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Every Christmas I can't resist buying myself at least one book that's "special" in some way: something I have maybe wanted for a while, something that seemed too exorbitant to throw money at, or something just fun or interesting.
This year's Christmas purchase is goofy, but it was cheap and I won't regret owning it. It's a copy of Otto Eisenschiml's In the Shadow of Lincoln's Death.
A little background on Eisenschiml: he was a chemist who decided to be a historian, who almost single-handedly created the "conspiracy theory" hysteria surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. His research is flawed, his narratives full of speculation and confabulation, and his theories are utterly priceless. What's more, people believed them for years! Though nowadays Eisenschiml has been relegated to a position of near-infamy in Lincoln and Booth scholarship, he's impossible to ignore in the grand scheme of contextualizing America's fascination with the assassination.
My edition is from 1940 and signed in neat blue ink: "Presented for my little friend Danny Coleman with my very best wishes, Otto Eisenschiml ~ April, 1953." It has a dust jacket, albeit a little torn (nevertheless always hard to come by with a book so old). The seller also sent me a February 1960 section of Reader's Digest which features Theodore Roscoe's The Web of Conspiracy, which is just too funny.
This book is neither rare, nor particularly valuable, but I had been wanting cheap copies of Eisenschiml's works for a long while and now I have this one and Why was Lincoln Murdered (his first book, which I found this past summer). The fact that this latest addition is signed just makes it all the more delightful.
And yes, it also reminds me that I maybe want to get In Pursuance of Said Conspiracy back on my desk in some fashion for the New Year.
from LookingLand.com
This year's Christmas purchase is goofy, but it was cheap and I won't regret owning it. It's a copy of Otto Eisenschiml's In the Shadow of Lincoln's Death.
A little background on Eisenschiml: he was a chemist who decided to be a historian, who almost single-handedly created the "conspiracy theory" hysteria surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. His research is flawed, his narratives full of speculation and confabulation, and his theories are utterly priceless. What's more, people believed them for years! Though nowadays Eisenschiml has been relegated to a position of near-infamy in Lincoln and Booth scholarship, he's impossible to ignore in the grand scheme of contextualizing America's fascination with the assassination.
My edition is from 1940 and signed in neat blue ink: "Presented for my little friend Danny Coleman with my very best wishes, Otto Eisenschiml ~ April, 1953." It has a dust jacket, albeit a little torn (nevertheless always hard to come by with a book so old). The seller also sent me a February 1960 section of Reader's Digest which features Theodore Roscoe's The Web of Conspiracy, which is just too funny.
This book is neither rare, nor particularly valuable, but I had been wanting cheap copies of Eisenschiml's works for a long while and now I have this one and Why was Lincoln Murdered (his first book, which I found this past summer). The fact that this latest addition is signed just makes it all the more delightful.
And yes, it also reminds me that I maybe want to get In Pursuance of Said Conspiracy back on my desk in some fashion for the New Year.
from LookingLand.com
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fortunately i still have a whole bedroom i am not using here, so there's plenty of room to grow ~ ha!
: D