Frognall Dibdin's Shelves

The Strange Story of Dr. James Barry

2010-07-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

I first learned of the intriguing Dr. "James" Barry when I was in medical school and beginning to collect books relating to medical history. In a bookshop on Cape Cod, I asked the proprietor if he had any rare or interesting medical books. After some pondering, he showed me to a glass-fronted case of his "rarest" books and removed a volume published in 1881, written by a Colonel Ebenezar Rogers. A Modern Sphinx was the first published book, albeit fictionalized, about Margaret Ann Bulkley(or perhaps, Miranda Stuart Barry), known for most of her life as Dr. James Barry. Fascinated by the tale, I spent far more than I had planned for that particular book hunting trip. In hindsight, I am quite pleased that I purchased the book as it has only increased in value and is not often found. Thus began my fascination with--most likely--the first female British surgeon.

I recently finished another account of the mysterious doctor: The Strange Story of Dr. James Barry: Army Surgeon, Inspector General of Hospitals, Discovered on death to be a woman(London:Longman's, 1958).

This non-fiction account, written by Isobel Rae, is the first attempt at capturing the fascinating life of Barry without the shading of romance or speculation. Rae attempted, rather successfully, to fill in many factual gaps that had remained unknown in earlier articles and books. The Misses Racster and Grove had written a far less enlightening book in 1932 entitled: Dr. James Barry: Her Secret Story. Rae, on the other hand, was the first biographer allowed unlimited access to "The Barry Papers" at the British War Office.

Barry remained vague about many details of her early life. Born late in the eighteenth-century, it is believed that she graduated from the Edinburgh School of Medicine in 1812. Though apparently a brilliant student, it would seem that Barry was aided in her deception by high-powered connections. It has also been suggested that James Barry was intersex, rather than exclusively female. What is known for certain, however, is that Barry completed forty years as an army surgeon for Great Britain, eventually promoted to an Inspector General of Hospitals in South Africa and what are now the British Virgin Islands. A fastidious dresser, strict vegetarian and obsessive adherent to protocol, Barry remained an enigmatic and puzzling persona to most who met her. Upon her death in 1865, it was discovered by the charwoman who was instructed to prepare the body for burial that the doctor was a she rather than a he. The story made headlines around the world, with many of Barry's former associates claiming that they suspected all along. Regardless, Dr. Barry, according to her evaluations by the British Army, was a skilled and effective physician. In addition to fulfilling her obligations to military hospitals, Barry served Colonial civilian communities in her various posts as well, many of which were abandoned by the doctors of the East India Company. Her obsession with proper diet frequently set her at odds with superiors who were far more concerned with cost savings than what was contained in troop rations.

Barry was certainly not the first woman to disguise her gender in order to study and attain a position in the medical field, but her length of success was unprecedented.

Dr. Barry and her dog, Psyche. Taken in Jamaica in 1862.

Passionate Collectors:The Fabled Cookery Book Collection of Esther Arresty

2010-07-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

Esther Arresty, who died in 2000 at the age of 92, began to assemble one of the most incredible collections of rare cookery books as the young wife of a retail executive after World War II. Her husband's work brought them around the world and allowed Mrs. Arresty to develop an extensive network of dealers in her field of collecting. She was a passionate collector and there is no doubt that her love of cooking and history intensified that passion. Once, after receiving a check from her husband for a new mink coat, Esther spent the money on an Elizabethan-era cookery book that she discovered in a London shop.

My great-Aunt Penelope was fortunate to visit Arresty's collection many years ago when it was still housed in her New Jersey home. The Arresty's house was lined with floor to ceiling shelves full of treasures. The collection is extensive and represents every part of the world and spans over five centuries. Her books made quite an impression, especially as it contained treasures from the first cookbook ever printed(1475 in Venice) to a letter from Frederick the Great of Prussia to his chef.

Esther was incredibly generous with the invaluable information contained in her rare books and wrote three wonderful books in her lifetime. My favorite of these is The Delectable Past, published in 1964. It is an incredibly well-written account of culinary history from the Roman Era to the twentieth century. The Best Behavior from 1970 came next and provides a fascinating history of ettiquette througout history. The Exquisite Table was published in 1980 and is a celebration of French cooking. What is so wonderful about all of these books is that Esther's enthusiasm for food is clearly evident. As she was an accomplished home cook as well as an expert on the history of cooking, her adapted recipes tempt the reader to rush to the kitchen and experiment with historical cuisine.

The Esther B. Aresty collection of cookery books is now housed at the University of Pennsylvania. A partial bibliography of her collection can be viewed by clicking here.

Summer in Maine: Part II

2010-07-05T10:53:00.000-07:00

I am working on another post about particular books after a busy Fourth of July weekend. Until then, I wanted to share a few pictures from my holiday on the coast of Maine.

A friend's porch in the small coastal town where we watched a traditional Fourth of July parade.

Reading De Foe's account of the Great London Plague in the hammock.

Tarts that I baked for an anniversary dinner laid out on the dining room table.

Visiting the ice cream shop in Port Clyde, Maine.

On Sunday, we visited the Loster Lane Bookshop in Owls Head. It is famous for being an Aladdin's cave of reasonably priced books. One is unlikely to find anything particularly old or rare, but the shop is full of reading copies just perfect to take back to the summer house for an afternoon read. I have been coming here since I was a little boy. Half the fun of this shop is looking through the crowded stacks for a treasure.

A view of a cove from one of the rooms at Lobster Lane. I have never visited another bookshop that has such a view of the sea.

Some of the packed shelves and tight spaces in the shop.

Summer in Maine: Part I

2010-07-02T11:03:00.000-07:00

Enjoying a cool summer evening in Maine.

My goodness...The Fourth of July weekend is here already! After many days of dreadful heat and humidity, it is a joy to be sitting in a shady garden by the sea. I will spend the next week or so visiting book shops along the coast that I have not visited since last summer and a few that I have never been to before.

Just yesterday, after a wonderful lunch with a cousin and her husband, I spent some time in Goose River Exchange on Bay View Street in Camden, Maine. It is packed full of great books and ephemera. I saw an old favorite in the books for children section: The Animal Story Book by Andrew Lang, published in 1896. The wonderful engraved illustrations were all done by Henry Justice Ford(1860-1940), but his cover design for the 1896 edition is really stunning.

Here are some photos from yesterday:

My office for the day...I cannot think of a better spot to write blog posts.

Wonderful, ripe blueberries in my cousin's garden in Camden. Rather early this year!

A delicious lunch, prepared by Cousin Liv.

The wonderful title page and binding designs of H.J. Ford.

Moxie and Maine micro-brew beer to celebrate more than thirty years in business at Goose River Exchange.

The Little Boy in the Moon Garden

2010-06-29T17:39:00.000-07:00

The Garden Behind the Moon by Howard Pyle(Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895)

There are certain books that never cease to evoke pleasant memories of my childhood. Many of these books were written and illustrated by Howard Pyle(1853-1911), perhaps best known for his depictions of pirates, Robin Hood, and King Arthur's court. I adored those books, especially because they had belonged to my great-grandfather as a little boy and felt like sacred objects in my hands. As they were owned by a family of bibliophiles, children in the family were taught early on to respect and carefully read their books. Luckily for my generation, they survived beautifully.

One of Pyle's books, and certainly not his most famous, brings back wonderful memories of my maternal grandparents and their garden at their summer home on the Maine coast. The Garden Behind the Moon(Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895), was read to us in the deep, soothing voice of our grandfather. His copy was, and is, kept in a wicker bookcase on a large ocean-facing porch at their house. That particular porch has a fine view of a moon gate, installed in 1920. It is a stone gate with a round opening and a teal green door that leads to my grandmother's cutting garden. Because one must go through the moon gate to enter the flower garden, it has always been referred to as the Moon Garden. My grandmother has always enjoyed spending many happy hours in her gardens and as the cutting garden is her pride and joy at the house, my grandfather had a sign erected that reads: "Caroline's Land." A large and interesting gate, often closed, certainly stirred the imagination of my young mind. Being read a book about a magical garden behind the moon made such imaginative stirrings ever more redolent.

The Garden Behind the Moon is a story of little boy named David, often teased by the other children in his village, who follows a moon angel along a silvery path to a garden full of children at play. Pyle's prose is rather poetic, evoking happiness and serenity for a boy who felt rather adrift and unwanted at home. In the garden, he is accepted by the other children and treated incredibly well. Of course, everything eventually ends and as he grows up he must leave the garden behind the moon. At that point in the story, Grandfather's voice would become low and wistful, especially when he read the following passages:

He did not know that he was growing into a man; that it was not moments that were passing, but years of time...He though that he had been only a few minutes in passing beyond the Moon Angel; but it had really been ten years, and in that time he had grown from a child into a man.

I can still hear my grandfather's voice as he read that book to us and how it led me to ponder growing up. As a six year old, growing into a man seemed eons of time in the future, though the summer seemed to end before it even began. Though I am in my thirties now, I am happy to have the memories of our own moon garden and the expectation of seeing it again each summer.

Some of Pyle's Wonderful Illustrations:

David looking up into Hans Krout's Face

Standing with the Moon Angel

In the Garden Behind the Moon

From Lady Warrender's Lips to Queen Alexandra's Ears...Sort of...

2010-06-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

Lady Maud Warrender, amateur singer and accomplished gossip.

I am going through an interesting archive at the moment. Amidst a cache of bookplates I found a clipping from a London columnist named Mr. Gossip entitled: "Queen Alexandra's Deafness". It reads:
In her amusing book, "My First Sixty Years"--to be strictly accurate, she is sixty-three--Lady Maud Warrender notes that Queen Alexandra's deafness, despite her clever and attractive efforts to conceal it, led to amusing incidents.
When somebody told her that the old Duke of Rutland had died, she said: "Isn't that wonderful! How did he do it?"

Lady Maud Warrender(1870-1945), or "Maudie" as she was known to her posh friends, frequently performed at house parties of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. A friend of the likes of Elgar and Madame Melba, she maintained a presence in both the musical and royal worlds. Such exposure to such interesting people must have made writing a gossipy memoir an inevitable undertaking.

O Childhood! Ever Blest and Bright: Portraits of the Children of Victorian Nobility

2010-06-26T13:56:00.000-07:00

The Children of the Nobilty, published in 1838.
As it is the weekend, I thought I would share something truly special: The Children of the Nobility, published by Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans in London in 1838. A large folio, the book is a collection of drawings by Alfred E. Chalon that depict various children of prestigious nobility, many of whom were friends of the young Queen Victoria. They are hand-colored and wonderfully charming images of these privileged children, often pictured with a favorite toy or pet. Each drawing is accompanied by a poem about the children. Edited by Mrs. Louisa Fairlie, they are sentimental verses by distinguished members of the royal court.

Alfred Chalon(1780-1860) was a Swiss-born portrait painter. Noticed early on in his career by Princess Victoria, he was the first artist commissioned to paint her portrait after she became queen. His drawings of these children are quite intimate portraits, no doubt due to his esteemed status as a court painter and friend to many of the nobility.

Mrs. Louisa Fairlie(1810-1843) lived a relatively short life and was a favorite niece of the novelist, Marguerite, Countess of Blessington(1789-1849), a novelist and friend of Queen Victoria. One of the verses in the book of portraits was written by Countess Blessington.

These books of portraits were popular among the nobility of the Victorian era and provide amusing insights regarding fashions, domestic settings, and life among the upper class.

Viscount Grey de Wilton and his sister, Lady Elizabeth Grey Egerton. Children of the Earl of Wilton. Note Lady Elizabeth's pull toy of a horse.

The Earl of Dalkeith and Lords Henry John and Walter Charles Scott Douglas. These were the three sons of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury

Lady Elizabeth Jane Somerville, standing on her tip-toes to reach the piano keys. Her favorite doll sits on the chair behind her. She was the daughter of Sir William and Lady Maria Somerville

Tales of a Bookseller in the Yucatan

2010-06-25T15:26:00.000-07:00

"Rambles in Yucatan." Written by Benjamin Moore Norman and published by J&H.G. Langley of New York in 1843. This is the first edition.

Having once lived in Guatemala for three years, I have endeavored to read as many books on the region as possible. The archaeological sites of Central America are fascinating, as are many of the early accounts of visitors to them when they were first discovered.

Benjamin Moore Norman(1801-1860), wrote a wonderful account of his experiences on the Yucatan Peninsula in 1842 entitled: Rambles in Yucatan: Notes of Travel through the Peninsula Including a Visit to the Remarkable Ruins of Chi-Chen, Kabah, Zayi, and Uxmal. Mr. Norman was a second-generation bookseller and ran a bookshop in Philadelphia. His motivation for such an exotic journey? He writes:

The varying and unsatisfactory accounts which I had received of the interior of Yucatan, had awakened in me an irresistible desire to explore it, although I tried in vain to define to myself the cause of my curiosity. Partly through the desire of novelty, and partly for the want of a more definite purpose, I resolved to invade those unexplored regions which had not yet found a corner in our geographies, nor even even been reached by the all-pervading spirit of traffic.

It was interesting to read the travel journal of an early nineteenth-century American who journeyed to a place that few Americans knew anything about. As he couldn't find any suitable books about the Yucatan, he chose to travel there and write one himself. Such a goal doesn't quite seem possible today. I admire Mr. Norman's gumption.

The wonderful title page.

Some of the wonderful illustrations in "Rambles in the Yucatan"

In Her Own Defense: The Story of Mrs. Hannah Kinney

2010-06-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

"A Review of the Principal Events of the Last Ten Years in the Life of Mrs. Hannah Kinney", Printed in Boston in 1841
For centuries, criminal defendants have attempted to explain or defend their actions in print. Long before televised court proceedings and blockbuster tell-all autobiographies, some defendants attempted to sway public opinion with their own words. With the printed word as their only chance to defend their reputation against public outcry and insinuations, these works are often quite moving and insightful.

I have recently finished reading the defense of a woman from New England, accused of poisoning her third husband to death with arsenic. A Review of the Principal Events of the Last Ten Years in the Life of Mrs. Hannah Kinney was published by J.N. Bradley of Boston in 1841 and is a touching statement by a woman acquitted of the crime of murder after serving nearly a year in a Massachusetts jail.

Born Hannah Hanson in Lisbon, Maine at the start of the nineteenth century, she was the daughter of a lawyer who practiced in Portland. After marrying her first husband, Ward Witham, in 1822, she suffered in a marriage to an alcoholic who frequently abandoned his wife and children and lived the life of a bachelor in Boston. In spite of an irresponsible husband, she managed to support herself and her children. Interestingly, a state court in Massachusetts granted her a divorce as well as full custody of her children in 1832 on the grounds of Mr. Witham's adulterous behavior. She went on to settle in Lowell, Massachusetts, setting up a store and looking after her children. Though she felt vindicated after surviving a terrible marriage, she remained in the gaze of the "jaundiced eyes" of her neighbors and fellow parishioners at her church. Tongues wagged, so to speak, and the recently divorced Hannah found it necessary to defend her every move.

A small business owner, landlady, and mother, Hannah sought comfort in the company of a distant cousin, a Mr. Emerson. Her second marriage raised suspicion of her "morality" and she sought to defend her good standing as an accepted member of her church. Her impassioned plea for sympathy allowed her children to remain students at the church's school, though four members of the church council did vote to have her removed. Mr. Emerson died soon after their marriage of an unknown illness. She was then subjected to the romantic attentions of a Mr. Kinney. Due to loneliness, she ignored the knowlege that "Mr. Kinney's calling at my room was like a spark of fire thrown into a powder mill." Before long, Hannah found herself in yet another unhappy marriage, her third in the course of a decade.

Mr. Kinney proved to be an alcoholic and laudanum addict, both substances serving as a salve for his periods of depression. Beloved by his family, Hannah suffered the blame when his endeavors failed. Like her second husband, Mr. Kinney soon fell ill and died while under the care of a Dr. Storer and Dr. Bigelow of Federal Street in Boston. Though there at the end of his life, Hannah fled to the home of relations in Vermont when Mr. Kinney's family arrived and began to make inquiries. Hannah later returned to Boston after being admonished that it would be in her best interest not to look even more guilty by staying away. She was arrested and put in jail for months as she awaited trial. Public opinion was against Mrs. Kinney and her marital history coupled with her flimsy account of a mysterious pill that her husband took before his death did little to restore her reputation. Though acquitted and saved from the gallows, Hannah suffered a public "piece meal" execution, losing her business, her admission to a church and being forced to live with her sister for the remainder of her life.

This copy of Mrs. Kinney's defense has the wonderfully morbid bookplate of the noted crime writer and biographer, John Kobler. Kobler is most famous for writing a definitive biography of Al Capone.

Loving and Reading Vivacious Women

2010-06-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

The Witty, Vivacious and Charming Mrs. Thrale

Anyone who has read this blog long enough surely knows that Eric and I have been blessed with some dynamic and inspirational female relations. Though our male ancestors preferred banker's stripes and boardrooms, they took the liberal view that their sisters and daughters should be educated and free to pursue their own ambitions. This family history has produced some truly vivacious and entertaining women. As our great aunts and grandmothers saw no reason to treat us as mindless little creatures when we were young, we were blessed with time spent in their company.

Over afternoon lemonade for us and Pimm's cups for them, we were treated to stories of their youthful doings. Finding the Boston boys of Beacon Hill horribly dull when she returned home from Radcliffe, Great Aunt Penelope bought a one-way passage to Argentina in order to find a husband who loved polo as much as she did. Though her first marriage ended before the start of the Second World War, she relished retelling the happy bits of her years breeding horses and driving her snobbish Argentinian mother-in-law crazy. When the war broke out, she marched down to an enlisting station in Manhattan with every intention of being allowed to join up. She wasn't. She did, however, find war-related work in the city. A great lover of handsome and athletic men, the war years in Manhattan were a little boring for dear Aunt Penelope, what with most men off fighting, but she managed. Her younger sister, our Aunt Helen, insists that Penelope managed to find every eligible man left in the city to invite to evening cocktail parties at her brownstone in the East 70's. After much drinking, piano playing, and singing, smaller groups would journey through black out conditions on their way to Harlem to dance in the jazz clubs. "Oh, we really lived back then!," Penelope would exclaim. And they did...

I have just finished reading an account of yet another vivacious woman, though no relation to our family. Mrs. Thrale, Afterwards Mrs. Piozzi: A Sketch of Her Life and Passages From Her Diaries, Letters & Other Writings(London:Seeley and Co. 1891), is a delightful collection of stories and anecdotes about a lady who bore a boring first husband twelve children, married a younger and more interesting second husband when she was well into her forties, all the while being a close friend to men such as Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, and Oliver Goldsmith.

Born Hester Lynch Salusbury in 1741, she was blessed with a prominent Welsh land-owning family. Her family lavished upon her a greater level of education and freedom than many upper-class girls of her time. Indeed, her childhood exploits remind me of stories I have heard from my horse-loving aunts:

"At East Hyde I learned to love horses; and when my mother hoped I was gaining health by the fresh air, I was kicking my heels on a corn-bin, and learning to drive of the old coachman, who, like everybody else, small and great, delighted in taking me for a pupil. Grandmamma kept four great ramping war-horses for her carriage, with immense long manes and tails, which we buckled and combed; and when, after long practice, I showed her and my mother how two of them would lick my hand for a lump of sugar or fine white bread, much were they amazed; much more when my skill in guiding them round the courtyard on the break could no longer be doubted or denied..."
I cannot imagine that it was common in the 1740's for aristocratic girls to be allowed a try at driving a team of horses and a carriage.

Her marriage to Mr. Thrale was an unhappy one. Though he was a wealthy brewing heir and his wife's position allowed them access to the royal court, Mr. Thrale was not a success and his social wife suffered for it. In spite of that, she was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds and developed friendships with Johnson and Boswell that would last the rest of her life. After marrying an Italian music instructor, Mr. Piozzi, scandal ensued, but the depth of her connections insured reconciliation before her death. A lovely tribute, her grave marker reads: Dr. Johnson's Mrs. Thrale. Witty, Vivacious and Charming, in an age of Genius She held ever a foremost Place.

Mrs. Thrale, in a lovely binding by Henry Young of Liverpool

As I love to gild the lilly, so to speak, nothing is more enjoyable than reading a well-bound book with an interesting provenance. This copy belonged to Matilda Constance Ismay, the wife of the founder of the White Star Shipping Line