sold at Christie’s in 2021 for $1.17 million, or Shakespeare’s first folio, priced at $7.5 million and sold in 2023 by the London-based rare book firm Peter Harrington on its 400th anniversary—causes a stir among rare book enthusiasts whether or not they have any hope, or desire, of acquiring it.  (Not to mention the Bay Psalm Book or even the Eliot Algonquin Bible, other ultra-rare early American printed books, though religious texts, not literary.)  Whenever a first edition of Tamerlane comes under the hammer—a rare event in itself—its past legacy and future home become the topic of discussion among booksellers, archivists, collectors, and Poe scholars around the world.  Originally produced in an edition estimated at forty or fifty copies, Tamerlane was from its inception a rarity.  The Morgan Library doesn’t own a copy.  Nor does the Library of Congress.  The copy once held by the University of Virginia, Poe’s not-quite alma mater, was stolen in 1973 from the McGregor Room vault in Alderman Library.  If it is never recovered, an unfortunate possibility, the number of known copies drops to eleven.  At least one prominent Poe expert I know speculates it may have been destroyed to hide the evidence.  After all, it would be wildly risky to try to sell the copy.  Where in the world would a fence safely offer it?  Besides, the theft, a presumed inside job, happened long enough ago that it’s not inconceivable the thief is dead.  Wherever it is out there in illicit limbo, one hopes that whoever has it will earn their gothic angel’s wings by restoring it to the Alderman.  https://lithub.com/in-search-of-the-rarest-book-in-american-literature-edgar-allan-poes-tamerlane   

According to the United States Census Bureau, Lebanon, Ohio has a total area of 12.97 square miles (33.59 km²), of which 12.96 square miles (33.57 km²) is land and 0.01 square miles (0.03 km²) is water.  The Golden Lamb Inn is the oldest hotel in Ohio, having been established in 1803.  The present structure is built around the 1815 rebuilding of the inn and has been visited by 12 presidents.  The Warren County Historical Museum includes the Harmon Museum, housed in Harmon Hall, a three-story, 28,000 square feet (2,600 m²) building with displays and exhibits of art and artifacts from prehistoric eras to the mid-20th century.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon,_Ohio   

The “Harper Valley P.T.A” saga began with a song.  In 1967, Bobbie Gentry had a crossover monster hit with her song “Ode to Billie Joe.”  Margie Singleton had some success with her cover of Gentry’s song, so she asked Tom T. Hall to write a similar song for her as a follow-up.  The song that Hall wrote for Singleton was “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” which he based upon a story he’d heard growing up in Olive Hill, Kentucky.  However, Jeannie C. Riley, from Anson, Texas, recorded a version of “Harper Valley P.T.A” on July 26, 1968, and it was on the radio and on the Billboard charts in August.  The song became a huge hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 21, 1968, and topping the Billboard Hot Country chart on September 28, 1968, making it the first song by a woman to reach the top of both charts.  Harper Valley P.T.A. was filmed in Lebanon, Ohio, with additional scenes filmed in California.  https://www.grahmsguide.com/harper-valley-pta-1978    

Jan.  6, 2010  TIME 100 list of the best novels on TIME.com:  There were only two ground rules. We picked 1923–when TIME began publishing–as our starting point.  And we focused on books written in English.  That’s why there is no Ulysses (published in 1922) or One Hundred Years of Solitude (originally written in Spanish).  Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo, our book critics, reread many of the classics and discovered a few that they had never had a chance to read. There were some easy calls (The Sound and the Fury, Invisible Man, Herzog) and some not so easy (Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer did not make the cut, though both critics admire their essays and nonfiction books).  Several authors appear twice, including William Faulkner, Vladimir Nabokov and Saul Bellow.  And one author on the list is actually a TIME alumnus:  James Agee, who reviewed movies and books for the magazine in the 1940s and is represented by A Death in the Family.  I find almost all our critics’ arguments persuasive, but I still feel John le Carré’s best book is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (not on the list) instead of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (on the list).  Oh, and one more thing:  this time around, Gone with the Wind fans get their revenge.  The film may not have made the movie list, but Margaret Mitchell’s book makes this one.  I know the list will spark lots of discussions, but I hope it also sends you back to books you read with pleasure years ago as well as to books that you may not have heard of.  James Kelly https://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/slide/times-list-of-the-100-best-novels/   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2837  July 10, 2024