“Of books I sing…”

"Of books I sing" is a column showcasing excerpts from “volumes of forgotten lore.” Rescued from library sales, thrift store shelves and recycling dumpsters, if it’s amusing, poignant or illustrates the somewhat overblown and colorful prose of yesteryear, it can find a place here. Think of it as a home for unwed paragraphs or a museum of resuscitated sentences.

“Of books I sing, but not of those
Which any book collector knows,
The priceless, rare editions, not,
But volumes which the world forgot...”

- Frank Sherman in Century Magazine, 1889
Our thanks to sacklunch.net for bringing Frank Sherman’s verse to light after 120 years.

Tom Connally Remembers his Father’s Change of Heart 12-7-14
McLennan County in the 1880s
From My Name is Tom Connally
Thomas Y. Crowell Publisher, New York, 1954

When Samuel Clemens met U. S. Grant 9-17-09
or Whoever the Twain Shall Meet
From Mark Twain’s Autobiography

An Introduction of Two Persons 3-9-09
From The Americanization of Edward Bok: The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years After
“Make the world a bit more beautiful and better because you have been in it.”

A Gruesome Prophecy Tattooed on a Soldier’s Breast 2-8-09
From: John F. Finerty Reports Porfirian Mexico: 1879
Originally Published 1879, Revised 1904.

Related Topics:
Columns | Texas Books |
TE Online Magazine | Texas |