Posted on June 25, 2024 at 3:18 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
We have two long reads on two rare books for you to enjoy this afternoon.
One is physically rare: Edgar Allan Poe’s debut collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems.
Author Bradford Morrow reports that an estimated forty to fifty editions were initially printed, and only twelve are known to survive today.
One of these copies of the "Black Tulip," as it's known, is about to head to auction, too.
Read Morrow's history of Poe's Tamerlane at Literary Hub.
The other book is rare for its subject material and timing: Die Juden in der Zauberkunst, or Jews in Magic, the first-ever attempt to record the feats of great Jewish magicians.
Its author, Guenther Dammann, was dead within a decade of publishing the work — one of many victims of the Holocaust.
Now, magician and scholar Richard Hatch is working to bring attention to Dammann and his work; he's seeking a publisher for his translation of Jews in Magic and spoke with The New York Times about this passion project.
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Categories: Today in Books